Everland

The first weekend in October was a long weekend because of the Korean holiday Gaecheonjeol (National Foundation Day). This is an old holiday that has to do with a Korean legend of the sky opening and a divine figure coming down to earth and founding  Gojoseon, ancient Korea. I think most people don’t believe in the legend anymore but the celebration has been around forever and it is a national holiday in Korea.

Not only was October 3^rd a holiday, it was also the birthday of a teacher at my school. She was talking about what she wanted to do for her birthday, and she said she was interested in going to Everland. Everland is a huge amusement park near Seoul (and Suwon). It’s advertised as the Disneyland of Korea (although it really doesn’t compare… Disneyland wins hands down). I wanted to go too and so five of us went to Everland. It was a lot of fun.

 

Korean girls are really into being cute and Everland is no exception. We saw a ton of people wearing headbands with various animal ears. Of course, wanting to integrate ourselves fully (excuses, excuses) we also bought animal ears. I bought the koala ears which we later thought could also possibly be a lemur…. You decide:

Me and Stacey, the birthday girl!

At first the ears were totally for mocking purposes (at least for me they were) but I do have to say that I think it would have been a completely different experience without them. There’s something about seeing your reflection in the middle of the day and remembering that yes, you are in fact wearing animal ears. The big attraction of Everland is a roller coaster which has the steepest drop for a wooden roller coaster in the world. The lines were really long but the girls I was with made it fun and it didn’t feel like we were waiting for hours (2).  The weather was also perfect that day.

I do have to admit that I spent most of the day trying to get pictures of couple outfits without being too creepy. I think you have all realized that they are one of my favorite things here and couples outfits were all over the place in Everland. Some were even wearing couples animal ears – how is that not amazing?! A particularly funny moment was when the Korean guy behind us in line realized what I was taking pictures of. He was with his girlfriend although not in couple outfits. It was awkward and I don’t think he 100% understood my fascination but the girls I was with were helpful even going as far as to pretend to pose for a picture in front of the couple so I could zoom the camera around them and get only the couple. I’ll post my greatest couple outfit pictures at the end of this post.

It was a great day. One of the girls’ boyfriends joined us and brought a cake for the birthday girl which we sat at a picnic table and devoured without even cutting it. It’s been a while since I’ve been to an amusement park and I enjoyed all of the rides. The wooden roller coaster was a lot of fun although I think the girl behind me had a different opinion. As we were climbing for the drop she could be heard alternately crying and saying (what I’m assuming) were prayers. After the ride finished she was still crying and was hitting her boyfriend. I guess she didn’t care for it.

Enough about Everland, here are the couples :)

Couples shirt, vest, everything!



Couples shoes!



Couples sweatshirts!



Couples shirts and sweaters!



Couples hats!



Couples head to toe including leopard print animal ears!



Doosan Bears vs Lotte Giants

This is long overdue and I am way behind on all the exciting things I've been up to. Rewinding quite a bit, I want to tell you about the baseball game I went to in September. I had been talking with some friends about going to see a baseball game for a while and we finally made in happen in mid-September. Baseball is pretty big here. The teams I saw play were the Doosan Bears and the Lotte Giants. The Bears are based in Seoul and the Giants in Busan (a beach area south of here). The options for tickets are assigned seating or you can buy the tickets for the outfield which is general seating. Either way the tickets are really cheap but the key with the general seating tickets is to get to the game early because they don't stop selling tickets even when they're past the number of seats available.

I went with two girls from school and we met up with some other friends. A nice thing about baseball games in Korea is that you can bring anything in that you want. There were men out front selling KFC and Burger King chicken boxes, burgers, and a variety of Korean food - mostly kimpop (I'll explain what that is later). You can buy a case of bear and bring it in if you wanted to. We settled for some drinks an a box of chicken, but next time I'll definitely be more prepared.

We were fairly early for the game but our friends were not, so by the time we got inside the park there were no seats. We found a nice place on the stairs though, and settled in. The atmosphere in a stadium was fantastic. Everyone was dressed up, each team had songs, and people were always yelling and cheering. I know we have all of this stateside but here people just seemed more energetic. On each side there was also a small stage with some cheerleaders, a drum, and a guy with a whistle leading the chants. On the left field side were the Lotte Giant cheerleaders, and fans and the Doosan Bears folk were on the right field side. They took turns and everyone was singing along. They also sold these plastic inflatable tubes for about a dollar, so everyone had them and kept banging them together. You can see the boy holding one in the picture above.

