aveleigh's joy

As of today I'm done teaching regular classes at my school.  The next three weeks will be full of speaking tests and contests, special study classes and final exams, and then six weeks of summer vacation will begin.  Though I'll still be working quite a bit, I'm going to have more free time than usual, and I'm feeling the need to make good use of it.  Thus, project summer.  Here are a few things I hope to spend time on in the next two months:

1) Blogging: This blog has been severely neglected in the last year or so.  I haven't stopped thinking about things I want to write during that time, but I haven't found the motivation to actually write them.  I still need to write about the rest of our January trip (Laos and Thailand) for petes sake!  Also, I'm about 90% sure I'll be leaving Korea at the end of August, so I'm feeling the urge to document my life here.  I'm hoping to write a post every week or so.

2) Photographing: I always seem to be taking a lot of pictures, but I feel like I haven't sufficiently documented some of my favourite things about Korea, so I want to spend a couple of hours just walking around our town taking pictures.  This place is full of good photo ops.

3) Studying Spanish:  I bought a "Teach Yourself: Spanish" book months ago and have yet to get past page 5.  While I realize I won't be fluent with just this book and two months, I figure it's a good start to learning the language I most want to learn.  I should really just move to a Spanish speaking country, as I've picked up quite a lot of Korean without even trying.

4) Reading:  I spend too much time in front of my work and home computers.  In fact, almost all of my time at home is either spent cleaning, cooking, or watching a computer screen, but when I snuggle up in bed with a book and my boys, I am most content.  So, I'm going to read more.  Book suggestions are welcome.

5) Working out:  We've been going to a local gym for a few months, but my efforts have been sporadic and inconsistent, so I'm attempting to up those efforts to gym visits (or playing tennis) 5 times a week.  Weekends are not meant for working out. 

Last week I turned 25.  It seems like a rather monumental birthday, if only because I can FINALLY rent a car.  I made sure to celebrate in style, with lots of good food, friends and fun.  D and I had dinner at a favourite Thai restaurant in Seoul, then we joined some friends for drinks and cake (and party hats!) at a relaxed bar, and ended the night at a basement place called "Reggae Bar" that felt exactly like someone's hippy living room.  It was wonderful.  I decided I would like to have a picnic the next day, so we made our way to the only real park I've ever come across in Seoul and made an afternoon of it, complete with cupcakes, brie, baguettes, and frisbee. Here are some pictures.  Only this year did it occur to me that I've had a picnic on every one of my last 5 birthdays.  I started a tradition without even realizing, but I fully intend to continue it.

So, 25.  I feel like an official adult now, which feels both awesome and terrible.  I feel more in control of my life than I ever have before, but also much more responsible for my actions and decisions.  I love the freedom I have to live how I choose, but I feel the guilt that comes with it more now.  I've also never been so aware of how scary and dangerous the world is, though I feel like it is wide open for me (and others) to explore.

This year has been a test for me, but also an opportunity.  I don't think I would have come back to Korea if I had known that the tension between north and south would escalate so high this year.  It has caused me a lot of anxiety to be
living in North Korea's backyard, but it has tested my endurance and my strength of character to have stayed.  There is no way to know whether I will be in danger while I'm living here, but I'm proud of myself for dealing with the anxiety and being as responsible as I can be in this situation.  At the same time, this year back in Korea has given me the opportunity to achieve some of my goals.  I've had the time and money to finish two courses I needed to take.  I've had the great chance to meet and work with Korean and foreign artists, and I've been able to pay back my university debt.  It feels like my 25th was a very full year.

Looking toward my next year, my goals are not so clear.  There are certainly things I know I want to achieve in the next 3-5 years, but none of them seems particularly urgent.  I think it's a foregone conclusion that I want travel to remain a big part of my life.  Though it scares me a bit, I'm not sure I'll ever get over the need to explore and experience new places.  I'm also certain that I want art to become a bigger priority in my life, and that teaching has become important to me as well.  For the time being, I'm trying to take the societal pressure to achieve the expected standards off of myself.  All I want at 25 is to have purpose and balance in whatever I'm doing.

As a public school teacher in Korea, I have almost 6 weeks off teaching in January and February.  During this time, D and I decided to take two weeks of holiday and head south.  Hoping to add to my list of 'cities I could live in', we took advantage of a cheap flight from Seoul to Bangkok, via Hong Kong.  It seems a lot of international flights around Asia have stop overs in cities like Hong Kong, Taipai, and Tokyo, and with many tickets, you can extend your stay in the stop-over city for several days without an extra fee.  Thus, we decided to spent three days in the former British colony before flying to Thailand. 

I could definitely live in Hong Kong.  Though it's a bit too civilized for D's taste, I loved being in such a modern city that still offered traditional Chinese culture.  Sure, it's more expensive than Seoul, but it's also cleaner! You can get any kind of food, electronic, or clothing you can imagine. It has the outdoor markets, and street food of all Asia cities, but you can hop on the subway for a few stops and find yourself in a road that could easily be mistaken for NYC.  I can easily say that Hong Kong is the most international city I've been to.  We heard dozens of langauges being spoken, and saw people from all over the world.  It's full of vibrancy, colour, and culture.  I especially liked the odd mixture of architectural styles and shapes.  Examples, here.

