I’m moving again…surprise!
I think everyone who reads this blog already knows this. If you’re new, ta-da! I’m moving again!
Every few years my husband’s job changes because of contracts and economies and things like that and we move. We pack up the kids, whatever pets we happen to have, and hie ourselves into the wilderness of the American highway system to set up house in far flung places like Florida, Kansas, Alaska, South Carolina, and now South Korea.
Yeah, that one’s a little further than the others.
My husband also had a job interview for a company in Germany. And my family took that great. We have roots in Europe. We have relatives buried there. My mother and grandmother know Germany very well. We don’t look Roma enough to worry about it much. Germany has good good, excellent chocolate, but for career growth… Korea was the better choice in the end.
But then I told my family we were going to Korea and for some reason my parents have think I’m moving to a small town. They’re thinking a small place like the set of Hometown Cha Cha Cha and moving just south of Seoul.
Seoul, for those who don’t know random population facts, has a million more people than New York City. It has more people than London, England. It has more people than the entire state of Washington.
It’s not small.
The town I’m moving to has a population roughly the same as Atlanta, Georgia.
Have you been to Dragon*Con?
Atlanta is not small by any stretch of the imagination.
And, why do I know these population facts? Because, dear friends, I had to explain to my father that I was not going to be living in some rural area without computer access, but that I am moving to one of the most technologically advanced countries on the planet. Seriously. They have the best wifi in the world.
After I assured them that I would be able to video call them and send pictures of the grandkids they were a little bit less worried. They were worried I might find the food over there spicy, but that’s because they confused me with one of the other children. I’m the one who puts tajin on popcorn.
The next step in this process is getting passports and visas sorted out, figuring out what’s going into storage and what’s coming with us (and what we’re just getting rid of), and figuring out what of my giant book collection has to stay stateside while I travel for a few years.
I’m seriously considering rebuying the entire Discworld series and taking it. I’ve been re-reading Discworld and The Murderbot Diaries nonstop the past few weeks. I’m not sure what that says about my mental health, but here we are. I think I might be a little stressed.
There’s a lot to do before an ordinary move even when it doesn’t involve teaching the kids a new language, figuring out a messaging app Meemaw can use, and explaining to the utility company that, no, we are not interested in transferring our services to somewhere else in the city because we are, in fact, not staying in the city. I know people have moved out of this city before (I’ve moved out of this city before – this is our second time living here) but the locals never take it well. It’s understandable, there’s a fantastic river walk and a really good zoo, so it’s hard to imagine anyone leaving the area.
The good news is… nothing’s changing digitally! Korea has a great wifi system and I deal exclusively electronically with all my editors so, aside from navigating not being in the same time zone as New York, nothing changes for my writing. But I will have more pics of a new place to share once I arrive in Korea this summer.
You can catch all those pics and fun on Twitter and Instagram.