week two of teaching, weekends, and some pictures.

this week went by really fast, which was nice. half of my classes were cancelled because the middle school students have their super intensive exams this time of year. kinda sucks for my paycheck, but after two and a half weeks of going non-stop, it's a relief to have an easy week or two. i observed some more classes, decorated my apartment a little more, and got to hang out with some coworkers. we went to a good sushi buffet one night, saw a late showing of the new twilight movie another night... (and oh. my. goodnesss. that movie was terrible. we were laughing our asses off pretty much the whole time.) it was a much more relaxed week. next week should be a breeze too.

christmas lights along the walk to school.

teaching is already starting to feel more comfortable. i only had my memory english classes this week and the structure is literally the same thing every single day, so it's easy to settle into. the kids (who are mostly elementary school aged) were particularly rambunctious thursday/friday... it's amazing we all left the classroom alive. i made a game out of their workbook exercises and they were losing their minds trying to get the most points. seriously, these kids go nuts for competitions. seeing every hand shoot into the air to answer a question so they can get their team points? i'll take it.

vocab tests started this week. at the beginning

of every class, they take a vocab test over the

words in the lesson for that day. one student,

sohpia, studied the wrong one for tuesday.

sohpia's drawing on thursday's test... she's

one of my favorites in that class. (she's also the

one who gave me the angry birds erasers.)

also, one of the boys in my tuesday/thursday memory class, kevin, saw the edge of my wrist tattoo sticking out from under my bracelets (i have to keep it covered) while they were doing group work.

kevin: teacha! *pointing* tattoo?!

me: pfft, i don't know what you're talking about.

kevin: there! tattoo!! *grabbing my wrist* what is it?

me: i can't tell you. it's a secret.

kevin: waaaaa! no! please let me see!

me: maaaaybe... i'll think about it.

(then about ten minutes later)

kevin: what is your tattoo???

me: i told you, it's a secret.

kevin: pleaaassseeeee!

me: how about i draw it? *draws design on piece of paper*

kevin: ahhhhhhh. you are... uhh... *looks to his friend peter for help*

peter: oh! it is... *starts drawing*

me: what... is that a skull and crossbones? flag?

kevin: yes! yes! you are this!!!

me: pirate? i'm a pirate?!!

kevin and peter: YES! PIRATE!!

so, this just in, tattoos = pirate. i am a pirate.

last weekend i ventured into seoul for a little bit of sightseeing with john. it took longer than anticipated for me to get into seoul (long story involving a certain subway map printout that was missing some information i needed... like where my stop was...), but we were still able to go see jogyesa temple.

during buddha's birthday, this entire area gets

decorated with tons of lanterns. definitely going

to go see that when it happens in may.

there was a service going on and it looked crowded, so we didn't go inside, but just wandering around the outside of the building was impressive. so detailed and colorful.

i wanted to get some pictures of the inside through

the window, but i didn't want to creep on the service...

we'd planned to also go see a palace, but it was closed by the time we got there. we wandered through the museum next to it, but almost everything was in korean, so we called it a day and went to dinner.

gigantic burger! and dr. pepper! (it's kinda hard

to find here, sadly.) we had to cut up the burgers

because they were so big. but so, so good.

then i spent the rest of the weekend being a hermit and fully enjoying a quiet, lazy sunday.

and this weekend, first thing that happened: snow!!

i have to say, i like snow a whooooole hell of a lot more when i a) don't have to drive in it and b) it's the weekend. it all melted off pretty quickly, so that was kind of a bummer... i'm looking forward to a pretty white blanket of snow on everything.

sadly, by the time i actually went outside,

this little bit of snow had already melted.

this weekend i wanted to do a little bit more exploring, but closer to home, so saturday john came in from seoul to hang out in incheon for the day. (he also brought tortillas and cheddar cheese that he picked up for me from costco! breakfast tacos for everyone!!) once he was here, hunger and laziness ended up winning and we decided not to cook breakfast tacos as planned, so instead we grabbed a taxi and headed over to the arts center for an early dinner. one of my coworkers recommended a good shabu shabu restaurant, so we decided to give it a try.

with this, you start off with some broth with veggies,

and once it's brought to a boil, you add different things

like meat and noodles. then, with the leftover broth,

a sort of porridge is made with an egg and rice.

