Learning Korean

The last two weeks have been a blur. I have been handling my regular workload and been working on some serious paperwork. I have traveled twice to Seoul on Friday mornings to visit the American embassy*. Jaeyoun and I are now officially/legally married. We got engaged during our vacation in North America. Soon after that, we started discussing what kind of wedding we both wanted. I was all in favor of having a Korean ceremony and another one in the Catholic church back home. For a few months, the plan was to have both, but Jaeyoun decided that we could save a lot of money by only having one. We decided to hold the ceremony in November of 2009 in my home parish church. . We are planning to move back to Mississippi and start graduate school at that time. Basically, now we are trying to save up as much money as possible, so that we will not have to work for the first couple of years of graduate school**. We also wanted to have her come into the states on a immigrant or permanent visa and not have to worry about things at the last minute. I also wanted the opportunity to teach some extra classes, i.e, legal private lessons. For these reasons, we went ahead and signed all of the paperwork to make us legally married. And of course we are madly in love and were ready to make the promise legal!!

Our parents have been great. My parents will arrive in Korea next month for a a week and half visit, during which we will travel to Jeju, so that they can meet Jaeyoun’s parents. The really made Jaeyoun feel like a part of the family when we visted last year. Her parents have been awesome as well and have really taken me into the family. There is still a huge language barrier between myself and my new parents-in-laws, but I am studying hard everyday and trying to overcome my diffiuculties in learning a new language. I have been here for almost 3 years and honestly I should speak more Korean than I do. I pretty much didn’t study for the first 2 years and have only really been studying hard for the past 6 months. I could kick myself for the vast amount of time that I wasted in learning Korean.

We are looking at spending 5-7 years in America before coming back to Korea. The plan as of now is for Jaeyoun to get her M.A. in Math and then to start working on a Ph.D and I will be working on my M.A. in Teaching Languages and hopefully will start working on Ph.D in Linguistics later.

We have almost a year and half to get alot of things done. We both have to take the GRE and Jaeyoun will have to take the TOEFL test. My mother, who works for the Church, will help with all of the wedding plans. It will be interesting to see how many members of Jaeyoun’s family make the trip to Mississippi for the wedding***.

The next few weeks will be spent getting the apartment ready for my parent’s visit. We will also be trying to figure out what we will do while they are in Korea. I have a list started, but there is so much that I want them to see/do. We will spend a couple of days in Jeju and then after that the schedule is wide open. We do have to make a trip to one of the large markets to have my parents fitted for their Hanboks. We will take a few pictures in Mississippi all decked out in the Korean traditional clothing before the wedding. I really am interested to see how my father handles the food. I think my mother will love all the seafood and spicey food, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed about my dad. I can’t wait to show them all of things that I have written about in emails/blogs and spoken about on the phone. My dad is super excited about visiting Jeju and I think that mom will love all the shopping.

I also walked into a new apartment yesterday. Jaeyoun had the day off and rearranged the whole apartment. It looks great and I finally have a real desk where I can study Korean.

I have rambled on for long enough and there is still so much I need to write about, but it will have to wait for another day. I keeping promising myself that I will be better about posting, but we will see.

*I also wanted to note that the staff at the American embassy was great and very helpful. They answered all of my questions and everything went smoothly. It helped that I had filled out all of the paperwork correctly before we arrived. They even commented that most people don’t follow the instructions on the website. I hope that they are as accommodating when we apply for Jaeyoun’s visa.

** We also want to have enough money to buy a car and to furnish an apartment when we arrive. We are also going to need to buy 2 new computers. My computer is 3 years old, slow and the Caps Lock button has broken off.

*** I can’t wait to see how her parents and other family members take to Mississippi. I don’t think they are going to enjoy the food. I am sure ,after a couple of meals of fried catfish/cornbread/grease and other fried goodness, they will be asking for some kimchi.