Day 1 of teaching.

Day one of teaching = complete.

i don't even know what I did, but I know it is over. The kids are a handful. They aren't bad and it's hard to say really why it is so much work. Because really its not work, so much as... brain work? I don't know. It's a constant battle to stay one step ahead of them and their shenanigans. You have to be a little quicker than a five year old. A little more excited than a six year old. How do parents do this for so many years. It is exhausting. And all I really did was read to them. ALL day long.

Tonight is staff meeting where I will get my schedule for the rest of the classes I am teaching. Hopefully only one adult and one religion. There was some talk today of having me do another little kids class. I am not really sure what that is all about. Anyway. I am basically tired, and overwhelmed and hot. We don't have AC in our cute little apartment. Too bad. I am glad winter is around the corner. Oh man.

I decided when i found out I was going to be living on the 6th floor that I would walk up the stairs everyday in an effort to get some good solid exercise. Day one of that... I only did it once of the three trips I took and I was panting, and sweating by the time I got to my floor. I was also carrying a whole pile of books, that might have had something to do with the sweating.

I finally bought some razors... Its been a hairy couple of weeks and I am excited about shaving my legs again. I also got some soap. I have had some this whole time, but I was only borrowing. So I am also excited to be able to scrub myself with my own body wash.

I mentioned on Facebook that Korea is gorgeous by night. As I was being driven over here last night I was just staring, wide-eyed at all the lights, the people, the things happening. It is hard to explain the feeling it gave me. I was just very happy... or calm. Very calm. It felt good and it was so pretty. The Olympic bridge is beautiful in the daylight but at night there are lights all over it. All the tall tall buildings with their lights, the traffic is less heavy, there is not so much noise. People are walking around, wandering, talking, laughing, hanging out on the side of the road. It is all very cozy feeling. I liked it. I did not however, like the huge crash outside my window at about 3am. I think someone was delivering something, or ran into something. Not sure what happened but it woke me up with a start. But I was awake almost all night anyway. New bed, new noises, new heat....

I need a nap. I will try to keep up with this thing as time marches on. But I don't know how regular it will be. =)

Michelle

Day 13 I think...

Well, tomorrow is our last day of orientation. I really can't believe it's actually going to be over. I didn't think that it would ever end and now that it is I am a little afraid. Now I have to actually go forth and teach these Koreans. And my biggest fear is I have bitten off too much. I have to start teaching little tiny children on Tuesday, the regular adult English on Wednesday, then Wednesday the 8th I have to start teaching religion. So basically I have to get three different kinds of lesson plans figured out and teach them all, at the same time. Plus, weekend activities, which may or may not include, leading out in vespers, speaking for vespers, preaching and or any other random thing they may throw at me. Yay.

Nothing has really happened this past week. Just more of the same stuff. Learning how to teach... repeating lessons over and over all day til we all thought our heads would explode. So this is my update... Oh it has also been raining non-stop forever. I am tired of the sogginess. I would just like to be dry, and warm!! But other than that Korea is grand! We went out to eat at an authentic Korean food place last night. We sat on the floor, took our shoes off and everything. It was also delicious!

Thats all I got for now... Stay tuned though cuz the good stuff is right around the corner. =)

Michelle

The one about the Shower

The shower in our guest house is fully the second most complicated shower I've ever experienced in my entire life (Let's just say the first could be transformed into a sauna and had 8 heads).

This is how the typical morning shower goes: Turn the water on. Barely a trickle. Suddenly, it shoots full force to the wall. It is cold, and remains cold for 5 minutes. Go downstairs. Turn on the power and heat for the water. Come back upstairs. Wait 3 minutes.

Water gets hot. Get in. Trickle again. Get close to the shower head. Water full in the face. Etc.

The pressure and temperature of the water seem completely unrelated, as far as I can tell.

Confusing!

~Christina

Another day 7

Today I woke up exhausted. Never a good way to start the day. I eventually hauled myself out of bed and down to breakfast, only to discover that we needed to go introduce ourselves to all the Koreans before worship. Which meant I had to run back to my room and grab my stuff in less time than I had originally thought I had for all my morning meanderings.

