Home Again!

Yea! I get to go to California! I didn't think this day would come so soon - only four months after arriving here. (Has it only been four months? Sheesh.) My plan was to travel back home in mid-July so I could escape the awful heat and humidity of summer I keep being warned about, but, with Marc's encouragement, we decided I'd go home earlier so I could make it to my little-not-so-little cousin's wedding. Yea! And we'll get to see my grandparents and a bunch of other relatives at the same time. I'm so excited! I sort of gave up on the wedding because it means a flight to CA and then another flight all the way to Indiana one week later, aka. a TON of jet-lag with two kids, which isn't fun to deal with. Anyway, Marc was tired of me complaining about not going, so he encouraged me to buck up and made the trip happen! Thanks, Colt ;)

It will be nice to get out of here for awhile, but, believe it or not, it's a little bittersweet with the timing and all. Going home now means Toby will miss the last month of school, which he LOVES. That makes me sad. We'll miss out on Spring Fest -one of those fun festivals where the whole community comes out for food, mingling, bouncy houses, the works. I love that kind of thing. I'll be gone for the few weeks out of the year when the weather is actually really nice - not freezing, gale force winds, or hot and sticky. This would probably be the time of year to finally get acquainted with our neighbors who will likely be out washing their cars and BBQing. And there's a few things I'll miss like Monday/Thursday play group, my own house, and seeing whatever our garden produces. Oh, and Zumba! I'm really going to miss my twice-weekly classes. I also feel bad that Marc can't come right away and he'll miss out on some of the fun things we'll be doing in San Diego, mainly eating.

BUT I am willing to accept those minor grievances...BECAUSE...I get to see my family, relatives and a gazillion friends, breathe the fresh salty sea air, eat real Mexican food, go to the beach, not be in Korea, possibly sleep in occasionally, watch movies, know where the heck I'm going, read signs, communicate effectively, shop at Ikea and Trader Joe's, not stick out in crowds, not worry about insects the size of small mammals eating my flesh, enjoy watching the boys have a ton of fun with my parents and vice versa, eat at my favorite restaurants and just feel good about being somewhere that I GET. I understand San Diego - a comfort easily taken for granted. It's a weird feeling living somewhere and really having no clue what's going on or understanding the who/what/why and how of the people and culture here.

What I am most certainly NOT looking forward to is the fourteen-ish hour flight including a layover by myself with two boys. Actually, its really just Jonah. I could fly around the world 3 times with Toby, no prob. Jonah has a hard time driving 20 minutes to the mall. The flight leaves at 5:00P so my HOPE is that within a few hours he'll be ready for bed and sleep a good long time, unlike the trip over here in which he slept a total of one hour. I was so miserably delirious flying over here that I could have fallen asleep hanging backwards and upside down out of the overhead bin and that flight was with Marc! I can't let that happen again. Just let me get some ding-dang-dong sleep, kid! I'm definitely not a proponent of medicating children for convenience but this time I will do what I have to do so that I can be alert enough to take care of said children! And then there's the jet lag to deal with once we get there. Oyyyoyoy. It seems like as soon as I get Jonah on a good schedule, he gets sick or we go somewhere new and he gets all messed up. And we're going to be moving around a lot on this trip visiting friends and family and sleeping in different beds. And how are naps going to work with all the visiting?? Somehow I need to maintain as much of a routine as possible for these poor kids whose mother is dragging them all over the place.

But I think the trip is going to be a blast. Tobin and Jonah will get to see their cousins, a bunch of my friend's kids, visit the fire station, play on the beach, go on adventure walks, the Wild Animal Park, and get spoiled by their grandparents. And besides the wedding in Indiana, we're also going up to LA and Santa Barbara and when Marc comes out later we're heading to Oregon and Washington to see more family and friends up there. We haven't been back to the Northwest since we moved away in 2010. I have a feeling that I'll feel very nostalgic and just wish we could stay. At this moment I like our life here, but the danger of taking a trip like this is that it could lead to sadness about returning to Korea and leaving all the familiarity and comfort of our former cities. I anticipate not being thrilled about returning to this mysterious land. But I also know that once we are back in our house, in our beds and back in our routine, that everything will hopefully return to the way it feels now.

Unfortunately, we will be returning just in time for monsoon rain and off-the-charts humidity. It has been confirmed by several reliable sources (Army folk who have lived all over) that the humidity anywhere in America has nothing on Korea. It's going to be a HIDEOUS spectacle of 8-inch pit stains, glued-on underwear, and balls of sweat dangling, but never falling, from glistening chins. Not me, of course, but pretty much everyone else. Coming from the west coast where the weather is just about perfect all year-round, its not humid and there are really no insects besides the occasional fly and lady bug, makes it that much harder to adapt to more extreme weather conditions. Knowing this, plus saying goodbye to friends and family is going to make the return trip that much more distressing. This is what I do. I'm worried about the end, but we haven't even started yet. Soooo, I am just going to look forward to all the fun and love and laughing I know is in store...assuming I survive the plane trip with Jonah.

Arrivederci! 안녕히 가세요! Farewell!