Bad-bye

We have said our farewells to everyone already, but we just wanted to thank our parents and relatives and all our friends who put together our going-away parties. We were lucky to see so many of you before we left.

"Bad-bye" is not a Korean word, but merely the opposite of good-bye. We received a card from Dana, Bruce, Chad, Carrie, Liam, & Captain that says there is nothing good about having to say bye. You know you will all be missed and we thank you for all the love and support coming from Canada that we feel in our hearts every day. Please picture in your mind, photos of us hugging and crying and laughing and cutting cake. And maybe if you wish hard enough these pictures will soon materialize on the blog.

For some reason, everyone says it with cake!

Saying good-bye to the Cooks got the tears started, and they didn't seem to stop for the next several hours (only to start again the next day.) Lots of things are probably going to be different in a year, but we realized our nephew Liam is the only person that will look different when we return. We are going to miss so much...

10 by 20

Well, we made it! We are now in what will become our new home and new country for the next year. We aren't connected yet in our apartment, so daily blog entries at a fast and furious pace are not going to be so easy yet (be quiet Megan). We also can't get any picutres on it yet, so be patient and we will update entries and insert picutres as we can. It will get easier, we just have a lot to work through before we're settled in.

The 10x20 referred to in the title is not the size of our apartment, as some of you may be thinking since everything is purported to be so small over here. We spent the last month reducing our "stuff" to a 10x20 storage unit back in Windsor. Everything we own from our 3-bedroom apartment in Windsor has been stuffed into this unit, except for the 2 suitcases each that we brought with us. So I'm happy to say that our Korean apartment is bigger than 10x20 and what we brought will fit in nicely. We aren't sleeping in a dresser drawer either, and the bedroom itself is actually close to 10x20.

There are certian unusual differences that we will have to get used to over time. For instance, we have a pink (yes, pink!) fridge that is smaller than anything I've ever seen. It makes Canadian beer fridges look industrial size. The shower is really wierd with the shower head connected to the bathroom sink - there isn't a separate faucet for the shower so you have to reach over and turn it on and off at the sink. And there's no shower rod or curtain either, so it's just a wide open space. We've made quite a mess of spraying water all over the place already, which we think is the intended way to clean the room. The air conditioner works well which is necessary right now because it is quite humid. And the heating system is a series of hot water pipes in the floor, there aren' t any vents or rads, so we'll see how that works later on in the winter. Much more details and pictures to follow about the apartment.

Korean Buffet

We're still in Windsor, but we are engaging in certain activities to prepare us for our big trip. Even though we are spending our spare time packing all our earthly possessions into boxes, we still have to make time to eat. We were lucky enough to have 2 of our friends from Starbucks - Hyo Jean and Steve - who are of Korean descent over to our apartment for dinner. Not only were we able to taste test some authentic Korean food, but they also did the cooking for us. It was like having our own personal chefs! Steve even brought his own cooking device to barbeque the ribs. This little contraption is similar to what we will have in our apartment in Korea. There won't be a conventional oven, so no cooking turkeys or baking pies, but we will have a burner to fry food and a hotplate to boil water. Oh, and there is a microwave.

As this spread shows, Korean food is colourful and appetizing. But as we are learning with most things Korean, not so easy to pronounce or spell. So at this point all we can say about this Korean buffet is that it was absolutely delicious, but don't ask us to remember what anything was called. Not to say that Hyo Jean and Steve weren't perfect ambassadors for Korean cuisine - they taught us a lot about foods that we would normally just raise an eyebrow at, but we just seem to be slow learners when it comes to these Korean words. Nothing 12 months won't cure.

We shared this Korean feast with a group of friends from Starbucks and a good time was had by all. Jenn was particularly impressed with the Korean food and was able to dissipate her fears about living on white rice alone. One of the words we do remember from the meal to help along our (and your) Korean education is kimchi. This is the national Korean dish that is served at every meal. It can be prepared in many ways, but the main ingredient is cabbage and it is pickled and loaded with spices (think cabbage rolls without the meat and rice and ten times hotter on the tongue). The kimchi we had with our dinner cleared our sinuses nicely. Now that is a sign of good kimchi.

Raise a Glass

Phew! Choosing a name for our blogsite wasn't easy. But now that we have one, you're all probably wondering what the heck it means. As you all know this blog is going to be the place to celebrate our year-long trip to South Korea, and we didn't want to spend a year there without every one back in Canada not knowing some Korean words, so we're starting the blog with a quick Korean lesson. Konbae is the Korean word for Cheers (or Salute for you Italians out there). So as we start off this adventure in teaching and travelling please feel free to give us a hearty Konbae! every time you raise a glass with family and friends. We'll be doing the same every time we have some soju (Korean wine made from sweet potatoes). Now, we know that's two Korean words in the first paragraph, but we'll try not to throw too many unusual words at you and there will not be a test when we return, so don't worry.

One of the names we choose not to use is NotEnoughCooks, which we decided against because it is too similar to another blog by our sister-in-law. Carrie's blog (which is well worth visiting if you want to see the cutest nephew in the world) is entitled TooManyCooks - this being the opinion of Chad and Carrie's cat, Captain, who has not been all that pleased since Liam has become the newest addition to the family. NotEnoughCooks seems to be everyone's opinion of us since our wedding day. Why is it that the questions begin immediately after you are married? So, when is the baby coming? Are you pregnant yet? Certain friends and family members (you know who you are!!) even have bets on when we will conceive. This is crazy! We can assure you there are children coming in the future and we promise they will not come in the next year. And if they did, they still wouldn't look Korean as some people are trying to lead us to believe, just because Korean babies are so cute. So for a little while, we will keep our status as NotEnoughCooks, so we can spend time as a newly-married couple, and explore a new country together, and learn a new language, and try out our skills as teachers of other people's children.

We are exactly two weeks from leaving and our social calendar is filling up quickly. Everyone wants us to go over for dinner or to go out for a drink which is great but we're running out of time! It is so hard to say no when we think about not seeing everyone for a whole year but we're not even packed yet! Our day trip to Toronto is changed to Tuesday so tomorrow with no interuptions (hopefully) we will get the bulk of what is left finished. The reason we are going to T.O. in the first place is to have our passports stamped by the Korean Consulate. We thought our visas would be completely separate but they actually go right into our passports and for whatever reason they cannot do this by mail. Good excuse to get some new clothes from MEC and go to our favourite Toronto restaurant, The Green Mango, one more time before we leave the country.