Pictures!!

My internet in my room is finally working!!! It's a huge relief, and now I can even get all of my pictures uploaded! Yay! You can click on them to make them bigger, and don't forget that you can leave messages at the end of the posts if you want to. =) Yay again! And since a blog isn't the most ideal place to organize a bunch of photos, I'll put the highlights here. If you want the full effect, I put up an album (<---- Click there!) of all of them, which you shouldn't have any problems seeing. If you do, let me know... (By the way, tomorrow's schedule: Korean Language and Taekwondo!)

My room! Yes, my bed is on the floor. It consists of a 1", maybe 1.5" thick foam-ish pad and two blankets. ...and two pillows and George. =)

Ju-youn (my buddy student) and me at the international students' party. A lot of Koreans give themselves English names so its easier for us to remember. Hers is "Ally," but she pronounces it more like "Ellie."

Su-hyun wearing the Texas t-shirt I gave her while showcasing her lunch. I don't remember what it's called...

Angela, an exchange student from Germany, and me at Mr. Pizza. Koreans seem to share everything, so at that lunch there were just two drinks - one for Angela and I and one for Su-hyun and her friend.

The view of Seongseo from the highest point on campus - Adams Chapel. Su-hyun took Angela and I up here at night, and the city looks amazing when it's all lit up. Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took turned out as anything more than colorful blurs. =( Seongseo, by the way, is the name of the area of Daegu that the Keimyung campus is on. All of Daegu is much, much larger.

I got another chance to get online for awhile, so I thought I'd start explaining how things have gone today, at least, while I can.

The night didn't go so well... there's no air conditioning in the dorms right now since it isn't officially open yet, so it was very hot even with the window open. I ended up closing the window partway throught the night, though, because it opens to a wooded area where there are lots of nighttime sounds. Bugs, I assume. =) I got up at around 7am here to wander around campus and see if I could find any sign of wireless internet or a phone I could use. I did manage to find the phone, so I was able to call home and James, which made me feel a lot better. Not being able to communicate is extremely frustrating.

After I walked back to the dorm - which is an adventure in itself because of how hot it is and how many steep hills there are - I finally did manage to fall asleep for awhile after just lying around for a couple hours. Su-hyun came to meet me at 1, though, so I was awake again by then to meet her downstairs in the dorm. She took us - me and a German girl staying here too - around campus to see a few main points, and then we went to the only open cafeteria, which serves only Korean food. Su-hyun knows that spicey food isn't my favorite, so she ordered me a meal which came with bulgogi, rice, kimchi, and seaweed soup and only cost W2,000.

After that, we ventured off the campus property - across the street from the school's east gate where she took us to a coffee shop that also served ice cream. There she bought us a big dish of something I don't know the name of, but which tasted good anyway. It was a mixture of crushed ice, sliced fruit (watermelon, kiwi, mango, banana...), and bean sherbet (surprisingly sweet...) topped with a tower of vanilla soft-serve and mixed with a bit of milk to make it more soupy when mixed together. It's so hot here, though, and I knew we still had a lot of walking to do, so I didn't eat much.

When we left, we went to the PC bang where I wrote my last entry. I thought it was going to cost W6,000 for the hour we spent there, but it was only W600. Much better! Our next destination was E-mart, which we got to by taxi - thank goodness. It's a huge store with several floors, each one containing a different theme of product, I guess you could say. The bottom floor was groceries, the second was like a department store - clothing and make-up counters, and the third was like a Wal-mart. I bought a few things there that I didn't bring with me - like an alarm clock - so now I feel slightly more prepared.

Everything's in Korean...

So I hope this post turns out okay, because I'm not sure which button to click on to post it...

ANYway! I know a lot of people are wondering what in the world happened to me after I got on the plane for Korea, and if you haven't been in contact with my mom, here's the story.

The plan was to get online at the airport in Seoul after my 14 hour flight and email everyone letting them know I was safe. The plan failed, however, when I was unable to correctly download or install or something... (I'm not even sure) ...the right program to use to connect to the public WiFi. I managed to find a phone card and an international pay phone, though, so I was able to call my (worried) mother at around 2AM-ish her time to let her know.

I should have my own internet in my room on Monday, so I will have much more time to explain the whole story about my trip and my first few days here. I have pictures, too, which will definitely be put up here as soon as I can.

Right now I'm in the Korean version of an internet cafe (called a PC Bang - "bang" means "room" in Korean). My time is about up, though, so I'll write again when I get internet in my room. I miss everyone very much, and keep me in your prayers!

It's going to be a rocky start...

...but what's an adventure without some rough patches?

Because I will be arriving early, Na Yeong (the English-speaking coordinator at Keimyung) says:

"You may go through some inconvenience before the evening on 26 of August, which is the official opening day of the House, for residential facilities including hot water and cafeteria are not available to use."

So far on my first few days of Korea, I will not have hot water, internet (or a cell phone, for that matter), food... And because things aren't officially open yet, I'm betting I'll have to make due with the throw blanket and travel pillow that I'm bringing. :) Oh, yeah. I'm excited.

