South Korea....who?

    The closer Kelly and I are to departing to Korea the more we realize how little we know about Korea, and the more we realize that nobody else knows anything about Korea either.  For starters, Korea is not a third world country and for the less educated, the country is divided into two parts.

     The other day, Kelly and I were in Barns and Nobles book store looking at travel books.  While we were in the coffee shop portion, a man with two incredibly lazy eyes overheard our conversation and decided to chime in.  He had mentioned to us that Korea was an incredibly unique country because of its history of war.  Crazy eyes told us that over the course of history, Korea  has been invaded and attacked over 400+ times while never declaring an invasion on any other country (prior to the Korean War).  While I was a little thrown off guard with this man barging in on our conversation, concentrating more on his eyes than what he was saying, I found that fact interesting.  Thus, I bought a book called "Culutre Smart! Korea" by James Hoare which has been an amazing source of very basic information about Korea's history, culture and customs.  This book will hopefully enable us to not look like complete idiots for our first few weeks/months in Korea.  Therefore, I will use some information that I have gathered about Korea to convey to those who know nothing about Korea.

     Little do people know, unless you are 50+ or actually paid attention in social studies, Korea was a unified country until the end of WWII.  Like Crazy eyes mentioned, Korea was invaded a lot.  As we all know, centuries ago China and Japan both had their ambitions to rule the world (a broken record idea).  Korea is placed right in between the two superpowers and therefore was the skid mark on the underpants of many Chinese/Japanese wars.  In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and basically treated them like trash until Japan was defeated in WWII.  Well the allies who defeated the axis of evil thought they should stick their hands in the Korean cookie jar (this is where the ideas get creative).  Russia and the US had rights to Korea because they were the victors.  Well since they are so good at diplomacy they came to the decision that they couldn't come to a decision and split the country in half.  Communist Russia called dibs on the North, and the democratic US shottied the South.  Herein lies the division of a country.  In 1950, North Korea (as anyone else who would have their country split in half by people who it doesn't belong to) sought to unite Korea by force.  Introduce the Korean War.  In an even tug-o-war match with Chinese and US help, the war ended in a stalemate and resulted in nothing but a lot of death, shattered economies, and a really, really big border that puts the United States boarder patrol to shame (we're talking land mines and sharp shooters).  Needless to say there is a lot of hurt and suspicion in Korea.  You can't blame them for whats happened throughout history.

South Korea's economy has boomed since the Korean war.  There has been  A LOT of emphasis on science and technology.  Seoul is one of Asia's/ the worlds leading economies and is one of the largest cities in the world with roughly 20 million residents.  Samsung, LG, and other technological giants call South Korea their home...so I hope that answers your question mom.....yes.  They do have TV's in Korea.  Seoul, like Tokyo, is well off and advanced.  Some would argue they are far more advanced than America.

I hope this post wets your pallet for more information about Korea, as there will be many of these comparing and contrasting north east asia to the midwest United States.  

Click to see the Korean Promotional video...what roped us in.

South Korea Bound...in 4 weeks

To say the least, Kelly and I have had to make a lot of important decisions in the past couple of weeks. Once we landed in Omaha after our honeymoon, we only had about 6 weeks to find a place to live, work, change names, transfer bank accounts, investments, life insurance, selling cars, repairing cars, traveling for the holiday season and last but not least preparing to move to Korea. Kelly and I have about 2 weeks left at ACR, a company in which we have invested a combined 4 1/2 years of our lives at. The job has offered amazing experiences for the both of us, as well as has been our source of income which has served us well. It is bittersweet to leave ACR, as we are excited to start something new with our lives while at the same time sad to leave a job in which we were so familiar. The few weeks that we have left are stressful in themselves because we are constantly reminded that we will not be able to see everyone for at least 14 months.

It has been nice to ease in to the transition of being married while in America. Our original intention was to leave for Korea October 15th, 4 days after our honeymoon in Ireland. Yah, we were stupid. We have enjoyed experiencing the fall, especially not having to go to school. We have been trying our best to see everyone we can before we go, but we have realized seeing everyone is just impossible. We have been able to take part in many things such as our traditional "Valley Scare", carving pumpkins at my brothers house, visiting Stillwater with the in-laws and watching the Vikings win.


(the carvers; left to right, Pete, Kelly, Elizabeth, Dave)
(Stillwater Bridge)

Even though we have hit the ground running after our wedding, once we are done with our jobs in 2 weeks we will begin sprinting. After our last shift on November 20th, we will have approximately 19 days to pack all of our stuff, drive to Iowa, drive to Chicago, meet with the Korean consulate in downtown Chicago, celebrate Thanksgiving in Chicago with my family, fly to St. Louis, MO to visit Kelly's grandma and family, fly back to Chicago, drive to Michigan, drive back to Minnesota, pack for Korea, then fly to Korea. The newly wed buzz might (will) be put to the test.

This morning, in order to keep our sanity, Kelly and I walked around the Rosedale mall area because it was uncharacteristically nice out for November 9th. We stumbled across an REI store ("accidentally") and perused for a good hour or so (my weekly fix). Other than all my other visits to REI, we actually had an intention to buy something. We wanted to buy a duffel bag and I knew REI sold duffel bags that were big enough to fit humans. I went directly to the XXXL bags. Even though it was about $65, we decided it would be sufficient for the both of us to pack 14 months worth of clothes (4 seasons remember). Needless to say, once we got home I demanded Kelly to sit in it, and naturally I zipped it close with her in it...you would too if you had the chance. When I was in 5th grade, I convinced a girl to sit in an empty tuba case, and I latched it close with her in it. Don't gasp. She was alright, until the pounding stopped.