Reality Check

On Monday morning, the head teacher Song Myeong turned to Melissa and said (in a totally off-hand way) "Oh, last weekend, one of our students died", then she walked out the door. It took Melissa and I another 20 minutes of questioning various teachers to figure out what exactly had happened.

On Saturday night, as teenage boys are wont to do, he went out drinking with two of his friends. He took his mother's car. There was an accident and he, the driver, was killed. The two other boys were injured, but survived. As Grade 2 high school kids, they would be about 16-17 years old. The boy who died was a "good" kid. He was tall. He always wore his tie. He wore black-framed glasses. He was good in English. No, I don't know his name.

Melissa and I use vague descriptions or nicknames to describe our students. Out of the 600 students that I teach, I know less than 10 of their "real" names. But I can recognize just about all of them. Compare this to my students in La Pocatiere: I knew their names, where they lived, where their parents worked, their best friends (and why they weren't speaking to them on any given week), and which class their cousin was in.

Although I have received news of some of my former students dying after they'd graduated, this is the first time that it's happened to a current student. In Canada, there would have been an uproar over his death. We would have had a drunk-driving assembly, his locker would have been decorated with flowers and teddy bears, grief counselors would have been on hand to help the kids out, the year book would have had a page dedicated to him... at any rate, it would have been out in the open. Here, except for his hearse coming to the school on Monday morning (it then drove to all of his favourite places - a nice touch, I think), there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement of his passing at all.

But, these are still teenagers - and you can see it bubbling under the surface. After school on Monday, I saw one of my kids at the bus stop, and instead of the normal "How are you"/"I'm fine, thank you, and you?", he answered, "I am upset. My friend is dead.". I've been starting my Grade 2 classes by saying that I know what happened and that I am sorry if they lost a friend and that I remember him as a good student and I will miss him too. It seems to relax the kids and all my classes this week have been stellar (and a lot of fun too - we are doing an activity where we spend a lot of our time laughing).

I am really going to miss my Suncheon Jeil Kodeung Hakkyo students when I leave.

I still can't believe it...

I can't believe I actually did it. Me. The girl who doesn't have a driver's license because she's "afraid of traffic".... I made it from Suncheon to Mokpo on my little Red Devil.

After putzing around (lost-ish: Have you ever asked for - and understood - directions in Korean??) in Jangheung, I finally managed to escape and headed south on National Road 23, which goes over a mountain before skirting the coastline of the peninsula south of Jangheung, all the way up to Gangjin.



To say that it was "pretty" or "beautiful" or "breathtaking" would be an understatement. The mountains are high, the valleys are low, the rice paddies are green, the sea was as smooth as glass (and stinky). And everything just feels so "authentic".

Video - 360 view of a valley:

You get the feeling riding around there that you are pretty much the first "tourist" to visit... there are traditional graves everywhere, making it feel like there are more people buried under the ground than living on the land. There are anti-FTA banners EVERYWHERE. These are the people (really really rural farmers) who will feel the most effects - for better or for worst - if the Free Trade Agreement between the USA and South Korea goes through.

Video - Beautiful house and garden:

It took about 2 hours to do the loop from Jangheung to Gangjin, keeping in mind that I was literally stopping every 10 minutes to gasp at the view, take pictures and wander aimlessly down random roads, usually looking for poorly sign-posted temples and the like, which I never succeeded in finding. Just before Gangjin, I stopped at a Traditional Korean Celadon Pottery compound, which is what this area is known for - if it is "known" at all. It was pretty much deserted, but I was happy to find one store that was open. I picked up some things for myself, Chad and my family.


After lunch in Gangjin, I headed straight for Mokpo on the 2, which is, yes... a rather busy highway. Fortunately, there was a laneway just next to it (probably for farmers to use with their scooters and handcarts etc) that I used whenever possible. As I rolled past Wolchulsan, I could hardly contain myself - I was cheering and squealing inside my helmet.

I arrived in Mokpo ahead of schedule, and surprised myself by finding my way to Chad's apartment - only getting lost once (Note to self: keep visor down when passing the disgusting stinky fish market) - where I met up with Nicola and Chad and did the official changing of the guard. Red Devil will live with Chad until I get back from Canada.



Video - view from the top of Chad's building, where I will move in May:

Without putting too much meaning into this and getting all dramatic or whatever, this really was an amazing experience for me. I am so lucky, so fortunate to be living where and how I am right now.

Wow.



Mom, can I get a motorcycle?

Woohoo! This is fun!

