Annoyed

I should really try to write something positive someday. I guess people don't carry their good days around like they do their bad ones. I've just been really frustrated and annoyed the past few days. Not a whole lot has happened to make me feel this way. I do know what some of it relates to but I should be less annoyed or not feel as bad as I do.

I was in the hospital last week for some minor procedure. Even though, I'd read the procedure was supposed to be relatively minor and quick healing, it hasn't been what I'd thought it would be. It was nothing life-threatening so no one needs to be worried not that anyone reads this thing on a regular basis anymore (or ever did). There's just been this consistent uncomfort from it for the past few week and it's been worse since Tuesday. I mean it's not like I'm in constant pain and even a day of it would be fine but it's just always there and doesn't feel right and I'm worried it's not going to feel right again. I don't know if this is the main cause of it all but it's definitely aggravating everything else.

Then there are issues with my job (not that there haven't always been issues). I quit my job 6 weeks ago today. I owed them 8 weeks notice and will be giving them about 9 to just end the month. The problem is that my replacement who was scheduled to come on June 1st, has suddenly decided she won't be coming until June 17th or something. So my school is pressuring me to stay until at least the 15th. I've considered it and the idea just sickens me. I don't think I should've had to give 11+ weeks notice for some crappy hagwon job. I thought 8 weeks was absurd enough. The only nice thing is that I had my departure date all lined up in advance. May 12th, I think it was. It was somehow pushed back (since I was procrastinating about it, plus I wanted them to fulfill their obligations to me before I told them I would be leaving in 8 weeks).

It's just all such fucking crap. The school is trying to convince me that it's my obligation to stay on until a replacement comes. My plans are still all up in the air so I don't actually know what I will do. It may come as a great surprise to some but I'm considering staying in Korea and signing yet another contract. There are a few reasons for it but I'll get to them later. Anyways, if I take one job they'd need me to start training on May 28th (they've actually delayed it by one week just for me) so I definitely couldn't stay until June 15th with that job. Another job, I'd told them I would start in July but I wanted to have a whole month off before I were to go there. So this would fuck that plan up. I'm just worried about what my boss will do if I continue to say no.

In order to get another job, I'd need a letter of release which I guess he isn't actually obligated to give me. So he could threaten to withhold that. His representative (he has a tenuous grasp of English at best) told me that since I won't be paid until the 10th anyways, I should just stay until the 15th to make sure I get it. I don't know if she was just unclear on things or whether that's what my boss actually told her. Anyways, there's probably a high likelihood that my replacement is going to flake out entirely. I don't know what it would be exactly but I wouldn't be at all surprised if she just delayed and delayed and then finally decided against it all. So should I agree to stay on until the replacement or a replacement finally got there, I may be waiting a long long time.

Probably most upsetting of all though is my impending birthday. It's not that I mind getting older. I've already begun thinking of myself as being 25 and have to remind myself that I am 24. It's more the fact that it's looking to be another crap birthday. I haven't really celebrated my birthday since 1992. I mean I've gone out for dinner with my parents or whatever but it was never an event and I never wanted it to be. I've also always kind of been in a transitory state. My birthday is 3 weeks away I guess and this time I don't know where I'll be the next day or what I will do the next month or week. If I leave Swaton when I want to leave, I'm probably not going to have a place to live (which is always fun). Most the other times, I've usually just arrived somewhere and am on that side of the transition.

It seems certain that I will spend a 3rd birthday in Daegu, a city where I was certain I'd only spend one. The first one, with less than 2 months here, with a visit from my parents and that was pretty much it. I don't remember if they even knew it was birthday at work. I would say probably not since I don't remember anything being done for me but had they known they probably wouldn't have done anything anyways.

The second one I spent with some friends who I thought knew me well enough to know when my birthday was. Luckily it came up somehow the night before so I knew better than to expect much from the next day. I'd also just returned to Korea maybe 5 days before. I wasn't really upset by it, I mean I was, but it was mostly just disappointment.

This year, all the people that I know, I've basically known for 5 months at the most. One guy I met over a year ago now but was basically just an IM buddy for most of that time. The person who's probably been there for me the most since I've come back to Korea will not be there. She's leaving the country for a year and she's leaving right on my birthday. So in all likelihood, I'm probably going to be sad on my birthday and if I have to go into work that day on top on that I just don't know what I'm going to do.

Then of course, the hot sticky summer is looming and the only heat relief my apartment has is to open the windows. They promised me an air conditioner but of course never delivered on it. Opening the windows however seems to just be an invitation for hundreds of gnats to come flying in. I could continue to ramble but don't have the energy for it. I don't really know how to end this so I guess I just will.

Latest Thoughts

I'd been working illegally for the past 2 months. I wasn't keen on the school but they said I could work there illegally since no one was able to give me a visa. It's a little complicated but anyways, I had a visa application approved and was pretty upset about the whole thing. Anyhow, I went to Japan for a last minute visa run. I was upset about most of that, too. They told us around 5pm the night before we left. I worked until 1030 and was expected to be ready to go by 5am. I went with my co-worker and the receptionist from the school because she knew some Japanese. It felt like we were being babysat for the most part. Like we wouldn't be able to handle going to Japan by ourselves. I was exhausted the whole time and didn't see anything. At least I got 2 days off work.

Work has been getting worse daily. I'm excited about quitting. I still don't know what I'm going to do afterwards. I was thinking about going to Africa but it doesn't really appeal to me anymore. I'm not in the mood to make new friends at all. I'm not in the mood for anything really. The prospect of vagabonding doesn't seem so bad to me anymore and I'm reconsidering moving to Sweden or France for awhile. I don't know why the prospect of staying in one place for an indefinite amount of time scares me so much. Seems really strange. I thought it was what I wanted but I'm reluctant to commit to the idea. I've also been avoiding thinking about it for the most part which is really strange considering how much I'm looking forward to leaving the ESL world behind. I guess it's in tune with my indecision and inconsistency at least.

My schedule is a bit strange now. I don't start work until 6pm twice a week. Maybe I'll have to go somewhere some afternoon and think about things.

Vagabonding

I've been thinking a lot about what to do with my life recently. Things in Daegu have changed a lot for me recently with my new job, new apartment, and living in a completely different part of the city. It's really not an ideal situation and were it not for the opportunity to earn some money and the need to hold Win School accountable I could almost certainly say that I would not be here. The answer to the question of where I would be is also a reason that I am still here because I really don't know.

I've probably said it a few times before but I really don't have much going on for me anywhere. I lived in Edmonton, well close to Edmonton, for 17 years and only have a couple of people that I am still friends with there and one of them lives in Florida. I lived in Newfoundland for a year and there's no one that I'm in contact with from there. I lived in Texas for about 3 years over a 4.5 year period and I'm not really in contact with anyone there either. I really don't know why all of my friends (with very few exceptions) seem to come from 10 months I spent in Denmark.

I suppose it has something to do with everyone going there and being in a foreign environment. No one really knowing anyone else. I don't know, I guess I'm just not very good at making new friends especially when people already have routines, which is why I may have decided to abandon my vagabond lifestyle. I mean I still want to be in different places and do different things but not with different people since evidently I'm quite bad at meeting people.

Ideally I would meet a group of people of 3-4 people maybe and we'd go around the world together but the chances of that happening are slim and the longterm prospects wouldn't be that great either. I mean I'm only 24 (though I'm beginning to think more along the lines of 25) but I'm really starting to think about the future a lot more. I think continuing the kind of life I'm leading is just going to result in a series of gains and losses. If I were more outgoing or better at meeting people it might not be such a problem. I could make a huge group of friends and people could come in and out of it easily. That's really not me though. I tend to have a small group of good friends, maybe even as few as 1 or 2. So then once it's time to move on the loss is felt more heavily. I'm tired of having just a series of losses when I'm not good at making gains. Even if I see these people again I know if won't be the same and they will never be in my daily life again.

One of my favourite songs is called 'Again' by Lenny Kravitz. I don't know whether I like the song for how it actually sounds. I remember when I first heard it there were parts of it that I really didn't like but now I don't remember which parts of it. I think it's mostly because I can relate to it. There's a line in the song "I wonder if I'll ever see you again." Except my family, I guess, I could wonder that about far too many people, which I just think of as depressing.

I'm weighing 3 options right now. It's basically a given that I will leave Korea in about 3 months. That could change but I'm sick and tired of the ESL game. My father would be in India at that point, he'll probably be there sometime next week, so depending what month it is I may spend a few weeks there. After that though, I'm thinking of either going to Africa, Australia, or Vancouver. The A options would be a continuation of vagabonding and the last one would be me deciding to actually stay put for a while.

