Tetris: the Packing Edition and Weather Blunders

Brittney Neset is a student at the University of Minnesota, Duluth and an ISA Featured Blogger . Brittney is about to study and participate in service-learning abroad with ISA in Seoul, South Korea.

This last week has been a whirlwind, that’s for sure. Besides having to worry about last minute trip-things before I leave on Monday, but the weather here in Minnesota has been crazy, and not crazy in a good way!

I always have the hardest time when trying to figure out what to pack. Being away from home for two months is making that task even harder. The longest trip I’ve ever been on was two weeks long, so going to Seoul in a week is going to be much longer than anything I’m used to. At least with vacations, all I have to worry about is not having something I need for a short period of time, unlike my situation now. Being, VERY tall, and plus-sized is not a good combo when you’re going to Korea. I’ve heard it is very difficult to find clothes for anyone bigger than the average Korean… which I most definitely am. So, I’m a little worried that I might not be able to find something I need if I forget to put it in my suitcase. I made a list a few days ago and have slowly been packing each of those items into my larger-than-life-sized suitcase. And to say the least, the list had helped a ton! Today I packed what is hopefully my last thing into my suitcase, so now I’ll I have to do to get ready before I leave is wait. That’s freaking me out a little… I wasn’t worried at all about leaving my home for two months and going to a new country, but now that all my things are packed, it’s finally started to hit me. But, with the crazy weather we’ve been getting all over Minnesota, maybe Seoul won’t seem too scary in comparison.

Over the last week, Minnesota has been SLAMMED with rain. It’s been an awfully long time since I’ve seen the sun and even I am starting to get tired of all the rain. I currently live in Southern Minnesota and we were having problems with flooding during the earlier part of the week. When I’m at school, I live in Northern Minnesota, and they’ve had a really rough time this week too. At the bottom of this post, there’s a few pictures of the pond behind my house which is usually almost all the way dried up, but now it is almost up to the fence in my back yard! At school, everything in flooded. The polar bear and two seals from the zoo in Duluth escaped because the water was so high. And on top of escaping zoo animals, the roads are giving way and making huge sink holes all around town. It’s scary! Friends of mine are up there right now, so not only do I have my upcoming trip to worry about, but them as well.

So, hopefully, I’ll get all my worries out by the time Monday rolls around and I board my plane to South Korea. Here’s hoping!!