Day 339 - Malaysia-bound and Upcoming Grant Renewal Events

I'm in Incheon International airport now waiting to board my flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! I'll be meeting my friend in the city tonight, then we're boarding up again to catch a quick flight over to the *other* half of Malaysia, where our rain forest camping trip will be held. Exciting times, exciting times.

I always get wishy-washy during the planning-stages of travel, which is pretty much why I never traveled during college when almost every middle-class white kid does their obligatory European study abroad. I definitely wanted to, but it was always "right now isn't the most convenient time" or "I should have more money" or whatever. Getting the grant to teach in Korea helped me open up to how easy it is to travel, especially since being in Asia with a steady income and little responsibility means laughably affordable plane tickets to crazy, adventurous-sounding places like Cambodia and Mongolia.

Not a bad way to live the younger years of your life.

So I'm really looking forward to meeting up with Ashley in Kuala Lumpur, since I envied her south-east Asia travels throughout my senior year of college. When I was stuck in a research lab dreading every day, she was putting up a new Facebook album nearly every week of her doing amazing things in different countries.

After complaining to a friend about how much I wanted to travel and how I envied everybody for seeing the world while I wasn't, he gave me some good advice: "Don't get jealous, get even."

So now I'm trying to be more adventurous, and meeting Ashley for a rain forest camping trip surrounded by crocodiles and monkeys with no electricity or running water in a third-world country sounds like a good way to "get even".



In less exciting news, my grant program has accepted my intent to renew my scholarship in Korea for a second year and email confirmation has been sent to my school, so in the next month before I head back to Americana for a few weeks, the following two amazing things will be happening:

1. I will be finding an apartment.
(read: NO MORE HOMESTAY!)

2. My original co-teacher will (tentatively) be returning.
(read: Chill, fluent-English-speaking, Western-style co-teacher whose 10 years of experience with my grant program will make my life in Korea infinitely more comfortable and convenient, both professionally and recreationally)


Just one more hour until boarding, so it is time for me to scarf my Subway sandwich and carb-load just in case it turns out I don't like whatever "native Malaysian cuisine cooked by locals" they serve at camp. (That particular line is why there is a pocket of my backpack stuffed with Pepto-Bismol.)