I was excited about Australia for awhile but that's been waning lately. I'm scared it'll just turn into another time where I'll start out lonely for a few months, then meet a couple of people if I'm lucky, and then be depressed for a few months afterwards. It just seems inevitable.

Africa would be a nice option I think. I would just travel around Africa for a few months. I've been psychoanalyzing myself much too much so I don't think I need to do that here. Anyways, it would be a nice way to end vagabonding, one last really good trip before I settle down. Maybe I could get some kind of internship there with a development agency or something for a few months. I don't know.

I'm thinking most seriously about Vancouver. I don't really know anyone there but I'd have to meet new people practically anywhere I went either and I really think I'd be able to live in Vancouver for awhile. Get a masters in some branch of economics maybe at UBC. Everyone says Vancouver is one of the best places to live. I could also easily move there, not have to worry about getting visas or anything. So maybe I'll do Africa for a few months and then move to Vancouver at the end of summer. Might be a good plan?

Bored at the Tokyo Airport

I have 4 hours at the airport left. I've already been here for an hour or so. I would walk around but I already toured the airport a week ago when I had a 7 hour layover. I took a shower then but I don't need one now.

I'm on my way back from Hawaii where I had a mediocre week. I felt like being depressed while I was there for whatever reason. Well actually, that wasn't how I went into it but my sister was there with her friend and it was annoying being around her again. It reminded me of high school and how depressed I was back then which made me think of how depressed I am now about everything now, which wasn't really a good thing.

I was going to write about how depressed I was while I was there but decided not to do that since that seems to be the only thing I write about these days. For some reason though, I don't feel quite as depressed right now and decided I would write something. Let's see. I don't really know where to start. I guess I will start with my dad's visit. He came and I met him in Seoul and we spent a few days there. Then we came back to Daegu and he saw all the things he saw last year. There's really not enough in town to keep a tourist busy for a week so it was pretty relaxed and we didn't do much. We went out with Young Mi and a friend of hers one night. We had makjang and went drinking until 3am. I think my dad was impressed with himself that he stayed up that late or at least that I kept him out that late. Then he left, and Young Mi left and I moved in with Young Mi's boss and had a small xmas dinner and had my chest x-rayed for a visa application. My Australian working holiday visa has been approved by the way. I have no idea when I'll use it but I have until January 2nd, 2008 to get in the country.

I won't really talk about Hawaii that much since I didn't find it that interesting. I spent a lot of time with my Korean book and went through 200 pages or something. I'd learn it all (more or less) before so it was easy to speed through. I think that might be part of the reason I'm not as depressed as I was before I left. Thinking about how "awesome" I am at Korean made me excited to learn more. I'm really not excited about my new job but it'll be a means to an end and give me enough money and free time. I can't say I have that many goals right now and it's a bit disappointing to say that money is a motivating factor for me. I guess it was before but I didn't think of teaching English as being a sacrifice before.

So anyways, there's the money potential since I don't imagine myself spending much at all while I'm there this time. There's also the prospect of learning more Korean. It's easy to delude myself right now since I've just sped right through an introductory textbook with ease and feel semi-fluent because of it even though I know I should really doubt my abilities to have a real conversation. If I can keep up my current enthusiasm (which is certain to not last), I would be in good shape. Speaking of which, that is my other goal. There are a ton of gyms around my new job so it shouldn't be hard to find a decent one.

I'll have to say goodbye to my last one since it'll suddenly be very far away. So anyways, I guess I've resigned myself for the next few months and accepting it is a big step. Well maybe I haven't quite accepted it but I'm on the path towards acceptance. I think a week with my parents has made my realize that I'm willing to pay a higher price for independence that I previously thought.

Ramblings

I'm not sure what I will end up writing about so the title I've chosen could be inappropriate. I have something specific in mind but who knows where it will go.

I'm still in Korea putting up a fight. I have everything arranged basically. I've been running around to all kinds of government offices lately. The labour office, legal aid, and immigration mostly. Usually all on the same day. I know all the busses and how to get to all the offices. The tax office and pension office I've been to but not recently. Anyways, I have 3 friends at all 3 places. I call them my friends just because it makes it more humourous, less bureaucratic, and really they have been helpful.

One day, Young Mi and I got a call from a lawyer who wanted to discuss our case. Okay, I guess I started talking about this last time. Anyways, we had thought the lawyer was there to help us but he was actually representing Win School, kind of misrepresented himself or at least we were being too optimistic. Anyways, he gave me a most generous offer from Mr. Lee. 200,000 won when he owed me 3,000,000 won. It was pretty easy to turn that down. The lawyer seemed nice and Young Mi and I were a bit rude to him just because of who had been paying him. He explained that Mr. Lee would appeal every decision a court made and I wouldn't get any money for 2 or 3 years so I should just take $200 and be happy. This is money that he doesn't even dispute is mine. The money he owes minus all his baseless deductions. The offer was pretty easy to turn down and the lawyer seemed sympathetic and understood why I would be suing Mr. Lee.

So after that I went to the legal aid office. Met my new friend Mr. Noh. He calls himself Mr. Roh as most Noh's do since it doesn't have the best connotations inn English to be known as Mr. No. That's my theory, anyways. So Mr. Noh told me that it would probably take 5-6 months to get to court. Which was a relief after the years the other lawyer had tried to intimidate me with. It turns out that I had made a mistake before at the labour board not seeking punishment. That's why I'd heard nothing from my friend, Ms. Shim. So I had to go to the labour board and get a document to state that I had unpaid wages and would then have to go to immigration to change my visa status.

The next day, I went to immigration. Met my friend, Mr. Song. He said I wasn't the illegally yet but only had until the next Wednesday to sort everything out. He needed me to fill out 2 forms and come back. I went back to see Mr. Roh. He agreed to be my sponsor (my new visa required a Korean citizen to be held accountable for any criminal acts). Mr. Noh found got me a Korean stamp. Koreans don't use signatures for official forms, they use a little stamp (I'd had to use my thumbprint before this). I thought that was exciting. I then went back to see Mr. Song. Everything seemed okay but then it turned out I only had a preliminary certificate of unpaid wages. I then went to see Ms. Shim who told me she couldn't issue the final certificate until Friday. By that point in the day it was 5 so I gave up for the day. Actually this was all on a Friday so I saved it for the next week.

On Tuesday, I continued again. Monday I went and applied at a few schools and then felt thoroughly depressed by the time I got to Sangin to ask for jobs. I found one place that was hiring but they wanted me to work Saturdays and the hours and pay weren't that great. That's the point where I realized that I'd only be able to find work at desperate hagwons and didn't want to do that again.

Back to Tuesday. I got up and went to immigration to see Mr. Song and explain that I couldn't get the certificate until Friday. I saw a different guy, Mr. Kang. He was nice enough and gave me a 30 day grace period to get the certificate and change my visa. He told me to go see Mr. Noh or Ms. Shin. He called me Mr. Noh. Mr. Noh and Ms. Shin have also called each other so it's like a circle of my bureaucratic friends. Mr. Kang was kind of discouraging and told me foreigners never get the money so I should basically give up. After, Mr. Kang (Mr. Song was out for lunch by the time my number came up), I went to see Ms. Shim. Actually, I was going to see Mr. Noh but I went past the bus stop where I got off before since it seemed like I got off early (I had to change busses). The bus then went much closer to Ms. Shim's so I went there instead. Low and behold, she was having her meeting with Mr. Lee so I had the unexpected pleasure of running into him there. I guess they just had one problem to sort out. My Saturday work. Mr. Lee had promised to pay me and I didn't get anything in writing. So I understood that given my lack of evidence that she couldn't force him to pay since he'd now changed his mind. I explained that it was my mistake to have taken Mr. Lee at his word. Ms. Shim's English is probably the poorest of all my friends so Mr. Lee explained to her what I had said, probably saying that I was mistaken about the whole issue. I talked to Mr. Seok on the phone there. He knew what Mr. Lee had said since he was the one who'd relayed it to me. Seok took Mr. Lee's side saying that there never was such an agreement and that I worked less than the overtime hours so I shouldn't be paid. I can understand why Seok said what he said but I've lost the last shreds of respect I had for him.

Mr. Lee agreed to pay the pension (since it was his legal responsibility to all along) but I owed the same amount so that was deducted from my last month's wages. Luckily though, Mr. Lee has to match it and I get it all back so I get an extra 500,000 won out of that deal. The labour inspector, Ms. Shim, ultimately decided that he owed me 2.2M won. Mr. Lee says he does but that I owe him 2.0M won for airfare, recruiting fees, and housing for 4 days that I stayed there after my last working day. So basically that's the issue. Ms. Shim was unimpressed by his argument for the deductions but he wants a judge to decide. So hopefully, I can revisit the overtime issue there too.

