A little lonely already...

Nothing really to tell tonight: the same old lists are testing my productivity levels. I stopped into the doctor for more blood tests, stopped in to give notice at my apartment, wrote my resignations for Martin University, wrote a half a dozen emails, met mom for dinner, and tried to pull my address book into order. The more I scratch off my lists, the more I add to my lists.
Sitting for dinner with Mom, I'm beginning to feel the pangs of homesickness. I've had some strange dreams: things like something happens to Mom or Dad. I know I'm overreacting, trying to get used to the idea that I'm going away from the people I love the most. It's only a year, I keep telling myself.
But what if something happens.
I know everything is in God's hands. And I know the time will go quickly once I get there, but I have moments when I wish Mom will come to take me to dinner on Tuesday night or Dad will stop in to take me out for sushi even though he doesn't really like it or I can take my cat with me or something.
Seeing Meg and Mike this weekend and the Furlers the weekend before makes me feel so good. But I want to pack them all up and bring them with me.




For now, here's a random picture of Gracie.

Moogs was here

Meg and Mike came to visit this weekend.
Gosh, I should plan to move to foreign countries more often--I have gotten to visit and see more beloved family and friends in the past two weeks than I have in a long time.
Meg and Mike look fantastic. They are on the South Beach diet and look amazing, so Mike made us some great food on Saturday night. Holy cow! I could eat this sort of food all the time. Great cooking, Mikie.

A Sort of Contract

I'm trying to come up with as many different ways to use "A Sort of Life" in the title of a blog.
Anyway, scratch Taejon. The contract had holes, and they did not communicate or budge about filling them.
So, I signed the contract in Busan. This was my first choice of location: beaches, seafood, warm weather, the ocean. Sounds nice, right?
I sent out the contract today. It is not as much money, but I am happier and much more pleased with the level of communication with this school. The head of the school, Eddie Joe, has been emailing me almost daily to straighten out any questions I have. This helps to reassure me and helps to make me feel like they care enough to spend some time and energy talking to me. This is important.
Hard to believe I just got back from NJ this week, it's only been three weeks since I got back from Belize, and I'm tired thinking about all the things that still need to happen.
God willing, everything will work out just fine.

The McGerfurs reunite...

Well, a lot of us McGerfurs got to see each other. Even though some of us aren't McGrails or Furlers any longer. We missed the ones that we didn't see and thought of you that weren't there.
The Furlers are my second home, and Sue and Al are my second parents (no hard feelings, mom and dad). Being around them makes me feel special, loved, and unique, and sometimes my daily life working and whatever does not make me feel.
So, anyway, we pulled in after midnight on Thursday, and Al was waiting up for us. We crashed in Em and Sarah's old rooms. Friday we got up and lounged on the beautiful deck while Al made plans for us to go to the shore. Sis Kate was gone for the day--helping as our friend Lisa Schubert's bridesmaid--so Sue, Al, Mom, and I packed up Finn and headed to the shore making a detour for Tai food. We lounged some more on the beautiful beach, talking and catching up. Dad met up with us, and we went out for the best stinking seafood I've had since I was at the Jersey Shore two years ago. Then, on the way back, at about ten o'clock, we stopped in at Sarah and Kyle's new house--not so new, they've been there for a year. Despite the quirks and the imperfections, this historical house provokes my imagination like being with Sarah does: the fire scars, the rickety stairs, the uneven floors in the basement, the flowing ivy in the yard.
So that was Friday.
On Saturday, we went into NYC to visit Laura and Corbett. Corbett has a new office on the side from his day job where he sees patients on the side. The office is small but very unique and classy--very Corbett. We walked across the street to try a Korean restaurant, and Al told me that if I got sick or didn't like it then the trip to Korea is off. I liked it. We walked around the Farmer's Market to find Finny a hat because it was sunny and warm but headed into the nearby kids' department store after we exhausted the options for the farmer's market. We headed back to see Laura and Corbett's apartment from there--they just moved a month ago. This is a fantastic place, so full of flavor and style. Laura has fish like the Furlers had in their house in Quuensbury, NY. The roof patio is a fantastic view of the city. Really cool. Then we headed back to Sparta for pizza and beer at Sue and Al's.
So that was Saturday.
Sunday, we got up to go to the Sparta Evangelical Church, and I must say, this church has changed so much from the days when it met in the ambulance building or the Helen Morgan School. The church is amazing--complete with coffee bar and pool tables in the youth room. Very appropriate that Pastor Doug was talking about I Corinthinians, the passage about how love does not boast. He ended the sermon telling about how the building is nothing to boast about: the people are the real body of Christ. Also very significant that these verses were the ones we used in Belize for the VBS.
Then we went to the wedding. Holy cow. I could write another page about this, but basically, the wedding was on Culver Lake in the chapel that opened onto this beautiful dock. The ceremony was so simple and amazing, yet we all could tell that every single detail was so carefully planned and tended.
Then the reception. It was like a castle on a hill in the Poconos. I ate the best fish--carmelized, I think--that is second only to the amazing softshell crab and Manhattan clam chowder we had at the shore. And the friends. I saw friends that are so precious to me. And I saw children of friends, too. Very weird.
And we headed back after the wedding, travelling most of the day today.
And I come back to the Furlers. Only with Sue and Al can I say, "So who's up for Korean?" and no one will laugh. They always have adventures and love for all of us McGrails that always seem to weather distance and time.