it was soo good! we were really pleased with the meal, even though we didn't really know what to do and felt like total idiot foreigners. luckily, the owner speaks really good english and was willing to guide us through it. and! his 5 year old daughter is probably one of the most adorable children in existence. she kept bouncing past our table and peering around the corner at us while we ate. then, towards the end of our meal, we managed to coax her over so we could say hi and talk to her. she's learning english in her kindergarten class, so she was able to talk to us a little. then when we got up to leave, she presented me with a drawing! i asked her if it was for us and she nodded, pointed at me and then at john, and ran over to her dad.

she's pretty much the cutest thing ever. i love

how she folded it and drew a seal on it.

we wandered about the arts center a little more before heading back to my part of town. relaxed day, but still fun. slowly but surely i'm finding good spots to eat and shop. it's nice to be surrounded by so many options.

this is part of the walk to/from the closest subway stop.

it looked so pretty last night after i walked john to the

subway. i still wish there'd been more snow though...

and now i'm enjoying another super lazy sunday. i took a late afternoon nap on my couch. i went to the grocery store. might do laundry. or just catch up on some tv shows and read on my kindle. i love hermit days.

next weekend should be busier... i think a plan for some shopping in seoul is in the works with some of my friends from training. maybe a bit of sightseeing too if it isn't too frigid outside. :)

observations about south korea, volume two.

1. respecting your elders is a crowd pleaser. having studied the japanese language and culture for years in both high school and college, the reverence asian cultures hold for their elders wasn't a new concept at all. so, when i went into seoul the other day i was able to grab a seat on the subway, but as we got farther into the city, it filled up. naturally, i offered my seat to an elderly woman who was going to have to stand. this apparently impressed several elderly people on the subway because they patted me on the shoulder and said something in korean to me and gave me a thumbs up. i was just being polite, and that's absolutely something i would've done back home too, but it was kind of nice to get that response. for all i know they were commenting on my hair or congratulating me for not being an asshole american, but i'm going to pretend they were pleased that i was respecting their cultural etiquette.

2. subways. i've only been on a handful of subway/metro rails around the u.s. -- la, dc, chicago, san francisco... but i'll be damned if south korea doesn't have one of the nicest and cleanest subway systems in the whole world. seriously. so. clean.

3. coffee shops are EVERYWHERE. like, i can't spit without hitting a coffee shop. however, this is not in any way a complaint. i think it is marvelous. because goddamn do i love coffee. it isn't so marvelous for my bank account, because it is now much easier to get coffee made for me than to make it myself... but that is my own personal struggle and i will overcome. but look at how adorbs their cups are!!!!

4. trash. some of you probably laughed when you read that. back in july-august, as i was getting ready to move away from austin and i was unemployed and spending huge amounts of my time reading blogs by people in south korea, i read about the color coded trash bags and how this is actually enforced/monitored. during one of my moving-stress induced meltdowns as i packed up my apartment in august, i'm pretty sure not being able to figure out the trash was one of my points as to why i was a crazy person for moving to sk. (becca remembers.) well, guess what i can't figure out? the fucking trash. haha, no, it's really not that bad -- it's just a matter of buying the right trash bags. luckily, i haven't had much food trash so far, so it hasn't been an issue. but one of the other new teachers, kara, totally had a run-in with the guy who monitors the trash and now we're afraid to just ditch our trash outside in the trash area without the proper bags... sidenote: there are no trashcans along the streets. at. all. why, korea? why?

5. i have superhuman powers. and by me, i mean my hair. also, i'm kidding, duh. but! i do have the ability to make large groups of teenage girls dissolve into giggles simply by looking at them. this went on for about thirty minutes on the subway the other day. they were being perfectly friendly and they were really dang adorable, so it was just amusing. definitely one encounter i'm going to attribute to my hair color. and definitely something that will take some getting used to.

6. korean kids are morbid. i mean, most kids are pretty damn morbid. every kid goes through a stage where they're fascinated with death. and honestly, these kids may be saying this shit just to get a rise out of me or to be funny. but seriously -- everything ends in death or violence...

"so this boy's mother wants him to take out the trash and he doesn't want to. what do you think will happen next?"

"she will hit him."

"oh! wow! then what?"

"BLOODY, TEACHA. HE IS BLOODY."

"...his mom hit him so hard he bleeds?!"

"YEAH. THEN HE CALL 9-1-1!"

or there was this gem today...

