En route to the unknown!

Well, we're off! And may I just say what a truly daunting process this whole moving-across-the-world thing has been. We were up at 4:30 this morning after a stressful night of packing - United's baggage fees are astronomical!!! I am happy to report that our bag weights were all under the limit, though we cut it close with weights like 49.5 lbs :) The frustrating thing, too, is that I KNOW that we could put way more stuff in those suitcases, except then they'd be overweight, and even 5 lbs. over the limit could cost us potentially $200+.
It's amazing though, how much stuff we don't know that we'll need... That's one thing I find to be lacking on the interwebs is a packing list. Here's some of the things we brought, and once we get settled  I'll post to let you know what was useful and what essentially just took up space.

We each took a suitcase of clothes, limiting us to basically a two week supply of stuff. For me, I was able to double duty the clothes I took to work for church, work, etc. I still took WAY more than Taggart, but for him, it's hard, cause he's so flipping tall that his clothes are enormous. And dense.  We then had one suitcase for toiletries and one for shoes and household items. The toiletries are a thing because we have no idea what will be available to us in Seoul. We've heard any point of the spectrum from 'you can't get anything over there' to 'you can find what you need no problem', so we aired on the safe side. This will have to have another follow up post once we determine if the eight million things of deodorant we took were worth it.

So we reached the airport in record time just to find that our first flight to San Francisco has been delayed. We have about a 15 minute window to make our connecting flight to Seoul, by have seats booked on a later flight that only tacks on an extra 3 hours to our travel time. So for now, here's hoping!!! 

Update 2 hours in: We have a tentative new bestie, though we did throw the term YOLO out in conversation, so it's on thin ice haha. Of course the guy who sits next to us is also going to Seoul to teach English! It's cool to have an American airport comrade who's also getting delayed to share this ordeal with. See you soon, San Fran!

San Francisco was HOT and HUMID in the airport, as was our first plane, so we are dripping and pretty gross.  It's a good thing that our new best friend was happy to share the next 12 hours with us!!! We had to go through security again and almost made our connecting flight by like 5 min, which ticked all three of us off because we were all geared up for an epic run-to-the-gate awesome connecting flight story.  Oh well.  We spent our three hour layover eating lunch and changing into less sticky clothes for the long flight.  Since we missed our connection, we also transferred airlines, and thank goodness for that, because I can't imagine a 12 hour flight with United compared to the amazing flight we had with Asiana Airlines.  The service was amazing, there was tons of leg room, they fed us 3 times and provided water, orange juice, and hot towels the whole flight, there were over 35 movie selections and games on our personal tvs, and the three of us new buddies got to sit together.  It was very enjoyable, and if we don't get to fly back with them I'll be very sad indeed.

Here's some pictures to tide you all over to the next post!

 A little blurry shot of the 4:30 a.m. drive, plus a shot of our luggage.  I don't think we brought too much!...

 Below you will see Nate and Taggart enjoying one of our fine dining selections, the interactive map telling us we were about to land, and two awesome shots of Korea from our window.

  This is the cabin of our plane, which was really roomy, plus a picture of a toilet in the Incheon airport that had a seat that rotated and changed the plastic cover before you could use it.  Weird, and cool!

Friendship is magic, and we're ready to go!  This is our new buddy Nate.

The process of processing goes on and on...

Ok, so this whole moving overseas thing is pretty complex and established.  We have learned over the past few months that not only is there no actual step by step process for expats trying to find the easiest way to go about things, but there's actually a more efficient way to get stuff submitted and done in order to make the visa application hoop jumping go a lot more smoothly.  In this post, I hope to catch you all up on what we've been up to the last few months as well as perhaps shed some light on what the steps are.

1. Research - We first looked at bunch of different Korean recruiting companies that primarily place ESL teachers to schools across the world.  We actually began our search with no specific country in mind, but quickly discovered that Korea is one of the highest paying countries for expat teachers with a more traditional, conservative culture than other places.  We felt it was safest and most lucrative to narrow our search to Korea.

2.  Apply to recruiter - After selecting about 4 recruiting agencies that we got good vibes from and consulting my friend who already lives here, we filled out the online applications and sent them off.  The apps are free, there are no fees, and they are fairly easy to do.  You also need to send a resume, cover letter, and a photo.  We heard back pretty quickly from two recruiters but only interviewed with one, who happened to be the same one my friend Bryan went through.  The interview was conducted through Skype with the recruiter, and then a phone interview with the school, where we talked to both a Korean supervisor from the school as well as a Western teacher to check that we had North American accents.  We got the job, signed our contracts, and then the paperwork began.

