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N.H. Girl On The Other Side Of The World: Three Planes, One Layover, One Destination

Abby Kessler for NHPR

NHPR News Intern Abby Kessler has moved on to a new adventure, teaching English in South Korea. We've asked Abby to send us dispatches from her trip, and we'll be posting them as a series of blogs in the upcoming months.

As I walked away from my dad at the security gate at the Manchester airport, I wondered out loud why I was leaving everything comfortable, everything safe to travel to a foreign country. I walked through the long, empty hallway beyond the security gate wiping tears from my face, and suddenly remembered my circumstances: I was living at my parents' house, falling asleep next to my college diploma without a full-time job and subconsciously developing a waning desire to leave the house after 9:00 PM. And the adventure of moving across the globe, from New Hampshire to South Korea to teach English for a year, would provide a challenging and exciting adventure.

My first plane landed in Newark and I managed to switch terminals and board the next plane destined for San Francisco. This flight was much longer and I spent the majority of the trip gazing out the window, first watching housing developments, skyscrapers and cars turn into small dots that I imagined ants occupying (reminiscent of Zoolander: "What is this? A center for ants?). But as the plane ascended, I watched a lightning storm develop and later the plane wing cut through the Big Dipper. I realized my list of "lasts" has ended and a new set of "firsts" awaits.

-Abby

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