Well hello new blog

So, i've decided to start a new blog...I figured, my life has changed a lot and I'd rather just leave what's written there in the depths of blog hell. I'm not interested in rehashing what happened or justifying the changes I made. But just to recap and get you up to speed...When i was finishing my student teaching, it became clear that there were no positions available anywhere that I wanted to teach and I still had that itch to do something different with my life. I still wanted to work abroad and see a different part of the world, so I started doing some research online. I started with all the places I wanted to travel to, mostly consisting of places in Europe. Well...there were jobs, but it was more like an internship you had to pay for and I wasn't interested in living with a family or taking out an additional loan to pay off my student loans. After some more research, I realized that Asia was the place to be for English education. The pay was higher, they provided private or housing with a roommate along with incentives for people possessing degrees in English, ESL or general education. After skimming through some blogs and different recruiting sites, I landed on Korea. Why, you ask? Well, expenses in Japan were high, the south pacific countries remote location scared me and I wanted to still be myself without the threat of government interference so that left out China. I put in an application to an amazing recruiter and the job search and visa process began. After a few months of interviews and paperwork, I had a job waiting for me. The last few weeks were spent waiting on flight information and spending time with my family and current boyfriend. I said my goodbyes to my friends and drove to San Diego to see the last of my family before I flew out. So, on July 26, 2009, I got on a plane and left everything that I knew for Korea...which I knew nothing about except what Lonely Planet told me. I arrived at dusk on July 27th and after processing was picked up by a John Gosselin look-alike with a curly afro and yellow hunters glasses. Now, I was told that perhaps Jason, from my new job, would be coming to pick me and so I was unsure whether or not this was him. I was also told that he knew a limited amount of English, just like this man holding a piece of cardboard with my name on it. I think the only English words he knew were "slow" (which he pointed at me and said when i finally made it through customs and picked up my bags), Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson....Needless to say, it was a confusing and long ride to where I would be staying. What I saw from the window of that car was a place very foreign and intimidating to me. The buildings were what seemed inches from each other, the alphabet consisted of unknown circular asian characters, and my cell phone (which I regard as my safety net) was out of service...When I finally arrived at my highly suspect motel a few hours later, I was at a breaking point. I had barely slept, wanted to let my parents know that I arrived safely and frankly was wondering what the hell I was doing in Korea. After the door shut in my motel room, I felt trapped. So, I took a shower and an ambien and turned on "Bridget Jones' Diary" like I always do when I'm upset. I passed out rather quickly, thank god, because I believe that was the closest I've ever come to having a panic attack. Over the next few weeks, I discovered just how strong I was and that I could handle life away from home...far away, in fact. I skyped with my parents and sisters every weekend and sometimes on my lunch. My weekends were filled with shopping, sightseeing, trips and I just had fun. It was only after a few weeks, however, that I realized that I no longer belonged in a relationship with my boyfriend I had at the time. Although I appreciated his support for my goals and my decision to come to Korea, our entire relationship looked very different from so far away. With this new lens to see through and the way I now viewed myself and my future, he didn't fit in my current life or my future. With a heavy heart, I ended it. I think for a while he was under the impression that I would come home and we could pick up where we had left off...but I wasn't the same girl. I was more sure of myself and more self-aware. I had thought I was happy but I was just comfortable. I needed someone who would challenge me to do better all the time and even if that meant stepping on my toes, they wouldn't back down. I needed someone who would step up to the plate and be the man that I needed in my life. A partner for me, an addition to my immediate family and a role model for my future children and my old boyfriend didn't respect himself enough to be any of those things for himself or for me. It upset me very much but more than anything I felt free...which i also felt bad for feeling. I had been released from a sentence of being complacent in my own life possibly forever. I took the next month or so to be single and alone (although I had been alone since I'd come to Korea and had felt alone long before then). I decided that I wanted to date someone casually and just have a little fun. I had met guys at bars and people who worked at other English schools in Korea, but none of them appealed to me so I said "what the hell?" and put an ad online. I know that this might seem creepy but I feel like we are living in the digital age. We communicate and keep in touch online and spend a lot of our lives electronically so why not expand to this? I also feel like you can screen someone before wasting any real time with them...either way, a creep is a creep whether you meet them online, through a friend or at a bar. It's like a better version of a blind date and I don't think that meeting someone online invalidates