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

The Weird and Wonderful

For better or for worse, teaching is delightfully unpredictable.

Being here for 8 months and counting, I look back and reflect on things I used to be shocked by that seem utterly normal and mundane now.  I guess it is still as odd as it was on day one, only that I’ve become a little more used to the shock and spectacle of it.

I roll into school, go through the greetings settle down and get my room ready for today’s circus classes.  I hear the kindergarteners walking to lunch, which is my cue to make my way to the cafeteria to eat with the 1^st graders.  As I walk along the covered dirt path in my indoor sandals the janitor grandma accompanies me and talks my ear off about who knows what, she speaks fast and has a tone quality that would give Tom Waits a run for his money (I think I pick out something about soju and a kimchi festival…).  As I walk into the cafeteria I see 85 kindergarteners rear their heads around as if SNSD just walked in, I bask in the spotlight and try and ignore the fact that the kindergarten teachers now have to corral a handful of their students who were eating just fine until I crashed the party.  I grab my lunch tray and see what surprises the day has in store for me.  Purple rice with little things of not-rice, sweet!  The lunch lady puts a death grip on my tray with one hand as she scoops an unnecessarily large amount of rice onto my tray, she winks and puts another scoop on top of the already massive pile of carbs.  I continue down the line and pick up some fish thing, shredded vegetable something, and spicy soup, 잘 먹겠습니다! 

            Back in my room, I continue to ready my lessons and whatnot.  It isn’t long however, before my door slides open with various students saying hello, drawing on my board, telling me so and so went to the hospital and can’t come to class today, and of course the odd game of tag that wanders through my room.  It isn’t long before I find myself staring my 1^st graders in the face… cue the music, song and dance man.  The day turns into a blur, I remember bits and pieces, MinSoo put markers up his nose, Seong Kyeong just laughed the entire time, I don’t think Boo Seong actually sat down once.  Rinse and repeat for 3^rd grade,  Dan is trying to tell me a story about something with lots of explosions, Ashley doesn’t remember how to spell her name, Lauren and Annie are convinced I am in love with my co-teacher and Lily asks me if I want to marry her sister.  Yikes.  A random fact about my 5^th grade: however small in numbers, the idea of an intimate class dynamic with thoughtful conversation goes straight out the window after you find out that ALL of them go to the same Taekwondo academy.  Talk about keeping me on my toes.  I breathe a bit air after the 5^th grade K-Tigers leave and pack up, I’m not done yet, though.  Two teachers have their kids in kindergarten and twice a week I read a book to them, they are darlings and full of hunger for knowledge (they haven’t started the Hagwan circuit yet).  I say goodbye to them and find that their mother has left a pumpkin rice cake on my desk with a note that says “Thank you”. 

            On the good days the feeling is intoxicating, and on the bad days I feel like a bus hit me.  At any rate I hang my hat on the fact that tomorrow is a new day to try something else, or to improve on the successes of yesterday.  My life/ Korea, Weird and Wonderful.  Same-same. 

"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now." ~Emerson

What a whirlwind of activity this past month, a truly wonderful time.  Winter has left Korea and spring is almost ready to explode from the trees, the cherry blossoms will be in full effect very soon.  Flowers are sprouting, my students have a renewed fervor (which is wonderful, but I could do will a bit less sometimes), and the farm next to my apt has fertilized and planted this years cabbage crop.  

Teaching is an ongoing process, some days are exhausting but rewarding and other days are just exhausting.  With the new year, comes new students and a new class dynamic.  I have some large disparities of english levels in my 5th and 6th grade classes, some students go to Hagwons and have a high level; others in the same class struggle with the alphabet and low level vocabulary.  I am not sure how to best tackle this, it will be a big challenge.  

I am steadily convinced that I do as much teaching (if not more) outside of my classes than I do during.  I only teach about 15-20% of the students in my school, but nearly all the students have a quick conversation with me when I am walking down the hall, or to lunch.  Even walking to the store or train station I often see students, I guess I strive to make myself as approachable for conversation to them since I know that 80 min of class each week is not nearly enough to make a significant dent.  

None of these girls are actually enrolled in my classes, they just run amok in between lunch and after school class. 

Same here.  These 5th graders come and clean my room some days, constantly remarking on how dirty it is. 

