Week of Dec. 28th

This week has brought several...interesting experiences. Charity and I arrived on Friday of last week from Kansas City (MCI) and arrived at Philadelphia (PHL) early in the afternoon. Charity's brother Charles and sister-in-law Shelley came to pick us up. That evening we had a wonderful time visiting with the Pritt side of the family.

On Monday we went to the Korean Consulate in New York City to finalize our visa information. Around 8 in the morning we headed out to the Bethlehem bus station for the Trans-Bridge buslines and rode the 10:30 bus to the PABT in New York. We walked from there to what we thought was the Korean Consulate which was near the UN Building on the waterfront. However ten minutes before our appointment we were told by the guard at the front desk that the location we needed was 12 blocks away on Park Ave! We had to run two blocks to find a cab and rode it to the Park Ave location and then were told to wait in line!

After a about an hour of filing papers with the Korean Consulate we were granted an interview that lasted about 5 minutes and we were given verbal approval for our visas to Korea.

Once we had approval, Charity and I walked around the city and saw Madison Square Garden, the US Postal Office, Times Square and a handful of other places. It really got dark to quick and we couldn't see most of the things that would have been fun to see, but we had fun anyway.

Around 6:20 or so we boarded the bus to go back to Bethlehem and ultimately home to the Pritt's.

Let me take a quick moment to say that taking the bus from Bethlehem trumped driving to Newark Penn Station and taking the train in. Plus, we were able to get off a lot closer to were we wanted to go.

On Tuesday, Charity, April, little Isaac and I went out to Costco to get our membership so that we can use it in Korea. Of course, we had to also check out the local mall and eat at one of our favorite resturants-Chipotle!

On Wednesday we had a quiet New Years Eve and with a little conjoling I was able to keep Charity up till after the ball drop.

As I sit and write this on New Years Day, we have just said goodbye to last of the family members from the annual Pritt dinner. It was good to see everybody again and it was a very enjoyable time to be had with family and friends.

We are taking our final steps to deciding what we will do for our luggage and taking the final steps for prepping for the big trip.

A little less than 3 days to go....