The 10:30 Post #12

Another week has been knocked off the calender and I'm just that much closer to getting away. It's not like life here sucks but lets be real, I'm probably gonna work some non-spectacular job for the rest of my life when this little segment is over, now I'm not resigned to a dull life after this, I'm gonna try and live an awesome life full of adventure when I get beck but it just doesn't seem likely.

Radio stations are being combined and consolidated all over the country so the opportunities to get in are much, much harder then say 5 to 10 years ago. But I wouldn't trade this opportunity for a million dollars, now for a million dollars a year for the rest of my life sure, but a one time payment of million dollars no way. You know what would be awesome to get a radio job in Korea at an English station because if I learned anything from College it's that I have almost no chance of learning a 3rd language, I'd have to make space in my mind, like a lot of space

The 10:30 Post #11: Friends

I don't really want to leave my friends but I suppose to expand my world it necessary, and not just for me but for everyone. If you don't travel alone once to a strange land whats the point in living. More on this subject later

The 10:30 Post #10: A series of reasons I'd rather not go

Now with these two I'm sure your wondering what's going on. No I'm not particularly miss the hardwood floors, although I did install them with my brother-in-law. But nay these pictures were taken by my nephew last night when he was supposed to be asleep but he wouldn't go down.







He is like a baby ninja when it comes to actually getting a picture of him. Very shifty and not often in one spot for very long and you basically have to grab him and hold him in one spot to get a clear picture of him




This is the best I've got so far but I hope to have some more with more travels on the horizon.(Around the state obviously)

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The 10:30 Post #9: Miscellaneous

Today is a day off from work and so I think I'll do some reflecting. I'm ready to leave my job here and take the time off to hang out in Raleigh, High Point and then back here in Charlotte. No offense but when you take a job obviously you don't usually get to choose who you work with so from time to time you can have problems amongst co-workers. We are there people, it only took 4 months for me to hate nearly everyone. So that is that.

I picked out my seats on my three flights to Korea over the past couple of weeks because there was a problem where I could pick one but then wouldn't be able to see the other two plane layouts. But as I said it is done now I'm going to be sitting in row 7 on the little first plane up to D.C.. Then in two big planes 777's I've got seats deep in the Economy class on the very long flight from D.C. to Tokyo, row 38 window seat so that I may look down over the country from sea to shining sea, and what the hell over Canada, Alaska and Russia. I've never been to Alaska so I'll just go ahead and count this flight as a trip to Alaska. I wonder if I'll be allowed to take a couple shots at some moose on the way by.

The 10:30 Post #8: After Korea

I do not know how long I plan on being in Korea right now it's one year and play it by ear. But I do know what I want to do afterwards, I would like to take a trip to France and bike around the south of the country and, this is key, ride up Mont Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez, those two oh so famous mountain top finishes of Le Tour. I know, I know, why am I so fixated with the event it's just some dudes riding bikes around France. But I would say it's much more than just that. Hopefully while in Korea I can do a little cross training of cycling and running. The good thing about this is I already know I'm a better runner than Lance Armstrong was, and he's completed a marathon since this footage.

I tried to post the video but the thing is being stupid so click here it's funny cause it's an athlete SNL not a crappy actor one, why are the athletes always the best. Oh well off to watch the Peyton Manning United Way ad.

I think we are still currently about equal in terms of swimming ability

The 10:30 Post #7: Work & Money

Alright, I got another day off unexpectedly, although this was supposed to be a day off anyway I really wanted to work since I really like money and I'll need all I can to make it that first month in Korea. I don't know what I'll do that first month in Korea but I can promise you that it will be cheap. I may not have internet in my apartment or even a cell phone for the first month.

That will be a good thing as it will force me to one of two things that I will need quite a bit of in the first few weeks sleep and exercise. The exercise is because my doctor told me to start doing it and because I'm too lazy to start now. The sleep is obviously for the jet lag that I will have to overcome. Either way now I have about 6 days of working left then I'll take off to Raleigh for a weekend of parting with friends and shopping because that's the tax free weekend and I need khakis and they are expensive so the best time to buy stuff is when there is no tax. Duh!