The ultimate frisbee league I joined has really been a ton of fun.  We aren't very good, but we get along great and always have a good time.  Over St. Patties day weekend we had a set of games in Busan, we played right on the beach, what a cool time.  The weather was a perfect as we could have hoped, we did manage to find some time to have a Guinness and a few green beers as well.  After our games on sunday we hobbled our broken bodies over to Jalgachi fish market and had a feast of seafood, so fresh and so delicious! 

A day of frisbee on Haeundae Beach.

So much fresh food, so good.

Next weekend we have games of two days in Gyeoungju, I am looking forward to it immensely.  It is happening the same time as the city's cherry blossom festival so there will be much to see. 

The rest of March is filled in with my mundane day to day activity...  Going to the gym/sauna, playing piano at my doughnut cafe, doing a little screen golf now and then, learning a bit more korean.  Pretty normal stuff, but it keeps me busy.  However, the mundane took a break this past weekend and let crazy take charge for a while.  It was my birthday weekend, no frisbee games, and with a week of nice weather Daegu was calling my name for a night out...

I had a pretty boring friday planned (Saturday was my "party").  I went to the gym, soaked in the sauna and gave an impromptu english lesson to a overly talkative kid in the steam room, and went to go jam on piano at the coffee shop.  The coffee shop was empty except for me and the two owners, I adore them and they like to chat as well.  They found out it was my birthday and they insisted to take me out for fried chicken and draft beer after they closed shop.  They told me I would be home by midnight, and it would not be a late night... Right.  We drove to Gumi to the restaurant which is owned by one of their friends.  I had met the owner once before at an open mic show a few weeks before, she found out I was coming and that is was my birthday so she gave me a bottle of wine!  Nice.  

Delicious chicken with the doughnut ladies!

We had only just finished the chicken before the owner shuffled me to her car and said we were going to another place for makgeolli (rice wine).  It is a beautiful thing how food and drink can bring together people and overcome the language barrier, as well as a good exercise in my practical korean skills.  This is an aspect of Korean Culture that is universal and beautiful, more on this friendliness later.  

as the clock struck midnight and it was officially my birthday the table sang me happy birthday... three hours later I made it back into my apt, so much for a relaxing friday night!

The next morning I met two frisbee friends downtown for a little game of golf and a par 3 course in my city.  After 18 holes we got some soup and decided that I didn't need a shower or to change clothes before going to Daegu for dinner and a night out with friends so we just played Korean Billiards until the train.  Nice x2.

We gathered at a restaurant for  pre-dinner and conversation.  Moved to a Japanese grill place, had skewers and traditional beverages.  Jin got me a cake, and the night took off from there.  It was a success, I'm not a huge fan of cameras on nights like these but the pictures do an okay job of story-boarding what happened. 

Birthday Drink.

Concerned.

Still concerned, but entertained. 

Wat.

Dave and I on the wall. 

Friendly Korean Culture...

At the place with the fire show, I met a brother and sister.  The older brother was visiting his sister because he is in the Korean Air Force, he spoke pretty good english but he wanted to have me talk to his sister because she had never talked with a native english speaker before.  I found out she is a pianist!  So we talked about music, Brahms, Saxophone, Chopin.  It was fantastic!  We met another group of Koreans (a flaming fire show is a good way to bring attention to yourself at a bar, I guess), one was an English teacher so we rolled out together and exchanged info to meet up again.  This just solidifies in my mind what a friendly culture they have in Korea.  

It seems like I just finished thinking about extending my contract for the 1st time, but it is time again to ponder the possibilities and weigh my options.  Living in the present is important, but some planning and foresight is needed from time to time.  Sigh.

The Guide's wisdom always puts things into perspective...

"You live and learn.  At any rate, you live."  D. Adams

"...for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides."

Where will I be 1 year from now?

