A Place To Walk In The Sun

8-25-2010
Day 174 of 365: Second week of English camp? Check. A week of vacation on a tropical isle (Jeju) with my sister? Check. Summer vacation officially over? Check. I was overjoyed that Uriah and Philip, and later my sister Beth and her friend Isela, came to visit me. It's more than I could have asked for when I made the decision to spend a year in South Korea. That being said, I am almost relieved that school is starting back up in a couple of days. This was the strangest, busiest, and in a weird way, most solitary 5 week summer vacation I've ever had.

Why was it strange? I can't quite put my finger on one specific reason, but would instead point out that there were so many funny/weird/strange experiences, mainly over the course of the 2 weeks that I had visitors, that they all added up together to make this impression on me when attempting to describe our time together. Just eating the living octopus with Uriah and Philip (last entry: The Boys Of Summer, Part 2) alone would qualify the summer as strange, but there were many other moments to back it up. I also think the flip-flopping weekly schedule (camp, vacation, camp, vacation, etc.) put me out of sorts a little bit. I'd want to be in vacation-mode during the weeks of camp, and then I'd find myself unwillingly switching into work-mode halfway through my vacation weeks, knowing I'd be back at school in a few days. I found myself always looking ahead instead of just enjoying the moment. Maybe I was just too busy.

Looking back, I realized that virtually every hour of every day of my summer schedule was planned out...by me. I wrote the lessons and made the plans for every day of my school's English camp. I planned and scheduled every trip, activity and site that we saw during the 2 weeks of vacation. In other words, there wasn't a day where I just sat back and thought to myself, "Let's just see what happens today". I was always at a tempo that was a little faster than Uriah and Philip, and a lot faster than Beth and Isela. Knowing they had a small window of time here and that they'd probably never have a chance to come back, I tried to fit as much in as possible. However, as far as I can tell, everyone who came had a great time (despite my madness at times), which is all that matters to me in the end.

This brings me to my aloneness (which is slightly different from loneliness). This may sound contradictory since I had so many visitors in a short amount of time. Other American English teachers were envious when they heard about my plans for the summer, but actually, it was hard to enjoy my guests being here, especially in the last couple of days of each visit, because I knew they'd soon be gone. Again, not living in the moment. I guess I need to work on that. In addition, several good friends I've made over the last 5 1/2 months have finished their teaching contracts and have recently gone back home to the United States. I feel like this has left a void in me that some might say God should fill, but right now I just want God to give me some friends to replace the ones who have departed. Needless to say I appreciate all my friends and loved ones back home much more these days and miss them dearly. Maybe I'll stop being such a wuss when school starts back up in 2 days and I'll have 700 youngsters to occupy me once again.

The Boys Of Summer, Part 2

8-12-2010

Day 161 of 365: Picking up where I left off from my last blog entry, this is a summary of the last 5 days of Uriah and Philip's visit to South Korea:

Monday 7/26 - Today we visited South Korea's largest outdoor seafood market, located at the Noryangin subway stop in Seoul. It had every kind of fish, clam, oyster, squid or octopus you could ask for. My first impression was the overwhelming smell of fish as you approach and enter the market. For that reason alone I could never see myself in this type of business.

For lunch we ate the infamous living octopus, which I had avoided until now, but it was at the top of Philip and Uriah's list of things to try in SK thanks to the Food Network. When I say, "living", I mean that even after it's killed and chopped up, the pieces keep moving for a period of time. This includes the suction cups on the tentacles being active and sticking to everything from the plate and chopsticks, all the way to your lips and tongue. The trick is to chew fast and often before swallowing. People have DIED from eating this. I'm not sure if that makes us brave, adventurous, or just stupid, but Koreans love this dish.

Later we met a Korean friend who took us on a tour of the most famous palace in Seoul, Gyeongbukgung. It was very beautiful and scenic, but it covered a lot of land and we were tired of walking by the end. This took us to one of my favorite neighborhoods in Seoul, Samcheong dong. Samcheong is full of shops, restaurants and small, interesting museums, but it doesn't have the tall buildings and foot traffic of other popular spots in Seoul. We rested here before going back to Itaewon to do some more shopping. We got home later that night and I made my mom's famous taco salad. It was for me as much as it was for them. Philip moment of the day: P loses his SD card to his camera in my apartment twice in the same night. It got to the point where he was offering rewards for it's safe return. Uriah and I each found it once, but we never cashed in on our prize.

