First two days in Korea.

As expected there have been many firsts, like my first time waking up at 8am without an alarm, that was a big first. Jet lag is still looming, but at least I get to see more daylight hours to make the most of it!

I left off with Simpson dropping us off at the hotel ( Paid for by our school, thank you to ur soon to be boss, Grace!) The Hote is just temporary until our other arrangments come through. It is a beautiful hotel though, it is a traditional Korean room, so there is a drain in the floor for the bathroom, it is one big open room complete with shower shoes since it can be very slick in there after a shower.

There is an entry way where you are supposed to take off your shoes, which we constantly forget...

The Huge televison plays really interesting shows, they have an entire channel devoted the playing a magnetic stone game... it is seriously a big grid and people place black and white stones on it trying to surround the other person's store so they can take it... Joseph has watched more of it than me.... he claims to understand it fairly well.

Also the commercials are really funny, they advertise water with a korean guy with a flower in his hair crying.... and a singing squirrel for some pine drink... yes.... pine drink... and my favorite 15 dancing and singing people trying to sell something I still can't figure out, but the tune is catchy! maybe it is a phone company....

We really didn't do too much the first day, as we were simply trying to find an internet connection, food... and towels, because they only gave us hand towels for the hotel! Simpson told us that anywhere we saw PC was an internet cafe, so we saw a sign and headed towards it. Since there is not alot of space in Korea, they tend not to spread out buildings, but the build up, so on the third floor we finally found an internet cafe. Knowing that we wanted to e-mail everyone to let them know we made it, we walking in completely unaware of what to do. The Cafe is very cool looking, with almost no natural light, it is ligt up with neon lights and has glass walls so you can still see where you want to sit. She didn't speak a word to us, just brought us two cards that you stick in some port above the desktop and it starts a timer, you pay a $1 an hour, so we had adequate time to figure out how to change the text from Korean to english , and then e-mail both sets of parents to let them know of our safe arrival.

After e-mails, we walked up and down the street heading toward the Home plus store and " Mall" that Simpson told us about. We looked for food, and there are tons of restaurants, but we didn't eat much the first day, after buying some towels we went to drop them off at the hotel, and both fell asleep for a long nap... upon waking up we had to eat something so we ventured down the street to a take out window and somehow managed to order a veggie pizza complete with corn, peppers, onions and mushrooms. It was very tasty, and after that we headed back out to see more of Geoje. We strolled down a long seaside sidewalk that had every countries flag raised, and as we dodged bikes ( the sidewalk is littered with scooters and bikes and people) we enjoyed the sea breeze and scent of fish in the air. The we headed back to the PC cafe to e-mail home more and update facebook!

We went to bed late but that is because we are still jet lagging.

This morning we got up and headed back to the Home Plus store, which has a food court, and managed to purchase a burger and fries from a place that was alot like Burger King, but was called Lotte Teria, ( I thnk) Next we shopped !!! We saw the best kitty ever, I will post a picture later. They had everything under the sun from clothes to furniture and english books too! We bought an umbrella ( It is a tad rainy today) and some chocolate since we had not had any sweets in a while.

We then went to the starbucks and got a lemonade and enjoyed our chocolate while we dicussed what to do next. We decided to test out our new umbrella and see more of the Island, we went a totally different route and saw all kind of great sights as we walked around the city, we walked past the bay again and saw some huge fish cresting in the water as well as a school of Jelly fish.

We also saw a pizza delivery boy on a scooter totally wipe out in the middle of the street. What was wierd was that he just got back up and drove off. Nobody helped him or asked him if he was okay, they actually honked at him to move from the street. He seemed okay, but there was not much Joseph or I could do... it was a very odd moment. We continued toward the Samsung shipping port where there was a huge container ship... it was like 10 cruise ships in one... Massive... which was really neat. It started raining a bit harder after that so Joseph put his directional sense to the test and without a problem navigated us back to the Hotel so we could take off our shoes and dry off some. Unfortunately this lead to both of us falling asleep in front of Korean television, although they do have a japanese channel here and we watched a Sumo wrestling match before we both conked out...

