In December 2009, I took an ESL course (teaching English as a second language) and had been pursuing a job since then. A few job offers came and went as teachers renewed their contracts last-minute. Finally, when it was looking like another job offer was going south, I find myself in South Korea. On May 3, 2010, I was on my home phone with my mother suggesting that I might get hired in Koreatown in Los Angeles before landing a teaching job in South Korea. My cell phone rang while on the phone with Mom. “Gotta go, Ma.”

I moved out of my Valley Village apartment in the San Fernando Valley of California on May 25th. I enjoyed one last drive to Las Vegas to stay with my parents for one day before flying out of McCarren Intl. Airport on Thursday, May 27th, 2010.