Here's the e-mail that I sent to my mom (and various folks who were possibly waiting for me in Mokpo) when I arrived in the thriving metropolis of Jangheung. You may also refer to Jangheung as "the ass-end of nowhere".

Alright - After waking up to rain, I left Suncheon at about 2:30 this afternoon... it looked like the pavement was dry enough, the air was warm enough etc. And I was antsy to go.
I had the best ride to Nagan - felt really good.
Ended up following a road that I'd already been on during some random
explorations of outer-Suncheon area on my scooter a few weeks back with Stu to
get there, so it was reassuring to be in familiar territory.
It was so gorgeous - buds on trees. mist on the moutains, hardly any traffic. I made it to Beolgyo with no problems at all (except for fogging up my helmet every time I
giggled). Discovered that the acoustics inside said helmet are great for singing
to yourself.
Right, from Beolgyo to Boseong, I hopped on the 2, having been assured that it was a calm bit of it. And it was - the road I take to school is more of a "highway" than this was. Once again, hardly any traffic.
Got a bit lost in Boseong, and kind of wished I had thought to bring Vanessa's number (what was I thinking??), but ended up going in the right general direction.
Ended up on the 2 again, but didn't really want to be there. Got myself on a
small 2-lane road that runs beside the 2 instead and found my way to
Jangheung.
I've done about 86 km, and Red Devil is doing fine. I've used a
grand total of about 2,500 won in gas.
Tomorrow morning, I am going to check out a temple that is near the town before heading to Gangjin. In Gangjin, I want to look at a few touristy things before I head to Mokpo. I didn't really stop at all today because I was a) FREEZING (even with all my layers) and b) it was still misty and c) I didn't know how long it took to get from point A to point B.
So far, having a blast. Am going to climb into my comfy hotel bed at the
Jin Song Tourist Hotel and watch movies on TV now. I can't believe how tiring it
is to ride the scooter for so long - my right arm is stiff from turning the
throttle thingy and my entire body is sore from nerves (my battle scars of some
very clumsy - on my part - TKD sparring last night isn't helping any).

This morning, I am up early and on my way to explore a bit of the peninsula below Jangheung and Gangjin (for those of you with maps of Korea... for those of you *without* maps of Korea, click here) before I head up to Mokpo. It was so much fun to spread my maps out on the hotel bed last night and see what was out here. I wouldn't have come to this place if it weren't for this little folly of mine.

Where I'll be going tomorrow...

... and I really hope it all works out.


Suncheon is in the lower left, Mokpo is the airplane that is the furthest away (not Gwangju). The image is looking west and I will be going along the southern bit, you know... the part that seems to be ALL mountains. Just have to pray for no rain (or only a bit of light rain in the morning so that I can start off in the afternoon) tomorrow.

In preparation for losing my Red Devil for a few weeks, and in celebration of some nicer weather, I've been going for 1 - 2 hour rides after school. On Wednesday, I went around where Nina and I rode a few months ago on the outskirts of Suncheon, and saw some pretty amazing things, like an incredibly old (but beautiful) man and woman sitting in the sort of comfy chairs you would expect to see in a living room, but they happened to be out on the street, next to a rice paddy.

On Thursday, I went around the dam and the lake again. It's amazing how much more beautiful it is, after only a few weeks of spring-ish growth. These are the sorts of things I wish I had my camera for! When I came back into Suncheon, I got a bit lost and ended up on top of a hill in the middle of town next to a statue of a horse. It was really cool, though, because the sky was just starting to change colour (orange and green) and the view of the whole city was amazing. I wonder why I didn't even know this place existed before!

p.s. This is my 200th blog post.

Update

So, I've done some more planning, with Do Hyun and his brother (whose name I never remember)... It was really encouraging. We looked at maps online and the maps that I had and have come up with this as a route. For the most part, I will be following 2-lane country roads that go along the 4-lane National Road 2. The entire distance is roughly 150 km (from Shidae apartments to the Mokpo Bus Terminal), and I should be able to do it in way less than 5 hours, but I still want to give myself ample time to do it and explore etc. I did the first leg of the trip last Sunday afternoon, and it is hardly like going through outer Mongolia. Anyway, here's the route:

Suncheon
Nagan
Beolgyo
Joseong
Yedang
Boseong
Jangdong
Jangheung
Gangjin
Seongcheon
Dokcheon
Mokpo

And, I have phone numbers and contact names of bike shops at two different points along the route. The only thing that will change anything now is the weather. It's supposed to rain on Saturday, which may cause the whole trip to be postponed.

The Votes are In!

