Coffee Break Introductions

So, it's day three at the office and everyone is getting over their
initial shyness. Which is great - actually it totally is - but
everyone comes up separately and social custom seems to dictate that
lengthy introductions should be conducted over a cup of coffee. Each.
I'm on cup five now and if this keeps up we might just have to hold
this afternoon's meet and greets directly in the bathroom. ^^

Working in a Korean office is, well, weird.

This cracks me up. Here is a picture of the messaging program we use at work. You’ll never guess which one is me.


PS Mad props to Google for offering a free and fairly accurate translation program!

Yep. I’m definitely going to have to learn Korean.

It’s not for the reason you might think. I actually get along quite well with my charming little pantomines and bows. I want to learn Korean because I want to be able to tell all of the kind people I meet how kind they are. Because not a day goes by where I do not meet another quietly wonderful person and, frankly, komapsumnida just isn’t cuttting it.
Take this morning for example: while waiting for the bus* to go to work one of the teachers at the school I work in was driving by and, seeing me, offered – nay, insisted – on driving me straight there instead. How can I not want to thank him more elaborately for such a simple kindness?
Take Saturday for example. While climbing Mt. Gwanak in southern south I was literally saved from falling – granted saved from falling about ten feet – by another Korean man who, though exactly my size, basically hoisted me over the ledge I was scaling. He definitely thought he saved my life and, well, even if he didn’t he certainly restored some of my faith in humanity. Do you think they make a Hallmark card for that?
So yes, here I am, typing this entry and researching Korean immersion schools because, well… 내가해야합니다 [I must].
* A bus, I might add, that picks up not two blocks from my building goes directly to my office and costs all of 75 cents. I. love. Korea.

I climbed a mountain and all I got (to see) was this awesome Buddhist temple.

Jet-lag be damned. After weeks of calling a stroll a hike in the Florida flatlands, I couldn’t resist the temptation to begin hiking in Korea as soon as possible. Which is how I ended up, Saturday morning, taking the metro [subway] to Mt. Gwanaksan.* The weather wasn't so great but, well, if there’s a mountain the area I’m going to climb it. So, climb it I did, or at least try to. It’s not that the trail wasn’t well-marked – it was – it’s that it was absurdly well-marked in Korean. So, basically, I started my day by climbing a mountain and ended it by visiting my first Buddhist temple, Seongjuam. (Apparently I zigged when I was supposed to have zagged... or something... but there are 19 on Gwanaksan so who knows?) Although I eventually reached a lesser summit, I’ll definitely have to go back to try to best the mountain again. Still as the pictures here can attest, the temple made for a nice consolation prize.

* Yes, in Korea you can not only take mass transit to mountains but the actual subway to boot. I. love. this. country.






Added bonus: Cherry Blossoms!

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain…

… but the rain in Seoul mostly just falls. Which isn’t a big surprise or really a big deal, but try telling that to the people I see on the street. It hasn’t rained hard since I arrived but, apparently, in Korea, avoiding the rain isn’t a hobby - it’s a lifestyle. If a drop falls in Insadong then umbrellas are already up in Anyang, more than ten kilometers away. So, when my co-teacher Jung-Mi forgot her umbrella while she was – ever so kindly! – driving me to get my heath physical the other day, getting out of the car in the rain was simply not an option.

My question to her: Why can’t we just run for it? It’s just rain. I mean the rain in Seoul isn’t poisonous, is it?
Her response: Not exactly, no…

Yeah, I’m just going to pretend she’s joking…

PS All that having been said, the city really is quite beautiful after a little shower or two!

My Anyang Apartment

Today would have been my first day at work but it is a holiday, so I'm taking the opportunity to settle into my apartment and neighborhood. I really, really, really like my apartment. It's much larger and far better equipped than I had imagined. It took ages to get the place the way I wanted - and when I say ages I mean, like, two and a half hours, but still - but I finally finished and here are the photos to prove it.

Starting at the beginning, this is the threshold of my apartment. No shoes may pass!

The entire corridor here is lined with closets. More than I could ever use. Here's one - I have eight - open:

Now that the formalities are out of the way, this my favorite place in the apartment - my desk.

Behind this area, parallel to the entrance hallway, is my kitchen. Nothing too exciting, but it is a marvel of space-saving design. Check out the washing machine below the stove!