Tuesday 7/27: We woke up at 530am so that we could catch a 5 hour bus to Busan, which is on the southern tip of South Korea. Busan is the 2nd largest city in SK and has the most famous beach in all of Korea, Haeundae. The highlights of this trip were many. It started with us renting a motel room near the beach, but off the beaten path. The room was $60 a night, and when Uriah famously asked, "How many beds are there? 1 or 2?", as I walked into the room, I found that there were zero. Sleeping on the floor is common in Korea as I've learned over my 5 months, and they were now experiencing it first hand.

The next pertinent piece of information is that Philip bought some swimming trunks on the street for $5. This is only important because of today's Philip moment: Within hours of buying them, P ripped a gaping hole in his shorts where you don't want a hole to be. It was classic Philip, and though we were laughing hysterically, neither Uriah or I were surprised.

Other moments include us losing money at the local casino (giving us a record of 1-2 for the trip), a fire-breathing bartender, and football on the beach in which I got yelled at by a Korean lifeguard for swimming at night. This brings us to the end of the night, which instead of turning in, the guys decide that they'd rather take the midnight bus back to Ansan and lose our money for the room than sleep on the floor. So after 12 hours in Busan, the craziest taxi ride of our lives to the bus terminal (the guy was a maniac, but we didn't die) and a 5 hour bus trip, we arrived home at 5am.

Wednesday 7/28: Today was busy even though we stayed local the whole day. We slept in and went to the Ansan station street market sometime after lunch. It turned out to not be busy during the weekdays, so we buzzed through it quickly and eventually went to a Korean pool hall. We had the place to ourselves and played for almost 2 hours even though we only payed for 1. The guy at the counter was cool. Next we went to an arcade where we each took a couple of turns at shooting air rifles for prizes, winning a cute doll for Uriah's daughter. Later we went back home and actually got some exercise by playing soccer at one of the nearby schools. Everyone still had some lingering World Cup fever, so we had fun shooting penalty kicks and attempting shots on goal that were beyond our skill level.

After dinner we decided to indulge P in his request to go to a Korean night club. Having never been to one, I didn't know what to expect, but they almost denied us entry right off the bat because we were all under-dressed. I think the fact that we were Americans gave us our way in. The night club was a very large, dark and spacious room with many tables, a stage and a dance floor. On stage was a sort of variety show, rotating every 15 minutes with DJs, dancers, singers and bands. Being the only non-Koreans in the room, the 3 of us all felt very out of place at first, but many people in the club were speaking (or trying to speak) and attending to us, so it kept things interesting. Toward the end of the night, I was amazed to see the roof of the club open up to reveal the night sky. Overall it was a unique experience.

Thursday 7/29: We kept things simple, did a little shopping and went to a Korean league baseball game in the evening. Games here only cost $8 for general admission, there's a home and away side for fans, there are cheerleaders, and you can even bring your own food in. The fans are always cheering, which gives the stadium more of a college football feel than professional baseball. Americans could learn a thing or two from Korean fans.

Friday 7/30: Going home. It was great having these guys visit for 8 days. The only downside was that as they were preparing to leave, I felt more homesick than before they had come. It was worth it though. We'll see each other again soon enough. We did lunch one more time, then the guys packed their things. We hugged it out and took our pictures, then they caught a ride to the airport. Just like Don Henley sang in that song, "The boys of summer are gone".