A Sort of Blog

I had always been sort of anti-blogs. In Minnesota, Brandon and Blaze and Travis would regularly vent grievances on their blogs. Then, someone would inevitably not speak to the blogger someone for weeks. Then, the blogger someone would take another few weeks to find out why the second someone was so mad. Finally, the blogger someone would find out that the second someone was angry about what the blogger someone had written on his blog. Finally, they would have some sort of yelling match or potentially they might just start a bunch of backstabbing or something (I'm exaggerating a bit).
Basically, I figured blogging caused some negativity.
But in the last years, I've bopped in from time to time to explore Meg and Mike's and James's blogs--check 'em out, if you haven't. They are really good. And there isn't nearly as much backstabbing and yelling and negativity as in Winona--ha, ha.
I'm becoming sold on this idea.
Tonight, I was at Martin. The university opened a writing center two weeks ago, and I'm meeting with some of the new tutors to guide them and train them. I suppose they may observe a tutoring session if we have the opportunity, but the summer session is not very busy right now.
Tonight, I met with this beautiful, forty-year-old woman named Georgeania. She has four children and three grandchildren, but she could easily pass for twenty-five. She is a God-fearing woman--and is not afraid to say so--and gratefully talks about her family and God.
She is truly amazing.
She tells me that forty is something to look forward to.
Yeah.

What a month...

Have to say, the last month has been a rollar coaster. I've been working at Indiana Life Sciences, Inc. (ILSI, to the laymen), helping start up the writing center at Martin University where I teach during the school year, trying to work things out for the Korean teaching job and all that that implies (doctor's appointments, work visa, transcripts, application essays, applications, interviews, and all), and thinking about applying to graduate school when I return (and with this comes the inevitable GRE, entrance essays, more transcripts, more applications, and all).
This blog is turning into a blessing: I am trying to keep in touch with my family and my friends, but I have been going full steam for weeks now--including the trip to Belize--with not much time for anything else. I hope everybody sort of understands.
Well, for now, pray for me, and call me. Posting on the blog is good, too.
I miss you all so much already.
I don't have any family photos since my computer was stollen, so I've stollen a bunch from everybody's websites and stuff.


This cool guy is my nephew. He has grown so much in the past year... I wonder what he will be like next year.
He is so much fun, so lively and interactive, he almost makes me want to have a kid of my own. Wait a minute, what the heck am I talking about. He's got anough cute to go around.


This is an older picture of mom, dad, sis mandy, and bro-in-law scott. That was a great day. I'm so proud of them.


This is Mand and Scott again. I think this is at their old condo in Kaneohe. Cool place. Their new place is cooler.







This is Moogs and Mike. I love you guys. Mike, you need to send me some of your new batch of beer.





This is Kate and James--pre-Finn. What a great picture this is.
NOT THAT YOU CAN TELL HERE---ARGH! I'm tired of messing with these pictures. Bear with the inexperienced blogger. Will get better with the postings in the future.
And be sure, the size of the pictures is not a reflection of the size of my love.

Pitures from Belize

I'm exprimenting: this is some pictures from Belize. Here is a picture of lovely Marilyn braiding Joel's hair....
This was really funny, but I don't think any great 'does came of it.





This is a picture of the bridge that Gordie and Vince built.
Hmm.
That may be the title of my next book: The bridge that Gordie and Vince built.
Oh, and Gauyna (I can never remember how to spell her name) is swaying her hips, and Pastor Cecil Camal is there in the foreground. Very cool.



One more fun picture although this does not do this guy justice. I tell you, this fellow was flipped on his back when I came down for coffee two mornings in a row. He was wagging his legs in the air, like he was fighting death or just too top heavy. I flipped him over, like some sort of odd turtle--and I think he weighed about as much. And I tell you, He was as big as my big toe.

The contract

I've read most of the contract. It is for Taejon/Daejon, not Pusan/Busan. I'm not trying to make fun of the Korean tendancy to respell the names of places. Really.
But enough of that for right now. Let's talk about Belize--no pictures, yet. I just dropped them off tonight and won't pick them up until tomorrow.
Gotta say, this trip was really amazing. I wish I had the Duluth team here: to process, to bond, to talk, these people are really so amazing. I missed Sue this year, but once again, I got to hang out with Swartz, Stacy, Jackie, Sarah and Ana were roomies, Dylan is so great as always, and Chris.
Then there were the new people. John was so thoughtful and considerate: he made me feel like I was wise and interesting. Funny, I don't get to feel like that very often. The younger guys: they were so amazing. They were thoughtful, interesting, sensitive, and compassionate. And of course, Marilynn: she talked to anyone, was brazenly trying any new thing, and hung around with people fractions her age. At seventy-five, you are so lively. And then Gordie and Vince. These two have a charm, sense of humor, work ethic, and compassion like I can only dream about.
That was the team. If I have the opportunity to work and to study with a church half as lovely as them in the future, I'd probably be on my deathbed before I miss church.
The town, as always, is laid back, accepting, loving, and interesting. I do not understand everything that happens in this town or in this culture, but I know that they bless me whenever I see them.
Pictures this weekend.
Oh, and I will try to become more familiar with this blogging thing. Writing in this format feels a bit like I am journaling for the public. My writing has always been very private.

A Sort of Life

"A Sort of Life" is the title of Graham Greene's first autobiography--the first of three, yes three. I chose this because G. G. is my favorite writer and because he inspires me to explore different regions of my mind, my writing, and the world.
And now we get to the crux of it.
I'm hoping to embark on some new journeys. In the last few months, I have traveled to Hawaii to visit my sister, to Belize to reconnect with some good friends.
And now, I plan to leave for South Korea to teach English.
Funny, it is July 4th, and I'm so happy to be an American and an English speaker, but I'm looking forward to expanding some horizons to include some more friends, some more language, and some different culture.
We shall see what the coming months will provide.