Colorado Trip

Sunday, March 30, 2008

We just got back not even two days ago from our Denver, CO trip. It was such an amazing break from the busyness of life back here and a nice way to escape from all the responsibilities and the long "to-do" list for Korea.

We got down there on Tuesday night and ordered pizza when we got to our hotel room. We just stayed in that night. When the pizza came, we had a good laugh because the pizza boxes said nothing about the place we ordered the pizza from, but stated "God Bless America" with a big American flag and on each side it said "Land of the Free" and "Home of the Brave". We had such a good laugh about that one and made many jokes about it over the time that we were there. The pizzas were huge though. We paid $19 for two XL pizzas, garlic sticks and a 2L of "Soda" ie. Pop.



The second day that we were in Denver, it was 21 degrees C. SOOOOO NICE! We left our hotel around 9:30am and did the touristy thing where you walk around and take pictures of random buildings, statues, parks, etc. We walked all the way to the Pepsi Centre and went inside to the store. Then we walked to REI and fell in love with that outdoor store. We then walked to 16th Street Mall, which is 16th st in the city and it has all been closed off as a mall with stores all the way down. No traffic besides a free mall bus. Lots of restaurants, about 5 Starbucks, if not more, and it is about a mile to a mile and a half long. By the time we ate, walked the whole street and walked back to the hotel it was about 2:15pm. We were so tired from walking for so long. We rested and then got ready for the game. We went for dinner at Chili's and then headed back to the Pepsi Centre. The game was amazing. The Avs won 6-3 and our seats were unbelievable!!

The next day we went to the Denver zoo. Another 6 hours of walking that day by the time we got there and back and walked around the zoo. It was amazing, they have over 4000 animals representing over 700 different species in an 80 acre lot!! We saw lions, giraffes, leopards, cheetahs, komodo dragons, rhinos, hippos, etc. So many animals and so much fun. I love zoos.

All in all, it was a great trip, but it is so nice to be back in Canada again. You can just feel it when you cross the border. The difference between the atmosphere in the Denver airport and the Calgary or Vancouver airport is indescribable. Much more relaxed.

Good to be home. Back to the Korea stuff though now, we have everything set up for our storage of our furniture, finalized our Shaw account, found someone to take over our cell phone, found packing supplies, arranged our trip to Esterhazy, SK and Winnipeg, MB with Nicole, but we are still just waiting to have our interviews with the consul. We should have them this week. I have to call them on Monday or Tuesday to set up the interview time and then we just have to do that and get him to stamp our passports and we are ready to go. Kyle is working this week and then he is done, so I am just taking it easy and trying to get everything else in order. Our landlord contacted us about breaking our lease and he is perfectly fine with that, but stated that he is extremely sad to lose us as tenants because he has never known better tenants. It was good to hear.

So, enjoy the pictures from the trip... I am off to finish watching the Pittsburgh-New York Rangers game. Ciao!

Visas

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Well... the visas finally came through a couple of days ago. I was so relieved when Kyle called me to the computer to see them. Huge weight off of my shoulders. So, now we are still waiting to hear back from our landlord about us moving out and that we have someone who is interested in taking over our lease. For those who didn't know, Kyle and I signed a one year lease on our current apartment back in August not thinking that we would be leaving for South Korea. In retrospect, not that good of an idea, but nothing we can do at this point besides say were sorry and put on sad puppy faces?? Not really, but we do have a couple who wants to take over our lease. I think it will be okay. We are going to try and talk with him tomorrow about it since we have emailed a letter and physically printed a letter and placed it upstairs for them and still no response. Could be because it is Easter... but we gave it to them almost 2 weeks ago now.

I have to run, Kyle wants to try out a new program he just downloaded on the computer. We are off to Denver on Tuesday, but we will make sure to post pictures as soon as we are back. Oh yeah, we still have our interviews with the consul in Vancouver to go through, but I am assuming it is just a formality since immigration has already approved our arrival and working in the schools for one year. One would assume that is the difficult part to pass, so here's hoping!! I know things will go well though because we have been given a check list of what the interview is about and it seems like he is just going to ask us general questions about ourselves (ie. where were you born, when were you born, nationality, etc, etc) and some stuff about our schooling. We will let you know how it goes.