We sat on the stairs for most of the game but did manage to get some seats around the fifth inning. There were a couple guys in animal costumes (I don't know why) that had saved seats for themselves but then spent the entire game standing and cheering; so we helped ourselves to their seats. I mean, what exactly is a guy in a cow costume going to do about it? Something I thought was interesting was in the seventh inning all the players went out in the outfield and stretched. There was no "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and the fans didn't really stretch, but the players did. The Doosan Bears won by a lot but it was a fun game. Here are two highlights (they don't neccesarily have to do with the players or the game itself):

1) The beer man. I only saw one guy the entire game walking around selling beer but I guess it makes sense since you can bring it in from outside. The best thing was that the beer man essentially had what looked like a keg strapped to his back. He had the tap hooked up and filled up cups of beer when ordered. The cups he wore in a sash across his chest. I was highly entertained and took a lot of pictures of him. I hope you will be too.

2) The Lotte fans with bags on their heads. Around the seventh inning I noticed the Lotte side of the stadium was slowly but surely turning orange. I was sitting far enough away I couldn't figure out what it was exactly but is seemed like everyone had put on orange hats - and I mean everyone. Later we realized that they were wearing orange plastic bags filled with air. . . on their heads. Someone with the team passed them out to everyone on that side. I think it's a really cool idea because I'm sure it's cheap (they're plastic bags) and suddenly half the stadium is in your team colors. We were a little dissapointed we weren't on the Lotte side but one bag came close and I was able to get a good picture. The other picture is everyone wearing their "hats".



 Overall it was a great time. The weather was perfect for baseball and although the season is over now I will definitely be attending some games in the spring. It felt good taking the Wallis baseball tradition international. This one is for papa :)

Chuseok

Chuseok is a big holiday in Korea. When explaining it to me everyone referred to it as the Korean Thanksgiving. This year it was September 11th and 12th so I got that Monday and Tuesday off school. My understanding about Chuseok is that people go and visit their grandparents, sometimes do some rites to honor their ancestors, then eat a big meal. In school, the Friday before Chuseok all the classes went to the 6th floor (gym/auditorium) to play games. All the children came to school dressed in their hanbok which is traditional Korean clothing. For men it looks like baggy pants that are tighter around the ankles and a jacket-type shirt. For girls it is a skirt/dress and a shoulder piece. The director of the school's wife provided hanbok for all of the teachers. First you put on a long underskirt of tulle to make the dress look big. Then comes the main piece which is tied right above your chest and touches the ground. After that comes a shorter piece that covers your shoulders and is tied in the front. Observe me hanbok-ed out:

Hanboks are extremely modest. Nothing about them is tight and everyone looks a little bit like Mother Goose with the skirt so full. My skirt was even a bit flat in the picture because I didn't have the undergarmet piece on. I tried, but I guess they weren't made with my figure in mind (I was busting out). In tnhe picture ^ I'm holding these plastic arrows that the kids used to play a game where they had to throw sticks into this barrel. I think traditionally the game is called Tuho and is a bit more technical I'm sure, but it was cute watching the kids play.

They split the school into two teams to have a little competition and it was fun hearing the kids all yelling for their team. The second game was balancing a block on their heads while walking. They seemed to enjoy it. Last was tug-o-war between classes. My class ended up tying but we had a good time :)

All around it was a fun day. Here is my class picture with us all looking our best:

I spent most of the Chuseok weekend catching up on sleep and taking it easy. I went into Seoul a couple times with friends and it was nice because it wasn't as busy as usual since so many people had left for the weekend. One day we went to a neighborhood that is touted as the Rodeo Drive of Korea. There were a lot of expensive stores but it was nice just walking around and people watching. My friend and I got dinner at an Italian restaurant there and sat right next to the windows looking out at the street. My favorite part was when a bride and groom walked down the street with a photographer in front of them taking pictures. They looked so cute in the busy lit up street and I'm sure the pictures would be amazing. It was a good night.

On Sunday we went into Seoul again to find the Forever 21 store that's in a market there. I was looking for a pair of pants and we were lucky that this market that's usually packed to the point where you can't move was less crowded because of the holiday. I was able to find pants although it wasn't encouraging that I'm the biggest size they carried. I looked up the size conversion and it said an 8 is a 29. They only had 28s but I was able to make one work.

