If you thought McDonald's is too slow, you're in luck...

You know who you are. You stand and stand and stand... or... you sit in your car and sit in your car and sit in your car... waiting, waiting, waiting. You just wanted some fries, right? What's taking so long? Well, if this sounds like you, I have surprise for you!

REAL POTATO STICKS

Not those nasty imitation potato sticks. Found in every convenience store and available as soon as the craving hits you! Now you too can eat these ready-made REAL POTATO STICKS whenever you want. :D

LOL. I saw these at a station convenience store while waiting for my station, and couldn't resist taking a picture. I thought about buying a pack just because but... I can't imagine room-temperature french fries tasting good. Although, I guess these are "potato sticks"... So I don't know. Maybe I'll try some later... O_O

Keeping with my current food theme... There's a small mandu stand near one of my facilities and I got one the other day and now I'm hooked. It's W1,000 per mandu (because I'm uncreative and only buy the cheap kogi (pork) mandu). I bought two of these today for late lunch/dinner. They are basically pork and noodles wrapped in a pastry and about as big as my fist... I'm not sure what the outside of it is, I've heard someone refer to it as a "noodle-like substance"... but that's not quite right either. Either way, it's hot and tasty, and on a chilly day it's the best thing there is!

Since I spend a good portion of my day in subway stations, I'm developing a love of station food too. There's a store called "Sweet Bee" in the Jongno 3-ga station. However, I think the franchise name is Manjoo Hana (because of the bag and because I've seen some others around that aren't called Sweet Bee and are called Manjoo Hana). I'm not sure how to explain what these are, except that they smell very sweet (almost smells like waffles) and are a warm pastry filled with a yellow creme. ... Wow, I'm very bad at explaining food. Anyway, think of donut creme filling... only warm... ooooohhh... makes me want more of them again...

I met Karin yesterday (yay!), and met a couple of her friends. Very nice people. And it was good to see Karin again, even if it took me a couple of trains and a couple of different exits to find her... LOL. We talked for quite a while at a french restaurant, and later ended up going to Hongdae to a Mexican restaurant. The food was quite good... however...

Can you read what's on the bottom?... If you can't, it says "better than authentic"

...

......

.........

............

O_O

 

I don't think that's what they meant to say...

Of course, most signs in English in Korea are this way a little bit. Sometimes I just want to take pictures of all of them and make a collage... But that would be a lot of pictures... O_O

Like this picture...

Speaking of strange signs... I know that there are a lot of themed or specialty cafes, like dog, cat and Charlie Brown cafes, but near Kyung Hee University, is this place...

Why have a chess motel... I understand a chess cafe (which I have heard of) but a motel?... I wonder if this is a popular thing... O_O

In other news, Koreans have solved the problem of how to call station security from the bathroom without a phone...

The picture on the left shows the call box right next to the toilet. The right is a close up picture of the same box, stating that you can call a subway station officer. Why, I don't know. "Hello!" "Hi, how can I help you?" "I just felt like saying hello from the toilet." "Oh... hello." "Hi!!!"  or maybe "Hi, the toilet paper just ran out, can you bring me more?" "I'm a guy and can't go into the women's restroom." "Oh... too bad."

 

Speaking of toilets... I thought I'd give you a lesson on the Korean toilet system, since it can be vastly different from what we're used to.

This picture I actually took in May, but have seen it several times on this trip. This is what has been affectionally dubbed the "squatter" and works just like it sounds... It's a relatively old toilet system, but it's still found in some older public restrooms. For the most part though, if you find one of these, you can find a "western" or "modern" toilet in the stall next door. So if you walk into a stall in Korea and find one of these, just walk back out and look at the doors. For the most part, they are labeled which ones are squatters and which ones are toilet seats. Honestly, I have only seen these a fraction of the time I have been here, so I'm throwing it out there as a random tidbit. Also, in case you ever do visit here, and find one of these, and use it thinking there is no alternative. There IS. One of the girls on my trip did this and later found out she didn't have to... LOL. Most younger Koreans I've noticed also avoid using the squatters if they can. However, if you are in a very modern or popular shopping area, you may even be upgraded to a bidet. Unfortunately the instructions are all in Korean, so I avoid these as well.

 

One other weird thing is Korean's relationship with toilet paper. I've already told you about the "Don't leave the toilet paper in the bathroom" rule. Well, recently (and only once, so you probably don't have to worry about it too much) I walked into a public restroom and saw the women ahead of me walk to the toilet paper dispenser on the wall, take some, and proceed to the toilet. I followed suit (since that usually happens to be the smartest plan), and found that the toilet stalls lacked toilet paper... So... if you see a toilet paper dispenser... TAKE SOME FIRST. LOL.

 

Speaking of... I don't think I've ever seen my roommate take toilet paper into the bathroom... And I don't think she even has any toilet paper... Wait... What.... ew.... ANYWAY.

 

WASHING. A lot of Koreans don't wash their hands after they go... Ew... They also normally have a sink, soap bar on a handle, and a electric hand dryer. Never (or rarely) soft soap or paper towels. The soap bar on a handle really weirds me out for some reason. I don't usually use soap bars, but it's the norm here. In fact, when I went out to purchase daily necessities, hand soap was on my list, but there were only a few varieties of hand soap to choose from. Also, the electric hand dryers are normally broken here too. So, in winter, washing your hands here is no joke. I may actually stop washing my hands too... But I'll carry wetwipes with me or something. I don't think I'll ever get the whole not washing thing... then again, Koreans probably are thinking "Gross American... Why won't she wear the health mask?" Of course, I stopped using it after that one day... and I keep thinking... What do Koreans do about their snot.... O_O

 

So... I started my post talking about food and ended up talking about snot... Wow. Don't judge me.

renu vs ReNu???

Hm... I wonder what the difference (besides size) is between these two? :D

 

I just wanted to say since I've had a few comments about this on here. I guess I seemed to not be able to find anything or take a long time to find stuff since I got here. I just wanted to let everyone know that it's not that it can't be found in Korea... just that I, specifically, was having a hard time finding things. Just about everything you can find in the US, you can find in Korea. Items in Korea are arranged much differently than in America and all the stores are also different. It might be equivalent both to knowing something is sold in Wal-Mart and not knowing where Wal-Mart is, or to looking for a computer cable in a hardware store... LOL. For instance, tylenol, cold medicine, and eye drops are all items found in convenience and grocery stores in America. All of these things are only found in pharmacies in Korea. Thankfully there's a pharmacy on every block in my district. :D

 

Speaking of pharmacies, I'll touch on Korean hospitals too. I haven't been to one (yet), but I've heard they are the places to go. When I was looking for Tylenol earlier, I asked the ahjumma downstairs if she had any. I said in Korean "my head hurts, do you have medicine?" She said a bunch of stuff in Korean and I think she said, since we don't know what you have, you need to see the doctor. She kept saying "don't know, don't know" so I am pretty sure that's what she said. Koreans supposedly go to the doctor for everything. If you didn't read the first link to another website on my last post, I refer you to it now.

