Aloha from Hawaii

Well, I survived day one of my trip to Korea.  All went very smoothly, but it has been a very long day and now I am exhausted.  All of my luggage made it and I was able to find the storage people and get a shuttle to my hostel.  I am writing this post from Waikiki where I have spent the past few hours lying on the beach, exploring the city, and watching the surfers.  It was a great afternoon, but I definitely need to come back here sometime.  Hawaii is so beautiful and I'm really glad I had a chance to stop and see it.  Don't worry, pictures will be coming soon. :)  Even the flight here was fun...full of "aloha"s and "mahalo"s.  During the flight we also played the halfway to Hawaii game where we had to guess what time to the second, in Hawaii time, we were going to arrive on the island.  I guessed 10:16.40 AM and was only off by 18 seconds...and I didn't win!  Oh well, I think the prize was a gift certificate to a common gift shop here so I probably couldn't have used it anyway.  Tomorrow I leave at 10:30 Hawaii time and arrive at 1:30 Korea time...a day later!  That will be weird, but because it is almost a full day it shouldn't affect me too much.  I am anxious to get there to see the city and meet the people I will be working with.  I won't have to wait much longer now, though!  Aloha!

Where I am...

Ok, here's South Korea! Taejon is in the central part of the country slightly to the left. (you can click on the map to enlarge it)

3 weeks to go!

Wow...I leave in 3 weeks and I feel like I have so much to do until then! Right now I am feeling nervous and excited and anxious and dreading July 29th all at the same time. I will try to post on here as much as possible so everyone will know what I'm up to during the next 2 years. Be sure to check out the blog for pictures as well. For those that don't know, most of my time will be spent teaching middle schoolers to speak Spanish. I'm sure I will keep busy in my spare time lesson planning and trying to tackle the everyday challenges of living abroad. I've heard the teachers get together to play volleyball on Wednesday nights, too. :-) I'm very excited to go to Asia, someplace I have never been (and don't know very much about) and to learn Korean--both the language and the culture. I know there will be plenty of adventures to share!