On Tuesday or the Chuseok weekend I was lucky enough to get invited over to a friend's house. Well actually (if you can follow this) it was my language exchange partner's friend's aunt's house. The aunt is a vice principal at an elementary school in a city called Chonan which is about an hour subway ride away from me heading away from Seoul. It's not common to have Chuseok parties like she was holding but I think she did it because her son was away and she had an American teacher at her school she wanted to invite. I went with my Korean friend but when I got there there were four other foreigners. They were all American's from the same school in Chicago that were teaching for five months as part of their education degree. Here's a picture of the party all seated ready to eat:

(I'm in the red dress sitting next to my friend/language exchange partner)
Everyone was really nice and it's always nice meeting fellow foreigners. I think I was very lucky to be invited because most foreigners pass Chuseok like it's just any other weekend. Instead I got to eat all of this:
It was delicious. After we ate my friend and her friend took me around Chonan to see the city. It was nice seeing a new part of Korea and having a Korean experience even if it wasn't how Chuseok is traditionally done. Look at the food, I'm not complaining :)

Couples

South Korea is the country of couples. I can't get over the emphasis put on being in a couple and the fact that they're everywhere.... EVERYWHERE. Of course I know the U.S. and anywhere else has plenty of couples but here it seems like there is an overload. The culture is very pro-couple and I think is best demonstrated by the fact that not only do they have Valentines Day, but they have a holiday exactly a month later called White Day. I know in the U.S. Valentines Day is greeted with a mixture of anticipation, dread, happiness, and loathing. In Korea, Valentines Day is the day the woman gives a gift to the man then on White Day the man gives the gift to the woman. I've also be informed that there's actually a couple day on the 14th of every month but those are the two with the most recognition. Except April 14th which is Black Day and apparently the day for singles to couple up.

The most hilarious couple-thing here (well hilarious to me) are the couple outfits. No you did not read that incorrectly, there are actually couple clothes. In certain stores here you can find the same clothes: shirts, pants, shoes etc. made for a man and for a woman. The same exact stuff. It is really common here to see a couple walking down the street wearing matching shirts. Not just complimenting colors - but ligitimately the same shirt. They also do it with shoes, backpacks, and entire outfits. I never fails to make me smile. It's almost like a game "look shoes!" "over there, backpacks with matching keychains!" "look, couples jackets!".

I was talking to a Korean friend of mine about it once because I wanted the Korean perspective, especially the Korean male perspective. He said he didn't like it but a girlfriend might suggest the couples clothes as a way of showing you really care about her. I know some guys here are into it though. I saw one couple who had matching dyed hair - no joke. Anyways, my friend did admit that he had couples shoes from a previous relationship. What I was interested to find out though was if it's acceptable to wear the couples clothes if you break up. I mean, maybe the memories would be too painful but here you have an entire wardrobe. Especially the shoes, like nice Nike sneakers. Do you just throw away a $100 pair of shoes because you're no longer dating? Apparently it can go either way although my friend kept the shoes and does wear them from time to time. I wonder if it would be awkward if you bumped into your ex and you were both wearing your couples shoes...

You are in luck because I was able to snap two pictures of couples clothes. I'm not touristy/awkward enough to take pictures of people walking down the street but I had my camera out at a baseball game and thought I could resonably pretend I was taking a picture of the field if I got asked. (Of course that's a moot point because anything they said would be in Korean and I wouldn't understand). For your enjoyment, couples shirts, and couples shoes:

My Apartment

The first view when you look in from the entrance way. Behind those sliding doors is my "laundry room" with a washing machine and a folding rack for drying clothes.
My kitchen area. I am very lucky to have a table - I think I might be the only apartment with one. The only furniture provided was the dresser you see, a fridge, a bed, and a small vanity. I think the table was found by an old teacher when someone put it in front of there apartment to be given/thrown away. In the left corner you can kinda see my sink, cabinets, and there's two gas burners. No oven :(

My bathroom. There is no shower just the shower head on the wall. The drain is under the sink and you shower just standing in the middle of the bathroom. It's not that bad.

My bed and giant window. I love the window and all the light it lets in although that means at night being able to see all kinds of flashing neon lights. On the left is the vanity in the shadows and a t.v. I think I'm also the only apartment to have a t.v. but I don't have cable so I haven't even turned it on.

