Second Life of the Call Center Girl

First, because I love the stories, I wanted to be a writer. But I found that I can make great plot lines and settings, but not very compelling characters. So I studied information technology just in case, and learned to code a little. While I'm not a programmer now, I work in a call center in Quincy. Refer to last post.

Instead of feeling like I didn't accomplish something, it's more like the dream changed. I can still learn to write compelling characters, but instead, I feel like I became a compelling character in a larger story. That trip to New York for the Mysteryland electronic dance music festival came and went.

EDM is fascinating, at least at first. The beat encompasses your whole body, and it becomes a second heartbeat in your head. The voices, whether male or female, pour their emotions into the simplified lyrics, while different overlapping rhythms supplement each other in an orchestra of adrenaline and urges to move your muscles. It feels better to give in to it, and once you do, then you'll find that your own body is in synchronization with pulsing music, your heart is pumping too, and the adrenaline will take over, and it'll all just feel good. When it finally gets repetitive, some people take drugs, but I didn't, and I won't.

The family cruise trip to Alaska was also interesting. No drugs there, but lots and lots of meat and sugar. There were different kinds of meat for the main entree every night, followed by extremely luscious dessert, served by these two Indian guys by names of Deva and Avinash. There are 4 courses: appetizer, soup or salad, the entree itself, and dessert. There's bread before appetizers as well. I thought I would falter in "high" society, but the many forks and knives were pretty intuitive to figure out. Fish is great as an appetizer. I felt guilty the whole time I was eating the delicious veal.

We visited 3 places in Alaska: Icy Strait Point, Juneau and Ketchiken. The first was an island where we were supposed to ride on ATVs and zip riders, but it got canceled due to a storm. Juneau was a giant glacier with mountains sticking out of it, and there was this really pretty waterfall that we all took pictures of. The hike to it was about 20 min, and I enjoyed making my way through the trees. In Ketchiken, we had a forest tour where we looked at different trees, fungi, then bears, and eagles. There was also a guy sculpting totem poles, who you could tell is a huge Native American rights activist. When someone asked if the paint is all natural, he goes, "We're just like you - we take a trip to Home Depot!"

Those were the big adventures. The smaller adventures included rock climbing and sky diving. I have a pair of rollerblades now. I can't use them very well, because I need to actually let go and trust myself to glide, but I mean, I keep my balance and kind of shuffle around.

Rent was raised, so I may be moving again. I know I'm only 28, but I really want to settle down already. Then again, I can't really make a career of taking technical support calls, so I might have to keep going anyway. This means the story will obviously continue, even though I don't know what the next step is, why or how. They say this is what being a twenty something is all about, isn't it? Wish me luck.

Braintree on the Red Line

Okay, it hasn't been THAT long since I've updated. *guilty face* Ever since I was a child, I was that strong willed curious one who walks long and far, and by the time I remember to look back, I don't know where I am. No one is around anymore, because I forgot to ask anyone to walk with me - the landscape is just so breathtaking.

Well, Happy New Year. Since it's been about half a year, of course the world has changed into unrecognizable proportions again. While I haven't had the resources to travel to any new destinations, life has thrown a few waves for me to surf over, and I'm still riding, uncertain of when I would crash. What animal year is it according to the Chinese zodiac? Ah yea, Year of the Horse.

About a month before my contract with Americorps and Phoenix Charter Academy is over, I had quit. I still have a small window into some students' lives through social media. A temp agency had snapped up my resume from the internet wilderness and presented me with Broadband Repair Analyst at Granite Telecommunications. I just received my quarterly review. I'm happy so far.

Despite how perilous financially it is, I've moved out from living with my mom and Annie, and now I live in Cambridge. The art scene is strong here, and I'm surrounded by people around my age, which is nice. Not that I really interact with any of them, but I appreciate their presence. I live in a studio apartment, with my cat. I bought and built all my furniture myself, excluding the two folding chairs that mom gave me. Two pieces of furniture belong to the cat. There are 3 closets. The dining table folds into the wall. Laundry is in the same building. I haven't done much decorating, because I wanted to think it through and take it slow.

Mom and Annie want to take a cruise to Alaska in June. I'm planning for this as well. Meanwhile, I'm kicking myself in the butt at work. The only thing this has to do with an English degree is the attention to detail and the detailed notes we take for each case. I'm not close to anyone yet, but I have found people to hang out with at work during the breaks. There are people to talk to around me when a telephone company puts me on hold for too long. My supervisor is good to our team, the guy I'm dating lives three blocks down from me, and, for the first time in my life, I am happy and continuing to strive.

Ford and I are also planning a trip to some rave music event named Mysteryland. This will be the end of May, in Bethelwood, NY. I had gone to Brooklyn, NY, to play some board games. I had gone to Connecticut to visit with Jared and Angela, and wrote them a thank-you letter afterward, but it's still in my purse, because I'm apparently too absentminded to mail objects. Boyfriend speaks admiringly of Colorado because there are awesome ski slopes there. I plan to keep traveling, but can't foresee a point beyond these plans when I would have enough money. I've become too interested in computers to become a travel writer anymore, but this is not a failure - just a shift in perspective.

Maybe the world will change over a few times more in the next half year again. Hopefully it will be for the better, though I'm plenty happy now.

Austin Plus News

The trip to Austin had been Ford's idea. He wanted to visit UT Dallas to see the campus, seeing as he was applying there for graduate school. (He got in.) While he toured that campus with his quiet brother and parents, Joey and I were driving around Austin, sampling different parts of its cuisine.

There were food trucks. In fact, more than half of the food industry was made of food trucks arranged in various lots. We tried out donuts, subs, cupcakes, but occasionally, we did hit an actual restaurant for their delicious steak, some big sandwiches and alcoholic drinks. Everything was plus sized and spiced much more richly than New England could ever bear. Also, MA was still cold at this time, and TX was up in the 70s-80s. Perfect early spring trip.

We also visited some odd museums at my insistence, because I can't just keep eating. There was an arts museum downtown that had two floors but some pretty but simple modern art. There was the Museum of the Weird which was very entertaining, even though I'm pretty sure most of it were hoaxes. Believing in it was more fun, but the skeptic in me grows stronger nowadays.

For the last night of the trip, Ford, Joey, his brother Jack and I went through the Austin strip of clubs and bars. Ford wanted techno and house music, whereas Joey wanted only hard rock. We even tried to dance. We're so terribly inept... But we had so much fun.

Now, the news. I had gotten a new job that will start in twelve days. It's temp to hire, so I don't know how long I'll be there. It's a call center in Quincy servicing Fortune 500 companies' internet and broadband. They do more, but the department that I'll be in will be doing that. After my less than a year stint at Phoenix Charter Academy, this came as a welcome surprise. More to come.

Miami Beach, Baby!

Ford and I planned this trip to visit Peter, but Ford could take a whole week off, whereas I only took one day. After they picked me up from the Orlando airport, we ate at a Chipotle, wandered around a mall where I bought $100 Ray-Bans, and then went on our way to Miami.

