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.
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.
I live a 15 minute walk from my school.
I have 500 students.
There are 3 grades at my school: 7th, 8th and 9th.
My office is on the 4th floor (of 5).
I walk up at least 250 stairs a day.
I have 1 Korean coffee after lunch.
My classes are 45 minutes long.
I teach 4 or 5 classes per day.
Good numbers, I think.
I spent the summer mostly like I would have if I were still 15 years old. I lived with my mom, hung out with my family and some friends. I bummed around at the beach, at the park, by the t.v. and the laptop. The major differences were highlighted by the fact that I'm almost 10 years older now. The reason I was bumming around wasn't because I had two months off school. It was because I was looking for a job, and I had found myself in the familiar vortex of having a degree in social science, with too much education for many jobs and too little experience to be hired as a full-time employee anywhere else. Mind you, I was looking everywhere but Canada, though I know I would most likely have the same problem there. I was sure that if I just looked hard enough I would find the opportunity I was looking for: one to pay off my debts while living abroad doing something related to my future career goals. To my dismay, the only justifiable option that kept cropping up was to teach in Korea, the place I had left just months before, feeling rather negative. So, I finally gave into the idea (after much thought) that maybe Korea would offer what I was looking for. Money - Check. Travel - Check. Career Experience - If I made an effort - Check.
Guess where I've ended up. Korea, of course! I'm working in a middle school (which is one of the age groups I hope to work with in the future) in a small city north of Seoul that has an arts center (something I want to learn more about and get involved in) and I'll have at least 5 weeks of vacation (hopefully allowing me to knock a few more places off my 'to-see' list). Best of all, I have a plan to attain some major goals this year and (most importantly) a new attitude towards Korea. So far, which isn't very far, it's been going very well. I just hope nothing breaches the DMZ and the exchange rates stop soaring. No, I'm definitely not 15 anymore.
There are a lot of places to fall in love with on this earth, but I have found there are few places that I feel especially connected too. In fact, I can only think of three such places. Two are from my childhood, and the third is Istanbul. I had no plans to go to Istanbul until a few weeks before I arrived. It was somewhere I wanted to get to, at some point, since I had met about a dozen lovely Turks when I lived in Amsterdam, but it was not on my 'near future travel radar'. Fortunately for me, two things happened which brought it directly to the center of my travel radar, where it would remain my one and only goal until I got myself there. First, my friend Tamara told me she was planning to go to Istanbul in the middle of April to visit our mutual friend Yaprak. Second, my one month tourist visa to Russia just happened to expire a mere two days before Tamara was to arrive. We had to leave the country to apply for our work visas anyway, and I realized, "Why not go to Turkey?". Well, there was no good reason not to go (actually there was, but I didn't know it at the time), so go we did.
I got to experience the tourist side of Istanbul, but also a little of the local side since I had many expert local tour guides who were quick to tell me about the history of their city while also explaining the ins and outs of Turkish culture and politics. My friend's mom even wrote up a guide to the city, complete with any information you could want about every interesting corner of Istanbul. Then she drove us around for an hour pointing out all of the important buildings. Talk about hospitality! Istanbul feels very European to me, but it has a special mix of east and west that I don't think could exist in many other places. The mosques and calls to prayer were two of my favourite things because they reminded me that this place had a lot more history and flavor than other European cities. Not to mention, it is just the prettiest place to put a city. Check out my photos to see what I mean.
I know why my experience in Istanbul made me feel so much at home. It was almost entirely because I was with very good friends. Friends who feel like family. Friends who let you stay at their gorgeous purple hillside house with a garden in the back and a view in the front. Friends who pick you up and drive you back and forth over the bridges countless times. Friends who you can hang out with for days uninterrupted. Friends who drag your butt out of bed for an excursion to tiny islands and share a horse carriage ride with you. I felt so calm, happy and loved being with these people, in this beautiful city. And the food! Talk about a cherry on top. Turkish food is so pure and simple and therefore delicious. Some of my favourite things were Pide (an arabic style pizza), Mercimek çorbası (lentil soup), Borek (a pastry filled with cheese, spinach or meat) and Baklava! Who am I kidding? I loved everything I ate and drank. I even developed a mild addiction to Turkish tea. With three sugar cubes please.
The only thing that tainted my glorious two weeks in Istanbul was the other reason I was there. The visa. I think I have finally learned that embassies do not run the way one would like or expect. They are exceptions to standards, rules, and, in my opinion, common sense. The problem in this case was that what the embassy told us when we called them was quite the opposite of what they told us when we had spent our money to come in person. Very long story short, we did not get our work visas, and so our plan to work in Russia fell through. Despite the outcome, I will not ever regret the decision to go to Turkey. It was two of the best weeks of my life, and now I know I have at least three places where I feel totally and completely at home.
