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.

Mother Earth, Love Me Weary

Two bigger events happened. One, it's been two weeks since the schedules for the new semesters at work came in. Two, I helped clean up a beach in 30 degree Fahrenheit weather on the same island that I taught on last year.

While my teaching hours start earlier now - 3:10 or 2:30 as opposed to 4:00 like before - they are fairly stable. I have five classes a day, and the new system of all kids in the same level using the same book means that there are less books to plan around, but we might have to teach the same lesson twice in one day or one week. The debate books are more detailed, like the training had promised, and having a library class means I get to teach stories sometimes.

There was a week and a half of no middle schoolers, because they have to study for big exams at their school. The younger ones just got into middle school, the regular middle schoolers showed up at TOPIA, and the older ones studied for and took an exam that determines which high school they go to. Management had us choose a random textbook to teach the middle schoolers who showed up, so we've been making photocopies of those pages and occupying them in a more casual manner than usual. However, testing period was officially over today, so I assume the regular curriculum with their new textbooks will begin tomorrow.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30am to quickly pack, then caught a taxi to the express bus station. The bus there took me to Seoul, where I transferred from line 9 to line 4 and reached Seoul Station minutes before the Daebudo Ecotour group was going to depart. The commute took me three hours. We reached Daebudo in an hour. After eating, we went around to places on the island where birds gathered and heard lectures about the different kinds of birds that live there.

Then we went to a museum, where I learned about the different kinds of mud flats and the four different kinds of salt in existence. It was connected to an underground aquarium too, so we saw some live fish that were not models. After dinner, there was a workshop where they had us brainstorm and give a presentation on how to satisfy all the stakeholders in a piece of land, while trying to improve the environment there at the same time. I took the initiative to lead and got two tickets to an exhibit about Tutankhaman at the Gwacheon National Science Museum. =)

The next day was the actual beach clean up, and the amount of trash made me irritated at people's careless practices. Most of the junk was from people who had barbecued on the beach and fishermen. It was mostly plastic wrappers from snacks, and Styrofoam bits from floating objects attached to nets that the fishermen use. There were also a good two or three intact fishermen's body suits. There was much more, and the whole pile could be five or six feet high and five square feet wide. South Korea's beaches are no more polluted than any beaches in an industrialized country in the world, though.

Afterwards, we ate lunch, and all of us headed home. I got home by 7:30-ish pm, and was happy to settle down and just play video games for a while.