The traffic was heavy. We blasted loud club music, all with our sunglasses on and bopping our heads like cool college students from the movies. It was dark when we got there, so we found a hotel last minute while eating at Denny's. That was a panicked process of Googling local hostels and hotels, as well as making phone calls. I won Peter a stuffed animal - there was a claw machine in the restaurant. Then we drove to downtown, parked in a shanty lot and went to explore. We were in a Latino bar for a while, and then moved to another one where we drank sangria. After wandering a little more and finding little activity, we got lost going back to the shanty lot. We found it in time - was anyone watching the lot anyway? - and went back to the hotel.

Miami beach was our next destination. We hit the water under the beautiful hot sun immediately. I was in a pink flowery band bikini. Then we took a shower under one of the free fresh water sources around the boardwalk. There was a park, and a lot of fancy restaurants, and we went inside an art gallery. It had different artistic renditions of celebrities. I shopped for some souvenirs, too. We ate at a burger place before trying to hit Mokai the club, but apparently we were out of dress code, so we went in Baoli instead.

This club/restaurant/bar is quite something. There were two large rooms in dim lighting with the host's station in the middle. At opposite ends of this large rectangle were two disc jockey platforms, playing trance music to seated people eating highly priced comfort foods and drinking alcohol. When I was halfway through my French styled broccoli and cheese soup, two female dancers wearing animal print bikini-ish costumes with heavy feather headdresses came out to dance. They moved on two platforms connecting the four cubic columns on three sides in front of the DJ platform. I don't know if she was otherwise a stripper, but those are hot asses.

While they were dancing, a bar off to the far side let some guests with drinks get up and dance. The bartender was mixing drinks while playing with fire. After around 9 o'clock, the waitstaff cleared tables and moved them out of the way for dancers whenever they could. Soon Peter, Ford and I joined them. We stayed there for a few hours. Every so often, one of the DJs would spray fire extinguisher smoke over the dancers so we'd cool down several degrees and then warm up from movement again.

When we went back to the car, we found that the car wouldn't start. Peter had to call triple A, then we waited until he came and helped us start it back up. The rest was history.

Hello Sara

I've been working so hard, so I have also gone on three small trips since the last post about being the audio/visual master for a fundraising gala to make up for it. As someone said, and I'm paraphrasing, when a body is in motion, she stays in motion. Boy, have I been moving fast, and it is such a wonderful feeling.

Some weeks ago, I rented a car to drive to NYC to hang out with my friend Sara - who I met in Sakura Hostel in Tokyo - just to say hi and catch up a little bit. Alice and Lizzie came along, so they were my companions while I navigated, feeding me snacks and water.

We told a very bizarre story in the car about an ancient Chinese scholar who could time travel. The traffic was atrocious at times. We took as many rest stops as we wanted, because we could. It's the being lost and the navigation that's part of the fun, though I had also rented a GPS, which went haywire every time we were on a bridge or in a tunnel.

We compared New York City driving to Boston driving. Actually, both styles are equally as aggressive but in different ways. New Yorkers will not signal and don't care about pedestrians. Bostonians will either be too slow or weave in between lanes and cars like it's a desperate rat race, sometimes getting too close.

We found parking in a garage near Chinatown, and then went to meet Sara. After eating dim sum at Gaga, which has good reviews because the food is good and the interior is pretty in a modern art kind of way, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were around the Indian and Mesopotamian wings, along with the Chinese and Japanese rooms.

The drive back was a semi asleep half silence. We dropped Lizzie off at her house. It was really returning the car to the Enterprise lot that was challenging, because it was a one way street coming out and we had to loop back around several times. By that time, it was after midnight, so while we caught one of the last trains, Alice had to stay over at my house for the night.

Next stop: Miami.

For the Children

Hi! Three months later. While the days have become a little bit of a routine at Phoenix Charter Academy, today was different, because it was the 2013 Benefit Gala. Since PCA is a nonprofit organization, an event like this makes perfect sense. We raised a lot of money - I would guess maybe around $20,000 plus? - though I could never give you an exact amount. Someone else was keeping track; that was not my job.

My job was A/V for the show. Now, I wasn't really in the background so much as tucked into a corner of the stage and running back and forth between there and the projector room, which was past a hallway and tucked into another smaller room. All the materials were prepared for me: Powerpoint slides, music, and even a short film. My main duties were to make sure everyone can see everything in a pretty fashion in the right order, and that the sound was going at the right volume.

That sounds simple, except that the game plan keeps changing because one of the two MCs like to improvise quite a bit. I didn't mind, it kept the show lively. So did the hanging projector which didn't seem to like staying in one set space, so I had to readjust it a few times. So there were about 200 to 300ish people put into this small to moderately sized space with a stage. There were some cocktail tables in front with dainty chairs, but most of the people were standing. Food trays with deliciousness were scattered all around the space, with drinks, tshirts, raffles and other paraphernalia at the edges.

There was dancing, a silent auction and a live auction and some speeches. The speeches were the most moving parts for me. Here we were, in a recovering economy, with so much pessimism going on everywhere, but there are still people out there willing to invest in underprivileged teenagers on the off chance that most of them will turn out okay (despite horror stories like juvey time and drugs). It also reminded us that the day to day work that we do - for me, fixing computers, but for the teachers and tutors, urging young adults to go back to class - has a deep impact, and we are actually making life and circumstances much better for a lot of people.

While the planning was a collaboration between 3 women and took months, the actual implementation only took a few hours, and the modest school building was transformed into a place to entertain and to be entertained. The raffle prizes were impressive, too. Red Sox tickets, Celtics tickets and the signed basketball, cooking classes, trips to different states, and even a band playing live at your house for an hour and a half. The school staff with maybe a handful of students and interns, about less than 150 people, put all of this together - after teaching 5 hrs of classes - within 4 hrs. It amazes me how efficiently people can work and the amount of things they can accomplish when they agree on something.

For me, there was even a short personal span during the day when I accompanied my supervisor and 3 female students to a CVS to shop for pantyhose. The 3 girls were friends, and 2 of them were a lesbian couple, my supervisor did the driving, and then there's me riding shotgun. They were talking about teenaged girl things: gossip, boys, condoms, the tiny variations of colors in different products. This work place is truly like no other, and I can see why the people who can endure the long hours and emotionally demanding workload retrieve so much satisfaction from it. They defy statistics and normal logic in the most steadfast and optimistic ways possible. It's hard not to grow to at least like them a lot.

Not Sex and the City

Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year! Did you catch one of those sales and get a great deal? I know I did. I bought this pink croquet-ed Arden B. dress (originally a $59.99 value!) for $23.59. For my facebook friends and all of two followers, I realize that I haven't written for three months. There's plenty to catch up on!

My battles with organizational culture are largely over - I tend to just do what I believe is my job and ignore the rest nowadays. I managed to stay with this fourth supervisor - thank goodness! Tasks are being taken care of, despite everyone's misgivings over who does what, how to say so-and-so, and territorial boundaries. I organized the student database, monitor (and troubleshoot, when devil magic happens) the school's one hundred and eighty computers, and fulfill the legal technology requirements for this charter school.

On the first day that I arrived at Phoenix Charter Academy, the internet was down. I hadn't gotten a chance to know every face and the building, much less the school's network yet, but the pressure was on already. "Fix the internet," someone suggested to me. Such a warm welcome.

When the internet was finally okay after three long days, then the next big project was to fix the phones. Having called Comcast and CBE, I suddenly got a crash course on IT phone networking, and the way that it is not on the same network as the internet. Each phone is connected to an ethernet wall jack, which is connected to a large switch box (like a router but for phones) and there were more phones than there were empty switch holes, so I had to change around the wires to fit everything.

