If I sneak in, nobody will have noticed I was gone

I was thinking (while looking like a tourist) about how many subways around the world I have been in.  A few.  About the same time I realized that the number of subways I have at one time or another been lost in is the very same number that I have traveled though.  I guess it is an inevitability, from the simplest inchworm that Daejeon is, the ancient tangle of NYC, the "we've run out of colors to code them by" in Seoul, and now the Frankfurt underground/aboveground/streetcar/commutertrain maze.  I'd like to think I am decent at coming to grips with new ones but I can't help but cringe at the thought of myself spinning around looking up at signs slack jawed 'this is my first day' 'where is my locker' kind of look I have had this past week.  Hopefully I will be able to scoff in confidence at other "U-bahn freshmen' soon.

Seoul

Hong Kong

NYC

Chicago

Taipei

Osaka

Busan

Daegu

Daejeon

Cthulhu (Frankfurt)

Something witty goes here...

My 2 year anniversary of coming to Korea came and passed in early August, I was teaching English Camp so I didn't get too nostalgic.  I did have a few moments of nostalgia when I returned to Korea University at Jochiwon (the place of my TaLK orientation and many of my first memories of Korea).  I was in Jochiwon to give lectures to the incoming generation of scholars, it felt weird walking into the dorm as a speaker and not as someone who is brand new to Korea.

Fact:  Name tags make people feel important.

It was a lot of preparation designing my lecture and presentation, but in the end I think I am a better teacher because of it.  In total I gave 10 lectures, and I never had a problem having time left over (I guess I am pretty good at talking).  I enjoyed giving the talks and presentation, it was good to be a performer again.

All professional-like

View from the other side of the lecture hall.

Walking from the Dorm to the Lecture Building made me think of who I was two years prior and who I was at that moment.  I also thought about where I might be two years from now... but I stopped because I have to treasure this brief period of my summer when I don't have to think about what is going to happen after this contract. 

I heard somewhere that this summer has been one of the hottest in Korea for some time.  I don't doubt this, it has been in the 90's nearly every day for all of August.  The government is on a energy saving campaign lately which includes limiting the temperature I can run the A/C in my classroom at (something like 28 C or ~82 F) which is just a tease.  Long story short, I haven't stopped sweating since May.

No energy saving in my apt. 

Even though it has been scorching I have still found time to enjoy a bit of camping, most recently in Deokyusan Nat. Park.  With a crew of Gumi Bears and others we made a road trip out into the less crowded part of Korea (well... after a bit of searching as the main campground was swamped with many other people who had the same idea of camping as we did).  We found a nice spot along a river and spent the weekend eating, drinking, and soaking.

No people, just nature... and cicadas 

I can't mention camping without mentioning an earlier trip do Namhae Island, a true road trip to the south sea.  Check out a nice compilation of the trip that my friend put together. http://vimeo.com/68413018

After all, this is what summer is really about.

All of this is made possible by my car, which has performed admirably.  Although after 7 months of driving in Korea I would say that I still haven't gotten used to the amount of numbskull moments I witness while driving.  Though, it is convenient for the act of getting away from it all. 

Getting away.

Quaint Waegwan on one of the cooler evenings this summer.

Life is good, things are going well.  Looking forward to Fall.

Atypically Normal

Another year finishes and another starts.  How will I look back on my life 12 months from now?  What will I have learnt?  Onward!

School life:  A "State of Mind"

A year ago I dreaded this class, now they are my favorite class some days.  My high octane 3rd grade kiddies!

Add "hamster" to the list of animals that I have had come to my English Class.

So nice to see these Kindergardeners get a chance to play and learn at the same time.

The brain is fascinating, I love to see it work grow with my students.  This aspect of educational psychology is almost magical to see at work.  It would not be profound to say that adults and children do not think alike, but I remind myself of this everyday.  Nothing is more satisfying to me than watching a student "climb" the mental scaffolding and produce a new and greater understanding by their own intellectual means.  I have a few professors to thank for showing me this avenue of metacognition to explore.  I was trained in school to "think" like an adult.  But, as a teacher of children, I must learn again think as a child...  At the risk of opening some sort of learning psych paradox, I feel strongly that I need to learn and experience more with this. 