I'm pretty sure when I get back to the states I'll have reverse culture shock. I'm so used to people pushing and shoving to get onto the subway. Ahjummas pushing me aside to stand next to the rail. No one saying anything when they push past you. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stare at the first person in the states to say "I'm sorry" when they bump up against me. LOL.

On another note, Karin is going to visit next week!!! Yay! And Kyle will be here the beginning of January so we will get to hang out then. :D While I knew Karin is in Korea, I never thought someone from my town would ever be traveling to Korea the same time I was here. Yay!

Just look how cool I am...

...or not... LOL.

So it seems like Asians in general (or rather, just Japan and Korea, I haven't heard about any other countries), wear "cold masks" aka "face masks" aka "health masks" when they are sick (and for a few other reasons). So... since I am getting better, I decided to bite the bullet and go out... sick. LOL. I bought my own "health masks" today. Here's a SNAZZY picture of me.

Believe it or not, this is going to be the next fashion hit... So go get yours now! LOL. Or not. :D I totally look like a gangsta. O_O Lots of other people have already blogged about these masks, so I won't bore you since you can read about it here and here.

I also finally went to Costco. There's one about 2 subway stops and a 10 minute walk away from me.

Costco Membership: W35,000
"Large" body towel: W11,390
Costco Muffins: W6,990
Being able to read 25% of material in the store: Priceless.

Sorry, just had to. But it was nice going into Costco. At first I was really disappointed. I walked through the entire store and it wasn't very big. I was looking for food stuffs and they were missing. :( How can a Costco not have food??? HOWEVER. I walked all the way around the store... and there was an escalator going downstairs! It was a bit odd with an escalator taking carts down. They had someone at the top and bottom helping to get the carts onto and off the escalator. It would be a bit scary if someone lost control of their cart. Anyway. The second floor was hiding all the FOOD! Awwww.... There was a lot of strictly Korean foodstuffs, but plenty of "American" food. Or at least, food I was used to. There was lots I wanted to pick up, but since I had to carry it all back... I didn't. I also had to think of the size of our fridge at the dorm. There was a picture of it earlier, it was behind all of my luggage... LOL. It's shorter than my desk. And anyway, my roommate is using most of the space in the fridge... If there was a time when a spot was open, I would totally put something random in there, just so I can have a spot. But since I can't speak Korean or Chinese and she can't speak English, there's no way to communicate that I want some space in the fridge. But I keep telling myself it's only temporary... LOL. Sorry, but it's been a long time since I had a roommate.

Oh and on the way back to the dorm after Costco.... just GUESS what I found!!!

Pure awesomeness. I never would have thought they'd have

such a thing, but... What can I say? Pure awesomeness.

I also had "Hot BBQ Chicken on a stick" on the way back. The ahjumma selling them told me it was spicy and it definitely was. But it was delicious. And only W2,000. :D

Yay for citrus

I'm really glad I bought the oranges yesterday. I am definitely sick. Great. At least the 7-11 across the way had throat lozenges, tea, and microwaveable rice porridge so I didn't have to go too far to get what I needed. The microwave works differently than the ones back home, I'll have to take a picture for you to look at later. As far as I can tell, there's not any "start" button, although there is a "cancel" button and no numbers whatsoever. It does have a dial... but I don't know what purpose the dial is for. I figured out how to start it at least. Have to stand there and manually stop it, but I'll take it.

I don't really want to do anything except lie in bed and sleep... unfortunately the nagging cough I have prevents that... At 7-11 they had Halls and Ricola brand throat lozenges. Not the ones I normally get, but I'm sure that in a bigger store they have more variety. But these definitely work, I'm not going to be picky since I don't want to go very far.

Besides whining, I was also going to tell you that I changed the title of my blog since the only reason I called it "The Dual Identity" is mostly because when I was sitting at SeaTac, that was the only one I could think of that wasn't taken. I don't like that title though, so I changed it. I can't think really straight right now, so I may change the title again, but ... whatever.

Oppa picked me up on Sunday. He called at 3:30 saying it would take him 30 min to get to me (4ish). I walked down to the Kyung Hee entrace around 4:15pm... And waited... and then called him at 4:45-5pm. Well... a woman answered... and I moved the phone from my ear to look at it... and it said it was his phone number... and she didn't say who she was... so I had no idea what was going on, but she said that oppa was driving...

 

Anyway, I think we eventually found each other around 5:30ish. The woman was yeojachingu (girlfriend)... which he told me they had broken up when I first arrived... And I hadn't heard that they had gotten back together?... That was weird. What was even weirder (to me anyway), was then they proceeded to tell me that we were going to her family's house to have dinner. WHOA. Back the train up. Last time I checked you had broken up and now you're back together and I'M going to meet HER family????

 

I really think it's unfortunate for Oppa and Omonim that their long lost sister/daughter is me. I think that it would have been better had it been someone else. Omonim thinks I hate her since that first bad meeting and Oppa... well, I try not to be, but I think I must be a difficult person. I really didn't want to go to dinner with them.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I thought having dinner with her family was weird. Especially since they aren't married. I would have been fine going to have dinner with MY b-family, but again, I was a little taken aback since I hadn't even thought about her. It's not like I don't like her, but I... well, I'd rather get to know my b-family first, rather than get to know someone else's family. Also, when they are together it makes me feel really out of place... think third wheel, only in this case they can communicate just fine, while I can't at all... So they can yak in Korean to each other, but I don't understand what they are talking about so I just sit there.

 

And then they asked me why I didn't want to go to dinner at her family's place... And how to answer that question...? This communication barrier is really starting to annoy me. I think I'd enjoy my Korean language class more if we were focusing on things that would help me communicate to my b-family. Anyway, for lack of a simple answer that could be communicated easily, I just said we don't do that in America. I really don't like that answer, but I couldn't think of another answer that I could communicate. For the record, I don't think I've ever met any of my siblings' significant other's families.

