Goodbye Atkins

So yes, I am back from Korea. No doubt there will be more about that in the coming days and weeks. Suffice to say I am enjoying being back in the North Carolinian sunshine and heat for many, many reasons.

One thing that I did not enjoy is just days after being back I had to move house. It’s hard to believe that I came to the new world with nothing more than the shirt on my back (and two suitcases in my hands - although not at the same time, damn heavy). Moving house took several car trips and many boxes. Bodes well don’t you think?!

I'm hoping that when they clean my old house, they don't find out about the sofa covers I shrunk in my first few days in Atkins. Although, I can’t imagine there’d be any sort of problem, I bought them a new cover from Wal-Mart. In fact, I did them a favour, the old one was uuuggggly.

One word of advice should you ever move house, when trying to turn your water on, it’s best not to turn off the neighbour’s. It does nothing for community relations. He already seemed suspicious of me (probably due to me being under 70 and having an accent). Maybe I should call round later to say sorry. Again. I could bring him some water related gift. I was thinking maybe a goldfish or some bubble bath to celebrate his newly turned on water. That would win him around I'm sure.

Not sure that was what Garth meant

3.15am and I'm working on seminar reminder lists to avoid 2000 people at Registration asking us what they signed up for.

Pressed play on my iPod to get a random song up.

'Ain't Going Down Til the Sun Comes Up' by Mr. Brookes himself. Brilliant.

I've had ten hours sleep total over three nights and wonder how I manage even to stand during the day. Which reminds me, because I'm on my feet all day long, standing running (think Mrs. Weir ex-BHSers) I have swollen ankles.

Today will definitely be two birthday records:
-Earliest wake up (bus leaves at 7.00am, who's idea was the conference start time?!)
-Worst appearence ever (shadows under eyes so bad they look like black eyes, bad hair, lack of shower, skin dull, no make-up. I have no time to do anything about my appearance mostly due to my two for two record of sleeping in the two mornings of the conference.)

I nearly don't even want reminded it is my birthday. Can I postpone it til further notice?

7.5 on the richter scale

So full of stories from today, I think I'll have a book series instead.

Suffice to say that on a scale of one to ten (mildly stressed to so stressed I can't even work and have to be sent home to lie in a darkened room until further notice) I reached 7.5. The closest I came to meltdown was when the same Korean volunteer interupted me with whoever I was helping to ask me the same question again and again and again. Not just away and back instantly, like 5 minutes apart. Same answer each time, same issue for about 45 minutes. No kidding, it was 8-10 times at least. The church was full this morning, so there were aroundabout 10,000 there. Packed.

Having a great time with Team Ireland (GK, DA and JS all legends by the way!!) Jud, Dee and I have put the whole world church to rights tonight and while we were at it we did the Ireland too. Great night and laughed until I nearly passed out at Jud's impression of her mum's stare at Owen and her when they were kids and fighting in church. I could just see you do it Helen! Brilliant!

Anyway from the tone of this you will know I'm fine and pleased with how it's going.

Tomorrow is another day though!

Quoting Scott Mills

'Tired and emotional.'

Tuesday (Council day 1) worked 20 hours, slept 3 hours.

Wednesday (Council day 2, Conference minus 24 hours) worked 18 hours, will sleep for 4.

Like most girls when I'm tired I cry (two and counting). After each problem was dealt with I managed to walk away without being incredibily rude in return (I know I represent, and am employed by, an organisation more than myself otherwise I would have given them a bollocking* back again) before disolving into tears.

* I swear more too.

It's looking good for tomorrow then.

Another post?! Crazy!

I thought I’d write a quick blog just before I head to bed.

-It is hotter that Hades out here, which is odd because the sun doesn’t appear to shine too much. Haven't seen a blue sky since I left, which is having a negative affect on my hard earned tan. But hurrah for air con. My weather lady shows the temperature but that is really of little significance, the percentage number is the humidity. That’s the killer right there.

- Koreans put sweetcorn on pizza. I have concluded therefore that it is only America where this seems an odd custom. So far we have avoided the Kim Chi. Any doubts of God’s existence can now be banished.

-It's all gone a bit West Wing here with people working in Hotel rooms. Have yet to hear anyone to say 'can I've the room?' though. While I work in my room I have the TV on. There is only two channels that are in English, CNN and the US Army channel. The Army Channel is better than it sounds with all the top US shows. They do have funny adverts though, telling what is coming up on various barracks and giving you the weather for the whole of eastern Asia.

- My phone not working out here has meant that I have missed a few golden opportunities to take photos (now that I’ve found my memory card adaptor!). Eg. There was a big protest going on about the Free Trade Agreement and rice imports. It had more riot police than I have ever seen. They weren’t needed as there was no fighting from the paddy farmers and there was certainly no tear gas dispensed. This meant though that hundreds of police were put into organised rows sitting on their helmets waiting for the announcement that they were to go to war. Another opportunity missed came when I went past a Royal Palace (ten a penny here) and there was some sort of changing of the guard going on. These were the same men that I had a photo of before, you know the ones that looked like they had escaped from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics? Apparently they don’t just roam in the streets in full regalia. Good to know.

