Oh man, it's here.

We're leaving for Korea in a mere 30 hours. It's pretty amazing how fast the past few days have gone. We've packed and packed and packed, and I think we're packed pretty well. We've somehow consolidated our belongings into 4 bags, 2 carryons, and a couple of backpacks. We leave from Austin at 6:00am Wednesday and arrive in Busan hopefully no more than about 28 hours later, with stops in Chicago and Tokyo. We're ready for it all. We embrace the idea of culture shock. We want to see neon lights, interesting architecture, and jagged mountains. But are you ever really ready for something like this? I don't think it's possible to not feel overwhelmed by such a huge event looming literally just over the horizon.

We have a few last stops to make, a few last purchases to do, and a few loose ends to tie up tomorrow. It should be no problem, then early to bed, earlier to rise, and ride up to Austin for the flight to Chicago. It's gametime. When I think about the things we're going to see, hear, smell, and taste in the next few days my heart beats faster. It's really crazy. All I can do to calm down is distract myself by reading, playing iPod touch games (my PS3 is packed!) and burying my nose in the news. This is an amazing sensation.

I can't wait to report in from our new digs, on the other side of the planet.

Two Weeks

Two weeks from today Babehoney and I will probably be settling down to bed for the first time in Korea. We've worked really hard to get to this point, and it's super exciting. Here is a list of all of the silly challenges we've been through to get this job, and I don't think either of us has ever worked this hard to get a job we wanted this bad before.

1) Babehoney notices a monster.com careerbuilder.com posting for teachers in Korea
2) We read up on Korea and teaching English in Asia and decide it sounds good
3) Initial application with our recruiter
4) Initial interviews & grammar quizzes
5) In depth application with a hagwon
6) Video introductions for hagwon (boy was this a peach!)
7) Rejection from hagwon
8) Application to Public School program
9) Get fingerprints for FBI Background Check
10) Wait for FBI Background Check
11) Get laid off of our full time jobs
12) Moved to Texas
13) Phone Interview with Korean Public Schools
14) Notified that we are accepted into the program, time to gather documents
15) Drive to Austin to visit Secretary of State's office to get all documents but FBI Background Checks apostilled.
16) Drive to Austin again to get FBI Background checks apostilled...DENIED!
17) Hire apostilla.com to get FBI Background checks apostilled through the state of New York (OUCH!...but they were really fast)
18) Wait wait wait
19) Get confirmation email that all documents were accepted and we would receive contracts
20) Received contracts
21) Drive to Houston to visit Korean Consulate to hand in contracts/notices of appointment
22) Received Passports with E-2 Visas stamped in
23) Purchased one way tickets to Busan
24) Filled out some tax forms for the IRS to hopefully get us Korean tax exemption

That's what we've done so far, who knows what the next two weeks is going to look like! All I know is that I'm so ready to be working again, settled in a new city with my gal, have something new and interesting to talk about every night when we get home from work, and be part of the world again. It's all so exciting. And to think that we're going to be eating Korean food, IN KOREA, wow! I hope we also get to take taekwondo classes while we're there, and do all sorts of other "authentic" things.