 

I think they were both disappointed, but I told them they could go without me. But then Oppa parked and was trying to get me to go... We ended up getting coffee, then stopping by a phone store to fix my phone (previously I wasn't able to get on the internet or play games or download message attachments w/o wireless), and finally we went to dinner at Mr. Pizza... Like I said, Oppa's life would be much easier if it wasn't me... :(

 

Since I mentioned my Korean language class, it is much more difficult than I thought it would be. Combined with work as well and adjusting to living here, I don't think I can do a great job of all of them at once. I can't give 100% to all of them. I think my Korean class will be the one to get the short end of the stick. My job of course, comes first, and I HAVE to learn how to live here well, and in this I'm including developing my relationships with my b-family. I'm not going to be able to pass the Korean class anyway since I am leaving before the final, so I'll fail by default. Also, right now, although we are learning things that are useful, there are also a lot of things that I don't think are necessary at all. I don't think I've ever talked about city hall before in my life, even though I know what it is...

 

To finish with... just some funny stories of my travels here.

Adventures in K-land:
I went downstairs to the store and the woman that works there is very nice. The first day I arrived she helped me get my stuff inside and told me where to go and where to find a luggage cart. Anyway this particular day, I just wanted something quick to eat like a sandwich... The store isn't very big and she was watching me the entire time... That's one thing I don't like about Korea... the shop owners always stare at you... And since I can't read anything, it takes me at least twice the amount of time it takes regular shoppers... O_O Anyway. She realized what I was looking for and offered sandwiches in the cooler right outside the door. Then, when I went to pay, she noticed that I had a lot of coins in my purse and so insisted (even though I had bills to pay) that I dump my coins out. I kept offering bills to pay, but she really, really insisted... LOL. She counted them all out and gave me the leftovers... So I got rid of my coins. :D

Another day, I was waiting for someone inside one of the buildings on campus. There were several others who were also waiting for someone there. An ahjumma (older woman) was talking to someone, and I didn't think she was talking to me, until she hit my shoulder. I would normally say "patted"... but it definitely wasn't a pat. She definitely put some force into it. I don't know if that's normal for ahjumma's to do in general, since the older generation is much respected and can basically get away with anything .... LOL. But I think she must have been talking to me and thought I was just being rude and ignoring her... I told her in broken Korean that I don't speak Korean... It still makes me laugh at how hard she hit my shoulder. And not just once, not just twice, but three times... LOL

There's a game called Dragon Flight that I've been finding myself playing more and more. Its very popular. I see more people playing it on the subway than anything else. (The subway is almost always packed so it's kind of hard not to see what others are doing.) Oppa gave me that game to play on his phone and I didn't get it... until I started playing it myself. It's pretty addicting. And I've been playing it a lot today... LOL.

Click for video, Youtube makes it seem a lot more exciting than it is...

I was sitting next to another ahjumma on the subway one day. I have to be on the subway an average of one hour twice a day to get to my workplaces. So I use my phone and play games like most others on the subway. Anyway, the ahjumma sitting next to me started talking to me, she did pat me though. LOL. Anyway I explained again that I don't speak Korean... and that didn't stop her. She paused, but then started pulling out her cell phone and speaking in Korean again. She started playing Dragon Flight on her cell phone... LOL and proceeded to, at least this is what I thought she was telling me, give me hints on how to play the game effectively... LOL. The only thing I got out of our "conversation" is to do something slowly... O_O

To end with, I'm holing myself up in my room for Christmas, looking at pictures of my family and thinking about them. Trying to lesson plan and study, but getting distracted... And again, I'm not feeling 100% and Christmas is purely a couples thing here so... not much to do anyway.

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope everyone is able to spend time with those they love. :D
Much love from Korea!

Cleaning up (caution: image heavy)

So today, besides having class this morning, has really been one of my few truly free days I've had.

So I decided to clean up the random things that I've been neglecting mentioning... ... Which really means... More pictures!! :D Yay!

This is my dorm room. On the far right side of the picture on the right is the door to the room. Behind me is the bathroom. The other picture is taken from the door. The other side of the room is my roommate's side and is exactly the same as my side. On the other side of the bed is a desk... which is where I am typing.

One thing that definitely is hard to get used to, although minor, is the bathroom. The bathroom here is a combined toilet and shower. And not just next to each other. Its a room that's maybe a little bit bigger than a public restroom stall. But not much bigger... O_O  So, when you take a shower, everything gets wet. I don't understand why they bother to have a toilet paper holder in that room when it's just going to get soaked... So I just leave my toilet paper in the cabinet and try and remember to grab it before I enter the bathroom... That and avoid using the restroom immediately after a shower. LOL.

Also, the entire Korean society has something against bread crusts. Don't ask me what or why, but they do.

The first picture is a sandwich I had at a cafe (I don't remember what kind of sandwich...). The other sandwich is, obviously, a packaged sandwich which I bought at a convenience store (I think this one I bought at 7-11). Neither have crusts, which at first I thought was a fluke of some kind or maybe something just the one cafe did. Nope. It's universally Korean to eat sandwiches without crusts. So, if you don't like crusts, maybe deep down you're really Korean... or not.

Now here are just some random pictures.

I made the mistake of thinking it would be a good idea to look at Dongdaemun and see if I could find a hairdryer there... I forgot that I have already been here. If you are looking for miles and miles of shoes, fabrics, clothing, and pretty much anything else you might need miles of shopping, this is the place. Otherwise, for non-shoppers... AVOID at all costs. LOL.

Seoul traffic. Gotta love it. (Near Hapjeong station)

I'm never driving here.

This guy was selling cotton candy in Hongdae. Evidently he does this often. I think he was selling it to raise money for ... whatever kind of dog he has. On the cotton candy machine you can see pictures of other similar dogs and some Hangul... Couldn't read it. Cute dog though.

Also in Hongdae. This just reminded me of my nephews.

Now THIS... I just found funny, so I decided to be a tourist and take a picture.

Not very far from the Kyung Hee Univerity entrance.

 

This was in an electronics store in the COEX mall. (where we saw the movie)

There is also an entire Hello Kitty store that we passed by in the COEX mall.

Nicholas took a picture of it and now I regret not taking a picture of it... I want to send it to Laura... LOL.

 

Now... I'm sure all of you have been wondering this since I got here... And just DYING to know.

How do you spell Hobbit in Korean? Well, here you go.