Summer Break

July 25th – 29th was my summer break. I didn’t know that before I came, but that would have been helpful because then I could have made plans. As it stood the only people I really knew in Korea were the teachers I worked with and they had made plans weeks in advance. I got lucky in that two new teachers came a week and half after I did. It sucked even more for them because they had three days training then a week free. Since we were in the same boat we did a lot together. There is also the other joy, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it, but that until I get my Alien Registration Card I cannot get a cell phone or the internet in my apartment. So not only were we newbies, but for any of us to make plans it had to be done a day in advance or communicated in the amount of time we were online that day. It’s been interesting getting use to being disconnected. It’s all the more difficult because I don’t know where a lot of things are so I can’t even suggest landmarks to meet at. It’s been a struggle.

For the week of my summer break Korea decided to celebrate with daily downpours. I spent a lot of the week wandering around my neighborhood and getting to know the area, or hiding inside. I went to Seoul a couple days and that was the highlight. Seoul Station, which is in the center or Seoul is a 40 minute bus ride from where I am. The bus system here is really nice. The charge for this bus ride is about $1.40 and the bus runs every 10 minutes or so. The bus is air conditioned, has nice seats, (and when I get a phone) is equipped with phone charging stations. From Seoul Station you can pick up two of the subway lines (there are 9 in total).

The first place I went to was a neighborhood called Insadong. It was down pouring like crazy the day we went (that night were the mudslides) but we tried to dodge from store to store. There is a main street in Insadong that is really cute. It’s a great place to walk around. We ended up leaving after a little while because of the rain but went back on a nicer day. There are quite a few touristy shops in Insadong and it’s also well known for its traditional tea houses. We attempted to find one and order tea but ended up with a drink that tasted like cranberry juice and had a couple pine nuts floating in it. Such is ordering food and drinks in Korea. It’s a lot of pointing to something then crossing your fingers that whatever you just ordered is good.

On another day one teacher and I went to Namdaemun Market. Namdaemun is a huge market where you can find almost everything. There are sellers in shops outside and huge shopping markets that you don’t see until you’re inside what appears to be a one-floor building only to find out it goes down two more levels and runs underneath all the other shops. Again, it was raining the day we went but it was easy to walk outside when it was nice then duck indoors to escape the rain. There were shops selling cameras, clothes, food, baby clothes, ginseng and pharmaceuticals, beauty products – everything. We went into one building that had to have 50 sellers all next to each other just selling jewelry and hair things. I feel like this wouldn’t be too unusual except everyone’s stuff looked the same; not only that but everything was sparkly. Women’s fashion here is pretty “cute” and literally everything was sparkly from necklaces to hair ties. Walking into that much sparkle was overwhelming. I can only imagine what it would look like on a sunny day.

*I will take this moment to say that if I should return from Korea wearing bows and super sparkly things I hearby charge you all to have an intervention.*

Overall it was a good vacation. I would have loved to go journeying somewhere across Korea or a neighboring country but the weather really limited things and I didn’t have very much time to plan. Korea has been having an unusually long rainy season much to my enjoyment. On a positive note, I have been reading a lot. It was nice having a week vacation and I felt good going into school afterwards. I taught two weeks before so I felt like I got things under control. Now I just need to last until my next week-long vacation . . . at Christmas.

Mudfest

My first weekend in Korea I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival (Mudfest). Some of the other teachers at my school were going so I decided to tag along aka: invite myself. I heard it was a lot of fun. We took the train down from Suwon, it was about two hours on the train and a nice ride. The festival is held in Daecheon on the beach. Basically it's like MTV Spring Break. I went with a group of eight people though we ended up being twelve in total when everyone found their friends. There was a roped off area with inflatable slides, tug-o-war, and other games and things meant to get you as muddy as possible. The story is that the mud there is suppose to be really good for your skin so everyone goes in bathingsuits, gets completely muddy, drinks, and has a good time.

I had fun walking around and seeing everything. I also took time when people were getting all muddy to go down and stand in the water. I feel a sense of accomplishment in every body of water I get to stand in so I stood in the Yellow Sea/West Sea for a couple minutes just thinking about thing. Mostly reflecting on how I'm in South Korea (who saw that one coming??). It was never a plan of mine to come here but I'm going with the flow and enjoying this unexpected trip. I feel like oceans/seas are good places for reflection so I had my little moment then joined up with the group and took part in muddy tug-o-war. Such is life :)

Later in the day we went back to our rented room, took showers, then went out to dinner. Since we were right on the ocean there was a lot of good sea food to be found and dinner was clams and oysters grilled in the shell right at our table. I'm not a huge shellfish fan but it was good. The place we stayed in was called a "pension". They are very common here and it's basically an empty room and they give you mats and pillows for however many people your sharing with. It's good because you can cram a lot of people into one to make it cheaper. The downside is that you sleep on the floor with only a thin mat. It was not the most comfortable experience but for one night it was fine.

