First week

As I write this on Saturday, my first week in Korea is coming to an end and so far its been really great! It is really different being here a second time as I have already seen most of the famous tourist places in Seoul so I don't feel like I'm wasting time by just getting into a routine here and exploring the neighborhood restaurants and cafes. In fact, the furthest I've been away from Hongdae is about six subway stops, and that was only to visit the bookstore in that particular subway station! Other than that I've stayed in the Hongdae/Sinchon area which honestly has more than enough places to explore.
One reason I haven't left is because my internship has been keeping me really busy! Since Monday was Memorial Day in Korea, I started my internship on Tuesday and worked Wednesday and Friday as well. On normal weeks I am only going to work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday until my school starts. When classes start I am going to work every afternoon since my classes finish at 1 and by then the NSLI-Y students will be in Korea. I am going to get exponentially more busy once the students arrive, but I am still pretty busy right now- there is a lot to prepare for their program.
On Tuesday I was introduced to the office and the staff and they cleared off a desk for me to work at. The office covers lunch when I work which is really nice so every day with a co-worker I've been to a different restaurant. Tuesday I had donkatsu, Japanese fried pork cutlet, Wednesday I had mushroom, meat, and noodle stew with the intern from the year that I did NSLI-Y, and Friday I had delicious pasta with red sauce. The work I have been doing ranges from inputing things like the pronunciation of the names of the students in the spreadsheet and converting their American t-shirt sizes into Korean sizes to editing documents written in English for grammar and spelling. I am also helping with the organization of the in-country orientation so I'm in the process of planning an activity for the students to hear from alumni who are back in Korea. After work Tuesday I came home and had eggs and a peanut butter sandwich for dinner because I was too lazy and tired to do anything else and so Wednesday I resolved to never have such a sad dinner again. After work I picked up some curry croquettes, which was a great decision, and I am already scoping out other places in the area to pick up take-out food for when I know I'm going to be too lazy to cook anything that night. Thursday was my day off and I slept in and then met a fellow NSLI-Y alum who is currently going to school at Yonsei. We had bubble tea and she showed me how to get to my classes at Yonsei as well as showed me more on the Yonsei campus! Also I saw this guy:

One of my roommates is actually taking classes at Yonsei too at the same time so we will actually be able to take the bus together! After that I went and had dinner at a Hawaiian/Japanese fusion place with my roommates and a friend who was really cool. The food was interesting, one dish was soba with cream on top- it really looked like dessert not dinner but it tasted pretty spicy. We also had taco rice (basically taco salad with rice underneath) and a creamy pasta dish.

After that we went to a language exchange cafe and I practiced a lot of Korean. There weren't a lot of interesting people there that day so my friends promised we'd go again another time. Friday I worked all day and then afterwards went out in Hongdae with my roommate and her friend again! We went to a bar where a bunch of foreigners hang out so I met a lot of people! Korean style bars are designed with booths so you go with your friends and usually only talk to them, but there are a couple "foreign style" bars in Hongdae that have games like pool, fuseball, darts, etc. and are set up so people (both foreign and Korean) can talk to each other. I've seen a lot of solo travellers and foreign people working in Seoul go alone to meet people because sometimes it can be hard to make friends in a big city like Seoul without the help of a place like this.

After the bar we went and go Vietnamese food and ended up getting home at around 5:00 in the morning- it started getting light outside as we got home. This is quite normal in Seoul, since the last subway runs at midnight and the first one runs at 5:30, the peak hours for bars/clubs/late night places to eat are between 12 and 5.

Back in Seoul!