After this I went to see Mr. Noh with the certificate that Ms. Shim had now issued. Then I went back to see Mr. Song. So I'm now on a G-1 visa which is a miscellaneous visa, or a special case visa. So that's all taken care of and I just need to wait for Mr. Noh to tell me when I will be going to court.

So lately, I've just been involved with finding a new job and place to live. There hasn't been much promising. My two failed contracts make schools very leery of me. It's something that English teachers would understand if I explained but potential employers are sympathetic and then decide I'm too risky or not worth changing the contract for. The Saturday place was interested but I was interested. Another place interviewed me and things looked like they would go ahead. I was a bit apprehensive because of all this extra work I would have to do. Of course, during the interview I had just said that wouldn't be a problem. Then I get the contract and it says I'd be required to teach 180 - 40 minute classes before getting overtime. I don't want to work overtime but I'm not going to be in the classroom for 30 hours a week.

The other place I've been looking at (I had a real interview there yesterday as opposed to the phone interview) teaching adults. There are a few downsides to that job. Mostly the hours and the fact that housing isn't covered. Apparently, rent is only about 300,000 a month for a studio, even right downtown. I figure teaching adults would be much easier than trying to control children who don't want to be there and might be worth that bit of money. Plus, I'm getting a bit desperate and teaching adults would be a nice change of pace for me. The other thing is that I'd be able to choose my own apartment and the school is right downtown where both subway lines meet. They will let me know on Monday. The guy who interviewed me was British and had heard all the stories of bad kiddie hagwons so understood where I was coming from. As opposed to other kiddie hagwons that just think I must be a whiner and a quitter and would rather hire someone fresh off a plane with no idea what other hagwons are like. I'd always figured at Wonderland that all the other esl teachers were going through the same thing.

My dad has accepted the job in Mumbai and will be moving there for 2-3 years starting the middle of next month. He'll be stopping in Seoul on his way back to Canada. He's going to get a return ticket from Mumbai so when he flies from Seoul to Edmonton he'll get to go from Seoul to Mumbai to Frankfurt to Toronto to Edmonton. Anyways, seems a bit silly to me unless you really love airports and being on planes.

I guess, I'm about where I was before except that my visa situation is taken care of. I don't know when I'll get to see Ms. Shim or Mr. Song again since their jobs are pretty much done. Mr. Noh is really nice though and has been very helpful. I think he's my favourite of my bureaucrat buddies. He's even invited me to his house at some unspecified point in the future.

If the adult place with the bad hours doesn't give me the job on Monday I may have to consider relocating to a different city. I hope it doesn't come to that though. That seems to be enough for now.

An Update

Well, my life is going pretty poorly at the moment. I have no job, I have no house, and apparently I'm in Korea illegally right now. I have to take my boss to court to get my last month's paycheque. It's really frustrating.

I don't like sharing an apartment, much less a bed. I want the money my boss owes me and in order to get it I need to sue him which I found out yesterday could take as long as 2-3 months. I really don't want to take another job in Korea but I may be forced to since it's the only way for me to get my own apartment. I'm living off my savings right now which isn't fun either.

In addition to this, I may be an illegal alien. Because my school didn't cancel my visa, I figured I was fine as far as immigration went. I guess I may have been wrong about that and that I should've gone to immigration to cancel the visa myself. Apparently, I could be fined some huge amount for staying here on a working visa while not working. I guess I'd been too busy feeling frustrated, depressed, angry, and lonely to bother going to a government office where no one can understand what I can say to ask about my immigration status.

I don't know where these problems keep coming from. I've also recently realized just how homeless I am. I have no place of my own right now and really I don't have a room to call my own anywhere in the world. I suppose I have one at my parent's house. I've never been to my parent's house though since they moved after I left. So there's a bedroom there but one of my sisters is living there now so it really doesn't make that much sense. My room in name only. Plus, they will be moving in May so it's really not much of a room anyway. I don't usually feel this way but right now I'm really envious of people whose parents have lived in the same house forever and whose bedrooms are basically the same as they left them when they moved out.

My parents by the way will likely be moving to Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay). It's pretty exciting really but just comes at a strange time for me. I guess their house isn't really my home and I'd much rather visit them in a strange city as opposed to one where I've become a stranger. Edmonton is such a distant thing for me. I mean I know it and there are many familiar things but it was never really my home. I'd always lived in Beaumont which has become hugely popular and has so many new developments and renovations that it's really not familiar to me. I guess I really just feel lost. I don't know where I should be or what I should be doing.

There's just nothing familiar about anything in my life right now. I'm staying in the apartment of some guy I barely know. My good friend is gone and I had very few of those here. I've seen his girlfriend, who has assumed the position of best friend in Korea, a few times. She and a few businesses are really the only things that are familiar to me. A little sad that I count my kimbap lady as a good friend of mine considering we've never really had a conversation given she doesn't speak English.

I really just want a place that's familiar to me and I can go there to be alone. That's all I want. I can't do that where I am now given that it's not my apartment and am completely reliant on others for everything at the moment. I've stayed at a few jjimjilbangs which was better than staying here actually since even though they've been full of Koreans they've pretty much left me alone aside from the odd, well not that uncommon, "waygook/miguk saram" (foreigner/American) that I hear there. Hotels are expensive and motels are dirty and not that cheap either.It's not really even the point. I can't feel sorry for myself in a new place. I really just need something.

For those of you who don't know, jjimjilbangs are pretty much 24 hour saunas. You go there and put on an orange shirt and orange shorts and go sit in dry saunas and can sleep on a hard floor for the night. It's kind of surreal since you are wearing the exact same thing as everyone else. It feels like a huge sleepover for you and hundreds of Korean strangers. I don't think many people go alone, usually family and couples. Anyways, they are cheap ($6-8).

I'm going to meet some lawyer with Young Mi, my friend's Korean girlfriend, tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, he'll be able to tell me what I should do or give me a better time frame. We don't even know who he is. He just called Young Mi and told her he wanted to meet to go over my case. He's either been assigned by the courts or else is Young Mi's boss' friend. Or in a glimpse at where my mind has gone, some kind of Win School operative sent to take my evidence and burn it. Mind you, last year on my way to the immigration office (when my boss cancelled my visa the proper way), I had images of him driving me to some remote area and butchering me.

I really almost feel like giving up. I've fighting with my boss since the beginning of September really and now that I basically have nothing going on here it feels strange to stay. I really just can't let my boss keep that money after everything. I can't let him win but my victory seems so distant.

Uncertainty Abounds

I'm not sure the last time I wrote. I could look it up I guess but I'm a bit lazy. Anyways, since then a lot has happened. Nothing really exciting, well not in a good way at least, but definitely life-altering.

On October 30th, at the end of the day, I see a note on my desk. The vice-director is not happy with me. I didn't teach the class she told me to teach at 3:25. I had told her the Wednesday before that I wouldn't teach them since my contract says I start work at 4. The note tells me she wants to see me before I leave. It's 10:05. The vice-director is busy talking to the assistant teachers, giving them directions. I wait until 10:25 and then I make towards the door. The vice-director stops me and tells me she needs to see me. I blurt out that I wasn't going to wait forever. I decide to give her 5 more minutes. Finally, at 10:28, she is ready to speak to me. She leads me into the little conference room, hands me a letter, and says "There are no words."

I know what the letter says already. I run into the assistant teachers on the way out. They confirm what I thought, that the vice-director was just telling them the same things again and again. I really can't believe that the vice-director was so immature as to make me wait for no reason except to inflate her ego and make herself feel powerful.

Within the envelope is a formal notice. I've been fired. I'd been expecting it. I'd gone to the labour board to sort out a few things in my contract like the tax rate, not being paid overtime, and a few other pieces of nonsense. After going the first time, the labour board said they would call the school and try to resolve things that way. Following this I get a letter. The letter says that they don't owe me anything and also that I'm a terrible teacher and should only ask for things once I'm doing "perfect teaching." So, a thinly veiled threat not to take things further or I'll be canned. I could've really cared less about my job. I was planning on quitting the end of November anyway. I took things further. I went back to the labour board to file a formal complaint. It was a Thursday. I'm sure they drafted my notice over the weekend since there wasn't even mention of me not teaching the first class on Monday. There was, however, mention of me not going to work on a Saturday when I had already told them I wouldn't work any more Saturdays.

