Friday, July 24, 2009

I will never eat rice again

Wow. I can't believe it's here. I have been dreaming of this moment pretty much since I got here, and now it's here. My last few hours in Korea. My last day was pretty good, with one minor glitch. I found out this morning that I had to go to the pension office to apply for my refund, so I had to go home at lunch to get my passport, then when I left to go to the pension office, I accidentally missed the surprise goodbye party my kinder class had for me! I thought I had already said goodbye to them, but they had a whole party planned. I honestly can't think about it too much because it breaks my heart to know that they were waiting for me and I didn't come. UGh. Really, I can't think about it. My Korean co-teacher started crying when she said goodbye to me, which made me cry. I had no idea she felt so strongly about me. What a sweetheart! So it has been quite a day, complete with tears and lots of cards and goodbyes.

I have been compiling these two lists in my head for the past couple weeks, and I thought it would be a nice way to sum up my time here.

Things I Will NOT Miss About Korea
  • working 10 hour days
  • the subway
  • feeling large and strange looking
  • shopping
  • pollution
  • my elementary students
  • stupid curriculum and meaningless tests
  • dirty humidity
  • negative coworkers
  • being called fat
  • my laziness after work
  • the mosquitoes
  • rice
Things I Will Miss About Korea
  • cheap public transportation
  • not having a car
  • the kindness of my Korean coworkers
  • feeling rich for once in my life
  • delicious coffee drinks for less than a dollar
  • my adorable kindergarten students
  • my big bed
  • gimbap (Korean sushi)
  • living alone
  • dinner (bibimbap) for 3 bucks
  • seeing mountains in the distance
  • no lesson planning
  • walking to work
  • convenience stores on every block
  • living an adventure
I'm off to get a few hours of sleep before starting my crazy journey home. Here's the plan: wake up at 4:30 am, my director is taking me to an airport shuttle at 5, get to the airport by 6:30, flight leaves at 8:40, stop in Japan for 7 hours, then to San Francisco, Denver, and finally Omaha at 9:50 on Saturday night. I'm going back in time! 27 hours travel time. Yikes. It just might be the longest day of my life, but well worth it to bring me back to the ones I love.

It has been a joy to have you along for this adventure. It really means so much to me that y'all have been keeping up with me. I've enjoyed telling the stories, I hope you've enjoyed reading. I hope I can see you all soon! Much Love!!

Monday, July 20, 2009

My Last Week and My Morning Commute


Well, folks, I'm in the home stretch. Four more days and I'll be homeward bound. I think it's safe to say I've never anticipated something more. I am so ready to come home. It's really difficult to not be apathetic at work in this last week, but I'm trying my best.

Quite a while ago I came to the realization that my favorite part of my day is my walk to work. That tells you how exciting my life is, but those 30 minutes of walking and listening to music have kept me sane. Not that it was peaceful or beautiful. In fact, it was quite an assault to the senses, with some ugly sights and smells, and the occasional brush with death as a scooter or delivery truck literally brushed my side. All in all, it was very Korean. Look at me already using the past tense. Wishful thinking. Anyway, here are a few shots from my daily stroll.

The street that is just coming alive as I walk through.

Oh, the smell of fish in the morning!

I have to hold my breath as I walk by this one.

Surprised to see he's wearing gloves while chopping off fish heads.

One of many stands getting ready for the day.

They eat so much radish!

Usually there's a really old lady to accompany this cart, but I spotted her sitting inside the door of the apartment. I don't know a)what they do with all this and b) how such an old woman can haul so much trash!

Toy store of sorts.

There are a few trees.

This one always makes me laugh. Scary foreigner!

I had to get a picture of this sign on a restaurant that I pass every morning. When I first got here, I would look at that sign every day and want to cry because it looked so gross and foreign. Now, it's no big deal, although I still have no idea what it is. I've come a long way.

One last bit of green before I head inside for my ten hour day!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

A Wet Weekend

This past weekend was an eventful one, which was good for me, considering the last few have been pretty low key while I have been hanging out in my air conditioned apartment to avoid the city's humidity and overall yuckiness. I found a group online that was going river rafting and river trekking all in one weekend. The location was described as "deep in the mountains of Gangwon-do," and that had my attention immediately. It was indeed, deep in the mountains, plush with green forests and a rushing river. It's so funny, though. In Korea, you are never alone. There are always a couple hundred other people doing the same thing. So although the natural scenery was beautiful, it didn't quite have a wilderness feel with so many other people around.

