We made it!

This is my first post from my desk in our new apartment in Doekpo, South Korea. I have a beautiful view of a small beach surrounded by pine-covered hills. We are on the 10th floor, so our view is basically unimpeded by the ramshackle concrete stores and houses that line the small swimming area. Even though it's only 7:15 a.m., we have already seen some people out swimming. Apparently several families are camping at the little beach.

Our apartment is quite nice. Our building was apparently designed for foreigners, but it has several little Korean touches. First of all, when you come through the front door (which opens by code instead of key), you are in a little entrance area where you are expected to leave your shoes. The entrance area opens into a fairly spacious living room with a huge, slightly rounded window, looking out over our nice view of the harbor. As you walk through the living room, to the right you'll see a door to the guest bathroom, which has a tub, shower, toilet, and sink. Next is the kitchen, which is much larger than our kitchen in Norfolk with tons and tons of cabinet space and room for a table (but we think we'll move the table out into the living area in front of the window). Off of the kitchen is a tiny laundry room with washer and dryer. On the far side of the living room, next to the large window, there's an entrance to a little balcony, with large windows that can be slid open or left shut. It has a clothesline and a funny little rope sling that we are supposed to use to lower ourselves down 10 stories in case of fire. Hope we never have to use that! The apartment also has two bedrooms and a study, so we have tons of room! Visitors are welcome! The other little Korean touch in our apartment is the toilet in the master bathroom, which has a little machine attached to the seat, providing a fresh blast of air or water to your backside, after you've finished your business. We laughed hysterically when we tried it out on Friday night.

We've already had a chance to do a lot of exploring. Yesterday we met Keegan's boss, John, and his wife, Glenda, who I had been in touch with before we came. They seem like a really cool couple, and they've been here for almost four years, so they really know the ropes. We also met another of Keegan's co-workers, Matt, his wife Jacki, and their two kids. Matt and Jacki have done several triathlons here in Korea, so they're going to be our source for workout advice and information. Matt and Jacki took the ferry to Pusan for the weekend, and Glenda and John showed us around the town of Okpo, which is just over a large hill from where we live. We saw all kinds of shops, including a grocery store where we bought some provisions and a traditional market, with all kinds of weird seafood items. Here's a rundown:

• Weirdest thing seen: a tie between what Glenda and John call "sphincter fish" and the underwear stores whose window displays feature male and female mannequins wearing matching underwear. We got a good laugh out of the fancy underwear and a lot of disgust out of the sphincter fish, which looked like a bowl full of squirming hot dogs, with a hole on either end. Yes, they are sold as food.
• Most delicious thing: our lunch at a Korean restaurant, where we had an appetizer of steamed egg with chives and then a dish with rice and vegetables, followed by a sweet and spicy dessert tea.
• Most familiar thing: a store run by a woman who apparently provides black market items obtained from the American military base on the cheap - if you want instant Quaker oats and Del Monte canned vegetables, this is the place to go.
• Cutest thing: a sea turtle with a little upturned pink nose sticking up out of his watery dish. Too bad he was for sale in the food market.

Yesterday afternoon we were so tired when we got home at 3 p.m. that we decided to take a little nap. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 8 p.m. and told Keegan that we'd better get up and try to act like normal people for a while before going to bed at a reasonable time. But we were both so tired that we went back to sleep. We woke up around midnight feeling energized and ready to face the day. But we forced ourselves to go back to sleep and finally got up around 5 a.m. I've never been quite this jet-lagged before!

Since we were up so early, we decided to take a little walk along one of the hiking trails near our apartment. It is not that hot, but incredibly humid, so as soon as we started walking uphill, we were drenched in sweat. There were some nice views, though, and we saw a crab (yes, on the hiking trail), and a toad, and a really funny looking long earthworm that Keegan said is probably a delicacy. We thought that we'd climb to the war memorial that we can see from our apartment window, but when we got there, the path was blocked by an impassable gate with barbed wire. Why would they block off the supposed destination of the trail? We'll never know.