Saw this on Saturday. :D

 

Lena and I went to Myeong-dong and saw this curious vender. The reason why we first noticed it is because the lady selling it was hammering something and we couldn't figure out what. The "Schneepang" is a round ball with different flavored coatings on it. The lady put the Schneepang in a bag, then hammered it several times before handing it over to the customer. We both think it is originally a German desert of some kind (but only by the name), although neither of us really cared much for it. It wasn't horrible, but it was harder than a waffle cone and less sweet.

Just bought these today. The street vendor was just outside Hoegi station and selling mandarin oranges by the bowl for 3,000W (approx $3.00US). I just counted them and he gave me 18 oranges! Yay! He offered two bowls for 5,000W, but I don't know what I would do with 30+ oranges... O_O

... It's Christmas Eve here... :( And I think I made a mistake in coming early. I miss hanging out with the family. My family has a tradition of watching a movie at the theatre on Christmas day, so I watched the Hobbit a little bit sadly, since they are likely to watch that movie on Christmas... I skyped with my mom last night (yesterday morning for her and everyone else in the US), and she had started baking Christmas bread... another family tradition. I also really want Chex mix right now. :(  I miss Christmas in America!

Oh yeah, and on a side note, in most countries that celebrate Christmas, this holiday is traditionally for families to get together... well, here it's for couples.... great. So I think I'll just try and get caught up on everything in my room. That, and I waited too long outside for Oppa yesterday, so my throat has been scratchy all day, I think I caught a small cold... :(

Snow in Seoul!

Yes, today it snowed in Seoul. Not hard, but since it snowed practically all day it put a little of the white stuff on the streets. Like Montana, doesn't change much, but I do find it slightly funny that a lot of people use umbrellas even for this light snow. When I came back from my "journey" today, there were several umbrellas drying outside the rooms.

So its been a little while since I last wrote. I don't remember exactly when the last time I wrote was, but not much has changed here. Oh, but I finally found the nearby E-mart mall (think similar to the small Walmart... well it used to be small), just bought a wireless router today and have been reveling in its use. It took me about an hour to figure out how to get it to work though, not because it was that difficult to set up, but the instructions were all in korean, the company is korean, and the installation disc they gave me was a mini-CD... and my laptop can't read it... :(  Anyway, I did finally figure it out. Yay!

Previously, I couldn't use any apps on my new smart phone that needed data or wi-fi. Since Oppa is paying for it (and once I start my job I'm going to try and ask if I can start paying for it... but I don't know if that's going to be rude or not...) I don't want to over use the data, so I just don't use it at all. Which unfortunately means I can't message people using Kakaotalk (basically IM or text messages in Korea, just about everyone uses it). So when I'm in my room, people can email me or call me, but can't message me. We often do group dinners, and everyone is in the Kakaochat... except me when I'm in my room. So this will be much more convenient. I don't have to go out to the lobby for wifi... LOL.

Let's see... Today is Friday and the last day of classes for a while. Tuesday through today we have had Korean classes and then I've taught on two days. Normally I teach four days of the week (Monday through Thursday), but this week, I had Monday and Wednesday off since Monday was orientation/moving and Wednesday was election day. So I only taught on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday's teaching didn't go well, but since I got my new plug for my laptop and was able to prepare a powerpoint, the class yesterday went much better.

Thoughts on teaching so far? These kids are amazing. I don't know how many non-English words I knew when I was 4-7, but it wasn't much. These kids know their own alphabet (hangul) PLUS our alphabet PLUS names of animals, colors, and numbers. Some kids could count up to 20, and probably more than that, but I didn't go any farther. But they are pretty amazing. Especially compared to me, who is struggling learning hangul. If I knew hangul, I think I would be having an easier time in class. I have no problem learning vocabulary, but WRITING and READING it... blah.

I really want to put a whole bunch of pictures on here, but I won't so you don't have to sit there waiting for them to load. Instead, I'm going to leave you with this: a picture of my most recent trip to E-mart (이마트). There was a lot of things (although not as much as Walmart or Target) but most of the store was dedicated to groceries. I'm guessing this is because this wasn't an actual E-mart store. It was a smaller E-mart "mall".... I think anyway. I didn't see any other floors for E-mart and I found everything I needed... so I didn't care. Anyway. They had an entire aisle dedicated to ramen. I thought it was pretty funny. I had originally intended to pick up a ramen just in case.... but since I can't read Korean yet... I had no idea which ramen to get, nor what the differences between them were... O_O

First day

Today marked the first day of classes. Both classes that I am being taught and classes that I am teaching. Both didn't go over so well. *sigh*

I feel more and more like... What the heck was I thinking in coming here??? At the very least, I like the other people in the program and can have fun and be myself while I'm with them.

It's late (I didn't realize how late until just now), and so I will provide my thoughts on my recent experiences later... however, YAY!!! I just got a power cord for my computer as well as 2 adapters to plug in everything else. These adapters looked exactly like the ones we had at the Somerset Hotel back in May.

Before I forget, I also met Mr. Kim and Mr. Hwang from the May trip as well. It was totally unexpected, but nice to see familiar faces. Mr. Hwang even gave me his business card so we could go to dinner some night and talk. LOL. I totally thought he didn't like me for some reason, but I guess he doesn't. Yay!

Politics

It's almost election day here in Korea. It's weird to know how much Koreans know about the US and what's going on there, while I, on the other hand, didn't even know that they were going to vote soon! Quite a few Koreans (including Oppa) have asked who I voted for: Obama or Romney. And of course, I don't know who's running here, or anything else for that matter.

Finally moved into my new "place", or at least my new place for about 2 months. It's nice, but I definitely regret bringing so much stuff. I wish I could repack and leave some stuff. LOL. And bring some other things that I miss or things that I thought I could get here easily... but turns out I can't.

My roommate is nice, although I'm totally jealous of the two others in my program. They got paired together! And my roommate, although definitely nice, isn't Korean. She's Chinese and in level 3... LOL. So, she speaks better than me, but not well enough to be able to do a language exchange. Oh well, I know I'll get plenty of practice speech in with Oppa. And now I'm kind of glad that I can spend the weekends in Ilsan with him (I'm assuming so anyway), since that will let me out of the dorm.

Other than that, still looking for adapters... and I should probably go to conserve my laptop battery. I'll post pictures of my dorm room later.

Bye!