While these two projects were going on, there are consistently staff members who use other people's laptops to send emails to me to complain about how sometimes they can't get internet, or the laptops don't start, or the screen is black. This happens especially often when one of the members of the "data team" has me administer online surveys to the students about their feelings while in school.

I am this school's current IT department. I'm making up the rules as I go.

Oh yea, how about that hurricane Sandy? She knocked out five of our servers, so that when the school opened up again, none of the teachers can print anything, and it was four hours of panic, and then a huge meeting about preparedness at the end of the week. I had to find those programs - all virtual operating systems, by the way - and put them back online, because Sandy created a momentary blackout.

Or two weeks ago, right before Christmas, when three teachers spilled drinks on their laptops when they were lesson planning at home. As Britney Spears once sang, "Are you kidding me?" I had to disassemble them to wipe the insides up and then spray them with pressurized hydrogen or something to clean it all up. Not everything was saved, but I did my best. Taking apart computers was my idea, but Phoenix Charter Academy isn't training me. My asking the right questions to three or four IT staff members from other organizations is.

I'm really enjoying this vacation, though. Hanging out with people almost every day, learning about the better eats and places of Boston with a group of people I've recently begun to get closer to. There's a chocolate restaurant, did you know that? There are also two really good art museums. A pretty man showed me that there's such an item as Christmas rap. That's right, not wrap - rap.

Happy holidays, everyone.

Trying to Settle In

More than a month has passed since the last post, and I now have a much better idea of what this job (or community service?) entails. Words can't simply describe one's experiences at Phoenix Charter Academy. Nevertheless, I will try.

In answer to the last post: No, I am not ready to be a model citizen for teenagers who have been dubbed "truant" by a handful of Boston Public Schools. The reasons for this are as follows.

One: I have to make a conscious effort to dress professionally, because I must think about how the students view me. I've been reprimanded for some leggings being too shiny, and the skirt over the leggings being too short.

Two: I am unable to transition into speaking in a politically correct manner without feeling disingenuous. Those who know me well would tell you that I tend to sincerely say whatever I am thinking, but strangers who are unused to this manner would find it invasive, insensitive, and rude.

Three: Ever since coming back from South Korea, I've noticed that I tend to stand closer to friends than I mean to, and students may find this uncomfortable. Other examples are, if I see a student listening to music when he shouldn't be, I would pluck his earbuds out of his ears and tell him to put them away. However, he would say, "Don't touch my stuff like that." So I get in trouble for allegedly "touching" the students, when no direct contact was made - what I actually touch are an inch of fabric off the sleeve of a shirt, the rim of a cap, or the wire of a pair of earbuds.

Or maybe both the staff and the students are very possessive of their respective spaces. On the first day of school, I put my backpack and laptop on someone else's desk while I work on a task. She shows up and waits for me to leave. But then, another lady assigns me work and not a space to do it, so I say, oh sorry, now I have to stay here, because now there's more stuff to do. The first lady stomps off. The second lady was not aware of this at all. The third lady was my then-supervisor who yelled at me over GChat for allegedly squatting because "she should have first dibs on her desk".

This same then-supervisor would dismiss me verbally from the room when I'm trying to wait for something to happen in a program on the computer that I'm setting up for her. She would feel that I'm hovering. She was my first supervisor. By some strange trick of fate, my current supervisor is my fourth supervisor. My second supervisor is off campus a lot, and would also either ignore an email or dismiss my presence. My third supervisor did the same thing. I'm happy with my current supervisor because she is around, and even though she is busier than the first two supervisors combined, she still makes time in her schedule for me and is super organized. The principal made clear that I need a supervisor because I have absolutely no authority to make decisions on my own.

I am very grateful for this particular obstacle to be over, especially because there are additional challenges in the rest of my job. Despite all of this, I'm not unhappy - at least I have a job. While I wish it were more sustainable, it will do for now. I also have other big decisions to make out of work regarding where I live and all that - human decisions. The transition from being a dependent to being a real person on her own seems to be a long drawn-out one.

Being a Good (Conflicted) American Citizen

Forty eight days back and three interviews later, I am an Americorps IT VISTA for the Phoenix Charter Academy in Chelsea (Boston), Massachusetts. This wouldn't be nearly as interesting if I stuck to the rules regarding no blogging about work, and just didn't mention any of this. However, I will be discreet enough to use only initials and no physical descriptions of people at all.

Also, this still does fit into the mission statement of this blog, because America is very clearly a part of the international community. Just because I grew up here doesn't necessarily mean there are no new things to see; these places are local to me - but maybe not to many people who come here to see what's up with Lily.

Americorps is a program run by state governments to give qualified citizens two year-long contract jobs in their lives, in service to grassroots organizations, local communities and the state. I imagine that rules differ according to state. In return, I get experience in my chosen field and a medium sized stipend; it's a good amount of money that's not enough to live off of. VISTA stands for Volunteers in Service to America.

Chelsea is reachable through some bus lines running from the Orange Line Haymarket Station. I take bus 111 everyday. The Phoenix Charter Academy is a semi-privately funded, publicly run school for students who, for some reason, don't fit into the normal public high school system. Sample scenarios are that they are English Language Learners, were truant at other schools, or need some help with teen pregnancy or small children. Our current recruiter, JC, goes around recommending the school to kids in churches, on street corners, in rehab centers, counseling centers, hospitals, and other places (wherever people may need a good education to get their lives together, but don't know where to look).

We have our own team of counselors. The teachers are especially trained to discipline and educate inner city kids. There is a daycare center, complete with training for new parents, available on campus. The rules are strict. The curriculum is intense and aided by technology. There is a government subsidized meals program. Grassroots organizations like this really, really give me hope.

My role in this organization is less than clearly defined. While it means that I am generally a government funded volunteer for the Academy who works with information technology, my supervisor LS can lend me out to whoever needs a spare hand. Because of the special student population, I am also a part of the training that Fellows (think teacher assistants), teachers and administrators go through, which means that I function as half a teacher and am expected to enforce all the rules and enable this life-turnaround politically correct culture. There is a whole sociological approach and positive language (all in English, ha ha) that go along with this.

It sounds very philanthropic and awesome, right? Of course. Then why am I conflicted?

Despite having been a teacher in a foreign country, and maybe wanting to continue in the educational field, I wonder if I am actually capable enough to reach out to these children, when sometimes I can't completely break my own mental barriers regarding the way I think another person is when he starts describing himself with a label. I am also unsure of the meanings behind my own labels - Chinese, American, female, educated, writer. It must be only human to think about and redefine oneself daily.

I believe I have to take care of myself (I need to stop taking mid evening naps, for starters) to have enough energy and reevaluate what assumptions I hold about other people, and let these assumptions go. It's hard to know exactly how to do this. I could very well have been one of these at-risk kids. Whenever I don't yet know what to do, it may be best just to be quiet for a while and listen.

Hit the Ground Running

Hi, folks. Last we heard from me, I had left South Korea. Even though I'm back home now in Boston, MA, in the U.S. of A, my personal story is far from over - being at the prime of my life and all. ;-) I've been home for 26 days so far. So, reverse culture shock exists.

