MapQuest

So having found and now fallen in love with Google Earth I have a realitive idea of where in Seoul we will be. We will be in Dongdaemun-go Seoul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongdaemun-gu), which is supposed to have an AWESOME traditional market place, which is so awesome beacuse that is such a cultral thing that Western States just dont really have.

Today, I went out and sent $6o (!) to send my visa materials to the school. The overall process is this: we get all the materials together (which is a much bigger pain in the butt than you would think), we send them to our school in Korea, they apply for our visa, we go to the Consulate in Korea, they buy and send us our plane ticket, we bounce the hell outta here!

So as you can see its really a great deal. With our contract we will be making 2.22 million won (too bad its not dollars!) a month, so about $1800, we get a roundtrip ticket paid for and rent-free housing. Good deal no?!?

Once Upon A Time...

And so it begins... well I guess we are still in the pre-story as I am still a little over a month out from my departure to South Korea. The basics are this: At the beginning of my last year of university (gasp, Seattle U actually GAVE me a diploma!), I very quickly realized that I had NO clue what I wanted to do in life, for grad. school or the following year. I knew and still know now that I want to combine International Political Economy/Economic Development, soccer and children somehow, but the real question is how!

So realizing that that very minimal knowledge wasn't going to be enough to help me narrow down my list of graduate school majors, I started to look for another option. And I knew that staying in Seattle was not going to be one of them, I already had the travel bug and wanted to continue my journey of self-discovery and exploration of the world in which we live, I at least had a place to start.

And so begun my search...

I quickly decided on teaching English abroad, mainly because teaching had always been a background last resort so figured I might as well see if teaching was something I actually enjoyed and it gave me an easy way to find a job and move overseas. From this I decided on SE Asia because I thought that I might never have the chance or excuse to live in an Asian culture again, but after awhile figured out that SE Asia due to financial and age restrictions was not going to be an option for me...

And so South Korea popped up. And to be quite frank, I am so glad that it did. Having quite a bit of exposure already to the language and culture through simply living in Seattle, friends and family, I cant believe now that it wasn't my first choice. So I convinced my roommate and best friend Beka to join me, we started looking for a job, got on at an English and Music Academy in Seoul and are off the end of Aug for a year away!

We are both WAY WAY WAY excited both for Korea and all the other places we plan on traveling. I am looking forward to living in a place where it is relatively foreign, where I don't speak the language, and where I have no mental concept for.

This is going to be fun!