So, it looks like I am actually going to do this.... and it isn't going to be *that much* of a big deal. I've spoken to Do Hyun, my hot mechanic, and he is giving me a map today. I also photocopied a bit of my tourist map of Jeollanamdo and highlighted some of the roads that seem to lead sort of in the general direction between Suncheon and Mokpo. Lana and Bryce might be helping me out with a map too (hope so!). But like, the last Geography course I took was in Grade 9, and I know that the area I'll be riding through is quite mountainous, which will hopefully just make it prettier.

I've also spoken to various friends who have given me all sorts of good advice as well, ranging from "You're nuts" to "Well, there's no reason that you *can't* do it. I mean. Nothing is really impossible, right?" to "Yeah!". Melissa thinks I'm nuts and so I am not allowed to talk to her about it at work. Chad told me not to hit any trees. Scott said something confusing about oil levels or something about the engine and something or other. But that sounds like mechanical stuff.

My other way of preparing mentally has been to watch a borrowed DVD of Long Way Round where Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman ride the "long way" around the world from London to New York (Possible side effect: learning how to ride a motorcycle). I've been paying close attention, and not just because of Ewan's hotitude. In the first episode they learned Russian, practiced First Aid, learned how to dodge bullets, talked about how many centuries they have both been riding motorcycles, got a team of producers, doctors, camaramen etc together, and planned the entire trip, which included going to the Kazakhstan embassy etc etc etc.

Right. I have a photocopiedhighlightedtouristmap of Korea.

So, I have decided instead to take a lesson from a different movie all together: The Straight Story (where that old guy rides his lawnmower/tractor thing across Iowa).

I'm somewhere in between.

In all seriousness, my route will be something along the lines of Suncheon-Beolgyo-Boseong-Yeongam-Mokpo. Or maybe Suncheon-Beolgyo-Boseong-Jangheung (Do Hyun's brother has a motorbike shop there) -Gangjin-Mokpo. Or you know, quite possibly something very different.

The entire trip is supposed to take about 6 hours. If I do it over 2 days, that is only 3 hours a day. I've done long-ish rides on my scooter before, so I'm not too worried about the time that I will spend riding since I will certainly stop frequently to take pictures and look at stuff. Oh, and gas up.

Wish me luck.

(and please don't worry Mom. Aren't you glad that I inherited your sense of adventure?)

What do I do????

When I made the decision to move to Mokpo, I decided that I would ride my scooter, the Red Devil, all the way there. I don't know if people just didn't think I was serious about it, but it has been the main topic of conversation for me this morning. After talking to 10 different people and getting 10 different opinions, I have decided to just ask you all what you think I should do.

Please vote and/or comment.

What do I do with Red Devil?

Give your opinion Toss caution to the wind and ride to Mokpo... Ship her to Mokpo by truck/horsecart/whatever... Sell her and buy a 125 cc motorbike...

Current results

What a weekend!

The weekend started nicely with a manicure at New Core. It was Melissa's treat (woohoo!) and we both went "French" (no sparkles this time!).

That evening, I hosted Maura and Stu, who were both in town for Mel's party. Carol decided to make it a "Moustache" party, meaning that we were expected to sport a moustache of some sort - quite easy for the boys to do, but a bit of a task for the ladies (most of whom drew one on with eyeliner or created one with false eyelashes). Well... I decided that I am far too pretty for facial hair (although Vanessa does look HOT with her 'stache), so I did a wee variation on the theme. I found the logo for a motorcycle club from the Netherlands that featured a moustache and a motorbike, then dressed up to look like a biker babe. Anyway, Carol outdid herself as a wicked awesome hostess, with lots of great things to eat, including lots of cheese and hummus. I knew I'd hit rock bottom when I was putting spreadable camembert cheese on Pringles.

The next day, Maura and Stu helped me load up Black Betty and we moved a load of my stuff (already!) to Brent and Stephanie's place (until they leave in April) and Chad's place (where I will move in May) in Mokpo. How is it that my possessions have multiplied since I've arrived? This is my third move in 14 months, and although I do enjoy the idea of arriving in a new place, always paring down gets tedious after a while. Thanks to Stu for helping me move and thanks to Brent, Stephanie and Chad for letting me store things at their places - since I don't know how I could have managed otherwise!!

Chad had a wine and chocolate fondue party, which was awesome. And I got to check out where I will be living next year - which is going to be very very very different from living in Shidae in Suncheon - AND meet some of Mokpo's finest residents. Parking myself next to the food table, I inhaled my own weight in cheese, chocolate, hummus, fruit and cake (ever dipped cheese and crackers in chocolate fondue? Hmm, you should try it sometime) while trading the world's most tasteless and offensive jokes with the boys in the kitchen.