"he just threw the stick to make the puppy go away, so what do you think he will do next?"

"like this teacha! *kid mimes a puppy running and then getting impaled with the stick thrown by the boy*"

"wait -- the puppy is going to get stabbed?!"

"yeah! and then he will kick it."

"he's going to kick the puppy?!"

"YES, TEACHA!"

"but why?!"

"then he makes dog meat soup!"

"you. are. terrible."

let me also add that the majority of gory details are supplied by the boys in my classes. so, yeah, they're definitely messing with me and being silly. and even though they were telling me about killing and eating the stray puppy in today's story, they were totally joking and everyone was laughing. (only one had actually eaten dog before, and that was on vacation in china. yes, i asked. he said it tasted like chicken and then proceeded to show me a picture of his golden retriever.) but still. dang, korean kids. why so morbid?

i'm a teacher now? and some other stuff.

first off, thank you for the reminders to update. very persistent, just as i'd requested. :)

i can't believe i haven't even been here for two weeks yet. it feels like training was ages ago. going non-stop like this is wearing me out. i've definitely been taking the time to sleep and be a homebody this week so i can recharge my energy before it's too far depleted.

but! to more important things! like my new job!

part of my walk to school. it's a straight shot down the

street, so it's really easy to get to. takes about 10 min.

more of the walk to work. it was rainy today.

okay, these leaves are EVERYWHERE on the sidewalk

and they are SO. FREAKING. BIG.

so i've had my first two days of teaching now, meaning i am -officially- a teacher. (finally, right?) it's gone pretty well... i think. no out of control disruptive behavior, no disasters of any kind, no completely awkwardly unprepared moments... i know this means i'm doing something right, but i still feel so incredibly clueless.

i do have to say i am glad for the training i received -- quite a lot of people getting hired to teach esl over here get thrown into the classroom immediately. the fact that i got four (intensive) days of methodology and mock teaching? i'm rather fortunate.

however. i am teaching a class i did NOT receive training in... apparently schools can only choose two courses for their incoming new teachers to be trained in, and mine had me trained in memory english and par listening. but the par level isn't just listening -- it also has a reading component. i see those kids twice a week -- one class is reading and the other is listening. aaaand guess which one they have first? (i.e. the one i taught on monday and tuesday without a damn clue in the world about how they want me to teach it?) yay reading...

overall, it still went well. one of our head instructors, will, sat in on the first hour of my reading class tuesday night and i got good feedback. he was "encouraged" by my enthusiasm and ability to build relationships with the kids and all that, so all we would need to tweak was the actual approach to teaching this class. such a relief to hear that. i actually sat in on will's reading class today and got to observe his approach, and it was immensely helpful.

hopefully, the feedback i got from will is similar to what i'll receive across the board for my classes. when it comes to memory english and listening, i did actually get to mock teach the lessons we're doing this week, so i'm feeling a little more comfortable with those. but at the same time, there ain't no way in hell i'm teaching them perfectly to chungdahm's standards. there's just so much to learn and four days of training isn't nearly enough time. i know i messed up a section here and there of the lessons, so i'm sure i'll hear about that... but they've promised to be forgiving with us newbie teachers. our branch manager, mr. kim, has been watching us closely, and so far, no complaints from him. fingers crossed it stays that way. (i'm a little terrified to get on his bad side...)

it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. i was feeling pretty down after my first day. not because it didn't go well, but just because i wasn't sure how i felt about the whole thing. i left school feeling like i was sort of winging it in the classroom and that definitely killed my confidence. plus i couldn't tell if my kids liked me or if they were scared of me. but then tuesday's classes were better, partially because they ran smoother, but also partially because some of the girls in my memory english class gave me little presents...

gum and angry birds erasers!

if the kids are giving me impromptu presents in the middle of class (one also shared her snack with me at break time), that means they like me, right? it definitely cheered me up. i'm looking forward to that class tomorrow because those little girls were such sweethearts. (and they're three of the brightest students in that class, so they're well on their way to becoming some of my favorites.)

so, all is well right now. besides observing the reading class, i had today off. i think i'm going to enjoy having wednesdays off. nice break in the middle of my work week. and even though it's kinda annoying that i don't get home from work until nearly 11pm at night, i'm a huuuuge fan of getting to sleep in until noonish every. single. day. sleeping late > going to bed early. always.