Life Life: Atypically Normal

Risk: "Hours of fun, resentment until the next time we play"

It seems like I do as much hiking in the winter as a do in the other 3 season... Just as well, less crowded. 

Getting my x-mas sweets fix, and spreading the joy of apricot cookies around the world. 

Keeping busy isn't really a problem, I am happy to be able to spend my free time doing things with some wonderful people.  It brings a healthy balance to my life, as teaching can have some very exhausting moments.  

Snow: Wut?

Oh it's snowing again?  Must be Friday...

Almost with clockwork-like precision, it has snowed every Friday in December.  This is after I have described winter in Korea as "Cold, but Sunny.  No snow... Definitely no snow at all." many dozens of times.  Sigh, the only thing constant about the weather is its inconsistency.  

People: See you when I see you

Here is to a stellar 2013.

Life Beckons

After a few months of neglect and half-hearted attempts at writing something to put here I have decided to discard a few of my previous drafts that had begun to look like spectacular monoliths of beige verbose-ness. I want this to be a light and fluffy croissant, I say this as much of America is dreaming away a Tryptophan induced Thanksgiving coma.

For a while I have wanted to see a sunrise on a mountain top.  While the instructions to do so are both simple and short (be at the top of a mountain in the morning), the logistics are more difficult.  I had thought about camping out near a peak, but plans to do so never came to fruition, autumn came and is basically on the way out and winter in Korea is no time to be hanging out at 3000ft all night.
I was invited to do a late fall road trip to Jirisan, or Jiri mountain with some friends, so I thought this would be a nice change of pace from what a normal weekend might be, and it was probably the last time I could do a hike this year.
Public transportation, while amazing and affordable, has a few drawbacks... mostly when traveling to more rural areas.  To get to Jirisan, our group would have had to take 3 buses to and 3 buses to get back.  For a 2 day weekend that is a lot of time of buses and lot a lot of time in nature.  So the planners decided to rent a car for the weekend.  Wow great!  ...but who will drive?
I had gotten my International Driving Permit in August, and, was therefore selected to be driver....
Now, I had had limited driving experience in Korea prior to this, but as different as things might seem between driving in SE Michigan and Korea a lot of things are similar and just a few differences.

Pushing the "go faster" pedal in Korea

Similarities:
     -Drive on the right side of the road
     -People generally drive with very little perception of anything happening around them
     -4-wheels, gas, brake, steering wheel
     -Green=go
     -Red=stop

Differences
     -kph
     -what is a kilometer, anyway?
     -Ajjumas entitlement complex

I now know how my Dad felt on road trips...

That being said, the driving was without incident, and traffic was manageable with the exception of a bit of a backup on the way back.  Gas is more expensive here, than in the US, but because we drove an LPG car and nobody knows what a "gallon" is here (crazy, logical metric system) I can't know how much more for sure.
I love nature, and the convenience of being on my own time schedule put this idea of getting a car here had put a thought-bug in my head.  We'll see where this goes... Gangwon-do beckons.

Whatever reservations and uncertainties I had had about the trip before the weekend were wiped out because we had a blast.  It was really a great time, and so beautiful.  We stayed in a big log cabin type of lodge that looked like a big tree house bunk bed room.  From there it was about 25-30 min to the peak.  Would recommend to a friend.
But don't take my word for it, look at the pictures...

Our room for the night.

Day 1 afternoon light. 

Two 7th gens... and one guy we just met. 

Early morning on day 2

Some snow, but mostly heavy frost. 

Beautiful

So windy, but so worth it. 

This isn't really a formal announcement, and it might come as little surprise to some... I am switching teaching programs in March, to a full time position and will be on a year contract.  Some things will change, and others will stay the same.  I am excited to continue down the road towards becoming a Master Teacher, something that I must always strive for and work towards everyday.

"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death."  A. Einstein 

Sunsets and Sunrises in the land of the Morning Calm

I am not sure what kind of entry this post will be.  It seems the longer I go between posts, the more wayward, backlogged, and difficult it is to write...  Even if it is writing about myself.
Instead of shoving two months worth of travels and mishaps down your throat, I will try and break them off into easily digestible morsels.  Delicious and Nutritious.