To wrap up my stunning bad-news intro of this post (don't worry, there will be some good stuff too), James has found out that his official document won't work to get his visa. That of course means that he still has half a week to a month or so to wait for his diploma to come to him. After that, it will take three days to get it to Korea. Then it will have to be processed in Korea in order for him to get a 'visa processing number,' at which point more papers will be sent back to him to get to the consulate here in Houston for the final visa processing. Even as soon as he can get all of that to Houston, though, he will still have to wait three days or so for the visa stamp to be put in his passport.

Confusing? Yeah... Annoying? Definitely. While none of this would have been a problem a few years ago, there have been a couple teachers in Korea who have encountered some problems and are now in jail. Their problems? They were uncertified. If I remember correctly what I read about it, one of them had actually forged a diploma. The government has since become stricter on it's policies about foreign teachers.

At this point, it may not even be worth it for him to go over there to teach at all because he'll end up staying until long after I'm gone. We'll see, though. Much praying is ensuing. :)

On a happier note, I have gotten a few emails from the school asking for more information about different things. One of them was t-shirt sizes. Yay! They say they "are preparing a souvenir at the orientation day" (I'm getting used to their sometimes quirky use of English. It's cute.). Another email was inviting the international students to apply to go on a field trip of sorts to "a beautiful willage at the foot of the Mt. Palgong." (No, I'm not kidding... it says "willage.") It will take up most of a Saturday in September, but we'll be able to see and experience a lot of Korean traditional culture, including a wedding and picking some of the apples that Daegu is known for. I plan to take plenty of pictures, so keep watching in September for that.

Other than that, I'm officially within my last week inside the US! The only thing left to do (I hope) is to get the last of my clothes packed as I get laundry done. If anyone has any ideas on things to take on a long trip like this that I might have forgotten or not thought of, I'm totally open to suggestions!

2 week countdown!

Oh, yes. Two weeks from today, I'll be on a plane headed to the other side of the planet. Am I worried? Only slightly... I hoping it's considered normal for a person to be a little worried about traveling alone into a culture completely different from their own for the first time. I'm sure I'll be okay, though. And I'm prepared!

I have my visa, my Korean Air Skypass, and Korean won to get me started. Don't get too excited about the numbers, though, I'm really not that rich... US$1 is roughly equal to 1000 Korean won, so pictured there is the equivalent of about $26 (don't worry; I have more than that to take with me). The rates are a little low for the US dollar right now, though, so it's actually slightly less than that, but still... it's exciting.

I have been in contact with my "student buddy" from Keimyung. She sounds really nice, and she sent me a picture and everything. Her name is Ju-youn, and she's a 27-year-old tourism management major at Keimyung. She'll be picking me up from the airport when I get there and showing me around Daegu and everything, so I'm really excited about that. I'm hoping she can find me an internet cafe around the school, since I found out that I won't have any internet for the first few days that I'm there. There are a lot of people who are going to be very unhappy (*cough*Mom*cough*) if I don't have any way to let them know that I arrived safely, so that's my best best so far. I asked Ju-youn about cell phones over there, so I'll have to see what she says about that when she writes me back again.

On another note, James is currently sitting in his last class EVER, meaning that he officially graduates on Saturday. Woo!! Unfortunately, he can't get his diploma for 2-6 weeks after that, which is highly annoying since he needs it in order to get his visa so he can teach in Korea. He does have a prospective job, though, and they want him to start teaching on the 30th of August, which would be totally perfect. We're hoping that his official "course completion" document will be enough to get him over there ASAP so he doesn't have to wait for his diploma. Silly UNT. I told him that TLU would have gotten it taken care of for him... =P

Visa Update

Soooooo.... I'm in Galveston at the moment. Yesterday, we went to Houston and dropped off all of my paperwork to get my student visa for Korea. Yay! It would be ready on Wednesday, but that happens to be a Korean holiday, so we have to wait until Thursday to go pick everything back up.

And when I get home, Jess'll be coming to see me on Saturday! Yay again! She's flying out the next day to Argentina, though, which is totally exciting. I'm glad I still have one more month before I leave, because I'm definitely not ready yet. Then again, if I were leaving next week, I'd probably have all of my stuff together already like she does.

After we pick up my visa, I still have to...

-inventory for packing.
-get a computer cord/power converter that works.
-secure a job for James.
-figure out where I'm staying the first night (since I'm arriving a day before the dorms open).

Carrying Typhoid

Summer has officially begun, and I'm all vaccinated and ready to go! Our doctor said that I didn't really need most of the vaccinations recommended by the CDC (which, I admit, kind of makes me nervous. What if I get Japanese encephalitis?!). I have had my tetanus shot now, and I'm in the middle of taking typhoid pills which will keep me vaccinated until 2012. Woo!

While at the doctor, by the way, I also found out that I'm not anemic, but I have had mono at some point in my life. Who knew? Also, apparently I need to eat more sugar. Yeah, now everyone wishes they had a doctor like mine. Ha!

Anywho, I'm also in the process of deciding which classes to request at Keimyung. So far, I for sure want to take the Korean Language course, Korean History, Korean Culture (sensing a trend?), and Korean Government and Politics. I can take one more class with those, too, but I can't decide between Gender Issues in Contemporary Korean Society (which will hopefully count as a PoliSci/Ethics-based credit) or a course about the development of Korean economy (which may work as my last Economics credits). I emailed Dr. Walsh (my lovely advisor) about them both, so we'll see what she says soon.

Still to do:
-Buy a plane ticket
-Get my visa
-Get James a job =\