Half The Battle

Today, I celebrate a unique milestone: I officially have less than 200 days remaining in South Korea.

It's sad that I'm celebrating the passing of time like this, considering I'm enjoying my time here. I'm getting reaquainted with my brothers, which was one of my major goals in making this trip, and I'm steadily paying off my college debt, which was my other major goal. I sincerely enjoy my job, which is an unexpected bonus, and I'm doing a ton of reading, which is my number one favorite activity.

So why do I have this countdown going in my head?

Because my life is on pause.

While google imaging for a sweet picture of an old-school VHS tape on pause, with those fuzzy lines across a portion of the TV screen, you know what I mean, I came across this comic justifying the consumption of coffee at any time of day. It has nothing to do with life being on pause, but I decided that it was time to move on from that idea anyway.

As I said, I've been reading some really great books. (Some future post will specify which.) There's a pretty good bookstore, Bandi and Luni's, at the Coex Mall. It has a huge English section to browse through, but I'm getting kinda itchy to put in some specific requests, for which Powell's Used Books is going to be seriously helpful. As a sweet enticement, any order of $50 or more has free shipping in the USA. Nice, huh?

Aside: I did, in fact, seek permission to quote my friend, quoted in my previous blog entry concerning men's abortion rights. He gave permission. He didn't even check what quote I used first. I neglected to ask him whether I should quote him by name. I think I'll just leave it anonymous unless our conversation digs up another interesting quotable, in which case perhaps I'll give him a little more space on here.

And, to wrap it up, I'll let you in on a little secret. I started writing this post without really believing there was a milestone to celebrate. I got halfway through my first sentence, which seemed like a good one, so I decided to at least look at my calendar before deleting the sentence and starting over. That's when I saw '199' handwritten in the upper corner of today's square.

Now you know--and knowing is...