Parade of Homes

     There are now 6 full days left until Kelly and I depart to Korealand.  Since November 21st, Kelly and I have been on the road saying our last goodbyes to loved ones.  Our trip started with a quick drive/move of all of our junk down to Iowa.  There we were able to make precious moments with Kelly's parents and friends, decorating Christmas Trees, watchings movies about socially awkward offensive linemen for the Baltimore Ravens, a shopping spree at Kohls and SAMS Club, and eating.  Kelly and I had the pleasure of buying 270 tampons, yes a years worth of tampons from SAMS Club.  I figured that Korea would have feminine products such as tampons, but my lady would have none of that, and figured it would be best to have a full years supply.

      From Iowa we made the 8 hour drive to Chicagoland Illi-noise where we had the pleasure of meeting the Korean Consulate and spend Thanksgiving with my side of the familiy.  Meeting the Korean Consulate was an adventure.  The meeting started at 10:30am but we needed to be there at 10:10 according to the secretary.  The secretary also stressed about five times to not be late.  Being unfamiliar with Korean customs on punctuality, I figured I would please the Consulate and conform to their wishes of being early.  With that being said, we were 2 1/2 hours early to the meeting.  We did not want to take any chances.  We left my grandparents house at 7:00 am and got on the Metra train at the Palatine train station at 7:35, and arrived at Olgilve train station at 8:30.  It only took us 20 minutes to walk from the train station to the NBC tower, where we did not realize that on the 27th floor of the NBC tower is a metropolis of Korean government officials.  They must really love "The Office".  After waiting about 45 minutes in a Starbucks downtown, we had just enough time to burn in a Payless shoe store, of all the stores we decided to pick that one.  Don't ask, we had to make a decision.  After a long, awkward interview with the consulate, who asked us personal questions such as "what are future career goals were", we took the train back to my grandparents and then headed to Greys Lake to my Aunts house for Thanksgiving.  We had an amazing Thanksgiving with a lot of family and friends.  It was truly a great holiday, until Black Friday.

     Black Friday was the first and last time I will ever partake in the ridiculous consumer mindset that sweeps the nation like the H1N1 flu virus.  My 2 brothers, father and I decided we should get up at 2:30 a.m. to get into the line at Best Buy at 3am to buy $300 laptops.  That idea progessivly went from a bad idea to a terrible idea.  My middle brother Dave and my dad stood in line for about 5 minutes until they thought it was a dumb idea, and they sat in the car and went to Dunkin Donuts, leaving Nate and I to fend for ourselves in the line.  We waited outside in the cold for 2 hours just to get tickets.  Once Best Buy opened up at 5am, my brother and I stood in another line for about 3 hours.  All this for saving abotu $160 on a laptop.  Don't get me wrong, this is a really nice laptop, but I think I'd rather spend the extra money and keep my sanity.  I kept reminding myself of what Winston Churchhill once said, "Never, Ever, Ever Give Up".  Actually, I never said that to myself I am still trying to rationalize/validate my actions that morning.
     After our terrific time in Chicago, Kelly and I then flew down to St. Louis to see her grandparents.  It was a great, peaceful time in the Lou.  We had a great time visiting with her grandparents.  We also set her grandma up with Skype so we can talk with her while we are in Korea.
     After St. Louis we then flew back to Chicago, and then drove to Michigan where we now reside.  It is always great coming home, reminiscing about the olden days wondering what happened to certain people here while driving the streets.  I talked to the travel agent responsible for buying our plane tickets to Korea.  It is official as of today, we have a itinerary for Thursday December 10th.  At 7:45 a.m we will fly from Minneapolis to San Francisco and then a 13 hour flight directly to Seoul.  It is hard to believe that in 6 days (after tonight) we will be flying to Korea.  We cannot wait for this adventure and are extremely nervous at the same time.  There are a lot of unknowns to what we are doing and we can only have an open heart and mind.  Keep us in your minds, as my next blog will probably be focusing on how extremly small our apartment is.  Till we meet again.

Kelly packing for Korea in her room....Yeesh