When I heard about it from other people, it struck me as kind of a myth. How hard can it be to readjust to the life that one has always had? Well, for me ... Not that hard. There are many disorienting mini-events to make me realize I've changed as a person, and my sleeping schedule is still trying to fix itself after about three weeks, but everything else is pretty okay.

During the first week, when two of my friends (who are married to each other) visit, I realize when trying to give them a tour that I had forgotten how to use the MBTA. The prices had increased again. It might just be that I had been in and out of airports for about forty something hours, but my legs felt a bit atrophied and I thought that Cheongju is not nearly as much of a walking city as Boston is.

My skin became very dry again, without the famous South Korean summer humidity. The water here is more metallic. Even though my mother mainly cooks only vegetables, the American diet feels a lot more fatty than Korean food, and a lot less salty as well. Cheongju's air quality is definitely much better than Boston's, despite our proximity to the ocean. My room is so much smaller and more cramped in comparison to my apartment in either Cheongju or on Daebudo. I miss having a lot less stuff. I miss waking up to complete silence, because I lived alone.

I love my sister, though. She thinks my cat and I are both beautiful. She'd say so to the cat when she thinks I'm not around.

My cat pretty much acclimated just fine. Eugene is grateful for my mother and sister's presences when I'm focused on something else and not paying attention to him. There is far more furniture to climb, and more small dark places to hide and sleep in. I groom his fur about every three days, and his appetite is similar - not that I would know the difference between Korean and American cat food.

I did make some changes for my own comfort. I bought a smart phone. I created a wireless network in the apartment, so I can use internet anywhere in the house. I spend a lot of time at the library, because it's much more quiet there since TV's are not allowed. My days are occupied by job searching, hanging out with friends, video games and a rapidly growing list of books on my Kindle Touch. When I play the MMORPG Maplestory, the subtle cultural influences from the game's having been developed by Koreans are far more obvious to me now. I bought classes in Mandarin that will start next month. I bought a YMCA membership so I can indulge in spiking my adrenaline when I get restless.

I get interviews, and I wait for the results. Let nothing curb the ambitions of this young woman.

A Wistful Letter

Goodbye, South Korea. You were kind of good to me.

There's too much going on inside you, and when crowds gather, everyone pushes everyone. I'm too short and impatient for that. Being outside of your structure has its benefits and drawbacks. While we are easily forgiven for any social faux pas that we commit, we are also not considered real people. Sometimes, when some people realize we don't speak Korean, we are simply dismissed with a hand wave. The older citizens of this country tend to be very pushy - and while most are well meaning, there are those who are downright condescending - like anywhere else, I suppose. I never enjoyed bowing. I could have, but didn't care about your fashion standards. My luck with jobs in you was also not great; I know some other people had a much better time than I did.

However.

You gave me an honest living for twenty months, and I met many friends here. I had many adventures that I will hold dear to my heart for many decades. Your kids taught me more words in your language than your adults did. I would still enjoy teaching. Isolated from American politics and the Western way of thinking for a while, I realized the effects upon me from where I grew up, who my parents are, and the small actions that I took. Both apartments that you provided me with were very easy to live in, and I felt at home. You gave me a cat. I experienced both rural Korean life and small city Korean culture. Your food was great. Your citizens are unexpectedly helpful at the most surprising moments. Your country is safe. You taught me that in struggles between individual and society, sometimes it's not so bad when society wins.

You taught me to live alone. You taught me to begin to pursue what I want, or even to begin to think about exactly what it is that I want.

Thank you.

These were all the thoughts running through my head as I repacked my luggage in front of the check-in counter to adhere to the "only one" rule, and then went to the ticketing counter to pay an extra $75 for the second luggage. These are the feelings falling from my steps as I went through security, then when the personnel at immigration took my Korean identity card away from me.

If I could hug a whole country and donate my tears, I would. There are surely things that I haven't done and seen yet, and someday, I will come back and pursue them.

For all my friends I met here, you better stay in contact - I am getting a smart phone and downloading Kakao Talk for sure!

First Time in Tokyo (Part 2)

Cafes are great places to chill and be sleepy after getting out of the airport. Currently, I'm at Cafe Oven around Hongdae with a finished plate of tiramisu and an empty cup of kiwi juice before me. Life is getting better all the time. I just got back to South Korea from Tokyo, Japan.

The last post spoke of the first four days I spent getting lost in Tokyo. And so, now we continue...

Fifth day. A friend and I finished some snacks and went to a cat cafe. It was one room with about ten plus cats, so the smell was pretty strong, even though I acclimated after about five minutes. Apparently, cats in Japan can have bent or curly tails, and long hairs are considered more luxurious. The cat cafe was really also a cat shelter and adoption center, because people can catch and bring in stray cats from the street, and the owner will take care of it until someone gives it another home.

Then we went to a sushi place. I think rice in Japan is sweeter, somehow - and the fish is always perfect. The tv was on, so we commented on how Japanese culture is very brightly colored, and not very dance based. When we went back to the hostel to sit down and watch The Grudge, I met another person. Within ten minutes, he proposed to me because he said it would be great to live in the USA. When I said that I wouldn't be tied down, he said that I can see other men, but then revoked that later when I asked how soon I could ask for a divorce. Does that make me a wicked woman?

For some reason, we all decided to go out for drinks. It was a big group of about ten people, and we couldn't decide on a bar, so we went to a grocery store for them to buy alcohol, and for me to buy two packets of fruit jelly and a red bean bun. Then we headed to the river, and there were three or four conversations, but I met another person, and she is the most well read American I've met while traveling. The only other person who can match up may be one of my best friends from college.

Day six. For some reason, I had agreed to a cross city bike ride to see the part of Tokyo that is next to the ocean - Odaiba. Biking is easy, right? So I thought, but the whole day took roughly 11 hrs - there were maybe 5 or 6 hrs of biking, and I had many scrapes and bruises the next day.

It was a group of about six people, and we got brunch at this famous mall place with different dishes from all parts of Japan. I had rice with beef and some onions. The view was beautiful, the food was good, and we all have this sense of achievement for our athleticism. Then we went to see the giant Gundam statue and the mall associated with it.  Then we went to the beach, where there were pet groundhogs and watched a sandy kids' soccer game. On the way back, there was a building with a ship's mast, and a giant Ghibli clock.

Probably I should have gone to sleep right after that. Instead, I went with three friends to walk around the streets and river again, watching one skateboard around. There was this odd cup shaped statue past the boardwalk with four holes, so we stuck our heads in it, and there was a mini garden inside. There were a spider and a slug near the hole where I stuck my head in.

Seventh day. Since it was the last day, I was determined to relax. A friend and I walked to the Tsukuba Express Line, where we rode 2 stops to Akihabara - anime fans' and collectors' heaven - again. On the way, we saw a man in a traditional monster outfit dancing on stilts. We went shopping in Akihabara in a store named Don Quijote - not sure if it's misspelled intentionally. This store has everything, but I only bought a dress. I'm good with time and money. Then on the upper floor, we played some Dance Dance Revolution and some drumming game. I thought, this trip was a lot more athletically intensive than I thought, from walking to biking to drumming until my forearms hurt.