your relationship. Plus, in Korea it's hard to find Westerners outside of your social group other than walking up to them on the street or acting like a stalker haha (To make things easy and so I don't have to answer weird questions or feel like we're being judged, I just tell most people we met at a bar downtown which is where we actually met for the first time, each with a few friends. Anyone reading this should know what to say if anyone asks (; ) So, I talked to a few guys. Some were Korean and others were Westerners like myself. A few kept my attention but most of them didn't. Then I got this cute e-mail from Mike, a soldier, who sent me an e-mail telling me about himself and asked if I wanted to chat or skype. After a few more e-mails, I skyped with him. He was really funny and flirted shamelessly with me. We spoke about our likes and dislikes, growing up in Arizona (since we're from the same state) and then about our families. He told me that he had four little brothers, his father had passed away in a motorcycle accident two years ago, and his mom and the oldest of his younger brothers were serving time for drug possession, trafficking and intent to sell. WOW!!!!!!!! this super freaked me out...especially since my last guy had some serious daddy issues that I was no longer interested in dealing with....so I politely got off skype and wrote him off. I ignored his messages and blocked him....until a few weeks later when he confronted me about what I had done. He asked me why it was a deal breaker and called me out for being a coward and judgmental. I was blown away that he stood up to me and wouldn't back down until I agreed to meet him. So, that weekend he met my friends and I in a bar downtown. I didn't like him at first, but he won me over and then I was sold. When I went home that Christmas, I told my family that I'd met the man I was going to marry. It hasn't been an easy ride, in fact we've had it pretty rough at times both through mistakes we've made and the mystery that is army life. After only a few months of dating, I was decided. This was it. This was the man that finally put all the others to shame (even if only in my eyes). So, during my summer vacation, we flew to Guam and got married there. We spent the rest of the vacation lounging on the beach drinking blended drinks and trying to relax. We still weren't getting it right and basically fought the whole trip. Over time, we have come to understand and grown to appreciate the nuances of each others personalities and how to avoid pushing each others buttons. It's hard work, but it's worth it. Mike left Korea on January 2nd, 2011 after receiving orders that we were to move to Fort Campbell which straddles Tennesse and Kentucky. We tried like hell to stay in Korea because we loved it there so much, but the army simply had other plans for us. I stayed another 9 weeks to finish my teaching contract with my school. It was really difficult being away from each other but we got into a routine that worked for us and I enjoyed spending time with the friends I had made before I left and we would not be spending everyday teaching together. On March 1, I left Korea for Phoenix. I hadn't seen my family in 14 months since it didn't make sense to go home for christmas when I'd be there in another two months. When I ran down the tarmac to meet my mom, sister and niece it was such a relief and tears flooded my eyes. I was worried that my three year old niece wouldn't know me and might be scared of me, but thanks to Skype she knew me and hugged me right away. Directly after landing, I went to the place every west coaster salivates over when they're away. The place that all of my west coaster friends went to from the airport. I went to In-n-Out and ate as much as i could! That weekend we drove to LA to go to Disneyland and Mike met us there. It was a little awkward at first since we'd be separated for so long and since my parents had never seen us together. They knew him from the leave he took to come home and ask them if he could marry me and when he visited on his way to Tennessee, but they had never seen us as a couple. We had a small reception-like party at my godmother's house so that Mike could meet my family and that my family could welcome me home and we drove back to AZ that night. Immediately upon coming home, we started packing my things for the movers to come. After the movers came, we drove down to Tucson for his family to meet me and have another reception. We had one more day at home and then we started our three day drive to Tennessee. It was demanding and being in my little truck with my huge linebacker of a husband and our dog was challenging. Mike drove most of the way and I played DJ. Upon arriving to my new home....I was not impressed. The thing that hit me first was that there was so much brush...we were just surrounded by wooded areas constantly. We arrived at our new home and I was less than impressed with what Mike had done with the place haha he said he's cleaned and tried not to make a mess, but his shit threw up all over the house and i wanted to kill him. We had three days before the movers came, so I cleaned what was in the house and organized his stuff that was strewn everywhere. We went to Target and Walmart to buy household essentials like cleaning products and towels and our work began. Ever since we've been organizing and placing items. Although everything is unpacked, it's still not how I want it. I work everyday to keep it clean and make progress on organizing it and decorating it, but I wonder at which point it's more like lipstick on a pig rather than decorating. So, there it is...that's my life. There are more detailed stories from korea or life in Tennessee which I might share later, but this is my life in a nutshell. Take it or leave it :)