Back in my element- 6 month update!

Trying to get comfortable in my sleeping bag, I can hear giggling and chatter in front of my tent. When I open my eyes, I can tell the sun is starting to come up so I glance over at my phone. 5:00 am. I haven’t slept at all- instead I spent all night on a bus with a travel group to go camping. Might as well watch the sunrise.

After an intense month of 12 hour teaching days, N and I decided we needed a relaxing weekend away. N found a travel group that had planned beach camping in Samcheok, along with some other activities. So it was five am, and I was in a tent maybe ten feet from the sea. Definitely relaxed.

The morning was pretty calm. We ate breakfast with our feet in the water, took a nap in our tent watching the waves, then went canoeing. The water was beautiful and the fall weather was just creeping in, so it stayed around 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Later that day we went to the Penis Park. Korea is speckled with these odd parks- toilet museum in Suwon, Loveland (a park full of statues in sexual positions) in Jeju, Penis park in Samcheok, and there are a few others throughout the country. There is a story here, though. A couple had gone to the beach for some intimate time together. The young lady had climbed out onto a rock but the tide came in pretty quickly and she got stranded. She died on the rock, a virgin. After she died the fisherman weren’t able to catch any fish. That is, until one day a lonely fisherman decided to help himself… into the ocean. Apparently this is what the spirit of the poor virgin wanted because the fish returned. Therefore, a Penis park was erected along the beach. Pun proudly intended.

The stranded virgin

The landscape of the park was gorgeous, set in the mountains but still on the rocky coast. N and I explored a little, laughed at the phallic statues, laughed even harder at the elderly couples making lewd gestures on the penis shaped benches. For such a conservative country, they have a good sense of humor about this kind of thing- one adjusshi (elderly man) climbed onto one of the longer benches that was surrounded by penis statues and began doing push ups on it. The others found him hysterical, his wife buried her face in her hands. After that we went down to the shore. The rocks created little tide pools full of crabs, snails, fish, and sea glass.

Rocky shore of the Penis Park

When we returned to the camp, N and I were informed that there was a small chance of rain that night and that there was a pension available if we wanted. We decided that our water resistant tent was enough, the pension was a bit expensive and we were tough. The rest of the evening was spent on the beach with beers, fireworks, and music. The group we were traveling with had a good mix of nationalities- Estonia, Siberia, Canada, N is from Whales, Singapore, Philippines, Ireland- it was an interesting bunch. We all scoured the beach for wood and built a fire. The staff brought out speakers and drinks- it was a good time. Then the rain came. It was not a light rain.

10 minutes later, N and I are standing in our tent with all of our belongings in our hands. The tent is closed, but it was raining on my head and I was ankle deep in icy rain water. Water resistant my ass. We quickly took down our tent and the staff was amazing and helped us find a small pension. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop raining. The next morning we all ate breakfast together and ran to our tour bus to go to Hwanseong Cave. I didn’t think I would go through it- I was cold, all my clothes were wet, and I was tired. I honestly figured if you had seen one cave, you’ve seen them all. This place was cool.

Hwanseong is the largest cave in Southeast Asia. There are railed trails all throughout and different paths you can take into various caverns. They have certain features lighted and signs (with English!) featuring fun fact or stories behind the formations. The are beautiful waterfalls in the cave. It was a good way to end the trip.

Now I’m home. I’m rested and relaxed and realizing that I have finished half of my contract. It is crazy how fast it goes. I was feeling pretty homesick, but this weekend really set me back on track. In two weeks I have a 5 day camping trip in Japan and I can’t wait. Then, in early October I will be going to Thailand for my first solo travel trip!

If you have any suggestions for solo travel, please leave it! I’m a bit nervous about it.

-K.

 

Yoga Jonesing

I can feel the sunlight on my eyelids. Even with my eyes closed I have to squint a bit. So I roll over and bury myself deeper down into my comforter.

Please not yet. I’m not ready. I don’t want to.

…Monday.

Work has become my new home. The kids are on their fall break- one month off of school. However, academia in this country is competitive. When the kids go on break, most of them are sent to an all day English academy. This means that I am arriving at work at 9:40 am and leaving work around 10:15 pm. I have a break in the afternoon- most of us make a bed for ourselves in the seminar room and sleep until it’s time to prep for the afternoon/evening classes. This lasts for a month.

I’m tired, to say the least. With no energy and always being at work, I’ve become a bit homesick. I miss the apartment on the pond that I was in, and I really really miss my cat greeting me at the door when I came home (all he was really interested in was being fed…). I was talking to someone back about it and was given this in return: “It’s like Yoga Jones said- this is all temporary. Except your in Korea, not prison. Make the most of it while you’re there, because it won’t last forever.” Fair enough.

So I set a couple of goals for myself to combat this mandala-esque ailment. I know, though, that if I don’t write it down, it won’t happen. So here it is… what I will do to combat being homesick.

