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.

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.

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.

A Scented Relaxing 26th

It was an amazing weekend, thanks to two girl friends. Happy Birthday to me! It was the first and probably only birthday I'm going to spend in South Korea.

I spent Saturday helping a friend shop in Yongsan for some 18mm photography lenses. I don't know enough about photography to know the difference, but it was pleasant walking around in a brightly lit mall making fun of soldiers and types of people. We ate Korean hotpot at a restaurant, and then had some coffee at Dunkin Donuts. I love hotpot. I love noodles. I love sweet things, and even though I can't cook, I love food in general.

Then we three girls had a sleepover. We spoke about all sorts of things, as women do when we get together. All of us have pets, and even though they have dogs and I have a cat, it feels similar to come home to and love a creature. Even if my creature is passed out on the wood floor (so cute!) after giving me an ultimatum about being away for Two Whole Days and leaving him alone to the silence. He hid one cap of one of my contacts lens cases as suitable punishment. My friend's two dogs are adorable, very full of personality, creating an enjoyable background while we talked about work, life and ourselves, and love.

We woke up the next day around noon. Sundays are made for waking up at noon. Because her windows took up the wall, the light streamed in to tell us that it's daylight. We dressed, deciding to go to the massage place to delay the appointment for an hour so we can eat. There hung a sign that said that they'll be back at 4, so we went to brunch anyway at this nice place named the Moru. I had strawberry pancakes, which was delicious, paired with refreshing peppermint tea. My friends had banana pancake and a dish that had fries and a salad.

When we walked outside, a lady in a businesslike navy blue dress was waiting for us. She introduced herself as I-Sohn, and led us to the Mannam volunteer organization's cafe in Dunsan-dong, very near where my friend from Saturday lives. I hissed at one of my friends about the way this lady was just waiting for us outside of Moru. We made small talk as we walked, threading underground through the stairs and hallways of Daejeon Station and coming out onto a too-familiar street. When we got to the offices, we said hello to some of the other organization's members who were just leaving.

After that randomness, we went back to the massage place, and they were ready for us. We each changed into pajamas after drinking some tea, and they gave us oiled foot baths. Then we laid down on these thick mats, and they covered our eyes and went to work on our muscles. I was tense in my hips, pelvis, buttocks, shoulders and neck, much more so than my backbone itself, which was surprising. The masseuse was a Korean lady smaller than even me, but she used her body weight to apply deep pressure to all of my joints. Soft new age music was playing the entire time, in a nice softly lit room with wood relief carvings and pillows. One of my friends had a male masseuse, so that resulted in silent hilarity worthy of an episode of Sex and the City.

None of us wanted to leave when it was over. All of our necks were rubbed with peppermint oil, and we were so relaxed and sleepy. We laid there, speaking of happy nothings until a woman came in to gently tell us to leave, so we changed back, sat in the lobby with our well being tea, and then left. She was in long mid bow when the elevator doors closed. The weather was still perfect when we walked outside - just windy enough, the sun still just high enough, and beautifully airily warm.

We went to a coffee shop to have tea and cake to close our relaxing time. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend. The company was great, the food was delicious, the massages were relaxing. Thank you, girls, for an awesome 26th birthday!