That's really not the worst part though. They gave me only 7 days notice since the scheduled labour board mediation was in 8. They really didn't want to go to that meeting. I stayed in my apartment until the day of the meeting and refused to leave since even by the worthless contract they owed me 15 days. The meeting comes and Young Mi decides to come with me (the labour inspection speaks no English). My boss shows up 45 minutes late telling everyone what an important, rich, respectable person he was. He decides that he's not going to give me my last month's pay since I betrayed him by taking him to the labour board and also that I should repay him for the airfare and recruiting fees (even though the contract says I only need to pay him for that if I break the contract). Also, he says he's going to charge me rent for the apartment 40,000 won a day. There's no way my apartment is worth 1.2 million won a month.

So now, I'm unemployed and homeless in Korea and am owed something like 3 million won. Luckily, my boss hasn't cancelled my visa so I don't have to leave the country or anything. He has until the 24th of this month to pay me. If he doesn't, then I need to take him to court. So until I get my money, I am stuck in Korea just waiting it out.

Then there are a few other things to make me feel all the more uncertain about life and everything. Aside from having no job, no home, and being involved in a labour dispute, my parents may be moving to India if my dad accepts a job there, my best friend in Korea is leaving this weekend, I don't know where I'm going after Korea, and the younger brother of a good friend of mine (who I'd met)died accidentally. Uncertainty indeed.

Limbo - How low can you go?

I should probably mention that I'm kind of at war with my boss at the moment. I've made 2 trips to the labour board already. The first earned me a letter from my employers refusing my demands for money they've withheld from me and lovely threatening language about how I'm a terrible teacher and am in serious danger of losing my job because my teaching ability is insufficient. This was never mentionned before my trip to the labour board, of course. If only I had the letter with me now I could make fun of it. There's a part about me not being 'a RESP teacher.' I'm not exactly sure what that means. I can only imagine they weren't able to listen to the Aretha Franklin all the way through. Not that they know what the word means anyway.

I'm worried that I might be fired sometime next week and that they'll deduct the recruiting fee and airfare from my last paycheque. I guess I just get to sit in suspense until that happens. I'm almost looking forward to that since I'd be able to go back to the labour board and claim unfair termination. Basically the problem is that I wasn't fully paid for morning classes I taught back in August, they haven't paid me overtime for some Saturdays that I worked and they withholding too much tax from my paycheque. All in all, it's quite a bit of money. The only problem is that I might not get any of it because of some strange tax law that lets employers pay income tax only once at the end of the year. Therefor, the tax office has no records as to how much tax I'd actually owe and so it's unsolvable from the governments perspective until my boss actually pays my taxes at the end of the year. The other things were just verbal agreements and so I can't prove anything.

It's just really frustrating and I don't know what to do quite frankly.

Change

Despite initial hopes and expectations, I don't think my second stint at English teaching will last much longer than my first. I've been having trouble with my bosses lately. And even if I get everything I want, I'm not sure I'd be that satisfied. I just don't there's much more for me to be got by being here aside from a little more money in my pocket. Sometimes, I enjoy my job and while I'm in the classroom it never seems that bad. The idea of work though is something that I'm beginning to despise. Just having to go into work and feeling that my work doesn't matter is starting to bother me.

Perhaps, it's because I either don't notice any progress being made by any of the students or they aren't making much at all. Some of my initial plans have also gone awry. I was going to take Korean lessons and then my bosses proved themselves to be unreasonable and I decided to cut my stay short by a few months. At which point, the 4 hours spent learning how to ask what something was and to say what something is or isn't seemed especially useless. (Is this a shoe? No, it's not a shoe. It's a chair.) I also skipped to the end of the book and could still follow it and so 4 hours a day 5 days a week to practice speaking seemed hardly worth the time or expense.

I had also planned to be better friends with my co-workers by this point. Of course, I favoured others over them so am a bit alienated from them. I'm not sure I have all that much in common with them anyways and going out can be fun every once in awhile but I don't really relish the idea of getting drunk at every opportunity.

So instead of talking badly about the past which I feel is all I really ever do on this thing. I should try to be positive about the future. I suppose the possibilities can be both exciting and unnerving.

Post 100

I felt like it was about to blog something. I've been feeling a bit funny lately. I guess I should say strange. Anyways, I happen to have posted 99 times before so that means that this is post 100. Blogspot counts it. I certainly wouldn't count them otherwise.

So anyways, I haven't done all that much recently. Well I suppose I've done quite a bit but it boils down to almost nothing. I went to a river and had an I don't quite know how to describe it time. We went for a barbeque by this little river below a damn. We had samgyeopsal. Then, we went to a buddhist temple. I got a bit drunk, well more than a bit, quite by accident. Well, I went to the bathroom and when I left these ajeossis invited me to have some soju which I accepted. Then, after a while they had given me a whole bottle. It was quite a long time ago though but I did some cartwheels and tried to climb trees and a bunch of other stupid things. I kind of felt like an idiot afterwards but kind of had fun at the time. Mostly. The next weekend was really bad.

The weekend after that or possibly the one after that I went rafting with Alex and Young Mi. I'd never gone rafting before. I was fun. I don't have any pictures and I guess the people who took pictures for the company have yet to release them to the public so you'll just have to believe that I did it.

Well, I don't think I did anything all that interesting aside from those things. My one day off a week has become quite bothersome. I really can't do anything with it and when I do it doesn't make for an energetic next week. So I've been having some issues at work. Just me basically telling them that I'm not supposed to work according to my contract and them telling me that all they can do for me is give me 2-3 extra vacation days a year which really means nothing since they decide when I can take those days. I make a request rather and they can't choose to grant it or not so really they could give me 100 vacation days and it would amount to the same thing I'm sure. Finally, I told them I would not work another Saturday until I got something else for it. Yesterday, I was told that I would be paid for Saturdays and was supposed to get the details today but didn't since the vice-director comes to work after I do and once I start I only get 5 minute breaks. Then once I'm finished she continues to teach and not wanting to stick around the school indefinitely I left. I guess we'll see what kind of deal they give me. I really didn't mean to start talking about that..... Or did I?

I'm beginning to wonder what I'm doing here. Being here right now is fine but a change is in the works. A good friend of mine, possibly my only true one here, is leaving in 2 months and some other friends may or may not be coming to Daegu. It will be interesting to see what happens come mid-November.

For some reason, I thought this year would be a lot of different and it's been better but not quite what I expected. One of the reasons, I chose the school I did was because there would be a handful of foreign teachers all living in the same building. When I came here, there were 3 other teachers. One was kind of a loner and I didn't know him at all since he taught at a different school, well different location. The other had his own group of friends which was fine and the other was leaving in 2 weeks anyway. I had Alex from the year before. Then 2 new teachers came. Both knew each other coming over and I did a few things with them. Not all that much though since Korea was still so new to them and the whole idea of being a guide doesn't appeal to me. It was kind of like in Denmark. I was there for the whole year and once the fall semester people had gone, I only hung out with other full-years. It had nothing to do with them (though they did seem annoying) but they were at a different place. For me Denmark was home, and for them it was this wild, crazy, new place. Talking about what makes Korea different doesn't interest me as a topic of conversation whereas that's the topic du jour for them. So I hung out with Alex and they hung out with each other. Since then 2 new teachers have arrived and now Scott and Adam get to play guide. Anyways, the 4 of them do quite a bit together I believe. So, I feel a bit excluded without necessarily wanting to be included. Anyways, that's a bit strange.

I just know that once Alex leaves, my life will be completely different. Same job and whatever but I will have to adjust and I'm not sure it's something I want to do. When I was having trouble at work, I began contemplating, wondering what I was doing here. I mean my job isn't too bad. I make decent money but the idea of another 8 months didn't appeal to me very much. Part of it is for silly reasons. I've spent 2 birthdays in Daegu and will be dangerously close to a third once my contract ends. I think 3-4 days or something. I'd really rather be far gone by the time my birthday comes. Age is really just arbitrary, I mean it doesn't actually mean anything but I don't want to be in Korea when I become a year older.

I'll just have to see how I feel around December. Whether I want to finish my contract and all. There have been Korean classes though that I'm thinking of taking, and have already paid for. After 200 hours of Korean instruction I should at least be proficient in Korean but I don't know if it's worth it if I don't stay much past the end of the classes. I've also been sick and have had little energy the past week so I can't even imagine taking the classes when just going to work seems tiring.

The nice thing has been that I've been having really nice dreams. I went to Copenhagen last night and I think I seem to go there quite a lot in my dreams. I think at least half of the dreams I remember since I left Denmark have had something to do with Denmark. I guess I haven't been many places since then, well lived in many places since then. Corpus Christi, which I hated, and Daegu. Edmonton hardly counts. I wonder why I never have dreams about Edmonton. I'm always in some locationless dream or in Denmark. My dreams haven't even really centred around Korea. I just realized that. Anyways, I seem to be lost in thought now so I'll have to continue this later in post 101.