Finally I'm back in Seoul! I arrived Saturday and it's now Monday night and honestly I still haven't done that much, just walked around a little, ate a little, and slept a lot. This time I was so jet lagged, and it didn't help that I went out to explore Hongdae with my room mates Saturday night, the night that I arrived. We didn't get back to the apartment until around 3:30 in the morning, so my sleep schedule was still extremely messed up until today. I even fell asleep on the couch last night watching TV (lol).
But yesterday I went to the bookstore and I picked out some textbooks, but I didn't buy them yet so this week I think I'll go back and pick them up. I really do need to start studying Korean harder, these past few nights I've been watching netflix, while one of my other roommates, who is from Taiwan, is studying so hard for her Korean class. I feel bad but at the same time I need to buy a textbook to keep myself on track. I went to the store yesterday as well, and picked up eggs, bread, cereal, etc. But I've had cereal like twice already because I'm too lazy to cook anything tbh.
Today I slept late and then went to Sinchon to explore Yonsei, the university where I'll be taking Korean classes. While I was there I visited Sogang, the place where I used to attend school when I was here on the NSLI-Y program. it was so nice to be back in the area and see how it had changed. I didn't want to go to a restaurant so I bought some food from 7-11, picked up bubble tea, and had a little picnic at a table in the shade on Sogang's campus. Then I came home and slept for like three hours, so it was a fairly uneventful day.
Tomorrow I start my internship though and then soon after my classes start so my relaxing days will definitely come to an end!

Yonsei's campus

Back to Korea?!?

I am so excited to say that I will be returning to Korea this summer! It has been almost exactly two years and all I could think about since then was how to get back to this country that I've had the wonderful opportunity to start to explore and get to know through the NSLI-Y program. This summer I am actually interning for the organization that helps organize the NSLI-Y Korea program in Seoul, an opportunity I am extremely excited about. While I am there I will also be taking Korean classes at Yonsei University's Korean Language Institute to better my Korean through formal classroom instruction. I leave tomorrow and I can hardly wait to step off the plane back into Seoul, a city that catalyzed so much growth and change in my life over these past two years. I am honored and excited to see what this summer has in store for me.

Study Abroad Resources

I've been meaning to compile a list of study abroad scholarships and resources for a while because I have collected a wealth of knowledge over the past few years. As a NSLI-Y Korea scholarship recipient and three time applicant, I obviously know a lot about the NSLI-Y program. However, one of the benefits of being a NSLI-Y alum is that you are put into contact with hundreds of other alumni from all different programs post-study abroad, and through blogs, applicant groups, and various other social media sites, I feel like I've become fairly well-versed in international study and travel opportunities both state department sponsored and independently run. So, here goes nothing!

High School: 

NSLI-Y
First I'm going to start of with the one closest to my heart. NSLI-Y, or the National Security Language Initiative for Youth is a US state department merit-based scholarship program for high school students. The programs are focused on rigorous language instruction and immersion, and while they may not be for the faint of heart, if you are a linguaphile like I am the the experience will be absolutely amazing. The language programs they have are for not-commonly-taught languages in US high schools: Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korea, Persian (Tajik), Russian and Turkish. The locations of these programs are in various countries where the previously described languages are spoken. NSLI-Y offers both summer (6-8 weeks) and year-long programs. Each program is run differently, but the summer programs are very classroom instruction-heavy, supplemented by cultural excursions and homestays. On the year long programs, students mostly attend regular high school with additional language classes weekly. On my Korean summer program, I stayed in Seoul for about 6-7 weeks with a host family and spent five hours a day in class at Sogang University with free time early in the morning and at night and bi-weekly tutoring sessions with a college student supporter. We had a few structured activities with the entire group but mostly traveled in smaller groups with our supporters and friends. If you are interested, I blogged every day on the program so check out the rest of this blog! But remember, NSLI-Y is always changing and evolving so everyone's experiences are different (but always awesome)

YES Abroad
YES abroad is a year-long merit-based scholarship program for high school students to study abroad in countries with significant Muslim populations. While NSLI-Y is more language intensive, the YES Abroad program is centered more on cultural understanding. Recipients attend regular high school in their country as well as culture, language, and other miscellaneous classes as well as take part in cultural excursions. The numbers of students in each country is generally petty small. However, many of the applicants for NSLI-Y and YES have mutual interests in languages, cultures, international history and politics, and making connections with different peoples and ways of living. The countries that YES sends students to are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Philippines, Senegal, Thailand, and Turkey. As you can see, many of the countries overlap between the two programs as well! If you are looking for an amazing year abroad, I would recommend applying to both NSLI-Y and YES. The YES abroad selection process is maybe slightly more extensive than NSLI-Y, whereas while NSLI-Y has a long application and an interview event in your area, YES has a long application and a mandatory in-person selection event in Washington, DC (paid for, of course). From YES alums I've talked to and stalked on social media, their experiences have been life-changing, and all of the photographs they take give me intense wanderlust.