아가 (baby)

Is what I feel like right now. I'm a living oxymoron. Not only am I Asian... but not, I'm also the oldest out of the adoptees I've met so far, and yet not... LOL. Oppa and I just went to the U+ store (equivalent to Verizon) to get a cell phone. I didn't understand any of what was going on, and was desperately trying not to laugh out loud at my predicament. I'm used to living in my small hometown (compared to Seoul) and knowing what was going on, what to do, where to go, etc. And now, I'm sitting "getting" a cell phone, and have no idea about anything... just sitting there like a lump. Oppa was super sweet and gave me his cell phone with games to play with... Of course, my mind immediately went to coloring books people give kids while their parents get the errands done. LOL.

Besides that, all of the adoptees I've met so far are super nice and cool. They know what they are doing and seem to have no fear. I don't know how they do it. I'm glad that they have been letting me roll with them so far. Of course, I had to ask them how old all of them are, and I definitely shouldn't have. I'm the oldest of them, but feel the youngest and most inept. Not only can I not speak Korean, am not a city-dweller, but I also get lost amazingly easily. Nicholas just had to point that out last night X_X. LOL. I do find it funny, but extremely irritating when I'm alone.

Speaking of, I am really sad that all of these people I've met are leaving shortly. Well, not immediately (although two are leaving tomorrow), but in three months. I hope some of them choose to stay for longer. I know at least one said he is here for the long term, but I still wish all of them would stay. Oh well, we all must live our lives. If any of you want to join me, please do!

First week is almost done

It's weird to think that I've been here almost a full week. It feels like it's been longer.

Yesterday was Saturday. A day off. I had thought oppa wanted to do something in the afternoon, but obviously I misunderstood. *sigh* Just like always. Anyway, after being lazy that morning, I went out to try and find an adapter. I tried Hongdae, mostly because it is the most familiar to me and I would be less likely to get lost O_O

Didn't find anything. Big surprise there. But I did buy a T-card, which are basically reloadable subway cards. It's really cute and tiny. Before that I was just using single ride tickets. Korea also has a pretty good system to ensure people don't just toss the cards afterwards. You always pay an extra 500 won for a single use ticket that's called a deposit. The minimum ride costs 1,150 won, so including the deposit, you pay 1,650 won. Once you get to your destination (or anytime after that) you turn your card into a "Deposit Return" machine and get the 500 won back. Pretty easy way to make sure the cards get recycled.

Here's my T-card. The machine I went to had two different choice of cards, this one and then a card that's actually shaped like a card with a cute design on it. I assume other places there are other designs, but I like the one I got. It did cost a bit more though. The regular T-card cost 3,000 won, while mine cost 5,000 won. Not big, but still a bit more.

Oppa totally sleeps like my brother back home. :D I just called him (it's about 2:30pm here) and I'm pretty sure I just woke him up... whoops. ;)

Found the Dog Cafe by the way. Only it doesn't open until 1:30pm on weekdays and 12:30pm on weekends. I was a tad early, so I decided to just head back instead of wait. Besides that I thought I had dropped my mp3 player somewhere along the way, so I needed to find it first. Which it ended up being back at my room. LOL.

Here's some picks of the place though. Super easy to find, even for me. Next time I'll go later. :D

EDIT: For myself and anyone else interested (because I already forgot where it was and had to look it up again), the Bau House is between Exit 3 and 4 of the Hapjeong station. See this link to another blog post about it.

Saturday

I'm still thinking about last night... I didn't tell you this yet, but I borrowed an umbrella yesterday when I was going to the Immigration office. It was raining (heavy enough that I didn't want to walk around a lot in it), so I asked to see if I could borrow one. They gave me one, but asked what time I would be back. I told them by 5pm. I seriously thought it would be before 5pm! I thought it would only take 1 hour for everything to be done... Then after all the chaos, I just wanted to sit down and eat... After a while of eating and talking amicably, someone mentioned it was 5:15pm and my heart just sunk... whoops. I hope that whatever little kid I stole the umbrella from, didn't need it...

Anyway, I thought oppa wanted to have a picnic today (which I didn't understand since its not particularly picnic weather), but after having called him and thinking about it, I think he said "pick up", and not picnic. Ah the joys of limited vocabulary, both ways...

So anyway, when I called him he said he was at work and would pick me up at 10pm... I don't know what we're going to do so late, but whatever. I have a feeling he thinks we are going back to his house in Ilsan... I'll have everything packed in case I can't persuade him against it.

Trying to purchase PowerPoint right now so I can start setting up my lessons. I know I don't really need it, but I'd like it, especially for this first lesson. That way I can show my pictures and video in an easy to use format. I hope it goes through, because I know that I can't use netflix over here (lame). I might even end up purchasing Premiere Elements again. But we'll wait and see.

In a little while, since I now have all day to do as I like, I may try and find an adapter for my adapter. The outlets we have in the guest house are circular, whereas we didn't notice the adapter we bought the other day was semi-triangular. Weird. Anyway, we found some adaptors in my room that would work in conjunction with the other adapters. You're probably wondering why I wouldn't just use the adapter in my room? The adapter in my room doesn't allow for a US ground plug... so I couldn't charge my laptop. Hence, although the current setup works okay, I want to leave the adapter in my room and get another one, or possibly just one that allows for circular plugins and for US ground plugs... We'll see.

Alright! Back to Lord of the Rings marathon!

Relaxation

After our long day at immigration, we were all hungry (Daniel had something to do there was well, so he met us there), so we went out for dinner. Daniel played tour guide and found a nice place that served all you can eat for 8000 won.

Left to right: Nicholas, Daniel

Then we went out and played pool. Daniel won three times. And he said he hadn't played in years... O_O

I don't know if the guys would have preferred I left or not, but I was glad that they let me tag along. It was fun.

I know this is another weird thing to say... Just add it to the collection I am amassing. But as I was standing there watching the guys play, it struck me as funny. This was the first time I've ever hung out with two asian guys. Okay, well maybe I have before... But it feels different. It was kind of mindbending to think that I was in an Asian country, surrounded by Asians, and the people I was hanging with were Asian... but not. Weird.

Immigration Office Day

Today was the day to go to the immigration office and get my visa application in. It was such a hassle... I

I spent the morning being lazy, spent an hour at Ediya coffee (where I was when I blogged the last post), skyped my parents, watched some TV... Then around noon I got the call with the green light to go to immigration. For older adoptees (I'm not sure the cutoff year), our citizenship/registry still remains in the Korean system. In order to obtain a visa, we must first relinquish Korean citizenship. Its redundant, since at the time, Korean didn't allow dual citizenship so by default, since we obtained foreign citizenship, our Korean citizenship was already revoked... But we still have to do it. Anyway sounds like Holt did that process for me, but I had to wait to make sure it had been completed before venturing down to immigration. I asked my coordinator if I had all of the documents necessary for obtaining the F4 visa. She assured me that I did.

