We’ve Got Some Big News…

…no we aren’t expecting a baby anytime soon, or buying a house. In fact, our news is kind of the opposite…

We are moving to KOREA!

Yes, yes, South Korea.

We will be boarding a flight in a little less than a month, bound for the opposite side of the world, to a country in which we’ve never been.

research & coffee

Are we nervous? Umm, absolutely. I’d be lying if I said no.

But are we excited too? Hell yes!

So why are we moving to South Korea?

Like many foreigners bound for this exotic destination, we will be teaching English.

And right now, that’s about all we know.

Although we are leaving in less than 30 days, there are still a lot of unknowns. We don’t know which city we will be living in. We have no clue what our apartment will be like. We don’t even know what age students we’ll be teaching.

It’s kind of scary when I realize we have absolutely no clue where we’ll be two months from now.

But it’s kind of exciting too, isn’t it?

There haven’t been many times in my life when I have fully relinquished control and truly embraced it. This is a perfect opportunity. We asked for adventure, and here it is, staring us in the face.

There are a lot of mysteries, but we do know a couple things:

1.     We will be living in the eastern part of the country in a province called Gyeongbuk. (no clue what city yet!)

2.     We will be working with a program called EPIK (English Program in Korea)

3.     As soon as we arrive, we will spend one week in orientation to help us get acquainted with our new life in Korea.

From everything that I’ve read about this week-long orientation, it seems like it will be much like freshman year of college – living in dorms, playing icebreaker games, wearing nametags and eating cafeteria style food.

Bring it on!

I just hope we aren’t the only old, married couple there!

So, our flight is booked, our contracts signed, and we are getting ready to say goodbye in just a few short weeks.

Now that the logistics are out of the way, let the month of packing begin!

How to Pack for 3 Months

Our sweet send-off note from our friends

How do you pack a backpack for three months, you might ask? A few people have asked us this question recently, so I searched my computer and found this packing list I made the week before we left for South America. (And although this post feels long overdue, I decided to put it up anyway since it was all typed up and ready to go!)

Now, I am not in any way saying that we are experts in the area of packing. 

We probably could have gotten away with far less than what we brought. But we also could have packed much more… Roller suitcase, anyone? 

We can say, though, that we felt prepared for just about every situation we encountered. Plus, we were both pretty proud that we were able to carry everything on our backs, with room to spare – thanks in part to our amazing, magical packing cubes.

These pictures say it all:

Katie's clothes before...

...and all squashed down in the packing cubes! Yes, this is ALL OF MY CLOTHES! 

Ben's Clothes...

... and all squished down!

Oh, and don't forget food! We brought some dried fruit, trail mix, beef jerky and Cliff bars... which lasted all of four days... 

So that's everything! It all fit in two big backpacks and two day packs!

Our Packing List

The Gear:

Our tried and true packs (70 L Osprey backpack - Ben; 65 L Deuter backpack - Katie)

2 small day packs

8 Eagle Creek Packing Cubes. Best. Invention. Ever. (Just check out those pictures!)

Katie

Tops:

7 basic tanks (This was too many! They packed up super small, so it wasn't too big of a deal but next time I would bring less.)

1 dressy tank top

2 athletic tank tops

3 t-shirts

1 long sleeve “nice-ish” shirt

1 long sleeve athletic shirt

1 zip-up hoodie

1 cardigan

1 lightweight dress

Bottoms:

1 pair yoga pants

1 pair leggings

1 pair lightweight trekking pants

1 pair Nike leggings

1 pair jean shorts

2 pairs athletic shorts

1 pair jeans

1 short skirt

1 long skirt

Undergarments:

12 pairs of underwear

3 lightweight socks

2 wool socks

3 sports bras

2 regular bras

2 swim suits 

Shoes:

Hiking Boots

Lightweight sneakers

Dressy sandals

Comfy flats

Shower sandals

Outerwear:

Raincoat

Columbia Omniheat Shell Jacket

Accessories:

3 pairs of earrings

2 necklaces

2 headbands

Watch

Toiletries:

Shampoo & conditioner

Bar of soap

Face wash

Facial wipes

Vaseline 

Deodorant

Collapsible toothbrush

Toothpaste

Dental floss

Razor and extra blade

Hand sanitizer

Tweezers

Nail clippers

Nail file

Lotion

Small mirror

Hair elastics

Bobby pins

Collapsible travel hair brush

Small solid perfume

A couple makeup items: waterproof mascara, chapstick, etc.

Miscellaneous items

Ben

Shirts:

7 t-shirts 

3 tank tops

1 long sleeve shirt

1 quarter zip long sleeve

Pants/Shorts:

1 athletic shorts 

1 pair of dress shorts

1 pair of jeans

1 pair of hiking pants

Undergarments:

10 boxer/briefs

4 light socks

2 wool socks

1 swim suit

Shoes:

Hiking boots

Lightweight sneakers

Pair of Vans

Sandals

Outerwear:

Raincoat - Later stolen :(

Columbia Shell Jacket

Toiletries:

Shampoo

Bar of soap

Deodorant

Chapstick

Face wipes

Collapsible toothbrush

Toothpaste

Dental floss

Electric trimmer

Electronics:

Asus Q200E Laptop (11”)

GoPro Hero 3 and accessories

Nikon D90

Canon Powershot Point and Shoot

2 Kindle Paperlight

iPhone 5

iPod (Ben’s ancient one, so old it has a wheel… Remember those?!)

2 pair of headphones each

Chargers for all

Medicine:

Diamox (for altitude sickness) - never used this 

Dramamine (for motion sickness) - never used this

PSI bands (these plastic bands are worn on pressure points on your wrist to alleviate motion sickness)

Ibuprophuen

Stoppers and Goers (if you don’t know what that is, look it up) - never used this

Tums

Antibiotics

Neosporin

First Aid Kit (Super compact kit from REI that has EVERYTHING we could possibly need. And more.)

Important Documents:

Passports

Extra passport photos

Vaccination documentation (we got the vaccination for Yellow Fever and Typhoid)

Credit cards

Copies of all documents saved in "the cloud"

Don't forget vaccinations!

“Luxury” Items:

Collapsible cups

Bottle opener

Harmonica

ENO Hammock (this was one of our favorite wedding presents! Although we only used it a couple times, it was amazing!)

  

Other:

SteriPen (Sterilizes 1 liter of water in 90 seconds using UV light. This was one of the best purchases we made before our trip. We saved tons of money because we rarely had to buy bottled water!)

2 Headlamps

2 REI super absorbent travel towels

Mini lantern

Leatherman

Rope

2 large combination locks

2 small combination locks

4 carabineers

Deck of playing card

Spanish Phrase Book

2 Notebooks and pens

Non-Packable Items:

Amazon Cloud account - This is where we backed up all our pictures and important documents

Traveler’s Insurance (for roughly $70, we were both covered for three months with traveler's insurance. Although we would really only be able to use it during emergency situations, it made us feel better knowing we would be covered if something went terribly wrong. Plus, when we had a few things stolen, our insurance reimbursed us for some of the cost.)