Gangwon-do Weekend 2박3일 Part 2

We got up late on Saturday morning and had lunch at the pension. The area is famous for a certain kind of rice dish called gondre. I had mentioned on Facebook that I was in the mood for some turnip greens, well I got the Korean version for lunch that day. I also have to mention that Gandwon-do kimchi is unbelievable, a little spicy, but wonderful.

Gondre Bap

Cooking us some great lunch

We spent some time just hanging out in the pension's restaruant which we had to ourselves. The family that ran the pension also lived here, so it was more like sitting in a huge den with sofas and a TV.

The eating area

Taking it easy

Our Courtyard

A view of our pension from above

The weather was awesome. I could have really just sat outside all day long. We were very slow to get started and really just took our time lounging around.

Before he was scared to death

Troy got a little hungry

We started to make our way to Hwa Am Cave in Jeongsong. We stopped to pick up some supplies at one of those great little convenience stores in the middle of nowhere. There was a small creek that flowed nearby the store. We quickly picked up some snacks and headed on to the cave.




The weather was so nice. It was so nice to see pure white clouds in the sky. This is probably one of the biggest things that I have missed about being away from Mississippi.


Part 3 Trip To The Creek will come soon....

Mom

As soon as I had finished posting about our trip, my sister-in-law called and told me that my mom was going to have surgery today. That set off a firestorm of emotions and prompted many skype calls and facebook messages. I really figured that I had a couple of days before I really had to worry about her going under the knife. Well, she just got out of surgery and seems to be doing pretty well. She will be in ICU for 24 to 48 hours and then back to her regular room. I held up pretty good till I spoke with her over the phone while they were taking her to surgery. I haven't cried like that in a long time. It was just something I didn't expect. Now, we just have to pray for a speedy and safe recovery. The doctor said that there didn't seem to be anything else wrong with her except for the enlarged spleen, so that is great news.

The links of communication were great tonight with my family keeping me informed via;facebook, skype, email, and cell phones calls and text messages.

I am going to crash and try to get a few hours of sleep in before I have to work at 1pm. I will definitely sleep better knowing that she is out of surgery.

Mom and Gangwon-do Weekend 2박3일 Part 1

I first need to say that mom is doing a little bit better, but it looks like she will be having surgery this week sometime. I just got off the phone with my father and they have a couple more doctors that are supposed to drop by the hospital room before they schedule anything. I did feel bad about having a great time in Gangwon-do while my mom was hurting, but knowing her she would be pissed if she heard that we didn't have a good time on her account. I am so proud of my sister, who is a nurse in New Orleans, who has been taking such good care of her and making sure that her nurses do what they are supposed to do. My father and brothers have also been in and out checking on and taking care of mom as well. JJ and I are both pretty worried, but hopefully she will be making a full recovery soon. Love ya and praying for you mom!

Day 1

Troy and Joanne picked me up from school on Friday at 10pm and we drove straight to my house and got JJ and our luggage. We then started our way to Gangwon-do. We did have to make a few pit stops. Joanne is pregnant, so it was nice to be able to get out of the car every hour or so. We drove for hours through the winding road and every time we reached a city we all thought that our pension would be located there, but we continued and at times our navigation system sent us through backroads that would make Mississippi proud. We finally made it to our pension in Jeongseon(정선) at about 1:45 am and were greeted by the owner who was super nice. We checked into our room, which was plain, but served us fine, and then headed out to the casino that was about 15minutes away. The weather was definetly cooler in Gangwon-do. I had to grab my jacket as soon as I got out of the car. It was so nice to also be able to look up and see stars in the sky with no haze!
I took this on our second night after way too much soju hence the blurriness

Korean Casinos! No Fun!(and I won money)

We got to the casino and the first thing we noticed was how crowded it was for such a late hour. We finally found a parking spot and walked to the casino. We tried to go in, but found out we had to register and pay our taxes to enter the casino. Luckily, I had thought ahead and had brought my passport instead of just using my Korean id. Foreigners are not required to the pay the entrance tax of 5,000 won.(Yeah--Baby). Having received a ticket to enter the casino, we were allowed to go in, but only after going through the X-ray machine and the Swine Flu camera(temperature detector). I have never seen a casino this crowded before. People were stacked up 3 and 4 deep at the blackjack tables. Other people were taking whole rows of slot machines. There was so much that was so different than from what I expected. People would walk away from machines with a couple hundred dollars worth of credit while they went to the bathroom/took a break. I kept wondering how much of a problem they had with people stealing other's credit. There were so many times that I almost played some other person's machine. Other people would save their machine by putting a 1000 won note in the slot for change. I could have easily made money by just taking the notes that were sticking out of the coin slots. Other people were playing 4-5 slots. It took us forever to find a machine and when we found a couple; we didn't want to leave. We played for about 30-45 minutes and JJ and I ended up winning about 240,000 won(about $200). The placed was filled with zombies. Not your usual casino/drunk zombies, but it looked like some of the players had been playing for days.

Our pension owner later told us that foreigners usually don't like it and that most Korean people go to really try to make money and not to have fun. We joked that we could probably have gotten a good deal on a car at one of the local pawnshops that are open 24 hours a day. We were all hungry and there was no way that we were going to pay 8,000 won for some bread that was available at the casino. We went to a local kimbap restaurant that was pretty decent and the first one that I have ever seen that sold soju. We made it back to the pension around 4 and crashed out.

Day 2 and 3 to come later with tons more pictures.....

Central Park II

Centralparkredo, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I took the above shot the other day near Central Park Dongtan. I am still working with the HDR software trying to figure out just how to process them. This one came out a little too yellow for my taste, but I still like the effect.