tonight, after observing the reading class, the other new teachers (kara and angus) and i went to an ex-pat bar in our area called liquor burger because they were serving leftover thanksgiving turkey and stuffing sandwiches. since i didn't get a proper thanksgiving meal, this was too good to pass up. aaand it was delicious. i love korean food, like, a lot, but i also just love turkey and stuffing. haha. it was a nice reminder of home.

turkey + stuffing sandwich with gravy and mac and cheese.

speaking of home, i got to skype with my dog last night and it was pretty awesome. and also heartbreaking. hearing my voice but not being able to smell or see me (or at least i'm not sure if she could see me on the computer screen from dad's lap?) distressed her a bit. but when dad put her back on the floor she started barking at him until he picked her back up and let her look at the computer screen. aww. my maisie dog. i wish she was here with me. :( :( :( :( :( :(

derp face. (i was making a noise to get her attention.)

waving at the camera. :(

settling into living here has been pretty easy. now that i've started work, i'm falling into a routine that's really quite comfortable. it's been rainy the past couple days so i haven't ventured out much, but i'm looking forward to checking out the little shops around my apartment. even just walking to and from liquor burger was nice tonight, despite the chill and the rain. my neighborhood is neat looking at night. very bright and colorful, which is such a change from every other place i've lived that the novelty hasn't worn off yet. and this area is really, really safe. (actually, i think that's pretty true of korea in general.) walking around alone at night? perfectly fine. my one complaint is some of the bars nearby can be a little noisy, but it isn't so bad it keeps me awake.

daytime. the brown building is my apartment building.

a yeonsu street at night!

one of the main intersections near my apartment.

might be going into seoul this weekend for some sightseeing. it feels weird that i've been here nearly two weeks and i've done hardly any touristy history/culture things. so, weather and energy permitting, i'll hopefully have some pretty pictures to post after this weekend. :)

observations about south korea, volume one.

1. there are no traffic rules. seriously, driving here has to be one of the most terrifying things ever. cars pull u-turns in the middle of the street whenever they feel like it. red lights don't mean stop. motorbikes and scooters claim use of the sidewalks. the lanes are narrow, everyone changes lanes recklessly, and bus rides are nauseating. thank goodness for the subway.

2. everyone is SO nice. my korean is very, very limited. and by limited i mean i know like... three words. and most of the time, the person i'm trying to communicate with knows barely more than that in english. but i've gotten some of the best help and customer service ever. one day during training, a few of us got a little turned around getting back to the subway. we asked a couple high school aged girls and they tried to help, but ultimately the language barrier was too much. a couple minutes later, they came up behind us on a street corner to show us a map of the subway on one of their phones. they were so concerned that we would be lost and went out of their way to be helpful. it was really sweet.

3. heated floors are pretty much the best invention of all time. so much better than vented heating. for. real. nothing like getting out of bed on a chilly morning and stepping onto a nice warm floor.

4. the food is amazing. everyone, get yourselves to a korean restaurant asap. even if it may not be 100% authentic because you aren't IN korea, it will probably still be delicious. i want to eat all of it all the time. and it's so cheap!!

5. korean children are so cute i might die. seriously. kids are adorable anywhere. but there's something about the little korean kids toddling around in their giant puffy winter coats that just makes me melt every. single. time.

training week, in a nutshell.

this past week has honestly been the longest week of my life. i've had stressful weeks before -- pretty much every finals week in high school/college, the experience of closing down a store with blockbuster... but this was... not enjoyable.

it was, of course, heavily compounded by the fact that jetlag is a bitch, but still. the pressure placed on the trainees was in-tense. basically, if we failed training, we had to go home. and be out a ton of money. ...as well as a job. AND it was all compacted into four days. four very long, very exhausting, very still-jetlagged days...

the first day was orientation/medical exams (which was quite the process itself...), then days two-five consisted of getting up at 6-7am, getting ready/studying, getting to the subway around 8am so we would be at the training center around 9am, 6-7 hours of training (learning methodology, jargon, mock teaching), back to the hotel around 4 or 5pm, maybe a break for an hour to nap/internet, and then studying with my group(s) until 1am-ish. so that plus the exhaustion from the previous week of getting ready to move to the other side of the world? i. wanted. to. die. actually, i just wanted sleep. if i hadn't been so tired? training wouldn't have been nearly as stressful.

