The mega update

Ok, this update should be mega, but unfortunately it probably won't be. First I'd like to point out that...

I'M FINALLY IN FREAKIN DAEJEON SOUTH KOREA!!!

I actually got here two sundays ago at about 11:30 at night. I went out to a restaurant/bar called Hi OB... or something like that... with Mr. Koo and had smoked chicken and a Cass [asian beer]. Meeting him for the first time was great! He is just as kind and reassuring in person as he is on the phone! I started feeling very blessed to have him as a boss for the next year (or more?).

So I went to bed at about 1:30 and promptly woke up at 7 o'clock. Wait.. let's start over in this journey.

Ok, so before I got to Korea I was in Atlanta, right? I had to go to Atlanta to get my Visa from the Korean Consulate. I drove up the day before my interview and stayed at my awesome super great and mega nice friend Kristen's apartment (who is living with her equally awesome super great and mega nice friend Kim, sister [of three triplets] to Kristen) that was really a nice pad.

http://ping.fm/AoRt6

I ended up passing through this town that was really really old that had a 'Smallville' kind of feel to it. I took a bunch of pictures but can't really figure out this Ping.fm picture thing so... Good luck! One day it will be easy. For now you get only that one.

They had awesome location in Atlanta, which unfortunately cost them a pretty penny, but fortunately... well was a sweet deal because they had a borders about 100 yards from them and a 24 hour restaurant that actually cared about having healthy food. I didn't even think those existed!

So I get my interview at the consulate, which turned out to be more of a hassle than I thought. The director at the consulate was a real tightwad about Americans going into his country to teach English. It was really weird because it's not like nobody was going to get approved as we all had jobs waiting for us. I don't know, in any event he made everybody really nervous and then told us we would have our visas in 24 hours. Yea, 24 hours. That's the quickest I've had anything happen in this whole process.

So I hang out in Atlanta for a few days, with Kristen and Kim which was a lot of fun. Kristen says I'm a holiday because I only get to see her once a year; a comment that made me laugh, yet cry on the inside a little =,(

I decided to stay up Friday night because it would be really hard to wake up at 4 in the morning to get ready and be at the subway station by 5 so that I could get to the airport early as my flight left at 7:30 or something like that.

Kristen is a super-trooper and helped me lug all my stuff to the subway near her house. The buses weren't running that early so we had to walk it and I ended up a sweaty mess by the time I got to the station!

Ok - making this super long which was not intended.

I get to the airport and wait around for a while. I end up getting the dead end of the plane so I had no room to lean back and for the first time actually got a little nauseous. I arrived in San Francisco and had an almost 5 hour layover before hoping back on the plane for a straight shot to Korea. Seats were a little better... but still suck. I was in the dead middle seat of the plane, and for 12 hours that's not really where I'd like to be ever again. I wish first class wasn't so painfully expensive.

Anywho, so that brings us to Korea. Mr. Koo rocked. I've had a total blast teaching my students and I'm loving loving loving the food! It's great here. Autumn is just about to kick in so I think I need to get a new camera to capture this season. mmmm