Communication Clicks

For those of you who haven't seen my constant Facebook updates (I try not to put the same things on the blog that I do on FB), we are now wired and ready for communication! Last Monday, we FINALLY got our Alien Registration cards and we are now officially legal in Korea for the next year. The reason that is so exciting is that in Korea, you cannot get cell phones and internet until you are officially legal. So, on Monday, we got our new iPhone 4s (I know, we said we were NOT going to do that, but they turned out to be cheaper than they are back home and the ability to have GPS and bus and subway routes in our hands at all times seems pretty invaluable at this point!). I was especially grateful that we'd ordered them when I lost my iPod touch a week or two ago! More to the point...for those of you that we tended to be in constant communication with before (and that happen to have iPhones), we are in the process of finding apps that will allow us to continue that communication via text and voice for free. So, send one of us an email and we can get it figured out!

Additionally, we are wired via the internet at home now, too. Yesterday, we went and got a wireless router and in spite of the fact that the directions are all in Korean, Eric still managed to get it hooked up by himself, so now our 3 laptops, 2 phones, and iPad can now access WiFi at home! Yay! In the last week, we've talked to our parents and other family members via Skype and FaceTime. If you need contact information for us, let me know. We'd love to talk to you!

One more benefit of internet at home is that I am finally able to upload pictures! There are new slideshows here on the blog (remember if you click on a picture, the slideshow will open in a new window. The pictures will be bigger and you can leave a comment if you'd like!) and on Facebook. I've been having a lot of fun learning how to use Lightroom and my new camera. Hope you enjoy!

To my readers...

I am brand new to this whole blogging thing. It took me a couple of weeks to get the whole thing put together, and I keep learning new things and changing the layout and content a bit. While it didn’t take me long to get in a routine of writing (and I never struggle coming up with topics!), I’m not sure that I’ve developed my voice yet, either. I struggle with how formal or informal my writing should be. I go back and forth between using digits and writing out numbers, I drive myself crazy when I use words like “things” and “like”, and I use parentheses far more than any other normal person! But I really enjoy this outlet, and even though I’m a little embarrassed that I’m a “blogger” (especially when someone is reading my blog when I’m in the room…come on guys!), I’m glad that I have a way to express my thoughts, concerns, and triumphs to a group of readers that must be interested…or they wouldn’t be reading it, right?

It has been hard to get used to the lack of immediate feedback, though. I am not a long-time Facebook user, nor do I routinely post on FB, but when I do, I enjoy the immediate comments and “likes”. The interesting thing about this blog is that I do not get any feedback, so sometimes I feel like no one is reading what I’m writing (even though I know I have a few loyal readers!) and that allows me to be very candid and “put myself out there”. I did add the “reactions” feature, so that if you so choose, you can anonymously give me an idea that you’ve read a post and had a reaction to it. (They won’t let me choose more than four reaction types, though! Sorry!) I can also track the statistics on the site including how many views it gets each day, week, month, what keyword searches are used, and what countries my readers are in (the US of course, Argentina, Malaysia, South Korea, Germany and India in order of readership). I don’t know how you found it, or why you keep reading it, but I’m glad you do! Feel free to comment sometime and let me know what you’re thinking! It’s very liberating!