xander's endeavours Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Entry 1 – Asiana 271 — 7/4/2009 – 8:33 PM (PST)

(If you have been tagged, it means you're mentioned--probably because I think we should meet up over the next week!)

I don't think it would be a complete trip without taking some time to reflect upon it so here we go. Two days ago, it you asked what my July 4th plans were, I would've said a massive 30-mile bike trip from the University of Washington into Redmond, on my "new" mountain bike with a church community that I'm growing more familiar with. Instead, I'm sitting in seat 38G of Asiana Flight 271, seven hours into a 12 hour flight to Korea and at the start of a one and a half week long trip using vacation days I don't have to a country I haven't been to in three years. Suprising how factors outside my control can change my priorities and schedule so suddenly.

There are a lot of emotions and thoughts swirling underneath my consciousness; I'm not really thinking about them, but it's definitely putting me at unease. <REDACTED> It sucks that I need to be worrying about that now given the circumstances of my travel, and especially moreso that I won't get closure until I'm about to leave. Rohit did give me good advice though, that while I can't do too much about these unknowns, I can work to have a more meaningful experience while I'm there.

So that's what I'll do.

Second on my mind is how to make the most of the 10 day trip that I have. This whole trip came rather suddenly, and I'm not sure if the people I want to see are going to be around, or available if they are. And then there's work--there are some critical meetings occuring, so I'm shooting to be remote working for 4 hours / day. How effective this will be, I'm not sure, but I'm hoping that I can put the time I spend adjusting to jet-lag to good use. Here's the list of things on my agenda:

Pri0
- <REDACTED>

Family and Family
- Grandmother's farewell / Visit to family graves
- Chill with Jeeyeh/Jeewoo
- Meet up with Sunghwa nuna
- Meet up with Joyce
- Meet up with Haine
- Meet up with Huh
- Meet up with Austin
- Meet up with Jenn
- Meet up with elementary / middleschool buddies
- Meet up with... anyone else that's here???
- Actually DO stuff with people met up with, and LIVE while I'm here.

Work
- Try to get 4-hours / day of work accomplished.
- Visit MSFT Korea
- <REDACTED>
- <REDACTED>

It's a tough plan, with a lot of stuff, and not too much time. Time to get on it! See the rest of you all soon, and thanks for the best wishes.