Korea Dreambus!

Summer ESL

2008-06-24T07:27:00.003-04:00

I've just started teaching in a 6-week intensive Summer College ESL program at Cornell. So far I think I'm going to enjoy the program and my students. I have eight young men and women from China in my class, all between the ages of 16-17. They are very bright and I look forward to knowing them better.

Mom got her cast off yesterday and for the time being she is still in her apartment, but with additional home health aide hours every week to assist her with the things that are difficult for her to do. Meantime, I am still exploring other options for the eventuality of a more assistive living environment.

My ankle is healing very slowly after spraining it a month and a half ago (too slowly for my pleasure). I have started T'ai Chi again in the last 2 weeks, which seems to be helping, though.

Although I am swamped with summer college work, the film is never far from my mind, and I am jotting down notes for pieces of script when they come to me. Oh, and my mother found a treasure trove - she'd printed and kept every email I'd sent to her from Korea (thanks for being a pack rat, mom!) so I've started culling through those for any gems to include).

As always, thanks to everyone for their support!

Logging and Slogging

2008-06-08T17:42:00.008-04:00

I have been working my way through the DVDs with the Quicktime files of the interviews and B-roll.

The good news is the B-roll looks fantastic. The bad news is that the last 3 interviews I did in Pusan may be unusable due to a loud buzz on the audio. This was my fault; I'd forgotten to change out the battery on the lav mic. It might be possible for a miracle in post that can clean that up. One other problem with the first two interviews I did in Seoul turned out to be the aspect ratio, which I thought was set correctly but apparently was not. I was using Chang's camera for those two interviews and was unfamiliar with it (it was a new camera to him and I had only used it once before).

But that still leaves 5 great interviews, technically speaking. They were all great interviews and each teacher did a fantastic job. The trick will be seeing what can be cleaned up and what can't.

This project got pushed to the back burner for quite some time as we had to contend with my Mom's situation. Things have been serious enough since February to warrant a complete shift in priorities. She's fallen 3 times in the last 2 months, the last fall breaking her arm. At this point we are working on finding a good assisted living facility for her that is here in Ithaca, so that she will get the care she needs and I will be able to worry less. I think my next film needs to be about the experience of having an aging parent with little to no resources! This experience is teaching me so much.

But I digress. It will take a good deal of time to log the rest of the footage. But now that I am into it and have it on my calendar for the remainder of the month, I hope to get it done as quickly as possible.

I am teaching a full-time intensive 5-week program at Cornell this summer, so during that time I don't expect to get much else done, but hopefully come August/September I will be able to finish up any logging and start some EDL and roughing. I also need to talk to Chang to get some editing strategies and scheduling laid out.

Oh, and it looks like I won't be on my way to Korea this October for KOTESOL. Perhaps next year will work out better with timing and resources. In the meantime, I will be cutting a trailer to use for obtaining finishing funds, which I DESPERATELY need.

That's the scoop for now. Thanks for your support and patience, everyone~

On hold

2008-05-13T07:29:00.005-04:00

Every thing is on hold while I spent time with my mom, who fell last week and is needing my help. She's 80 and we are very worried about her.

In the meantime, for those of you in Seoul, check this out:
World Parade

Writing the Script

2008-04-12T17:32:00.003-04:00

Something about the spring reminds me of being in Korea. Even though there are very few cherry blossoms to be found here, I can close my eyes and remember the heavy perfume of the cherry blossoms from a trip I took with friends to the mountains in spring of 2003.

The sensory stimulus of my memories has helped me to journal about my experiences there, in hindsight, which I hope will lead to some actual scripting for the film.

The semester is over in about a month, at which time I will be able to start editing.

I am still waiting to hear from KOTESOL on whether my proposal has been accepted. If all goes well, I will be returning to Korea this October to attend the conference with a rough cut under my arm for screening. I would also like to get feedback and some additional footage as needed.

Update

2008-03-21T12:56:00.004-04:00

This semester has proven more difficult to navigate than I thought it would be. I am still culling through footage, and will hopefully be done by the end of May. But so far, so good!

I will have a solid month and a half this summer to get a rough edit together. When I have a few sequences done I'll put them up.