After our brief introductions, and a quick run through the rain, I settled in for worship. It hadn't even started when Hetani, one of the leaders, came and pulled me out. Pastor Mark had come to get me to take me to Chunho (sp?) to observe the teacher there in the Kindergarten class. The one called Kinderest. I followed him upstairs and out to his car where his wife was waiting patiently. We climbed in and then just as I got settled he began speaking in Korean, his wife opened the car door and then opened mine and told me to get out. I was confused, not being Korean I had no idea what they were saying, but it seemed like I should get out of the car, so I did. Pastor Mark began pulling papers out of the glove box and it turned out that the car wouldn't start and he was calling someone to come fix it. Or something. He told me to go back downstairs and wait and that he would come get me when they were ready to go.

I got to listen to all of worship... It was pretty good. A Korean pastor who has been here for a really long time had it and he was talking about looking straight out at the horizon instead of down at the ground. At the end of his talk he forgot his closing point and so it ended rather abruptly. But we all had a nice laugh about it. Then Pastor Mark came and got me and we headed out again. This time instead of the small compact car we were originally going in, we got into a van.

I told you before about how the roads double as sidewalks. Well the alleyways are very narrow and people walk in them, park in them, ride their bikes, carry stuff, haul stuff etc. through them. So we headed down one of these narrow alleyways in this van, pretty fast. And there was a car approaching. And a woman walking... So the car slowed down and Pastor Mark veered to the side, the woman walking, dodged further right, pressed up against the fence but Pastor Mark seemed unconcerned. He just drove past the car, avoided the woman then proceeded to cross two lanes of traffic and dodge into another alley. And what was I doing this whole time? Sitting calmly in the center seat. Holding my breath.

We drove for about 15 minutes. 15 minutes of the most intense driving ever. It is nothing like Atlanta, nothing like Toronto. It is not like anything you experience in North America. People are driving like it is their one sole purpose. They have one goal and that is to get from point A to point B as fast as possible. No one uses blinkers, there really are no cops. It's a mad free for all. If you want into a lane that doesn't have space you simply start edging over and cause the person in the next lane to swerve away from you, or honk, or speed up. Any of those options are fine.

So we made it to the institute. parked and hopped out. I was pretty happy to be back on solid earth again instead of in the swaying veering van of death. Pastor Mark's wife, Julia took me inside and deposited me in a classroom with a woman named Amy who was reading a story about owls to a cluster of the cutest Korean children you have ever seen. They all turned to look at me with their beautiful brown eyes and I couldn't help grin. They were adorable. Only 5 or 6 years old, but they could say big English words. They could answer questions and responded to commands given by their teacher. I was impressed, to say the least.

I spent the rest of the day following Amy around, back and forth between classes. It was hectic. Each class lasted 30 minutes. There was no time in between to go to the bath room, gather supplies, or do much of anything besides run to the next class. She seemed frazzled. Lunch came pretty quickly and after meeting all the teachers I stuffed myself on rice and tofu. It was yummy. And free. Two of my favorite things ever. After lunch there was more scurrying.

I have to tell you about this kindergarten place. And it really is like its own little world. There are convex mirrors at knee level along some of the walls so you can see small children approaching. there is a staircase on the right as you come in the door that doesn't go anywhere, just up one side and down the other. Along the wall are big soft circles so if you fall into the wall you will be fine, if you are a small child. Then directly in front of you is a giant room encased in glass with tree branches running over it. So it basically looks like a giant tree, but it is their gym. Then as you turn and go down the hall the rooms are named colors and there are random circular windows cut into the walls and doors so you can look in easily. The whole place is bright and happy looking. Very kid friendly.

Anyway, after all the running to and fro Pastor Mark brought me back across town so I could rejoin my orientation group learning how to teach English to elementary school kids. So much learning going on. My brain must be expanding because it hasn't popped yet. Tomorrow I get to go again to Kinderest and observe some more. And I start on August 31. Which is sooner than anyone else has to start. Also Christina and I are not going to be living together. We won't be very far from each other though, only like a ten minute subway ride, maybe less... So I am sure we will see each other often. Kind of sad though, it would have been fun to live together. I get to see my apartment tomorrow. I will let you know how that goes.

That's it for now =)

Michelle

Day #7

Long busy, busy day.

Woke up a little later, I think I'm getting adjusted to the time difference, though it still is strange to think that when I'm waking up everyone over in the US is going to sleep and vice versa.

Breakfast, worship, then over to the Kinderest (Kindergarten program) building to sit in on their classes. The kids are super cute, but also have tons and tons of energy! The age range is from 5-7. Some of the 7-year-olds' English skills are so advanced! But you also have the opposite of that as well... Some of the 5-year-olds barely know what you're saying at all. In every classroom there's a Korean and an English teacher, which helps facilitate learning.

