Wednesday, November 30, 2005

not quite there yet...

Okay, so Korea is called "The Land of the Morning Calm". That is why my blog name is so incredibly clever. (So if you didn't know, now you are clued in)

Harland is still "out in the field" - so no plane ticket yet. Which of course means there is no date yet on when I am actually going to be in Korea and get this blog into full swing. But it is coming, folks. I can feel it.

Since you came to visit this blog, I have to say more than just "I have a clever title, honest" and "no news on when I am going over there yet". I don't want you to have wasted your time checking out the site.

Some friends have asked if I know the Korean language. I know very little. Enough to say: hello, thank you, I would like some kimchi, etc. But not enough to really hold a conversation. I really hope to learn more when I am over there.

One thing that is interesting about Korean is the written language, called Hangeul. It is really easy to learn to read Korean. They have 24 letters and so it is not like one has to memorize thousands of characters like in Chinese and Japanese.

If you are interested in learning more (and I recommend it, it is very interesting) here are a few links for you to explore:

This article has info on the history and pronunciation of hangeul.
http://www.korea.net/korea/kor_loca.asp?code=G0702

If you are interested in learning Korean, here is an awesome website.
http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

Well that is all I have time for now, I gotta continue packing!

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Coming Soon!

I will be posting my own journey in Korea as well as cool cultural tidbits I pick up - right here in this very Blog!

I will not be arriving in Korea until the middle of January, so obviously there will not be very many postings here until my plane arrives. So bookmark this site and then check back in the middle of January. (Once I know the exact date I will post it). Sometimes this site needs to be "refreshed" to see new entries, so if you come back in mid January and only see this blog entry, hit the refresh button on your browser.

Cheers!