Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Modern Korea

I wanted to post some photos so people would know that Korea is not a third world country, but is in fact a first world country. Many people I told about my upcoming move to Korea thought I was joining the Peace Corps or an international aid organization to teach English to poor villagers. I think many people conjured up images of post war Vietnam circa 1980 imagining rice paddies, bend farmers in triangle hats, and army jeeps carrying me into the jungle. I think this is what people imagined because when Nathan told me he was going to Korea it's what I thought of initially.

When I said that I was being paid for the teaching and that Korea was a modern country I'm not sure who really believed me. I continued to get comments about people here eating my cat, some wondered if they had computers here.

So, the following photos serve two purposes - one to show people what Korea looks like being here (and also to assure Jaime that the hospitals here are adequate and to assure Theresa that I'm able to get sweets) and two to emphasize that first world country thing from above.

Am I being defensive? Either way, enjoy!

I don't know how to comment on my photos so that they have titles. I'll have to have Nathan teach me some blogging tips when he visits this weekend. So, in order of apperance the photos are of Jason in a mirror, downtown Ulsan, Jared and I looking at wine, nightime Ulsan, the view from our apartment, our apartment, a bakery, and a hospital.

2 comments:

karmaking1111 said...

Yeahaw, I'm the first to post, as it should be. Welcome to the ROK. An easy way to publish photos to your blog is to join a photosite like flickr (www.flickr.com). They have lots of cool uploading and posting tools. Kat and I are looking forward to crashing your place. See you soon.

hilarymcdonald said...

Hi Sarah and Jason,

Nelleka sent me the link to your blog and it was a lot of fun reading it! It's great to hear of your adventures.

Patrick and I moved back to Flagstaff this summer. He's doing web design at his old work at the Bilby Research Center at NAU and I am working in the office at the advising center on campus. Maya is now 5 years old and gets more spoiled by the day.

We were in Southern Oregon for two years. We lived in a small town on the Oregon Coast called Brookings. Patrick was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease while we were there, and we ended up moving inland to Medford to be by the hopital. He went through chemo and everything....but luckily Hodgkins has a really good cure rate and Patrick is doing great and is healthy now.

We had fun in Oregon rafting the rivers, and I do miss it now that we are back in Arizona. But we've done a lot of camping since we've been back which has been fun. November was unusually warm here and we didn't get our first snow until a few weeks ago. The weather really seems to be changing.

Where do you think you will move to when you come back from Korea? Patrick's parents are in Minneapolis right now but it is far too cold for them. We are trying to get some family interested in moving somewhere together eventually where houses are cheaper....we're looking at Spokane, Tucson, perhaps Fort Collins. This is probably a few years off though.

Love,
Hilary