If at any time you feel as if I am shoving a verbose fruitcake down your esophagus; Take a break.  Go to the kitchen and pour a glass of wine, take a PeptoBismol shooter and start where you left off.  Or don't do that, I was never one for giving sound advice.

I'll include some pictures, because who doesn't like pictures.

This journey starts and ends in Korea, like a sandwich.  Two pieces of bread with enough in the middle to satiate... someone who is difficult to satiate.

The final two weeks of my 2nd contract finishing at the end of July was filled with new things, old things, and too many KXT trains to Seoul.

EunHye and I looking smart.

EunHye and I were destined to work together, it would seem.  A few years ago she was my friend's Co-Teacher where she taught in Korea (a year before I arrived), then she was a TaLK coordinator and helped me retrieve my laptop when I had mistakenly/ stupidly sent it to a province of Korea in which I had no plans to actually be in pick it up (see Sept 2011 entries).  Then she got a job teaching in another school in my city.  So, really it was bound to happen.  

She asked me to help her talk about roles of Overseas and Korean Scholars in my program, in addition to a demo class on co-teaching.  This is something I like to do and is a progression to teaching teachers, something that I could see myself doing in a few of the infinite number of futures that I can see/realize for myself. 

The lectures were fun, and even though I had to trek 3 hours from my town into Seoul a few times it was worth it to juggle the lectures and English Camp at my School at the time.

Public transportation at it's best. 

My only regret being so busy this week is that, due to trains leaving Seoul on Friday afternoon, I missed a final "Goodbye Dave" dinner with Dave, his Co-Teacher, and friends.  I mean, I had already had about a dozen "goodbye" type of occasions, but it hurt a little to miss.  In all honesty though, I'll see Dave again somewhere, sometime.

The Golden Age of Yeongcheon-Chilgok Relations

I had a day of packing and cleaning before I set out on the longest day of my life... Normal days are limited to 24 hours.  However, when you time travel (overseas travel) it is possible to extend a single day to 36+ hours.  Here was my day...  Get out your abacuses boys and girls!

Saturday:

-3am alarm wake up
-4am train
-5:30 transfer
-7am arrive at Seoul Station
-7:30 AREX train to Incheon Airport
-7:35 to ~8:30 chocolate break
-9am check in for flight/security mojo
-10am last meal in korea before vacation
-11am board flight
-Time travel
-2pm, Land in Chicago after 13hr flight
-4pm land in Detroit
-4:40 let lagged hello to family
-6-10pm Food, Family, Confusion, and Bobby
-10 to forever... Coma

See ya in a bit, Korea.

I had only a few expectations and "to-do" items for my 3 week vacation back in the States.  They were:

1.  Eat all the food without reservation.

2.  Drink all the beer, but with at least a little more restraint than what I showed when I demolished that bowl of guacamole...

3.  Don't miss my return flight.

I'm going to skip the daily log of what my vacation entailed.  Which, had I included it, would have added a volume of writing that would put Tolkien's un-edited version of Lord of The Rings to shame.  Suffice to say, it was nice.

Before I knew it, I was in Chicago having my last meal (bbq pulled pork) with my Aunt Jan the evening before my flight.  It was a good vacation, I didn't see everyone nor did I do everything but it was time to go back.  Back home?  I've said that before, but it was easier to say this time.

I had thought about separating this entry in two.  But, then I thought that people might read them out of order, then I thought that people might not even care.  My penultimate thought was that the people who might read this probably know me at some level and have already realized that I am a bit aloof (see: idiot) and have accepted me for it (or at least tolerated it).  My final thought was that I was thinking too much and that make my head hurt.

Anywho...

...Chapter II: 2nd year in Korea

As appearances go not much has changed; I am in the same City, same school, same apartment, and many of the same students.  What has changed is what is on the inside.

I remember a year and a month ago when I was a fresh face in Jochiwon at TaLK orientation, our Group supervisor Kevin said something to this effect... "You will look back at where you were a week from now and be amazed at what you have experienced, same for a month from now.  Imagine how you will feel when you look back on yourself a year from now."

