Family

Saying goodbye to America…

I’m sitting here in an airport lounge at Honolulu International Airport watching our Korean Air liner undergoing final preparations for boarding.  We are finally leaving the United States for Korea.  Hooray!  We can’t wait.  It’s been almost a year since I signed up for this job, and it’s been almost 10 months since we first learned we would be heading to Korea.  It’s hard to believe that in just 12 hours we will be landing at Incheon on our way to our new home in Seoul.  I wish I could tell you how exciting it is for us.  Hawaii as been as enjoyable as it could have been considering all we’ve been through over the past couple of weeks.  We survived my Korean language exam, went through an exhausting packout, had a heckuva time in transit to Hawaii, and dealt with multiple bouts of illness (we’re still not at 100%).  Alas, we persevered, and now this ordeal is almost over.  In future entries, I’ll tell you more about the wackiness we went through on this trip, but for now, Korea here we come!

Yesterday my blog passed 1,000 page hits averaging about 15 per day.  That’s not bad considering I’ve only been writing it for about 2 1/2 months with no public fanfare.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoying our adventures!

Aloha from O'ahu

Aloha and greetings from beautiful, rainy O’ahu Island.  I’m looking out the window at my brother’s home outside of Honolulu admiring the picturesque palm trees, tiki torches, and dark rain clouds.  Yes, we arrived in Hawaii during a wet spell.  Although it was sunny a few hours ago, it’s pretty much rained ever since we arrived yesterday evening.  Nonetheless, I’m happy to be here.  I’m glad to be underway at long last, and I’m relieved finally have a chance to relax and spend time with my brother and family.  We last saw them in November when they came to visit us in the D.C. area.  I hope that the weather improves, especially since the NFL Pro Bowl will take place here tomorrow.  The weather feels more like a fall day on the mainland than what you would expect in paradise.  My brother assured me that, contrary to popular belief, Hawaii is not balmy year-round.  Our first trip to Hawaii was much difficult.  Our son was not yet born and the weather was spectacular.  We came here for the first time in 1998 and visited O’ahu, Maui, and the Big Island.  We’re hoping to come back within a couple of years and visit Kauai…when the weather is better.

The last few days have punished our bodies and spirits.  Our packout and apartment checkout turned out to be much more difficult than expected.  My wife fell ill with a stomach flu and gave it to both my son and me, and we’ve all felt terrible ever since.  I feel better now, although my stomach is still restless.  My wife and son are still under the weather.  The flight from D.C. to Hawaii via Atlanta made life even worse for us.  I am not happy with our treatment by Delta Airlines and will rant about that on another day.  The flight exacerbated our illnesses, and we were all miserable the entire time.  No one enjoys a 10-hour flight; having the stomach flu made it much worse.  However, my son was a real trooper and did well on the flight.  I am so proud of him!  I’m really thankful that my brother put us up (or should I say put up with us?) for the weekend so we could all rest and recuperate.  We still have another 11 hour flight to Seoul and need our strength for the final leg of the journey.  I hope we can all get over this illness and have a much better experience during our flight to Seoul. 

Of Metro and moving

Sometimes commuting by Metro drives me nuts.  I went to bed really late last night because my son stayed up long after his bedtime.  I also had to leave earlier than usual this morning to commute via the Metro.  It was absolutely freezing this morning (just 14 degrees or so), making the commute an uncomfortable endeavor.  Unfortunately, the cold also affected the trains, and two trains went out of service while I was trying to get to work.  The first one appeared to lose its hydraulics, and the second one’s doors would not close.  I caught the first working train that I could and barely made it to the last shuttle I could take before class started.  Because so many trains were out of service people began to gather and wait idly to catch the next available train.  We packed into the train like sardines.  During it all I saw a humorous sight–I saw an older gentleman calmly reading the comics with a stern, serious look on his face.  He was reading the comics intently as if he were analyzing investments.  Perhaps he was internalizing it all.  At least someone had an opportunity to do something productive during the commute.  I made it to work on time, but I was cold and exhausted.  Needless to say, today was not a good day in class.

The next three weeks will be very hectic for our family.  For the next month or so I may not be able to post updates very frequently, but I will try.  One week from today I will take my final Korean exam (and hopefully pass it).  Two weeks from today we will be in Hawaii visiting my brother, and three weeks from today we will arrive in Korea.  In the meantime I’ve been feverishly trying to wrap up final logistics before the move.  Right now it all seems a bit surreal.  Not much has changed around here in the past month because all the move logistics have so far been intangible.  However, in less than two weeks however the furniture will be returned to the rental company, our belongings will be picked up for shipment to Korea, and our car will be driven off by the shipping company.  We will spend our last few days here with what we’re carrying to Korea and will move temporarily into a furnished apartment.  The move still seems far away to me.  Until I pass Korean (fingers crossed) it will continue to seem far away.