Born and raised “back east,” I entered college intending to major in Russian and international relations. I had no idea that thirteen years, three degrees (one in Classics, one in Russian literature, one in Yugoslav literature and folklore), marriage, and a baby later, I would come “out west” to teach at Cal, leaving my husband behind finishing a PhD in Old Testament. Even when he came after me, we didn’t expect to stay long here on the western edge of our known world. But San Francisco Theological Seminary, where for nearly 40 years my husband taught and I made myself useful in student services and teaching biblical Greek, became home for us and our two daughters. When we traveled for family visits, study, or adventure, we went back east in the US or eastward to Europe and the Middle East. Through SFTS (15 trips to Korea and innumerable hours spent with Korean students and their families), I came to know a country over the western horizon that was only a tiny appendix labeled “Chosen” on the National Geographic maps of my childhood. SFTS and the GTU also connected me to the diverse international community of BPMH, where I’ve been on the board since 2011.