Till next time!

Today is sad...

Thursday, March 20, 2008

It's Amy here... today I am sad because I am saying good-bye to the people that I work with. It is my last day at Ensign Chrysler and I am really going to miss a lot of these people. Of course... not everyone, but we won't get into that.

I just have a lot of mixed emotions right now. I have been talking with Nicole M. about a lot of this stuff that I am feeling and, as I suspected, it is all natural. It's just hard packing up your life as you know it and putting it into boxes and putting those boxes into a storage unit. A storage unit that holds my life as I know it right now. $100 a month at that!! Anyways, I am just struggling internally about everything. I am so excited for this new adventure and for what is going to come, for the ups and downs, for the new sights to see, for everything, except leaving all my friends and family behind. Never really realized how much I really would miss everyone until we made the final decision to go. The time is just passing so quickly right now and I am feeling overwhelmed with everything that seems to be piling up on my "to-do-before-moving" list. I am dreading packing my dishes... I know, just know it, that I am going to break something. My Dad would say, of course you will... you always managed to even spill your drinks growing up the second you would step on the living room carpet. I know I will do things wrong and make mistakes and probably forget some sort of important object behind that I really wanted to take with me, but I know I will get through this stress.

Not to mention, still waiting for our visa numbers to come through. I know they will come, I have no doubt in my mind, but as time keeps passing, doubt keeps creeping in through some crack somewhere. I don't even want to think about what is going to happen if for some reason they.... no, I am not even going to say it. They are coming. I know.

Okay... well I am going to sign off for now. What does this week entail? Sleeping in, cleaning, a little Monday night clubbin' to listen to Kyle's friend DJ and then a much needed/deserved vacation to Denver. Shopping. Hockey. Hockey. Go Avs!

Just To Let You Know...

Friday, March 14, 2008

So, I guess if you are reading this, you already know that Kyle and I are off to South Korea at the end of April for a one year contract to teach English. We will be teaching Elementary students in the city of Wonju, Gangwon-Do, South Korea. I will be teaching at ELC Institute and Kyle will be teaching at Princeton Language Institute.

Wonju is a gorgeous city based about an hour or so outside of Seoul and in the mountains. There are ski resorts by the city and many places to go hiking and just enjoy the outdoors. Since we will be teaching in the evenings we will have plenty of time to chat with everyone, whether that be through MSN or through Skype. There is about a 17 hour time difference between Victoria, BC and Wonju-City. The city is about 300,000 people and we are happy about that since it is not the size of Seoul, but we are still close enough that we can go and visit Seoul and our friends in Seoul on the weekends. We are teaching M-F and only about 6 hours a day. We are most excited because we should be able to pay off about 90% of our student loans in one year.

We are also very excited to experience a new culture and to go through the highs and lows of everything together while we are there. For those who didn't know as well, Kyle and I both graduated from Providence College last April with our TESOL Certificates and our BA's. We both did our teaching practicums at the University of Manitoba through their Volunteer English Practice Program (VEPP).

I guess I am not sure what else to write at the moment. We are just very excited about the whole thing. I am so ready to be done with the E2 Visa process. It is such a long process. Criminal Record Checks, Notaries, Photocopies, Mailing to the Korean consulate in Vancouver, speaking with the consulate in Vancouver when they don't understand my questions, spending $200 to express two envelopes to South Korea from Victoria, Face to Face interviews with the consul. So many steps and that is just the simplified version. It's been quite the experience, but we have a great recruiter who has been extremely helpful through the whole process. I think he might get annoyed with all my emails sometimes.

I hope that we can update this frequently while we are in Wonju and we will start to keep you more up to date once we are on our way from Saskatchewan to Incheon Internation Airport in South Korea. Oh boy... the jet lag awaits!

Bye for now!!


PS... getting immunizations sucks