MISSISSIPPI to KOREA

Birthday

2009-07-14T23:49:00.003+09:00

I turned 33 today. I started off the day with a nice double root canal......What a way to spend a birthday! I go back to tomorrow to finish up the treatment.

Orange

2009-07-12T22:58:00.001+09:00

Orange, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Another photo from our visit to Daejeon.

Too Cool

2009-07-12T22:45:00.001+09:00

Too Cool, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

JJ and I woke up early and got a call taxi to the Suwon Bus Terminal. From there we went to Daejeon. It took us about two hours on the bus in the pouring rain. It hadn't let up by the time we reached Daejeon and we got soaked grabbing another cab to for the trip to her sister's apartment.

We sat around with two of her sisters, her father and her niece, Saewon, pictured above. She has met me before but did not remember. She kept her distance for about 15 minutes and then all of the sudden was ready to play. She is three and our Korean abilities are about the same. We all sat around and talked about JJ and my plans for America and there were many questions to be answered. We stayed about 5 hours and then got the bus back to Suwon.

Hopefully this week will be somewhat less stress full than last. I still have a lot I need to get done before our interview on the 27th and really need to quit procrastinating.

More and more processing

2009-07-12T00:06:00.001+09:00

Stare, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I am still trying to experiment with CS4.

Blue

2009-07-11T15:05:00.001+09:00

Blue, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I ended up staying up too late last night trying out some new tips from Scott Kelby's CS4 for Digital Photographers.

JJ and I are going to Daejeon tomorrow to spend some time with her father who is there to babysit JJ's sister's baby. Today looks like it will be a pretty lazy day. We got some shopping to do and then need to get organized for her visa interview which is in just 2 short weeks.

I hope to get out and try out the new 50mm 1.4 lens that JJ gave me for my birthday. I haven't had that much time to go out and take photos.

Recent Company Dinner.

2009-07-10T01:42:00.003+09:00

The Group

Billie

Refreshments

I really like when they pick the restaurant that is literally 20 meters from my front door.

It Has Begun.....

2009-07-10T00:49:00.002+09:00

With a little under 4 months to go, JJ has already started packing. In four years I have collected a lot of junk, so this is only the start of a bunch of boxes that will ultimately make their way to Mississippi. JJ is only teaching privates, so this has given her a lot more time take care of the packing situation.

I have started to go to the dentist about twice a week to get all of my work done. My dentist is awesome. He doesn't speak that much English, but he is a singer. I know this sounds strange, but when you hear someone singing opera while that person is trying not to cause you immense pain, it is somewhat refreshing. I told him that I liked his singing and was going to start requesting songs for him to sing while he worked on my teeth. He got a kick out of that.

The last couple of weeks have flown by. My sister got married last week and is now back from their honeymoon. She has now started to help JJ plan our wedding ceremony. JJ is really getting into the spirit and looking forward to moving to Mississippi.

I have spent a lot of time on the phone this week due to recruiting a teacher for our school. I have a few more interviews this week and if you have expereince and want to work at a good hagwon, send me an email!~

In Thought

2009-07-08T01:39:00.001+09:00

In Thought, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Still reprocessing more older photos. This was taken during Buddha's birthday at Jogaysa. I

Cheers for the American Embassy

2009-07-08T00:27:00.002+09:00

I sent you a request for a CR-1 interview for my wife on Monday night around 11 pm. Less than 24 hours later you send us a message letting us know that we have an appointment and that you gave us our preferred day and time! I'm impressed. Now, let's hope for no problems with the visa!

More reprocessing

2009-07-07T12:46:00.001+09:00

Seoul Motor Show, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I took this in April at the Seoul Motor Show. I have too many shots that are similar in nature to this one. I should have been more creative.

Low Duck

2009-07-07T01:26:00.001+09:00

Low Duck, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I have been spending some time processing some older photos that I hadn't gotten the chance to work on. Took this near the Suwon Fortress.

Visa Info

2009-07-05T15:05:00.002+09:00

JJ Passport-X
Photo-X
Courier Receipt-O
Medical Report-X
DS230 Pt 1-X
DS230 Pt 2-X
Marriage Certificate-X
Basic Certificate-X
Family Certificate-X
Marriage Certificate-X
Old Family Register-O ( maybe not needed)
Translations-X
Criminal Check-X
Translation-X
I864-X
2008 Tax Return-X
Copy of my Birth Certificate-X
Proof of Domicile
-School Contract-X
-School Letter-X
-Change of Address for Credit Card-X
-Letter from Community Bank-0
-Dad's Letter-O
-Troy's Letter-O
-Contract with Dreamworks-O
-Dad's I864-O
-Dad's proof of Residence-O
-Dad's Tax Return-O
-400$ Fee-X

I think my dad will send his package tomorrow. I hopefully can go on and book a time for her interview on Monday when I know the package is on the way.