We didn't sleep too long and got up and had a dinner of our leftover pizza ( they don't give you a box for your leftovers, they took each piece of pizza and individually wrapped it up in Mr. Songs Pizza Pro wrapping paper and put it in a bag) Finally we decided to come back out to the PC cafe to see if our parents wrote us back!

It has been a long day but Joseph and I are going to stick around in the computer lab and try to learn some new Korean phrases, we know "thank you" and "goodbye", although we may be pronouncing it wrong, because people laugh when we say it....

Oh well! Tomorrow is another day!

30 hours of my life.

Sorry in advance that there are no pictures in this entry, we are currently residing in an internet cafe and the cords to the camera are not with us!

Just to updated everyone, we made it safe and had a very long but suprisingly easy trip to Korea.

Thursday morning Joseph and I both met up at the airport about 8am. Thankfully early check in allowed us some extra time to just chill and not have to rush to our flights! That was also a good thing because Joseph discovered he had his mom's cell phone still in his pocket from earlier that morning, so we called my parents on it ( because we would not have been able to call Mrs. Kelly!!!) and thankfully they had not reached home and were able to turn around and come get it. Then we proceeded to check in, during which we had to take off our shoes and go through security checks and have them x-ray all our luggage, by the time we finished this it was a bout 9.... and our flight didn't leave till 10:55 so we walked around to the Borders and I bought a book for the plane and we just enjoyed the scenery and watching the planes.

We boarded our flight with no problems and the short trip to Atlanta was easier than expected, I also felt really good about it because there were some military people on that flight so I knew we were protected from an possible terrorists! It was so short, they served us a coke and we flipped though Sky magazine... and we were there!

The atlanta airport was very easy to navigate and we took a weird underground train to our terminal... it was very fast, and was alot easier than walking that far. We came back above ground and saw a food court, so thinking this might be our last time to enjoy some american food we went to Qudoba and split a burrito, just in case the lunch they served us on the plane was nasty. We also saw a huge duty free shop but didn't go in it.

Our plane from Atlanta to Tokyo was MASSIVE... it had 10 seats to a row, and way to many rows to count... unfortunately out of all those seats we could not get two together so I ended up sitting directly behind Joseph for 14 hours. He sat between a young girl andthe daughter of some mayor from atlanta. He was lucky since one was quiet and one slept... I sat next to some English guy with HUGE bicepts ( which unfortunately took up most of the arm rest on my right) and then a very sweet old woman who was japanese and didn't speak any english.... ( too bad the English guy did, and he liked to talk...) They served us a choice of beef or chicken... which was okay, but I was glad we had the qudoba before we left.

I watched the first two of the three movies they showed, State of Play, night at the museum 2, and Star Trek.... I had just seen star trek, and it was getting very late ( at home) by then. It was odd since we were flying back over the US ( we flew over alaska and Canada and part of Russia) to get to Tokyo) so it was so cold outside you could see frost on the widows...

They also served us a snack of fruit and some weird sandwich roll thing which had cream cheese, cucumber and egg slices ... It was okay.

and they also served breakfast ( it was like 2 in the morning for us when they did) but you could pick from eggs and sausage or fried rice.... very interesting!

When we arrived at the Tokyo Airport we were both really nervous about figuring out where to go and what we needed to do. Luckily we were already in the right terminal and our gate was easily found since we were able to see alot of english everywhere!

We didn't have hardly any time between flights but we did manage to get a picture of authentic Hello Kitty merchendise and a picture of the cool drink machine. ( they had phone cards but it only took yen and we didn't want to convert our money just yet)

So we got on our last flight, and it was a struggle to stay awake, but the turbulence and the raw fish the served aided in that! I think i did manage to sleep a bit, even though they were showing entire episodes of Two and a Half men. (***YEAH ENGLISH**) they had flight attendants that spoke Korean, English and Japanese.