I was happy to simply wander around Kowloon for hours, but there were some stand out things we had to do before we left.  My favourite parts of Hong Kong were the ones that gave me a view.  We took a tram up to "The Peak", which is a small tourist village at the top of Victoria mountain on Hong Kong Island.  It gives you the quintessential view of the city, and gets your heart beating with excitement.  It was almost as good as the shots from "The Dark Knight".  The other place I loved was the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island.  To get there, you can either take a bus (boring!) or take a gondola on a 20 minute trip up and into the mountains.  We decided to splurge (which happened a lot in Hong Kong) and took the gondola on the way up.  We made the trip near the end of the day, as the sun was starting to set, and it was one of the best moments of the whole trip.  Sadly, the gondola windows do not make for good photographs. But, I love that you can travel for 30 minutes from the city center and then find yourself out in the mountains.

hong kong

Last month we traveled around South East Asia for about two and a half weeks.  We went to Hong Kong, Thailand (Bangkok and Chiang Mai) and Laos (Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and Luang Prabang).  It was a wonderful trip, with a nice mix of food, adventure, culture and summer weather! I'll write about each place individually soon, but first I need to tell you about a discovery I've made.  I've found the most fantastic travel shoes.  They aren't necessarily meant for travel, but when I found them I thought they had all the makings of a good travel shoe, and I was right.

The company that makes these shoes is called TOMS.  It was started by a participant of one of my favourite shows, The Amazing Race.  While traveling through several developing regions Blake Mycoskie noticed many children were living without proper shoes.  He had an idea and sought to help remedy the problem.  He started TOMS shoes on the 'one for one' principal that for every pair of shoes he sold, he would donate another pair to a child in a country like Argentina or South Africa.  Since he started the company in 2006, TOMS shoes has given shoes to upwards of 200,000 children around the world.

As soon as I heard about this company, I went to the website and decided I wanted to buy a pair of TOMS myself.  I looked through the styles offered and settled on these.  I loved the neutral colour and the wild animals print inside.  Little did I know then that I would end up wearing them while riding an elephant!  The next step, of actually purchasing said shoes, proved quite difficult since I live in South Korea.  Unfortunately, TOMS doesn't currently send online orders to Asia, so I had to track down one of the 5 or so stores in Seoul that carry TOMS.  I went to one in MyungDong, called 'ALand'.  I was happy to find they stocked the style I wanted (and also that they have a second hand store on their 3rd floor!), and I happily forked over my $42 USD.  I am proof that when you offer a customer something extra (especially something worthwhile) with their purchase, that customer is willing to pay a lot more than normal for your product.

I walked around in my TOMS before our trip, wanting to make sure they 'wore in' before we left.  I was pleasently surprised to find they didn't need it.  They were comfortable from the minute I put them on and they haven't stopped being comfortable since.  I was also happy to feel how lightweight they are, which is the second most important traveling requirement.  Comfortable? Check.  Lightweight? Check.  Two for two.  The other benefits of making these my 'travel shoes' revealed themselves once we were on the road.  In the past I traveled through warm climates primarily doning flip flops or other sandals.  While I adore my flip flops, they do not keep my feet warm on night buses, and they do not protect my feet from mosqitos (who are potentially carrying malaria) or random things on the street I don't want to get on my feet.  I was concered that they would feel too hot while I was walking around in the tropics, but I felt really comfortable in them.  It was a bonus that my shoes seemed to go with almost everything I wanted to wear. 

After two and a half weeks of wear through dirty cities and rough countryside, my TOMS held up very well.  The quality of these shoes is very high, and I would trust them to stand up to a much longer trip as well. Obviously, I would recommend other travelers get a pair of TOMS.  Not only do they make a great travel shoe, but they also give us an opportunity to improve the quality of life of people we often meet while traveling.  Now I need to find a reason to justify the purchase of these lovely TOMS wrap boots.

1. 'Crick Crack' - The Lovers
2. 'Buy Your Side' - Alex and Sam
3. 'Eyes' - Rogue Wave
4. 'Skinny Love' - Bon Iver
5. 'To Build a Home' - The Cinematic Orchestra
6. 'The Debtor' - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
7. 'Staralfur' - Sigor Ros
8. 'La Valse d'Amelie' -Yann Tierson
10. 'Postcards from Italy' -Beirut
11. 'Trains to Brazil' - Guillemots
12. 'Move on up' - Curtis Mayfield

This is the first year in many that I've had a desire to make new years resolutions.  I think it's because this year I discovered just how much I like making them.  In 2008 I made resolutions no less than three times.  Some might call what I do simply 'setting goals', but I think when we set goals for ourselves, we are resolving to improve who we are, so it's really just semantics.  In order to cover all my bases, though, I made a list called "Resolutions and Goals for 2009".  It looks like this:

Resolutions:
1) Take a daily multi-vitamin.
2) Cook and eat at home six days a week.
3) Dance everyday.

