Appleton is one of the last places on earth I would expect to have a star sighting, but lo and behold, it happened. As one of my best friends (visiting from Madison) and I ate breakfast at a sleepy College Ave. diner, in walks Willem Dafoe and his wife!

Apparently, he’s in Wisconsin for the Milwaukee Film Festival this weekend and decided to visit Appleton, where he grew up. He ate quickly, posed graciously for pictures with all of the wait and kitchen staff, then headed out on foot towards the Lawrence campus. I wonder what he thought of the “New North“?

From the moment Matty left Ann Arbor for Seoul in August 2006, it seems that someone pressed the 10x fast forward button on my life. First a desperate rush to finish the dissertation before my funding dried up, then the job search, house hunting, leaving AA for Korea, the botched closing, settling into Appleton, getting to know the neighbors, hosting housewarmings, visiting family, etc. Just as I started to catch my breath, I began faculty orientation, which lasted all day, every day of last week. By Friday evening, I was totally exhausted, but felt a million times less anxious about joining the Lawrence community. I could not have imagined a more welcoming, unpretentious, supportive, and dedicated group of colleagues. To top off the week, new faculty and their families were invited on a biking trip with the provost at Björklunden, a beautiful 400-acre retreat in Door County that serves as Lawrence’s “northern campus” (one that faculty members are allowed to use with students and family free of charge on a space-available basis — what a fabulous job perk!).

Sometime between my second glass of wine last night with everyone in the cozy great room and our gorgeous bike ride today along Lake Michigan, I was finally, finally able to take a deep breath, truly relax, and realize how incredibly lucky I feel. I’m sure things will get hectic and stressful again in a week after classes begin and I take up the manuscript again, but for now, shhhh… I’m enjoying the moment.

Our apologies for the radio silence since moving in.  Where have the last three weeks gone?  We’ll do our best to post a more detailed update with photos of the house (for those of you who haven’t seen it yet).  Until then, all is well.  We’re loving the banglangdang, our neighborhood, and our neighbors.  My office is set and I start week-long new faculty orientation tomorrow.  We see Wilco on Tuesday in Madison.  Next weekend, we head to both Hollandale and Door County.  Oh, and during the trail portion of our run today we stumbled upon a wasp hive and were attacked (3 very painful stings each) as we ran frantically for our lives!   Silly us — we feared Appleton would be boring!

As these things tend to go, it all ended anti-climatically. We came, she was gone, we moved in… er, are MOVING in. This is gonna take a while. But, we have time for b-fast on the porch in the morning.

So far: we’ve met our old friend, Donna Nuna, from Cali. who happens to be a visiting prof here! We’ve had a huge salad and bread lunch brought over from the neighbors! We’ve had coffee and blueberry pie over at the other next door neighbors! We had our first run – most of it along the river… (some of it inhaling noxious paper factory fumes)!

Huzzah and Welcome to the bahngnahngdahng!

The indignity! Our closing from hell continues. The seller won’t leave the house she agreed to sell! So, we are left in vagabondage, our every possession in storage, our cats and persons in my parents’ basement. Oh, how could it come to this?!

One more week, just one more week. The bahngnahngdahng beckons…

Dang. We are in the midst of the house closing from hell. Sadly, the delay means that the cable/internet guy who Dominica had diligently set up from Korea a week ago will not be installing internet today, but maybe next week. . . Intermittent blogging till then I’d guess. We’ll become regulars at the local indie coffee shop/internet hot spot in the meanwhile. Or… maybe our new neighbors will have some wireless to “share.”

We’ll keep y’all informed. Please, keep your fingers crossed!

As of 10.22 am Seoul local time, vagabondage is going on hiatus. We’ll see you again after we get settled in the bahngnahngdahng. ‘Till then, hope you enjoyed the vagabondin’ in Korea.

Ah! One last bit of business to attend to… a Happy Birthday greeting to the pater familias. Happy Birthday DAD! and many many many more.

Here’s a pic from the hunting cabin… the two progeny above, as you can see, turned out somewhat normal… the two on the bottom… uhm… uhm… Dad… any explanation?

“dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me”

Coming home, via Chicago, so, I might as well play the song that says the same, even if it’s opening stanza isn’t the most uplifting.

Woke up at 5.30 am and decided to head out for a little stroll up to Seongmi-san to say goodbye. Saw lots and lots of old men and women getting their workout on. It was a rather joyful way to go through an otherwise sad experience.

The roads were almost empty….

but the mountain was not…

I shed a tear or two as I made my final ascent up the natural sanctuary that made Seogyo-dong a bit more tender space to live in.

The mountain spirit was undisturbed and told me to get a move on.

The ajumma was certainly getting on with her business…

Some grass and a flower in the wind…

The way home…

and the path back, for whenever I want to return.

My last stroll made me really miss my neighborhood. Just seeing things that are so normal that will again become so foreign: the cab driver who accepted my offering of orange juice immediately, without suspicion and instead only a smile and “thank you!”; the ajummas having their kaffee klatch on the mountain at 5.45 am.; the ajeossis bringing up their transistor radios to listen to trot music and clatter on about the ajummas below who are clattering on about them as well; the lovely grandma who huffs on by, but not without saying “Good morning!” to me in English as she passes; the strange looking ajeossi who sings to himself so loud and profoundly, oblivious to whomever may pass.

I saw more people at 5.30 am in my ‘hood than I may see at 12 noon in my home to be. I’m starting to think that in some ways, the culture shock of going from Korea to the US may pale in comparison to going from “huge city” to “small town.” Here, if you want things to happen to you, you just go for a walk, but back home, I think it’s going to take a lot more effort on my part to get the pot stirred up. It’s a recipe for a bit of loneliness if I don’t take care. Will there be a grandma in Appleton to wish me “Good Morning”? A cabbie who joyfully accepts a gift from an unknown stranger? I’ll find out soon enough. In just few hours, I’ll be coming home, via Chicago.

So this is it, the morning of my last full day in Korea this time around. 85% of the final goodbyes are done, but some of the hardest ones remain. I’ve already shed a few tears, but the heaviest ones are yet poised to drop.

I have very little left to say right now other than it’s a weighty thing to forge out a new life in a foreign land, and then have to leave it all behind. I’ll be back, but the world I’ve created this year will not be here when I return.

Lee Sangeun (aka Lee Tzsche) provides the mood music and refrain with her song “Samak사막” (Desert)…

“Na neun gayo.”

I’m leaving… I’m leaving…

One of my odd jobs lately has been providing some translation for a fashion design professor I met through a mutual friend. She produces what she calls “art-to-wear.” Her latest works include body painting and body suits that employ traditional patterns and pictures from the world of Buddhism. Such encounters are the types of things I’ll be missing quite a lot as I move on to life in Appleton. Don’t know how often I’ll be coming across things like this…

or this…

Still, the time has come, the goodbyes have begun, and it’s time to walk down a different branch in the road.