The 10:30 Post #6: The Government

The Republic of Korea is a Semi-Presidential Republic. Don't ask me what that means I only took an American Government, but from what I gleaned from wikipedia it's a fancy way of saying they have basically all the parts of republic governments. President? Check. Prime Minister? Check. An orderly and deliberative National Assembly. Well you be the judge, look, I'm not saying that I'm not worried about this but the only time I see this kind of stuff if in other countries or in cartoons when a chair is thrown. I wholly look forward to going to my first National Assembly Brawl. Why can't our politicians be this awesome!!

The 10:30 Post #5: Packing

So back to it. As I mentioned before I went out and bought a new 5 piece luggage set for this trip. What I may not have mentioned is that I've never made a trip like this before. The biggest thing I've done as far as moves is to and from College. Obviously the only limitation there is how many cars you can take. It took one to get me moved in and like 3 to move me back home so I had collected some stuff.

This is obviously different though since I'm moving around the world and by the way I'm gonna have to figure out a way to pack a ton of clothes into those two large bags find the right sequence of pants and shirts to pack into the garment bag then stuff like deodorant, toothpaste, etc. to put into the duffel bag. It's going to be tough but I've got over 3 weeks left and think I can whittle it down then I'll just have to pack the new clothe I buy on the weekend of the 7th-9th of August(Tax Free Weekend, oh another topic

The 10:30 Post #4: Orientation

Hey-ho. This post isn't about my orientation it's about my little brothers College orientation. As a bit of full disclosure although this is the 10:30 Post it is being written at 10:50 pm on Wednesday.

My Mother & I are heading up to Greensboro to take my brother to his orientation. He's going to A&T so we are just going to check it out. In other news I got some good news from my recruiters Footprints, well it's not so much good news as much as it is just something else for me to read. Also they adjusted how much they recommended that we bring from $1000-$1500, down to $500-800, which is much more doable. Happy times are here again people.

The 10:30 Post #3: Luggage

So last night I went out shopping for luggage because I have none of my own, I started out on the internet and looked at places like Macys, JC Penney's and Dillards at the local mall for me, Northlake. Needless to say they had some pretty trendy and high class stuff... for ridiculous prices. Lets say I wanted to buy 3 bags a big 28" bag, a 19-25" bag and then a duffel for carrying on. I probably could have spent $250-300. That's more than a third of my plane ticket. I would have to an extra two weeks to make that (more now that they are shutting down the hours). There were some pretty trendy looking brands like Swiss Army, American Tourister and other ones.

Whelp, I left the mall and went to Wal-Mart because they have everything for cheap. I like cheap. After getting some help finding the luggage aisle I saw something that looked kind of frail and cheap I think it was called "Protege" and they had like a 3 piece set for $40, that's pretty sweet but once again I don't want my luggage to fall apart. Next in line was American Tourister which I was surprised to see but happy. Very, very happy. So they had a couple of things, a four piece set with the star being a 25 inch suitcase with "spinner" wheels for $74. Then there was a 5 piece set with the center piece being a 28 inch case with regular wheels and the second case is a 24incher. $94. Winner! I consulted home base then promptly purchased it.

Next up: Packing for a year long trip a Month in advance of leaving

The 10:30 Post #2: Of Flags and Sports

One of my favorite things in the worlds is sports. As someone who wishes to be a sports broadcaster, I love to listen to guys talk and converse about the games and events they are calling so I will probably be bitterly disappointed for a while until I can pick up some simple sports Korean.

One of my favorite sporting events all around for commentators and the event itself is closing in on the finish, the Tour de France. There's just something about getting up relatively early and sitting in my pajamas and watching men do ridiculous amounts of exercise to get someplace they could get to in cars 1000 times easier, but I digress. It is still one of the worlds great test of man weather your doping or not, obviously more of a test if your not. But during the time I'll be in Korea my whole sporting world will be turned upside down. How will I watch live sports in America from Korea. The answer pretty early in the morning and possibly over the internet. But one other thing I've seen is a lot of Australia in this tour not because they are winning but because they are crazy. I mean if your gonna fly halfway around the world do it for a winner people. Plus lets be real, if America has an Olympic rival now it's probably them, well at least Summer Olympics, they suck at winter sports. But back to the point I think that the flag that I've seen a ton in France should be adopted as the new national flag



If this doesn't scream Australia I don't know what does, the only thing that would fit better is if there was a drunk Australian rules football fan fighting the kangaroo. Now that I would pay to see.

