sitting at lauren's desk in her cute little apartment.... i am safely arrived in suwon, south korea. lots to absorb. really tired, but doing well. feel very well taken care of. God is good to me. sent out mass email so everyone knows i'm safe. i think i'm going to like korea. it's definitely different, though....

they have PEANUT BUTTER!!!!

i'm heading out today! mom, sarah, anna and i leave in a moment for the airport. i fly out richmond to atlanta at 7:30, and atlanta for seoul, south korea at 13:15. i should arrive in seoul around 16:40 their time (so that's 3:40am ET) on the 31st.

love to you all, thank you for your prayers and support in preparation. will communicate once i'm a bit settled.

last night dear friends from starbucks devin and colin prepared the most wonderful dinner for me at their apartment. it was good to see them, devin's little boy lane, rachel, and colin's parents. the dinner was absolutely sumptious... i'll try to put pictures up later.

this morning was a final time at my home church WEAG (West End Assembly of God), so i saw dear friends jane salmon, terry tyson, and my childhood friend aaron chapman and her new husband jimmy!! so wonderful to say goodbye to them. also said goodbye to dear diana gawelova, who is flying out for zilina, slovakia on tuesday, as well. PHEW. i'm exhausted from goodbyes.

just a bit ago mom, my sister sarah and i visited my brother josh at southside regional medical center in petersburg. for those of you who don't know, he is very sick. my whole family is praying for God to move in his life and bring complete healing. a big praise is that he accepted an IV in his hand, so his body can receive 2 pints of blood and the antibiotics he needs to fight the bacteria in his blood. every time a new test comes in this battle for josh's healing, we must rally in faith and prayer. it's rough to be leaving for korea with everything so on the rocks with josh, but since the struggle has been going on for so long, i am preparing myself for whatever may happen. he is in the Lord's hands. i'll keep everyone posted as i hear from the family.

i would have lost heart, unless i had believed that i would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the LORD!
-psalm 27,13-14

the past few days have been absolutely ridiculous. may i just say that again? ridiculous.

adventure #1: sarah gets my room when i'm gone... so i had to scrounge for boxes. where does one go to scrounge for boxes?? where else but walmart at midnight? has anyone else noticed that walmart is a culture all its' own? and walmart at midnight reaches a whole new level of culture? ha ha! i definitely feel strangely out of place there sometimes. anyway, mission accomplished, got the boxes, and now i'm about to start packing things up.

adventure #2: was still waiting for my letter of invitation and my ticket to arrive from korea by thursday morning.... bad sign. especially since it takes 24 business hours to process the visa at the consulate in d.c. and my plane leaves tuesday morning. you can imagine the prayers going on... what are they trying to do to me? give me an ulcer? LOL. my dear friend bonnie drove from the valley to make the trip up to d.c. with me... the papers finally arrived around 11am thursday (thank You, Jesus). we were packed and heading up 95N by noon.
yeah... well, we didn't really have a plan when we left (yeah... bonnie's a P... i'm a J - we figured this out on the trip) but we successfully managed the dc metro. "where are we, bonnie?" "i have no idea... you ask that guy. he looks nice." "i always ask. why don't you? ohhh, never mind." "i guess on the elevator the standers stay on the right and the walkers, the serious movers, power-walk on the left side."
"where the heck is the korean consulate? "um, i think it's that way... i don't think we're going the right direction. the numbers keep getting bigger. "holy mackeral, look at these buildings... which one's the korean flag? "ruth, you don't know the korean flag? "um..."
"uh, bonnie... i forgot my visa pictures..." "oh no... wait! look, here's a place to take them. uh not just one picture, but four, one right after another." "ruth, yeah... they look pretty bad... you weren't expecting that, were you? "bonnie, i forbid you from showing these to anyone. "oh look, they have everything for people like us. need more money, here's an ATM. need a computer w/ internet, here you go. even scissors and glue for your passport picture."
"bon, everybody speaks korean here. what am i thinking?"
me [filling out my visa application]: um sir, i don't know what my address or phone number is in korea. is that okay?
the korean man [holding up the letter of invitation- ALL in korean - giving me a 'you stupid american' look]: it's on here.
me: oh right, yeah, [completely embarrassed] since i know korean. LOL.