The process of creating this film has been breathtaking. Everything has taken longer than I expected it to, no doubt because this isn't a full-time enterprise that I could devote all my time to. As anxious as I am to get it done, I am determined to enjoy the process!

The Footage is back (again)

2008-02-29T23:39:00.002-05:00

I've had the DVDs for a couple weeks. Last week my husband and I both came down with a hideous respiratory virus that kept us both prone for a solid week. This week has been tough to get back to the normal schedule; still felt weak and woozy for the first few days, but now I'm feeling mostly back to normal.

I will begin the task of logging tapes this weekend, in between birthday celebrations scheduled throughout the weekend. (My birthday is Monday, 3/3.) Hopefully I'll have something positive to report about the footage very soon.

Spring Semester Starts Up

2008-01-29T21:12:00.000-05:00

The tapes are now in the capable hands of Changhee Chun, and I expect to have the DVDs back in another week or two. Meantime, the semester has started up and I am busy with teaching Academic Writing I at Ithaca College, and working on scripts for Korea Dreambus! and other projects.

I have recently been in touch with the conference chair at KOTESOL, and he is interested in having me come to their annual conference in October to screen a work in progress. I am going to try to raise some money for plane fare for that venture - perhaps I can get additional B-roll and/or interviews as needed as well as obtaining feedback from EFL teachers currently on the scene in Korea. This would also be a wonderful deadline for me to work towards. I always work better with a deadline!

January 08 Update

2008-01-20T22:36:00.001-05:00

Well folks, I have some sad news to relate.

First and most importantly: one of our supporters, William Haflett, died unexpectedly on Jan. 3, 2008. He fell in front of his home and hit his head, and surgeons were unable to stop the bleeding in his brain. This is especially sad for me because he was my uncle. Uncle Bill and his wife Dee were both happy to support this film, and when it is finally completed, I will dedicate the film to his memory. He was a generous, wonderful man who walked the talk and always had a cheerful countenance and a joke to share. He was good to me and my husband, and I miss him very much.

Secondly, the footage that was transferred onto DVD is unusable. Something happened in the transfer process (I have no idea what and neither does the person who did the work), and the DVDs either come up blank or with incomplete footage with skips and pops. Luckily, Chang has come to the rescue and will redub these DVDs on his professional equipmment.

I am pleased to announce that Chang is also assisting with getting grant support for the travel expenses. This reimbursement is much later than I had expected, but it is coming, and that's the important thing.

I am behind schedule with reviewing and logging footage, but it won't be long now before I will be able to get into that first stage of post production.
Despite the sad beginning to the year, I am as excited and enthusiastic as ever for this project. The tragic, untimely loss of Uncle Bill motivates me to honor his memory and make my Aunt Dee proud with their support of this film.

The footage is back!

2007-12-21T14:58:00.001-05:00

I just got most of the footage back last night, the rest to come tonight, and I'm anxious to sift through it and see what's what. There should be more updates as I begin viewing and logging. I'm excited!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Stumbling Block...

2007-12-02T10:12:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, there has been a wrinkle in the grant award. The committee is now saying that they will NOT support the project because the expenses were for MY travel, not Chang's. I really don't see what the difference is, but I suspect there are other issues involved that I won't go into here. Chang is currently trying to see if there is any way around this very unfortunate situation.

Needless to say, I am pretty, um... how shall I put this delicately... disappointed in the committee's general lack of support for this project.

I will get over it, though, and I will be seeking other sources of funding as soon as this semester is over and I can breathe a little.

Fantastic News

2007-11-16T12:30:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone. I am very pleased to report that Korea Dreambus! will be receiving $2,000 from the Pendleton Grant, courtesy of Changhee Chun and Ithaca College.

This money will reimburse the airfare and some of the travel expenses incurred while in Korea this past summer.

I am still waiting for the tapes to be dubbed to QT files; I am confident that my associate will have those completed by Winter Break so that I can begin the exciting task of reviewing and logging the footage, and begin to rough out an edit decision list.

Thank you all for your interest and support - especially my teacher interviewees. I hope to have more updates soon.