Wow.
Reflecting over the last month I can see now how far I have come from where I was a year ago.  At this time in 2011 I was student teaching, going to MMC playing my final concert with the Wind symphony and sorting through life as I knew it.  Sometime in February I received the email about teaching in Korea and the rest is history.
In February I was graced with my older sisters presence as she and her husband visited Korea for 10 days.  I showed them off to my school a bit and got a few extra days off as well.  We went to visit Gyeongju, a very historical and culture rich city in my provence.  It was a good test of my Korean language and culture skills to sort of navigate us throughout the city.  I think we did alright (there is a certain amount to "dynamic" Korea that will be inherent in any sort of adventure).
After Gyeongju, they shuffled off to Jeju-do island, and saw what most koreans call the most beautiful part of the country.  The last time I saw them was when they busted down my door on the following saturday morning to pick up their luggage and head off to seoul.  We had a bit of lunch and saw them off on the train platform!  I was really grateful and glad they chose to visit me, I don't think they would have chose to visit Korea otherwise.  I extend an invitation to anyone who feels the need to travel a bit and might want to come here.

Doing Korea

In addition to teaching my winter classes, managed to socialize a bit and another teacher in my town, Rita, mentioned that I should join an ultimate frisbee league team in Gumi (The Gumi Bears).  I did, and had a few scrimmage practices and my first game last week.  It is tons of fun and I always enjoy meeting new and cool people.

What else could the name be, really? 

Last saturday we had a going away night out for only Waegwan people, a chill group of teachers hitting Daegu to say farewell to Meagan and Rita.  After a few 맥주, and loosing 5 straight games of shuffleboard we called it a night (early morning, actually), and I some brief shuteye before my Frisbee games the next day.  After the frisbee game, I had to run home and change, and get a taxi out to an english town in Chilgok.  The next generation of Talk scholars were at the english town for the provincial orientation, and I was giving a presentation about scholar life in my area.  After a weekend of not much sleep at all I had to dive in head first for my last days of winter camp.  I only had to teach Monday and Tuesday, the end was in sight and it would be back to normal classes next week.  Monday was regular and uneventful, but when I walked into my classroom on Tuesday There was my co-teacher 신영, which is normal.  What was off kilter was the other person in the room, what I heard next broke my heart... "Michael, this is your new co-teacher", I nearly cried on the spot.  This was so unexpected, I adored Shinyoung, but it was nice to hear that the reason she was leaving was because she got a job teaching English at an elementary school in Daegu.  It was a bittersweet moment, I hope my next co-teacher is as cool as Shinyoung was ㅠㅠ.  On a side note, my mentor teacher wants me to come to her apartment and cook a spaghetti dinner for her, her husband, Shinyoung, and myself.  Then after dinner she told me she will take all my money in poker.  Game on.

Not to be derailed by my change in co-teachers, the next two days I have off because of the change in school year (Korea starts their school year in March).  I wake up early on the wednesday to go climb a mountain.  Much travel was involved in getting to the middle of nowhere... a train to DongDaegu and an express bus to Yeongju, walking to a different bus terminal, waiting for a bus to BongHwa, then a final bus to the park.  Yikes, then the group of up finally got to spend some time hiking the mountain.  It was worth it!

Climbing up needlessly steep mountain.

Dave's 4th backpack in Korea

Temple halfway up. 

Nice view!

After we finished the hike and made it back to Yeongju, Ian took us to a meat buffet bbq.  All you can eat korean bbq for 12000W!

Eating infinity meat. 

It is not easy to say goodbye to my friends, most of whom I will not ever see in person again.  But, the upon reflection the friendship was not in vain.  It was a brilliant rainbow that made the time our paths crossed wondurfull and fulfilling.  As much as it feels like I am breaking up with a dozen people every time contracts end it feels good to have had the pleasure than to never have had it in the first place (somebody more poetic than myself worded something like that much better),  I am taking new Gumi/Gimcheon scholars out with old scholars this friday and I'll have this in mind when I meet them for the first time.  I've got a shelf life here, I don't know when it expires but there is no sense in having any leftovers when it does.

"Saying goodbye doesn't mean anything. It's the time we spent together that matters, not how we left it."

"...West of the Moon, East of the Sun."

Skyline of Gangwan-do

It was just a few weeks after my excursion to Taiwan, but a welcome mini-vacation nonetheless.  Because of Lunar New Year, I had a long weekend (Sat-Tues) and I was going on a trip to the Gangwan-do Province for some skiing and winter festival fun.  