- I don't understand where the time has come for blogging and email writing. It seems like we aren't working but maybe it just seems like that because I was working ridiculous hours in the weeks before we left. Although this will probably change next week as people begin to arrive. I have a few more chapters for my book now we're here, but for right now it’s off to bed! Have a good Friday night y’all!

Missing: Monday, internet access Found: memory card adapter, two posts inside three days

[Wrote most of this on the plane to Seoul.]

Well the great news is I found my memory card adaptor. Is that a collective sigh of relief I hear?! I never did make it to bed on Saturday night, in fact I was barely packed when Roma and Wayne came to pick me up.

Flight Stories
-We were loaded up with luggage and boxes. I had my super sized suitcase (which for just over two weeks in Seoul weighed 29kgs – bodes well for going home don’t you think?!), a wheelie suitcase with my laptop and printer, a box with 3000 name tags which was similar in size and weight to a box with reams of paper in it and a file box with all my files and what not. Roma had a big green plastic box akin to a toy box. We had resigned ourselves to paying excess luggage but the super lady, Angelica, at check-in told us if we bought a cardboard box from American Airlines for $10 we could put all those boxes in it and perhaps avoid paying excess luggage as it would cut our luggage down to the six allowed pieces, but the weight would be a different issue. So obviously a box at $10 was a much better deal that two extra pieces at $148 each. When we packed the new box and weighed it, we were 400g away from being too much. That’s not even a bag of sugar!


I used to pride myself on travelling lightly. Not anymore.



The hero of the hour, Angelica. She was much prettier than this picture makes her appear.


The $10 box (worth $300).


By the skin of our teeth.


Monks travel too you know. But only in ugly colours.

-Due to all the luggage issues I missed my opportunity to ask for an aisle seat, but Angelica had my back and gave me an emergency row seat which in my opinion is only one step away from travelling business. It was my first time in an emergency row and was expecting some sort of tutorial on what I had to do in said emergency and maybe a team talk from my row mates about who would do what should the worst happen. Nothing. They must have looked at our row and decided we looked like the sort of people who could handle it.

-I like talking on planes and I was delighted that the guys on either side of me were up for a bit of chat. The guy on the left works for Hyundai and was going on a tour of plants with car dealers from America. The guy on the right is in the Army and about to start a tour in Korea. I talked with Hyundai about the World Cup, living in the South and his children and I got to ask Army all my questions about the army. He loved sitting beside me! I think had it not been a full flight and he had all that extra leg room he’d have asked to be moved. (Just in case you wondered, he has never said to anyone ‘I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you’.)

-Actually there were lots of military on the plane (More information from Army : they don’t have to wear their military fatigues when travelling. But interestingly, you have to wear your dog tags when flying, when you are in combat and when your commanding officer tells you to, you don’t have to always have them on. I had a lot of questions). When I was on a walkabout, I stopped at the back of the plane and one guy asked me was I in the military too. I stifled my laughter and thanked him for thinking that I could be. My guess that he hadn’t been in the Army for long was confirmed, he’d just finished his six months of basic training and this was his first tour. He clearly has a lot to learn if he thinks I could possibly be in the army.

-Talking to these two guys, you’ve really got to admire people in the services. Whether you think war is right or wrong, you have to give credit to people who sign up. Army has been in it for eighteen years and will be in Korea for the next year at least. He has a two year old son. That’s rough however you look at it.

-During take off the air stewardesses were sitting opposite us. One reached across and handed us each ear plugs saying ‘you are sitting by the toilet [I think implying that people will gather in the area]. Without missing a beat, Hyundai looked across to the toilets and said ‘it doesn’t get that loud does it?!’ I laughed out loud, actually it was probably more a guffaw. Well if something’s funny, then life is too short not to laugh at it.

-Another time I was walking down the plane and this one woman was looking at me like she knew me. But I was looking at her like I knew her. Turns out she was on the plane from Seoul in March and had talked to Virginia for most of the flight. I wish I had bought that lottery ticket now. Anyway as I stopped to talk to her she said ‘you’re the girl from Ireland who had the rat in your kitchen!’ I didn’t correct her, I like that she exaggerated my story.

We arrived in Seoul on Monday night and I officially became the last person in the world to know who won the World Cup. I came third in the predictions thing though so hurrah. Matt had guessed Italy would win and Jason beat me on points in the opening stages. I was the top girl but against Americans it's hardly anything to write home about really. (But just realised I am anyway.)

So it’s now Tuesday and we are in the calm before the storm. I am working in my hotel room on registration things and thought I'd put this on. Today has largely been a big old waste of a day, mostly to do with tinternet access in our rooms being broken. Roma and I had all sorts of people looking into it for about an hour. They played around with settings on my computer which makes me slightly nervous and just as I was trying to think of the punch line to the joke ‘how many Koreans does it take to fix the internet’ the actual answer came ‘move rooms’. So I’m in a new room. The upside is it’s bigger, the down side is my bed is further away from the TV. Sometimes you can’t have it all.