See also my new best friend: Cuchen the Rice Cooker. I have no idea what the buttons say, but I used it this morning and - to my delight - it is idiot-proof.

So far as I can tell, in the land of one-pot cooking I have one burner extra (rather than two too few). Maybe the second, smaller, one which you cannot see is for tea?

Que sorpresa! The former occupant of this apartment left me all manner of surprises. Indeed, in addition to the art above and the books below, he left me a hand-drawn map of the neighborhood!

A close up of the books. It's mostly classic literature and fantasy, but I'll take any port in the storm!

One of my few packing excesses, the Cafe Bustelo can is already doing double duty. Not only does it hold all my small coins but, being the only metal object in my apartment, holds another packing excess - my Mardi Gras magnet.

These two desktop stalwarts are pictured together because the Zohar, given to me by Jenny in order to foster good luck, already has begun working wonders: e.g., the all-important Survival Korean textbook which was left for my by my predecessor.

Between my desk and the kitchen are these two chairs, which I've taken to calling The Thrones. They are even more comfortable than they look.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, to be honest. Given than the apartment already has a desk and I'm currently using the studio's traditional Korean table as a TV stand, I have a feeling it will be little more than a beautiful eccentricity.

Lastly, my bed, also known as the place where I spent 12 hours last night recovering from jetlag:

Underway

Everything is running on time and, so far at least, running smoothly. Still, I find that there is something mildly poetic about hurtling through the air at hundreds of miles an hour* en route to Korea. It makes it all seem to futuristic. ^^



I have a window seat and the one next to me is empty. This, despite the fact that it
has been daylight for the entire run, means I actually got to catch a few hours of sleep towards the beginning of the flight.

Siberia from above is fascinating but it makes Iceland look hospitable.

Also, irony of ironies, my first "Korean" meal had matzos. Because special meal requests tend to be served first (and made fresh) I've made it a habit of ordering them on transatlantic flights and this one was no different. Much to my amusement, however, in this instance "kosher" translated as Passover-approved" ('tis the season, I guess). Hence the matzos, charoset, and gefilte fish. It's a hell of a send off, let me tell you!



* Soon the reconversion to metric begins anew!

The Shortest Distance Between Two Points...

Korean Visa: Check
Korean Air Ticket: Check!

Added Bonus: an extra day (I'm leaving on Tuesday the 21st instead of Monday) and as nerdy as it sounds, my first Great Circle flight ever. I'll give Santa my best!



See you on the flip side!

Going in Circles

As Freud might have said, "Sometimes a map is just a map." Take this one for example:



If it looks like a big circle that's because it is, much to my chagrin. While most of the paperwork associated with the impending Korea move - now just days away! - is usually little more than a paper chase, today's all-important step seemed more like I was chasing my tail. See, with mere days left in country and family flying in to say goodbye, I spent my day driving to and from Atlanta - some 12+ hours on the road - for a pro forma interview with the Korean consulate in Atlanta. Frankly I can think of about a thousand things I would have rather done with my day but, well, thankfully it's over and done with now.

However, lest I seem too dour, the silver lining is this: now all I have to do is wait for my new visa to arrive in the mail and I'm off!

I’m Moving to Korea

No, really. I leave in two weeks. I'll be recruiting other likeminded souls to teach English and be doing the same myself, ten hours a week, with pre-teens and teenagers in a government school in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. I'll be gone a year.

A year.

The idea of Korea seems so random, so out-of-nowhere, I know. Only it isn’t. I’ve been planning this for about six weeks now – I was actually originally offered the job in December 2008 – but after the Mexican Immigration debacle I’ve been carefully trying not count my eggs before they hatch this time.

So now I've done my due diligence and I'm happy to report that I am ready to move to Korea.

Korea. Korea? Me in Korea? The guy who doesn't know a single word of the language?

Yes.

Hell yes.

After all, why not? Why not? You all know these two words constantly echo in my ears. Why not? I have been amazingly fortunate thus far but I want to see more of the world. The last two years have been the happiest of my life. I want to learn more and live more.

I want to be surprised.



Why not?

I'm not saying that I know the next five years of my future, but I do at least know the next one. Well, I know that's in Korea, if not much else.

So please do keep checking the site. My ambition is to keep an honest travelogue here that will take you along for new everyday adventures. So join me.

Thanks, or as the Koreans say ...

komapsumnida?

[Dear god, I have no idea how to pronounce that.]