Korea finally

I've been in Korea now for a little over 2 months. Really only 2 days more than 2 months. Maybe 2 months, 2 days, and 2 hours who knows. Something like that. Depends if you count arriving in Busan or Daegu. Let's see where I should start.

I guess the airport since all epic journeys begin at some kind of station. I guess returns can't really be epic unless I'd been away for more than 20 years maybe. There might be a different rule if it's your hometown or something. So LAX. I can't really think of anything worth mentioning about the flight over except that what I thought would be a nice seat when I picked it on the seat map wasn't all that great. I liked that I was on Northwest flight 1 from LA to Tokyo. I think that was probably the most interesting thing.

I got to Busan and met my recruiter who drove me to Daegu. The old awkward conversation with the Korean thing. I always hate awkward conversations with strangers that happen only because both people feel obligated to talk to the other. It was alright for one of those though. Got to Daegu took a 2 minute tour of the school and went to my new apartment to sleep. My apartment was pretty disappointing. Full of useless chairs and tables. It's much better now and I'm actually quite happy with it. If I cleaned up a bit maybe I'd take a picture of it.

Work has been going fine. They stuck me with a few classes on Saturdays but I decided I was fine with it since Alex and Young Mi would be working anyway and I knew I'd do absolutely nothing with it. Plus half the week I barely have class. I teach for less than 3 hours so I was never dying for the weekend to come which is a big change. They gave me 4 extra classes the last couple weeks but I'm getting rid of a few next week. Actually next week I only have 29-40 minute classes but I'm waiting for them to give me a couple more.



Let's see what else. There was the World Cup. Korea unfortunately didn't make it to round 2 but we saw the Togo-Korea game in the middle of a big intersection. So it was fun to see Korea win with a giant field of red horns. The Koreans are known as the red devils. That was actually the night that 2 new teachers came in and I got out of class early.



I also took a day trip up to Seoul to see an old Austrian friend of Alex's. An Austrian, an American, a Canadian, and a Korean hanging out in the streets of Seoul. It always sounds like the opening to some bad joke when everyone is a different nationality. Of course, to the Koreans were all just Miguks or Waygooks (American/Foreigners) hanging out with a native daughter. Young Mi had her nationality questioned by some Korean kid. "Mom, where's that girl from?" "I'm Korean." "Mom, where is she from?" Funny only because usually kids only ask that question about people who don't look like them. Foreigner by association. We went to the Gyeongbukkung Palace and Insa-dong. Both places I'd been before. It was quite a silly day probably since we woke up about 4 hours before usual and we exhausted by 4pm. The Austrian was all jet-lagged and only knew she was staying with a guy named Kim which can't really get anymore vague in Korea.



I also went to Gyeongju with my boss and my newly arrived Canadian co-workers. That was quite a long day. I should really start updating this thing more often.



Basically things are going pretty well with everything. I've been having a bit too much fun and am already 200,000 won below my savings goal for the month with another week to go. Luckily, this next paycheque should have some extra money. We've been teaching morning classes for the past week which isn't too bad since it's really only an extra 2 classes with a 4 hour break between them and the regular working day. The nice thing is that I get an extra 150,000 a week. Not that much but enough to pretend that I saved 1,000,000 total this month. I bought some new clothes though, went to Seoul, had 2 really fun nights out, and got a personal trainer for the month.

I've been going to the gym during my 4 hour breaks and they have a really nice sauna so by the time I get back to work the morning feels like it was a different day. The trainer is actually a pretty good deal, too. 200,000 won for 16 sessions. It's a lot of money though so this will probably be my first and only month of doing that. Maybe I can work something out with them because 280,000 a month (membership fee) for fitness seems crazy especially when it's only 10% of my salary. I don't need 4 private sessions a week. Of course, I could come out of Korea with a totally awesome body. I'll have to put myself on a strict budget though. Anyways, I guess that's about all I feel like writing at the moment. Well I could write more but you're probably getting sick of reading this. Until the next.

Los Angeles Times

I go so long between entries these days. I'm not quite sure why that is. It was once because I didn't think I was really doing anything all that exciting, not that what I was doing wasn't fun but it just didn't seem like anything worth writing about. Drunken nights, while quite fun, tend to not make very interesting stories so I didn't bother writing about them. However, I have been in Korea for exactly a month today so maybe I should now make an effort to update this thing more regularly.

I had a good time while I was in Whittier. I can't say that I did all that much. My friend, Joey, would go to work at 8:30 when he should've left much earlier and I would sleep in until the mid-afternoon. I guess somedays I woke up a little after 12 but you get the picture. Then it was time for a bean and cheese burrito down the street and to watch back-to-back episodes of Law&Order on TNT. I was pretty much at the whim of my friend's schedule. I was practically a wife or pet dog. Sometimes I would clean up the house out of boredom. There were 5-6 people living in the house and none of them liked to clean so the one time I vacuumed there must have been months worth of dust. I swear I've never actually witnessed the carpet change colours after being vacuumed. Pretty much of all them were gone during the day and I came to the conclusion that if I actually were a housewife and had no car and no company during the day that I would probably want to have a baby. Caillie, the illegal resident, was a sometimes companion during the day but she had classes and work. I thoroughly enjoyed her company though. I was prepared for all that though and had I been in Edmonton I would've been sitting around the house and have it be colder outside and sit around at night also. It's too bad I had to pay for rent and utilities in LA but I guess most people pay rent. In case you didn't know, English teachers in Korea have free accommodation. Anyways, once Joey came home and my tail stopped wagging we'd have a good time. We'd go for sushi with Matt or watch TV at home and drink lots of beer. Sometimes we'd even leave Whittier.

A few days, I had little adventures. I drove down to CBS Television city for a taping of the Late Late Show but I thought was too late to get in so just drove by. It was one of the days of the big immigration protests. I also had to take the bus and subway to downtown LA to go to the Korean Consulate. I had a big fat book so the the 1.5 hour journey (one-way) (3h total) didn't seem that long. I managed to make it to a taping of Real Time with Bill Maher. That was pretty cool but also really surreal. This will sound really stupid but Bill Maher looked exactly the same as he does on television. I expected him to look different in person. Mind you I never saw him out of the stage lights so that may be part of it. The set also seemed really small. Anyways, it was pretty much just like watching the show but from inside the TV but further away and with an unchanging view. Well actually our seats weren't great because cameras blocked my view of the host and all the guests so I actually did watch the monitor most of the time. After we went for Ethiopan food. Interesting as well considering neither of us knew anything about Ethiopian food.

I also went to a Bob Dylan concert in Bakersfield. I got to sit with his mom way at the back of the Robabank Center (something like that) where she fell asleep. Joey meanwhile was 3 rows from the front. Then there was Joey's birthday party at a Latin jazz club, a cinco de mayo/Joey and Matt's combined birthday party, a trip to the Getty Museum and 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Then on one of the last days we took a trip downtown and saw historic Los Angeles, Union Station, Koreatown, the tar pits, and maybe something. Also, Jelena, which was nice. I met her one of the other times I was in Whittier. Alex, my friend in Korea, went to Whittier and knows her better than I do so I thought I'd take pictures to weird him out.

I guess that pretty much sums up LA for me. That and a few catchphrases and singing out Wikipedia won't make sense to any but a select few. I guess I didn't mention Korea at all so I should probably change the title of this entry. Anyways, here are some drunken photos.


Joey and Laura, lovely wife of his friend


Laura's lovely husband



A photo of them together too bad not to show.


View from the Getty Centre. Smogarific.


Jelena and Me.


Can you spot the pseudo-penis?


My daytime companion and her boyfriend who account for the 0/1 roommate since he was away for training.


So long, buddy.

Ko REE Ah

I'm still in Los Angeles and haven't broken any laws. I was going to try to get a job working illegally but decided to not bother anymore. I'm only in LA for another 2-3 weeks and I was just too intimidated to go in to places and ask them to break the law for me. Actually, I may have broken the law, I don't know.