When I came back, I met up with another group of people, and we walked in a circle to a ramen store after we found that Mos Burger was closed. It was delicious, even though I got a plain ramen. It was noodles with a slab of pork, a slice of seaweed and very thick soup with chopped onions.

Ending day. I woke up at 6am after sleeping for about 5 hrs with torrential dreams. I had packed everything the previous night, but then finalized it after eating and showering, then signed out - giving back the sheets and card key. Navigation from hostel to the airport was easy, with only one transfer. I ate Subways for breakfast. The lady I sat next to on the flight was a Korean lady who can speak her language, Japanese, English and Chinese.

Almost everyone I've met on this trip is at least bilingual; I've really got to learn more to get around this rapidly globalizing world. I'm delighted to find that no one is really all that racist - at least at first glance. I think it becomes a separate comfort level intrusion for the native citizens when a foreigner lives among them, and much more when one dates among them.

First Time in Tokyo

It's only been 3 days, but it feels like longer in a very good way. The flight from Incheon to Narita Airport in Tokyo only took 2 hrs, and I stayed awake the whole time. Despite misgivings, baggage claim and navigation to the hostel went without much of a hitch. I had a moment of doubt when transferring from the express airport railway to the local train to get to the hostel's stop, but an older lady helped me out, and I just took a taxi from the subway, because it was already dark.

I had expected to just chill the first night, but as I was settling down to be on the computer, I met a bunch of college students who are going to play Tekken on the common room tv. Conversations started, introductions went on, and I met people, just like that. One of them led me to Senso-ji, the local Buddhist temple. It was very nice. Then when we came back from our evening walk, I somehow got challenged to a game of Magic the Gathering. It was mainly due to my teammate's hard work, but we won.

Second day. The same friend who led me around the Senso-ji temple leads me there again so I can buy some gifts for family. Then, we explored a bit and went inside the Amuse Museum. It's a small display of Japanese paintings, some old weaving machines, hemp cloth, and a milieu of objects. Then we went to Akihabara. We hit up some collectors' shops, arcades, and then just because I requested it, a porn shop. We stopped at a maid cafe, then there was a doll shop.

Third day. I picked a direction and wandered in a direction that led me to a bridge over a river. It was very pretty. Then there was a small park. I bought a subway pass and took myself to Shinjuku. The skyline was very impressive, and there were many slot machine parlors. I got myself a feather tattoo. I took myself then to Harajaku, which reminded me a little bit of Harvard Square. A friend from the hostel wanted to go for a walk that evening, so we did. We got a bit lost, but I got us unlost.

Fourth day. I got off at Yoracho Station. There seems to be financial buildings all around. I found the Hibiya Garden, but didn't go in because there was rain. Instead, I went to the Inpensu (?) Museum which had a lot of ceramics and wall dividers which had a lot of very detailed paintings on them. There were masks and statues too, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures. Then I took a walk around the Imperial Palace, but didn't actually go to the touristy stuff inside. Then I walked for a long time, and ate noodles inside Otemachi Station, and took myself to Ikkeburo. There was a whole street of old fashioned food, lots of new art galleries and whatnot in the new portion, but also lots of adult entertainment in the older portion of town. I took another hour or two in Akihabara on my way back, and when I came to the hostel, I joined two women for drinks and snacks and we talked a lot about our future plans.

Footing Around Unseo, Incheon

Previously, on Lily Internationally, I was in Incheon wandering around preparing to go to Japan. The part of Incheon that I was in is another island, cut off from the rest of Incheon, but connected through this very long bridge - the longest that I have ever seen. It was Unseo. I had taken the express bus from Cheongju to Incheon International Airport, and then took the airport railway to Unseo, and taken a taxi to the hostel.

The hostel was someone's house with extra rooms, and I bought a bunk for about 28,000won. It was the Lazy Bird Hostel. After paying and settling in, I checked messages then decided it was time to go out and wander around. The owner told me to walk a straight line towards the west, and I did, and so hit downtown. There aren't a lot of people out, mainly because it was early Sunday and most people would still be resting in bed. I got myself some food, and walked down kind of a back alleyway.

There was a massage place, and I decided to go inside. There was only one person there, and she was a Chinese lady. The only way I could tell was because the music she was listening to contained Mandarin. I ordered a foot massage, and for forty minutes, she shiatsu'ed my feet, calves and thighs and it was heavenly. The walls had purple wallpaper and giant pink sakura flowers. The pad I was lying on was pretty comfortable.

When I walked back out into the sunlight, I was much more comfortable, but also 40,000won poorer. I wandered for several more blocks, went in and out of the LotteMart, took in the urban landscape. After I came out of Paris Baguette from buying some food I was going to eat back at the hostel, a conversation started between myself and an American man who was teaching in China, but came over to Incheon to take some time off and wait for his visa to be renewed. He said his name is Dennis. We sat in a coffee shop and talked for a good while.

Because he had always just come to Incheon but never to other parts of the country, I decided that I would quickly show him Seoul Station through the airport railway. We bought him a ticket and rode to Seoul Station, sharing various life stories and whatnot. He told me about his former wife, his three sons, and the girlfriend of one of his sons. I shared specifically how lost I am in life, but how content it is to be this lost.

When we arrived at Seoul Station, we looked around briefly. I bought a new pair of pants - mainly because I was cold. He didn't have more time to explore, so we went back onto the airport railway and went home. But we got off at the airport instead of at Unseo, so we had to cab it back to Unseo. The taxi driver was an old man with a bad attitude who ripped us off of 800won. It's nothing, but I didn't see why he had to do that. I took another taxi back to the hostel I was staying at.

Before going to bed, my roommate and I started talking. He is also a teacher, but he's teaching English in Indonesia, and he may have been from the Philippines. His name is Mariano. He has a real passion for teaching, and over time has started to learn the dialect that his students speak. He's staying in this hostel because he's on vacation and is going to visit a handful of friends who are all in Korea, in different cities around the peninsula.

The day ended, and I fell asleep almost immediately to prepare for the next day.

Starting Last Calls

As mentioned briefly in the last post, I no longer have a job. This means that once again, it's decision making time. I am electing to go home to the United States to bet on a job there... But not before taking advantage of being on this side of the globe to plan a trip and check some other to-do's off the bucket list. Not that I actually have a bucket list.

How did I lose my job? Nothing extraordinary. A couple of kids quit the academy - kids quit all the time - so that's what the vice owner and owner told the head teacher, to save face. What is actually happening is that the academy is rapidly losing money, because the youngest kids' school days got extended to make up for the new lack of school on Saturdays. Many of these academies are not managed all that well, so when it's time to cut corners, the foreigners come first, and I hit the jackpot. The only other foreigner at that academy is a Canadian man married to a Korean woman, so he is bound to be staying for a long time.

So what are the first things that I did after getting laid off? I modeled for a photoshoot (this isn't new, I've been modeling for about several months now) and ran a 10k. It was a swimsuit shoot near Osan, my first swimsuit shoot. Then I would have a Chinese cheongsam shoot at Seoul Grand Park, and a spontaneous shoot at Woo Am.

Modeling is something I picked up in Korea, though I had thought about it before coming here. I wasn't interested in it before, but the emphasis on fashion is real and everywhere here, so I eventually decided to learn. It involves listening to the photographer's ideas about what he wants to shoot, then picking my outfits and makeup carefully. If I don't have some items, it's time to go shopping, but I tried to buy versatile products so I wouldn't have to spend so much money. Even though all photographers are different, all logistics are agreed upon before a shoot: paid or unpaid, date and time, and location.