On the bus ride there, I tried to keep my expectations low about how exciting this river rafting was going to be, but for once, Korea did not disappoint. We got all suited up in helmets and life jackets with crotch straps (both of which I was thankful for later) and split up into teams. My team just so happened to be all women, and our guide, who spoke just a tiny bit of English, kept repeating to a fellow guide, "All girls, all girls," until he decided to swap one of us for a boy. It just wouldn't do to have no men on the boat! So, with very little instruction (1,2, 1,2, stop!) we were off down the river, with about ten other rafts around us. It was very pleasant and nice, with a few little rapids here and there, and then we hit something a little bigger and the raft almost tipped and we lost three people. I was almost the fourth, as I was flailing over the edge with my feet strapped in to my "seatbelt" and my abs not strong enough to sit up, but I was rescued by a fellow raft mate. I was pretty proud of myself for not falling in. We got everyone back in the raft, then went a little further and jumped out to swim a bit. "Swimming number one!" our guide said, and I would have to agree. The water was perfect! We all got pulled back into the raft and went along through some more little rapids. It's really hard to tell what is going to be rough and what isn't when you're in the raft, so after a while you realize that even if you see a big rock, we could just glide over it. But then we came up to a pretty rough spot which looked like it might be a tight squeeze to fit through, and the next thing I know, the raft is halfway up in the air and the water is rushing over the middle part. I was in the front and holding on for dear life when I finally realized the guide was saying, "GO! GO!" I wasn't too sure of my future at this point but I did what I was told and let go. It was pretty scary. I'm fairly sure I banged my head on a rock and kept on going. After what felt like an eternity of swirling and rocks and trying to locate my fellow raftmates, another guide grabbed me and pulled me into their raft full of Korean guys yelling,"OK? OK?" So funny. I was just glad to be alive. The rest of the ride was pretty tame, and when we all got back together with our group, everyone was jealous of our exciting story.

That night we stayed in a renovated school house, complete with a kitchen and dining hall and big tents outside to eat under. It was a great setup. We had a really nice barbeque, with the vegetarian population (12 0f 45) well fed with lots of grilled veggies and tofu. The night progressed into a pretty crazy party that I wasn't really in the mood for, especially knowing that we were going to be hiking all the next day, so I was a party pooper and went to bed early, only to be woken up at 3 by a crying girl on my pillow, and another girl telling me to keep an eye on her because she fell down the stairs and might have a concussion. No, thank you, I'd like to sleep. Thankfully, her friends found her and took care of her. Yikes.

The next morning we woke up at a decent time, especially considering how late people were up, and started our hike up to the top of the ridge, where we would begin our river trek. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of this gorgeous hike because we were in and out of the water the whole day and I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet. The hike up was killer, and most people were hungover so I don't know how they did it. It was straight up for probably 40 minutes. Killer. Then we went down, down, down to where the river began, and hopped right in. The next four hours were a mix of hiking, splashing and swimming through icy water, hopping around on boulders, slipping on rocks, and every once in a while, looking up and realizing that I was in a beautiful place. It was really too bad that I had to concentrate on each step so carefully, because it really was beautiful, but hard to take in while trekking through the river. It was energizing ad adventurous, but by the end of it, I was ready to be dry and not have sand in my tennis shoes. We crossed the river one last time, enjoyed some delicious bibimbap, and climbed on the bus to take us back to Seoul. Along the way, we did noraebang (kareoke) on the bus! I didn't know that was possible, but hey, it's Korea!

All in all, it was a good weekend, just because I finally got out of the city and into some green. South Korea is beautiful after all! Unfortunately, I didn't really find anyone great to hang out with and felt kind of out of the loop because I didn't want to be wasted the entire time. Such is the life of the English teacher in Korea. Next weekend is Mud Fest, which I have a feeling is going to be a spring break trip atmosphere complete with mud wrestling and I just don't know if I want to do that. I am such an old lady.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July! We sang the Star Spangled Banner on the bus. It was a good moment. Anyway, I miss you all and I will be home so soon! I booked my flight for July 25. Woo hoo!