3.  Background checks - To work in Korea, you need to get an FBI background check, which is the most tedious part of the process, at least in terms of waiting.  The checks don't cost much, around US $18 each, but take up to 2 months to process, which for us I think ended up being around 6 weeks.  So start early if you are on a time crunch.  We received the results in the mail and scanned a copy to the recuiter, and later sent the copies to the school for the visa stuff.  More on that later.

4.  Foreign Documents and apostille - Really for me this was the hardest part of the process, mostly because of my school's end. Since I recently graduated but had not yet received my diploma, I had to get a notarized letter from my school to supplement that said I graduated.  Either this letter or a diploma works, but the first is much more of a hassle to get done, I'd say.  The documents the recruiter tells you to compile ranges depending on country, but basically include passport photos, passport copies, visa application forms, and apostilles.  An apostille is a foriegn notary which you have to get from a secretary of state office.  For your diploma/school letter of graduation, you can just go to the state capitol and get it done while you wait for about US $15.  For the background checks, though, you have to send them to D.C, which is fine if you have time, but if you're pressed for time because of your departure date, as we were, then you definitely want to express them.  We seriously lucked out because we had a contact who worked for the Sec. of State office in D.C, so we express shipped them to him and he submitted them in person for us and turned it around in about 4 days as opposed to over two weeks that they estimate on their website.

5.  Send stuff to Korea and visa application- Once you get all the required documents, notarizations, and photos compiled, you ship them to Korea for processing, and the visa office in Korea gives you a confirmation number that more or less says you have permission to apply for a visa.  This takes about 4 days, and you can start the visa stuff while you wait if you want/need to, which is what we did since we were so crunched for time.  Once you get the number, you attach it to your application, along with the required money orders, passports, and photos, etc.  and mail it to the office.  What we did, and what I think is really a good idea to do, is to call whichever Korean consulate you plan on mailing the visa apps to and letting them know that you're sending them, so they expect your applications.  It expedited the process for us by about 5 days, because the lady there knew we were in a hurry and so gave us priority.  I would also recommend spending the extra money to ship it priority and get tracking alerts on your documents throughout the whole process so you can see what status they're at.  Also, the visa office and the apostilles require paid return mailing envelopes, so if you buy a priority flat rate prepaid to come back to you, you know how to track it once they've sent it.  After about a week and a half we got our envelope back with our visas!!!

6.  Flight info and logistics - I will say the more questions you ask during this whole thing, the better.  We probably could have packed smarter and saved some internet research time by asking more about the conditions in Korea and the process steps, but we did pretty dang well, and were quite prepared for the move.  Most recruiters will provide a flight for you to your county and will arrange pick up and accommodation for you so that you just have to worry about getting there.  What I did is print off our own itinerary and check baggage stuff on my own, and that helped me feel more connected and in charge of our flight info.  We also just asked a billion questions to our recruiter, as we thought of them, and she was great at getting back to us.
So that's basically a summary of the last 4 months of our lives haha.  It was a daunting process from start to finish, but actually is much smoother than you'd think.  The number one thing I'd recommend for people interested in this is to plan ahead and get a time frame set in advance so you know when things need to get done by.  We simply mapped out the weeks on a calendar and set deadlines for when stuff had to get submitted by, and it worked well.  More info and updates coming soon!

Big News...!

Before you start freaking the frack out, NO, IT'S NOT ONE OF THOSE.  Scared you, didn't I?

No, the big news is... *drum roll*... We are moving to South Korea!  Seoul, to be exact.  Dobong-gu, Seoul, to be even more exact.  Taggart and I got offered jobs teaching elementary school English in the Dobong district of Seoul.  We start August 4th, and are so freaking excited!!! It is a crazy, scary, huge step for us to take, but we feel like it is a good move forward for us.  Before you resign to cry into your pillow, know that we will only be gone (most likely) for a year. :)

We can't wait to start this new adventure - it's going to be one heck of an experience, but I'm sure we will love every minute.  We promise to keep you all posted as this process continues and we get ready to go!