Update

2007-09-09T18:03:00.000-04:00

I've updated the bio section of the project description, located on the sidebar. Just want to keep things current for posterity.

Finally, some deep thoughts

2007-09-09T10:16:00.000-04:00

The last few weeks have been rather hectic on the outside, but on the inside I've been mulling over thoughts and feelings about my time in Korea.

I realize now that I idealized my experiences in Korea from 2002-2003, even though it certainly wasn't all happy and sunshiny. There were some really difficult times, and I was reminded of this during my 3-week trip this summer. The feeling of absolute frustration when I couldn't communicate a simple request, or a lack of understanding on my part when a Korean would do something inexplicable to my Western mind. The fact that it was 100 degrees every day didn't help - adding heat onto an already exasperating situation usually doesn't. Perhaps the heat wave was providence as far as my film goes. Ratcheting up the stress is the best way to bring out what you REALLY feel. I'm always telling my screenwriting students that characters reveal themselves through stressful situations and the characters' reactions to conflict. This is the same in life, I firmly believe.

Uncovering the unhappy memories is, well, unpleasant. Yet at the same time, it's very healing because I now have a more holistic picture in my head of that year. It was a year of unprecedented growth for me, on a personal and emotional level. At least in some part, that growth came as a result of facing difficult circumstances and working my way through them. Viscerally feeling, remembering, coming in close contact to the place I was in at that time was a little frightening, in some ways. Coming back to a place that whipped you into shape elicits mixed feelings, as I've discovered.

I think this notion of revisiting and memory will have to be a cornerstone for my script.

Housekeeping

2007-09-02T15:27:00.001-04:00

Just realized I never turned the date stamp back to Eastern Standard Time, so that's done.

I promised a month ago to post the site for the unusual Christian sect I ran across on my last day in Korea.

It's called "The World Mission Society Church of God." Not my cup of tea, but again, very interesting to run across it in Korea of all places.

Also, I over-estimated the percentage of Christians in Korea. "According to 2003 statistics compiled by the South Korean government, about 46% of citizens profess to follow no particular religion. Christians account for 27.3% of the population and Buddhists 25.3%." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea#Religion_and_education, retrieved 9/2/07).

First step in post-production

2007-09-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

An associate of mine is currently in possession of all the tapes with interviews and B-roll I shot in Korea in July and August. He will be transferring the footage into Quick Time files and burning them to DVDs for me. Once that is completed, I will log the footage and start noodling around with rough edits.

The semester has begun, of course, so I will soon be swamped with grading and other responsibilities, but keep checking back here for updates and eventually, video clips.

I'm sad to see summer end, but what a summer it was!

Captions

2007-08-15T18:30:00.001-04:00

I've updated the photos on Picasa Web with captions, so you know what you're looking at, more or less. I've also added the link on the right for your convenience!

Some afterthoughts

2007-08-09T09:13:00.001-04:00

I'm mostly over the jetlag and starting to get back to business as usual, with the semester looming in only a couple weeks. Getting the photos up is a major accomplishment, thank you very much!

I put all my little mementos away in my scrapbook for Korea, and it really hit me how different spending two and a half weeks there was to living there for a year. I didn't get under the skin of what was going on, really. I heard a lot about the 23 hostages that were taken by the Taliban, two of which were killed. I heard about unemployment and the current low ratings of President Roh, and I learned that nothing much has changed for EFL teachers there. But my life for those two and a half weeks was that of a tourist, staying at hotels and eating at restaurants. Granted, a tourist with more insight than most, perhaps, but a tourist nevertheless.

Still mulling over my journal a bit, so there will be more to post here soon. I have a few topics I want to talk about, but they'll have to wait until I get some other things done that demand my immediate attention.

Photos

2007-08-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

I've posted photos at this hosting site: Korea Dreambus Photos.

Home, Sweet Home

2007-08-07T08:17:00.000-04:00

I'm once again ensconced at my desk in Ithaca, NY. The trip home was long - 5 hour bus trip from Ulsan to Seoul on Saturday, an hour bus limo to the airport on Sunday, 14 hour flight to JFK, subway to Scott and Jen's apartment in Queens, subway to Port Authority on Monday, 5 hour bus ride to Ithaca. Phew!

