ONE Work Week Left!

how strange! i only have one work week left in korea! that's 5 days! i can't believe it!

this past weekend was nice. friday night i had a girls night and we watched antm, ate veggie chili and chocolate fondue with fruit (among various other desserts!) and then just chatted the night away. so fun! i will miss my korean girls nights! when i get back home i won't actually know that many girls in my hometown :o(

sat. the weather was WONDERFUL! i made homemade bread by myself for the first time ever (jens usually does it and i've only assisted here and there.) it turned out pretty good :o) i also made some tuna salad and we met up with joe and shanna on yudal mountain for a picnic. the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and it was really nice and sunny. perfect picnic weather! i loved it! we ate and then played scattegories and it was really fun. we got some great pics with the cherry blossoms too. surprisingly i think that's the first time i've ever been on yudal when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. in previous years i always missed them up there lol

sun. we did A LOT of packing and organizing! i was surprised that we actually got most of it done! we also got rid of all our instruments and related paraphanelia as well as our catan game! i posted an ad for those on the mokpo facebook group and a found a guy who has lived here a year but we had never met him before. he bought all of it to donate to an orphanage in the area which is awesome! we gave him a huge discount but still made a good chunk o' change which will really help us out a lot. every little bit helps when you don't know when you'll have income again lol

we packed 2-3 boxes and 2 suitcases. we realized we only have 2 big suitcases, a med. sized one and a very small one. so we're getting a bigger one from a friend of ours and with that we should be able to pack everything we need to bring back to texas right away. it's been a bit difficult deciding ok...what can we live without for 3 months? because that's how long it can take to ship something by surface (on a boat). we've done pretty well though. i was afraid we'd pack the suitcases and than still have a bunch of stuff leftover to ship by surface but it doesn't looke like we will. i think we can fit the remaining stuff in the suitcases. so that's good.

it's gonna be a hassle taking our 4 suitcases, 4 carry-ons and TWO dogs in dog crates to the bus station and then into the airport. but our friend chris said he'd drive us to the bus station which will help a lot! i just hope our doggies won't be too traumatized from being on a bus so long and then on a plane so long! he plane is what will probably get to them. we've been crating them every night in separate rooms so they can get used to being alone in their cages. they haven't been whining and barking too much...in fact jjang is the only one that has whined and barked a little so that's good.

this next week we need to get the dogs tested for heartworm, go to immigration and extend our visas for a few days, i will probably have dinner with crazy kimsookhee lol, finish packing, ship boxes, have the apt. inspected, get paid for everything, go to bank, change coins into bills, send some money to texas, get some money out, close bank accounts, clean our house, and have a going away party! then it'll be time to leave!

crazy!

work will be easy- i'm just showing a movie in every class :o) i love being able to do that!

one day this week the japanese teacher (akiko) is going to host a little lunch for me at school outside in the nice weather :o) it'll just be a few of the female teachers i've become friends with and akiko will bring japanese food :o)

then for our going away party we're going to an all you can eat meat place (or meatatorium of you will lol) where you choose from a buffet of raw meat and cook it at your table. there are tons of side dishes too. it's awesome! then we'll go to 3 of our favorite bars in mokpo and to sing in a korean noraebang one last time! we'll be leaving right after the party to get on a bus to the airport. it'll take about 5 hours. the party will be really fun but i'm not looking forward to the bus ride lol i hate losing sleep :o/ we'll have the dogs in our laps too so it might be even more difficult. gotta get through it though.

when we get to the airport we'll go to the quarantine office to have the dogs checked out and then we'll go check in. it's gonna be really hard to hand over the dogs and not see them for like 16 hours or something. i hope they'll be ok!!! and i REALLY hope there's no mix-up where they don't get on the plane or something! :o( just gonna trust the airline workers though!

we leave korea at like 10:05 am on sat. and arrive in dfw, texas at about 8:50am sat. so we'll be traveling back in time lol i love that! it may be the last time i get to do it! but who knows.

then as soon as we get back we're gonna have a small brunch with our immediate families. can't wait to eat blueberries! then i dunno what we'll do after that! we'll need to settle into the bungalow a bit, we'll wanna see some of our friends that live nearby, we'll probably wanna get a few things at the grocery store and that kind of thing. the dogs will wanna run around in the yard all day i'm sure lol can't wait to take them to the dog park too! so fun! so many things i wanna do! we'll be planning for the welcome back party too. i'm gonna help my parents get everything cleaned and organized and set up for that. we'll need to go buy food for it, etc. we're definitely going to be busy that first week...and beyond for that matter.

it'll probably take a few months to get totally settled in to the bungalow because we've gonna go through our storage and boxes will be arriving from korea and we need have a garage sale, etc. lots and lots to do! i'm happy to do it though :o) i actually like moving into new places and organizing them the way i want, etc.

anyway- wish us luck! it's a big move! probably going to have some reverse culture shock but i'm ready for it! :oD