Not surprisingly, after a weekend of consuming nothing but wine, chocolate, cheese and Pringles, I woke up on Sunday morning feeling like I deserved a liver transplant, so I headed back home to Suncheon asap.

I took the Red Devil out for a wicked awesome ride past the lake again - she's had a lot of repairs done lately and is running beautifully. Next weekend, I will endeavor to ride Red Devil to Mokpo, unless I chicken out. I wonder if a little 50 cc scooter can make it that far????

I missed out on Suncheon's St Patrick's Day celebration at Julianna's, but I got to harass Max and destroy Nicola with my Facebook supremacy, so it all just sort of evens out.

See you in 40 days!

Well, my flight is confirmed (although ticket is not yet paid for as my school decided at - literally - the last minute to change my payday from TODAY to NEXT FRIDAY. Gee thanks!) and I will be arriving in Toronto (via Detroit, Tokyo and Seoul) on April 25.

I can't

In TaeKwonDo class, Haydar (my instructor and friend) and I often have discussions that go something like this:

Haydar: I want you to learn this next form today.
Me: I can't.
Haydar: What? No. Today, you will learn this form.
Me: (slightly whinier) But, I can't.
Haydar: Why? Just do it.
Me: (sounding more and more like a petulant 3-year old) I don't want to and you can't make me.
Haydar: Learn the form.
Me: (roll eyes, stomp to the other end of the room and start learning the form, all the while insisting that I can't)

You can substitute just about anything in the place of "learn the form", including "do this test", "kick higher", "correct your stance", or "put your feet like this". And any time that I protest that "I can't", I end up doing it anyway. Haydar won't let me believe that I can't, and won't listen to me protest, which is probably a good thing, or I would still be a white belt.

In my TaeKwonDo classes, I have learned to fail on the way to succeeding. To practice the same move over and over again until my muscles remember better than my mind, and I move on instinct. I am faaaaaaaaar from perfect, but I have started to silence the voice that keeps saying "I can't" and changing it for "I'll try".

After more than 15 years of smoking (off and on, but more on than off), I've decided to also stop saying that I can't quit. Over the past two weeks, yes, I have cheated a bit, but I'm not letting these small failures stop me from succeeding at this too. I proved to myself last weekend that I can even drink and not smoke. Getting emotional or feeling a bit of stress did not send me straight to the store to buy a pack and just start up again. If I'm brave enough to announce it here, I can't let myself down. I just can't.

Oh, right, the point of this post was really to announce that I got my RED BELT. Next step: Black. Think I can do it? Go to this page on Cassie's blog to see what the 8 forms look like. Yes, I can actually do all the movements, just not as well as the guy in the video.

Friends

When you leave your family, your friends who have known you for years. When you leave your country, your home, your job. When you give away your furniture, your cats, your books, your clothes. When you pack up a jumble of treasures and store them away. When you leave it all behind, there is really only one thing that you truly need.

Friendship in Korea is transient. There are always people coming and going, and this gives a whole different flavour to the idea of making friends here. Nobody knows what you were like in high school. Nobody can base their opinion of you on anything but the present. Who you are now. The only thing that we truly all have in common is that we have found our way to Korea, which in itself implies that we were all able to leave our families, our homes, our books and treasures in boxes and take off to parts unknown. Motivated by money, by a taste for adventure, by boredom, by unemployment, by youth, by dreams, by promises, by disillusionment, we have all ended up here.

Thrown together in the same city, same school, same apartment complex, same orientation group, we mix with each other. Our differences generally outweigh our similarities. We are different ages, from different countries, different walks of life, with different pasts, different beliefs, different values, different ideas, different realities. I don't want to imply that we're all just one big happy family, or that we can replace the friends in our home countries, but sometimes it just works, and you can't always explain why.

And it happens fast. It has to.

The people I consider to be my closest friends here are from New Zealand, Australia, England, South Africa, Iraq and the USA, with almost a 20 year age range. Even my Canadian friends aren't from "where I'm from" (with the exceptions of Steve, who is from Niagara Falls and Jeannie, who used to live in Montreal). In lighter moments, we laugh at each other's accents (I DO NOT SAY "aboot"!), pick up each other's dialects and slang (It's a "tuque", not a "beanie"!); we may not always know someone's last name, but we might spend 3 hours chatting with them on msn, we plan our weekend activities - and sometimes our vacations - around each other, and will ride a bus or drive for hours just to see the other person. When the going gets tough, we offer shoulders to cry on, emergency cash until payday, solace and help.