From this, I learned to put together different types of outfits and how to better apply makeup. However, on a daily basis, I still prefer to be bare faced with tshirt and jeans or shorts.

The next day, my friends and I ran a 10k. One woman ran a 21k. Some others went for the 5k. In high school, I had run cross country for a short period of time. I was no good at it. Even so, I still got hooked onto the idea of making my body stronger and the feeling of adrenaline.

Because of these same urges, yesterday two friends and I went paragliding. This means going to a place where there are mountains, wearing air suits over our own clothes, becoming attached to a parachute (and my paid guide) to run off the mountain and be carried around in the air for about fifteen to twenty minutes.

Aside from the Cheongju trip, I had never really planned anything before, so the build up to the actual paragliding itself was a lot of getting organized. My friends asked just the right questions for me to go do my research. I stayed at my friend's house the night before, and we woke up at 5:15 to catch the 6:43 KTX to Seoul Station, taking the Metro from there to Hoegi and transferring to the Junggang line, and then getting off at Asin Station. There, I called my contact JJ and he assigned someone to pick us up.

The man arrived in a black Mustang convertible, which played Lady Gaga as we drove past their offices and then to the landing site. There, we paid the organization's leader 100,000won each since I deposited 60k for myself and one friend while the other deposited the money herself. Then we went to their offices for a short rest while they took pictures of a man who had finished the whole paragliding training course and gave him a certificate. Then we all piled onto a pickup truck and rode to the top of the mountain, where the takeoff pads are.

Our ears were popping on the way. We made conversation, and the ride itself took about maybe half an hour. When we got to the top, they took out all the gear, and strapped us into the suits, the padding behind, the plastic knee and shin pads, the helmet and the gloves. We each got paired off with a guide, and then waited. They decided to move to a different mountain top, because the wind wasn't picking up where we were. So we did that, then my guide, Mr. Yeong, strapped himself to the parachute, then himself to me, and told me to run. I felt like a harness dog from Call of the Wild for a few minutes.

Then we lifted off! It was amazing. I know pollution is pretty bad worldwide, but you wouldn't know it from looking at all the trees over there 700m below, and feel how much oxygen there is while floating in the sky. My guide took photos and a video, which I will send to my friends when I get them through email. Then he pointed out landmarks in his accented English, and sent us spinning like it's a roller coaster ride. I got a tiny bit nauseous, but was okay for the most part. The view was still beautiful, and in a few minutes, we landed.

The ride back was mostly sleeping. When I got home, I planned some more, and then fell asleep. Right now I'm in Incheon, ready for lunch, and tomorrow will get on a flight to Tokyo, Japan.

Korea Somewhat Interrupted

Hi, guys. I am UNBELIEVABLY tired, because it's been a very hectic day despite my no longer having a job. Let's go over what happened, also because I am a bit too rattled to go to sleep at the moment.

This morning, a friend took me to Choongdae, the local university, so that we could book our individual flights. I had a samgeokkimbap for breakfast. I booked my flight to Japan for a very good price of around $350. Then he and I went to get omerice for brunch.

Then, I went back to the animal hospital to get the rabies certification for my cat Eugene. Even though I wanted to take him on the flight with me, there are two layovers for the cheapest flight, so I don't want him to suffer much. I buckled and emailed the Pet Airlines guy to pick him up on the 27th. While I am in Japan, my yoga teacher will be taking care of him for a week.

After that, I decided to ship a suitcase at the post office, but of course, found out once again that they won't ship suitcases (especially not by sea) if it's over 20kg. So I ended up having to take everything out of my suitcase and put it into 2 boxes they supplied, and the sum came to about $73.

Being very pleased with having booked the flight for Japan, I booked the hostel too, all 7 nights, and wrote down the directions from the airport to the hostel. As I was trying to book my flight home to Boston, I got distracted because there's a woman who wants to take some of the furniture off my hands.

So I attempt to go meet her at 5, but then her schedule intervened, and I wandered around Shinae instead, putting together this Greek/classical outfit for no reason other than vanity. It all cost about $130. But first, I had a blueberry cream cheese waffle and Earl Gray tea for lunch. Then I went home for a while and was facebooking. Then I went to go meet the woman who wants furniture. I remember thinking, I spent a lot of time at Choongdae's front gate today, while drinking a small size aloe juice.

She came by, she's very friendly and talkative. We went back to my apartment, and she wanted all the things she said she would, so I helped her take the bookshelf, bookcase and water kettle to her apartment. We had to dismantle the bookshelf a bit first. I also gave her quick dried food I knew I wasn't going to finish. And a 3-meter ethernet wire. We got to talking, and she's also from Boston. I miss Boston. We got a cab back to her place, which is very far on the other side of town. She gave me $10 for the taxi home, and I was grateful.

Then I went outside and took the bus. But the bus was the last bus and stopped only at the bus rest stop where they all go at the end of the night. I got off, but I had no idea where I was. I remember the lady talking about it, and I am very much at the east end of town. I walked for about 15-20 min. before I could find a taxi. I was so relieved when I did, because I was getting hungry again. Most of the food I had had all day were snacks. I bumped into the head teacher who helped fire me when I got home, and I told him life is awesome without TOPIA.

When I got home, one of my photographers asked me to register with Forever 21 the Korean site, so I did that fumblingly, while trying to finish booking my flight home. In the few hours I was gone, the price had gone up $200! @.@ So then I finished booking my flight home - because it was still cheaper than the other prices, even the price at Choongdae. Then I registered for a familiar clothing store - in a foreign language.

After that, I realized there were huge holes in my plans to paraglide with my friends on the 16th, so I called the company again to fix those holes, and now there is much more information. But I still faltered and kind of freaked out in front of my friends. I emailed my mother and sister about the cat. I plotted out the rest of my schedule with my Australian Korean BFF, and we're going to some herb gardens tomorrow, with something as yet unknown for Wednesday. Because I'm meeting her tomorrow about 9ish around her apartment, I should go to sleep now.

It will be a deep sleep. Zzzzz....

Fighting Over Kimchi (Part 2)

In the last post, friends and I were having a rocking good time in Cheongju because I persuaded them to visit just to wander around and see this small city. Then I went back to Daejeon with my friend, and guess what we did the next day?! That's right - we went ziplining.

We had to get up early, because that seems par for the course for every big trip that we do. I stayed over with my friend, then we got up early - 6am? - to head to Daejeon Station, where we caught the KTX to Daegu. Then, we took a bus for 40 min. from Daegu Station to an amusement park named Herb Hillz.

This park has everything. There were little wooden cabins for quieter children who want to create art, a pool with giant inflatable hamster balls for children to get in, the pirate ship ride in most amusement parks, a merry-go-round, a garden with pictures on wood for families to hide and behind to take pictures in with their faces sticking out. Some of us took pictures, but others bypassed all of that for the food. I finished my cream cheese bagel from Dunkin Donuts and ate BHC with the Reeds.