The jetlag hasn't hit me too badly, I think because I was basically up for 24 hours straight and was able to fall asleep at the proper time on Sunday evening and get a good night's sleep on EST. I came home to a perfectly kept house and clean sheets - my husband is the bomb!

Of course I'm sorting through things to get done over the next month, preparing for the upcoming semester, and also prepping for the post production process, which will take awhile. First thing is to get the miniDV tapes I shot transferred onto DVD so I can log the footage and start a paper EDL (edit decision list).

I will also be sorting through the journal I kept during my stay in Korea, and picking out points that I might want to expound upon or play with visually, and I'll probably post those up here.

Keep checking back as I start to sort through my thoughts and feelings now that I'm home, as well as provide updates on the progress of post.

It was a tremendous experience - revisiting the places and people that meant so much in such a precious time of my life. But as they say, it's really good to be home.

The Last Day in Ulsan - Again

2007-08-03T05:40:00.000-04:00

This morning, after making my ultimate plan for getting to Seoul and flying home, I went to sleep. Barely slept at all last night, so it was needed. Woke up at 3:00 and decided to go to the Ulsan Grand Park, which is just a 2 minute walk from the hotel.

This park had begun development 5 years ago when I was first here, and now it's finished, all 900 acres of it. There's a swimming pool and a bell and fountain and sports areas, and lots of trails and woods. Five years ago I wrote a few poems sitting in those woods, and read a few as well, transliterated from Korean.

Of course it was warm, but a cool breeze was kicking up from the typhoon that's currently off the East Sea, bothering Japan. We're supposed to get some rain tonight and into tomorrow, as well. I enjoyed walking through the wooded areas and down to the bell and the fountain (yes, I took pictures), and I had an ice cream bar while I sat by the fountain. On my way out of the park, three very nice ajumma (married women) stopped me with a "hello!" and proceded to ask me to fill out a questionnaire (in English) which asked me what religion I follow, and had I read the bible, and did I know about God the Mother! This Christian-based religion apparently believes that the original translation of the Hebrew word for God encompasses the Feminine as well as the Masculine. I really wanted to talk to them and ask them questions, but they only spoke a few words of English. But I could glean from my meager Korean that they appeal to God the Mother because all women are essentially mothers. They were very nice women, not at all condemming like some street-preachers I've run across in the States; they were gentle and warm, and clearly very devout. The pamphlets they gave me are written in English, and there are a couple websites I will check out and post here later (the pamplets are in my suitcase at the moment). Very interesting, though, isn't it? They wanted to cart me off to be baptised there on the spot, which I politely declined.

Around 50% of Koreans follow some form of Christianity nowadays. When I told them I'm Buddhist, they looked at me with a mix of surprise and disappointment. How ironic is that?

I'm off to have dinner where I ate last night. I find myself now with a wad of wan (a wan wad) in my purse because the hotel staff couldn't figure out how to cancel my credit card for two nights and just charge me for one, so they handed me 70,000 in bills (around $76). It's actually better that way, because now I don't have to worry about paying for taxis or buses or whatnot.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped me out on this project as my time in Korea nears its end. I look forward to seeing you and eventually showing you some footage as the editing progresses over the next year.

Change of Plans

2007-08-02T20:37:00.000-04:00

Yet another change of plans! My friend in Ulsan text messaged me at 4:00 a.m. to say he's not going to Seoul today after all. However, things are fine because I finally heard back from the recruiter (who helped me come to Korea 5 years ago and who I almost did business with again to come here this time), and he will be able to meet me at the bus station tomorrow and help me find a good place to stay in a good area of Seoul not too far from the airport. I will be staying here in Ulsan one more night (tonight) and then I'll take a bus to Seoul tomorrow. I am so grateful, because to be honest, I was stressing out a good deal at the prospect of arriving in Seoul and having no idea where to go or how to get there with all my baggage.

