Early in the Week

We were up early on Monday and set out on the bus first - with umbrellas. We have not had success with our ATM card, so we went to a downtown hotel where we could change some US money. Many of the banks are essentially local only. We mostly need it just for cabs, but it's always good to have some cash. Then we used the hotel internet briefly. We were making such good progress we went across the street for a mid morning snack at ... Paris Baguette, of course. Michael had a fancy egg mcmuffin. Then we took a cab to the Hyundai Foreigner Compound. Ulsan is a large port city and the industrial capital of Korea, and it is sure obvious in that part of town. A cab from our apartment out there is about 25 minutes. There is a "Foreign Life in Korea" office, and they were very helpful to us with some guide books and information on signing up for tours - we are hoping to go on a shipyard tour next week. The young woman helping us gave us a ride over to Hyundai Foreign School, where Michael will be enrolled. It is very nice in appearance, almost quaint given all the tall apartments nearby. The very closest housing is actually bungalows. It is located just off the main road, which will be so convenient for taxi or bus. We had a brief tour and thought the facilities were very nice. We will go there on August 26 for a new student orientation. Seeing the school gave me great peace of mind, especially because Michael seemed to like it a lot too.

We returned to our apartment by bus and borrowed a worker's phone to call Prof. Jang. He picked us up and took us to the immigration office. We had to complete some paperwork for an alien registration card. We cannot really do anything without it - including cell phone and connect internet. He thought we would get the card that day, but we are supposed to go back Sept. 5 to get it. We then went over to campus where he checked about phone and where the phone stores confirmed "no card; no phone." Prof. Jang showed us around a few more parts of campus, and we did find a place we could use the internet - a student service builidng. It was nice to see the AU home page in English!! We had tried a couple of internet cafe type places, but they were in Korean only. We were sort of resigned to going to campus for internet and living without a phone. Michael especially was not thwarted. I have said an important Bible verse for us on our trip is from Ecclesiastes - about two are better than one because when one falls (or gets overwhelmed or tired or frustrated) the other can pick him up (with a kind word). We also have been adopting the Smurf tune about "sing a happy song" starting with the la la part.

But Tuesday things changed ... not without a lot of patience and planning by Prof. Jang. We had been told we could use an old phone and pre-pay, so he found an old phone at home. We didn't know he was still working on our situation so diligently. We were getting ready to leave the aparment about 9:00 when he came over. He figured out the apartment is already set up for internet - it's not necessary for us to get our own contract. It seemed the laptop was not charging properly (even though he had got a Korean plug for us), but he noticed something in one of the connections was bent and fixed it. (The fellow is amazing!!! All this help is way beyond anything we could expect and certainly not part of his jurisdiction on campus.) Then we headed over to the phone store by campus.... and were told the old phone idea would not work because we still needed the alien registration card number. So, Prof. Jang got us a phone using his name. We didn't even have enough cash with us, so we even owe him money. (We could pay for minutes with my credit card but not for the actual phone). So, after expecting yesterday not to be able to connect to the outside world except in person, I am typing the blog in our apartment.

We have been here less than a week, but we feel like we are familiar with many things that will be part of our regular lives when school and work start. We are hoping to do some traveling in the next couple of weeks. We have to be patient because it is hard when so much information is in Korean. But that's part of the reason to come to a place like Korea - it's a great learning experience. When God sent the people out from the tower of Babel, His plan worked!! "Come let us go down and confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech." I am glad we can say hello and thank you in Korean! We hope to learn much more.

The Lord bless and keep all of you. We know school and work are getting underway in Aubun-Opelika and hope things go smoothly for all. Love, Kim and Michael

p.s. Michael's e-mail address is mtkey1121@hotmail.com if you want to send him a note.