Quitting day change

Just got back from work and they put up a new schedule for the rest of the month. Funny thing we didn't have a schedule until the end of the first week and now we have a revised one that, wait for it, cuts down on everyones hours for the rest of the month. We used to get just 2 days off a week and now we get a third day off. Hurrah! or not. It also means that I'll be quitting one day sooner than planned because they gave me Thursdays off now. I can deal with that because it's just one day closer. One less day and not just one day but two more days because it's atleast two extra days and could be more depending on what the do for the first 5 days of August but that's it for tonight I'll chat you up in the morning with the 10:30 post

The 10:30 Post #1

So the 10:30 posts begin in earnest here. It isn't even 10am today and I already feel like I've done quite a bit. I took Mom to work this morning then drove across town to get the second part of my physical done, the blood work. I spent all day Sunday drinking bottle after bottle of water to pump myself up and swell the veins in my arm for this one and it worked. Well more like I got the really good nurse this time. I told her about how they tried 3 different veins and kept moving around in my arm last time and she was like "I don't do that, I find a vein and I don't move". Lo and behold she did it and even made it nearly painless. Also while I was there I had them look at my ear because since I last visited them I couldn't hear anything with my left ear. Turns out it was just earwax on my ear drum so they flushed out my ear and sent me on my way. I can hear everything now it is glorious. Gross yes but you don't know how many times I thought I was sick or catching something that would derail the trip just about a month outside of it happening

As far as thoughts on South Korea and the whole program go all I can say is I wish that there was a forum or just online community like ITIL for EPIK teachers and people because the visceral negativity that oozes from Dave's ESL Cafe is so tough there isn't like one troll it's more like everyones either a troll or a newbie. ITIL is much more comfy.

In other news today is the 40th Anniversary of Man landing on the Moon. Why haven't we gone back or further? I don't know but we should look into that.

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Suprise!!

I was gonna start posting everyday at around 10:30am starting yesterday one month or 31 days from when I leave North Carolina, the East Coast, and the United States to head to South Korea. Then it happened as I was sitting around waiting for work to start my Brother-in-law called and said we're at the hospital. My Sister was having labor times and it was time for the baby to come. This conversation was at 8:34 am. Slightly more than 2 hours later got another call back and the she was here. Sydney Jean. Or I assume they choose that spelling of Sydney since that seems more popular. And even though I wasn't there through the magic of technology I know what the little one looks like a bundle of joy.


So I have another little one that I will be able to watch and play with. Although this one will be for a much shorter amount of time(try 3 days) I will treasure the time and take a ton of pictures since I won't see her for a year. But yes now there will be 30 consecutive days of writing until I get on that plane and fly away. I plan on talking about everything. Emailing people for help, the contract, shopping for luggage or using the same old stuff, and just the nerves that I'm feeling which is high but not much on the "I don't want to go" side but are very high on the "God I wish it would be closer so I could quit my stupid job and just go party in Raleigh for a few days". Also there maybe a few days in August that I don't post. No need to worry it's all part of the plan.

Super In!!!!

HAHAHA!!! Yes There is nothing in the way but time now. I got a note from the Post Office yesterday after work that said they had tried to deliver my Passport yesterday but no one was here (I had to take the bus in so I left around 10:50am 40 minutes before they came by). So I went to the Post Office this morning at 8:30 and picked it u. There was still a bit of apprehension but I ripped the envelope open and there it was on page 9 my Visa from the Consulate. What did I do after that? Went out and spent $715 on a plane ticket to Korea. I go from Greensboro to Washington D.C. to Tokyo to Seoul. I was a little shaky about taking this because I wasn't quite sure what kind of plane I was going to be on for the first leg but I looked it up and it isn't a turbo prop or anything super old so I felt better. Other than that big planes and long flights at least the middle part. I would much rather have the one really long segment to take me all the way to Asia then having to cross the continent then cross the Pacific Ocean then stop in someplace not Seoul. I guess what I'm trying to say is two stops is better than three.