I can finally do this, look back on my year in Korea.  Change from day to day is gradual in the same way a single step climbing a mountain is largely unremarkable, but when you take the compounded days, weeks & months you get something unique and stunning.
I would be a different person had I spent the past year playing Minecraft in my parent's basement, but I'd like to think I've made a more positive metamorphosis spending the past year as I did, teaching abroad.
I like to look at this as if an evolution of sorts is taking place day-to-day.  I have my ideals & goals, and as time passes certain aspects or traits of my life are either strengthened or eliminated.
It is a little odd loosening my mental grip on ideals and goals that I have had for years, it almost feels as if I am taking my foot out of a door that is closing on me.  After some time passes I loose my myopic view of things and begin to see a new set of opportunities in the distance. This is how I am beginning to see things.

What I have realized

I love teaching.  Nothing is as simple, or as cerebral.  It is dynamic, and tiresome.  It is what I make it, and maybe the most profound; It is everywhere.  I get paid for what I do in the classroom, but being a teacher is so much more.  The more time I spend with students interacting, and socializing.  The greater the returns are in the classroom.
I still believe very much, that education not what is assessed on exams, but more on how an individual is socialized and how they interact within their society.  Education is natural, learning is natural, We get holes in the process when we isolate learning without an acceptable base.  We are most comfortable with tangible goals, something visible to strive for.  A number to aim for; it could be a test score or a dollar amount, it is ingrained into our global society.  To play the game, you have to follow rules.  I see people associating happiness with attachments of these goals and failure for not reaching them.  Enter the quintessential phrase "money can't buy you happiness", maybe happiness has more to do with my perspective on life than societies opinion on my wallet.  I think I was talking about teaching elementary school students before that little tangent.  Summary:  Teaching is good.

Do I miss teaching music?

Something inside me tells me I should, it is what I have studied to do for nearly 7 years before leaving for Korea.  I think I could love teaching music too.  I am sort of dancing around my own question here...  I don't regret continuing to teach English rather than going back to the states to teach music.  I can't regret such decisions.  If at some point in the future I find myself teaching music, then so be it. I can't go down both paths at the same time.  I am in a place I had not foreseen, although I never felt trapped I wanted out of the box that I was building myself into.  I jumped out the window and left the GPS at home, I'll know where I am when I get there.

Do I miss home?

As my mother has pointed out to me, it is humorous to imagine that I would take to living abroad as easily as I have when you realize that I was the kid who couldn't sleepover a friends house the whole night until 5th grade because I would get homesick.  Home is not dead to me but I realize that missing home does little good to me.  Sure, I wish that there were more than two Taco Bells in Korea.  Sure, I miss my dog.  America is where I grew up and I'll have those memories forever, but I'm not bound to it like Gollum and the Ring.  If anything I am a bit like Bilbo, and my thirst for worldliness is Gandalf's prying influence.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?...1 year... next week... tomorrow... what are you having for dinner?

I am hesitant to communicate in finalities because I am all too aware of the constantly changing nature of my life, and, in a much greater sense, the universe.  But, if I talk about my plans and convictions with hesitance and conditional clauses, I might as well equate the progression of my life with the amount of sogginess that accumulates in a bowl of graham crackers after you spill, say, a gallon of milk on them.  You get the picture...  Life changes, adjust, reflect, grow, reassess.

If you stayed tuned until the end, thanks.  Hope you enjoyed a bit of everything.  You're probably satiated, but take some leftovers home until next time...

My piano, and 7 other wonderful mistakes I've made in Korea

Exhausting, yet fun-filled times with some wonderful people.

It seems as if I've fallen into the same category as seemingly every other Joe that posts their ramblings on the internet by apologizing for not updating in a frequent enough manner. However,  I'm not sure enough people care about reading my written spew to warrant an apology anyways so I'll just gloss over it and indulge you in the misguided adventures of a college graduate teaching in Korea.

I miss a few things that are absent from my life here in Korea, most of them being food (Shwarma, Avocados, Taco Bell, ground beef that isn't more expensive than gold), but among the non food items would have to be my piano.  So I did what any bozo with 400,000Won would do and bought one.
It's not fantastic, but it is really nice to be able to wake up brew a jug of green tea and jam out some Brahms in my under-roos before I go to school.  As a result of me having the piano, and a second larger bed in my Korean size apartment I don't have much room for anything else.  Probably for the best.

It didn't take long to look as disheveled as my baby back home,
 disheveled is what I do best.

Here is a short list of mistakes that turned out to be wonderful, or at least non-fatal...

