"...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.

"Dancing in the Dark"

I am still a rookie at this living abroad thing, but I would hazard a guess that, for an american, the roughest part of the year might very well be the Thanksgiving-Christmas corridor.  If I wasn't missing the home-front before it would surely show now.  As it would happen, the Christmas weekend would be slightly heavier than the others.  Last thursday I made it official, I inked my contract extension.  I had thought about this extensively even before I had filed the paperwork for the extension, this was/is the right decision, I have no doubt about that.  It just happened to occur a day before I would have to say goodbye to 12 of my fellow EMU peers were finishing up there teaching and leaving Korea to go back home.  Saying goodbye to these friends was bittersweet, it was a great experience to have shared with them but sad to see them go. I have solace in the fact that I will, eventually, see them again.  This was just the first round of goodbyes that I have had to say.  The goodbyes were said on the 24th, and on the 25th I had a conversation with my English friend, Dave...  He remarked on the realization that this would be the first Christmas that he was not spending with his family, an obvious but profound statement.  Together we spent Christmas youtube-ing our favorite songs (holiday and otherwise), having some delicious korean food for lunch, then meeting some Korean friends for dinner.
In all honesty, the dinner pulled everything back into adjustment and focus.  Christmas in Korea more resembles Valentines Day (socially) than the western take on christmas with spending time with families, diner and the like.  Here, it is a true couples holiday and that is about it.  A friends Co-Teacher, Jinny, had planned a 싱길 크리스마스 파티, literally "Singles Christmas Party".  It was a true experience, the food was great, the place brews their own beer (dare I say the best I've had in Korea), all you can eat and drink for 20000 won...  I plan on going back.  Soon.  As it were, Dave, HeeSung, and I were the only guys at this "Singles X-mas", with 7 ladies.  Dave remarked later saying, "it's not everyday where I dine with 7 other ladies, less often when they are all that good looking".  I paraphrased that last quote, but Dave had said earlier that day about how he wanted to start sounding wiser, like Ghandi.  Whether or not that was "wise" remains to be seen.

I have to say I botched a skype date with my family that was supposed to happen after dinner in Michigan (5am in Korea).  I had set my alarm to go off the day prior at 5:00am instead of the day following.  This is not how alarms work, in this dimension at least.  What added insult to injury was that when I rolled over to check and see what time I actually woke up I saw that it was 8:50am, too far past to be fashionably late, and 10 min before I was supposed to be teaching my 1st day of English camp.  I broke some speed records getting into my classroom with 2 min to spare.  Luckily, my 5th and 6th graders were as apt in their punctuality as I was, and my rush into school was not overly apparent.

I've glossed over a few minor adventures, I went on a ski trip the weekend before.  The whole of my ski experience can be summarized with saying that I am from Michigan, I learned on snow covered mountains of trash, and coasted down a few bigger hills up north in the Lower Peninsula.  Korea on the other hand is a country of mountains.  Not exactly the Rockies or Alps, but deffinatley bigger than any bump the people ski down in the Mitten.  It was a great time, and I hear the mountains in the Northeast are even better!  I will definitely go again.

A month ago I had a grand plan to go somewhere over new years for my vacation, that plan fizzled out because of procrastination and a hundred other things.  I had accepted defeat, and resigned to realize that I would be spending New Years in Korea.  It was on Christmas day when a final push was set into motion...  Anywhere cheap, this was the only stipulation.  Not 12 hours ago did I book our tickets, and in 36 hours we will be in the air flying to Taiwan!  This is the sort of last minute planning that would make Chris Moeller proud.  Different country, different language, one American, one Briton, what is the worst that can happen?  Don't answer that.

Here is to a new year, a new chapter in an increasingly dynamic saga, a new ring of growth, and maybe, a bit more knowledge as well.

We have normality... Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."

A lull in adventures, as well as realizing I am an expat for at least the foreseeable future made me establish some routines and things to make my life seem more permanent and less touristy.