When I was going through customs they didn't like the look of me and took me to the special interogation room. Well actually, they didn't like that I didn't have a return ticket and no job. I told them I wanted to stay for 2 months because someone I knew was getting married at the end of May. The guy told me he didn't want me to stay in the country that long and would have to break it into 2 trips. Ultimately, I ended up buying a one-way ticket back to Edmonton that was for April 29th so obviously I didn't end up using it. I don't know if that counts as breaking the law since I'm still entitled to be in the country. I had planned on going abroad again from LA. I wasn't sure where: Australia, Japan, or back to Korea, possibly France. I ended up going with Korea and here's why:

I was thinking about going to Australia but decided I should have a bit more in the bank before I went. I also figured it would be fall/winter in Australia so I would go back to Korea and work for 6 months to save some money and wrap up my Korean experience in a better way. I ended up coming across a really decent position in Daegu, the same city I worked in before. It sounded really good. I'll have a better schedule working from 4-10pm Monday to Friday. I'll be teaching 22 hours a week or thereabouts. I'll be living a lot closer to downtown than last year but will still be on a subway line so that's a double plus. There will also be 4 other foreign teachers there divided between 2 schools, which should be a lot better than working with 1 couple from Sudbury that rarely spoke to anyone outside their relationship. Not only will I be teaching better hours, less often, with better people and living in a better part of town but I'll be making $300 more a month. As long as the job turns out as well as it looks on paper I'll probably end up finishing the contract. So I'll have to put off Australia until at least then but I'll get there eventually.

Places been, decisions made, photos posted

I should probably write a few entries but you know how it is. The longer you wait the more daunting the task of updating. I don't think I really feel the need to come back with a bang but I have 3 months of my life that remain unchronicled. I guess I'll just jump right in.

So I got back from Hawaii and barely had anytime to relax before heading off to Mexico. Well I guess I had a couple weeks but I like to pretend to be a jetsetter, which I guess I kind of could be just looking at the last 6 months or so but between jet trips my life is quite dull. I sat in front of the TV listening to music and playing sudoku. So grand. I don't even know if I like sudoku but I play them compulsively now. So that sums up about about 2-3 weeks.

Then I flew down to Las Vegas. I won about $200 and then I lost about $200 plus an extra twenty. I met my Korean friend, who is white and from Oregon but I know him from Daegu. He did about the same as I did minus the winning $200. From there we took a quick detour to the Grand Canyon in a rental car and drove over the Hoover Dam. If you want to get out of your car head over to the Arizona side. Those Nevadans are always after you money.



From this point I will only make bullet points to save time. Some of the highlights (and lowlights):

But first, here's a map of the route we took:



Sleeping in a rental car in a Tuscan parking lot

Crossing the border to Mexico (still upset about no passport stamp)

Being on busses or in bus stations for 30 hours straight including a 14-hour overnight bus where I thought I slept horribly but according to Alex, who was afraid of being stabbed in the neck the whole night, slept quite well

Taking a train through 'amazing' vistas in the Copper Canyon where the views were unimpressive for 4 hours and then unviewable for 7 because of the overwhelming blackness of night

Eating ramen noodles on said train since there was no Mexican food on the Mexican train



Spending a night in the drug capital of Mexico, Los Mochis

Trying to read while Platoon dubbed in Spanish blared through the speakers on yet another bus

Finally, starting our Mexican vacation in Mazatlan about 2.5 days after being in Mexico





Eating marlin quesadillas, which are delicious

Having my mother be called a whore by some old Mexican lady

Meeting a friend of Alex's who we had been planning to meet but were unable to since our plans didn't mesh, at the airport in Mexico City by sheer coincidence. Crazy how that happens

Dancing to blues music at some bar with a 40 something health statician from Seattle

Finally meeting Alex's aunt and uncle and young cousins who we arranged to meet so many different times that meeting them seemed highly unlikely

Soaking up some sun in Mazunte



Taking a 6 hour ride in an suv through dense forested hills where going straight for more than 10 seconds was nearly impossible and nearly orgasmic the 2 times that it happened



Seeing Zapotec ruins at Monte Alban outside of Oaxaca



Literally falling out the doors of a bar after a few too many tequillas and twisting my ankle (only slightly)

Somewhat impressing some Norweigan girls with my unintelligible Danish

Consuming lots of chocolate in the chocolate capital of Mexico, still Oaxaca....mmmmm chocomilk



Watching a Zapotista demonstration

Meeting my grandmother, great-aunt and uncle at a bus station in Mexico City

Being serenaded to by a Juan Gabriel impersonator, a very popular Mexican singer, a Mexican Elton John you might say

Going to see the hometown of my great-grandmother and seeing the house where she was born and hearing how it became abandoned and was used as a place to get high



Losing badly to my cousin at a gladiator-style competition on an inflatable platform (Alex and my cousin, Fernando, well my mom's cousin technically)



Watching him dislocate his shoulder playing the same game by putting too much force into his swings

Going to a soccer game only to find out that we couldn't get tickets and just drinking for pretty much 8 hours instead

Having beers with my cousin while he drove on the freeway

Going to see giant pyramids outside of Mexico City only to return as a lobster and clown (my nose always burns)



Watching Alex go ga-ga at all the Don Quixote iconography in Guanajuato though this picture has very little to do with that piece of literature but apparently I took no photos of the Don



Stealing a bottle of water in the dead of night from a locked fridge at the hostel in Guadalajara out of unbearable thirst (I left 10 pesos with some other money on the counter)



Getting very nervous the next morning when I saw the surveillance camera

Staying with my grandma at her time share in Puerto Vallarta



Saying goodbye to Alex from a bus in Puerto Vallarta

Staying another 2 weeks in Puerto Vallarta reading trashy detective novels and Dostoyevsky

Flying back to Mexico City, and then to Oaxaca with my aunt and grandma only to see everything there for a second time (photo appears for a second time for comedic effect)



Going to a family reunion in the hometown of my great-grandmother, Real Del Monte(ditto)



Finding out that I'm probably descended from the man who started the first labour strike in the Americas by paying such poor wages

Seeing the sights of downtown Mexico City



Flying to Los Angeles with a screaming 12 month old girl, I do mean screaming after 7 weeks in Mexico (was supposed to be 4 but then I decided to stay for the reunion)

Seeing my original friend from Whittier though he worked each day I was there but it's ok (I'll come to that)

Binge drinking in Pasadena on St. Patrick's day

Going on to Denver to see another one of my Danish friends who is actually Asian and from Los Angeles but who I know from Denmark



Going for happy hour at a local bar and confessing all my secrets to said friend



Finally, returning to Edmonton (we live on the very edge of the city but my parents moved last week so I'll never see this 'sweet' view again. If you look closely you can see the reflection of my camera and without looking closely you can see powerlines)



Playing Sudoku at home for a week in Edmonton

Flying to Washington, DC via Minneapolis and Detroit to spend some time with my Danish friend who is actually from Hungary but who I know from Denmark

Eating lots of cookies from Potbelly's

Getting a bit lost after a quick electoral trip to the Hungarian embassy when the zoo turned out to be a bit further from the embassy than appeared on the map (I suppose groundhogs aren't the most exotic animals at the zoo)



Seeing another Danish friend who by now it will come as no surprise is actually from Memphis and listening to his classification of all people into 3 categories: Ninjas, Pirates, and Robot Dinosaurs



Flying back to LA to see the same friend

Going to Bakersfield to go see a Bob Dylan concert, he sat in the 3rd row and I sat in the very back row of the Rabobank stadium with his mom, though she is quite cool for a mom

I guess it's time to break back into a narrative. I'm actually staying with my friend in LA right now. Well, I'm being charged rent so I don't know if that's staying, probably not. I had nothing going on and for some reason I thought it would be smart to move down for a month or 2 while I decided what to do with the months after that. One of his 6 roommates was moving out so it seemed predestined that I come occupy the room for awhile so I did. I still need to go about finding an illegal job here. I'll have to think of something. It really is too bad that there's this big immigration debate going on in the US right now. I think it's probably easier to work under the table when what you're doing isn't thee hot topic of the day.

Also, I've signed a contract to go back to Korea. It's a cliffhanger.

Blueshoewhotwo in Hono-lulu

Ok, I have to admit my traveling has become a bit obsessive. This one however had been planned a long time ago by someone else. It was back when I had a contract with one of those Korean hagwons. I was supposed to still be in Korea around xmas, well actually had I not broken my contract I would still be kicking about in that place. My parents decided it would be nice to me over the xmas break of which I had at least 4 days off (from the 28th to the 31st and who knows how few days after that) so my parents thought they´d fly me to Hawaii since it was about half-way for both of us. There really is nothing else in the mid-Pacific.

I´d been home for a little over 2 weeks and then decided I´d go visit a friend in my connecting city since nothing is ever direct from out-of-the-way-from-everything Edmonton. I spent a few nice days there meeting my friends family and some of his college friends from Taipei and Kathmandu. Strange that I´ve technically been to both those cities. I guess Taipei airport doesn´t quite make the cut for having been there but anyway. I went snowboarding even for a day and kicked some ass at Scabble. How the word ´fax´ could earn me so many points I´ll never know.

My parents flew out from Edmonton and I met them at the airport. We went to board the plane and they announced they were looking for volunteers to take a different route to Honolulu. So instead of going direct, I volunteered and spent some time at the airport in Seattle and earned myself a free flight voucher. I arrived 2 hours after the rest of my family but what is there to do in Hawaii after dark anyway.

