This blog is supposed to be for when I do something exciting, like go live in a foreign country for a year where I don't speak the language. And truly, I will be doing something exactly that exciting very shortly. I am, however, creating this blog in advent of my departure by about a month, because trying to figure out what to say in one's first blog post* is so much more fun than packing. Also because it is entirely likely that unless I get the Boulder of Guilt rolling now, I will never push it up the Hill of Other Things I Should Be Doing so its ominous, irregularly bouncing progress can loom over me and pressure me to fling up the road blocks of regular posts. (Pushing the metaphor too far? Never!) If I don't start now, I may never, and then you would be deprived of the fascinating adventure that is my early-20's life abroad. And that, dear reader, would be a tragedy the like of which the collective internet cannot fathom.
For those who have perhaps not spent three years under the hilarious iron fist of the Yavenditti Sarcasmship (or regular high school Latin), the title of this blog roughly goes "west(erner) seeking/finding the east", if you want to get all Latinate-roots-y about it. Of course, that's really pretentious, so we'll just call it a play on words that ambiguously describes my reason for writing as well as my obvious background as a huge nerd.
To be clear, I am an American who recently received an expensive piece of paper from a fancy institution of higher learning. Despite this, there remains a dearth of employment for people with the ability to make linguistic jokes and draw syntactical trees, and declaim the wonders of constructivism over realism. Oddly. So, in a moment of Great Youthful Optimism (sometimes translated as Stupidity), I decided to go abroad and take a job teaching English. Not in a country whose language I had studied, of course, because that would not constitute a great enough Challenge. (I have had this brilliant conception of Challenging Myself four times in the last so many years. Three out of the four times, my Challenged Self has then wanted to beat its younger, less challenged self with a self-help book. Come back in a year to see if I'm four for four). I am going to Daejeon, South Korea. You may look at the title of this post to judge for yourself what a good idea this is.
Depending on your definition of "soon," I am abiding by rule 4 below and saying that probably sometime around December 7th, I will bring you lucky people an update. Since, you know, I'll actually be in South Korea and doing exciting, moving-in things, rather than Hyde Park, staring morosely at my unpacked possessions, and willing myself only to use my bubble wrap for good.
Oh, ahem, "this is my blog!" I now consider my first post duties discharged.
*I have it on good authority** that this is the correct way to go about it:
For those who have perhaps not spent three years under the hilarious iron fist of the Yavenditti Sarcasmship (or regular high school Latin), the title of this blog roughly goes "west(erner) seeking/finding the east", if you want to get all Latinate-roots-y about it. Of course, that's really pretentious, so we'll just call it a play on words that ambiguously describes my reason for writing as well as my obvious background as a huge nerd.
To be clear, I am an American who recently received an expensive piece of paper from a fancy institution of higher learning. Despite this, there remains a dearth of employment for people with the ability to make linguistic jokes and draw syntactical trees, and declaim the wonders of constructivism over realism. Oddly. So, in a moment of Great Youthful Optimism (sometimes translated as Stupidity), I decided to go abroad and take a job teaching English. Not in a country whose language I had studied, of course, because that would not constitute a great enough Challenge. (I have had this brilliant conception of Challenging Myself four times in the last so many years. Three out of the four times, my Challenged Self has then wanted to beat its younger, less challenged self with a self-help book. Come back in a year to see if I'm four for four). I am going to Daejeon, South Korea. You may look at the title of this post to judge for yourself what a good idea this is.
Depending on your definition of "soon," I am abiding by rule 4 below and saying that probably sometime around December 7th, I will bring you lucky people an update. Since, you know, I'll actually be in South Korea and doing exciting, moving-in things, rather than Hyde Park, staring morosely at my unpacked possessions, and willing myself only to use my bubble wrap for good.
Oh, ahem, "this is my blog!" I now consider my first post duties discharged.
*I have it on good authority** that this is the correct way to go about it:
1. "hi!"
2. "this is my blog!"
3. "this is why I am keeping it!"
4. "check back soon for more stuff!"
**The only friend of mine with a personal blog of which I am aware. (Meta-footnote! I'll try to be a little less "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" from now on).
**The only friend of mine with a personal blog of which I am aware. (Meta-footnote! I'll try to be a little less "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" from now on).