The 1st thing on the agenda was to nut up and get a gym membership.  But where?  And how?
After talking to some of the teachers it turns out I had two options...a cheap city owned center that is an hour walk away, or a more expensive gym that is an 8 minutes walk from my apt.  I ultimately chose the closer one after convincing myself I would never walk the hour to the other one even if I had a membership.  The membership includes gym 에오로빅 privileges and entrance to the spa 스파 and sauna 사오나 in Korea you just call it a 찜질방.  For those of you not in the loop, a 찜질방 usually has a few different temperature hot tubs(pools, really), a cold tub, a steam sauna, and a dry sauna.  More elaborate ones can have sleeping rooms with beds, and salt baths etc. A good time.  The gym is pretty regular, I am still figuring out if it is okay to wear my own workout clothes instead of the prison clothes they give me when I check in... A grey shirt to work out in?  This does my sweaty self no favors at all.
By the second week of going, I realized this... I didn't buy a membership to the gym with a sauna, I bought a membership to a sauna with a gym.  At least this is how it would appear after I spend 30 minuets working out and a hour and a half in the sauna.  Judge me, I love me some sauna (Finnish roots showing through here?).

Gym membership?  Check.
Costco membership to negate any gym benefits?  Check.
Logic?  Dead.

I miss having a piano at my fingertips (bad pun...see: amysund),  but my mentor teacher asked around the school and found one I can play on mondays and sometimes wednesdays.  It is in one of the 6th grade teachers rooms so I can only play it when we both do not have to teach.  I learned how to say 피아노 좀 써도 되나요 to ask if I can use it.  It felt good to pound out some Brahms again, even if it was a little rough after not playing since late July!  I must not have sounded too horrible because a few of the teachers were talking (gossiping) about it the next day.  I happened upon a ordinary looking doughnut shop in my town and to my surprise I walk upstairs and there is a piano!  What is even better is it is pretty dead at night so sometimes I am the only one there, or there are only a few people mulling about.  If it isn't too crowded I help myself to a little piano, if I am alone I and get down to shedding some licks. I don't think the owners mind and I try not to be obnoxious.

Piano playing outlet?  Check.
Rental fee: Tea and doughnut?  Worth it.

Last weekend I went to my Mentor Teacher's wedding, I was excited to see what the Korean take on "wedding" was.  Getting there was an adventure, the invitation was in all Korean (not surprising since I was the only english speaker invited).  I got basic instruction from my MT the day before... "go to Daegu, go to Hyundai apt store, get on one of the 3 busses waiting there, sit on the bus for 3 1/2 hours, get off, eat lunch, see marriage, repeat in reverse order.".  Easy...not.  I had to get up at 6am to make a 7am train, grab some breakfast, walk around, find dept store.  This much was easy.  When I got to the store there were not 3 busses waiting there, there were 17.  Some were clearly not going to the wedding because they were full of people dressed like they were going to climb a mountain.  Some had people dressed regularly, fancy, sporty, oddly.  So I did the tourist thing and pulled out the invitation and looked  confused.  After walking around for a while showing it to people I finally found the right group, I met my MT's brother and mother there.  Apparently Baek (MT) had let them know a confused looking American was going to show up for the wedding.  They were helpful in escorting me to the right bus!  Baek told me I could call her if I had any problems, but I told her she was crazy and I wasn't going to call her to help me out on her wedding day.  Selfless, but dumb.  I brought along my friend Tarrah, and it was nice to have somebody to talk to and share looks of confusion and surprise.  Once we arrived to the place we piled out of the busses, up 4 flights of stairs and into a lobby where the bride was in a room on a chair (throne) to take pictures with.  I was met by some teachers and people from my school, they seemed surprised and happy to see me there, I walked into the picture room to see Baek decked out in white talking a mile a minute with some guests only to hear her blurt out "OOOH Michael HI!", this was followed by everyone giggling.  Awesome.  Before the wedding, everyone eats lunch.  I liked this, and ate lots of food.
The wedding itself is a pretty casual affair, there was the parents (lighting the wrong candles and having to start over), the MC announcing everything, the dress primper, fixing and primping non-stop, and vows, the post vows bad saxophone player (not me) with midi jam track, the post sax ballad groom norebang dance session, and the postlude (no kiss).