I think we'll spend the rest of today unpacking and exploring a little more. We may also head back to the grocery since we were disoriented and ill-prepared when we went yesterday and as a result have nothing to eat here. We also got our car yesterday, so we may drive around a little more to explore the rest of the island.

On Our Way

What a crazy week! Keegan finished with work last Wednesday, and on Thursday we had a great visit to Charlottesville to drop of a car and trailer with Sue and Steve and to enjoy the pool one last time. We stopped on the way home to visit Emily and Tony and co., and there we picked up a delightful summertime cold, which apparently we will now export to South Korea. Ryan says we may end up in quarantine with all the dogs and cats.

We spent the weekend prepping the house for the movers to come on Monday, and since then we've been in a weird kind of limbo. We've spent each day sitting on the futon reading or milling around anxiously while a crew of industrious people wrangles all of our worldly possessions into boxes. On Monday, two men packed up and loaded all of our air and surface shipments. Then on Tuesday, two women came to pack up all of our other stuff in boxes, another all-day task. Finally, today, three men showed up to wrap everything, including furniture, and load it into six giant wooden crates on the back of a semi. Now our house is completely empty, and our four enormous suitcases are packed, and we are leaving TOMORROW! Wish us luck! By the next time I write, I'll have lots to report!

Saying Our Good-byes

I have to say that the past few weeks have been pretty difficult. We are in a whirlwind of last-minute preparations, and we've been saying a lot of good-byes. I have seen my parents for the last time before we leave, and have also said good-bye to my best friend Jamie and my best cat Herman. I've also had lunch with lots of old co-workers - I have to say that they people I've met here, both at the ODU library and at the VA Beach Adult Learning Center, have been truly amazing. It's always hard to move to a new town, but in less than a year I've managed to meet some absolutely hilarious, kind, intelligent, and generally awesome people. I just want everyone to know that I appreciate my luck.

We also had a going away party this past weekend at our friends' Ryan and Trinie's house. They put on quite a party, and we saw a lot of Keegan's fellow Kingspoint grads there. Ryan and Ed, two of Keegan's groomsmen, have both left town, Ed for his new assignment in San Diego and Ryan to help Trinie's sister with a cross-country move. So we won't get to see either of them again before our departure. It was hard to say good-bye to them on Monday night when they stopped by for a last-minute chat.

But I have to say (don't be offended dear friends and family!) that the hardest parting so far has been with little Hermi-cat, who is now safe in the care of Jamie. I shed many a tear when I carried him downstairs for the last time and when I looked at his little white paws so neatly folded under him in the cat carrier. And I miss him like the dickens. He was my baby for three years - now I have some insight into why our parents are so upset that we are moving so far away for so long!

Tomorrow we are planning a trip to Charlottesville for still more good-byes, this time with Keegan's parents and with Emily and Tony. I can only hope that by the time we've been in Korea for three years, we'll have as many wonderful people to say good-bye to there.

Korean Dinner and Other Preparations

This week has been another busy one for moving preparations. We've sent our visa applications in, I've gotten an International Driving License, and I ate my first real Korean food! On Wednesday, after our Korean lesson, my tutor Jihyeon invited us to go to her favorite Korean restaurant in Virginia Beach. We picked Keegan up and drove over. The restaurant was very nondescript inside, with minimal decorations and a big karaoke area in the back. We sat in a booth and looked over the menu. Jihyeon decided on a rice, meat, and vegetable dish served in a huge stone bowl. It looked delicious, but was apparently quite spicy - beware the red pepper paste! Keegan tried kimchee stew, complete with cabbage, tofu, and the notorious red pepper paste. I had a noodle and seafood stew. We ordered a sushi-like roll (but with pork instead of raw fish) as an appetizer.

The sushi-like roll was delicious. Soon thereafter, a number of small side dishes arrived at the table - we hadn't ordered them, and Keegan says that in all the Korean restaurants he's been to, similar dishes are served. I guess they're kind of like condiments. We tried dried seafood, creamy cucumber salad, breaded and fried fish (my favorite!), lots of vegetables with red pepper sauce (yow!), and kimchee, which I thought was delicious but, predictably, too spicy for me. There was also a dish of fish. They were tiny, but they were whole fish, with heads and all. And we were supposed to eat them. Keegan described them as being "fish jerky," and that is pretty much what they tasted like. I guess I am a typical American in that I love seafood, but only when it looks like tender white chunks of flesh and not like an actual living creature that can swim around in the ocean.