ExCEL Abroad Program
This is a new American Councils (an organization closely tied with the State Department) program, with the first round of students participating over the 2015-2016 academic year. The program is a year-long fully-funded merit-based scholarships to Lithuania, where students will go to school, live with a host family, and participate in cultural and community service activities while working on an independent study project. The ExCEL program aims to create youth ambassadors for US-Lithuania relations and promote friendship between the two countries by fostering personal connections. As American Councils runs many US State Department programs, many alums can attest to its merits and I wouldn't hesitate to apply, especially if you are looking for a year abroad!

La Esperanza Scholarship
This scholarship is a SPI study abroad merit scholarship for a summer program to Costa Rica! I don't know much about this one but any full scholarship is a good one. It is sometimes hard to find full scholarships to commonly-taught language locations, so if you are studying Spanish in school this might be a good opportunity for you to further expand on your knowledge! Not to mention Costa Rica is beautiful!

CBYX
The Congress-Bundenstag Youth Exchange is yet another state department exchange program that provides merit based scholarships for high schoolers to take an academic year in Germany. You attend German high school, live with a host family, and learn in depth about German culture! I have heard great things about this program, and since it is less language-based than other programs, there is no prereq for applicants and apparently it is a lot more lenient. Also, one major plus about this program is that it does take place in Europe, a rarity for fully-funded scholarships, especially state department ones. If you are interested in Europe, Germanic languages, or think this would be a better fit for you than say, a year in China or Malaysia, I would recommend this one! At the end of the day, its about what is a better fit for you as a person, a student, and a language learner.

College Students:

CLS
The CLS (Critical Language Scholarship) is a US State Department sponsored merit-based scholarship program for college students to student critical-needs languages. This is very much like a more intense NSLI-Y program, with the scholarship being 8-10 weeks long with cultural excursions, language instruction, tutoring activities, and many other things. A lot of NSLI-Y kids reapply to this once they get into college because we want to go back to the country we love- for free! CLS offers many languages but some do require previous study. The ones that do are usually languages that are taught at the university level more frequently now, but there are still many programs that don't require anything, so if you are a romance language nerd but a newbie in critical needs langs, you still have plenty of options. CLS looks for a variety of majors, career paths, and interests to represent the US abroad, and along with NSLI-Y and YES, wants to send over a diverse group of students to represent our diverse country. The languages that they offer that require no prereqs are Azerbaijani, Bangla, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Punjabi, Turkish, and Urdu. The languages offered that require one year of study are Arabic and Persian, and the languages that require two+ years are Chinese, Japanese, and Russian. You do get academic credit for CLS, so it is definitely a summer well spent!

Gilman International Scholarships
This State Department scholarship program seeks to promote diversity abroad by providing undergraduate students with financial need grants to study or intern abroad. The program will award approximately 2,700 scholarships of up to $5,000 each to help defray the costs of studying abroad. If you are studying a critical needs language, the scholarship can be upped to $8,000, which is incredible! The languages they consider critical-needs are Arabic, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian, Japanese, Turkic (various), Persian (various), Indic (various), Korean, Russian, and Swahili. Diversity abroad is an extremely important issue, especially since studying abroad is very costly but its benefits should be accessible to all students. If you think you qualify, I would apply, especially if you want to participate in a university-sponsored program but are worried about the cost!

Boren Scholarship
This scholarship is interesting but something that I am so excited to apply to. The Boren scholarship is partnered with the National Security Education program to provide merit-based scholarships to US undergrad students studying critical needs languages in places underrepresented in college study abroad programs. This scholarship is very focused on areas important to national security, and is unique in that scholarship recipients are required to work in the federal government for at least one year after graduation. The scholarship awards up to $8,000 for summer programs, $10,000 for semester, and $20,000 for a year. The summer programs must be STEM related, but all students are encouraged to apply for multiple semesters! Preference is given by language, length of study, and willingness to pursue a career in the government in the future. The language list is very long, so I'll post it here:

Akan/Twi* Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Bahasa Indonesian Bambara Belarusian Bengali  Bosnian Bulgarian Cambodian  Cantonese Croatian Czech

Gan Georgian  Haitian  Hausa Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Japanese Javanese Kanarese  Kazakh Khmer Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Lingala

Macedonian Malay Malayalam Mandarin Moldovan   Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese* Punjabi  Romanian Russian Serbian Sinhala Slovak Slovenian

Swahili* Tagalog Tajik Tamil Telegu  Thai Turkmen Turkish Uighur Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Wolof* Yoruba Zulu*

The different programs and requirements are written on their website, and are very detailed. For people like me who want to go into the foreign service, I would check this one out!