I visited different classes all day until school got out (at 2:30), then back to join the big group for more orientation. Orientation lasted until 4:30. It seems like it's been at least two days instead of one since I woke up this morning... That's how busy it's been!

Off to supper now.

~Christina

Day 6

Alright. Today was LONG. We started out with breakfast at 7:45am. Followed by worship, led by Aaron, one of our directors. He then launched into an all morning teacher training session. We got our textbooks, well some of them, and went through them all, getting familiar with the layout and learning how to use them effectively. Thankfully he gave us frequent breaks. Each time he would say, "ok you have four breaks of one minute now." very funny guy.

After intensive training we ate some lunch. Tasha bought us all pizza, YUM. We pretty much stuffed ourselves and then went back to our houses to to wait for the time to head out on our grand excursion.

Korean's walk a lot. For them it is nothing to walk many miles in one day. For me on the other hand, after months of sitting in an office, hardly moving, it is a pretty big deal to suddenly be walking everywhere. I am glad for an excuse to exercise but my body is upset with the sudden change in lifestyle. Thankfully I am getting used to it and I am not as sore, yes I was sore, as I was before. We walked to the subway station, which is about half a mile from where we are staying. We then rode the subway for eight stops. We arrived at our destination, Jongju, and then proceeded to walk about two and a half miles to the theatre where we would be watching a Korean musical.

The walk was very nice. Very hot but lovely. All along a nice little river that was full of people. People fully clothed sitting in the river, kids in their underwear being swept downstream, people taking naps under the bridges on thin bamboo mats and a whole host of other people walking, laughing and playing in the water. There was lots to see, and if you go on facebook you will see many pictures from our excursion.

We eventually arrived at the theatre, hot and sweaty and an hour early. Luckily they had an activity to entertain us while we waited for our show. They had a whole bunch of costumes that you could try on and see what they were like. Very complex costumes made out of heavy material. Two girls who worked there helped us into the outfits. We spent most of our hour taking pictures of ourselves in various costumes. Then we were ushered into the theatre along with a ton of school aged children wearing yellow shirts and "I love China" pins.

The musical was amazing. It was a love story, of course, all musicals seem to be love stories. the colours were fantastic and the dancing was amazing. There was a woman singing Korean opera, girls in frilly dresses spinning around, guys in robes chasing the girls, a mean man, the good guy and of course a lovely leading lady. they played drums, sang songs, danced, played games... Etc. I got tired half way through and would have fallen asleep had it not been for the uncomfortable head rest on the chair I was sitting in. But I am glad I stayed awake the whole time. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the show so I am glad I have the memory of it in my head.

After the show we headed back to the subway, and to Subway. We all got subs, they were amazingly fast at making them. As a sandwich maker, in my other life, I was impressed with their speed! We all took our food upstairs to eat. Everything in Korea seems to be tall. Many layers high. Burger King had four floors, Subway had two. I am sure other place have many floors as well.

Fed and happy we continued our trek. Back into the depths under the city where another whole city lives. You would never know about the underground system if you didn't go into it but there is a whole other life down there. Lots of shops, anything you want. Clothes, books, food, trinkets, and shoes. Lots of shoes. We were heading for the bookstore, a bookstore Leo was really excited about showing us. It was a bookstore but more than that it was an everything paper-related store. Pens, paper, stationary, books in Korean and other foreign languages, including English, and loads of planners. I was after a planner. There were too many options. It took me the enter time just to chose one. I finally found one that was leather bound, has a snap to keep it closed and enough room for me to plan out my life. Yay. I also bought a pen that had a duck wearing a bonnet with some Korean writing down the front. Very cool.

Finally we were headed home. Purchases in hand. We emerged from the subway to find that it was raining. A welcome relief from the sweltering day. We happily walked the half mile home, singing and dancing in the rain. Probably annoying the locals to death.

This was our day 6 excursion. We all lived, and are safe at home, showered and happy. More to come =)

Michelle

Address and other things =)

Our address in Korea is:

SDALS International Affairs

287-1 Hwikyung 2 Dong

Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-878

Please feel free to send ANYTHING!! Paper towels, Movies, Music, Books (novels) Pumpkin Pie filling, PLEASE! Easy Mac, oreos, Peanut butter.... Shampoo, conditioner... =) Anything else you want!!

We are not in dire need of any of these things, some of them are just hard to find, or non-existent, and some of them we just miss... You are under no obligation to send ANYTHING, EVER...

We are on a break right now, in about half an hour we are going on an excursion. I'm sure there will be plenty to tell once we get back from that!

