What's a blog with out some introspective rambling?

We leave our seaside resort today, and while I'm sad to go, I'm excited that we are now at the one week until home point. A month is a very long time to be away from real life, and I am ready for real life again. Though some of the creature comforts I'm used to were available here (I may have been waaaay too excited about the full sized towel in the hotel bathroom), there's still the uncertainty of our daily schedule, and the lack of control of simple things like when you eat or when you can go to bed. I've done my best to go with the flow most of the time, but I can't fully change who I am, and that I like to be more in control than this trip allows me to be.
This whole process has been a learning experience for me, about myself as much as Korea. I've had a chance to step back from my life, and maybe look at it critically for a bit. It turns out I was just as happy with everything as I thought I was, but it's always a good thing to stop and reevaluate.
As busy as these last few weeks have been, I'm looking forward to the different kind of busy that I'll be greeted with at home--the busy I choose everyday. All of the big projects that wait for me (summer reading! battle of the books! teaching summer session! remembering to breathe!) are things that i choose because they make me happy. A few of the things that await me are more necessities than big exciting projects--no one considers fund creating or cleaning the bathroom fun, but at least there's a sense of accomplishment when they are done. One of the negatives of this trip is sometimes it feels like the only thing I'm accomplishing is being on the trip. Though that's not consistently true--I've of course learned about Korean culture, and seen a University library organized by DDC, which boggled my mind, and met some wonderful people who I know will influence me for years to come--there is a nagging feeling that this may not have been the best choice for me right now. Not that it's bad mind you, it's a life changing experience that will stay with me forever. I know that the world is spinning quite nicely for the people I've left, but I can't help thinking I could be doing more there than I am here and now.
By chance (or by a subconscious need for meaning in everything) my reading choices for this trip have all revolved around journeys---physical and emotional. I suppose it's a common enough theme in literature that I shouldn't read too much into it, but it's still interesting to me that I'm so enjoying books that are so closely related to my daily events. Feelings of isolation, of being lost, of miscommunication, they are definitely undercurrents to this process. The books have all had happy endings, with joyous reunions and feelings of being home, and I'm very looking forward to my own happily ever after to this story.
This trip has definitely solidified one thing-my love for my Kindle. The fact that I packed about 40 books, with the intentions of reading 6 or so of them on this trip, and it took up the space of a small paperback is reason enough to love this thing. It is probably the technological invention that is influencing this trip for me most, other than the internet (or lack thereof). I throw it in my purse, and spend long car rides and gaps in the day reading. If I were to do this whole process all over again (and I'm not planning to anytime soon) the only things that would defiantly get packed are the Kindle and my sunglasses. Everything else would require analyzation and some second guessing--even down to the suitcase I packed in. These are the things one learns though. I packed much lighter and more efficiently than I did for my last month long journey, and will likely pack better even for weekend trips now. I did learn that 3 pair of shoes are sufficient for a month-but that will not change the number of shoes I keep in my closet. If I don't have to carry them around every three days, more shoes are certainly better than less. :D