on the other side of the world….
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Up and Down

by Kate

Drive. Take off. Land. Drive.
Saturday morning (the 23rd) we loaded up into Julie and Zane’s civic (THANK YOU!) and headed off to O’Hare. When we got to O’hare we drove to the international terminal, Delta was not listed there so Julie dropped us off at the Domestic Delta terminal. WRONG! We were right the first time. Julie was gone so we slowly arranged oursleves (2 large bags, 1 camping back-pack and one purse/computer bag each) and made our way up down over and around back to the international terminal. No big deal, just bags, bags and bags.
Speaking of bags, our bags were perfect. The night before we left Kokomo we loaded into the car and drove to Chad’s Dad’s church to weigh our bags. After some shifting around and some major adding to our carry on, all of the bags became about 2 lbs under the weight limit, wiggle room is always good. When we checked our bags the woman asked us if we had weighed ahead of time. We were that spot on!
Okay, big bags gone, we made our way to security. I took off my jewlery, chad got rid of his belt, no problem! I went through, no beeps. My bags went though, no beeps. Chad went through, no beeps. Chad’s backpack went through, BEEP BEEP BEEP. Okay, no beeps, actually a security oficer’s face became incredibly stern and staring at the monitor he uttered, “Oh. My. God.” Seriously, I watched the man. I felt like I was in some hoaky police movie and I was going to lose Chad to a white room and lots of men in uniforms. Bomb, no, but close to it on a computer screen in the international terminal at O’Hare. As most of you know, Chad likes electronics. One of his carry on bacgs became harddrive mecca (this was due to the check-in pounds explained above.) He got through fine. :)
After a helter-skelter experience at O’Hare we made it onto the plane safe and sound. The plane gently transported us for 14 hours over Canada, Alaska and Russia (that what I can remember) we landed in Incheon (and island slightly west of Seoul). At Incheon we got through customs with no bumps.
Lunch on the plane. So yummy!
Lunch instructions! Due ot the fact that we do not look Korea, the flight attendant took some pitty on us and handed us an instruction sheet for our lunch!
This is Chad eating his lunch. Along with the Bibimbap there was seaweed soup, a roll, two side dishes of vegtables and wine. I am getting a little ahead of myself but I just want to mention that our meal on the plane was the last meal we had before we ate Korean’s version of Western food in a caffeteria for about 5 days. We should have taken more pictures.

This picure is not that interesting but the little man we saw when we took this picture was. As we drove through the toll booth we were sternly greeted by figures in orange militant looking uniforms. Each figure was adorned with a tan face mask complete with eye holes.
Maybe my favorite picture so far, the first scultpure we found in Korea! It was right outside of the airport.

Some apatment buldings on our drive toward Yang Yang.

This is our “plane bling” video. Chad also took videos of us taking off. Panic! :)

Well everyone, thanks for reading. Some time in the near future (assuming home internet is in our near future) I will set up the blog so you can get emails everytime we post instead of you having to check all of the time.
Happy first day of school to everyone starting up soon!
K

August 30, 2008   1 Comment

Spicy Fishy

by Kate

The few weeks before we left for Korea were pretty intense. Lots of driving, packing, and stress… Kate spent some time back in Virginia, then a week in Michigan with her family. I left Aspen on the 15th and drove to Michigan in two days – with a stop at both grandparents houses. :) We spent a day and a half with Kate’s family, and celebrated her Grandmother’s birthday. Kate repacked for the 3rd time and finally got down to just 4 bags – the max. Then we drove down to Kokomo so I could pack. While there (for 4 days) we went to Indy to see Christa and Michael. Below is a picture from our dinner in Broadripple. Michael was sharing his wisdom on Korean Cuisine and told us a story which inspired this blog… or at least its title. He and his friend went to a Korean restaurant for dinner one night and as is traditional in Korean meals, the main dish was accompanied by lots of small dishes which everyone shares. This can be anything from raw crab (in its shell) covered with hot spicy pepper sauce to slabs of tofu and radishes. Everyone reaches around the table with their chopsticks snatching up whatever they’d like to eat. At this particular restaurant there were this small chunks of something… (a usual sight at a korean meal :) and they tried it. It was very spicy and kind of fish-like. They liked it a lot and the next time they went out to a Korean restaurant they didn’t get the mystery food. This “Spicy Fish” was intriguing to them and they really wanted to be able to order it again so they asked the waitress if she knew what it was… describing it in as much detail as they could. She then replied… “Ohhh Spicy Fishy!!” and brought some out Michael and his friend. Hence the name… (It’s funnier when Michael tells the story – and I’m not sure if I got the story even right…) nonetheless – it’s a great title and we’re excited to keep posting about our adventures, both with cuisine, and this amazing country.
After we spent a few days in Indiana we went up to Chicago with my parents and stayed with Julie and Zane. We went out to a Thai restaurant with a bunch of friends and had a great last night in the US. The next day we drove out to Ohare and took off for the other side of the world… EEP!

August 30, 2008   1 Comment