Michelle

Day 4

Happy Sabbath everyone! Just got back from one of the most fantastic vespers services ever. I haven't gotten such a blessing from a vespers program in a while. The program was a mix of teachers and students singing or doing musical pieces. There was a lot of talent for sure. One of my favorite groups was called the Pilgrim Quartet, which was actually a quintet for most of their songs, but still were called a quartet. It was one of the best a Capella groups I have heard in a long time, even though they also sang with accompaniment some of the time. Both ways were just fantastic. They had excellent tone and pitch. And their bassist was a tiny man who when he spoke was very high pitched and squeaky. Quite a shock when he went really low at the end of one of their songs.

That was pretty much the highlight of the day, for me at least.

Earlier today, after lunch we met up with the All Day club to go to town. We rode the Subway all the way to the other side of Seoul. Not sure the name at the moment. I need to start writing them down as I go to them, I am so bad at remembering all the names and places. Anyway we rode the subway, which was an adventure all on its own. It's hard to navigate a place you can't understand. the Subway is bad enough, but the Subway in another language is just...overwhelming. I think Overwhelming is my new favorite descriptive word right now. Sorry about its over use. We got to our destination, whatever it was, and began our walk through the streets. The streets here are very interesting. what I mean by that is, it is usually fairly hard to tell where the street begins and the sidewalk ends. You can be walking on what you think is the sidewalk and a scooter will fly by. Not that big of a deal, it's just a scooter, but then out of no nowhere will come a truck, or a car, or a van. Driving right up beside you on the sidewalk. When the traffic gets really bad on the streets people use the sidewalk as a short cut. And apparently it is legal. The other thing that is confusing is the street is also a sidewalk. People, bikes, cars, scooters and buses all fight each other for the right of way. Not so much on the highway but on the side streets it is a free for all. The scary thing is pedestrians do not have automatic right of way. You walk at your own risk and then move quickly out of the way when something bigger than you approaches.

So this is what we did all afternoon. Dodging traffic, trying not to get lost and checking out all the cool shops along the way. We somehow managed to all get very separated at some point and our group of 19 ended up being a group of about 5. Which was fine. We had a Korean with us and since everyone else made it back in one piece I will assume they all had a Korean with them.

I was starving so my new friend Boris, who is part of the All Day club, bought me some bread which he called strawberry bread. It was in fact, not strawberries. It was red bean curd/paste. It turned out to be fairly delicious though and I ate it all. Then we went to Burger King. A four story high Burger King. It was pretty fancy. And hectic. Ordering in another language is good times. A lot of useless hand motions and laughing are the only way to get through it. the food brought us back to life after our hot walk through town and we were able to make it back to the subway without much difficulty.

Now we get to relax again, and fall dead asleep, still trying to recover from that dang jet lag. I always thought jet lag was a myth, having never experienced it, but I have come to realize that it is an actually thing and more than that I would even venture to say it is a condition, one that should probably be added to the list along with the flu, or measles. And as such should be able to be controlled with some form of medication. That's just what I think...

Oh, I forgot to tell you that the other day Christina and I met with Pastor Mark who is in charge of the Kinderest program here. The Kinderest program is a kindergarten/preschool program that Christina and I will be helping to start/develop. It is a fairly new program so they are still ironing out the issues, but we were asked to help teach in a couple of the schools nearby. I think it will be an interesting time... to say the least. I will say this, little Korean kids are some of the cutest kids out there! Hopefully they are not also some of the most devilish. We shall see.

I think that is all for now, I am getting sleepy, It's 8:32 pm and that is a new record late for me.

goodnight and happy sabbath

Michelle

Day 3

I really don't know where to begin. Today was, in a word, overwhelming. And I have the sneaking suspicion that it is only going to get more and more so as the weeks continue.

Our day began very early. Christina and I went to bed around 7:30 last night and of course woke up at the nice early hour of 5am. Wide awake. Which was ok. I got to chat with some people at home, who were just winding up their day. But even so, 5am is super early and I do not approve. Stamp.

Breakfast was an entire hour earlier this morning, which threw me off. Thank goodness Christina checks the schedule, that's all I gotta say. The first thing after breakfast was worship, of course. After worship our fearless leader, Tasha, had us do some more paperwork. It seems like everyday we have another form to fill out and another line to sign. After the paperwork we had a brief break where Christina and I decided to go check out the stuff around our area.