We got to immigration around 1:30pm. I got my Ho-juk or family registry from across the street. Holt had supplied me with my adoption certificate (proves I was adopted), a copy of my family registry, and directions to get to the immigration office. The family registry cost 1,000 won and I just gave him my Korean address (Holt), passport, and the copy of the family registry from Holt so he knew what I wanted. Took less than 5 minutes I would guess.

Then we went across the street to the Immigration Office. First, we went to the third floor to obtain "Revenue Stamps" for 50,000 won. I also requested photocopies of the documents I was about to hand over so that I knew what I had given them. Each photocopy was 100 won. With the documents, stamps and my passport in hand we headed down to the Residency Office. It uses a system very much like the DMV. Since we couldn't read hangul, we weren't sure what forms we needed to fill out so we just filled out the Application. Just like the DMV, we had to obtain a number and unfortunately we picked the wrong line to get the numbers from, so we had to go through the line twice. LOL. Note to self, always pick overseas Korean from the options. :D Once I got called, I went up to the officer and they looked over my application, said additionally I needed to fill out form #1, and also that I needed to do something with 10,000 won on the 2nd floor. So I took my documents back and went upstairs, was very confused for quite a while until someone rescued me and showed me how to use my passport and 10,000 won to obtain a receipt necessary for the visa. I headed down a second time to try to apply. Turns out I still needed a copy of my naturalization certificate as well as 2 extra documents (don't ask me what they are, I have no idea, they are written all in hangul). So I went back to the third floor, got my certicate copied (thank goodness I had the foresight to take it with me), went across the street and got the two remaining documents. Got in line AGAIN. This time I had obtained everything that I needed to get the Visa and so they told me I can pick up my Alien registration card on January 4, 2013. The officer was trying to tell me something about 10 days, but I'm not sure. I just hope I don't have to do anything else in ten days O_O Maybe I can see if its done early?

All in all, I wasted a bunch of time and went back and forth between departments until Immigration was satisfied that all was well. It took about 2-2.5 hours in total and cost about 65,500 won (or about $63). Argh. I definitely thought it would take an hour or less. Whoops. Anyway, its done and that's all that I care about.

Funny side note: Nicholas' trip was very much the same, only I didn't hear anything about getting his naturalization certificate copied, but he didn't bring a passport photo with him so he needed to take passport photos for the visa, and the "receipt" that he was given was written all in English. For whatever reason, the exact same form/receipt that I received was written all in hangul! O_O

Big city vs. small town girl

... and the big city won. I don't know why I felt like Seattle was easy to navigate. But then again, I went to DC and felt that was hard too. Perhaps it was easy because I lived in Seattle for 4 years? LOL.

Someday this will be easy to navigate too, but for now I feel like all I am doing is getting lost. Of course, I have only gotten lost once. But I knew I was close :D  The other time was just me looking for a specific place. And since I couldn't read any of the signs and don't know what stores have what, I definitely felt lost. The transit system is super easy to navigate, well marked with English and Korean (as well as some Chinese). So that's good.

Anyway, what day is today? Friday? Oh yes. I am up having my usual chai and bagel. The guy today gave me a point card to use today. LOL. I have been here every single morning since I got here (only three times so far though). I love it. If anyone wants to visit me, I may have a free drink card waiting for you!

Speaking of, food is cheap here and coffee places are trendy. My breakfast (chai and bagel w/cream cheese) costs 5,400 Won which is approximately equal to $5.00 USD. I think in the States my chai cost about $5.00 USD by itself. Coffee places are on almost every corner. They have "specialty" coffee places too. I just found out about a "dog cafe" which you can read about here. I tried to find it yesterday but with no luck. I walked around the block it was supposed to be on for almost an hour and never found it. I'm kind of wondering if it went out of business. I found a cat cafe and when I went to the floor it was supposed to be on, the place looked vacant. So... there may be no dog cafe in my future... :(

So... I arrived here on Monday, spent the night at oppa's, then spent the rest of Tuesday with oppa, then arrived at the guest house around 5:30pm. Wednesday, one of the participants, the coordinator and I went and had lunch. When I first met the other participant (Nicholas) he seemed... very stiff. That's not the exact word I'm looking for, but it'll work for now. Anyway, I went back to the room and then went out searching for an adaptor around this area with no luck. When I returned Nicholas had just gotten back from going to his "facilities" (the places he would teach). Then we decided to go out looking for adapters since both of us were running low on battery on our laptops. I'm glad he decided to go with me since he had an Iphone (with Kakaotalk) and I wouldn't have felt comfortable going by myself. It was a very pleasant evening, although we looked in a dozen different stores looking for the adaptors. But we returned victorious! :D

Yesterday (Thursday), we signed our contracts (the last participant is still sick so he wasn't there) and then I wandered around looking for that dog cafe. I got back to meet our coordinator and look at my facilities. I really look forward to this, although am still nervous. The places are very nice and have more technology than I think most US classrooms do. Although they are still considered low-income because they are solely funded by the government. Korea puts great importance on school and so is willing to spend more on schools than the US. One of the things I thought was very cute was that one of the schools had stairs paired with slides! All of the schools have stairs, but in this particular one, there was a small slide built on the side of the stairs. :D Very kid friendly. They also had great big slides outside of the building, like water slides.

After we got done looking at the three places I would be teaching, we went directly to the Hongdae district to meet the others for our Christmas party at Aloha Table (LOL) because we wouldn't have time to go back to the guest house.

The Christmas party was fun. I was a bit nervous about what it would be like, but there were a lot of adoptees there and it was nice to talk to them. It's so funny that although we all look like Koreans, we totally act like where we are from. There were people from Denmark, France, Germany, Australia, and the States. States represented were Montana (one other girl was from Helena), Iowa, California, Arizona, and New York. If you were to have watched us and not heard us talking, I'm still pretty sure you can tell for the most part who was from where.

I'm starting to relax and realize how awesome this is going to be. So excited to move into the dorms and be able to unpack! :D

Reflections

I have half an hour before our next schedule. Today is going to be packed, so I wanted to get my thoughts on the previous days saved before I start adding to them.

It feels like I have been here for weeks, and yet its been only a few days. Today I only woke up at 3am and then went back to bed. Got up at 6am. So I'm doing better.