Saturday

2009-07-05T02:24:00.004+09:00

I started off the day by going to Shindorim and picking up a lens that I had purchased from a member of Flickr in Seoul. I chatted with Jon for a bit, grabbed the lens and took off back to Dongtan. (You really should check out his work. He is really talented.)

I got back to Dongtan and grabbed a short nap while JJ and her friend Rang hung out. We decided to hit up my favorite restarant in Dongtan. We love eating tuna and probably eat here a couple times a month. A 10,000 won tip to the chef gets us upgraded to the more expensive all you can eat set. We drank a few bottle of soju mixed with cucumber as well. If you haven't tried that, you are missing out.

We then made our way over to the Wah bar where we had a few drinks and then took Rang to the bus station.

JJ and went back out to the park, so that I could try to get some photos at night, but none of them really came really well. Here are a couple of the better ones.

Tomorrow will be a lazy day. The only thing I really have to do is sign an employment contract with Troy. We should also be applying for JJ's visa interview tomorrow. After I have a copy of my employment contract and a signed letter of intent, we should only have to wait on my father's finical information. I think we will probably end up getting an interview date in the middle or end of August.

Forced Perspective

2009-07-04T18:20:00.002+09:00

For mom and gram!

2009-07-03T00:18:00.001+09:00

Thai Food

2009-06-24T02:44:00.002+09:00

Sawatdee is a great Thai restaurant in Songtan that is popular with the soldiers. I can never stand to order any spiciness higher than 2. If you can handle the level 5, you are the man. I have been going here for years now and have never had a bad meal. Then again, I always order the drunken noodles which is pictured above.
The last shot is of a truck that is parked near my apartment. Infringement?

Water Dragon

2009-06-15T21:41:00.001+09:00

Water Dragon, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Where has the time gone..............

It has been awhile since I sat down to write a post about what has been going here in Dongtan.

On June the 6th, JJ's mother came in to Suwon bus terminal. I met her at the bus station around 4. Since JJ had to work until 10, I needed to entertain mom till she got home. We got in the taxi and made our way to Dongtan. She explained who I was to the taxi driver and went on to explain how these days international marriages are acceptable. She went on to tell him that a few years ago it would have never been possible. The taxi driver either agreed with her or is a really good liar..... We got to Dongtan and even though JJ and I had cleaned the house she went through and decided that she would spend the her time cleaning. Maybe, I bored her into cleaning! She cleaned for a few hours and would ask me to get her various items that she needed, but wouldn't let me help her. She told me I needed to rest since I had been working so hard.(SWEET) After a few hours we went to the local super market and then made our way through the park. JJ got home around 10 and we ended up staying up late chatting.

On Sunday June the 7th, we headed into Gangnam to take mom to JJ's oldest sister's house. We decided that we would take her to VIPS for lunch. She had never visited and was quite impressed with the selection and more with the number of people that would pay 20,000 for lunch. We took mom all the way to the sister's house and hung out for about an hour or so. Which was long enough for JJ's mom to convince the sister to give me some of her extra whiskey. (SWEET)

JJ and I have also been planning our wedding which will be the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We are still at the beginning of the planning and have a lot of work to do. Wedding dress has been bought, Hanboks ordered, priest scheduled, church reserved and that is about it. We got a long way to go.

We are also working on JJ's visa. We have filed the DS230 part 1 and are now gathering all of the information that we need to apply for our interview. I have to work with my dad to cosponsor JJ since my income in Korea is not counted. I have a lot of evidence to produce and not a lot of time to get it all ready. JJ booked her medical check for this week, so that is one more thing that will be out of the way. I set a goal of applying for the interview by July 10th. I hope that we can have everything ready by that time.

I have not had that much time to go out and take pictures, but I did get to go to the Hwaseong Fortress on Sunday the 14th and I think some of them came out pretty good. I am currently reading a couple of Scott Kelby's books. I started with his Digital Photography Book 1 and now am reading CS4 for Photographers. Both of these are very cool and his humor is interesting/annoying...I really like the way he explains everything in a down to earth sense.

I also spend a pretty good amount of time trying to get our newest hire ready to come to Korea. Ironing out all the last mintue visa problems and what not. I honestly hate recruiting new teachers and have been lucky that we have gotten such good teachers to work at our school. Our newest teacher will arrive in a couple of weeks and seems like she is going to be a perfect fit for our school.

We are currently throwing around the idea of making an extended lay-over on our way back to Mississippi. We were leaning towards Honolulu, but I think we have come to the conclusion that for a couple of extra dollars we can visit Paris. So that may be a possibility as well. We are also supposed to travel with JJ's parents before we head to Mississippi and we are trying to figure out just where to go on that trip as well.

4 months and 15 days left....but who's counting?