Fulbright US Student Program
Arguably the most well-known scholarship program and gives about 1,900 merit-based grants to students from all disciplines to over 140 countries. There are so many different programs, including but not limited to, government internships, research grants, English teaching grants, travel supplement grants, and critical language grants.The Fulbright program wants to be in as many different countries with as many different majors as possible, so uniqueness is never bad. Fulbright is famous for churning out alums that go on to become leaders in politics, volunteer works, science, technology, and every other field imaginable. If an area of study or dream language of yours is obscure and your options are limited, Fulbright will still have opportunities for you! Anyone and everyone should apply as long as you are interested in furthering international cooperation and understanding in our global society.

Gap Year:
There are many Gap year programs, and some high school programs can be made into Gap year programs, but one that is interesting to me is the Gap Year assistant program at NLCS Jeju. This is a British international school in Jeju-do, South Korea. The school pays for room, board, flights, and food and provides a stipend for students who act as helpers and interns at the international school. This includes tutoring English, helping with activities and excursions, and doing a variety of other jobs to keep the school running smoothly. It sounds interesting, especially for students wanting to return to Korea!
http://nlcsjeju.co.kr/913/careers/gap-year-assistants

There are still many other opportunities out there, and I will be updating this list as more programs come my way. Other programs to look into are the Korea, Japanese, and Chinese government sponsored scholarships for international students looking to attend college in these countries. These are run by their respective governments and the websites are slightly confusing, so i would recommend contacting you region's embassy for questions. Also, CSIS offers various internships in many NSLI-Y areas of interest, but they are not scholarships so I didn't include them on the list. If you are looking for internships, search around the the US gov and UN websites- there are many opportunities, especially for motivated, high achieving undergrad and grad school students. Best of luck in all of you endeavors, keep traveling!

Hostel and Plane Ride

So it's about time I wrote this post, but I've been so busy lately and I have issues finishing things so I just put it off forever haha.

But anyways, after getting dropped off at the hostel I met up with a few people and we walked to get our last Korean ice cream at a convenience store. I got a fish shaped ice cream sandwich thing with red bean in it, it was so good (like all Korean ice cream, haha). But then we walked back and hung out for a little bit. Most of the supporters stayed the night at the hostel with us so we just talked and played games. We also had previously voted on superlatives and so the NSLIY superlatives were announced and they were really funny haha. We played a lot of Korean hand games and took selfies and basically spent as much time together as we could. 

We got yelled at for disrupting other guests (I don't think individually we were disruptive, there is just a ton of us haha) and so they made us go back to our respective hostel rooms. It was like 2-3 o'clock in the morning by then and everyone just kind of went back with the people they wanted to- not many people stayed in their assigned rooms. We watched a little tv, talked some more, and then I set an alarm so we could take a nap and still have time to pack in te morning. At least I thought I set an alarm. Turns out it never went off and we all woke up ten minutes before we had to be downstairs and we panic packed and rushed to the first floor of the hostel. Then we got on the bus and they gave us sandwiches for breakfast haha. The supporters all came to the airport too, which was really nice. On the way there we got our last view if Seoul, and the sky was so pretty~ 

We didn't want to leave haha 

When we got to the airport it took forever for us to get our luggage checked in, so we had to rush to security.