Lunar New Year is bigger than Western new year in this part of the world so many shops, and businesses would be shut down during this time.  This is one of the reasons I elected to go on this trip.  I met up once again with my friend, Dave, who some of my readers know as the one who almost died from not chewing his bulgogi enough.  Our bus was leaving from Seoul early on Saturday so we met up at Seoul Station and went to the hostel in Hong-dae to drop our bags off before having some dinner and meeting up with some friends for a drink.  I won a pink teddy bear in a street balloon game, Dave named him Trevor, Trev was a big hit with everyone.  I went everywhere with Trevor... until he got annoying and I left him on the side of a mountain.  

Early next morning we shuffled onto a bus and by noon we were skiing at Phoenix Park (A possible site for a skiing event for the 2018 olympics!).  Monica, Ashley, and Dave had never skied before so I helped/didn't help them for a while before I left and did some falling on my own.  

No landfills here, Trev. 

After two days of skiing we headed somewhere else to an ice fishing festival.  You are thinking, "Wow, sounds real exciting...", that's what I was thinking anyway.  How much fun can sitting around a hole in the ice for a whole day really be?

A: Extremely

We poked around a bit with some string and a stick but then it was TIME!

Dave getting his fish on. 

Time for what?

Bare Handed Ice Fishing!

I'll let the pictures explain first...

A bunch of Waygooks draw a decent crowd whenever Korea gets us to do something crazy.

A cold like this I have never felt before in my life.

Canadian Ian, this expression should tell you enough about the temperature of the water.

1st fish caught ever.  Who needs a pole?  Not this guy. 

Sweet sweet warmth of the Sauna. 

I don't think I need to explain too much more, except that I never signed a waiver of any kind, and something like this would legally not be possible in the US because of lawsuits.  I didn't get to keep the shirt, but I kept my fish!

OoO Fish

Noms

Other fun things at the festival were Ice soccer hockey, which is as dangerous and fun as it sounds.   Ice ATV-ing actually required me to sign a waiver I couldn't read so you know it was a blast.  Screaming around a frozen river with 20 other people with naught but bike helmets that were too small.  Moms all over the world just got goosebumps.  Personal Injury Lawyers all over the world just got blue balled because in Korea, if you get hurt doing something stupid it's your fault.  Duh. 

Dave, giving it the beans.

The last day of the trip was (supposed to be) pretty chill, just a hike and a smaller ice festival.  The hike proved to be quite strenuous.  It was a traditional hike in the sense that we just sort of went up a mountain, not a particular one, just one that was close to our accommodations.  It was steep on the way up, and steeper on the way down covered in leaves and frost.  It was fun!

Not really a "trail"

Dave & Monica sliding down the mountain. 

The trip was a blast, I'll definitely go on another with the same group.

This week, come Saturday will mark 6 months of me living in Korea.  What an amazing journey I have had so far!  As I am writing this, more scholars are flying here from around the world to meet in Jochiwan for TaLK's 8th Gen orientation.  I am excited for them because I know they will experience the same wonderful Culture that I have so far.  I made a collage of pictures from the last 6 months (I don't usually do this sort of thing but I did, so fight me), some of these people are still around in Korea, and some have left to go home or back to school.  Here is to the last 6 months and the next!

"Airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo."

Room with a view: The Presidents House. 

I am beginning to realize, for me, that successful traveling is a complicated balance of responsible planning and reckless abandon with a touch of blissful ignorance.  Analogy #375: It is like baking, the sort of reward you get from taking a bag of Riceroni, adding water and nuking it for 2 min is less than, say, dusting off the Betty Crocker cookbook that mom used when you were a kid and making something from a recipe.  Even more rewarding is when you open the fridge and cupboards, stare at the available resources for a while and formulate something delicious to make.  The feeling of uncertainty and suspense invokes stress, but at resolution the reward far exceeds any prepackaged experience available.

So onward to a week in Taiwan with naught but airfare to and from Taipei, backpack, and 7 pairs of clean socks...

A good number of my travels have been with a large-ish group of people, this has its perks, but by and large I prefer a smaller group to bigger ones.  It was just my friend, Dave and myself venturing out of the relative comfort zone of Korea to a new place with a different language, and different culture.  All things considered, it was a foreboding way to start a vacation the way we did, with Dave almost choking to death on some Bulgogi the night before we flew out.

Dave averting death for the 1st time, but not the last...

That being said, we got a hotel outside of Incheon without any drama and made some half-hearted attempts to plan what we might want to do in the next 7 days.  Not far enough up on the priority was "where to sleep"...