One of the things I've been thinking about lately is my birthmother. As I said before I wish our first meeting could have been better. A translator would have been nice. It really makes me sad that my birthmother (and all other birthmothers that I have met/heard of) is still so very sad and apologetic decades after the event. Long ago, I was very angry at her. I thought she had "gotten rid" of me so that she could live a happy life.

This is what my parents were told, and what I subsequently believed for almost 30 years: My birthfather and birthmother had been married for a couple of years before my birthmother became pregnant with me. I was their first child. Shortly after that, my birthfather had died at sea (his occupation was not told to us). Hence, when I was born, my birthmother had come with my grandmother (on my father's side) to Holt to relinquish me. She had relinquished me so that she could remarry.

That was the truth to me for many years. When I was younger I was very upset that she had abandoned me so that she could be happy. Not that being happy is a crime, mind you, but when you are young, you are sometimes angry for a lot of very selfish reasons. I always imagined she had remarried and had a bunch of kids with her new family and had forgotten entirely about me. Sometimes I think of the movie Hook, where Peter Pan goes home for the first time in years, only to find that his parents have a new baby.

I had made peace with my past and had moved on. Until of course, I decided I wanted to look for her. I forget if I already wrote it in this blog, but I did a search in 2011. In June, they told me that there wasn't enough information. As adoptees, all of us know the chances of us finding anyone are very slim to none. Still, I think that when we search, we have this very small bead of hope that we carry on our journey. If we lack that hope, I don't believe we ever intend to search. That was me almost ten years ago. I don't know why or how I had hope to find someone in 2011, but that hope almost crushed me when I read the email... There isn't enough information to begin a birth search. The other thing that email said, is that I had a birthbrother. But at the time I didn't care, since I would never meet him anyway.

I still wanted to know where I came from, so I decided to go on the tour I had heard of in 2011. So, along with my mother, I signed up for the tour that would take place in May 2012. Being part of a Holt tour, the tour came with a built-in birthfamily search. I guess I could have opted out of it, but I figured it didn't matter. I knew no one would have been found, so I just figured I could at least see my file at Holt Korea and see if there was any other information that I didn't know. See if I could find out my birthfather's occupation and/or how he died...

Fast forward, since I know I have written somewhere about this, and I have to go soon. My mom said she had been lied to.  So I just don't understand why she feels so apologetic. She never knew, so why feel sorry? Of course there are a lot things that I don't understand about Korean culture. Why single mother's are so shamed. I feel so sorry for them and wish there was something I could do. But that would require a major overhaul of Korean culture. Baby steps, baby steps.

Also, Sandy, if you're reading this, you are probably going to be happy. You were right. My birthmother gave me money on Tuesday. Along with a bunch of other gifts. *sigh* I definitely appreciate it, but I wish she would keep it. I know culturally its impolite to refuse a gift like this... but... I don't want her to feel like she owes me anything. Or anyone to feel like they owe me anything. I have a wonderful life with family and friends and things I could never dream of if I had stayed. I am so blessed.

Being alone

December 12, 2012, Wednesday 9:30am
This morning was the first day I've been alone since I got to Seoul. It's nice and kind of sad. I wandered around a little until returning to the coffee shop across from the guest house. They had bagels and warm drinks. I hoped to find a wi-fi spot while wandering around... but I can't read any of the signs. Nor do I feel comfortable asking someone... because I should be speaking Korean to them...
Also this morning, I've been thinking about things back home. I keep thinking about all the things I forgot to do. And my family. And my pets. How is the weather back home? Have the roads been okay for my mother? Since I couldn't explain to my puppy what was happening, does she think I have abandoned her or that I will be returning soon? Besides my trip in May, I think this is the first time I haven't slept at home. So I really don't know how she will be doing.

Things here have been okay, except the fact that I can only use baby speech to get my needs across. And forget about anything even remotely complicated to explain.

Well, the chai here is wonderful and my bagel was excellent. No wi-fi, but that's okay, from what oppa explained, I will be moving into the dorm (my "home" for 2.5 months) on Monday, Dec 17th.

Seems weird that I lost a whole day in my move here. Oppa and I were trying to explain to each other what was happening (or what we thought was happening) and when... and I didn't really realize it was Tuesday until we started talking about it. Two days from today? Wednesday? No? What's today? LOL. And that makes today Wednesday. Crazy. I exist in the future! Hahaha.

Speaking of future. I watched Back to the Future 3 with Korean subtitles this morning. Awesome. I miss that movie. And yes, it was only Korean subtitles, the movie still had English speech. I love Michael J Fox.

I should probably head to my room now. My coordinator is supposed to call sometime before noon. No idea exactly when, but sometime. Maybe I'll continue writing this in my room.

***

11:45am
Back in the room. Here are a few pics of the room itself. Pretty small by American standards, but about what I expected. The living and bedroom is the same room, and the bathroom is joined with the toilet (meaning, there's nothing setting the shower from the toilet). If the dorm and my EPIK apartment are anything like the Holt guest house, then I will count myself lucky. Because I know that I could do much worse. And by the way, the ondol (or underfloor heating) which is standard in Korea, is AWESOME. Love it. Except the fact that I can't roll myself in it. My feet are always toasty warm in the room and if my hands get cold, I just put them on the floor. Or lie down on it. I understand why Koreans slept on the floor traditionally. So warm.

Around noon, the coordinator should call my room and I and another participant will go to lunch to meet each other and talk about what's going to happen next. Evidently there are a total of three new participants this term, and the other two are guys.

Whoops. There's the phone. Talk to you later!

****

3:30pm
I am not an adventurous person. Which is really too bad, considering what I just decided to do for a year. I have a whole afternoon/evening from which to do stuff, so after lunch with Nicholas and Ms. Seol, I decided to go wander around and find myself an adapter. Good idea? Yes. Good time? No. I just wandered right around the little area where Holt PAS is, and... I got lost. Isn't that weird for ME to get lost? No?... Fine then. Anyway, I think I spent 1.5-2 hours wandering around looking for an electronics store that might sell adapters and then looking for the way back. At one point I went in circles because I knew I was close to being back... just couldn't find the exact place. Argh.

However, wandering around does have its advantages. I got to see some pretty interesting sites and got to know my area (or at least, as well as I can). Just didn't accomplish anything. I hate that feeling, but I love their architecture.

