Here we go.... I'm shutting down my computer in about an hour to pack it up. We load the truck tomorrow and leave first thing Sunday morning. Once we get there and get a little settled in, I'll be back online. 15 hours in the car with cats.... It's going to be epic.

This time next week we'll be in our new house! Ohmigosh! The packing is going very well so far, even though I took a little break. We had a yard sale on Saturday that got rid of a lot of our junk, although not all of it. Got to make a run to Goodwill here soon. Then my friend, Jennie, from Texas came to visit for a few days. She'd never been up here before and wanted to see our little town before we left. It was fun because I got to see some stuff that I haven't had the chance to see even though we've been here for 3.5 years. We spent a morning at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house, and walked around the very hip Charlottesville. We also drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway and visited the Natural Bridge - it's really impressive! We went to my favorite Shakepeare theatre for a performance of MacBeth. It was okay, but I was disappointed because I've seen them do SO much better.

Jennie just left a little while ago to fly home and now it's time to face the reality of getting this house packed up. Ugh. We've got most of the easy stuff done - now it's time to pack up the little stuff and the stuff we use on a fairly regular basis. We pack the truck Saturday and leave Sunday, so it's going to happen whether we're ready or not!

I'm home! I got back from Korea yesterday afternoon and I'm happy to sleep in my bed and eat pizza. I had a wonderful time there and was sorry to leave. I'm going to try to do a travel log attached to this blog, but it will probably have to wait until after the move.

I got to speak a little Korean, saw beautiful palaces and temples, ate interesting food (octopus, squid, eel and even a silkworm!!!), and met fabulous people. We were treated so well over there! It's a little hard going back to being a peon, but at least I'm a pizza-eating peon. No more kimchi for me! Probably ever.

We spent most of our time in Seoul, splitting our days into lectures at Yonsei University and afternoon sightseeing. We spent 4 days in Kyeongju, in the southeast part of the country, simply exploring. We pulled taffy by hand and learned how to make prints of Korean roof tiles. Lots of cool experiences! I'll get pictures up soon.

The picture below is of me at the garden pond in one of the palaces in Seoul.

Happy July 4th everyone! Hope you all have a fun and safe holiday.

The house is almost packed - I'm really impressed with the progress we've made. I'll be able to relax and not worry about the house while I'm in Korea. Speaking of...... I leave first thing tomorrow morning! I'm really excited about the trip now that I've had time to process the fact that I'm actually going! I haven't finished packing yet, but I'm mostly there. I'm running out of time, since we have friends coming over for holiday fun in just a couple of hours. Yikes!!! I'll have email access while I'm gone, so definitely stay in touch. I'm sure I'll have lots of cool stories when I get back. 'Til then, take care everybody!