The countdown just keeps getting shorter and shorter. Thirty days till I get on that plane to South Korea. I'm absolutely losing my mind. I'm not sure if this is excitement or fear...maybe both?

I was born to travel. My parents, especially my father, were avid travellers before I came along and ruined their lives twenty years ago. Before I was even six months, they whisked me away to be shown off to family in England and Barbados. The idea of staying put, forever, is one that I cannot even fathom.

However South Korea and Japan are not the little trips down to New York City that I'm used to. Those are grab bag vacations that I can do whenever I feel like from Montreal's downtown terminus. South Korea and Japan involve me being either in a plane or in an airport for a total of at least a minimum of twenty-four hours. Yeah, you read that right. On the plane from Chicago to Seoul, I really don't know how I'm going to keep sane for fifteen hours. I've already made sure I have more than enough Benadryl to hold me down.

When Marta, previous coworker at the bookstore and close friend, was getting ready to leave for South Korea, I (and probably just about everyone else) promised to visit her. Then I went to the bank and made sure doing so was possible. It was, at least comfortably before I had to go to Barbados last minute, but I've made it work to be possible (and now a reality) again. I personally hate staying in hotels that aren't Marriotts, and since I currently do not have Marriott money, staying with Marta allows me to kill a million birds with one (pricey) stone. Visit Marta, stay somewhere in South Korea for free, have an adventurous travel partner, avoid getting lost completely alone in a foreign country, look at North Korea from the DMZ, and climb Mt. Fuji.

Yes, we are going to climb Mt. Fuji. You can never call either of us lazy ever again.

Marta's a real inspiration. Finished a degree in English and then took off for South Korea to teach the little ones over there, having a ball while she's at it. I don't really know if I could do that, considering some of the horror stories of teaching the little bundles of terror she's told me (and me not really liking children anyways).

A few days in South Korea to explore Seoul and adjust for jet lag, then we're off to Tokyo for a little over a week. Who's excited to sleep in a capsule hotel her first night in Tokyo and hopefully not get puked on by any drunken businessmen? This girl.

Labels: asia 2014, blog, japan, personal, south korea, travel