i was lucky because i had good training groups (we were all divided into groups of 4-6 based on the courses our locations would need us to teach) and good trainers. and overall, my mock teaching went well and i do have to say that i learned a ton. i actually feel prepared for the classroom on monday. well, at least when it comes to the material. getting up in front of a bunch of kids? that'll be something else. i still have a lot to learn about actually teaching, and most of it can't really be taught.

needless to say, it's such a relief to be on the other side of training. chungdahm isn't messing around with their training week. it's hard. and not everyone makes it through. but going into the classroom is going to be a whole helluva lot easier now and i'm glad i received the training.

today was my break from it all. i have tomorrow free too, but i've got prep to do for my monday lessons. getting to my apartment yesterday and being able to sleep later than 7am this morning was incredible. tomorrow i think i'm going to sleep until i wake up. and then probably nap. i have at least a week of sleep to catch up on.

i'll post tomorrow about my apartment (which i love!) along with some pictures. i think living in korea is going to be pretty damn fantastic. :)

My first 24 hours: A recap.

Fun fact: When I opened up blogger to post an entry, it was all in Korean... In fact, quite a few websites are trying to be in Korean. Thank goodness for Google Translate! Haha.

Well, I made it! Safe and sound. Now that I've been here for almost a full twentyfour hours, I figured it was time for my first blog post from this side of the Pacific.

Packing was a bit of a nightmare... The weight limits for bags had us all very stressed out. I don't know how many times we made Dad hold a suitcase and stand on the scale so we could get an idea of its weight... We thought we had both of my suitcases under the 50 lbs. limit, but when we got to the airport, they definitely were not. Luckily, the nice woman at the United Airlines desk didn't seem to care.

Unfortunately, I couldn't pack

my Maisie dog. :(

We had another panic moment when we saw something online saying the combined weight of my carry-on and "personal" bag could not exceed 22 pounds. My carry-on was a good 23 pounds on its own... But again, when my bag was weighed at the Asiana Airlines desk at LAX, they didn't say anything about it being over. It was such a relief. I was envisioning being THAT person at the airport -- sitting in the middle of the floor, frantically pulling things out of my bag so I could meet weight limits.

!!!!!!!!!!

Flight route. Saw some gorgeous, snowy mountains and landscape

out the windows. (And since we stayed north and near land, there

was no sign of mysterious islands with smoke monsters.)

Flying on Asiana was enjoyable. Plenty of legroom, good food, and I didn't have anyone in the seat next to me, so I was able to curl up and get a little sleep. I also quite enjoyed the luxury of having my own television and access to lots of movies. I only ended up watching two -- Midnight in Paris and Deathly Hallows Part I, but they definitely helped pass the time. (I thought of watching Deathly Hallows Part II as well, then remembered I was physically/emotionally exhausted and that movie makes me cry. Decided I didn't want to look like a total mess on the airplane.)

Slippers!

Menu! Pretty sure the guy a couple seats from me thought

I was a weirdo because I took pictures of everything.

Meal number one. (I got the steak instead of bibimbap because

my stomach wasn't pleased with being on a plane. Decided

to stick with something I knew.)

Meal number two. Chicken and rice.

My flight landed in Incheon around 7pm. Getting through immigration was really easy, which was a relief. And by the time I got to the baggage claim, pretty much everyone else had picked up their bags, making mine quite easy to spot on the carousel. I grabbed a little luggage trolly and was on my way. Hit a spot of confusion at the ATMs... but it ended up being really obvious (I was really tired) and taking out cash was quick and simple.

Like a boss.

The next leg of my journey had me a little nervous -- I had instructions to get on a bus that would take me to a different location so I could find a taxi that would take me to my hotel in Seoul. I had pictures of these vehicles in my welcome packet, so I figured I'd manage just fine, but still. My jetlagged brain wasn't feeling very optimistic. Luckily, it was very, very simple and the instructions I'd been given were perfect. While waiting in line for the shuttle I actually met another trainee who'd been on my flight, so that was nice. It's always good to have a friend. The bus and taxi got us to where we needed to go and didn't cost much at all.

Once we got to the hotel and checked in, we ran into about a dozen other trainees, including my roommate, in the lobby. They were all venturing out to find food and drinks, but I was way too exhausted to feel like going anywhere. Everyone I met seemed super nice though, so I'm looking forward to being in a training group with them this next week.