They had alot of trouble stabalizing the plane because there was a lot of turbulance, and at one point our drinks almost spilled out of the cup! We kept dropping altitudes and it kinda felt like a ride in Disney world. ( except not fun).

We arrived and luckily all our luggage came out together ( easily spotted with the bright green luggage tags and blue ribbons)

We had to go through Security AGAIN... but at least this time we didn't have to take off our shoes! We then got our passports stamed, and then headed to get our money exchanged into Won. It kinda looked like play money.

We took about three steps out to the lobby and Simpson was on us before we had time to look for a sign or a phone! He introduced himself and shook our hands, and then proceeded to lead us to his car!

I thought I would be really tired from all the air travel but upon seeing our new destination (even in the dark) I perked up for the entire two hour drive. We saw mountains everywhere, with tons of brightly lit buildings and homes. It looked like Las Vegas with all the neon lights.

Simpson assured us that we were in good hands by saying " Not to worry, I excellent driver"... And boy was he. He was able to hit almost every speed on the truck as well as honk at anyone who tried to pass him! I counted at least 11 times he got to use his horn....

I remember being a little kid and telling my dad to "make sure to go as fast as the law allowed"when I was tired and wanted to get home.....I didn't feel like I had to tell Simpson that! He was on top of it!

he did tell the truth though, he was an excellent driver, and we had fun listening to his musical choices ( sounded like country mixed with 60's polka.) to which he sang along. He also played some traditional stuff for us too which was really neat.

He then took us to a hotel, since our apartment was not ready.... but that will all be in another blog as my hour here at the PC cafe is almost up!

We are glad to be here, and miss home tons! And thanks to everyone for their support and prayers, I know that so much could have gone wrong, and since nothing did I know for sure God was watching over us.

(Also I apologize for all the spelling errors, it is late, and this korean Keyboard is difficult to use!)

Zane and Ali coming at ya!

Last night I was so lucky to get one last chance to see my good friend Sara at South Point Mall. I have known her since 7th grade ( and anyone who saw how dorky I was in 7th grade and is still my friend is DEF one worth keeping) Unfortunately Sara (and her ADORABLE) family live too far away from me in High Point, so chances to see her are rare and far between. Thankfully though, she was off work today, so she and baby Zane made the trek out to SouthPoint Mall in Durham to meet me for a fun but cheap dinner.

Zane enjoyed a Girlled Cheese sandwich and Pears while Sara and I dug into the best the food court of South Point Mall has to offer

Zane had a lack luster impression of "Captain Adorable" once I got my camera out... He was all super smiley and then the camera on my end comes and and suddenly he becomes indifferent... He is so well behaved though, so it was nice to see him and still get to have a chance to talk with Sara.

(Zane did make quite a few friends at the mall, one little girl named Anna actually convinced her dad to bring her over an introduce them, they had been making eyes at each other all evening, but she was almost 2 and 1/2 so him only being 11 months she was somewhat of an "older woman") but they said bye to each other ( about 14 times) and Sara and I were able to resume our conversation!

My beautiful friend Sara

I like this picture because poor Zane, Oh Zane, he was so hungry he was about to eat the wet naps !

And of course I had to get a chance to hold him, and he didn't cry! See a happy baby in my arms... it can be done!

It was a great evening, and I am really going to miss sara and Zane... He is going to be so big when I get back, I can't even imagine....

* this one is called Zane and Ali, coming At Ya!

Dinner with the Families!

Well, last night we had a Meeting of the "Moms"... and "Dads" + one little sister at Ruby Tuesdays, It never really struck Joseph and I as odd that our parents had never met... I guess mainly because My parents would invite us to do stuff, and his parents would invite us to do stuff, the distance between Wake forest and Raleigh just seemed big enough that it never occured to us to formally introduce them.