(Me with the class gangster) 

 The goodbyes with the supporters was so sad DX they were so fast, like all of the nsliy goodbyes. I had one of the best supporter groups, and definitely the best supporter (I'm obviously not biased haha) so it was a really sad goodbye. Going through security was awful haha, I was so cry-y from goodbyes and just leaving the country in general. Just thinking about my nsliy journey coming to a close was really hard. Six weeks ago It seems like I would be in Korea forever, but now that it was ending I saw how fast the time had gone by. I loved my life in Korea, and knowing that that part of my life was ending was sad, especially when it had seemed like it had just begun. Anyways, we practically ran through security and got on our plane with barely enough time to spare. The same thing happened in Detroit- we landed and had to run through the airport. A few students actually missed that flight! But we took plane selfies and all that jazz too haha 

Then NYC. As soon as we got off our plane we split into two groups, depending on where everyone's outgoing flight was taking off from, and said like a less-than-five-minute goodbye. Of course I was crying. It was awful. Thankfully some of my close friends were in my group, but saying goodbye to them was the worst. I made some amazing friends on this trip. We spent every day together and just the experience of being in someplace totally foreign with someone else really brings you closer together. These were hands down some of the hardest goodbyes I ever had to say. 

(Ps see my pants? Over half of the NSLIY kids wore their ajumma pants in the airport LOL! We got so many questions xD) 

But after the goodbyes I was totally done. Then came the flight nightmare. So my flight from NYC was delayed so far that I would miss my flight from Atlanta to Jacksonville, and my flight from Jacksonville was the last flight from Atlanta for the night. Basically I was hoping that my Atlanta flight would be delayed or else I would be sleeping in the airport. When I landed in Atlanta there was own Jacksonville flight that was leaving in 20 minutes. It wasn't my flight but I ran to the terminal anyways to try and get a seat on it because I was just ready to get home and see my family. After talking to like five different people, I found one nice lady who finally figured out how to switch my flights. I got a window seat all the way in the back and I was so happy and stressed and feeling gross I almost started crying as my tickets were printing haha. But then I got home safe and reunited with my family and everything and it was great. Honestly though I think about Korea every day and I miss it so much. Korea really did change me. I learned a lot about myself but also just learned a lot in general. I will never ever forget my nsliy experience. We will never be all together again, which makes it so much worse. When I go back to Korea it won't be the same without you!  I have so much to say about nsliy but it's so hard to express it in words, so I'll just leave here with a picture. From our first day in the hostel to our closing ceremony, the NSLIY journey was the best thing I have ever done! I love you NSLIY friends~ 

Closing Ceremony

So yesterday was the day of the closing ceremony and I was a mess. I woke up in the morning and finished packing, last minute of course since we had to be at the hostel fully packed that night, and then gathered my stuff together and headed to Sogang.

I went early and hung out in a cafe for a while so I could write cards for my host family and our supporter. The reason I got there so early was because I felt ambitious and wanted to write a long letter to my host family in Korean (also they don't speak any English so it was the only option I had). But I knew that leaving them would be really emotional and I can't express myself in Korean very well yet so I wanted to give them a little note they could read after I left. It was also my last cafe visit in Korea, and since close to 1/4 of my time here was spent in some sort of cafe, I figured it was fitting to visit one on the last day. I already miss cafe culture in Korea.

After attempting to write a coherent card, I finished with a rough draft and headed off with a group of people to the meeting spot for the ceremony. We had sandwiches on the floor of the ceremony hall's lobby (lol) and then ran through the ceremony quickly so it would be organized. All of the YES center staff, host family's, teachers, and of course the supporters were going to be there so they wanted it to be really nice. The first part was our actual graduation ceremony where there were a couple speeches by the YES Center, the Sogang Korean language program, and then a couple of nsliy students themselves. We received our certificate and also our transcripts (scary) on stage. I passed the class, woo! We had awesome teachers though, so I wasn't too worried about it! We took some pictures and then took a break for intermission. My supporter group and a couple of other groups wore hanboks during the ceremony because our supporters were awesome and borrowed them from someplace so that we could use them for the day. They were beautiful and I'm really glad that we got to wear them one last time before we had to leave. 

Us and 선생님 (teacher) during intermission! 

After intermission we had the nsliy talent show where all of the supporter groups had organized a dance, a song, video, etc. to showcase during the ceremony. 

It was a lot of fun- there were a lot of kpop dances, some traditional instruments, some ridiculous videos (ours included), and various other creative, adorable performances. It was so nice to see everyone with their supporter groups too. We spent so much time in this small group of people this summer it's ridiculous, and the little talent show kind of showed how close we had all gotten. Then they showed the nsliy video, which is when the waterworks came. I'm going to miss everyone so much, but I'll save the emotional post for later. 