I crashed out completely at the hotel by about 10:30pm and didn't get up until 8something this morning. So far the jetlag isn't too bad... Fingers crossed.

I had today free since training doesn't start until tomorrow, so I got to actually see some of Seoul. I met up with my friend John and he took me on a tour of sorts. We hopped on the subway and went all over the place. I'm not really sure where all we went because we did a lot of subway riding and a lot of walking, but he took me through the shopping district and to see some of the lanterns from the festival that's been going on for the past week (and ends today). Since it was daytime they weren't all lit up, but impressive nonetheless.

Seoul Lantern Festival.

SO cool. I wish I could've seen this all lit up.

This guy is Haechi, the mascot of Seoul.

He was an excellent tour guide and tolerated my sleep deprived ramblings like a champ. I'm pretty sure I was still relatively coherent overall, but I caught myself not really making sense a few times. Oh, exhaustion. I will not let you win. Then he treated me to a delicious lunch and I've gotta say, I'm already a fan of the food here. I want to eat all of it. All the time.

Yummmm. That's kimbap on the left, then clockwise on the

right: seaweed, some weird kind of radish, kimchi, and a mystery

thing that looked like sliced jalapenos (but wasn't).

Not pictured: bibimbap, which was also delicious.

Now I'm back at my hotel, in my pjs, planning to spend the rest of the night studying up for the exams we have tomorrow morning over grammar and the like. All the walking today definitely wore me out a little, so I should be nice and sleepy by the time I need to go to bed in a few hours.

So! It has been a good start to this grand adventure. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone in training tomorrow morning and I'm really excited to explore this country. I don't think it's really sunk in yet that I'm here. I mean, I'm very aware I'm in a new country and all that, but the fact that I've MOVED here? Not feeling real yet. Part of me still can't believe I actually made this move, whereas the rest of me is just so ready to get out there and enjoy living in Korea. :)

ps. Family and friends -- some of you have already said you would, but for everyone else: If I start slacking on updating this blog, GET AFTER ME. I do want to document this whole experience and share it with everyone back home, so don't let me get lazy!

pps. I DID enable anonymous comments, so if you wanna leave me a note, you don't have to have or log into Gmail to do it! But if you leave an anon comment, please sign your name so I know who you are. <3

Things I've learned about moving to South Korea.

Here's a handful of things I've learned about my journey so far... I'm sure there will be much more to come once I'm actually IN the ROK, of course, but for now, some observations and advice about the application/preparation process.

1. Submit that FBI Background Check ASAP!

Seriously... At best, it's going to take eight weeks. And even when it DOES take eight weeks, sometimes it gets lost in the mail and you have to call the FBI half a dozen times until they finally send you a replacement. (This isn't fun and equals several more weeks of waiting for a silly piece of paper that just says, "No records found." Thanks, FBI.)

As soon as you even start to possibly maybe consider finding a job abroad, SUBMIT THAT DAMN BACKGROUND CHECK REQUEST. I'm not kidding. It'll save you so much grief and stress and frustration. Trust me.

2. Call around to verify processes before heading out for paperwork errands.

Check with your local police department about the FBI CBC -- you have to get fingerprinted to submit the CBC and the station by your house may or may not offer that service. Also, if you need a copy of your diploma notarized? You probably gotta get that done in the state that issued the diploma. Same with apostilles. For me, it was a pretty easy roadtrip up I-35, but it's something to research as you make plans.

3. Make copies of EVERYTHING.

This should really go without saying. Obviously, you wanna cover your ass and have copies of all your stuff. In fact, it would be wise to also have .pdf scans of everything saved on your computer. Because really, it can't hurt anything, and it's likely you'll need them. (Quite a lot of original paperwork gets sent off and away, so having copies of the original contracts/forms with your information and signature is very smart.)

4. Be patient with the consulate when you submit your visa code/paperwork.

I submitted all of my stuff on a Thursday afternoon and was told it wouldn't be ready until the following Tuesday. (Today, actually, so fingers crossed it IS ready at 4pm as promised...) I know some of the delay is caused by the weekend being smack in the middle, but be aware that it can take longer than a day or two.

That's all I have at the moment. I have two and a half weeks left before the big move, so I'm positive I'll have another "things I've learned" entry in that time. Probably packing related... I'm really not looking forward to that process... Wish me luck!