Planning, sort of. 

The next morning started early; only enough time to pack up shop, steal one of Dave's socks and head catch the Airport line subway two stops to ICN.  We stood in line for a while to get our boarding passes before we realized that there was a special express line for passengers without baggage to check, this is why we got to the airport early after all.  Security was pretty straightforward, we joked around how we put swords and tanks of propane in each others bags when they weren't looking.  We stopped joking around when we got within earshot and put on our serious pants.  All through and with time to spare, we stopped and ate our last Korean meal for the next week or so.  Later that day we would be dining on delicious Mandarin Chinese cuisine!  We exchanged money and before we knew it we were boarding our Asiana flight to Taipei.  "Fond" would be an inaccurate word to describe Dave's feelings towards flying and he is the first person I know of who can nearly sleep through takeoff.

Over the Pacific....or docking the Millennium Falcon at Cloud City. 

Upon landing it was readily apparent that we had flown quite a ways south because instead of being frosty and frozen, it was lush and green.  We scooted through Immigration, got a new stamp on my Passport and proceeded to play the confused and lost tourist.  See: "How to get... somewhere else".
We took a bus to Taipei Main Station which is the downtown train depot for high speed rain and metro travel.  This was a good place to venture out from, we had grabbed any map that was in English at the airport tourist kiosk and started walking.

We walked around a park, saw a memorial.  Walked some more, visited a museum.  Walked some more, got lost.  It was dark now and we needed a place to stay so we hopped on the subway and took it a few stops away.  Wandered around, found ONE motel down a street and checked the price  It was decent but who knows, there aught to be more around here, heck, in Korea you can't walk a block and a half without seeing a motel.  Contrary to popular belief, Taiwan is not Korea and thus cannot be expected to adhere to the same set of expectations to such things as accommodations, WiFi availability, Bars, written language etc... If we had taken a moment to look into these things we might have been less taken aback by the lack of these things.  Nevertheless, we weren't sleeping under a bush, and nobody died/nearly died so job done.
The 2nd day we woke early to take advantage of the free breakfast that the hotel was making for us.  It was raining lightly, but other then that, things looked good.  We did a bit of subway traveling, wandering around and such.  We visited the National library, and a huge memorial area to one of the rulers who played a part in creating an independent Taiwan (on one of the occasions at least).  At the Republic of China national history museum we learned just how tumultuous the history of Taiwan had been with any number of periods of occupation.

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

A stop by the Taipei Botanical Gardens and some adventure food left us exhausted and ready to get our hotel and put our feet up for a moment.  This was to prove quite the adventure... We walked around, up streets down streets.  Through puddles, up stairs, down stairs.  Finding a hotel proved to be like finding a taxi when you really need one... elusive.  Through the rest of the trip I would notice hotels here and there nearby where we were looking previously but at this moment, none were to be had.  After maybe two hours of wandering we went back to Taipei Station because I knew there was a hotel nearby (by the looks of it a bit pricey), we wandered in the lobby looking forlorn and generally dirty looking for a room and hoping not to wince too hard at the price.  The price of any room was beside the point because they had no vacancy for the night.  Slightly crushed we brainstormed and asked if they had a business center we could use a computer.  That they did, and my days (got that one from talking to a Englishman for a week) we checked online availability for cheaper hotels in Taipei only to find out most were booked.  I grabbed the last room at a mid-priced establishment and didn't look back.  We would be in beds soon enough.
At the hotel we passed out for a few minutes and left to go get some more adventure food.  I say "Adventure Food" because in Korea you might order something off of a menu and if it doesn't have a picture whatever comes out is an adventure, hit or miss.  After a while you get used to the kind of cues and know what food one might get at any certain restaurant.  In Taiwan, there are less pictures, and less english on the menus.  We did a lot of pointing, nodding, and hoping in restaurants... With a bit of success if I do say (I splashed some hot sauce in my eye during lunch one day, but the loss of sight was temporary.

Adventure planning. 

