Top Five Reasons I'm Freaking Out This Week

In no particular order....

1. I'm moving. Now, you know it's not the moving that is bothersome (obviously, I must love moving if I do it so often), but the packing and sorting and cleaning and re-discovery of random items. Oh, and then the transporting of said items to various other people's homes for the time being. And deciding what should be tossed. And what should be kept. Oh, and figuring out what should be put in storage for, essentially, the next two months until I come back to Korea in mid-May.

2. Jakob and I are arguing. He seems to feel that my laptop adapter plug is an appropriate toy. Perhaps it is the way it sparks and buzzes when he plays with it. I tend to disagree. It's become a power struggle of sorts. Yes. Yes. I am fighting with a 7-pound kitten. And, yes, he is winning.

3. Time is going too fast. Or it feels that way. Where did March go? Anyone? Did we even have a month of March? Yeah, didn't think so.

4. I went to Mokpo today. I met up with Chad and we wandered around his school and met a few students and the principal. His classroom is wicked awesome - like a "real" elementary school classroom with art on the walls and alphabet signs everywhere - you can see that Chad has put a lot of effort into his class this past year. And we walked around the neighbourhood (Small Flashback: A few years ago, when I was moving into my apartment on Sherbrooke St in Montreal, I remember saying that it was a great location because it was close to a grocery store and a park and a Shoppers Drug Mart and a bus stop. Now, I think it's a great location because it's close to a mountain-top pagoda and a place to get cheegeu ramyan and a TaeKwonDo school) and... oh, and why am I freaking out? Because I have no idea how to teach children! I've been teaching teenagers for my entire career. Teenagers may be sullen and rebellious and angst-ridden, but children are small and noisy and I don't know what to do with them.

5. I'm waiting for a veritable windfall of millions of won before I leave (reimbursement for plane ticket, last month's pay and severance pay). Yes... BEFORE I leave. It's supposed to come to me on April 20, to be exact. That's in 16 days. Or, um, 12 business days. That's in the land of red tape, beurocracy, and the word "maybe" (as in "Maybe you will get everything by April 20").

Of course, I know that everything is going to work out just fine... It always does, doesn't it?

Other freakoutable things may include: further logistics of moving remaining items in apartment on April 22 and on May twenty-whatever; how to get Mr Shane and Jakob to Mokpo in May; trying to fit in a million things I want to do in only three weeks in Canada; why is weight-gain a side-effect of quitting smoking? Oh, did I mention that the new place in Mokpo is next to the Ferry Terminal and that the ferry to Jeju-do only costs like $20 and I could probably take Red Devil there - that's not a freakoutable thing, though, that's a good thing. Right. Bright side bright side bright side bright side... nope, still freaking out slightly.... Yeah, one day I'll look back on this and lauuuuuugh.