I will leave for the casino tonight around 10pm. You know those people that win the lottery or lots of money and say that they will continue to work at that current job, well, if I win a large amount of money, you can bet the house that I will finish this current contract a little earlier than expected! Wish me luck!

I have about 4 hours of short classes to make it through today. Saying that I am ready for the weekend is the understatement of the year.

Weekend and Mom

Sign, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

The above photo was taken a week ago in Central Park. I have had a pretty busy week, so I haven't had a chance to go out and taken many photos.

How nice was it to wake up and not have to teach my kindergarten class. I was going to sleep super late today, but was woken up by a delivery guy dropping off something that JJ had ordered. I spent the morning packing and getting ready for our trip to Gangwondo. We are taking off about 10pm tonight. We are going to stay in a pension near the casino. I really have no idea what we are going to do, but it should be fun and I hope to get a lot of great photos.

I just got a call from my father. It seems that my mom has been put in the hospital for a spleen related problem. This was not what I was expecting when he called. I know that she hasn't been feeling well lately and know that I will be praying hard for her to get well soon. She disagrees with me, but I still say that it is stress. According to my parents, she will be released tomorrow morning. I will be looking forward to receiving the call letting me know that they have put her on some antibiotics and that she will released. It sounds like the hospital is not given her the best attention and I hope that either she will be released or transferred. This is one of those times that I really wish I was back in the States. I don't care so much about missing big events like birthdays, weddings and holidays, but I really hate not being at home when something like this happens..This was taken when my parents were in Korea last year. I really can't wait for the next 3 months to fly by, so that I can be back at home with all my family.

DCF Filing in Seoul

I checked out quite a few resources when JJ and I decided to get her American CR1Visa here in Seoul instead of doing the fiancee route. Here are a couple of links that I used to figure out just what all Direct Consular Filing involved.

The CR1 is the visa that you will receive if you are leaving in Korea and have been married less than 2 years. The IR1 is for couples that have been married for more than 2 years.

Here are some links that I used to gather information before I started the long process.

Visa Journey is a great forum and I found some great examples of the paperwork that I needed to fill out. I also found someone that had just gone through the same process. I was able to email her and she gave me some great information. Here is her story. You should be careful with the information that you read. Every embassy around the world is a little bit different and all of them seem to require different types of forms/evidence.

The US embassy in Seoul has plenty of information written on their website. I read this page about a thousand times trying to make sure that I was following the process correctly. The website says that both of you do not have to be at the embassy to drop off the I-130. This is incorrect. The beneficiary must attend because there is one extra form that is not online that he/she must fill out.

Here are the posts describing our experience.

VISA in Hand

It is Wednesday morning and the delivery guy just handed me JJ's visa.( after I gave him 8,000won) That was a fast turn around. I never expected it this soon! That's just one more thing that we don't have to worry about! **Edit I added some photos. I was actually at home alone when the deliverly guy called. The photos were taken when JJ got back home from her lesson.

Planning

Central Park, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Another HDR shot taken inCentral Park. A little too dark on my monitor.


Things on the schedule.

1. Heading to Gangwondo for the weekend
2. Got a new teacher to train this month
3. Need to book a photographer for my wedding ceremony
4. Need to pack up a lot of junk in the next 3 months
5. Going to Jeju-do the last week of August
6. Going back to Jeju-do for Chuseok
7. Need to book a couple flights home
8. Need to book flights for JJ's parents
9. Need to book a hotel room in Honolulu
10................

Success

We made our way on Sunday to Namdaemun. I bought an ND8 filter and we grabbed a late lunch at one of the most disgusting, but delicious restaurants that I have ever eaten. It was very similar to the type of restaurant that I visited with Troy and Joanne a few weeks. There was tons of service! This was the kind of place that the health department would shut down in a second, but the food was brilliant.

We went and found a hotel in Jongro and then we walked around that area looking for somewhere to have a drink. We had a few drinks at a bar called Casino and then went to VIPS for some steak. We made it back to the motel about 10:30 or 11:00 and sat around making sure everything was good for the visa interview the next day.

I could hardly sleep. I was so damn nervous. I think that I fell asleep around 3 and woke up about 7.

We got to the embassy at 8:15 and went upstairs to the third floor where the immigrant visas are processed. We pulled lucky number 7 and prepared to wait for awhile. Our number was called less than 30 minutes after we arrived and we presented our package to the State Department official. She was very kind and only spoke Korean to JJ. Everything seemed to be in order and we were told to wait for JJ's name to be called. About 30 minutes later her name was called. We thought this was it, but it was only time for her to have her fingerprints done. We then waited for about another 35 minutes and they called her name again. This time they returned a bank letter that I accidentally included and gave us a bill for 520,000 won. We were directed to another window and paid our bill and were told to wait for our interview.

JJ was called for an interview about 30 minutes after paying the bill. The interview was relatively short. They did ask if she wanted a translator. She took them up on their offer. The translator did a great job.
They asked:

1. How long have you been married?
2. When did you first start dating?
3. How did you first meet?
4. Have you met each other's parents?
5. What will you do in America?
6. What does Jason's father do for a living?


The young lady that conducted the interview was obviously a new employee and was being assisted by her manager(?). That was a little nerve wracking, but JJ nailed the interview and they told her that we were approved and that we would receive the visa in a week or less.....The walk out of the embassy was so much smoother than the walk in. I felt like a 10ton weight had been lifted off my shoulders. This is just one less thing to think about. We do have a lot of planning left to do, but we are relaxed and getting ready to go to Gangwando this weekend. I am hoping to win some money at the casino or at least get some good photos.

Thank You

Thank you U.S. Department of State, Immigrant Visa section!

JJ was approved for her visa today.

Details later!