Korean wedding?  Check.
Weird-ed out?  Check.
30 min or less?  Yup.

Korea does optometry well.  Just like how medical treatment is outrageously overpriced in the US, so is getting glasses.  Korea simplifies it tremendously, why it isn't this simple in the US is mind-boggling.  This is how it went down... 7pm on a Friday, I walk into a Optometry store.  I communicate that I would like new glasses, he takes my current glasses and a machine analysed the prescription, five min later I am picking out new frames.  Frames start out at 10000\ or ~8.50-9.00 dollars, I splurge getting 25000\ frames (20 bucks) and reduced thickness lenses (because I am blind) total is 50000\.  Nice.  This is the point in time where I would wait 2 weeks for the store to send out for lenses & frames or something to make me wait, not the case in Korealand.  They have a lens making machine in the back, he tells me 20 min.  Well, okay.  Sure enough, for under 50 bucks and in 30 min I have some new specs, with no insurance.  Wut.  I spent more money with insurance the last time I bought glasses.  Take notes bloated US health and wellness industry.  In addition, no appointment AND at 7pm on a Friday.  Work ethic.

Sexy Specs?  Check.
₩on for days?  Check.
Glasses for every outfit I own?  Why not.

I have been practicing my Korean with my co-teacher.  I can order food without pictures now.  Moovin' on up...

Two Douglas Adams quotes in one post?  Why not, I'm feeling very cool and froody (Guide reference) .

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be."

"Not all who wander are lost." Tolkien

Last week was the first time since I left for Korea that I did not have a conversation with myself about extending my contract, this was largely in part because I had made the decision to stay.  I am not one to rush into a decision like this with any shred of ignorance, I had to try and absorb the scope of commitment that I was going to be signing on for.  One of the things that make living here in South Korea fun and exciting are the people I socialize with.  This is pretty broad actually, from the teacher and students I interact with everyday to the other English teachers from my town, and around the country.  Anyone in this situation needs to be okay with a certain amount of solitude, and while teaching EFL has me interacting with lots of people and students it is not exactly like chatting with old friends about my day.  One of my prime concerns with extending my contract was asking "how am I going to keep myself from turning into a hermit and talking to myself until August?".  I had been hanging out with a few people from emu on any given Friday or Saturday, this is all fine and dandy until you take into account that they will be leaving at the end of December.  So I thought to myself I ought to see who is sticking around for the year.  I went to Busan with Brandyn and Tony, they are in for 12 months, other people that are cool (12 month contract) include Ian, Josh and Dave.  Dave was quite peached to find out that I was sticking around, and I will make sure that by the time he goes back to see the Queen he accent is all but gone and he pronounces all the syllables in British towns and cities.
Perhaps an even larger issue I had to sort out was the one involving me graduating college and needing to figure things out.  I don't know exactly what the job employment situation is back home but word from a few (very) close and respected people in my life are that things in the mitten are glum,  I believe the words used were "shit" and "a pit of despair".  If I were to have come back at the end of January, I would have went to work subbing, and generally grinding things out until summer.  In addition to this and being old, I would have to scrap for health insurance and all that costs too much money in the United States.  While I am a healthy individual, my health coverage here in Korea is reimbursed 90% of what I pay, and treatment is pretty cheap to begin with anyways, so why stop a good thing?  I think my mom is worried about several thousand things to do with my life but one of them probably has to do with me not getting a start on looking for/ getting hired/ moving my stuff out of the house/ being less than 6000 miles away.  Rest assured I am aware of this, sorry for the gigantic mess I left around the house and in my room, that will be dealt with in due time.  For now, I have an opportunity to teach and experience the world at a time in my life when I have finished round #1 of college and have only begun to trek out into the unknown.  This is okay because I don't plan on kicking the bucket any time soon.  Living like this would be hard to come back to when I encumber myself with things like car payments, rent, morgage, and anything "adult-like"...It makes me shudder just to think of it.  I know my outtake on life is a little bit eccentric compared to others but I have surrounded myself with friends that understand this or at least accept that I see things this way.
One of my friends back in michigan, Emily, was nervous to see me go to Korea.  Not because I didn't know the language, or culture, or being a billion miles away.  She thought that even though I said I was only going away for 6 months I would fall in love with everything or nothing in particular and extend my stay.  Clever girl.
Staying until August allows me some flexibility in my travels, I am looking to spend new years someplace warm and tropical (Thailand?).  Jeju Island in the spring, Japan before I come back, and who knows where else.  I aim to have a few more stamps in my passport before I have my next Oberon!
It feels weird to have the future as an open book.  Never before has my life direction been this open, there has always been something on the horizon (school mostly) that I could have my sights set on.  I have read about adventures of travels through Tolkien & Adams, now I can live them.

