So I've never been too active on this site which is a bit disappointing. I got into right before I enlisted into the Marines and now that I am past 2 years of my enlistment and finally nearing the end of my training it seems I finally have some time. I've spent the last year and a half learning the Korean language and it has been quite the roller coaster. 8 hours a day or more (if I stay back for night classes) in a tiny room with about 4 other service members and a teaching team of native Korean speakers. The culture gap can be pretty evident at times, especially when they don't get our jokes, but I love my teachers. In the course of learning the Korean language I have also fallen in love with the culture, or as my classmates prefer to say "I drank the kool-aid." We were also given the opportunity to study Korean at one of the top colleges in Korea, and it was the greatest time of my life. The people I met and the fun I had is something I can never forget. Since I was young and my dad told me about his time traveling from country to country with his family, I was jealous. I'd spent my entire life in a podunk town in Iowa. I wanted to see the world and to learn other languages and meet all sorts of people. Now I have that opportunity and I couldn't be more thankful. But now I am nearing my final test for the time I have spent learning the Korean language and one of the frequent topics that come up from my teachers is what I will do after my enlistment. I've always been the "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda guy (try translating that into Korean) so this whole plan thing is new to me. So originally I just talked to say something, but as I say it more the more I actually want to go through with it. After all my huffing and puffing about wanting to see the world and never stopping til I do, I think I was happy right where I was in Korea. I spent 18 years of my life in the same house in the same town in the same state but when I think of calling it home I cringe. I spent just a few months in Korea with a family I had only just met in the middle of a culture I didn't truly understand, and I can't think of anything else to call it but home.