Then it was time for the ziplining tutorial. We all put on harnesses, and there were so many buckles and places to tighten and tuck everything in. The man spoke in relaxed Korean, explaining the two hooks that catch us if we fall, and that's why we're supposed to hook them to everything at every step. Then of course, there's the zipline hook itself, which has small wheels for safe and fast gliding on the cable wire for some fear-of-height thrills. We each had a helmet - blue for women and yellow for men. We also all had rubber gloves to protect our hands as we will be using them a lot. I was glad to find a pair that fit me - normal gloves never fit me.

It was hot. We were all impatient for it to begin. We practiced on the low sample course, where a friend didn't know whether she wants to do it. Then we all headed to the Gorilla course anyway, but the same friend says there is an easier course, so we should do that one instead. We headed towards that one, but she decided to stop and sit it out for the day. So my one partner left and I climbed the Chimpanzee course. These courses - there are about five or six - are rated by a star system, and ranked by how much upper body strength it would take to balance and climb, because the hardest one is the longest.

I don't remember how many stages it came in, but the most memorable ones are these. There were two wires, one to each side of you, and two wires lower than that for you to step on. Occasionally, there are circular wood platforms for you to stand upon and rest for a minute or two. Then there's the one where you step on one wire, the other one you lean on at the middle of your waist, and the way to get across is to hold on tightly to individual ropes that hang roughly 2.5 feet apart. Walking on a net, that was the easiest one for me. Jumping across two platforms, with only one rope in the middle to help me swing, that may have been the hardest. I also had to crawl through barrels uphill, with spaces between the barrels.

And then, finally, the final stage was always the zipline itself. There were two ziplines to this course, and it's not just zipping. You have to crash against a thick green mat and catch the ropes around it to stop and pull yourself up to the next platform. My partner found that the most challenging.

It's the combination of height - we were maybe 10 meters up? - and using your hands and arms to grasp at objects and climb the obstacle course that was a lot of cardiovascular work. I remember my fingers feeling the blood pumping through them, and the blood flowing throughout my whole body - making my skin almost wine red and giving me an adrenaline rush that lasted the next two days.

It doesn't stop there. So, we leave Herb Hillz to catch the bus back to Daegu and then take the KTX, right? So we're all chilling out, expecting to have an easy ride home et all, and what happens? We were either sleeping, recovering, or talking about how great it was when - Flash! Flashflashflash flash! As we all looked out the bus windows to admire the dangerously close by lightning, thunder hits - BOOM!! First, it was farther away, and then it got closer and closer, until it was only 4 mi. away. And it started pouring. The streets were almost completely flooded. Only that one friend had an umbrella, and we were a party of 6 or 7. Not only that, the bus overshot Daegu station by a good 5 minutes.

So we get off the next time the bus stops. We know which general direction the station is in, and also assume that it's just a straight line. Then we... that's right - we run for it. 7 foreigners, running as fast as adrenaline will fuel us, through the rain in a straight line, splashing puddles everywhere and being joyfully dramatic. It was totally a sight for the Koreans to see! It was roughly maybe 8 to 10 blocks, we were all soaked. It was nostalgic, like autumn cross country running back in Massachusetts again.

Under a bridge, we asked for directions. This would be the perfect set for a noir photography shoot, I thought. It turns out that it's more straight line, then to the left. After we left the bridge, the rain had significantly lightened, so we were able to walk, sopping wet, the rest of the way amidst lots of stares from Koreans. I got hot chocolate at the Daegu station. All of us only had standing room on the train, because it was packed for Buddha's birthday weekend, still. I was with two girlfriends, and we spoke of many things standing there and making the Koreans uncomfortable. One old lady stood right in the middle of our conversational space.

We were all very relieved when we finally got to Daejeon Station. While we kind of went our separate ways, I picked up clothes from my friend's apartment, then went to have dinner with 3 friends, 1 of whom didn't go with us to ziplining. She preferred to sit and read all day, her mind in glorious fiction, instead. We were ravenous. We asked for so many refills of kimchi, hot spicy sauce, lettuce leaves and water, that the waitresses must have thought we were fairly high maintenance. We devoured all of the dalkgalbi and wanted rice afterwards, but they explained that rice only comes with the galbi at the same time, not afterwards with the leftover sauce.

We paid and went home, but the title stuck because one friend said it's rare that all the foreigners at the table like kimchi, and I envisioned a couple of monkeys sitting at a table fighting over - you guessed it - kimchi. It as amazeballs.

Fighting Over Kimchi (Part 1)

Aah. I had just showered, and am brimming with happiness. It was an awesome weekend, and I wish it weren't ending. Buddha's Birthday weekend was a rare three-day weekend, and I spent it in Seoul, Cheongju and Daejeon.

In Cheongju, four friends came to visit, and I showed them around a city that I had only lived in for roughly 8 months. The only specific request was a visit to Subway, so I led everyone to the basement of the DreamPlus mall, where there is one Subway outlet. There are 3 Subways in total in Cheongju, I later found out, though I only knew of 2. My friend really enjoyed a pizza sub, which she didn't get to have when she went back to America. So we all savored subs - except for me, because I was silly and ate a peanut butter jelly sandwich right before setting out. I'm happy they all enjoyed the sandwiches so much.

We wandered around the rest of DreamPlus, where we checked out little private fashion stores that are all in rented space. They liked the not-crowded and relaxed atmosphere of the place, and amidst all the shiny, I bought myself a classier watch. It has an oval face, with a leather band and circular metal studs. 40,000 won. A while of wandering around in the mall later, we decided to go outside. Conversations about everything make us very slow walkers, and it was a relaxing day, so we go with the flow.

Five people pack into a taxi, and then it looks like a clown car. I sat on my friend's lap, and we went to Sajik-dong. We got off a block from the bus stop, because we were going to find the small lake or pond, but the bus that I rode to get there last time wasn't running that day.

We noticed the stadium, where I explained that the steps and the extra huge television screen are for people who didn't get tickets in time - they can sit on the stairs to snack while watching the game on the tv outside of the stadium. There was also a statue to the side, almost Greek looking, explaining some part of Korean history. Near it are the mascots for Cheongju, little cartoon characters, because all cities in Korea must have mascots. My friends stopped to smell the bright flowers in front of them. We noted the big bonsai tree behind the flowers.

A block later, we head to the golden temple. It was the first time that I had seen it open, perhaps because of the holiday. We wandered and pointed at the buildings, saying hi to the old lady keepers and commenting on things. There were two: one was Chinese styled and painted brightly, a dormitory where the religious family lives; and the other was the temple itself, painted gold and usually locked. The old lady was nice enough to unlock it for us as a random treat. Inside, she explained the turtle dragon, which accompanies the most powerful god places. It reminded me of the robots from Power Rangers.

On the second floor, there were five gods, the biggest one in the center dwarfing all the rest. They were sorted by size and position: nearer to the center and taller means more important. Their Chinese names were framed in front of them. We bowed. They had different styled hats, were all painted gold, and their faces looked both stern and concerned at the same time. We went upstairs to see the biggest god, who had his palm out in the stop position and the other hand holds a giant pearl of sorts. He was also painted gold, with a topknot in a crown on his head. The space above his head was painted with 4 mantras. When we asked about the pearl in the king's hand, the language barrier got in the way, so the lady led us back down to their offices and showed everyone a short history book, in English, about everything that is this temple. I'm waiting on a friend to finish reading it so I can learn too.