I'm on a train to St. Petersburg. It's the second time I've made the trip from Moscow to the more northern Russian city. The first time was over a month ago, when I arrived in Russia for the first time and made my way to St. Petersburg for two reason: 1) To find a job and 2) To see if I would like to live there for a while. D and I spent three weeks there in total, seeing the city, looking for work, finding it, and beginning to arrange the paperwork. I also made some small attempts to learn Russian, but after three weeks I've only so far grasped the alphabet and some basic (but important!) vocabulary. We found a small language school that was looking for new native teachers and they decided to help us process our work visas so we could work for them. The story of what happened next is a long one, and one better left to another post, so in the meantime, I'll tell you about the beautiful city that is St. Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad).
Someone told me recently that St. P ranks among the 5 most romantic cities in the world (along the likes of Venice, Prague, Paris, and Istanbul). I have no idea who conducted such research or how they went about deciding on judging criteria, but I would have to agree. You wouldn't think to place a former Soviet city with the others in this category, but maybe that's why it's considered romantic, because it's so unexpected! The beauty of this city is surprising (at least for me, someone who had few previous references to it). I remarked one day how I 've often found myself thinking "This street feels like any typical European neighborhood street", but then I would walk not 100 metres to come across some stunning piece of historical or architectural significance. St. Petersburg is packed full of things for tourists to do and see.
The same negatives exist in St. Petersburg as do in Moscow, however. It is cheaper, but because it attracts so many tourists (especially in summer), the main areas are still quite steeply priced. Despite the large appearance of the tourist industry, there are still very few signs in English, or any other language aside from Russian. But, the metro only consists of four lines, so it is much easier to figure out than the Moscow metro. I think it's definitely true that St. Petersburg is the more 'European' city.
We seemed to arrive at a weird nexus between winter and spring, because for the first five days we were here it snowed and snowed and snowed, but two days later it was warm outside and the snow was gone. I imagine that winters here are just as long and dull as those of Canadian cities, with the added bonus of less sunlight! To balance things out, however, St. Petersburg has white nights in summer, when the sun practically refused to set. It's really too bad we didn't get to experience those, but I did find myself walking home from work at 9:30pm in late March and seeing no sign of the sun setting.
Spending three weeks in a city gives you just enough time to settle in and start to act like a local. For example, we were just getting used to the seemingly redundant practice of buying groceries. Most of the "grocery stores" are small shops that have three or four separate sections (meat, fresh produce, dairy, dry goods). You must approach each section and ask the attendant to gather the items from behind the counter and give you a total of how much you owe. Once you've visited every section you add up your total and stand in line at the cashier to pay and get your receipt. Then you return to each section and pick up your food. I have no idea how this system evolved, but I think I need someone to explain it to me.
We stayed in a cozy little apartment for most of our time in St. P, which was much nicer than a hostel, but also gave us the opportunity to meet some other tourists who were staying in the other bedroom. Coincidentally, perhaps, every couple we met was from England. The best part about this apartment was that it had no phone, no tv and no internet. Although we found ourselves bored at times (all of the files on my laptop are now organized, including pictures!) , it forced me to 'unplug' and just enjoy where I was. I loved getting up and leisurely making and eating breakfast, then reading a book, going out to explore... Of course, almost everyday can look this way when you're traveling, but having internet around always makes it harder for me to accomplish.
I took almost insultingly few pictures in St. Petersburg, probably because I thought I would have many months to take more pictures, but here are those I did manage to snap.
Moscow, on the other hand, is ridiculously expensive. We only spent three days there, mostly because we couldn't afford to stick to a budget. It is, I've heard, the most expensive city in the world. I had a tough time believing that until I saw it for myself. I saw a cup of black tea cost the equivalent of $6. I saw a simple Italian food court dinner cost almost $20. When you're trying to live on less than $40 a day, it seems you can't eat or drink in Moscow. But, in other ways, Moscow is wonderful.
It's full of history, for starters. Even without making any effort to find the historically significant museums, monuments and statues, you will just run into them, because they are so numerous. The metro is one of the most beautiful places to see in Moscow, for which it is unique. In the 1950's, the Soviet government was so pleased with itself for building a metro that is went all out and had every station designed in a majestic manner. If it weren't so dangerous to walk around with valuables in the metro, I would have taken a whole series of photos based only on train stations.
Another special feature of Moscow is its architecture. I was half-expecting big blocks of concrete with few windows, but in fact the buildings in the center of Moscow could be mistaken for the Parisian or Roman variety. Huge ceilings, complimented by huge picture windows, adorned every room I went into. And the churches! Wow. They are like something out of the imagination of the love child of Willy Wonka and Picasso. Not that that would be possible. The spires are so unique and beautiful that people go through all the Visa red tape just to see them in person.