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.” Einstein.

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky"

My travels take me to exotic places, rich with culture and adventure, there is never something that replaces "home".  While my apartment is not my home in Michigan, it is becoming a place that I am becoming more "at" home.  After teaching I make a point of going to the roof of my building with a cup of tea and catch the sun setting over the mountains, it is a nice moment of reflection.
I have never had a frosty relationship with any of the teachers at the school, though I felt that I didn't have a thriving one.  One of the reasons for this is the language barrier...  The teachers have all had english education at some point in their own education though many don't use it enough to be able to converse (a lot like the spanish I took in high school), and are too shy/don't want to use poor english in front of students to speak with me.  I have been trying to use a few Korean phrases with some of the staff (sometimes successful, and other times not) and have even had a brief conversation with my principal on the walk back from the cafeteria (he has, near as make no difference, zero english).  It is good motivation to improve my Korean, and certainly isn't doing any harm in developing my staff relationships at school.  It is something that will only improve with time and perseverance.  
Teaching the kids is a wild ride.  Some days I feel like I have pulled everything out of my bag of tricks, other days I can have the most effortless class where everything fell perfectly into place.  Then there are some days when my students throw a left hook out of nowhere.  A situation like this presented itself last Tuesday...
My 2nd grade class is, using my kindest words, energetic.  Other words I might use to describe them would be, bananas, crazy, run amok, bane of my existence for 40 minutes two days a week.  I was guiding the craziness through the lesson when Hellia busts into my classroom with a shopping bag, and goes "Teacher!  Look!".  Naturally I am curious, so I peek into the bag...A chick, a baby chicken.  I think, "What is this doing in my classroom?".  This was a moment to just roll with the punches, but when they are come fast and furious one can only "roll" so much.  This is one of the many things they do not cover in university teaching method courses.
I've been writing this post for a while now and I apologize for any lack of continuity.  It will without a doubt be edited after I post it.  In return I give you a candid picture of a 2nd grader throttling a baby chicken.  Cute.

As I have mentioned before, there has been a constant internal dialogue dealing with my length of stay in Korea.  I am at a point in my existence where I have nearly full reign of the direction of my life.  While most of the EMU crew have 5 month contracts I signed for 6 months because I did not need to make it back in time for the winter semester (one of the perks of graduating).  This 6 month contract would end in January and have me subbing until June and looking for a full time teaching gig over the summer.  From a conservative point of view this would be a pretty logical choice.  On the other hand, I quite like teaching here.  I am learning massive amounts about myself, classroom actions, the importance of communication with students (and how much I took it for granted in the US), and many more I didn't name, and are unaware of myself.
Extending my contract would mean leaving my Family (that includes friends as well), and all that I have grown to know and interact with on a social level for a while longer.  While I could easily look externally for an answer to my questions I know the answer is not to be found anywhere but inside myself.  I'll not make a formal announcement with any great fanfare and such, but don't be surprised of either possible outcome...
On the light side of this subject, Dr. Koh (my professor from EMU) came and visited my school to talk with my administration and supervising teachers to be sure that everything was going smoothly.  Soon after the initial greeting of "good to see you" & "how have you been?" this is the conversation we had (quoted to the best of my knowledge)...
Dr. Koh:  "Your school likes you, Michael"
Me: "I like them too"
Koh: "They want you to extend, I want you to extend"
Me: "I think about that everyday, I might very well extend"
Koh: "Do you have a Girlfriend back home?"
Me: "No..."
Koh: "Good, you can get one here"
Me: "Well, you know I wouldn't be opposed to something like that..."
Koh: "Oh!  Do you like Korean women?"
Me: "They aren't ugly."
Koh: "Do you know Chelsea's Co-Teacher? she is very pretty"
Me: "Yup" (poker face)
Koh: "Michael, listen.  Michigan is shit right now.  Nobody has jobs, even professors are worried.  Extend your contract, I will come back in April and visit.  If it is still shitty at the end of another 6 months you can apply for EPIK, I will make sure you get a good placement...I don't want to see you back in Michigan, you don't have a girlfriend to come back to, your parents can wait.  Julie thought about extending but she didn't and she still doesn't have a job."

