First week: done!

Today, Pepper and I embarked upon a lovely three mile jog down Gwangalli Beach. This city is well-designed for fitness freaks, because wide-set pathways frame the beachfront area and seem to travel for miles. In this area, daily foot traffic includes runners, walkers, a slew of bicyclists, and even a few skateboarders. We're still riding the culture shock wave, but that's ok, because we have sights like this that impress the heck out of us.

A Korean marina! Who doesn't love perusing boats?

A panoramic shot would be much more glamorous, but until I figure out that particular function on the new phone, these smaller photos will have to do.

Nope, this isn't sushi, folks. It's gimbap. It's healthy, it's good, and it's cheap. You can't go wrong with this stuff.

This is what the Korean flag looks like. It's not quite as comforting as the stars and stripes, but I still think this one is quite lovely.

We adored this discovery: outdoor gyms! No membership is needed at this time, because on our run, we stumbled across two areas with exercise equipment. Some machines were familiar, some were not. Bonus: they had gigantic hula hoops!

Hello all, this is Jessica's husband Pepper. I'm not as much of a writer as my wife, but I wanted to share how are journey has been so far. This is an email I responded to from my friend, Andy, who was checking in with us to see our our new lives in Korea are starting.

Man it's great to hear from you, we're definitely in the big city. It's so big here and there are people everywhere but they have been pretty nice for the most part. There are food and coffee shops everywhere! I feel like that's all we've done haha. We're both going to our schools today for orientation so we're pretty excited.

We're not fully used to the time difference yet but we're trying our best not to sleep during the day so we can get adjusted quicker. The flight over here was crazy long and we didn't sleep much at all. Plus our flight from NY to Seoul was delayed over an hour and one of my bags was lost so all that caused us to miss our last flight. But we were able to get on standby with another airline and they found my bag yesterday so all is good. We're in a motel for the next couple of days until we move into our apartment either tomorrow or Wednesday.

The beach is really pretty and the city is beautiful at night; so many lights across the building and bridges and fireworks too. However it's monsoon season so it's been kinda rainy and really windy but I think it's almost over. Trying not to get too homesick over here, but it's a little tough when we don't fit in yet at all. At least we have each other. Thank you so much for checking in, I'll keep you posted on our first week of work.

But I'll miss Athens.....

You know that moment in Home Alone where the McCallister family oversleeps, then awakes, realizes they have an international flight to catch, and frantically scrambles around the household, assembling luggage, children, and their wits? It's a time lapse of high-stress motion and intense expression. Well, that's exactly how Pepp and I have felt.....ALL DAY LONG. The turnaround time from wedding to honeymoon to South Korea really hasn't been long enough. I knew that the three-day span between the end of our honeymoon and the beginning of our South Korea journey was "biting off" quite a lot, and I must admit that I'm feeling the pressure, big time.                                                                                                                             We each had our own apartment in Athens, which meant we had to box up our belongings, recruit able-bodied friends to help lift and move furniture, then have a wedding, then return from a week-long (although awesome) trip to Mexico, pack for a YEAR-LONG stint in Korea, make nice with our individual landlords (please don't charge me for the stylishly painted doors, please). It all feels chaotic, and it's probably my fault for having too many things. In the U.S, we get quite comfortable with all our belongings surrounding us, yet when we travel, we often think we need AS MUCH STUFF as possible. Guess what? Suitcases can only hold so many burdens. Pepp is more of a minimalist than me, so I'm trying to learn good habits from him.

Anyway, my goal was not to rant about the stress of putting our belongings in storage and packing for a somewhat uncertain journey to the other side of the world. Instead, I wanted to talk a bit about the town of Athens, and how much it's meant to me.

This place has great. Living in a unique city (I'd call it a city, although its not as tremendous as Atlanta) has been a blessing. I lived centrally, which meant everything I needed was just a short drive away. Athens very much has an identity of its own, and it's not solely defined by the Dawgs...although let's face it, football is a distinguishing factor. Living here has allowed me to branch out on my own with a brand new career, a new church, and new friends. Heck, I even managed to find a good husband. These things could have happened anywhere, sure, but I'm happy to have called good 'ol Athens my home. I may be a Kentucky native, but I do have a soft spot for the red and black. In a day or two, I'll post more Athens and Mexico pictures. Also, South Korea goodies are on the way! First, we must make it to the airport on time.

This unique artist is Athens-famous.
He uses his mouth and a sharpie to
create images for UGA fans.