3 months

I feel the need to do this every month around this time.  Jessica and I have been in Yeongju for 3 months now.  We have had many opportunities to learn.  Learn about the culture.  Learn about each other.  Learn that its not a good idea to bite each other's head off when we're frustrated because we are each the only person the other has.    We've also learned to just roll with it when the principal wants to hold your hand on a social outing.

One of the best experiences we have had has been with the people we have met and formed relationships with.  I have heard from several different people that Korean's have a lot of heart.  They will go out of their way to help, especially when you're white and obviously confused and not from around here.  There was that random teenage couple who walked with us across town to point out where the bus stop was, and made sure we understood what bus to get on and what time it was coming.  There was that man in Seoul who helped us get a taxi when the subway stopped running at midnight on the line we needed.  And that time at Field Day at my school when the vice principal invited me to join him under his tent for grapes and rice cakes.  My two co-teachers have been extremely helpful in so many respects.  Sophy helped us get adjusted when we arrived.  She left school one day to help when Jessica was at home alone and the washing machine delivery men arrived.  She also made kimchi for me to take home.  Susie took me to the doctor both times when I was sick.  She is always quick to answer the phone when we need a translator for the taxi driver or cashier.    When I went to the doctor this week for my tonsillitis, they gave me a prescription, which I thought was a receipt.  Mrs. Kim, Jessica's direct supervisor, offered to go with us to the doctor for another examination just to make sure we understood what was going on.  She didn't have to.  She was just being motherly.  And it meant a lot to us.

In these three months, which have flown by rather quickly, we have had the opportunity to live together.  We did get married before leaving the US, so this is a bit obvious, but hear me out.  Jessica and I have had an opportunity that most married couples don't have the benefit of.  When a young boyfriend and girlfriend become husband and wife, they generally spend a week at some exotic location.  Then they go back home to a house or apartment full of new blenders, bed linens, and fine china.  Mom is generally just a phone call away and a night out with the girls or guys provides for a little stress reliever or sorts.  Friends are there to distract from that annoying little tick you never knew she had.  Life for us after marriage has been a little different.  After our wedding (which we put together in 27 days) we enjoyed a one night honeymoon in a downtown Greenville hotel.  Both of us had quit our jobs before the wedding in preparation for the move East.  My visa ended up taking two weeks to process.  So we just got married and we've got no money (literally) and we've got nothing to do for two weeks.  On Sept. 11 we board a plane, leaving behind everything familiar.  We can't ask where the bathroom is.  We can't read simple road signs.  We don't even know where we can buy toilet paper.  These are just a few of the things that would have contributed to a ticking time bomb for some couples.  Not us.  Like I said earlier, this was an opportunity, not a problem.  These three months have been the best three months of my life.  Jessica and I, who were best friends before, have now become even better friends.  We have had the opportunity to live life together, unhindered by the "honeymoon phase" crutch.  We've experienced real life.  Frustrating life.  Disoriented and un-understandable life.

We know where we're headed.  We know who we are and who we want to be.  Life will shoot more serious arrows at us, but we'll be OK.  We've been given an opportunity for a little practice.  9 more months?  That's nothin'.