This is somewhat embarrassing, but what the heck?

Ok, so I'm sure you can all relate to the woes and trials of being a senior in something.  Well, it has seriously taken a toll on us, yes that's right both of us, that I'm almost done with school.  I'm feeling pretty jaded at this point, and we all know how that spring-quarter slump can feel.  This video was taken a while ago, and pretty much sums up my thoughts on the matter exactly.

Now, I will say, this video makes me a little bashful, because I feel like we're exposing a very vulnerable side of our lives - that is to say, that when other more important stuff is going on in our lives, our motivation to do dishes goes to pot.  I'm not playing around, either, this is about the worst that it got.  I share this video with you in the hopes that you'll not judge us too badly based on what you see haha.  Enjoy!

So many projects, it's hard to keep track.

So I've been, as some of you know, costuming like a madwoman over the last 6 months or so.  It's been really fun to actually get paid to do something that I love doing on the side anyway, and I've really learned a lot and honed my skills working with Laurie from DU theatre.  I've been able now to costumes over 4 shows outside of DU at local theatre productions.  Here's some photos from the last few months that sum up the process of costuming an entire ensemble show (it's a LOT of work):

Some elf-sized shoes and Rockettes costumes from the Holiday show we did at Lone Tree.

Left: I made pajamas for everyone this year at Christmas, and found the cutest prints!

Right: The Rockettes wore these reindeer costumes for a number where they pull Santa across the stage on a skateboard (I know).  These costumes were my baby of the whole production, and I slaved over them, but they turned out so cute, and I was so happy to see them finally done!!!

Some pictures of the show itself:

 If that wasn't enough, I also do mini projects all the time on the side.
Here are a few of my latest in progress pieces:

1.  The dress came from both inspiration and frustration at the incredible mark-up of most recital wear and really just dresses in general.  I kept trying things on and saying to myself, "really?! THAT much for like one layer of pleated silk and a jersey top?! Man, I could do that for so much cheaper."  So I am.  I'm not done, but I found the prettiest vintage pink velvet at Allyn's for the waistband, and think I'm happy with my new sleeve ideas.  I'll be sure to post photos when it's done.

2.  This skirt is the beginning of a couple nerd/fan-girl projects I have queued up.  I saw this print in the children's section of the fabric store.  I'm pretty sure it's only used for quilts.  I don't care, I thought it was cool, and I need some new nerddom garb, so there you go. I'm pretty excited for it to be done.

I'll put more photos up as I finish more projects, because they are indeed always in the works!!!  Ta ta!

My Best Friend Got Married!!!!! :)

I made a quick trip to Salt Lake over Spring Break to attend my bestest most awesomest friend Malayna's wedding.  As Malayna is pretty much the coolest person ever, and works frequently with animals of a wide variety, there were, of course, live birds at the reception:

 Zorro is the Kookaburra on the left, and Chicken is the Macaw.  My only bridesmaid duty was to help wrangle the birds, and I fed Chicken hazelnuts.  I felt quite responsible.

It was really flipping bright the day Chris and Malayna got married, but we managed to get some pretty amazing pictures.  My favorite is the one on the right.

 It was so bright, the little girls were having a rough time, as was the bride.  So, we were finally merciful and moved the pictures to the shade, but to the relief of all involved.

It was a really fun trip out to see her - they are an adorable couple, and make each other laugh.  I couldn't have wished for a better match for my bestest friend, and I am so thrilled to see her happy. :)

Ice Castles!!!

We got some free tickets to head up to the Ice Castles exhibit in Breckenridge.  It's a seasonal thing, so we dashed up for a quick weekend getaway, and made a mini-vacation of the whole thing.  It was awesome!

We ran out of windshield wiper fluid on the drive up, it was pretty scary there for a few min.  Other than that, though, the drive was gorgeous, and we lucked out with really great weather, despite all the snow!

 The icicles were beautiful - the company that makes the castles uses over 30 million gallons of water to make all of the sculptures.  It basically results in a frozen playground:

 Demonstrated so well by the ever-so-lovely Taggart. 

 Yes, it was cold!

 Every day, the workers "harvest" new icicles to ad to the formations and haul them to their new spots.

 Some of Taggart's camera handiwork.

 We had a really fun weekend, and it was a well needed respite, even if it was only about 24 hours. :)