On the Slow Boat to China...

Today was a strange day. There are so many mixed emotions about leaving Korea: trepidation about going to a new place, excitement for moving on to new adventures, sadness for leaving behind good friends, happiness to see an old friend again (Bevin), and finally, relief to leave behind all the responsibilities and annoyances that life in Korea entailed for us.

 

We cleaned out our apartment (with some help from some lovely folks at Banghak Middle School), updated our facebook statuses, christened our journey with some 11am Scuttlebutt microbrews (that Bevin imported for us) and set off for what I hope will be the adventure of our lives. I tried to instill some team mentality for the three of us by buying some matching Buddhist rosary bracelets at the temple in Insadong, but I'll be happy as long as they retain enough sandalwood smell to take the edge off our acrid traveller's BO. 

 

The ferry to China is, as Bevin put it, "like a really ghetto cruise ship." In other words, way above our expectations. I guess as long as we keep our expectations low, our journey will be full of pleasant surprises.

 

The task for Richy and I now is to stop trying to speak Korean to anyone we interact with who doesn't speak English, and to stop comparing all we see and do to our experiences in Korea. I really hope we don't bore Bevin to death with our constant anecdotes and ruminations on comparative Korean culture and philosophy.

 

By Katie

Official Katie and Richy Itinerary!

Here's the plan for our grand adventure. Dates marked with * are estimates only, all travel is by train unless otherwise noted:

8/14/08 Katie, Richy and Bevin Protas will depart on the Weidong ferry from Incheon, Korea to Qingdao, China at 5pm http://www.weidong.co.kr/

8/15/08 arrive in Qingdao at 9:00 am. Wander around. Take a night train to Beijing.

8/16/08 arrive in Beijing and check in to Chinese Box International Hostel for 4 nights http://www.asiarooms.com/china/beijing/chinese_box_hostel.html

8/20/08 depart Beijing for Ulaan Batar, Mongolia

8/21/08 arrive in Ulaan Batar, accommodations TBA

8/24 or 8/25/08 depart Ulaan Batar for Irkutsk, Russia

*8/25 arrive in Irkutsk, Russia and visit sites around Lake Baikal - emergency contact in Irkutsk:
Via Marina Shunina (our Russian friend who teaches in Seoul) "if u need any help or info while u r in Irkutsk, heres the cell phone number of a friend of mine..she speaks english well n ready to help u if u call her while u r in Irkutsk- ************ her names Yulya (Julia in english variant i think^^)"

*8/30 depart Irkutsk for Moscow (3 days on the train)

*9/2 arrive in Moscow

*9/3 or 9/4 depart Moscow for St. Petersburg (around this point we will part with our dear friend Bevin and she will travel on by plane to the Czech Republic and Ireland respectively).

*9/4 arrive in St. Petersburg

*9/6 depart St. Petersberg by ferry for Helsinki, Finland.

*9/6 arrive in Helsinki, Finland

*9/8 depart Helsinki, Finland for Stockholm, Sweden by ferry.

*9/9 arrive in Stockholm

*9/10 depart Stockholm for Copenhagen, Denmark by train.

*9/11 arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark.

*9/12 depart Copenhagen, Denmark for Amsterdam, Netherlands

*9/12 or 9/13 arrive in Amsterdam, possibly meet up with Kimmie, J, Doug, Sara and/or Noor Naaijkens (our friend from the Netherlands)

* 9/14 depart Amsterdam for Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands (Noor's hometown) we plan to spend a few days with Noor and her family while Kimmie and company move on to Belgium and destinations in northwestern France.

*9/18 to 9/28 travel with Noor (probably by her father's car, Richy driving) to meet Kimmie and company somewhere around Paris. At this point, Kimmie will depart from her company (Doug, Sara and J will return to Frankfurt, Germany) and join Noor, Richy, and I for some lovely car touring around western Europe. At some point we'll need to end up back in the Netherlands to take Noor back to Hilvarenbeek and rent a car to continue our travels.

*9/28 arrive in Munich, Germany for Octoberfest. Accommodations are booked, but Kimmie has the info on that.

*10/1 depart Munich for other fun and interesting European destinations.

*10/8 depart Dusseldorf, Germany for Vancouver, BC, Canada at 1:00 pm by plane:
LTU International Airways # 1582
Dusseldorf International (DUS) to Vancouver Intl (YVR)
Departure (DUS): October 8, 1:00 PM CEST (afternoon)
Arrival (YVR): October 8, 2:05 PM PDT (afternoon) What!? It only takes an hour? k-k-k- :P


*10/8 (the longest day of our lives, literally) arrive in Vancouver at 2:05 pm, and depart Vancouver by Greyhound bus or car (if someone wants to pick us up *wink*wink*) for Yelm, Washington USA!!! Our 14 month journey all the way around the Northern hemisphere complete!


 

9 days

Went to the pension office today to cash in our retirement. Luckily, we'll be getting back twice as much as we thought we would. The South Korean gov't matches your contributions, so we get around 2,000 instead of the 1,000 we thought we'd get.

We still have to start really packing our things, though we've started sorting things, slightly.

It doesn't seem like we're leaving in practically a week. But we are.

WE'RE FINISHED!!!

Today was our last day teaching. We're officially finished with our jobs in S.Korea! Now we have 12 days to tie up all of our loose ends and we're off to China and around the world! The days of getting up at 7:00 am are over for the foreseeable future.

But we can't start partying until I get the results from my skin biopsy today at Seoul National University Hospital at 3:30.

--Richy.

The Last (non-camp) Day

So, we finished our last official day at school today. The day was, for me, fanfareless. The last official day of school for the semester isn't until tomorrow, but as I don't work Saturdays, my stint here ends with no bang. Tomorrow, all of the teachers at my school will be going on a field trip, rafting and having a bbq. But, as I don't work on Saturdays, I wasn't invited.... So today was my last day to see 90% of the people who I've seen on daily for the last year. However, only a couple seemed to care.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, as the more Native Speaker English Teachers they get, the less they can bother about any one. Yet, it seems like maybe there could have been an announcement or some sort of goodbye. Nevertheless, we still do have 2 weeks of summer camp to do, so we're not out of the woods yet. And my friend, Mr. Gu, an older social studies teacher (who specifically asked me why I wasn't coming to the rafting and bbq tomorrow) invited Katie and I to go with him to the countryside before we leave. He was the only person who seemed to care, or realize, that I won't be back next semester.

--Richy