Me and the Mudfest Mascots

The night we got there they had fireworks and it felt good sitting on a beach on a beautiful evening talking to new people. The next morning I walked on the beach for a while with two girls before we headed back to the train to come home. We also got our free souvenier which was some soap made with the famous Boryeong mud. It was nice getting to meet a bunch of new people and the festival is only once a year so I was glad I was able to go.

Mudfest walkway and Daecheon Beach

School and two days of training

The school that I am working at is called LCI Academy. It is part of the LCI chain of private English schools (hagwons) and this particular branch has been open for three years. Any Koreans that I’ve talked to have told me it must be a big school because we have seven foreign teachers in total. The school staff consists of us seven foreigners, three Korean teachers, the Director, and his wife. We are the main teachers and the Korean staff only teach a couple classes while also serving as secretaries, book keepers, translators, and support for us. They make sure we have the books we need, are on schedule to complete books on time and are the best place to go with questions about school, life, or if you’re not sure what you ate the night before. Their English is a bit limited but they provide an invaluable service to the school and to our lives here in Korea. If you need to see a doctor you go to them, tell them what’s wrong, and they’ll write it for you in Korean. One of the first weeks I was eyeing some street food and had them write down the name so I would know what to ask for. Anything needing translation, they are the first people to go to. They are also the middle ground between us and the Director and his wife. Messages get passed through them from both sides and it’s a hard job because “don’t shoot the messanger” does not always apply.

My first day at LCI they had me shadow the teacher I would be replacing. They gave me her (my) schedules and a packet she had written about how to teach each section of class. I sat on the side of the classroom watching her teach and writing notes all day. There are a lot of different periods and separate books that go with a lot of them. Many subjects are taught multiple times a week. In one week for Kindergarten I teach: a Theme book, Phonics, Math, Kids Excel, Social/Science Book, Cooking, Storybook, ORDA, Writing Diary, Show & Tell, a Song, a Poem, Arts & Crafts, and Science. I will explain things in more detail later but for now, for understanding’s sake, Kids Excel = Reader Rabbit on the computer, and ORDA are these sheets that deal with spacial skills: patterns, shapes fitting together etc. things like that.

I had two days to learn how to teach all of that. Missing my flight and loosing the third day of training meant I didn’t even get to see how some of the periods were taught. It was a lot to digest. All of the subjects are pretty easy to teach the key is just learning how they want you to teach it, and staying on schedule. The hardest part is keeping track of all of the books. There is a Theme book, a book for math, two books for phonics, a book for Storybook. . . you get the idea. The second day of training (Friday) they bounced me around between different people’s classes. I thought it was to give me different perspectives but really it was because they were having a big going away party in my soon-to-be class. I was disappointed at first because I wanted to get to know the kids but it turned out to be really nice seeing how other people teach. Everyone has a different style, some are more strict, some are more organized, and it was nice looking in on and getting suggestions from the different teachers.

After kindergarten I followed the teacher I was replacing to the afternoon classes. Five days a week I have kindergarten from 9:50am to 2:20pm. On Monday, Wednesday, Friday I have a class called PK1 from 2:40-5:00 and a class called EC2 from 5:10-6:55. So first was PK1 which is one of the top classes in the school. These kids are in their first year of Korean school and come to LCI after they finish the regular school day. These kids are really smart. They are also really competitive but I think that goes with the territory. For that class there are another four books although they are not all taught every time I see them. The last class EC2 are three nine-year-old boys who have not studied English for very long. That class only has three books :).

By the end of training on Friday I felt like my head was going to explode with everything I had to remember. I knew the Korean teachers and the Director’s wife would be in my classroom for the first couple days observing me and giving me feedback. The amount of books I felt like I had to juggle was ridiculous. I didn’t have time to prepare lessons, in part because I was kind of lost, so I knew I would be going into Monday only half prepared.