Leave it to a 5 foot nothing Korean lady to lay it out straight poop for you.  The Koh-ster does not beat around the bush.

This is shaping up to be one of my more lengthy updates as I have not had one in a few weeks.  If you need to, use the bathroom or grab a beer because it is time for some adventure stories.

My friend, Brandyn who is an EPIC scholar lives in the middle of nowhere so I don't see him all that much.  He had planned a trip to Busan for the International fireworks festival they were having down there the weekend before Halloween.  I was game for that, plus it gave me the chance to meet some new people (I love having adventures with my emu crew, but logically, if 90% of them are ditching me in December I need to branch out to people who are going to be around longer).  We booked a Hostel, I've never stayed at a Hostel before so I did not know what to anticipate, but since the last time I stayed in Busan it was at a seedy Motel with a mosquito problem...I was cool with anything else.
For 20$ a night, not a bad view (insert moderate sarcasm here).

The weather wasn't perfect, but it didn't stop us from having a good time.  After taking a 40 minute KTX train ride from Dong Daegu we were in Busan, and we met up with two of Brandyn's Friends from the EPIC program, both from Ireland.  A taxi ride from the station to our Apt. where the Hostel was at and we were ready to start the weekend.  The guy who runs the Hostel is called "Tiger" he left us a note with instructions for where to put our things and whatnot, he said in the note to call him when we got in s he could meet us near the university and he would take us out.  Before I knew it, I was mingling with travelers from England, Japan, Ireland, South Africa, and Iceland (a few Koreans in there as well).  It was good fun and Tiger was a blast, he trades stocks and acts as a middle man in the import/export business, I gathered he runs the hostel for fun.  Good times were had by all, and the next day we ventured out to Haeundae Beach.  Fortunately it turned out to be a nice October day.

We met a group of Hagwan teachers on the beach wearing costumes, drinking Makoli and eating pumpkin pie.  They offered us some and we broke bread with them for a while.  After that we went to the aquarium...

After dinner we had to make our way back to the Hostel to go to the hill nearby and watch the fireworks.  After some transportation debacle we made it there just in time for the weather to become absolutely foul.  The rain lashed, the wind howled, the temperature dropped.  It would all be worth it when the show started...  And then it started.  It was now that the group realized that there was a gigantic mountain between us and where the fireworks were being shot.  Words were said and the fact that we were all soaking wet only added to the comedy.  At least they sounded cool.
Before I left the next day I made a trip to the world famous fish market that is in Busan.  The view on what fish are normal to eat in the US is pretty narrow; Cod, Salmon, Shrimp, Tuna, the normal stuff.  In Korea, anything is game and all of it is at the market, in tanks still alive, ready to eat.  They have restaurants where you can take whatever you just bought and they will cook it for you.  And if you thought that was fresh, they have an entire floor of sashimi booths.  Point to the fish you want and 30 seconds later is is on a plate in front of you complemented my some garlic bean paste and Soju.  Not for people who are not fond of seafood, I loved it.  Brandyn, Tony and I all agreed to make a point of eating down here when we had more time (I have my eye on some gigantic snow crab).

So beside the fact that I missed the event that we initially came down to Busan for, it was still a weekend of adventure and excitement.  I was exhausted until wednesday when I had to start planning things for the next weekend in Seoul, for a friends birthday.  Even though that has already happened it will have to wait for another post,  Mama Mia!

Here is to keeping the book of life wide open, and finding my own path through it.  A quote from Twain (a traveler as well), "Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own."