Rant #1,737: Here We Come

Today is August 19, and a month from now, my wife and I will be in Korea.

You might remember that several posts ago, I told you that we were among the grand prize winners in a Loyalty contest sponsored by Kia, the Korean car maker which has made a mark in this country by designing value-priced, well-built cars.

Yesterday, my wife and I finally received the itinerary for this trip, and let me tell you, this is going to be a trip of a lifetime for us, something we would not be doing on our own if we didn't win this thing.

We will be visiting factories, shopping places, Korean festivals and food establishments and many other places related to Seoul, Korea, and it all sounds like a whirlwind of fun, squeezed into several days.

There is some free time if we want to explore ourselves, but generally, everything is planned to the moment for us.

This appears to be a big thing for Kia. They have had this contest for a few years, and people from around the world gather and join in.

There is actually a Facebook page dedicated to this event, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1261758373834629/1321425467867919/?notif_t=group_activity&notif_id=1471526906436916 and I have discovered that we will be meeting other winners from Russia, the Philippines, Israel, and from other parts of our own country.

It seems exciting, maybe even overwhelming at times, but it is something that my wife and I are looking forward to.

There are many things we have to do before we get there, including getting a device that will allow us to charge up our devices--not just our phones and tablets, but also my wife's hair dryer and my electric razor--using their current and outlets, which are different than what we use here.

It sounds like a negligible thing, but in this day and age of electronics, it is pretty important to be on the same electronic page as the country you are in, so we have to buy one of these gizmos.

There will be formal gatherings, so we have to bring nice clothes--I have to try on my suit, and my wife has bought a dress for the occasions--and we can also wear regular clothing.

Korea will be in its fall when we get there, so we can probably wear leisure clothes, but we need to bring jackets, too.

We don't necessarily have to transfer our money over to the Won, their currency, as American dollars are accepted there, but we can if we want to.

Yes, this is exciting, but it also forces me to take a step back and look at why I won this contest, what happened in the aftermath, and how this contest literally makes coal into diamonds-- almost but not quite.

The one negative is that our son cannot go, but that is the way the contest is run, and we accept that.

So in one month, my wife and I will be in a place that we didn't think we would ever visit, a place that is normally out of our spectrum, but one that we will soon discover.

Thanks to Kia, thanks to all who voted for me, and I guess I have to thank God too, not for winning this contest, but for allowing us to carry on beyond that horrific event that happened in May 2014.

Things sometimes work out in mysterious ways, and this certainly fit that bill, didn't it?

Speak to you again on Monday.