I didn't sleep much last night so I'm going to try to sleep this afternoon, maybe start to get back onto an EST sleeping schedule a little bit. I may put up another post here before I leave for Seoul if I can manage it. ;-)

Last Day In Ulsan

2007-08-02T08:03:00.000-04:00

I tried to make the last day in Ulsan special, so I took the bus to Seongnamsa, a temple about an hour away that houses Buddhist nuns. It was another very warm day, even though I left at 10 a.m. and arrived at 11:00 a.m. I went into only one shrine, which requires taking one's sneakers off (quite the feat) (ha ha). It's not a terribly big place but the shrines are lovely and you can see nuns, so it's all good. When I first got there, after walking up the hill and across the lovely stone bridge, I was so hot I had to sit down and mop myself with a tissue. I chose to sit in the shade, but unfortuntely didn't notice (!) the barrier that must've said in Korean, "no admittance beyond this point" and before long, a young nun very politely invited me to leave the area. Thankfully, one of phrases I know in Korean is "choesong hamnida" which means "I'm sorry."

I walked up the stone steps to the stupa overlooking the temple grounds, and the view of the mountains, the flowering trees and the bamboo was breathtaking (yes, I took photos). But, the sun was beating down and even with my parasol I was dripping sweat. I started back down and found some shade on the way back down the mountain, where a fast-running stream runs near the temple. Many Koreans out on their vacation were lounging and splashing in the water. I took my sneaks and socks off to cool my feet a bit in the water and when I looked down, there were minnows everywhere!

I bought some incense at the little gift shop on the path down the mountain and then crossed the street to the food shops where I ate some vegetarian kimbap (looks like a sushi roll). Bap in Korean means cooked rice, and I believe kim is seaweed. I hopped on one of the buses about to head back to Ulsan, and 4 hours after I'd left this morning I was back. I stopped for a cold drink at the corner store and headed up to my room to shower, cool off, and pack my bags for the trip to Seoul tomorrow.

For dinner I decided to try a traditional place that's literally around the corner from the hotel I'm staying at. The restaurant is a traditional Korean drinking and eating place, not a bar, not a restuarant, actually. There's food and all kinds of alchohol, from soju to beer to Korean rice liquor called dong dong ju. A word about transliteration: it's not "dahng dahng jew" it's more like "dohng-dohng joo." The man who met me at the door is the owner's son (his mom runs the place) and he had very good English. Since I was the only customer at the time, I invited him to sit down and have a beer with me while I ate, and we talked about all manner of Korean curent events, especially the 23 hostages taken by the Taliban. He also informed me that Korea is having a tough economic time thanks to the governments policies that are keeping out foreign businesses that would like to set up shop here and hire Koreans. Anyway, his name is Tae Young, and he lived in Australia for a year, which explains the good English. We had a good time talking about politics and world events, and languages. He applauded my use of Korean, and I have to say, modest as I am, my pronunciation has been given a thumbs up by just about every Korean I've met. Now if only I could get a bit more vocabulary!

So my last day in Ulsan was very nice - I prayed at a wonderful temple and I ate a great meal (fried kimchi with tofu) and made a new friend. What more could I ask for? This is the essence of traveling - going to places even if you're not sure 100% how to get there or what to do once you're there, and inviting new friends into your circle. Sometimes they turn out to be friends for a few days or a year, sometimes they become friends for life. Doesn't matter. What matters is that human connection that spans cultures, and it's one of the best feelings in the world.

Tomorrow morning I'll head to Seoul. Turns out that one of my Korean friends here in Ulsan is also goin to to Seoul tomorrow, so with any luck we can travel together and he can help me find a yogwan (Korean style hotel, much cheaper than the kind of place I'm in now) in the neighborhood I'm hoping to stay in. Honestly, I just need somplace clean and not a lightyear from the airport for when I need to go on Sunday. My flight leaves at 11:00 on Sunday, so I'll have to get to the airport pretty early to return my cell phone, check my bags, and get settled in.

My time in Korea is drawing to a close... I've been journaling quite a bit about the experience, which I shall post probably when I'm back in the States. I will miss Korea - I'll miss the food and the saunas and the ease of traveling to different cities, and of course the friends new and old. I have one more chapter here, in Seoul, and I'm curious as to what it will bring me.

ADDENDUM: It was five years ago to the day that I left Columbus International Airport for Gimhae Airport in Pusan. So much has changed in five years - here in Korea, in my life, in my heart.