1. Keep myself busy. This sounds so obvious it’s stupid. I’m already insanely busy this month. But because I’m busy during the week, I don’t feel like doing anything on the weekends. So I end up sitting in my apartment, alone, thinking. That’s when it is the worst. I mean c’mon, I’m living on the other side of the world, why am I sitting on my bed on a Saturday afternoon?
2. Try new things. I’m perfectly fine doing things alone. But I absolutely dread going places alone if I don’t know exactly what to expect or where to go. This has held me back from doing a few things that are on my list. I need to just suck it up and force myself through it. Plus, if I try something new and end up loving it…
3. Find a hobby. There are going to be days that I can’t keep busy or may not have found something new to try. I need a fall back plan. Hopefully making myself branch out will help me discover some new hobby. We will see.
4. Surround yourself with positive people/things. When your friends are also your co-workers and you are all working for 12 hours everyday during the week and hang out on the weekends… it’s hard to not gripe about workplace blues with each other. But that can’t be all you talk about. Being in a bad mood just makes me miss sitting on the kitchen counter talking someone’s ear off on the phone about my frustrations. This is where I need to follow the advice I have given others. Happiness is a choice. It’s a much harder choice if you dwell in negativity.

We’ll see how this goes. I have some traveling coming up in the next two months that should also keep me preoccupied. If you have any other remedies, let me know!

 

-K.

First Love

Just peering past the corner into the living room, I slowly tip toe into the room. As quietly as I possibly can, I scan over the couch to see who occupies it.

She’s sleeping; I’ll have to wait.

First I will have to tactfully find out how her day went and what kind of mood she was in. This is most important when asking for something. Only this wasn’t something… it was everything. At 17 years old that seems dramatic, but this truly was a game changer and not some pair of shoes I saw at the mall.

Later that night, with my toes grazing the kitchen floor as I lean my torso onto the island, I am watching her put hamburgers on the stove. This is a good sign. This isn’t a quick and easy box dinner- meaning she has had a good day.

“Hi Mommy, how was your day?”

“It was good- what do you want, Kate?”

Damnit. Mommy was too much. Time to lay it out there…

… “Can I go to Italy?”

I really have my mom to thank for this love story. It all happened because of sacrifices that I know she made, though I do not know and may never know the specifics. Sometimes small pivotal moments happen that set your life off in one direction rather than another. Because of her willingness to sacrifice, I am where I am learning who I am.

At 17 years old I fell in love for the first time. I know the exact moment- down to where I was, what I was looking at, doing, everything. Today, I fall more in love everyday and it took me coming to Korea to realize how deeply rooted it was.

I was in Italy- Verona, specifically. The theater I was in was dark but emulated a warm light. The low hum of the people below was beginning to die down. I was was shuffling around my balcony seat trying to get pictures of my friends and myself. The room was hushed upon the entrance of the Italian flag.

I was lucky enough to go to Italy with my choir in high school. As a high school teacher- I’ll never understand how my instructors didn’t lose their sanity taking 30 high school students across the ocean. We were participating in a competition and had piled into the theater for opening ceremony.

A flag passed that represented each participating country. A man came to the podium and spoke, there was a translator, but I wasn’t paying attention- there was too much to look at; carvings, velvet curtains, a painted ceiling, people from all over the world. Then it happened- my ear pricked, just slightly. Someone was singing.

My eyes shot back to the podium. It was the man who had made the speech. I knew there were going to be other performances, but he was just smiling out into the audience and singing.

That’s when it happened. . As the man at the podium sang, I recognized the song, and I wasn’t the only one. As I peered around at the audience of performers the delicate sound began to rise. Soon the entire theater was singing Amazing Grace. Harmonies floated and reverberated off of the ceiling.

I’m struggling to explain the sensation of a thousand or so strangers singing the same song. The languages were not the same, and perhaps the emotions put into the song were not the same, but we were sharing an experience that wasn’t spoken, seen, or even sung. It was felt. It was a feeling I promised myself in that small corner of the world  that I would never forget, and never want to top experiencing.

On an April evening back in 2007 in Verona Italy, I fell maddeningly in love and I knew it. What I didn’t know was that it was a love I would briefly lose. That in the next years the girl in that theater balcony would get a little bit lost. She would think fondly of that evening, but assume that the best had passed.

There is something that seeing the world does to you, that traveling does to you. Until you
experience it, you’ll never fully understand and falling in love is the best I can do to explain it. It’s exciting, unpredictable, and rewarding. You fall in love with food, sights, and experiences you never could have imagined. However, it takes nurturing and patience. Even on the worst days you have to remind yourself “yes, it was a bad day. But, it was a bad day on the other side of the world.” 

Korea has reignited the divine romance I had been missing from my life. I am relaxed, happy, and I am learning about the world outside of my mid-west bubble. I had lost the sensation that I promised myself I would not forget, but I found it, hiding, on the other side of the world.

-K.