totally exhausted from d.c. stress and traffic, bonbon and i drove down to fredericksburg to spend the night at my sister rebekah and her husband bryan's home. it was SO wonderful to see them and little micah and nathan. bekah gave me a book with pockets to put stuff in that i want to keep. i promised bry i'll be broadcasting how amazing .heretoday. is (that's his band). how cool is that? my korean children will know about .ht. anyway, we prayed together and lots of hugs. phew. it's hard saying goodbye to bekah. i think i've started to go into denial mode. saying goodbye is emotionally overwhelming. i can't handle it.
then yesterday we had to do it all over again to pick up my visa. bon and i met our friend becca schooley at the metro (becca's going to spend a year in india with YWAM... leaves monday. holy mackeral!) and she went up with us. after picking up my visa we went to the korean cultural society, and i picked up some FREE (yessssssss!) korean maps and a travel book.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. tickets in hand. visa in passport. and i don't want to spend ANY MORE MONEY! ugh.

adventure #3: last night my college roommate lindsey martin drove up from williamsburg, and bon, linds, and i went to my starbucks. i took lots of pictures (digital cameras are FUN!). bon gave me a beautiful mug that a woman from colorado made (woohoo)! it reminded her of the mountains. so so beautiful. i can't wait to use it. bon started crashing, but linds and i had to have 1 more late-night sleepover.... out come the aerobeds and my down comforter, My Favorite Blanket, and my lamb. we stayed up late - lots of laughing to do. :)

it's saturday now, and i have to settle in to pack. hopefully will get to see devin and everyone from starbucks once more... and hopefully aaron chapman - old married woman that she is now ;) - before i head out. and of course.. family. still stuff to do.

i spent a lot of time on these cards... devin, thanks for the fun times in your mini! thanks colin for your time, and thanks to your parents for the use of their printer.

and thanks alex for hanging out while we did some cutting and pasting. :)

devin and i are off to kinkos to make little cards for people here in the states to remember me and communicate with me... what fun!

dear friends and family, i hope you enjoy this as much as i do and come back throughout the year to see what i'm up to!

right now mom is asking luke to bring in chairs from the back yard, daniel is on counter strike, and the girls are upstairs getting ready for bed. i think dad is in the den watching the news... and i'm sitting here getting some sort of a journal/blog in order for the trip.
but first, a little background. i have been in a holding tank for the past eight months since i graduated from the college of william & mary (williamsburg, va) in december 2004. my major at wm was in linguistics, and my focus and passion has been esl - english as a second language. while i had planned on returning to slovakia to teach esl, i decided that God was leading me back home. i applied to several county school systems, but nothing seemed to materialize. and when i thought i couldn't handle anything more, the Lord opened a door. i began to look into teaching esl internationally, and although my heart is in europe, i knew i wouldn't make enough money to pay off my loans; rather it would be more for the experience. however, in asia esl teachers can actually gain experience and make a profit so they do not arrive back in the states culturally enriched but financially broke. so i began doing research online, and i dropped a dear college friend lauren wenger (who is already over in suwon, teaching english with the english reading club- erc) with a little blurb: "what would you say if i were to teach english in south korea?!?"
what i could not have anticipated is that lauren recommended me immediately at erc and they responded with a "how soon can she be here?" :) while i was at starbucks the next morning, my mom called and asked when i was coming home. by the time i had gotten back to the house, both my parents were fully convinced and 100% supportive. mom had already gotten out the world atlas and was locating the city of suwon (which is about 25 miles south of the capital city seoul) and researching the geography of south korea. may i just say how absolutely ridiculous the parentals are? and full support from my dad who was never going to let me go overseas unmarried. ah yes. i love how God works!
the next weekend lauren returned to the states for our friends' wedding. i was able to bombard her with questions, and she left with confirmation that i wanted to come. within a week i had signed a contract with the English Reading Club to teach conversational english for a year.

i finish starbucks on friday, and i am flying out on 30.august. oh did i mention that i have been working at starbucks since february? yes, i have been perfecting the art of making triple grande two pump sugar-free vanilla non-fat extra hot no foam three splenda lattes. so now when i am just getting good at making coffee, i have to say goodbye! :(

whoah nelly. it's late and i've got to be up for the early shift. :p better get to bed.