The Korean Thanksgiving holiday is at its end. My school had wed.-fri. off and its been quite nice. I spent my holiday dog-sitting for a friend who lives down town so I was able to take long puppy walks by the river and party like a rock star in the down town area. I ate good eats with other foreign friends who did not jump ship over the holiday and played some smashing pool games by night. I spent time with a friend who is leaving and solidified a friendship with a woman I have "seen around" but never really sat and chatted with. It was relaxing. As it nears its end though, I feel a bit of sadness as I have been looking forward to this holiday for so long. It dawns on me that the next "big thing" in my life is leaving here. I hit the one year mark last week, it amazes me. I spent so much time planning to leave and never doing it and here I am, ready finally to make plans to leave "for real". It's such a weird transient place; the ex-pat community of Korea. Friends come and go so often. It's hard to get used too. As I contemplate leaving, the sadness is leaving the friends I have made. But unlike other places I have been I will not be able to come back and visit them, because most of them will be gone in a year's time. I have met people who go away and come back and are stunned to go to the old stomping grounds and know no one. Of course, there are those who stay on... and those who come back. And I will miss them, the lifers, the repeaters, and the "one-yr and I'm out" crowd. I am not a lifer... but I may be a repeater :) So yes, I will be sad to leave... but I have to say I am also really, really excited to go home and see old friends and my family. Happily, so far, this emotion is winning out. So, I am off to have one last holiday dinner with my dear friends in Korea. When I come home, I can start planning, packing and celebrating my approaching departure :) Wa-hoo!