The Boys Of Summer

8-5-2010

Day 154 of 365: For all the things I love about South Korea, I have to say that a 5 week Summer sucks pretty bad. While most kids in America are getting that itch around the month of May to go swimming, attend camps and just be lazy for a few months, kids (and teachers) in SK are barely at the halfway mark in their Spring semester. Our Summer vacation lasts from the end of July to the end of August. My 5 weeks break down like this: 2 weeks of teaching English Summer camp, 2 weeks of vacation, and 1 week of planning for next semester. I'm not a fan of the fact that I only really get 2 weeks off, but the upside is that I will still receive my full month's salary even during the break from school. It's a trade off I suppose. So far I've knocked out 1 week of Summer camp, 1 week of time off with the "boys" (more on that in a moment), and I'm currently in the middle of my planning week as I'm writing this. From what I've learned (and experienced), the end of each semester is generally the most stressful time of the year for most teachers in SK (not sure if this is true in the US or not, but I imagine so). I had both co-teachers jumping down my throat over random things one day and then be totally fine the next. Working on the plan for Summer camp wasn't a picnic either. I took my work home with me for 2 weeks straight so that I could come up with lessons and activities that would be fun and interesting for the kiddos. The co-teachers backed off when they saw how hard I was working, and I hope they will continue to cut me a little more slack come next semester.

I must say that after 5 months of learning a new job, a new language, a new culture, and new ways of getting my butt kicked, it felt amazing to not have to go to school for 9 days.The "boys" are Philip and Uriah, great friends from Austin and my first official visitors in SK. It's hard to believe that somebody loves me so much that they'd come half-way across the world to see me. Actually, it's more likely that they used my being here as an excuse to see what half-way across the world looks like, but I'm not complaining. All I know is that for the first time since I left Texas, I finally have a "posse" again. After walking down these streets alone for the better part of my time here, I finally had a gang to walk with again. It felt good; like a scene out of Entourage, except none of us are that pretty.

The guys had did their homework and had some ideas of what they wanted to do while they were here, and I of course had ideas of my own. We mashed them all together and came out with a packed 8 days and 7 nights. Here are some of the highlights broken down by each day:

Thursday 7/22 - Met the guys at the airport in the evening and rode a shuttle bus back to my place, which is about an hour away from Incheon International Airport. Took them to dinner in downtown Ansan, also known as my "backyard", and had ice cream at Baskin Robbins afterward to give them something a little familiar. We kept the first night simple.

Friday 7/23 - I showed the guys my school and even let them help teach my last day of that week's English Summer camp. Uriah, who has a little girl of his own, jumped right in. Philip didn't do a lot of "jumping", but they both had a good time. Later in the evening we went to a Korean karaoke room, which is called a Norebong (not sure if i've mentioned that before or not). They're super popular in SK, to the point where there seems to be one on every block in the downtown areas of the city. We had dinner that night at Papa John's pizza, the job that we all had in common back in the states. Our pizza had corn on it, along with many other traditional toppings. I think we were all impressed with the result. Afterward we went to Baskin Robbins. Again. Comfort food?

Saturday 7/24 - The first big day in Seoul. We had Mcdonald's for breakfast. It's the American thing to do, especially since Korean breakfasts suck. I haven't mentioned that before, but I'll go into detail another time. We took the subway to Itaewon, which is the foreigner district. Then we took a taxi to the Seoul Tower, the highest point in Seoul. Later we lost money at a casino and got lost walking the streets, only to end up in one of most popular areas of Seoul, Myeongdong. Having many shops, cafes and restaurants, an estimated 1.5 million people traverse this area every day. It's there that we randomly met a guy from San Marcos, Texas and also had Korean BBQ for the first time. We spent 14 hours that day in Seoul, which matches my longest trip in.

Sunday 7/25 - After church in the morning, we headed to the COEX mall, which is the only thing I've seen so far that resembles a mall in the US. Uriah and I won money back at the casino there and then went to Gangnam for dinner and Dr. Fish (Blog Entry: Paging Dr. Fish). Philip moment of the day: P drops his mom's digital camera in his beef stew and then won't let us take a picture of the hilarious moment, which in the end made it even more hilarious. To quote a red-faced P Stylez, "There's not going to be any photographic evidence!".

And on that note I will stop for now. I'll post the second half of the trip in a few days, whenever it's not midnight and I don't have work staring me in the face in the morning. Check the pictures too, I think there are some good ones in there; none of Philip's mom's camera though.