Suwon Fortress HDR

2009-06-15T02:38:00.003+09:00

Suwon Fortress HDR, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Suwon Fortress

2009-06-15T02:38:00.001+09:00

Suwon Fortress HDR, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Cramming

2009-06-06T14:33:00.002+09:00

6 hours alone with JJ's mother. I'm on the way to pick her up from the bus stop....Come on Korean language ability!

Saturday Shopping

2009-05-31T13:35:00.003+09:00

My schedule involves me getting about 3 to 4 hours of sleep every Thursday night and I end up putting in a 12 hour day on Fridays due to other obligations, so when I decide to get up early on Saturdays, it is usually a struggle. I did end up getting up about 9:30 yesterday. JJ was a little curious as to why I would leave so early, but I just replied that I really wanted to spend all day taking photos. Having lied successfully, I made my way to Gangnam via 1550-2. I transferred buses and took another one to get me to Seoul Station. The female bus driver on my second bus was unbelievably kind. Not only did she help me with directions, but also woke me up when my stop came up. I was exhausted and had grabbed a quick power nap that could have turned into a round trip back to Gangnam. I got to Youngsan and headed straight into the electronics market to find the an Iriver P35.

I had spent all week trying to decide on which PMP to buy her. I knew that I wanted one that had a DMB player and WIFI. Well, there are not that many that have both and I found that the only one that matched what I wanted was the Iriver. Since we are only going to be in Korea for another 5 months, it would be pretty useless to shell out a lot of money for a DMB player that will not work in the States. I had no idea that DMB was really only used in Korea, until I read about it here.

I acutally had a couple of older students who spent their break time looking at all of the Korean specifications and breaking them down for me. They all said that it looked pretty cool and that JJ would love it.

It took me awhile to fine the exact model that I wanted. There are three different models. Basic/DMB/Wi-Fi with DMB. I was looking for the Wi-Fi with DMB. I got shuffled around by a few vendors.(Not that uncommon at Youngsan) I had already printed off a couple pages from Gmarket and Danawa, so I knew the price range and had some evidence to barter with. The few vendors that I wasted time with told me that they had every PMP made, but as usual the one that I wanted was out or they only had the 36GB model. I really would have preferred to buy it over the Internet, but really didn't have the time to wait on delivery, but I did eventually find a guy whose English was great and was willing to negotiate on the price.

I made the purchase and then was getting ready to leave when I saw a promotion for a new media player that was happening outside. They were also using racing/promotion girls. I ended up taking a bunch of photos that I can't post right now. My CF card has some kind of format error and it is not being read by my camera. My card reader is also broken, so I have been using my camera to directly upload my photos to my computer. I think that I can recover the photos if I go buy another multi reader.

I met up with my friends Troy and Joanne in Namdaemun where we went shopping for some gifts for their trip back to America. We had lunch at a great Sal-Gook-Su restaruant that was basically a two for one deal and we ended up ordering way too much food. The restaurant was a hole in the wall and I was actually nervous to drink the water. Apparently, it was a pretty famous place and had been featured on a bunch of different TV shows. We ended up heading back to the peace and quiet of Dongtan not long after having a late lunch. They had driven into Seoul for a wedding, so I was able to ride back with them. Public transportation is convenient in Korea, but riding back in the comfort of their car was nice.

I have a ton of things to do today:
1. Buy a card reader
2. US taxes
3. JJ visa work
4. New teacher interviews
5. Process some phtos

I would much rather do number 5 than 2,3, or 4...

P35 IRiver

2009-05-31T03:36:00.002+09:00

Almost 4am. I am dead tired, but wanted to post a couple of photos of JJ's gift. She mentioned a few weeks ago that she wanted a DMB/PMP player. Needless to say she was surprised. More Photos from my day out and the full story later.

Night Flower

2009-05-24T02:05:00.001+09:00

Night Flower, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

I bought a SB26 and a cheapo flash trigger about a month ago. I have been experimenting and trying to read up on Strobist as much as I can. I keep waiting to buy umbrellas until I get back stateside. I took a bunch of photos tonight of my wife's birthday flowers. I got a couple of keepers but I thought that this one came out nice.

JJ on Green

2009-05-23T21:42:00.001+09:00

JJ, originally uploaded by JR-Mississippi.

Lazy day today...This was taken last week!

Lens

2009-05-21T00:31:00.000+09:00

I follow about 20-30 photography sites through Google Reader. I don't know which site I saw this on, but you should really check out The New York Times new feature "Lens" Photography, Video and Visual Journalism. From the New York Times:

Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers, it also seeks to highlight the best work of other newspapers, magazines and news and picture agencies; in print, in books, in galleries, in museums and on the Web. And it will draw on The Times's own pictorial archive, numbering in the millions of images and going back to the early 20th century.

I am a news junkie and love the set-up of this page. It reminds me of The Boston Globe's Big Picture series, but with more content. I hope that they update more frequently than the Big Picture. I have already added it to my Reader and can't wait to see what they post.