How to maybe, almost, possibly get married in Korea for legal reasons and other daily life.

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Jen and I have been dealing with the pleasure of figuring out a wedding, reception, U.S. immigration law and the Koream marriage process at the same time. As you can imagine it's as fun as it sounds. Add to that the fact that we live in little ol' Yeosu on the southern tip of the Korea penninsula and all of the forms have to be picked up at the U.S. embassy which just happens to be open Monday through Fridaand reside in Seoul. We've spent the last few months going over government websites and waking up at unholy hours for a Saturday in order to skype with our immigration lawyer. The most frustrating part is just when you think you've figured something out you see something else that contradicts the first thing you read. But eventually we got the marriage stuff sorted. At least as far as we know. Jen wasn't even there but my co-teacher, Young, who has been ace during thiswhole process when down to the city hall with me and handed in the paper work.

"So does this mean we're technically married now?" I asked the lady in charge.

"Uh, yes on this day." she said back to me just after a split second of hesitation too long which made me wonder if that was in fact the case or if she was just telling me that because I wanted to hear it. Anyway, other than getting our forms back and Jen's birthday being wrong and having to get that fixed it appears that this part is done (knocking on wood frantically) and we can now focus on the immigration part.



After a long dark winter the sun has decided to peek it's orange little face around here again. The nice thing aboutl living rather than one of Korea's giant cities is the ability to get out and enjoy some nature. In the spring and summer it's an ideal place to be with hiking, rock climbing, the beach, islands and bike paths no more than 10 or 20 minutes away but the winter is a differetn tale. Yeosu is definitely lackin gin the nightlife department. It's either visit the same bars, and they're not bas as we would think of them in the west, they're hofs. A hof is basically a bar/restaurant. Koreans have this super human ability to eat constantly and never seem to put on weight wo they're bars are themed around going out for a meal and drinking heavily before going to the next bar and ordering more food and soju before finishing it off at a 7-11 sitting at a picnic table drinking more soju and eating ramen. I haven't really been able to take up this viscious cycle prefering to just eat before going out, having some drinks and then maybe getting a snack on the way home to soak it all up, which in all honesty is probably ramen.

But with the dark, cold, windy winter and many books and movies at our back it's time to head out and play. By the way if anybody notices a bunch of spelling mistakes it's because my computer is lagging heavily and I'm actually time about two words infront of what is being shown on the screen and it's really frustrating. Anyway back to spring time in Yeosu. Things are starting to warm up and with it I've got my litte projects around to keep us busy. Currently the roof top garden is sprouting it's little way here and there. The potatoes seem to be most promising but I'm holding out hope for the tomatoes and the strawberries. Though, I think we'll get something out it and that will be good enough for me. The next thing in preperation for the summer is to build a skim board for the beach. I've been keeping my eye out for neglected plywood boards around the neighborhood that I can use to cut and sand down into a good board. Jen laughed at my idea when I told it to her so I said she couldn't ride on my board when it's finished but I'll probably stilll let her.



Today is Friday and we're off to Wolchulsan, which is Korea's smallest National Park. WE'll be taking off sometime tonight and hopefully getting in early enought to get a decent nights sleep before the supposedly 6 hour hike up.We'll see how it goes and I'll give some updates next week.



Well, it's time to finish up. I've got to hop on the bike and pedal home. I'm gonna really try my best to keep this a weekly thing. I know I've said that in the past but I've given up on this being a travel blog at the moment because we're not really traveling as we see it. We're locals but we forget at times that the daily goofy things that happen to us myight actually be interesting for those that have never experienced it so I'll try and update things weekly and throw in some quirkiness here and there if I can. THe 2012 Expo is coming up so that should give me plenty of material. Until then Anyanghecassayo

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Comments

[Travis]

Glad you mentioned this
"By the way if anybody notices a bunch of spelling mistakes it's because my computer is lagging heavily..." I was about to give you shit for being an English teacher ;) Travis

[Jwalden]

As you should of my friend. Hope all is tip top.