My soup was absolutely delicious - the noodles were buttery and filling, and the seafood was tasty, too. I was surprised that the shrimp in the dish was whole and looking at me - I was reminded of that scene in A Christmas Story where they go out for Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant and a presented with a whole duck, head still attached. The mother looks at the waiter and says feebly, "It's smiling at me." That was me. I need to learn to be more adventuresome with my eating! My soup also had mini-octopi and mussels and calamari.

One thing I noticed was that having even small bites of various red pepper dishes had caused my nose to run. Having read that blowing your nose in public is extremely rude in Korea, I tried to subtly dab at my face with my napkin. I hope that it wasn't grossing everyone out. I may have to avoid red pepper dishes altogether, when possible, to avoid embarrassing nose incidents.

Other news: I've been put in touch with the wife of Keegan's boss, whose name is Glenda. She is an English teacher and has given me some insight into the job opportunities in Okpo - apparently they are plentiful! In fact, she has already offered me a student, but I want to wait until we have some time to get settled, learn the ropes, and until I have a better picture of what opportunities I might have to teach more formally. Glenda has also written a lot about the island and sent some beautiful pictures. I think we're really going to be living in a cool place.

Last night, Keegan and I went to Costco and purchased a membership. We then proceeded to roam the aisles looking for good old-fashioned (non-perishable) American food to take with us. Macaroni and cheese and peanut butter were high on my list. Keegan bought coffee and pancake mix. We also stocked up on cold medicine and vitamins. Maybe all of these preparations will turn out to be silly, but I know from my time in Poland that there are some days where you just can't try to fit in anymore, and you just need a big bowl of mac & cheese. So now we will be ready for just those days.

Things Are Finally Moving Along

We've gotten lots of news in the past week or so. In addition to learning a bit about our apartment and getting the first bits of advice about what and how to pack, we now have a departure date: July 10. I can't believe how soon that is! The movers will come to pack up our house on July 7 and 8 (we hope) and then we'll fly out of Norfolk early on July 10. Our flight goes from Norfolk to Detroit, Detroit to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Busan. We'll arrive in Korea at nearly 9 p.m. on July 11. What a long trip! The flight from Detroit to Tokyo is 12.5 hours! We're not particularly looking forward to that, I can tell you.

Preparations are in full swing. I'm trying to prepare the house (slow going) and am studying Korean every day, using a few books and CD's, the Rosetta Stone language program, and lessons with a Korean student at ODU named Jihyeon. My vocabulary and reading ability are growing by leaps and bounds, but my practical ability to put words together in sentences definitely needs some work. I think we will be in Korea for several weeks before I'm confident enough to do basic things around town using Korean. Keegan has been working hard keeping up with paperwork and making arrangements with the company.

If anyone wants to come visit us here in Norfolk before we leave, just let us know. My schedule is pretty flexible these days, and we'd love to see anyone who has time to get down to this neck of the woods.

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello everyone. Thanks for visiting. I hope this blog will be one of the main ways that I stay in touch with all of you back home while Keegan and I are in Korea. I haven't added all the bells and whistles yet, but eventually you'll find links here to pictures we take with our new digital SLR (due to arrive tomorrow!) and regular updates about places we're visiting and new things we're experiencing.

For now, we are in the midst of post-wedding and pre-moving craziness. Our house is on the market (it's an adorable house, within walking distance of ODU, perfect size for a couple if you know anyone who's looking), we just got back from my cousin's wedding in Philadelphia (congrats, Chrissy and Ryan!), and are preparing for our honeymoon in Poland. I've started Korean lessons, and we are on a steady thank-you-note-writing plan. So posts may be short and sporadic until we get to Korea, but I'll try to keep you all posted.