Yay for jet lag

Hi everyone,

Today I am writing without an internet connection, because its 5:45am in the morning here and I don't know any passwords for any wireless connections here. My birthmother is awake and doing... something, and my birthbrother is still asleep. It is 1:45pm Mountain standard time... so I am wide awake.

Last night my plane got in around 6:15pm, about 1.5 hours after it should have. I went and got organized immediately after getting off the plane. I also sent my parents an email stating I had arrived in Seoul just fine. I knew I wouldn't have any time to do anything else once I left the baggage claim. It took a while for me to find exactly where I needed to be to go through immigration, find the baggage claim, and procure my luggage. By the time I finished that, I must have been the last person from my flight because the baggage claim had just a few bags left. Luckily my bags were two of the remaining bags and they were even right next to each other! It was about 7:00pm Korean time by the time I handed my customs forms to the officer and exited airport security. I didn't see oppa at first, but he saw me. He told me (I think) that he had been waiting for 2 hours! Speaking of, I need to recheck my flight schedule for my supposed arrival time. I didn't bother looking at it prior to leaving the states, but now I'm curious. Unfortunately, I can only do that with an internet connection...

I wish the introduction of my birthmother and I had been better. I had thought she might be here from the emails I received, but I didn't bother to prepare mentally or emotionally to meet her. I was already emotionally drained from leaving the states, as well as tired and cranky from traveling for 22 hours (5am MST to 3am MST, or 9pm KST to 7pm) among other things... and all I wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to bed... Which was never to happen...

Part of it is that it sounds like she is crying all the time. She has cried several times, but she also sniffs quite a lot. It could be she just has the sniffles from the cold (like me). But somehow I doubt it's entirely from the cold. But at the moment I am unable to really respond to her like I probably should. Also, as my brother told me in the car she is the "talking king". She talks to me a lot... and I don't understand her. I try to respond... and she doesn't understand me. It's a great party game. I think she just decided it was time for oppa to wake up. Because she is talking and talking. He has uh-huhed a couple of times, but other than that (at the very beginning), I'm not sure he is even listening... Of course, she might not be wanting a response... I've caught a few words, but it's what I expected to hear, what I heard last night, and what I told her it was okay. Sorry/apologize. Father & I. Thankful. Love. And some more apologies. mor

I will tell you about something that surprised me that I didn't know yet. I'm going to assume this is the most correct information regarding my relinquishment to date since its from my birthmother's own mouth, but... Somehow I feel I'll never know the full truth. She told us last night that she thought I had died. That my grandmother (I assume the one that recently passed away), took me to the hospital (or maybe she was there) and was told I was a very sick baby. My grandmother, her mother-in-law, later told her I died. She asked a couple of times if I was healthy...

Anyway, time to go. Looks like oppa just got up. LOL

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

I hate airports. Well, not really hate the airports themselves, but I hate waiting at them. Especially alone with lots of luggage to drag around. Note to self: purchase carry-on luggage that has 4 wheels that can change direction. My current rolling carry-on luggage, is of the 2-wheeled, single direction kind. But my new RED luggage has the awesome multi-directional 4 wheels... Its just a little big for carry-on, otherwise, I'd definitely be dragging it around Sea-Tac.

So. I definitely have too much time on my hands. Unfortunately, the layover here is almost 5 hours long... Arg. What to do with myself? Oh, I know. I'll blog about the most boring topic ever. Luggage. Just kidding. The most boring topic ever is probably about dust (no idea).

Right now I feel a little lost, a little annoyed, and a little excited. I was going to blog about the reason(s) I am going to work in South Korea... But I don't think I can clearly verbalize the answer to that. While I have answered quite a few people who have asked me that with true answers, I was never quite satisfied that the answer I gave was complete and built clear understanding. Strangely enough, these last few weeks preparing to leave, the biggest concern for me was to make sure everyone understood why I made this decision. I think it's because I think everyone's first reaction to this decision is generally one or more of the following (in any order, in any degree): Do you have family there? Oh, so you've got birthfamily there and that's why you're going. So you don't like your adoptive family, so you're going to try and get a different family and abandoning this one. I never want anyone to believe any of the above. While, it is partly true I do want to get to know my birth family more, it is DEFINITELY not the main reason I'm going. Nor was it a significant factor in my decision at all. It is, however, an added bonus.

My adoptive family is the best. They are... well, home. They are secure in the fact that I love them, and that I know that they love me. My mom is still the person I go running to when I have a problem, my dad is still the person I go to get things fixed, and my siblings I go to for advice. They are open and kind. In fact, my mom and I have had some pretty deep conversations over the past couple of years, and I'm still learning new things. I just learned why she always wanted me to call her "mom" (as opposed to her name, and why I do that is a whole different story that I may tell later). To her, it was important that peole know that she was my mom, since people aren't likely to know on their own. It doesn't mean we have a perfect family. We have our ups and downs. But that is how we grow as people and as a family. As an aside, I specified adoptive just to make sure that it's understood, but generally speaking, I refer to my adoptive family as just my family and to my birth family as ... well, my birth family.

Well, I wrote more than I intended to. But I still have time to spare... Maybe I will go shopping... O_O

And did I mention I hate waiting at airports?

No turning back now...

Hello world! This blog is my attempt to keep my family and friends updated on my new, scary, but exciting adventure. Whether or not that actually happens... is a whole 'nother matter altogether.

I'm on my way now. Just got off the plane and sitting in Sea-Tac Airport, Concourse A, eating my breakfast. Note to self: very nice place to sit and relax (very few people). Also, Gate S10 (my next stop) is very close. However, I find it very odd to not be listening to Christmas music. Does Sea-Tac not celebrate Christmas? I haven't noticed any Christmas decorations... but then again I wasn't particularly looking for them earlier either... I'm going to miss Christmas... :*(

I'm sitting here thinking what a crazy decision I made. I know it will be good, but it's always hard to say goodbye. I already miss my family tons. Towards the end I tried to talk my family into letting me stay... LOL. I really didn't want to leave them towards the end.

However, there's no turning back now. My feet are pointed towards Seoul, South Korea!

Gate S10 is just across the way!

 

My good friend, Katie, just gave me this shoe ornament before I left. It was so good to sit down and have a chat with her. I don't normally do things like this, but I thought it might be fun to have a traveling companion :D

 

There's a lot of things about this trip that give me all kinds of different emotions, but we'll get into that later. For now, I am simply dreading the 11 to 12 hour flight.

BTW, evidently Montana decided it needed to give me a farewell present.

Thanks Montana.