My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

I'm on vacation! To make it better, I'm on vacation for FOUR WEEKS! Yes, that's right, FOUR WEEKS. FOUR. WEEKS. I'm obviously pretty happy about that. I've never had this long of a paid vacation before. It's been a pretty crazy week or so since Carolyn flew to New York to visit family on her FOUR WEEK vacation. I'm hoping we'll be able to get her down to Texas or me up to New York so we can see each other for a few days, because I really miss her.

Anyhow, I had to stay behind in Korea for about a week to finish up classes at my school. During these few "man days" as I like to call them, I've taken care of some big business...video games. Mom sent me a few games for Christmas: Saints Row: The Third, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and WET.

Saints Row: The Third is one of my favorite video games now. I really enjoyed the over the top action and customization. The story line is solid, the humor is great if not outright vulgar, and I differ from the reviews of the game that I've read that say that the pacing was flawed in the final third. I thought it was wonderful.

WET got terrible reviews and the gamestop staff told me not to buy it when I went to get it a couple years ago. It was actually a solid game! I really enjoyed it. It was very similar to KILL BILL but it stands on its own and was a lot of fun.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was simply a call of duty game, and you know exactly what you're getting when you play one of those.

So, that was the important thing I did over the past few days. Today I had some actual business to take care of though. I had to go to the immigration office (with no Korean friends!!!) and extend my visa for a year. It was actually really easy! In and out in 30 minutes or less. I also went to KEB to reset the pin number on my Global Visa card so I can use it at an ATM if I need to, and exchanged some Korean Won for U.S. Dollars so I can eat when my plane lands in Houston. After I got home I wired most of the remaining money in my bank account back home so I could pay bills and know what my budget for the month at home will be.

I'm really excited to go home. I can't wait to see my family, of course, but I also just can't wait to be somewhere where I understand everything for a little while. I like Korea, but there's no place like home, right? Hopefully by the end of the trip I'll be ready to come back to Korea and feel like I have another year of expat living in my gas tank. I think I probably will.

Bon voyage!