We walked down the road to where we had seen puppies the other day and found this tiny pet shop wedged in between an arcade and a toilet. Not kidding. The door I opened, thinking it was the pet shop, opened to a tiny room, maybe 3'X3', with only a Korean toilet inside. Just a door, on the side of a building, on a street, with a toilet in it. Very odd. Also it was not a normal toilet. It looks like a urinal that has fallen off the wall and is now laying on the floor. If you are a girl you squat over it. If you are a guy you just do what ever it is that you normally do. Fun times.

So we checked out the puppies, they were SOOOO cute!!! The lady working there didn't know any English, of course, and we didn't know any Korean so there was a bit of mumbling and bowing and we went on our way. We wandered around for a while then found another pet store. this one had very cool dogs. Dogs with neon ears and tails. I guess they colored them, or dyed them. It was pretty funny looking, but also kind of cool.

After our brief walk we headed back for more orientation. We got our pictures taken for our immigration cards and had another lecture on things to expect from Korean culture. The All Day club came to help teach us pronunciation. The All Day club is a group of Korean students who have decided to take all their classes at the institute. Instead of just taking one or two classes. They came in and sat with us and they got us to speak Korean and we helped them with their English. It was pretty cool.

After lunch we were drilled in the Korean language. A nice lady named Ok, taught us the Korean Alphabet using a fun song and hand motions. She is crazy! And by crazy I mean crazy cool. She is really funny and loves to joke around so it wasn't boring. The only problem was these desks we were sitting at. They were made for Asians. A little too short, and a little to shallow. My knees don't really fit under them. Also the chairs have lower backs on them and they are hard. After a while your body just kinda goes numb. Once we became completely overwhelmed and swamped with Korean, Leo, the academic dean, came and gave us a nice little talk on policy. Oh, we also learned about our awesome insurance coverage and medical stuff.

And that brings us up to now. We skipped supper because we are still stuffed from lunch and we are sitting in our room being antisocial. the jet lag is still very present and annoying. Hopefully soon we can recover from that! I think thats it... It's still hot.. and rainy occasionally. but we do have AC now, so that is much better =)

the end

michelle

Day Three

Right now it's 5:54 am. I don't think I've ever been up so early willingly, but such is jet lag. Michelle and I passed out at 7:30 last night. I was so tired I couldn't even keep my eyes open.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. First day of orientation, we got our bank accounts set up and the local bank (KEB) in the morning and got complete physicals at the hospital in the afternoon.

I've never had such a complete physical all at one time. They measured our height, blood pressure, took blood & urine samples, checked our eyesight, hearing, and teeth. Apparently, I have to get my wisdom teeth taken out. We'll see about that.

After supper, Michelle and I discovered that we have a small AC unit in our room! We managed to turn it on (though all the buttons are in Korean) so our room is a balmy, beautiful cool temperature. Which is good. Because the rest of the upstairs is hot hot hot.

Apparently today we get to learn all about the Korean culture and language. Very exciting.

The weather is almost EXACTLY the same as Tennessee, only a little bit cooler, but very muggy.

I'm a bit dehydrated because everywhere you go (bank, hospital, training room at the school), they have water purifiers, but their cups are tiny little envelopes. They might be two ounces? Maybe? Very inconvenient to drink out of. I'm going to have to buy a water bottle.

I think that's all for now!

~Christina

Day 1

Clearly the photo's from my last post did not work. We'll try that again later...

We are in Korea!!! We had a fairly uneventful flight, besides it being so long and landed yesterday at around 4:30 local time. Which, in case you are wondering, felt like 3am to us. I only got about an hour of real sleep on the plane so by the time all our travelling was done I had been up for more than 24 hours. Very exciting! After de-boarding the plane we went and collected our luggage. The wonderful thing about that was that we didn't have to pay for the carts to haul our stuff around. They were FREE! Imagine that...

We got all our stuff and headed out to meet up with our person from the school who was going to pick us up. We found him without any difficulty and sat ourselves down to wait for the rest of the people arriving, and then head to the school. There were nine of us in total and we hopped on a bus for a couple hours to ride through Seoul. I think this was the most tiring part of the whole trip. I really just wanted to be there, and on a bus, you stop every two seconds, makes waiting that much harder. After transferring to another bus we did eventually make it to the SDA language institute. Hooray!

