We've made it to Korea so far!

Hey Everybody!

We're waiting in the Korea airport right now! It's 2:15am to us but 6:15pm their time. Needless to say, we're all a little confused.The good news is that the 12 1/2 hour flight here wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. We each watched 4 movies, more than I've ever watched in one sitting. And we got seats in an aisle that had the little flight attendant area in front of us, not a row of seats, which mean way more leg room. I could stretch out my legs entirely ahead of me! And we got 2 full meals. I tried to be adventurous and get the Korean meal the first time which was interesting... The flight attendant had to explain what to do with it all. Our digestive systems are all pretty confused already. I guess we should get used to that though.

A brief update on our last couple of days...
June 10: tearful goodbye in Seatac airport, took plane to LA and stayed with our dear friend Lindsay. It was great to have a little time to adjust and settle in and spend time with her. And when walking around we even spotted a star - that woman who is the star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And we had one of our last American meal for a while - sushi!(SYMers - be proud!)

June 11: we had a whirlwind of a session, learning the basics of the Peace Corps and meeting everybody over the course of 8 hours. Everybody was pretty exhausted by the end. But it was really fun meeting all the other volunteers. There are some really great people! Overall most volunteers are in their 20s and there are 3 older men in their 60s-70s; there are also 3 other married couples. Mark and I actually feel kind of old amongst a bunch of recent college graduates. It's been really fun to talk to so many other people who have had the same experience as us though - getting asked the same questions about Mongolia, people who have the same anxieties, but who have also become excited about the same things, etc. And I don't think we've found anybody yet who actually chose Mongolia, which is actually kind of refreshing because we're all in a similar boat. I was comforted to find out that pretty much nobody else has studied the language. But we realized that Mark and I did a lot more reading and studying about Mongolia than many. Oh and we learned there are a TON of teachers in our group (people who will teach English and people who will be "teacher trainers") and very few who are in our groups. Out of 70 people there are less than 10 Community Economic Development volunteers and less than 10 Comm Youth Dev volunteers. That made us feel kind of special to be in a small group.

Overall, it shouldn't go unstated that the past few days have been a whirlwind of emotions too! For us and for our families. But things are going well. We're looking forward to finally be in Mongolia after so much talk about it. But today we're just feeling tired. I suspect a whole new set of emotions will set in when we actually arrive, then another new set when we get sent to host families, then more later, etc etc.

I'm not sure when you'll hear from us again - hopefully soon! The next time I write, it will be from Mongolia!!

Thanks so much again for all your love and support and prayers for us. It's so comforting to know we have that.