Buzzing with excitement

K: I emailed my brother Sang Kwan to let him know that the tickets are bought and we will finally get to meet. His email back was so touching and his excitement is so apparent.

"Kim; That's a really good news for me .souds like you will be coming as soon as possible .oh MY GOD ! I can"t control my felling! I hope that the day is tomorrow. Maybe we can spend it in New year 's Day ! Now my best wishes is study english .if i can't speak it .i can't talk to you more .so iam so afraid! that's a imporint things for me this year !you bless me OK ? sang kwun"

Mark and I also need to start our Korean lessons ASAP. We have decided that we will commit to lessons every Sunday (at least). Though it's hard to stay on top of this, the ability to communicate with Sang Kwan will make it worth it! And he's making such an effort to learn English, I'd love to at least say a few things to him in Korean also! Can you imagine the surprised look on his face when we walk off the plane and say "Hello, nice to finally meet you" in Korean?!?!?

Korean Food: First Impression

K: We decided to celebrate our purchasing of the tickets by going out to eat this past Saturday night. What better time to try our first Korean meal? Our choices for Korean restaurants in St. Louis our somewhat limited, but we were advised to try The Korean Restaurant (not kidding, that is the actual name of the place) by a Korean friend of ours. It is supposed to be very authentic and is located at Olive and Fee Fee.

Well we ended up trying it and really liked it. We took some pictures of the place --- for you guys. And of the food --- for us, so we can remember what we liked/didn't like. We highly suggest trying it!

This was the outside of the restaurant - not overly impressive. But Mark and I have decided that the shabbier many Asian restaurants look, the better the food.



Though we didn't sit at one, you can request to sit at a table with a hotplate. They also bring this wok-like grill to the table to cook your food and keep it hot. From some of our Korea research, this seems to be a very popular style of eating over there. We'll be requesting a table like this next time.

Koreans typically serve a bunch of sides with their meals. This restaurant brought out these six side dishes, which we found very tasty. Mark especially liked the two middle dishes, although we still aren't sure what the one in the middle-right was. The one closest to us is Kim Chi, which is a staple dish served with every meal.

This was the appetizer we ordered. It is the Korean version of a sushi roll, only it had meat in it and wasn't served with soy sauce. We can't remember the name, but think it was Kim Bop?

Finally, the entrees. Mark got the Korean spare rib dish. I got the Korean BBQ (which I liked so much I forgot to take a picture). The meat was already cut off the bone so you could use chop sticks to eat it.

We were very impressed. We think we chose "safe" dishes this time, and will try to be a little more adventurous next time around. If anyone would like to go with us, just say the word!

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.

Luggage?

K: Mark & I received some money for Christmas from my parents, my work, and from a gift we returned. We've decided to apply all of it towards a nice set of luggage for our travels.

Unfortunately, our cheapo Target set has a huge hole in the side from our last flight and since Mark has taken a job that will require some traveling, it is a good time for an upgrade.


From what I understand, for international flights between us we are allowed 4 check-ins and 2 carry-ons. I will probably get a monsterous purse to load up as well. I am leaning away from a *Big Bertha* suitcase since Mark's clothes, specifically SHOES, are much heavier than mine and tend to drive the weight over the limit.

As I was reading reviews, it seems that Samsonite is generally the best-known, and while it's expensive, not mind-blowing.

I found this full set of 5 pieces for $300. Is a garment bag worth it? If we choose not to take it with us to Korea, it may be helpful for business trips. This luggage will come in a dark grey color. I was hoping for something in a deep maroon or bright blue, but I'm not sure how Mark will feel about carting those bright colors around. Since this is community luggage, we'll probably have to go with a more neutral color and I can just tie some bright ribbons to it so we can easily spot it in baggage claim.

Macy's is also having a sale on luggage (aren't they always!). They have quite a few spinner collections, which are sold piece by piece for around $100/piece. As far as I can tell, the spinners are supposed to help with maneuverability, which may be nice as we navigate the streets of Seoul. I also really like this blue color, which may be Mark-approved. I would assume we'd get to large size suitcases and two of the medium sized ones and maybe one travel/carry-on bag.

I'm leaning towards the set of 5 pieces, since it seems like we'd get more bang for our buck, but it would be nice to choose each piece individually and mix and match.

Also, these bags will mostly hold Mark's clothes. We figure there probablyaren't many tall sizes in Asia. I plan to bring a few basics and just buy most of my clothes once we arrive in Korea. (Here's hoping my birth father is feeling generous since he owns a clothing factory and all!)

Any feedback, especially from the Spain girls, about what pieces you think are necessary... if there's another luggage brand we should consider, etc? Oh and Hannah - you travel for work a lot, is there something in particular we should look for to cover Mark in that department?

First Class Fantasies

K: Well, just a bit of daydreaming today. Mark and I have been talking about booking our flights to Korea with our tax returns this year. That way, we'll have no way out - the tickets are bought - we're going!

We started talking about the flight there, which, according to Travelocity, is a whopping 14 hours and 10 minutes. Now, I have a hard time sitting for that length of time, but my 6'7" hubby falls apart on airplanes. Last time we flew, his ankles were around his neck (while his legs invaded my personal space) and his back started hurting. And that was just a 3 hour flight to Mexico...

I started doing some research on Korean Air, which is supposed to be the best, just to see what the flying conditions would be like. Well...

Here's what Coach/economy looks like. I wish I could get the other pictures to download, but they were in flash. You can see them here if you're interested. I like how they describe the seats as "snug."

Then they have the normal first class seats, which much more leg room.



Then there are the sleeper seat/recliners in first class
Finally, there are the completely unbelievable sleeper seats. *Mark is drooling now.*

Considering just the coach seat is over $1000/person per way, I'm thinking the first class Kosmo Sleeper Seat will remain in our dreams. But it's pretty cool, right?

Guess Mark'll just be loading up on Nyquil and Vicotin for his long jouney east. :-)