Goals:
1) Pay off debt.
3) Travel to Laos, Cambodia and China.
4) Apply for grad programs.

This list is interesting because I already do some of these things, and have already set others in motion.  It's also not exhaustive, because I'm thinking of it more as a first draft.  I know I'll make new resolutions and goals as the year moves ahead, so this is just to get me started.  The last list I made was in September, and while I've made progress on some of those items, some have reappeared in the new years version.  So it goes.  The problem with resolutions is that they have come to be known as life changing things, with the expectation that most people will give up and return to their old, bad habits.  I think they should just be things that we feel like trying or things we will be happy to have accomplished, whether it's by the end of the month or the end of another solar year.  The point is to strive.

With that in mind, I'd like to share a poem.  This poem reminds me of who I'm striving to be.

A Word on Statistics
by Wislawa Szymborska
(translated from Polish by Joanna Trzeciak)

Out of every hundred people,
those who always know better:
fifty-two.

Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.

Ready to help,
if it doesn’t take long:
forty-nine.

Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four — well, maybe five.

Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.

Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.

Those not to be messed with:
four-and-forty.

Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy-seven.

Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.

Harmless alone,
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.

Cruel
when forced by circumstances:
it’s better not to know,
not even approximately.

Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.

Getting nothing out of life except things:
thirty
(though I would like to be wrong).

Balled up in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty-three, sooner or later.

Those who are just:
quite a few, thirty-five.

But if it takes effort to understand:
three.

Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.

Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred —
a figure that has never varied yet.

It turns out there is a lot of art in Korea.  There are hundreds of galleries in Seoul, and even more artists operating studios and opening shows.  There are networks of expat artists all over the country, and I've had the pleasure of meeting a few a them.  South Korea also has one of the largest artist villages in Asia, nestled in a valley near the border with the north.  Heyri Art Valley has 300 artist members, and more than 100 buildings comprised of houses, galleries, and shops.  Each building has a unique architectural design and the artists display diverse collections, from paintings, to ceramics, to musical instruments, to books. It's such a beautiful place.  I'm fortunate to live fairly close, so I have been volunteering there for the last month.  Each time I visit I go to a new gallery or shop and help the manager with whatever they have for me to do.  I'm planning to write a short essay about my visit to each place, since they have provided some of my most interesting experiences in Korea.  I am very excited to be involved at Heyri and to learn from international artists.  And I'm thrilled to have discovered so much creativity surrounding me.

heyri art valley

There is a large garden that I pass on my way to and from school everyday.  If it's a warm morning, I usually see an old woman bent over tending to it.  This amazes me for a few reasons: 1) She is the only one I ever see in the garden
2) It's easily one of the biggest gardens I've ever seen and 3) She is very old.  She uses an abandoned baby carriage to move harvested vegetables around.  It appears that she is the only one who takes care of this sprawling mass of plants.  There is a small makeshift shack along the edge that I assume she sits in when it's cold or uses as storage.  I very much hope that is not where she lives.  I like walking past the garden because it reminds me to take a deep breath and be grateful.  I'm a bit sad that today I saw the old woman covering some of the land in plastic for the winter.  I look forward to seeing the garden in full bloom again come spring.  

I've always been completely creeped out by fog.  Usually I'm driving through it, at night, which certainly increases the creepiness factor.  I've had to get used to it though, because fog is a very common occurrence in our part of Korea.  Through the night and early morning there is very often a blanket of fog on our town. This morning was the first time that fog stuck around past the time I leave for school.  The fog was so thick and white that I couldn't see further than 50 feet in front of me as I walked the familiar route.  But I wasn't creeped out at all.  In fact, it was one of the more beautiful things I've seen.  It seemed as if the trees were walking toward me, rather than me toward them. Maybe I could just stand still and the whole world would eventually pass by me.

I've started writing at least three posts about my first impressions (for the second time) of Korea.  I think there is just too much I could say, and so I get overwhelmed and unable to write anything coherent and meaningful.  Today I was walking home from school and I realized it doesn't really matter any longer what my first impressions were.  What matters now is that nearly two months after arriving, I'm very happy with how things are.

I'm happy that I work at a great school, with wonderful staff.
I'm happy that Korean food tastes a lot better this time around.
I'm happy that my students are at an age where I can connect with them.
I'm happy that I can walk everywhere I need to go.
I'm happy that the big city is only an hour long train ride (and $1.50) away.
I'm happy that I get to come home to my boys every night.
I'm happy that we have a lovely apartment, that is nestled among traditional Korean homes.
I'm happy that our little town doesn't have a McDonalds or a Pizza Hut.
I'm happy that I have met wonderful people in Korea.
I'm happy that I have made so much progress on my goals in these two months.
I'm happy that I have a helpful, loving and fun partner.
I'm happy that it is still autumn.
I'm happy that I have access to technology that makes it easy to feel connected with the rest of the world.
I'm happy that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.
I'm happy that the world has renewed hope.
I'm happy to be here, doing this, at this moment.