Fading into Grey

I am home. And it's so good to be here, back with family and friends! One of my firsts was to say hello to the Atlantic Ocean, in all its wild and wind-swept beauty. I'd forgotten how cold and bleak Nova Scotia can be in November. There is no snow on the ground yet, and the landscape appears so sad and lonely to me. I already feel like these overcast, wintry skies and the damp, bone-chilling cold are getting under my skin. We haven't had a sunny day yet since I've arrived! But my mother says grey is a beautiful color, and that I need to teach myself to fall in love with its variable shades. So I'm taking her advice to heart, and attempting to seek out some beauty in the season. Hello from Nova Scotia, in shades of grey...

A Fond Farewell

And so it begins. Another adventure, a new country, people, and culture, in a city with a sea-bound coast. I will be flying out of Halifax before dawn tomorrow morning, arriving in South Korea on Monday, where I have a contract to teach English for one year. My thoughts and feelings at present resemble a freshly-churned Dairy Queen Blizzard, but with all the flavors combined! (I have, on occasion, actually ordered all the DQ toppings, in an indecisive moment.) So here you have it; heightened nerves, overwhelming excitement, ready to embrace change while not quite ready to let go of home, feeling prepared one minute, and very inadequate the next... all these emotions, like the flavors of peanut butter, blueberry and mint... they don't sit together very well, as you an imagine, leaving a fairly sizeable knot in my stomach for the past three days! Yet overall, this pervading sweetness: a deepening sense that in moving with these tides, I am in "los manos de Dios." I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds my hand. What could be sweeter than that?!!