I didn´t really do all that much in Hawaii. I sat on the beach. I sat by the pool. My albino self gradually became flesh-toned. I read a half-decent book and another now that I think about it. My parents, 2 sisters, and grandmother were there for about 2 weeks. Actually, one of my sisters left on December 30th since the thought of spending New Year´s without her boyfriend was too traumatic. I was as pleased with xmas as I could´ve been.

I guess I can mention something about Pearl Harbour. Even though it´s technically Harbor I still feel like throwing in the all important ´U.´ So anyways, we had to take a limo there. They are the same fare as regular cabs in Honolulu. I was a bit embarrassed to be the first one out of the limo to Pearl Harbour. Then we waited in line for a few hours and another few hours waiting for our group to be called. Finally, we saw a short film and got on a little boat to go see the USS Arizona. I was as moved by this as I usually am by such things. There were a bunch of patriotic Americans of course but being Canadian I can´t say it was all that important to me or stirred up many feelings. There were quite a few Japanese tourists there since the Japanese love Hawaii. At one point, a couple of Japanese guys were talking away in Japanese and began to laugh about something. Some guy decides to get over offended and yells at them telling them that Pearl Harbour is not funny. This coming from a guy who had to be told repeatedly that video photography was not allowed at the site. It was just strange to see what racist feelings Pearl Harbour provoked. There were quite a few white folk chatting happily while there but according to this guy the Japanese needed to be extra solemn while there. I wonder what he would think about being in Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

So there was that and more beach and a hokey luau ceremony. I´d been to Hawaii before and I think that time was better. There was a point in the show where there´s this barebacked woman facing the rear of the stage shaking her hips and all. The moment she turned around the reveal all these leis covering her chest was the moment I heard the most disappointed communal groan.

Let´s see. There was New Year´s. I never really enjoy new years all that much. It just kind of reminds me of all the things I didn´t accomplish the previous year. My parents were pretty lame about it and went to bed around 10´30. My grandma decided to go back to the hotel room as well. My one sister was back in Edmonton and the other with her little Hawaiian fling who was from West Virginia and sold timeshares. I watched some fireworks on the beach. Pretty impressive ones I´ll admit but I think there´s a time limit to how much you can enjoy them.

Then I spent another few days about the sun and sand doing very little. It´s nice to relax but I´d already had, oh I don´t know, 3 months of no work, all play. Then we took a limo to the airport and flew overnight to Minneapolis and spent a good five hours waiting for our next flight and that was how I spent the days from December 20 to January 5th.

At Home

Well, I've been back home now since December 3rd and I've pretty much done nothing. I managed to surprise my mom on her birthday which was on December 3rd, the longest day of my life. I got off the plane before I left. My sister came to pick me up with her roommate's dog. Then we drove to the restaurant where they would all be eating. "All" meaning my parents, my sisters, and my grandma. We got there and were walking to the door when we see the other sister driving past in her car, then my parents. Luckily, in Edmonton, it gets dark at like 3pm in December so they didn't see me.

When we walk into the restaurant my mom is right there talking to the hostess. She turns around and looks right into my eyes and then starts talking to the hostess again. One of those mindless looks where you aren't really seeing. Anyways, she doesn't remember and was surprised to see me home 2 days before I had said I was coming home.

From that time on I did absolutely nothing until maybe the 20th of December. I just remember having trouble adjusting to the time difference for pretty much that whole time. Getting tired around 8pm and having to force myself to stay awake until a respectable time to go to bed. I saw a movie called Just Friends, I think. It was definitely not worth the money. I also saw Syriana which was quite a bit better.

Aside from those terribly interesting things. I was at home doing even less interesting things. Watching TV, eating food that was easily identifiable, doing x-word puzzles and what not. I really don't know what I was doing those few weeks actually.

I always hate coming back home. I magically revert to my teenage self and feel like I've never left at all. It's an awful feeling really. I just look at the calendar and think, hmmm another x amount of months have passed, where have I been? what have I been doing? I mean, I know what it was that I was doing but as soon as I get back to Edmonton it feels like it never happened. Like I had been in a coma for months or stepped into some time wormhole. So all of the sudden, all these things have happened to other people and I've just had a dream. It was a really nice dream, well Wonderland not so much, but it didn't really happen. I'm just all of the sudden older without anything to show for it: some photos, passport stamps, and memories of things that no longer seem real.

I think I'd make a really good spy. I mean I'd be able to pull off any nationality and I'm only able to concentrate on the present. Nothing else feels real to me. So I could be reborn as some diamond merchant in Amsterdam, some scientist in Chicago, or an industrial engineer in Buenos Aires. Well maybe I can't pull off those professions but you know what I mean. I could go there and only know those lives and places. I'd have vague impressions of having been other people in the past but where I am at that moment, the person I am at that moment, would be what defines me.

No Seoul Pun

Seoul was quite a long time ago but I will do my best to finally wrap up my time in Korea.

I got out of the station without incident and got into a cab. I didn't have the address of the place I wanted to go but I knew the station I would have to get to. I didn't want to take the hassle of bringing all my luggage onto the subway. I ended up taking a luxury cab but it still wasn't all that much. I tried to bring the image of the map I had seen to get to the hostel into my mind but couldn't quite manage to conjure it. There are PC bangs all over Korea but I can never find them when I need to. I walked around some developed area with fancy restaurants and Koreans in fancy clothes. After pulling my suitcases and backpack all over the place some guy offered to help me. I was having to take a break every 15m. I found a PC bang and the address and realized I was on the wrong side of the street. I left my big suitcase on the street while I headed upstairs. I'm always disappointed to see that it hasn't been stolen. I eventually got to the hostel and I chatted with the girl who was working there. She bought me some ramen and we talked.... about her boyfriend and my time in Daegu. Her boyfriend was doing his military service.

I met a bunch of Japanese people who were staying there at the time. I went to bed and woke up late. I'm ashamed to admit I didn't have much interest in seeing Seoul. Maybe if I had a bit more energy or hadn't seen more interesting sights elsewhere. I went to the national palace and did the audio tour since it was so cheap 2000W I think. There were hardly any people there or anything that hadn't been rebuild sometime in the last 20 years. I suppose it was important to see though. I was still a bit torn about leaving Korea and didn't know how to feel about leaving. I still don't know how I feel about Korea, actually.

I think I went to Namdaemun that day. Maybe it was dongdaemun, I don't know. The more commercialized one. I really didn't see anything very interesting and tried to walk back to the hostel but I got lost. I always get lost, well take streets that I think will lead places but only lead to dead end or progressively smaller darker alleyways.

The next day I tried to go to Seoul tower. I was well on my way and fond the gondola up to the top but opted to walk. I was following a path that seemed to be headed in the right direction but as I kept walking I became convinced that it was leading me away from the tower. It started off heading upwards but later started going downwards. I ended up hoping over this little barrier and climbed the hill on my own. There were quite a few leaves and didn't look like many people decided to stray from the path. I was gripping trees and roots to climb up this hill at some points. I always feel stupid when I stray from the main routes and that I might end up stranded for days or become some unindentiable body when I'm finally found. I wonder if there's an equivalent to John Doe in Korea. Either that or I become convinced that I'm going to stumble upon a dead body. I always end up finding trash or broken picnic tables so I realize that I'm not actually in that remote a place. I finally make it to the top and casually climb over a barrier there. I didn't just walk up the mountain like some kind of caveman. I followed the road just like everyone else. The worst part was that Seoul Tower wasn't even open. I got there at the perfect time too. Right around sunset so you could see it lit up by the sky and then a nightscape of the city. I didn't realize it was supposed to be closed and then came across a sign that said it was supposed to be re-opened on December 1st. That was the day I was there. Maybe it was the second. At any rate it should've been open. The view from the top of the hill would've been more impressive had I been able to see through all the trees.

I went to the other market that night but wasn't really in the mood to be there. It was pretty cold too. This was the night that some guy asked me if I was Japanese. I still don't understand that. I also ran into some drunk guy who stole my waffle and started eating it. Then he offered to give me parts of it back. Then he jabbered away at me in friendly Korean and seemed genuinely surprised that I couldn't understand anything he was saying. This was actually the night I was lost but it doesn't matter. This isn't a very accurate account of what I did in Seoul but more of the impression that's been left on me.

I met a Dane that night though. He was born in Korea and looking for a job teaching English. A Danish Kyopo. I don't think they're very common. He told me I spoke Danish well even though I really only said a few sentences. It was still nice. I ended up leaving my towel with him. I felt a bit bad about it since it was long overdue for a wash.