Some General Impressions and Random Observations

2007-08-01T07:17:00.001-04:00

There are so many little things that make life in another country interesting. I'm going to try to get some of them down here.

Driving/Walking: The driving here is frightening. There are no stop signs. Cars will park on the other side of the street, and somehow negotiate really tight alleys and back streets, coming mere centimeters from other cars and pedestrians. Pedestrians do not have the right of way unless they're in a cross walk - if you try to cross the street randomly, you're taking your life into your hands. I think I've already mentioned this, but I'm astounded at the multitudes of big cars and SUVs here - the highways are fine but the normal roads in the city are very narrow. I've seen cars with little blue foam bumper pads stuck to doors and side panels, to help stave off sideswiping from a bad parking job.

Illicet Sex: Prostitution is illegal, but the barber shops with double barber poles are places a guy can get a shave and a haircut and something extra for two bits. On the bus ride from Ulsan to Namchang, there's a small town with a whole block of prostitutes sitting in little rooms with pink and red neon lights in the windows, available and plain for all the world to see. This is in the countryside, so perhaps the cops just don't venture that far out of the city.

Eating: Korean food is notoriously spicy, and it will make your nose run. But, it's considered impolite to blow your nose in public, so Koreans will sniff and sniff and snort rather than blow their noses! They also love to slurp coffee, soup, and noodles, and will often chew loudly, smacking their lips. I can remember it annoying me to no end when I first arrived here 5 years ago, but then I read the lip-smacking came from an appreciating of having food to eat. It was like letting the world know that you had food, that you weren't starving. It didn't seem quite so annoying after that. I have to admit, there's something comforting about slurping coffee.

Coffee: although there are now an abundance of coffee shops, Koreans usually drink what's called "milk coffee" which is instant coffee laced with powdered milk and sugar, served in tiny paper cups. You can find this coffee at any restaurant, in machines on the street and lobbies of banks and hotels, just about anywhere. It certainly has its endearing qualities, though it doesn't pack the morning punch I need! Luckily, this hotel also serves properly brewed hazelnut coffee with breakfast. :-)

Fashion: One word sums up women's fashion: BLING. Everything is shiny, frilly, busy and otherwise "not-plain." An Amish person would have a heart attack here. Everything meaning shoes, skirts, pants, blouses, sweaters, earrings, and hair adornments. I've noticed a little less cutesy than there was 4-5 years ago, though.

Street of Shops: I love how many different shops there are and how they are all lined up close to the sidewalk. It's very inviting and cozy. Lots of little hole-in-the-wall looking boutiques, bakeries, bedding stores, jewelry stores, you name it. Often you'll see old Korean farmers with their produce there on the sidewalk, ready to sell. The sidewalks are quite wide, so there is room for the farmers and plenty of pedestrians to all get on. And the sidewalks aren't just concrete slabs - they're brick or some kind of cobble, with a sort of yellow brick stripe down the center. Many Korean women walk with sun parasols, which are very pretty and can cost upwards of US $50. I bought one for much less to hide from the beating sun. I've noticed not as many parasols as before - as opposed to China where you'd about get poked in the head every five minutes from all the parasols.

Eating out: Of course I've already talked about kalbi, the BBQ meat that is nothing like Americans' concept of BBQ. It's much healthier because it doesn't have the carbon buildup on the meat, and the meat is actually eaten with greens, onions, and sauces and garlic. Other Korean food I like very much is kalgugsu (a soup with thick noodles and seafood), and bibimbap, the common dish of rice, vegetables, meat/tofu and hot pepper sauce.

For now that'll do it I guess. I'll try to get another session in tomorrow, because after I go to Seoul I don't know what internet access will look like. This hotel has a nice room with computers to use, such a great amenity to offer, and I have no idea what the situation will look like in Seoul.

Until tomorrow, then...

Going with the flow

2007-08-01T06:47:00.000-04:00

It's been a helluva few days. As I said in my last couple posts, there was the brief possiblity that I might have gone home early. To be honest, I'd love to come home early because I've completed everything I came here to do - my interviews, B-roll (although you can never have too much B-roll), visiting friends and places. If it weren't for Chang's unfortunate situation with his students, I'd be on my way to traveling to other parts and seeing other interesting things. So instead I'm here in Ulsan until Friday, then hopping a bus to Seoul on Friday and staying there two nights to catch my plane back on Sunday.