I told you it would get worse

It’s not that I haven’t had anything to say over the past two weeks, oh no there’s been loads going on, I just haven’t had time to say it. I remember with fondness when I had time to write emails, watch TV, go shopping, write blogs, sit in my house and generally bless myself. It’s now just over twelve hours before I leave to go to Seoul but I am making a point of writing on here.

I’m doing messages in town, getting all sorts of essentials for the trip, you know the likes, face wipes, travel adaptor… I planned to get something to eat in this little place which also handily has wireless so I could blog. So right now I am sitting outside in lovely sunshine using free wireless, updating podcasts, downloading music, making playlists and writing here. All this while drinking my free refills of Pepsi. God bless America.

I don’t really know how to describe how I feel about going to Korea, nervous, scared, fear, dread are all good words. This is the whole reason I am here in the first place, my raison d'être, and it’s finally upon me. I really do just hope I can pull it off and nothing goes majorly wrong. I’m excited to see Jud and Dee, and am hoping that they will be able to put a smile on my face. I also am looking forward to putting names to some of the people I have been helping over the past few months. And then of course there’s staying in the super nice hotel, so you know, it’s not all bad!

But let me tell you, on my list of things to happen this week, nowhere was North Korea launching missiles there. That was a special treat, thanks Pyongyang! But the good news for you is that I have amassed plenty of material for my book, ‘The Secrets, Lies and Fancy Foot Work Behind the Meeting of World Wide Wesleyans (available in Number 9 come Christmas). I should imagine that there’ll be a special chapter on this event (working title ‘Missiles Keep Falling on My Head’).

In other news since I last blogged:

-I celebrated 4th of July. I had the day off, which I probably shouldn’t have had. It was a stereotypical July 4th, we played on the lake, had a barbeque and watched fireworks. We even had watermelon. It doesn't get much more stereotypical than that. I think we should have an Independence Day and celebrate with red, white and blue things…oh no wait, we’re not independent…is that what all the fuss is about...never mind.

-I got more bites. Boo hiss. Let me give you a timeline of one of my bites so you can sympathise laugh.
Hour 0-1 – bite is about the size of a 10p/quarter and has a white blister look to it. The greater area feels like really bad sunburn.
Hour 2-12 – blister dies down but bite changes to red and grows to the size of a Vaseline tin. The skin where the bite is has a kind of lump and is hard. Not so itchy.
Hour 12-48 bites continues to be red but grows to be the size of your palm. Enough heat comes off it to power a small town and so itchy it’s actually painful.
Hour 48-72 Bite begins to lose heat and redness but the desire to scratch remains.
Hour 72-168 The wanting to scratch slowly goes away but the pink mark where the bite is remains, as does the tightness of the skin.
And people say I'm a hypochondriac! Ha!

-I was gutted at last week’s exit of England in the World Cup. Anything is possible in football, except for two things, Germany will always win on penalties, England will always lose. I hold those truths to be self evident.

-But I was also disappointed at Germany losing to Italy. I had them to win the whole comptetion. Dammit.

-July’s playlist has no country music in it, well at the minute at least. It does have Oasis (Stop Crying Your Heart Out), The Fray (Over My Head), Kelly Clarkson (Breakaway), The Black Eyed Peas (Let’s Get It Started) Switchfoot (Dare You To Move) and New York Minute by Don Henley. Don't you love knowing what music I'm listening to.

-Last night I was listening to music on my iPod. I usually listen to playlists but this time had just hit play for it to pick a random song from my collection (which is well over 3000). Coldplay, The Scientist is what came on. Good choice Mr. iPod. As it ended I was thinking about starting it again because I like that song but couldn't be bothered to move to switch it back. Then the next song started and what was it? Coldplay, The Scientist but this time from a different album. What are the chances of that?! Ok, like one in three thousand but still. Am thinking about buying a lottery ticket, I'm clearly on a lucky streak.

-I’ve lost my memory card adaptor which I use for the memory card in my phone to put surreptitious photos on here. Which is more than slightly annoying as I had a few classics for you. Hopefully I’ll find it soon. It’s probably under all that crap on my desk which I should probably tidy at some point before I go. Or maybe not, know your limits Tina.

-This is old news but something I haven’t put on here, the lake that Maggie and I went to a couple of weeks ago was the lake that they used to film that bit in ‘Dirty Dancing’. How cool is that?!

-Again old news, but I’d like to publicly say thanks Linda for the package. You’re great! Return post in the mail.

Enough Pepsi for me, I should go and head back to the Lake to pack up everything. I’ll try to blog when I am away, but no promises. Probably the next time you hear from me I’ll be a whole year older. Which remains me, don’t send me massive presents. I have enough crap to ship home. Jewellery and money is fine though.