Wide open spaces

I love my camera and I love Montana. Short post for now :)

Happenstance

Listening to an excessive amount of Rachel Yamagata has me thinking about happenstance and what it has done in my life. It is defined as follows-

Noun 1. Happenstance - an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental.
-coincidence
-chance event, fortuity, accident, stroke - anything that happens suddenly or by chance without an apparent cause.

While my desire to see the world has always driven me to explore opportunities, I can hardly believe somedays how close I am to auctually doing it. It is easy to forget that in a few short weeks, I will be boarding a plane and not returning for a full year. I have always believed in accomplishing goals that I seriously set my mind on. While I have had many goals and ideas, few have flourished the way this Korea plan has. I feel the word "happenstance" fits my situation perfectly. Everything has fallen into place so perfectly, yet it has been completely random and a complete surprise most days.

My summer here has been an amazing blessing. While most days I'm stuck drudging through work, there are the few days I have had that make everything else worth it.

Currently listening to: Elephants...Teeth Sinking into Heart. Rachel Yamagata.

Kimchi in Montana

We went to a Korean restaurant in Bozeman and ordered an assortment of fabulous things. However, I didn't love the kimchi fried rice that Corinne ordered. That worried me! What if I hate kimchi?! I thought I liked it. So maybe I just didn't like that kimchi...Either way Bozeman has the best little Korean BBQ in Montana (I assume it is the only one). While we specifically went to Bozeman to eat at I-Ho's, the day turned into something way cooler and involved floating the river on what was a beautiful Montana summer day.

I-Ho's in Bozeman

12ish weeks

Time is flying and Corinne pointed out that we have "12ish weeks" left. Yikes!! I still feel like we have so much to do. While most of our paperwork stuff is done, we are still trying to finalize our E2 work visas. Now our focus has to shift to getting everything prepared. We have to gather all the things we are going to need and eliminate all the things we might want, but don't need. We can only check two bags and we can have a modest carry on. So preparing for a year with only two suit cases seems daunting, but I think it might be a great experience too. Simplify, simplify, simplify. That is a concept I have always wanted to live by, but it always slips away from me. I love having stuff, and usually lots of it.

So, in the time that I have left here this summer, I intend to spend as much time enjoying the Montana summers I have missed for so long. My amazing new camera will be my constant companion. Here are a few pictures of my sister I took last week. She is wearing Yellowbird shirts, my friends clothing line she will be selling on Etsy! It was a blast taking these photos for 5 hours in the heat, with horrible light, and constant attention from people passing by.

Digital darkroom

While I adore film and everything it entails...I have made the digital switch. Say hola! to my Nikon D5000. I am still in love with black and white processing (and I intend to hit it full force someday with my own darkroom), digital is going to make my life so much easier once we are in Korea! Plus this camera does HD movies with sound. It basically does everything but laundry. I broke it in this weekend at Corinne's house. I was able to get few awesome shots of our friend Joanna's son Kameron.

I still have so much to learn on this camera and I have barely been able to put it down. Here are some of my first shots.

Butterflies and popsicle sticks

Part of our process to get visas is to get criminal background checks. Corinne and I went to the courthouse where we approached a desk and the lady had no idea how to help us. After freaking out over how young we look, she finally went to her computer and came back with us papers certifying we had no felonies in Yellowstone county. Helpful. But not what we need. Also, she never asked for our ID's, she just had us write down our names and birthdays. We could have been anybody. So, that was fun.

Then we went to the police station where they gave us the appropriate information for a full background check (which has to be sent to the state) and we get to have fingerprinting done (at the county jail)! So we'll see how long that all takes but we just have to focus on getting it finished. Maybe we can go to the jail tomorrow...awesome.

After all of our legal stuff was through, we visited Starbucks for a little pick me up, and then headed back to the center Corinne works in. I decided to spend some time every week in her classroom volunteering my time. Not only will I have a blast hangin with the kids, it will help me get used to interacting with them again. Plus it always looks good on my resume.

So today we woke up from nap, ate Rice Krispie treats, had wild free time where I made the kids butterflies out of construction paper and Corinne stapled them to popsicle sticks, I had the little girls babysitting my baby (who was a monkey) named Pearl Antoinette (that will be my real baby's name someday), and then we rocked out to a Kidz Bop Jonas Brothers cover.

Could you ask for a cooler afternoon? I think not.

Processes of all sorts

I called the Korean Consulate in Seattle today. The menu was in Korean and for some reason I continued to stay on the line hoping for some English. Finally there was "For English, press 7". That was a relief. Until the lady who answered in Korean that is...but then she introduced herself in English. How exhausting answering the phone in both languages every time it rings!

We have to do a personal interview at the Consulate with a Consul. Since we are a fair distance away from them, they said we could send them DVDs of ourselves. Awkward. So, while a road trip to Seattle would be a blast, it would be expensive. So now we are directors of our own ten minute films. This should be interesting.