Signed, sealed, delivered... electronically

M&K: Since I started this blog, there's been a lot of talk, but the actual walk has been non-existent. Well... gulp... we purchased our plane tickets today! We've been checking the prices for airfare and were expecting to spend about $900 per person per way, but when we found tickets on www.cheapoair.com (an unbelievable resource for plane fares, by the way) for $455 it was too good to pass up. It's official. We'll be flying United Airlines, leaving Friday January 2, 2009.

Here's our approximate itinerary:

Friday, January 2, 2009
9:20 am: Depart from St. Louis. We will be excited and nervous, with grins from ear to ear. Mark will be doing some stretches to prepare for the marathon flight.

10:30 am: Arrive in Chicago for a 2 hour layover. Woohoo! One hour down, nineteen hours of traveling left! Let's get something to eat... oh and some Starbucks too. (Do they have Starbucks in Korea?) Meanwhile, Mark is limbering up with some yoga stretches in Terminal A.

12:45 pm: Depart Chicago. Bye bye USA! 12 hour flight... bring it on!

5:34 pm: Mark complains for the first time about his cramped knees and aching back. Kim asks for a heating pad and some earplugs.

Saturday, January 3, 2009
5:05 pm: Arrive in Tokyo, Japan for a 1 hour layover. Long past needing stretching, Mark heads straight to a massage parlor in Terminal B. Maybe steal a quick bite of sushi... compare Japanese airport sushi to what is available in St. Louis.

6:15 pm: Depart Tokyo for the last leg of our flight. We're just about there!

9:10 pm: Arrive in the homeland. Mark already notices stares and points from people amazed by his height. Both wonder what adventures lie ahead.... and where the hell is the baggage claim?

All in all, according to the travel itinerary, this trip will amount to 20 hours and 51 minutes of travel time. We saw some more expensive flights with 5-6 hours less travel time, but we thought the savings were worth the extra time. We decided with the money we save, we'll buy ourselves a few little treats (iPods, portable DVD player, books/magazines galore) to pass the time. Plus, we liked the idea of having two layovers to stretch our legs.

We would both like to thank everyone for their support with this process. All of the encouragement really makes this very scary decision so much easier. As always, we will keep you up to date with any news or developments.

Wedding bells

K: Sorry about my blog's hibernation, but haven't had any new news lately to share. BUT, just when I had gotten used to saying... "No, nothing new about Korea," I got a new email from Sang Kwan. I emailed him earlier this weekend to check in and to wish him a happy Korean new year. In the email, I also mentioned that Kevin is getting married in about a month.

Well, in his reply he said that since Kevin is getting married, I am probably expecting him to get married as well. (Maybe he did get that email awhile back when I asked if he had any marriage plans - haha.) Well, he said that he and Emily will get married when Mark and I are in Korea for a year and hoped I would be a part of it. How cool is that! And how funny is it that I could have both my brothers getting married within a year of each other!

Sang Kwan also mentioned that he had spent the Korean new year with family (my birth father has a ton of brothers and sisters, apparently). He hadn't seen them in 4 years, so they were able to catch up. He said they talked a lot about childhood, which is kind of interesting.

He also mentioned that he has more news to share and will email soon... I'll keep you posted!

I'm committing a blogging sin

K: I'm deleting my last post. After re-reading it and the oh-so-level headed J's comments (check out her blog here!), I realized a lot of what I wrote doesn't reflect my priorities and ambitions.

Also went for a walk last night with Mark and had a minor spazz attack. And what he said to me really stuck with me: "when we're old and gray (I like to refer to that a lot!) we will fondly remember our time in Korea and will never look back and say 'I wish we hadn't gone,' but if we don't go, we will most definitely wonder what it would've been like if we had gone and what we missed." Touche.