This was the night we sorted out our accommodations for the rest of the trip... So by day two in a foreign  country we finally had secured beds to sleep in, success!  A new problem was, that because New Years Eve was the following day there were literally no hostels or cheap hotels in all of Taipei (that we could reserve online), who would have thunk.  We instead opted to take a train out of Taipei to a smaller city on the east coast of Taiwan, Hualien.  We had time to hit the "101" which is the 2nd highest building in the world, and although there view was not perfect it was still cool to see Taipei from up high.  We caught the slow train to our next destination, Dave told me it was my job to make sure we made our stop because he is a bit narcoleptic when he is on any kind of mass transit.
After a bit of yet more walking being lost, asking for directions, getting lost again, asking for directions again, and arriving at our hostel, which at 1st apperance looked to be an abandoned building... we managed to contact our French hostel owner (who was at a festival).  We were told that we might want to check out said festival and thus we walked even more, ate some adventure soup, and experienced some adventure festival time.  When we awoke and left the hostel I then truly was able to take in the beauty that surrounded me (we arrived after dark).  Huge mountains to the west, Vast ocean to the east.  We got a suggestion to see a few things around Hualien before heading back to Taipei.  We wandered towards the ocean and found a place that rented bikes, so we did just that.  What a great experience!  It was wonderful to be out in the country blowing through palm groves, cutting through the sea breeze, smiling and saying hello with locals.  One of my best memories of the trip for sure.

Climbed a hill 

Rode a bike

Saw some nature. 

Back to Taipei, round two, we were armed and ready to get it all done.  Hostels sorted out, itinerary sorted out.  Lets do this!
Just we had planned to do the Gondola ride and zoo on the Monday, but everyone knows that the gondola is closed on Mondays... So instead, we went back across Taipei to the area where "The ground smokes and trees don't grow", I am speaking of the natural hot springs of course.  After walking passed the public hot springs and doing an extra 3 miles of walking for no good reason we went back to the public baths and relaxed for a bit.  These were the hottest natural springs I have ever been in, we were there a little over an hour and we witnessed 3 people pass out.  Goodness!  No pictures of this, because... nobody wants to see a bunch of pictures of rocks with old men passing out, if that's your deal, go visit Taiwan yourself.

The Gondola and Zoo were the crowning achievements of the 2nd half of the trip (the biggest thing from the 1st half was making it to the 2nd half).  At the top of the mountain we walked for a while (goes without saying), and had an authentic Chinese tea party.  The lady who owned the place showed us how to make the tea, and through a bit of charades and pantomiming got us to understand...  We sat for a while, looking out over the tea plantation admiring the view before seeing the animals at the zoo (this was what Dave was looking forward to the most).

The zoo was nice... Pandas, Tigers, Bears, Raccoons...Wait, raccoons?  Yeah, the rodents that tear open garbage and make nests in woodpiles on my back porch are regarded as unique and fascinating animals here in Taiwan.  A raccoon never had it so good.  Also, Dave broke his backpack,  his 3rd in as many months.  I thought this was hilarious and Dave said a lot of Brittish things I couldn't understand because he was pretty angry about his luck with backpacks and such.  I fixed it with the drawstring from the bathing suit, good for his backpack, bad for my bathing suit.

Before we knew it it was time to pack up and leave, we spent an evening buying some souvenir type of things, crammed our packs full and set things out for the Airport journey back the next morning.
Now this is where I would expedite the rest of story because everything from here on out would have been pretty dull compared to the rest of it.  It was for me, but Dave on the other hand, had a bit of drama...
We were standing in emigration still in Taiwan when Dave goes to me, "Mike, what does your Entry Visa for Korea say under 'Entries'?", "Hmmmm, mine says 'M' for multiple." I glanced at his passport and sure enough it was stamped "S" for single.  Dave spent the next 5 hours worried that he might not be admitted back into Korea because of this.  In situations like these I am not the most reassuring type, I didn't sugar coat it for Dave, instead I just said that "Things would work out eventually" and "It's not the end of the world".  This was little help to Dave, and for all I knew he was going to be sent back home to England.  Dave got through fine, turns out our Alien Registration Cards serve as a multi entry visa too.  So hey, no harm, no foul right Dave?

I barely turned my heat back on at my apartment before I fell asleep and had to go back to teaching the next morning!  No rest for the wicked.  What a great trip and I am excited for my next international adventure!

Going Home to Korea

I periodically remind myself that this is "Real Life", I am really here, I am really doing this, tomorrow is really up to me.  I'm not resting on my laurels, I must work hard to see where I can go from here!


 "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is than he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."  Oscar Wilde.