2.  Learning Korean
          -100 reasons I don't have to
          -a few reasons why I should
          -even a 2yr old level of Korean helps out exponentially

3.  Instant coffee.  It's how they do it here in Korea, probably toxic but helps me run with 1st grade.

4.  Befriending an Englishman.  We've been to Taiwan and back without any planning whatsoever.  Socks, Marmite, Ministry of Silly Walks.

5.  Traveling off the cusp.  While it can be done, next time I'll probably book a hostel beforehand or something.

6.  Meeting random people.  I've had a conversation with a Korean in Spanish, chatted with a Swede in Korean.  Been corrected by a German in English.  If there isn't a common language we can always play charades.

7.  Walking.  Not having a car to worry about is liberating.  Of course the mass transit system here is fantastic, but walking everywhere gives an intimate knowledge of what you pass by and see.  Much more so than what you take in from a car going by at 120kph.

8.  Making lists of things on the fly.  I originally wanting this to be a solid "10 things" sort of list but I can't be bothered to think of anymore so this is all you get.

Seoul is huge, annoying, smelly, expensive, and beautiful.  

I really don't enjoy Seoul, but sometimes it can be fantastic.  I made a trip up to Seoul in May with Dave, Jihye, and Su-jin to visit our friend, Jinny at university.  She was My friend's co-teacher last semester and through some complex randomness we all are connected.  It was a simple weekend with dinner, Hongdae clubs, ice cream, and a Bike ride.

Dave catching some Z's by the Han River.

Ultimate Frisbee season had long been finished, but some wonderful people down in Busan organized a two day tournament on one of the less crowded but equally beautiful beaches.  It was nice meeting some new people and having some fun on the beach.  Also nice wining a few games, which was surprisingly rare in the regular season.

The Megalodons ruled the seas for a million years, now we take the sand.

Teachers had a Wednesday off for a holiday so a few of us went to Daegu to climb Palgongsan, it is a mountain I have climbed before, but I did a different rout and the weather was a lot nicer than the last time.  Getting a summit has a way of making you feel like you've done something with your day, it also takes the guilt out of going to the gym and only using the Sauna (guilty).

If the humidity wasn't always above 70% in the summer you could see my house.
Now you can only see my sweat. 

An odd and wonderful group of misfits. 

Open class time for some is a time to freak out, open class for me is a regular class where I get to ham it up for an audience.  My mentor teacher asked why I was not nervous, I said I have been judged and criticized during my undergrad studying music.  I know the kids will be great, I know the principal and administration will love me.  Call it narcissism if you want, I keep my head out of the clouds most of the time.  I am a believer of self-fulfilling prophecies, a little bit of butterflies are good but lets keep the positive thoughts going,  eh?
The class went splendid, students were awesome and energetic.  Transitions went smoothly, and everything was covered.  I was a bit surprised to find out so many teachers from other schools and even a few higher-ups from the office of education came including a previous coordinator for the program I am part of.

3rd grade ready to take on the elusive "L" sound.
Lollipop - Rorripop

Gettin' that English.  All day, every day. 

Max teaching the class because my feet hurt teaching a subject shows the greatest
level of mastery. 

"You are smart, pretty, and everyone loves you."

Whenever one of my Korean friends post something in Korean on Facebook, there is an option for translation.  Sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes the results are hilarious.

A new day yesterday ran out of shit is on fire, and because it was my friend, after a home visit by saying that is was instigating a cans of beer at 2am and went...
I'm sorry buddy but I can't eat that shit today, capping a trial soon, and my heart says a stomach is drinking.
This is to get up and eat and sleep at night again and bring about true do you think Sal...

It is almost like profound poetry.

Continent hopping. 

It might be okay to say now that, I've been approved for another 6 month contract extension to stay and teach at my school.  I have a flight home and will be bumming around 'merica for just under three weeks before I fly back and go head first into a new semester of teaching in Waegwan.  It'll be bittersweet to see the people who I have shared a year in Korea with go back home to Canada, England, America, Australia, and South Africa.  It is part of the circle of life of anyone living abroad and so much so in a program that has people on 6 month or 1 year contracts.  It's a good healthy dose of cherish the past, plan for the future and living the now.  

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

 -Thoreau