Another 48 Hours

We are only two days away from flying out to Seoul. A lot has happened since my last post. This last week we spent giving away almost everything we own to friends and family. United Airlines' weight restrictions have limited our luggage to two 50# bags and a carry on each. We gave, donated, sold, and threw out everything we did not need until we satisfied that limit. It's really weird to look at everything you own and have it fit into two suitcases and a backpack.

On Tuesday, Savannah's parents came to Bloomington to pick us up since we sold our cars. We had dinner with my parents on the way out of town at Los Potrillos. We have heard repeatedly that Mexican food.....good Mexican food is almost impossible to find in Seoul, so we are eating as much as we can before we leave. The dinner was nice and our parents got along well.

The morning after our move to Woodstock, we got ready for our meeting with the Korean Consulate General. After a long train ride and a couple hours of shopping, we found ourselves on the 27th floor of the NBC tower filling out MORE paperwork for our visas. The interview itself was short and painless. It seemed like more of a red tape formality than an actual screening process. I'm glad it was short because I could barely breathe with my tie on. I guess I've put on a neck pound or two since the last time I had to get dressed up. The told us our passports would be ready Monday. That presented a small problem as we are leaving the country on Monday. We explained our situation and were told to leave our passports and come back on Friday. So there we were, a few days away from flying out of the country with no passports and no visas.

We then spent a night with Savannah's family just chatting, snacking, drinking, and watching the world's best terrible documentary. The next day we were able to pick up our visas from the Korean consulate and get out of the city within a couple of hours. That night we went out with some of my friends from home. Jeremy, Misti, Aaron, Alida, Savannah, and I went to a Mongolian barbecue pit, an Irish pub, and then played Rock Band until 2 or 3 in the morning. My throat is still sore from trying to belt out Sabotage. For obvious reasons I've spent most of today resting and recovering and trying to catch up on sleep from the last two weeks.

Tomorrow should just entail packing and freaking out about weight limits and things we think we forgot get, spending one more sleepless night in Christmas eve-like anticipation, and then the loss of a full day during a 17 hour journey to Korea. Check back in a few days. We'll have pics from the trip, our arrival, and our new home!

*I apologize for all of the links, but this blog is going to a lot of people and I don't want anyone to be left out on what we're doing.

Getting Ready for the Move

We were told by our recruiter that we would be flying to Seoul on either the 24th or 25th. Getting ready to move across the world is incredibly stressful and liberating at the same time. We have buyers for our car and most of our stuff that is worth anything. I really like the idea of getting rid of EVERYTHING and getting a clean fresh start in our new home.

The most liberating aspect of getting rid of everything is the loss of wanting. I am a technophile and I love getting new gadgets. Looking at my stay in the US as temporary has freed me from that constant lust for new, shiny things. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but Christ and Buddhism have (for centuries) known that there is a definite happiness that comes from putting any earthly desire behind you. I suppose this holds especially true for a dynamic industry like electronics where your desires are only satiated until the next "insert number here point 0" comes out. I hope that even after settling down, I can maintain this frame of mind. Maybe that is why I feel compelled to put these ideas into written form. I can look back, read this post and remember the way it feels to be free of a desire to want something different for the sake of wanting new.

The Adventure Begins

Savannah and I have accepted a job in South Korea. The company we are working for is called Plus English Academy. Our recruiter, Stephen Cho, has been incredibly patient and nice. We accepted the job while on vacation and have not been able to mail in all of our documents until today. We are going to be living in Nuwon-Gu (Gu is the equivalent of a district) less than a 10 minute walk away from our school. Stephen put me in touch with one of the teachers from the school. His name is Rob and I'm guessing he is from either New Zealand or Australia based on how he writes his emails. He has been encouraging, telling us that the dress code is lax (t-shirts and jeans!??!) and that the school is a good place to work. We've been reading other blogs of people who work for this company and they go surfing and take trips to exotic locations on a regular basis. This probably excites me the most. Stephen sent us some pictures of our future apartment. Our new apartment has two bedrooms and seems to be relatively spacious from the pictures we were given.





Oh yeah, and there is a mountain out our back patio.



We're getting really excited for the great adventure. We are both getting ready to quit our jobs here in the States, one of which I've been looking forward to quitting for over a year. I will miss the people I work with, but not the meager paychecks and constantly shifting schedules and policies.