I took a crappy tour of the DMZ. The Japanese people took the USO tour which I guess is much better and you actually go right to the border and can take a few steps into North Korea. I only got to go to some lookout point. It was still pretty interesting though. The worst part was that I had to wake up around 5am and the tour didn't start until 9 or so. It was all so I could be picked up my hostel even though the guy was 40 minutes late or something. The cave was pretty interesting but of course, photos were forbidden. At the lookout point you could only take photos if you stood behind some big white line. I still don't understand that. There was also a nice trip to a jewelery factory. Fascinating. I left after 2 minutes. I hate tours that sneak in trips tofactories.

I forgot to mention this little station. They've already built the station heading to Pyeongyang. They even have a little place where you can stamp your passport. I thought it was official thing. It turns out you just stamp it yourself. I was a bit hesistant about mutilating my passport so I debated it once I got the front. Then some guy from behind just took it and stamped it for me. It's pretty lame I think and it's upside down. I'm still worried some customs official will be disappointed that it's been mutilated but there you have it. There were other people debating about the implications of doing it. It's now a little spot of shame inside my passport but at least I wasn't the one to deface it.

I was pretty worried by this point though. By the time I got back to the hostel I only had 2.5 hours before my flight. I really thought I'd be back before then. It was a stressful ride to the airport as I watched the minutes go by. I got to the airport with only 55 minutes until my flight. The driver also wasn't very happy with my excess luggage. I could probably go into my luggage programs a bit more but don't really feel like it. I had a suitcase that weighed in at 35kg. My backpack was 27kg. I had to take out 5kg from the big one making my smaller backpack and labtop case extremely heavy. I was really surprised I made it onto the plane.

There's a really nice thing about line. In order to wait for the least amount of time, one has to either arrive right at the beginning or right at the end. It's all about timing really. I could've arrived an hour earlier and still had to wait just as long. It really depends on when the person before you gets there. When I was waiting at the Indian embassy in Kathmandu, I was in an ideal position. I was there an hour after the guy in front of me but it didn't matter because anyone who had come between figured they wouldn't get in or didn't bother coming to try. So anyways, it was lucky that I made my flight and didn't have to wait in line. Well I guess I had to wait for maybe 5 minutes.

Then I ran around the airport trying to sneak in my last meal and get rid of my excess won. I somehow dropped my boarding pass along the way. I was surprised when someone was handing it back to me. Eventually, they were ready to board my row and I left Korea feeling as confused as when I got there.

Final Days in Daegu

Back in Korea I really didn’t do all that much. I had returned for a grand cocktail party in Alex’s apartment where everyone got quite toasted. It was nothing compared to my last trip to Itaewon Pub Crew so I almost felt sober. I even wore my suit to the party, I got to know Young Mi and her friends. A good time was had by all.

I think I stayed in Daegu for about 5 days. I really can’t think of anything that I did. I went back to my old area. My pizza guy was so happy to see me. I saw one of my old workmates, well I don’t know if I can call her that. She doesn’t speak English and never spoke to me. Grace Teacher. I thought about going to see my replacement at my old apartment but decided against it since it would be kind of weird. Weird even to think of that really. I walked around downtown a bit but mostly just lazed around Alex’s apartment.

Of course, I waited until my last day in Daegu to do important things like close bank accounts. I didn’t want stacks of Korean money, although I could’ve felt like some kind of smooth criminal with so many bills. I’d love to get stacks of bills from the bank but since my bags were overloaded as they were I opted for a cheque. I assumed she’d give me an international bank draft but she gave me a cheque that couldn’t be used outside of Korea. I had to FedEx it back to Korea to have it wired to my bank in Canada. Idiocy really. I should’ve known it wasn’t wise when I didn’t see a single Roman letter on this little slip of paper but I thought I’d impress a bank teller with my foreign cheque. She didn’t seem impressed with it at all. They could’ve accepted it had it been Chinese or Japanese but Korean cheques were taboo for Canadian banks.

Alex treated me to a last meal in Daegu and then I got in a cab with a giant suitcase(35kg), a laptop case, a giant backpack (28kg), and a smaller backpack. All of them overloaded. The laptop case and smaller backpack were both really heavy but since Air Canada didn’t weigh them when I checked in I don’t know how much they weighed.

I got to Daegu station and managed to buy a ticket and get on a train to Seoul. It was my only real time on the KTX. It was technically my 3rd time but since you can’t see the countryside passing you by quickly there’s no point saying you were on a train going 300km/h. I was in Seoul an hour and a half later.

Back to Korea via Bangkok and Taipei

I’m the most behind I’ve ever been. I’m writing about things now that happened over a month ago. It’s time to get caught up, I guess.

So I spent a night in Georgetown, Malaysia at some little hostel that hosts people competing in Koran reading competitions. I again spent time only in Little India. I was the only one using utensils, also the only non-Indian so I guess that’s what made me stand out a bit more. I returned to my room only to find that I was locked out. I remember getting into the room and not only was some guy awake he said something to me that made me think ill of him. I can’t remember what. It was also very hot.

I had a cold shower and worried I wouldn’t make my bus to Hat Yai. I waited where some guys told me to wait. An hour after my bus should’ve left I went to the counter where I bought my ticket. I guess I was supposed to go there to begin with. Shame on me for listening to people who worked at the bus station. Anyways, I had to repay the fare, I got a slight discount on account of me being a retard and I was off….. about 4 hours later. I sat and read the last of my Harry Potter books.

I read all the way to Thailand and then across the border as well. I decided I would just go to the airport when I got to Hat Yai. I was in some kind of weird mood near the end of my trip where based on poor logic I decided that since my trip was so close to almost being over that it might as well be over. Also I plan to journey through Thailand some other time so I wasn’t very keen on seeing all that much. I got to the airport and tried to buy a ticket from Bangkok to Incheon so I wouldn’t have to do it later. It turns out that they had no flights to Korea. All the flights had been cancelled, probably because not enough people were flying. I decided I would sort it out in Bangkok and just fly there that night. So that’s what I did. Harry thwarted his nemesis en route. I got to Bangkok and didn’t plan on leaving the airport but went airline to airline asking for fares. They were all grossly overprices. Like $600 one-way whereas my cheapo fare would’ve been $240 one-way had there been flights. I really didn’t know what to do. I thought I’d even fly to Macao and then go through China and take the ferry again. I ended up on Kao Sanh road. A Thai friend of mine found me a cheap place to stay despite her being in Chicago. I think my room was less than $1. Yeah, like 20 baht or something. I also found a cheap fare back to Korea on China Airlines.

The next day I toured Bangkok. I got up late. Had something to eat and went with some Tuk Tuk driver who told me that I was there on the only day that all these temples and things were open. Buddha Day. I doubted him really until his cohort inside the Lucky Buddha temple affirmed his story. It was also supposedly a time when all suits were on sale. It was the last day of this massive sale. I don’t know how but I got kind of swept up in this so now I have a Thai suit. I really don’t know what possessed me to buy it. It wasn’t that expensive but something about the custom-tailored part persuaded me. I even got 2 custom made shirts. I don’t deny that I was scammed but it wasn’t that bad a deal, well for Thailand it was but what’s done is done. I saw a few temples and sat around some places but didn’t do many noteworthy things.

I went to bed early which is pointless on Kao Sanh road since I couldn’t get to sleep until the bars closed. I caught the 5am shuttle to the airport and then boarded the biggest plane I’d ever been on. I still don’t understand why they need a huge double decker plane to fly from Bangkok to Taipei. Well only first class was on the upper deck, you know what kind of plane I mean. I sat next to a woman from Malawi and a Chinese man. She was one of the few who actually wanted to go to Taipei. Hardly anyone wanted the customs declaration for the Republic of China. I don’t think I saw Taiwan anywhere in the Taipei airport. I checked my email there though and some middle aged American kept saying ‘Fuck’ about something.

So after my next flight I was back in Korea and immigration went much smoother than I thought it would. I imagined myself being detained for not having an ongoing ticket, which seems a bit silly now. He asked me a few questions though which is actually nicer than just being stamped and ignored as a living being. I took the bus to Seoul station and within 2 minutes of entering the station was offered a job. I kind of wish I’d asked for some details but knew I wouldn’t be returning to the job market for a few more months. I called Alex and then boarded the KTX bound for Daegu, well it was bound for Busan but that would be misleading. I was almost able to take the newly opened second line but I was lucky to get on line 1. I took a taxi and was back at my old sleeping ground. I even had a little greeting party awaiting me. Alex, his newly acquired girlfriend Young Mi, and his co-worker, Nathan. It was nice to get back to somewhere kind of familiar.