My supporter group <3 

After the ceremony we took one last look around Sogangs campus. The weather was beautiful and I'm so glad that we got to see a blue sky on our last day in Seoul. 

Our eyes all puffy from crying ugh 

My trusty T money card, it got me everywhere in Seoul haha 

I rode the subway home for the last time that night, taking in the beautiful scenery on my subway ride and then had a sad last walk home. After arriving home I only had a couple hours to shower, eat, finish packing, and get to the hostel. My host sister had taekwondoe so she couldn't make it home in time for us to have dinner out, so instead me and my host mom went out for dinner, just the two of us. She ordered both of us the rib spicy soup thing that we had had before and that I had really liked ^_^. We had never had any quiet time alone together before so it was really nice to spend some time with her alone before I left. We talked about the television show playing in the restaurant, spicy food (haha- she loves spicy food, she dips the peppers that come with the food into pepper paste), and then America and how I don't want to go back. We really bonded that night, for one if the first times, mainly because we were alone and my Korean ability had improved. Not that we hadn't bonded before, it was just that this time I was actually able to hold a conversation with her. It was really nice, but bittersweet because I really wish that we had been able to talk like that before. After dinner I came home and took a quick shower, packed my bags, and then dragged them out into the living room so we could call a taxi. However, right as we were bringing my bags down the stairs, another person who lived in the apartment got out of a taxi and so we just grabbed that one before he left. That means that we didn't have a lot of time to say goodbye though (this will be a theme with nsliy goodbyes). I just hugged thm and gave them the note I had written. Then I got in the taxi and talked to my host sister through the window (this is when I started crying) and then we held hands through the window until the taxi driver started to pull away. She was yelling goodbyes after the taxi all the way down the street :(. I cried the entire way to the hostel, and the taxi driver probably thought I was a really strange foreigner haha. It was also night and he took the highway right by the Han river so I got a beautiful last view if Seoul before I left. Korea was so good to me and I miss it so much- the people, the scenery, the lifestyle. But this goodbye was so much easier compared to the nsliy goodbyes that were to come- Korea will always be here but our group of nsliy people will never be together again, and it will never be the same. Honestly this was the most fun I had ever had in my entire life, and it was the best thing I could have ever done at this point in my life. This blog post was half finished for a really long time because I didn't have the heart to give closure to my study abroad. Right now I'm coming home from school and I still miss Korea and nsliy so bad. It felt like the best dream. It was hard, but I hardly worried about anything and I enjoyed every second of my time there. I'll save my post about the hostel for another post because that was like a day in itself haha. We stayed up all night and packed in as much socializing as possible during that one night. None of us were looking forward to the plane ride and goodbyes, I'm glad we got to spend that one last night together. 

~EDIT~ here are more photos from the closing ceremony taken by our wonderful photographer 

My class! 

Exam Day!

Today this morning my supporter group went to insadong to finish filming and editing our final video project! We danced in front of more strangers, just like last time, and we actually got a lot done! After filming some random scenes we went to a bingsu cafe and had mango bingsu. Second one in two days and I regret nothing.

I also did some last minute gift shopping because I needed to haha.

We edited the video for a really really long time and didn't have enough time left to eat lunch before going to school so we just ate lunch in the break between exams haha. Today was our final exam day, which was a little stressful but honestly it wasn't too bad. We had a reading, writing, listening, and then oral test and I finished around 4:30. 

This is my school hallway!

After that we were free to leave so I went with some other friends who had finished early (we were lucky because we had early oral interview times) to Hongdae for last minute gift shopping/ just to walk around. I ended up buying a banana chip donut (I think the name was longer but I forget) from Dunkin donuts and it was delicious!

We also wandered into a giant Korean manga store and it was ridiculous haha. 

After a little shopping, etc. we all split up and went home to spend some time with our host family. My host family took my out for samgyeopsal, and it was delicious. We actually went to the same restaurant and sat in the same spot that we did on the first day I got here. They probably didn't even notice but I'm all sentimental so it made me feel kind of sad. This dinner was a lot less awkward but my Korean still sucks, even if it's improved a lot haha. After samgyeopsal we went out for bingsu! We got the persimmon and red bean one again and it was really good~ now it's time to pack, which isn't fun and makes me sad, but I don't want to do it the day I have to leave the house so I must finish tonight haha.