And, with some effort, we did manage to find some "cheap" options, such as a buffet style restaurant called "MY MY", which in Russian letters actually says "Moo Moo". There you can pick and choose your courses (salad, soup, meat, side, drink and dessert) for the bargain price of about $15. What a deal! We also took the metro around the city, which was fairly cheap. Walking between major tourist attractions is also doable. And, if you want to leave Moscow (for, say, St. Petersburg) you are in luck. A basic train ticket between the two cities is only $20 in the low season! We sprung for the four bed cabin and took a night train, but we still only spent about $45 for an eight hour trip and a good nights sleep (those beds are pretty comfy).
The most difficult thing about Moscow is actually not the prices, but rather the language. I had a serious advantage in that my boyfriend just so happens to speak fluent Russian, but if I had been alone or without a Russian speaker, I would be lost. Every other country I have been to has been manageable, I realize now, because even if the signs were not in English, they did use a Roman alphabet. I am able to find my way around because I can recognize or read signs (and because I have an awesome sense of direction, if I do say so myself). In Moscow, everything uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which I had only just started to study. The metro is also very difficult for tourists because the station names are not always visible from the train and the announcement is often hard to hear. We resorted to counting stops on the map.
My first taste of Russia in Moscow was almost exactly how I imagined it would be. I was totally overwhelmed for the first 24 hours and then slowly settled into it as I figured out how things are done. I tried to just go with the flow of Moscow, because I knew I would have three weeks in St. Petersburg to really wrap my head around Russia. Little did I know, I would need all of that time. More to come...
The major theme of our trip to Japan was "cheap". It's what we were and what we looked for. It wasn't always easy, but we discovered that it is possible to travel through Japan on a budget, despite what most travel guides tell you. For a 10 day trip, we managed to come in on budget at around $500 each. Of course, that didn't include getting there, but I still think that's a pretty good number considering we were in one of the most expensive countries there is. Here is how we did it, and what exactly we did.
The biggest way that we cut down our costs was to take advantage of a seasonal discount train ticket that was created for students (over their school holidays), but that has no age limit or requirements. It's available three times throughout the year based on holidays. We happened to be in Japan at the right time. We only found out about it after doing hours of research about traveling through Japan. It isn't very well advertised. The reason? It cuts the price of train travel in Japan by 3/4. It's also half as cheap as taking buses. The downside is that this ticket doesn't allow you to take the high-speed trains, so you can easily spend a whole day getting from Tokyo to Kyoto (which the high-speed train takes 2 1/2 hours to get to). This suited us fine, since we had the time (and lacked the money). Since we moved along at a more leisurely pace, we got to see a lot of the countryside, the coastline, and even Mt. Fuji!
The other big money saver was accommodation. Anyone who has ever traveled on a budget knows the value of good hostels. We were lucky to find several in Japan. A good hostel for us is clean, has laundry/internet, the option of private rooms (although this isn't always possible), and is not fancy in any way. The great thing about Japan is that they have more options for budget seekers. A traditional Japanese style hotel or house is called a "Ryokan" and you can stay in a simple, but lovely room for almost the same price as a hostel. We found one in Kyoto that was exactly what we were looking for. Unfortunately, we made a huge mistake in planning our trip to Japan. We didn't really. Plan, that is. We kept doing things on the fly and booking places at the last minute. FYI, Japan is not the place to do this. We found that out when we arrived in Kyoto around midnight and could not find a single hotel room in even a dingy, broken down place for the night. We ended up walking around for a few hours and biding our time in one of Japan's 24 hour McDonald's. Although, in retrospect, being without anywhere to go for one night is something I'm glad I experienced, it is not a good way to spend time, in general, let alone in a foreign country in March.
Speaking of McDonald's, the other way we kept our money in our pockets was to eat very cheaply. We only ate at McDonald's once (on that fateful night), thank goodness. Mostly, we ate Ramen noodles from the corner store, which will only set you back about a dollar. Of course, after a week of Ramen, you probably won't feel that great, but you can mix it up a little. We also bought a lot of food at convenience marts. In Canada, I'm usually repulsed by convenience store dinners, but in Japan, things are a bit different. They often sell salads, and fairly fresh meals. You can even find fruit in the nicer ones. Again, this is sustainable for much longer than a week, but it's a great alternative to expensive restaurants.
So, that was our holiday: long train trips, being homeless, not being homeless, and eating really cheap food. We also did a lot of shopping in Akihabara (the technology center of Japan), strolling through parks, wandering into temples, getting hair cut (mine, mostly), taking pictures of funny signs and hanging out with people we met at hostels. Japan, in my opinion, is a beautiful country. It's history, art, people, and landscape are all beautiful. When you combine beautiful with cheap, you've got a winner.