Then we wandered around pet street, looking at dogs and cats and pet food. I bought my Eugene another bag of food. All the animals were so cute. We stopped for drinks at a 7-11 before deciding to hop on a bus after all. We rode to Shinae, the downtown area, before deciding we will sit on a pretty bridge. We stopped by for ice cream at Baskin Robbins on the way, and my friend got a bapbingsu, an ice cream mix with lots of ice. I got the Blueberry Volcano, blueberry ice cream with butter cookies and mint candy. After we went and sat on the dragon-ribs shaped bridge for a good long while, we went for dinner.

I took them to haejonggook, which means hangover soup. We all got the sugolgi one, which means beef with vegetables, soup and purple rice plus the usual appetizers. We had good conversations about our mothers and random subjects, and the meal was very fulfilling. Then I had to pack and go back to Daejeon with them for our ziplining trip the next day. They met my cat, while I hung up underwear and packed for the next day. I still had to go back once for some things I had missed.

Then, like clowns, we all hopped into a taxi once again. The driver, seeing that we were all foreigners, was trying to say to us that Daejeon was just a short distance, so we don't need to go to a bus terminal and he can just take us there instead. I told him, no, that costs too much, and he faced the road again sheepishly. We had a good ol' time making fun of ourselves and of him, and he informed us that he has a Canadian cousin and that he would visit soon. He was smiling when we all exited his taxi. You just know that we made his night.

Company Trip

My brain is tripped out on leftover adrenaline and endorphins right now. Ahh, exercise. Wait, I came here to narrate. Hi! Since the last post, dear coworkers and I had gone on a very surreal company trip to a small handful of places - all of which were beautiful. On Sunday, I hung out with my best friend and we bought hiking boots for me and he gave me a Domo hat. Then one of the easier work week happened for five days, and this past weekend... What did I do on Saturday? I hung out with three girl friends for a Children's Day festival and then enjoyed Avengers with a few new friends on Sunday.

It's amazing that I was able to remember all that. It took a tiny bit of work and looking at random pieces of paper that I had written down on over these past two weeks, mind you. Anyhow, on to the stories. =)

We all stood around awkwardly after arriving at about 8:30am in front of the office building, then we got piled onto a rented tour bus outfitted with flashing lights and a karaoke system. Almost every hour, we stopped for bathroom breaks. The first place we went to was a beach-side seafood restaurant. My, do I Love raw fish. While other people started drinking, I was consuming the essences of the ocean. The conversation around the table was about what exactly is healthy, and giant ginseng roots, and then a Canadian coworker had to awkwardly insult all the Korean men at the table by asking them why there are so many herbs and products that are supposed to help sexual stamina. "Do Korean men really need it, or something?" I told this coworker he was a bad egg in the silence that had fallen over the table. Soon after, the boss told us that we should go walk around the beach - so we did.

The sand was so soft, and the sun was just high enough in the sky. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. All the other women had went ahead to walk by themselves, so that Canadian coworker, a Korean man and I took off our shoes and strolled along the oceanic foam. We made fun of each other, as people do, talking about Diablo 3 which had come out recently, all the different kinds of beer around the world, and the way a towel is the most necessary thing for a traveler - one of the things that he learned from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I'm ashamed to say I haven't read yet. Then we wiped off our feet to pile back onto the bus and head to our next stop - a Buddhist temple.

Most Buddhist temples look the same. They're all in high places, but this one is especially commercialized with restaurants and a woodsy walkway leading up to it. I had started taking pictures. My two traveling companions and I started talking about religion and those kinds of beliefs, and why a person should focus on either the here and now, or the afterlife. When we came back down to find the bus, the rest of the crew were somewhere enjoying the rice wine near the temple. The Korean man was sad that he had missed it, but neither the Canadian nor I want to drink. We sat in the shade of the bus until everyone came back.

After everyone got on the bus, we're now going to the last stop on this trip, which is a barley field. When we got there, the sun was fairly low in the sky, so it cast a warm glow over everything it touched. The grass and the barley moved with the wind like waves, and tourists like ourselves populated the little dirt paths in between the vegetation. There were horses, very tired horses pulling horses, and in a fenced in area somewhere to the left middle, there were sheep. I liked the smell of barley - I eat so much wheat and bread based products that it's practically all I'm made of. My Korean and Canadian coworkers fed bits of plants to the sheep, because apparently, they made my Korean coworker uncomfortable so the Canadian suggested that he should go feed them to overcome his fear. There were little tents of products, but everyone was very drunk still and we didn't stay long.

On one part of the trip where we were all on the bus, a bunch of drunk men decided to blast the karaoke system on the bus with its flashing lights and sing and dance awkwardly. None of them looked particularly good dancing, and half of the bus was trying to sleep so they were all very irritated. Apparently, it gave one woman a headache, and she said that all this is distracting to the driver, so technically it's illegal. I was amused at the whole lack of intelligence in the situation, especially when one of the Korean American men demanded that the bus be stopped so he can pee. So then a couple of men peed together by the side of the highway.

We all got back to Cheongju about roughly 9pm or so. The sky was dark. The director asked me if I enjoyed it, and I said yes, I had fun. It's hard not to have fun when given a free tour of places I've never been before, along with free food, and then being perpetually amused the whole way at all the social awkwardnesses my Korean and one Canadian coworkers can impose on each other because we were the people who didn't have a valid reason that the management could accept to get out of this trip. It was a situational comedy. So yes, I had fun.

Enjoy the Respite

I can't speak Korean. My students really need to stop getting their hopes up. This time, it wasn't because I felt compelled to throw around a few words of Korean in class to control the students, but because we teachers were commanded to administer speaking tests through the phone (so the parents can see our dedication). In order to actually get whoever answers the phone to give it to the student, however, requires a few phrases of Korean. However, there are still two students who are very resistant - one who never picks up the phone, and the other whose mother prattled at me in Korean for a while curiously (and I, of course, could answer none of her questions, and when I said I'd call back tomorrow, she was all too eager to hang up. Was she just giving me a hard time?)

The other instance I had to speak bits of Korean was about two weeks ago, when my vice academy owner came to observe my youngest class three days in a row. I didn't mind letting her see that I used little bits of their language to control the classroom. The students also expect me to speak Korean more than the other foreigner teacher - he's married to a Korean woman so he actually Can speak Korean - because I look Asian. I run into this on taxis a lot, when they ask where I'm from, and I reply "American" and then they gesture to my face or say, "Oh, but you're Asian..."

This week is madly easy, though. If this job were this way all the time, I'd stay here forever and ever. There are no middle school classes, because they are taking some time off to study for their midterms. While administration gave us those phone calls to make so that we'd have something to do, plus all those meetings about how to teach TOEFL and NEAT (the standardized tests to get into middle school and college, much like the U.S. MCAS and SATs). Today I even had to quickly design a test for the youngest classes, because the academy owner felt that they should be inundated into the standardized testing system early.

Before we all left work today, the academy owner came around to pass out little plants to everyone. I stared and was like "What is it?" The head teacher says "You Eat it" so I immediately bit into it and chewed. Perhaps it was good for you, but one of the other teachers says it is bad for pregnant women. It tasted really bitter, and I forgot to say Thank You, but I appreciated being given the spice and having had the chance to taste it nevertheless.