Pictures and such

This is the start of the pictures portion of the show. Me with the wooden Bobby Bearcat. Go Northwest.

I miss you long hair. Did I mention I cut off all of my hair. Me in my Hy-Vee outfit. Harry Potter woo!

The cute little girl I sat next to the whole way to Korea. After I took the picture she informed me that she didn't like flash but let me do it anyway.

Homoni! She is so thin now :(

Some mountain in Korea.

My room with my crap in it. You can't tell but the floor was nasty dirty.

The disgusting bathroom. Note the left side of the photo were it is gross and black. Yeah had to bleach the whole side and it still wasn't really clean.

Gross gross fridge. I scrubbed the hell out of that thing.

Another shot of the bathroom with the washer right there.

Seong Hwan Opa. Cousin.

Jun Gu

Emo! Note the peace signs in all the pictures.

My clothes hanging to dry. I miss you dryer!!

Bad to Worse

Ugh my apartment is absolutely disgusting. I mean really it's just awful. I don't know how they could expect to stick someone in there. I'm figuring out what to say to the academic director about it. I mean really I'd rather go home and be jobless then live in that place. It is nothing like the picture at all.

The walls were gross. The kitchen sick. The fridge just disgusting. I angrily cleaned the kitchen sink while I was there as well as clean the wall where the stove is. The bathroom has to be a health hazard. I'm going to have to bleach the entire thing. Yes definitely going to talk to Eunice.

Orientation was fine. Boring and not worth the $30 a day I got for going. Hopefully this gets better.

Culture Shock Part 2

The flight to Korea was extremely long. I ended up being in the middle seat for the 13 hour flight. Lucky for me I ended up sitting next to an older lady that was going back to teach English in China and the cutest 6 year old. She reminded me of myself when I was that little. She was really good considering she had to sit there for so long. Getting to know the little chatty Cathy I found out that she was going to Russia to visit her mom's family. She had a 19 hour lay over in Korea and then would get on another 6 hour flight to Russia. She wins.

The flight was normal. The movies were awful. Be Kind Rewind, some movie with Pierce Brosnon and Rachel McAdams, then some Korean movie about a girl that had special fighting skills. The food was alright for plane food I guess. Kind of like a half a step up from a tv dinner. Well maybe same level.

When we landed the first thing I thought about was that I needed to get my bags and check to make sure that all of my stuff was still there. More importantly my money since mom decided to tell me that I should have taken my money out of my carry on bag before I checked it. Anyway my bag was one of the last ones to come out which made my stomach sick. Everything was where I had left it. Mom made me worry for nothing.

Customs was easy and exchanging some money was easy as well. Right when I walked out there was a group of Korean people waiting. It almost felt like they where paparazzi it was weird. I looked around and finally saw my cousin/aunt Hun Jung-Emo. I ended up losing the paper on where to go but they for the most part knew.

After a traffic filled drive that left me scared out of my mind (Korean's may be the worst drivers I've ever seen. I'll never complain about Kansas again) we got to the school where I quickly met the director. I was embarressed because of how awful I looked. Image is everything in Korea. Then Paul, who picked me up, took me to my temporary housing which was a tiny hotel room. I sat on the bed and was amazed at how much it felt like a board. Then we were quickly off to my Grandma, Homoni's, house.

I stared out the window of the car trying to hold back tears. The only thought running through my mind was why had I done this. Everything was so easy for me back home in Kansas City. I have no idea where I am here. I can't read the signs or understand what anyone is saying to me. What the hell was I thinking?

When we got to Homoni's I was pretty much out of it. I had been awake for 28 hours and really didn't feel like talking to anyone. Mom was on skype and she asked me if I regreted going. I told her no that I was just tired but I couldn't help wonder if I did. When everyone left me alone I laid in bed and cried. I was already home sick. I slept for a couple of hours waking up at around 2 in the morning. I couldn't go back to sleep but I really was so tired.

I started feeling better though realizing why I had come. I got some emails that made me happy :). Emo keeps trying to feed me even though I'm really not hungry and Homoni is really helpless. It's so sad. She needs helping walking, going to the bathroom, eating. She keeps saying that she's so happy that I'm there. I'm glad to be able to come help her.

Culture Shock

I didn't think that I would really deal with it. I figured, hey my family is from there, I'm half Korean, I'll be alright. Oh no was I extremely wrong. Lets start from the beginning.