Upon deciding to move to Korea, I know for sure my mom wanted to at least meet them... I think mostly so she would have someone to commiserate with over coffee one day! I think they bonded over crab cakes, salad and missing us before we had even left.It was a very plesant evening ( save for the computer drama had at best buy... which may be another blog entry entirely) and I am glad they got to meet and got along so well. Two IBM dads, and two nervous moms... it was as nice an evening as I hoped it would be. Back to the best buy drama....Needless to say I have been the proud owner of several crappy laptops recently, but hopefully since we abandoned the netbook idea and went for a different brand mid-sized laptop that was on sale, that problem will be solved. *crosses fingers*Now I just have to convince joseph to set up the computer for me one more time ( since he has done it three times previously) I have been reading quite a few other blogs for fellow Geoje Island ESL teachers and have come across more than once the fact that when in relationships Koreans tend to dress alike... on purpose.... Joseph and I however rarely have that problem ( I am not such a fan of Hawaiian shirts and joseph thankfully would not be caught dead wearing girl jeans)

But upon inspection a few days ago we realized we are starting to dress similar... at least we did that day, so we took pictures and I figured I would add them to the blog! I added a cardigan so we would not look soo *super* dorky. Enjoy!

Busy Saturday

This weekend has been non-stop, but it has been so much fun, so I decided to do a blog since I actually got some good pictures.

The Weekend actually started on friday night, but I didn't take pictures because I am a LOSER, but we went to On the Border for Margaritas and lots of cheesey mexican food! In attendance were Me, Joseph, my old roomates Lindsey and Amanda, their Boyfriends Chris and Josh and our good friend Kyra. It was a nice small get together, but still big enough to finish off two pitchers of Frozen Margarita! Good food and good conversation made it a blast for me, and I will really miss these people when I am gone. So thanks to Amanda and Lew for putting on a great evening!

Saturday was just as much fun, Joseph and I took our last outing to go camping... which we didn't end up doing, we just drove around Winston-Salem all day! First stop was seeing my old College roomate, Hollie Mason, and her cute new doggie Sydney.

Hollie and I became friends our freshman year of college, lived together for two years, and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding earlier this year. Unfortunately that was the last time I had seen her, so since I was leaving for a year I wanted to make sure that I saw her before I left. Hollie, Joseph and I went to a quiet lunch and got made fun of by our waiter ( He kept thinking Joseph was from California, so since Joseph is so west coast, Hollie and I had to make about a billion "tubular" and " Hang ten Dude" comments. Apparently the guy just liked Joseph's many necklaces! ) It was good to see her, and since she is so crafty she has promised to make my SAO T-shirt quilt. She made a quilt out of her old SAO shirts from college, so since I had about 20 and had not worn them much recently, I figured a fun patchwork quilt when I got back would be a great welcome home present! She did such an amazing job on her's I know she will do a great job with my stuff. And that will give me another reason to go see her as soon as I get back!

After lunch we sat and talked a bit, and then Joseph and I headed out to go to Pilot Mountain to get a Survey Marker rubbing. We found a website a few years ago that had all the survey marker locations, which apparently people try to find new ones and then post them to this site, we thought it would be cool to join in this search, except we wanted to keep a record of all the markers we found, so we decided to buy a small pad of paper and so charcoal, and we make a rubbing every time we find one. We don't have many but it is a fun ongoing project that we can continue when we get back

Joseph and his dad had gone camping at Pilot Mountain a few weeks earlier and he found the survey marker, so we had to go back up there together in order to get the rubbing ( since we nowcollect them) but here are a few pictures from then.

After Pilot Mountain, we drove down back to Winston-Salem, and saw a car on the side of the road burst into flames, and have to be put out by the fire department. I felt it was kinda rude to take a picture, but it was crazy to see!

We then decided to finish the day with a round of Joseph's favorite sport, Discgolf. He has been playing for quite a few years and is really fond on the Horizons Park course ( we have been there several times just to play those specific 18 holes) So I made sure to get a few of those pictures as well!