Needless to say we were exhausted and after making a couple phone calls and sending a few emails we were ready for bed. We are staying in a guest house on the campus at the SDA language institute. (I am not even sure if that is the official name... I'll get back to you on that) It is very nice. the beds are very firm, but after you pass out you really don't realize how hard your bed is! We don't have AC and it is fairly hot. But we do have a couple windows and a fan. So far, from what I have seen, Korea very closely resembles anywhere in the states. I think it is pretty close to Tennessee actually. But that was just first impression. I am sure that will change soon.

It is just about time to head to breakfast, just as all you folks at home are getting ready to supper. Big time difference. We have a very full schedule the next couple weeks, getting orientated to our new home for the next year. I will try to keep you all updated on whats going on.

Michelle

Say-goodbye-before-we-leave-for-South-Korea Potluck Gala

We had our going away potluck today. It was amazing. thanks to everyone who came and had fun with us. Especially those who drove very far to surprise us! (Like my dad and sister, aunt and uncle) Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

The One about the Grandparents

Last night I stopped by my grandparents' house to visit. I haven't seen them in a while, and I wanted to get to talk to them before I left.

My grandparents were in the mission field for over 15 years, in places including Taiwan, Ethiopia, and Pakistan. They have tons of stories about all the things that have happened to them overseas and lots of practical advice, including:

1) Don't go anywhere by yourself.

2) If you start to feel like you're all alone in a faraway land, pull out your Bible and read about Daniel. He was a long way from home too.

3) Learn the language. It'll help.

4) If you don't understand something, ask again. Even if you have to say pardon me four times and the person gets angry at you, it's important not to just guess.

5) Don't use the Paris subway at rush hour, if at all possible.

All the advice and love made me remember that even though we're going to be far away, there will be lots of people back here at home thinking about & praying for us. Thank you all!!

~Christina

I love SunTrust

I have been working at GYNplus for about 6 months and shortly after I began working here I was given the job of making deposits at the bank next door. Usually I just went once a day, but every once in a while I would have to go back several times in one day. Mostly because I run on the scatter-brained edge of things and would forget stuff and have to go back. Or whatever. The point is the girls at the bank got to know me pretty well.
SunTrust has this thing where they learn the names of their customers and it wasn't long til they were greeting me by name as I came in the door. Makes a person feel kinda special, ya know? I had been telling them that I was headed to Korea in a couple months and we had been talking about it on and off when I went in for a while now. At the beginning of the week Danielle asked me if I was coming in on Friday, to which I replied "Of course". I needed to have one last visit with my favorite bank!
So today I went in to cash a check, because I didn't have anything to deposit, and they greeted me as usual. And then they shocked me by giving me a card that everyone in the branch had signed! I'm telling you, they win for niceness, awesomeness, and all around fabulous-ness! I think I can safely say, for the first time ever, that I am going to miss this bank while I am gone. I have never had such a feeling of affection for a bank in my life! Well done SunTrust!!
So if any of you are wavering about where to bank in the future I would highly recommend SunTrust in Ooltewah! And since they got rid of those pesky over-draft fees things have really improved!! Go Go Go!

Signing off.

Michelle

Really Leaving

Yesterday, I was looking at Gatlinburg cabins online, as some friends and I wanted to possibly escape to the mountains for a final going-away relaxification weekend. Turns out we won't get to go. There's just not enough time before we leave in 11 days to fit in a weekend getaway.

ANYHOW, I was looking at these cabins. And there was this one picture of a very nice cabin. The picture was taken in the fall. Suddenly, without warning, I started to cry. Because I'm not going to be here this fall.

But, at the same time, I'm very excited about going to Korea. And kimchi. And everything!

~Christina

The one with the Tickets. (!!!!!!)

I have been sitting here at work for about an hour, working really hard, and just now thought about checking my email. And what did I happen to find? Flight confirmation for our trip to KOREA!!

Now the excitement is beginning to build. Up until this point it hasn't seemed real. But now, it seems VERY real, all of a sudden.

Our flight is scheduled to leave Atlanta on August 16 at 1pm. We will be arriving in Seoul at 4:20pm, the next day. Total flight time: 14hr and 20 min. Wheeeee! Lucky for us they will feed us one small lunch! Hopefully that is a lie and they will also be providing more snacks, I am not sure I can live for 14 hours on one meal...

This is really happening, I can hardly believe it.

Michelle

Approved!

We received our passports back, through the mail, stamped (visa-ed) and ready to go! I photocopied them and scanned them and emailed them to Vanessa, our helpful contact person in Korea.

Next step: Christina has to get approved by the GC. Then Vanessa will book our tickets and we will have a real live departing date! How exciting!

Signing off.

Michelle