We're back in Korea!
and what a journey it was getting here!!!
first of all i'll give you a brief summary of what we did in texas:
saw tons of family and friends
had christmas with family and friends
went to the annual rushing's xmas party and performed in the talent show
went to a few other xmas parties
went to a new year's rock band party at alex and hope's
went to jens's grandparents' ranch out in ringgold, tx twice with friends
went to ft. worth and dallas
ate lots of good food
went to the movies twice
went to a cooking class at central market- that was awesome!
jens and his old band had a reunion show at a coffee shop
went shopping
ate as many blueberries as we could!
enjoyed the mostly 70 degree F weather!
played with dogs of all sizes
went on lots of walks
bought lots of english books
etc.!
then the night before we were supposed to leave for korea jens went to get our passports together and his was nowhere to be found! we looked all over and i kept saying that the last time i saw it was in the night stand drawer. then i remembered- jens's sister, jill, had stuff in that night stand too and she had moved to colorado a couple weeks before! i thought, she probably grabbed it by accident! so we called her and sure enough she had it....it colorado! we scrambled to figure out what to do. after calling different airlines, fedex, etc. we found out since 9/11 you can't send cargo on a plane unless you're on it too (so jill couldn't send the passport on a plane to san francisco where we had s stopover). also fedex and ups were closed. so the only option was for jill to fly to san fran and meet us at the airport for our stopover. we got it all scheduled just right in order for us to meet her there.
but then! it iced for the first time since we'd been home and our flight to san fran was canceled! they put us on a later flight that day but it meant we would miss the only flight from san fran to korea that day! we talked to korean air and they said we could leave the next day for korea. this was a little nerve wracking because before i left for korea my co-t made me sign this paper that said if i wasn't back in korea on this specific day i would have to pay 10% of my salary! so i emailed her and told her the situation and she got back to me a few hours later and said she would need proof from the airline that the flight was canceled. we asked for it that the airline employee said she had never heard of that but gave us a phone number my co-t could call to confirm the cancelation. i hope that the the newspaper we grabbed that morning talking about the ice and canceled flights will be sufficient proof!
so we flew to san fran, met up with jill, switched passports and then spent the evening exploring the city. it was fun! we rode trolley carts, saw alcatraz and the golden gate bridge, went to union square and the wharf, ate some amazing crab chowder, went through chinatown and little italy, visited a famous bookstore called city lights and ate pear gelato- yum! that night we stayed in a cool hostel called fort mason. unfortunately i didn't sleep well at all but we got up on time to get to the airport and catch our flight to korea!
the flight was alright. since we left around 1pm or so i didn't really need to sleep on the plane. when we got to korea we took a bus to the train station (upon which i slept) and then i slept all the way to mokpo on the train. we got home about 1am and i was in bed by 2am. i slept til 8am so that was good. it was a good headstart to getting over jet lag.
overall i'm kind of glad jill accidentally took jens's passport and that our first flight was rescheduled because that meant we got to spend the night in san fran, which is a city i've always wanted to see and our trip to korea was broken up a bit so it didn't seem so long.
san fran was awesome! i kept saying i wanted to live there but texas will always be my home so i'll probably just settle for visits :o)
since we've been back we've just unpacked, gotten some groceries, gotten the dog and the scooter, made bread, a lentil dish and whole wheat cranberry pecan scones, and watched tv :o) it's been nice to be in our own place again with our puppy. she's so sweet! her hair's all fluffy now! we'll probably have to get her groomed fairly soon. she's loving all the american dog toys we've brought her- especially the wham a ham! lol it's a frisbee type thing with a pig's face on it.
we've got a few days til graduation week so that's nice. i'm really not excited about going back to work :oP i wish i was starting at my new school a the beginning of march (the beginning of the school year) as opposed to the end of april. it's just gonna be awkward to come into a new school in the middle of a semester. oh well!