The best part of the day was when Joseph started on the 11th hole, it was a difficult shot to make with his discs, but he threw it as hard as he could and somehow managed to get the disc wedged between two trees. He was not aiming between the tree branches, he just got lucky, or unlucky, but since this feat was so amazing I allowed him to throw another disc so he would not have to have an extra point on his score ( he actually ended up 1 under par, so we all know who he can thank!)

The weather was beautiful, it was not too hot and not too cold so it was so nice to just walk around all afternoon. We had worked up an appetite since lunch so we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner ( as we have done on quite a few other day trips we have taken) so here is a shot from the gift shop since that is where I always want to spend my time when we go. And Joseph was super sweet and bought me a Sky Bar since he knows how much I love them! I am also attempting to see how video works on this thing, this is just a short clip of the cracker Barrel country store, the fake bird we were playing with was not working properly and kept only half mimicking what we were doing so Joseph tried to make it sound like a teradactyl... it was just random fun, as always!

The hard part is over...

There are only a few things in this world that scare the poo out of me.... cockroaches, clowns and homeless people.... but I am adding one more thing to the list... quitting jobs.

I put in my two weeks notice yesterday and before I walked in that office I was terrified, but once I started talking I guess it was not so much scary as it was difficult. I have worked with the Board of Law Examiners for three years ( well + a month or two) and this routine has come to be part of my life here in Raleigh.

Giving up my job, my work friends, and some of my financial security is part of the Korea plan, but not necessarily easy to follow through on.

I was very nervous to shut Mr. P's door and hand him my letter, hands slightly shaking, and say, " I just want to give you my two weeks notice in person"... I was suprised that he let his shock or suprise show. " Well we hate to lose you, you are a great employee", I then proceeded to stammer on about how "I have this great opportunity to travel and teach", and "but not to worry, because it is only for a year, and I will be back at that point...." it was so hard, and As I was saying the words it was hard to believe them myself... " My last day will be Sept 18th." And that is when it started to sink in.... that would be my last time waking up to the alarm and driving myself downtown from my cozy apartment to the Moore Square Parking Deck, Crossing Wilmington Street to One Exchange and pressing the combination on the door to let myself in to go to work.

Someone else will soon occupy the desk that has been mine for so long, and someone else will call Wendy their Office Mate....

It started to set in way faster than I thought, and I could feel the knot in my throat, and though I didn't actually cry, I felt like I wanted too...

That is how I know I will miss this job, and miss this office, and most of all miss these people, who have been fun to work with and amazing to know.

I hope to keep up with them, The internet is a beautiful thing... I want to hear the stories of crazy applicants and the stories of their friends and families I have grown accustomed to hearing about during the working hours.

The Board will be missed, but there is alot out there that I would hate to miss out on as well...

I am starting to learn, the bigger the risk the greater the reward... or the harder I will fall on my butt.... we shall see which turns out for me... ( I am going to pull for more reward, and less butt falling!)

Now I feel slightly bad for laughing at Joseph when he was so introspective when he quit at AC Moore. It is just a job, but so much more comes with it. I really will miss everyone.

Korean Consulate

First thing first... I got a new hair cut. It is a bit short but I like it. This entry is all about me and my new hair traveling with Joseph to Atlanta Georiga to complete the final interview to get our Work visa to teach in Korean approved. It was a long trip but we made it, and only got slightly sick when we got home!

I made sure I had tons of coke to help keep us going, I am used to the three hour adventures to Boone, but double that and I was not so sure we were going to make it about 3/4 the way through South Carolina.

Once we got there, we were shocked at the sheer size of the City. I always thought bumper to bumper traffic in downtown Raleigh at 5pm on a monday was bad... I will never say anything about Raleigh traffic again. The 8 lane highway we came in on was cramped and was full of people who didn't regard the 55 mile and hour sign, and sped past me going ungodly speeds while I myself was going 75. ( I was shocked because the last time I went that fast I got a speeding ticket) But even the cops passing me were giving me dirty looks like... "can you please go faster)... and this highway was different, it has a posted minimum speed as well... guess they don't take to slow pokes to well over in the Big City!