I woke up at 5 in the morning which was really hard to do. I didn't want to leave my bed at all but I got up and took a shower. Packed the rest of my things, said sad goodbyes, and was on my way to the airport. The line for United was long and was had gotten there at around 6:45. My flight was at 8:03 so it seemed I had plenty of time. When I finally got up there the lady told me that I could not go because I didn't have a return flight. I showed her the paper they told me to print out that said the Korean Government, regardless of nationality, allows E-2 visa holders to not have a return flight ticket. Well she didn't by that so my dad told her to let me go on through to Chicago. The crap part about that would be that I would have to get my bags and haul them. By the time I get through the gate I barely had time to put my shoes on and wave goodbye because I was practically the last one to walk on the plane. I felt the tears coming but I held back.

When I got to my seat all the over head things where full so I couldn't get my gigantic carry on up there. The flight attendent was all, "You should have checked this. You're going to hurt yourself or others." Irritated I just snapped, "Well it's to late now." A man helped me make it fit and I sat down in the middle seat with a teenager at the window and business man on the aisle. I told the kid I was on the verge of tears and to prepare himself. And right as I sat down I started to cry. The kid, Steven, was really nice though. Talked to me a lot all most to the point of being annoying. We played a card game for the hour flight to Chicago.

Chicago airport is giant. I was in Terminal 1. I bought a cart for three dollars, got my luggage then found out I couldn't take the cart on the little train thing that took you to Terminal 5. So I abandon the cart and make my way to the new Terminal. I'm worried that I have come this far to be turned away by the Korean Airline. I get through the line with no problems other then I had to check in my carry on because it was to heavy. $65 but I was alright because I just wanted to get it over with.

Three hours later I get on the plane to Korea and I'll write all about that next time.

Excess Baggage

Packing is a lot harder then I thought it would be. I had decided early on that I would have a bag specifically for clothes and another bag for all the other stuff, like my precious deoderant, and other things from home I couldn't get there.

On the first go around the clothing bag ended up with a lot of stuff for Korean relatives making my bag weigh 55 lbs (the weights are thanks to my bathroom scale which I'm hoping is accurate). My "others" bag weighed in at massive 64 lbs. This is really bad considering that the max weight for each bag is 50 lbs, no exceptions.

On the second try I did only clothes which weighed in at a light 43 pounds. I added some shoes bringing the weight of the clothing bag to 48 lbs. Next I re-packed my "others" bag and with the help of a carry on bag I'll now have to take it's at around 45 lbs. I don't know how I'm going to manage three suitcases with wheels.

I leave in three days. How absolutely weird is that? I picked out my airplane outfit so I wouldn't have to dig through my bag for clothes. It's like the first day of school outfit. Speaking of that Rachael starts school tomorrow. I can't believe that I don't have to go back to Maryville for class. Dr. K, Pat I, Walker, Fisher miss you guys :)

Korean Address

I got my address for my studio apartment in Korea yesterday night. It's really long. I also got my e-ticket for my flight. I found out that on United, which I fly to Chicago, I can have two 50 pound bags. But on Korean Air I can only have two 44 pound bags. Lame. So I have to make sure my bags are 43 pounds at the most.

Money makes me sad. I thought that I was going to be getting that income tax stimulus check but it never came. And from what Rachael says mom and dad "accidentally" claimed us so I definitely won't be getting it.

Passport and Visa

I got both today!

P.S. it is sweltering hot outside :( I don't like this one bit.

Living my Life through Countdowns

I've come to the realization that everything is a countdown. I've counted down to weekends, birthdays, holidays, the end of school. But now I don't want to countdown my life. I've decide to just live it and forget about how many days I have left before certain things happen. Well, as best I can anyway.

I bought the last book of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, and I refuse to read it until I get on the plane. This is kind of hard considering I read the other three in a week and a half. I just keep telling myself that reading Breaking Dawn on the plane will pass the time quicker then anything else I could do.

Mom bought my luggage two days ago. Two 31 inch suitcases. They are huge. I don't know how I'm going to handle them full of stuff on my own.

The school emailed me to tell me that they will not be picking me up from the airport and I'll just have to find bus #606 on my own. Lucky for me I have a ton of family in Korea and I'm sure mom can talk one of them into meeting me. Still don't know the address of where I'm going to be living but I'm not as worried about that as my parents.