That weekend I also moved into the apartment I will be in for next year (pictures to come). My first three nights the school put me up in a hotel because the teacher I replaced didn’t leave until Saturday afternoon. My room was really nice. When you walked into the room there was a small foyer to take off your shoes (you never wear them into a house) and you put the key in a slot which made all of the lights turn on. The only light switches on the wall were for the bathroom lights so to turn the rest on or off there was a giant remote. I don’t know what half of the buttons were for but between six of them I was able to control the lights and the t.v. There was a separate remote for the air conditioning. The bathroom had a huge tub with a shower head but no curtain. The ‘no curtain’ is pretty standard here but one of the teachers told me the hotel is a “Love Motel”. That made some puzzle pieces fall into place like why there were two robes and my welcome packet included toothbrushes, razors, and condoms. (I later found, when another new teacher came, that some of the floors had vending machines selling sex toys , luckily I wasn’t on one of those floors.) It really was nice though and I guess such places are very common in Korea. I think it has something to do with most people living with their parents until they’re married, but I digress….

Hotel Room

On Saturday check-out was at 12:30 and I couldn’t move into the apartment until 3:00. Luckily someone told me if you ask they will hold your bags at the front desk so I left my suitcases there, minus my backpack, and went wandering for a few hours. It took me two trips to get my things over to the apartment but finally I was finished. I had a lazy weekend, unpacked, and got ready for my first week teaching alone.

Flying to South Korea – Sometimes life makes you stop to have a s’more

On July 6th I arrived in South Korea (a day later than scheduled). For those of you who don’t know the story, my flights were from Albany -> Dulles -> San Francisco -> Seoul. The first two went perfectly and I arrived in San Francisco with plenty of time. This led to me meandering my way through the airport, stopping to get something to eat (they didn’t feed me anything on the first two flights) while checking the board to see what aisle I would have to check in at. I was hoping to avoid doing security again but realized late that I would have to. I went to the Asiana counters to check-in and get my boarding pass one hour before my flight to be informed by Jet Blue, next door, that Asiana had just closed their counter and left. They said maybe someone from my previous flight could help me so I hightailed it over to Continental where the nice man there said that there was “no way” they weren’t still doing check-in but said the only thing I could do was call them on the courtesy phone. The panic was now setting in with only forty minutes until my flight. I talked to nice woman on the phone who first told me she couldn’t reach anyone from the airline in the airport (reassuring) and then calmly said, like it was no big deal, “you’re going to miss your flight”. Lovely. I made a last ditch attempt, in what I thought was a burst of brilliance, by running to the information desk and asking if they could call the boarding gate and ask them to send an agent back. Apparently you can’t call a gate (I still don’t believe it).

It was a horrible feeling sitting in that airport, with a half hour to go until the flight left, knowing I was going to miss my flight and there was nothing I could do. To top it off it wasn’t like I was going on a vacation, I was reporting for work and I was sure being a day late would make a good first impression. Did I mention with the time difference it was also the middle of the night in Korea? Disregarding that I called my recruiter and although he didn’t answer the first time I was at least rewarded with the comic relief that was his Ke$ha ringback tone. He eventually called me back to say the travel agent would figure things out but I’d have to wait until their work day started.

I sat down in a café area got out my laptop (thank you San Francisco airport for free wi-fi) and by some grace of god Oscar was online, we skyped, and he talked me out of the funk I was in. I was in the airport until 7:00pm or so (the flight was at 1:10pm) when the travel agent called and said to come back the next morning and get on standby. Again luck was with me that I was stranded in a city I just happened to have an uncle living in. I spent the Fourth of July with Mo, Kenny, Max, and Miles shooting off fireworks and eating s’mores. The next morning they dropped me off at the airport early. Fun fact: when Asiana Airlines opens their counters they bring out a boom-box, play an Asian sounding song, and all bow before beginning to check in customers. The put me on standby then the travel agent was able to get me a seat on the plane. For all the stress and worry it really was a nice flight. I watched four and a half movies, had a menu for each meal (you could choose their meal or a “western” meal), and they gave you slippers. I arrived 5:30pm July 6th welcomed by a taxi driver holding a sign with my name. I was finally in South Korea.

Explanation of the Title and Welcome

Hello everyone and welcome! I've decided to start writing a blog again because I think it will be easier then e-mailing everyone slightly different versions of the same story. No, we wont say this is out of laziness :) we'll just say I want to make sure no one is left out. (Doesn't that sound so much better?)

The title of this blog is, as you can see, "Not all those who wander are lost." This is one part of a longer quote by J.R.R. Tolkien. I love the full quote (it's a little 'Lord of the Rings' for everyday use) but I have taken this specific line up as my personal motto. I like to think that I am wandering, but not lost. I will also take the liberty the title gives me to let my blog posts wander, as I know from experience I can be bad about updating in a timely fashion. Bear with me and we can wander together. Karibu (welcome).

Full quote for anyone interested: "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be the blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king." - J.R.R. Tolkien