But we finally parked the car and the random buildings around us were so tall... and speaking of tall, so are their peaches... we saw this gem on the side of the road going up, but I was not quick enough with the camera so I had to take a picture on the way back... but we sure didn't miss it either time. I think it would be so fun to drive around to all the US states and take pictures of their big crazy enlarged items and then make a coffee table book out of it... It would be a good way to see the country. I know they have a giant Golden guy in Tulsa OK... maybe we should go there next! ( I can see hanson while I am there!)

So here is the nitty gritty on the interview. The man in charge was very nice. His english was a great example of what we will be working with over the next months. I knew most of what he was saying, but it was a very awkward interview. It was Joseph and myself, and 5 other girls.. they had 7 of us in one room... and he didn't really ask questions so much as try to induce conversation... which is where he lost most of us... You try starting a conversation with 6 girls and 1 guy about free trade policy when we are all nervous, tired and not sure if we are supposed to be listening or talking... He told us his opinions (" Yeah, it is nice idea") and then moved on to another topic.... All the girls were just smiling and trying to nod and laugh when it seemed appropriate. This lasted for about 15 minutes, and then he finally took a look at our passports and applications. He then proceeded to say a name and ask, why do you want to come to Korea? I think Japan is better!!!.... so we had to say why we picked Korea. Most of us had the same answer and were just excited to be going to a new county, one girl said she had been to Japan before and felt it was too westernized... which Joseph and I agreed with... If we wanted to go to a MacDonalds, we can walk up the street and save alot of hassle! We want the experience and the culture. Not to feel like we are at home. We have the rest of our lives to be at home in america, but only one year to live abroad... we want to make the most of it!

The interview ended shortly after that, and he said "welcome to Korea!"... so I guess we got approved, we shall wait and see in the mail if our passports come back! (crossing fingers on that one... my passport traveling through the mail makes me so nervous)

So on the way home we tried to have a bit of fun ( because the cheap hotel we stayed at was just that... super cheap.... hence no pictures, although I should have taken one so we could remember the name of the place and NEVER stay there again!)

On the way home we made three stops, the first and most fun was at the Firework Warehouse store off 85... this place was HUGE and Exploding with different kinds of fireworks... ( no pun intended... ok maybe a little pun intended!)

Since Joseph enjoys them, I told him he could buy a few select pieces, which ended up being about $30... And we got alot of stuff because it was so cheap and for being the only people in the store, the nice guy at the counter threw in a few free pieces... so that was exciting and we walked around for a good hour. And when I say we were the only people in the parking lot... I mean it... we were the only people in the parking lot. You can barely tell but I am actually standing next to the car holding all of our purchases!

Here are a few of the pictures we took

Also on our way home we stopped at IKEA... in charlotte which is probably the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Don't be jealous!

We wandered around the Ikea store for a good hour and when we thought we were done with the showroom we saw they had restaurant, so we stopped and had a meal ( which was awesome, Joseph had spagetthi and meatballs and I had chicken alfredo, they both came with salad and we totally shared a piece of the chocolate overload cake! SOOOOO good.) After having our fill, we walked downstairs only to realize we saw half the store... the other half was downstairs, so we did a quick lap, and promised ourselves we would come back when we returned... there were a few lighting fixtures and rooms that we fell in love with... so maybe if we save tons of money in korea we can come and have a shopping spree and buy everything we would want!

We also stopped at the Bass Pro Shop in charlotte ( also another HUGE store, but I left my camera in the car and it was getting late so I didn't get a picture of it) but they had tons of cool camping supplies and a huge waterfall and tank full of extremely large bass fish. It was incredible how big it was. We also saw the boat show room... and this place had a shooting range... but it was closed...

Overall it was a nice trip, but I was so glad to be home. This last picture we saw on the back of one of the many huge trucks in Atlanta, and it made me laugh because Joseph said it looked like the guy was eating his own beard... I thought it looked like poo... so here is to Graffitti in Georgia!