Keeping busy in Limbo

My remaining days in the United States I’d like to say are numbered, but as I still do not have a definite departure date, I cannot accurately state what that number would be.  What remains to be done? 

1. submit my apostilled FBI Criminal Background Check results to my recruiter
2. receive a visa code
3. attend an interview session with the Korean Consulate in Atlanta
4. receive my visa
5. book a flight

In the meantime…….

My Korean language learning is, well, I guess “progressing” would be the appropriate word.  I’m not really sure how to gauge my progress on Rosetta Stone.  I can tell you that each time I log in, I can see the number of green check marks has increased, but as far as what that means in my retention or comprehension of Korean, I am clueless.  However, I can now identify, in Korean, man, woman, girl, boy, (as well as their plural forms), children, adults, dog, cat, and horse.  I can say if they are eating food or drinking water/coffee/tea/juice or if they are cooking/reading a book/reading a newspaper/swimming/running/walking.  While I still cannot ask a man/woman/girl/boy/cat/horse if they speak English, I can assure my future Korean neighbors that yes, in fact, I am a woman, and this woman is drinking tea.  So fear not!  There will be no confusion as far as what my preference is for my regular fluid intake.

Very recently I have begun using Declan’s ReadWrite Korean! Software.  I can now read, write, and pronounce about 4-5 Hangul characters.  Check out the results of my practice below:

I am pretty sure that compared to any normal Korean’s, my Hangul can be likened to the scrawl of a first-grader’s.  

In other news, this past weekend I did the Katie Ride for Life on Amelia Island.  It was a pretty nice ride.  I conquered the 36-mile course in about 3 hours, give or take a little.  It was pretty sunny, but not terribly hot.  We started around the Fort Clinch area and rode around the park a bit before it took us through Fernandina Beach and down towards Amelia Island Plantation.  It was a bit windy and had little bit of rolling hills going through Fernandina.  However, probably the biggest challenge was the Nassau Sound bridge.  Southbound crossing, there was a constant, fairly strong headwind, which I powered through to the other end only to be told to turn around and go back the other way.  All I’m sayin’s that the stars must have been in an auspicious alignment or something because as soon as I turned around, I noticed that the angle of the wind was blowing in such a way that I was pretty much blown back to the other side of the bridge—piece o’cake.   

Here's a nice aerial shot of the course area.  The infamous bridge is the long one down on the left hand side.  This photo does not show the new bridge, which is the one I actually rode over, but the new one is right next to the one in the photo.  

Part of the course took us through residential areas of Amelia’s golf communities. Most of the local people we’d pass would wave at all the riders.  I saw a lawn care guy in one of the neighborhoods with a Doctor Who license plate on the front of his truck.  I should have given that dude a double thumbs-up, but I rode by too fast.  All said, it was a successful ride.  They had free Firehouse Subs at the end, so it was definitely worth it.  That was one awesome turkey sub.