anyway, here's to another year in korea! wish us luck!
first of all i'll give you a brief summary of what we did in texas:
saw tons of family and friends
had christmas with family and friends
went to the annual rushing's xmas party and performed in the talent show
went to a few other xmas parties
went to a new year's rock band party at alex and hope's
went to jens's grandparents' ranch out in ringgold, tx twice with friends
went to ft. worth and dallas
ate lots of good food
went to the movies twice
went to a cooking class at central market- that was awesome!
jens and his old band had a reunion show at a coffee shop
went shopping
ate as many blueberries as we could!
enjoyed the mostly 70 degree F weather!
played with dogs of all sizes
went on lots of walks
bought lots of english books
etc.!
then the night before we were supposed to leave for korea jens went to get our passports together and his was nowhere to be found! we looked all over and i kept saying that the last time i saw it was in the night stand drawer. then i remembered- jens's sister, jill, had stuff in that night stand too and she had moved to colorado a couple weeks before! i thought, she probably grabbed it by accident! so we called her and sure enough she had it....it colorado! we scrambled to figure out what to do. after calling different airlines, fedex, etc. we found out since 9/11 you can't send cargo on a plane unless you're on it too (so jill couldn't send the passport on a plane to san francisco where we had s stopover). also fedex and ups were closed. so the only option was for jill to fly to san fran and meet us at the airport for our stopover. we got it all scheduled just right in order for us to meet her there.
but then! it iced for the first time since we'd been home and our flight to san fran was canceled! they put us on a later flight that day but it meant we would miss the only flight from san fran to korea that day! we talked to korean air and they said we could leave the next day for korea. this was a little nerve wracking because before i left for korea my co-t made me sign this paper that said if i wasn't back in korea on this specific day i would have to pay 10% of my salary! so i emailed her and told her the situation and she got back to me a few hours later and said she would need proof from the airline that the flight was canceled. we asked for it that the airline employee said she had never heard of that but gave us a phone number my co-t could call to confirm the cancelation. i hope that the the newspaper we grabbed that morning talking about the ice and canceled flights will be sufficient proof!
so we flew to san fran, met up with jill, switched passports and then spent the evening exploring the city. it was fun! we rode trolley carts, saw alcatraz and the golden gate bridge, went to union square and the wharf, ate some amazing crab chowder, went through chinatown and little italy, visited a famous bookstore called city lights and ate pear gelato- yum! that night we stayed in a cool hostel called fort mason. unfortunately i didn't sleep well at all but we got up on time to get to the airport and catch our flight to korea!
the flight was alright. since we left around 1pm or so i didn't really need to sleep on the plane. when we got to korea we took a bus to the train station (upon which i slept) and then i slept all the way to mokpo on the train. we got home about 1am and i was in bed by 2am. i slept til 8am so that was good. it was a good headstart to getting over jet lag.
overall i'm kind of glad jill accidentally took jens's passport and that our first flight was rescheduled because that meant we got to spend the night in san fran, which is a city i've always wanted to see and our trip to korea was broken up a bit so it didn't seem so long.
san fran was awesome! i kept saying i wanted to live there but texas will always be my home so i'll probably just settle for visits :o)
since we've been back we've just unpacked, gotten some groceries, gotten the dog and the scooter, made bread, a lentil dish and whole wheat cranberry pecan scones, and watched tv :o) it's been nice to be in our own place again with our puppy. she's so sweet! her hair's all fluffy now! we'll probably have to get her groomed fairly soon. she's loving all the american dog toys we've brought her- especially the wham a ham! lol it's a frisbee type thing with a pig's face on it.
we've got a few days til graduation week so that's nice. i'm really not excited about going back to work :oP i wish i was starting at my new school a the beginning of march (the beginning of the school year) as opposed to the end of april. it's just gonna be awkward to come into a new school in the middle of a semester. oh well!
anyway, here's to another year in korea! wish us luck!