Well, we are officially less than a month away from finally getting married. As I am living out my last few weeks here in Korea and Emily is busy planning the final details for the wedding (with some help from me I might add) the fact that we will be married in less than a month remains somewhat surreal. As each day passes each of us grows increasingly excited, but it is impossible to fully comprehend how it will feel to not only be together after an entire year apart, but to be closer than we have ever been. It’s like flying from one polar opposite to the other in a matter of weeks. No more phone calls carefully planned to allow for a 16-hour time difference, no more writing letters or mailing packages and waiting two weeks for them to arrive, no more 6,000 mile separation and, perhaps the most wonderful of all, no more loneliness. I will finally enter a place where I will be understood by everyone, I won’t have to slowly repeat my name over and over again: “no, no, its Kelley, not Kerry.” Where I will drive a car for the first time in 13 months (drivers beware.) Where I will understand what is being said around me, about me, and to me. Where I won’t have to bow constantly, I won’t have to wear slippers indoors, and I won’t have to duck constantly when going through doors and into subway cars. It will be good to come home, and I couldn’t be more excited to come home to my beautiful fiancé, or, as my homestay family says it, “Jon Kerry’s pian-say.”
It is looking more and more likely that we will live in Phoenix for our first year at least. I am looking into a few options that involve work and potentially taking a few Korean language classes to achieve complete fluency, all of this while Emily continues to work as a Nurse at Mayo. After that we aren’t sure, I am still hopeful that I will end up at a law school sometime in the near future, but honestly after completing my Fulbright we will have several options that we are excited to pursue. Either way we are excited to spend our first year around family and friends in Phoenix, and save some money on moving costs!
Until next time, we are less than a month away, and we are more and more excited to celebrate and see everyone!
the eternal summer 