Three weeks and counting!

In truth, it's three weeks and two days, but those two days are weekend days and don't count.

In just over three weeks we will be on a plane headed for Seoul and the beginning of a trip we've been planning for years.  Everyone is very excited, and we've been really busy during the last few weeks making travel arrangements, scaring up gear and feverishly trying to learn enough Korean not to insult an entire nation upon our arrival.

Inside Incheon Airport - not bad for an airport.

First things first: our travel arrangements are very nearly complete - at least the ones we're making before we leave.  Some details we've opted to leave until we're on the ground at Incheon Airport, such as our rail passes.  As it happens, the train passes are sold all over the place, including at the airport.  Our excellent friend (and native of Korea) Bogyong clued us in to that little tidbit.  The Korail site is great, but if we can take care of the passes in person, it will almost certainly be easier.
We'll spend our first night in a nice hotel in downtown Seoul, near the train station, then head out the following afternoon by train for Busan, at the southern tip of the country.  Once in Busan, we'll do some sightseeing and lounge on the beaches a little, but our main goals are to meet with friends who are from the area and/or live there now, recover from jetlag, and make at least one day trip to Changwon and Masan to see where our son Nate was born.  We'll spend about five days, total, in Busan before heading a bit North and East to Kyeong-ju, which should be both beautiful as well as culturally enriching (that's code for "the kids are going to be bored silly, and could mount a mutiny").  Here are some photos of the area.

Bulguksa temple

Burial mounds of the Silla kings

While we're in Kyeong-ju, we'll stay one night in a local guest house called Sa Rang Chae which would, I think, be written 사 랑 채 in Korean (I wasn't kidding about learning some of the language).  Sa Rang Chae is a traditional hanok style guesthouse, with paper backed doors and sleeping mats on the floors.  We think it will be a fun experience [for one night].

Once we've seen as much of Kyeong-ju as we can, it's back aboard the train for the trip back to Seoul, where we'll stay two nights in the Holt Guest House - the same place we first met Nate, and where he went for his monthly medical checkups, and to hobnob with the other babies in the program.

After our two days at the Holt Guest House, it's off to Hotel X for the remainder of our stay (about 7 days, I think).  I use the term "Hotel X" because we actually don't yet know where we're staying.  Nate's foster family  has been extremely  generous to us, offering at every turn to help with our arrangements, and they will be choosing a hotel near their home, but we don't yet have its name.  The remainder of our stay will be spent doing pretty much whatever we feel like doing when we wake up each day.  We have a long list of potential activities in and around Seoul that should keep us busy regardless of weather or mood.

Once our final hotel stay is finished, what's left, but to head home?  We've got a good flight on the return; only one stop in San Francisco, and straight back to Austin.

Next things next: Not much new has transpired on the travel gear front.  We're still convinced we bought wisely with the Kodiak Gearslinger and the mini PC.  Both have been broken in somewhat since their last mention, and are clearly of sufficient quality for this trip.  We will most likely rent a mobile phone once we arrive in Seoul - one more commodity available in the airport - because of the free translation services provided by the Korean Tourism Board (just dial [area code] + 1330, and you're golden!).

We did buy two pairs of Keen Voyageur trail runners, one for me and one for Eli, that have proved to be an excellent purchase.  They will be ideal for hiking around the countryside in Korea for a few weeks.

The Keen Voyageur

I can actually read this!  It says "How far?"!!

Last things last: Yes, we really are trying to learn some Korean before going.  We've tried a number of programs with not much success over the years, but we finally feel we've hit on one that seems to work well for us.  It's a free web site called "Talk to Me in Korean" that releases lessons as podcasts, broken up into levels (1-5, currently).  The hosts of the podcasts seem accessible, and they use material that isn't stale like so many rote learning courses.  The podcasts begin early, touching on elements of grammar instead of just building a phrase library.  Accompanying each audio lesson is an Adobe Acrobat document (PDF) summarizing the lesson and, in most cases, adding more depth to the topic.  And it's all free!

I think that's all I've got time to write today.  As arrangements are updated, or we have any new insights about our trip, we'll bring the blog up to speed.