How many of these "transient" friendships will last? Even if I look at my friends in Canada, I've really only kept a precious few (moving around, unfortunately, means losing the weaker links) - but that is what my friends, in Canada and here, are: Precious. Rare. Enriching. Fragile.

For those who are leaving, or who I am leaving (or have already left), you know that I will miss you.

May you be one of the precious few.

Good News

So, yeah. Moving to Mokpo in April would have come at a price. I would not have been able to come home to Canada. But, I just sort of shrugged and said, "Oh well...whatever." Having had a visit from my Mom in October, and just the fact that I am used to living away from my family meant that I wasn't all that shook up about not going home. Even when my Suncheon friends headed back to Canada during their vacations, I wasn't jealous. Sure, I would ask for a few special deliveries, but other than that.... I was okay with it.

Then, today, I got the news that I would probably be going to Mokpo in May, replacing my friend Chad. I wanted Chad's spot for many reasons, including his apartment, which is perched on the side of Mt Yudal with a view of the ocean (see picture). The workload will be a lot harder than the one I have now, but that's also a part of the attraction. Another advantage, I get to come home to Canada for a bit. Did you hear that?

I AM COMING HOME AT THE END OF APRIL.

I didn't realize how much I missed Canada, until they told me that I could go home.

Winter is Jealous of Spring

This is the explanation for the inhumanely freezing temperatures we are having lately. Yes, Winter got all uppity and shrill and decided that all the happy people walking around wearing lighter jackets and commenting on the pretty pink flowers just wouldn't do, so Winter has come back, with a new haircut and a new pair of shoes, pushing Spring out of the way and demanding to be the centre of attention once again.

Winter... now come on, dear. You had your fun, and now it's Spring's turn!

And, Nicola got on the Wando news' website (!!!!), which makes me, like Winter, oh so green with envy. To read her scintillating interview (she claims she was misquoted), click here. If that doesn't work, click here and type "Nicola" into the search bar.

The New Seven Wonders of the World

If you go to this link, you can vote for the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Can we really exchange the Acropolis for the Statue of Liberty? Can we even compare the two? On one hand, it does seem like a rather interesting concept - that we can choose those monuments that we consider to be deserving of the title "Wonder". Do we consider them to be "Wonders" because of what we've heard about them? Or because we've seen them? Or because someone told us that we should?

I haven't voted yet, but I have quite enjoyed looking at the site - remembering the places where I have been and dreaming about the places I still want to visit - which is exactly what I expect my mom and Meron will do as well.

Complete listings of the Wonders of the (Natural/Ancient/Medieval/Modern etc) World can be found here.

Like a goat and a racehorse...

... is how I would describe the ride I took around Suncheon with Stu yesterday. We did over 100 km, me on my little 50 cc Daelim scooter (that would be the "goat") while he rode his new awesome BMW motorbike (let's call that one the "racehorse"). It reminded me of this thing I saw on the Discovery Channel once, where they tried to fly some sort of really fast jet and a little plane together: The plane was going as fast as it could, while the super speedy jet thing was going as slowly as it possibly could without dropping out of the sky. Okay, enough analogies, but you get the idea.

It was a great day, though. We rode up and around twisting mountain roads, around a lake, past a huge dam, and through small towns. Spring is spranging up all over out here, and there are a few buds on the trees, breaking up the monotony of winter brown. No pictures, I'm afraid, as we both forgot our cameras.

We finished up the day with some Vietnamese soup, after meeting up with every single one of my students (or so it felt) in downtown Suncheon. Then I went to TaeKwonDo, where I FINALLY DID THE SEVENTH FORM FROM START TO FINISH. For those who haven't been paying attention, a 1st degree black belt is tested after the 8th form. This means that I am 7/8 of the way there! Will I finish it before moving to Mokpo? Hmmm, doubt it.

Today is the very last day of winter vacation. Tomorrow, the new school year starts (yeah, it's not the same as in Canada. Had to laugh at Joanna's e-mail about starting March Break soon!). My plans for today include watching TV online (am seriously addicted to "Heroes") and eating. And maybe doing some laundry. maybe head to the sauna. I don't know...

Okay, I've become one of *those* bloggers now, who tells all the minutae of their day.


Have finally managed to upload some of Karen's pictures of India to my Flickr site - check there to see photographic proof that I actually was in India (she took more pictures, better pictures, and lots of pictures of me...).