Over and over again a theme has presented itself during this trip, and actually even before the trip itself. When I let go of any and all illusions of controlling the events and the outcomes, amazing things happen! Serendipity befalls me when I put out the "call" to the universe and let things happen the way they happen. Now this should come as no surprise to me. Five years ago, when I was first contemplating the idea of coming to Korea for a year, I asked one of my Buddhist teachers, a Tibetan lama, if it would be a good thing for me to do. He said I needed to allow the situation to arise and go with the path that felt the most natural. In other words, stop trying to over-think it and control it, and go with what feels natural. It's not a "throw your hands up in the air and stop thinking" approach, nor is it a meandering go where your nose leads you sort of approach, although at times it resembles that. It's more like knowing that I want to have a good expeience, asking for the experience to present itself, and then being open to the experience coming in a form maybe I wasn't expecting.

This is crucial to having a successful life, and particularly a successful life in Korea, I feel. There are so many last minute changes here - it looks like utter chaos to a Westerner, but to a Korean it seems to be life as normal. Fighting it, complaining about it, getting steamed over it will only make it worse. Now if it happens to cross the line of personal integrity, that's one thing, but in general, finding a way to be flexible is the best way to find happiness here.

Today I went to the sauna (the hot-spring fed public bath) and it was a bit of a challenge to find it. I asked directions of the hotel staff and three different sets of people on the street. Once I was inside, it wasn't 100% comfortable because of course everyone's staring at me, and not to put too fine a point on it, but western female bodies are generally more, um, padded, than Korean bodies. Korean women dont' have much in the way of hips and bums. Anyway, point is, I was clearly an outsider - but no one was rude to me and the woman who worked there was very helpful. As I was soaking in the bath (I can't tell you how wonderful it feels!) it occurred to me that maybe there was some reason I'm still in Korea.

Not necessarily some cosmic reason, but maybe there was still something I need to do here for myself. At the least, I'm not going to waste the time I've got here, even if I don't feel there's much purpose in it. Anyway, I will be open to the possibilities that my last 3 days in Korea might bring. Maybe this is my vacation and I shouldn't squander it!

For example - yesterday I did some shopping and general hanging about during the day, trying to figure out how I was going to spend these last few days. I got a text message on my phone from one of the teachers I'd interviewed in Seoul. This is the holiday season, so a lot of people travel - he had just arrived in Ulsan from an overnight stay in Kyungju and needed a recommendation for a place to stay. I did my best to direct him to an area that would have a good, clean, cheap place for a night, and then after he got settled in, we went for dinner (Japanese sushi/sashimi) and a couple good beers in probably the only place in Ulsan that serves really good beer (German, Belgian, English, Irish, etc.). We talked about religion and the meaning of life - what better way to spend an evening as two foreigners! We also stopped into the pub that used to be my old hangout here, called "The Royal Anchor." It was absolutely empty when we got there, and we ordered Irish Coffees (with Baileys) and hung out for a bit. Some Koreans straggled in, but clearly the oegugin (way-gugin -- Korean word for foreigner) crowd was all on holiday traveling around Korea.

So the moral of the story is -- don't stress, don't force, don't try to control. Maybe there are goals to be achieved, but be open to the ways in which those goals might be attained. Go with what feels most natural and right in the moment. And don't squander the moment because it's not something you've been able to define according to some set of expectations!

Travel Update

2007-07-30T19:44:00.000-04:00

As it so happens, I will be staying here in Korea through Sunday as planned. I'd thought about trying to go home early, but all the flights are booked.

I will stay in my current hotel in Ulsan two more nights and head to Seoul on Friday, and I'll stay in a yeogwan, a Korean-style hotel that is much cheaper than a regular western-style hotel. A friend in Seoul is going to help me make those reservations.

I plan on spending the next couple days doing day trips around the area. There are a couple temples I've yet to see, and of course there is the spa. Maybe I'll be able to see a couple people but it's not my priority.

More later - I promise!