Planes, Trains, and Wagons East

I’m going to Hong Kong. Fuck money, right? As the infamous Zero Mostel said in one of my favorite movies, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it, baby, flaunt it!” So I’m going to Hong Kong. Financial stability be damned. Student loans, I piss on thee. Big trip that I’m trying to save for, I bit my thumb in your general direction… with a little less contempt. Three days off work for Christmas was a welcome break, but I caught a glimpse of what life would be like if I stayed in Korea over my long 18 day winter vacation: episode after episode of Dexter, with a few friendly visits sprinkled in. And probably a lot of drinking and spending money on drinking. On Monday, back at school, after a five minute walk in -10 degree C weather (that’s about 10 degrees F for you US folk) with the added comfort of an ever present wind, I decided it was better for my mental health to get out for a while.

Top choices: Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand. Too expensive. Second choices: Philippines, Shanghai. One was too expensive, the other requires a visa I don’t have time to get. Also, it’s cold in Shanghai. Then I stumbled upon Hong Kong. Having its own government, Hong Kong does not require a visa for entry, and neither does this interesting looking Portuguese settlement nearby called Macau. I had talked about Hong Kong with a friend I used to work with long before leaving, and I remembered thinking it sounded cool. Bonus, or should I say, determining factor: it’s about 60 degrees F there at the moment. And there’s beaches. And mountains. And islands. Not to mention a bustling commercial center around which live seven million people. Oh, and the flight is cheap.

It was not easy to book the flight. Air China’s website wouldn’t work, the Air China office in Seoul closed 15 minutes before I got there (after over an hour on the subway). But finally Expedia came through for me. I’m leaving in four days and I’ll be gone for ten. This is definitely going to be the most spontaneous trip I’ve ever taken. Let’s hope it turns out well.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, a milestone has been reached: the halfway point. Of my job in Korea, that is. Unless something drastic changes, I’ve decided to hit the road earlier than expected. My contract is for one year, Sept. 23rd ’09 – Sept 22nd ’10, and I had every intention of completing that contract upon its signature. Now I sing a different tune, which speaks nothing of the country or of how much I am enjoying myself. It speaks of my own realizations that have taken place in the brief time I’ve been here. Realizations like “what did you do this weekend?” can not be the most intelligent conversation I have on any given day. Like finding out I don’t have the time or the energy to care about my job and more importantly my student’s education because of how much I teach in a given week. Like the fact that I was planning on giving myself three months off between college and work because I was burnt out on both, and I’m doing a lot more working here than traveling. I guess I knew that was going to be the case when I came here, but I didn’t realize just how much I needed some time off. And possibly the most important realization of all, because of the overtime that I’m working I can save in 6 months what I was expecting to save in a year.

I made this decision a while ago, but haven’t spoken of it for a few reasons. First, nothing is in stone until I tell my manager, and I’m not going to do that until 60 days before I leave as per my contract. Second, I wanted to give myself as long as possible to make up my mind and to allow any errors in judgment to be removed over the course of time. Every day is different. Every day brings on a new perspective on my environment and on life overall. Some days I wake up loving life and go to bed wishing I was somewhere else. Other days I wake up hating the world and lie down at night with a whole new respect for it. That mental rollercoaster has pretty much subsided as I’ve carved out a nice life for myself here, but what ups and downs still do exist come by week and weekend.

Weekends are wonderful. I used to be a tourist on the weekends, but now I have enough of a social network where that is no longer necessary. Late nights with beer, friends, and good television is how it usually turns out, and I go to bed wanting to stay here forever. Then Monday comes with a renewed sense of discomfort. First up, teaching a 10 minute lesson on “What school do you go to?” “I go to Cheoncheon Elementary School,” or other various five-six word dialogues, on camera in front of the entire school. With my day already completely ruined, I arrive late to class due to the principal’s ridiculously long morning speech on the announcements before my “lesson”, and jump headfirst into a new lesson plan which inevitably fails in one way or another. Thirty or so classes and countless repetitions of “Is this your cap?” “That’s too bad” or “What do you want to do?” later, I finish the week with only enough time to walk myself through what the god-awful textbook has planned for my next embarrassing week. The material is absolutely horrific, and I like to think I would make my own lesson plans if I had the time. All of this by now has become routine and much less painful, but it’s a routine I still dread every Sunday night. I’ve got eighteen days off starting on Dec. 31st and I sorely need all of them.

Unfortunately, because I’m leaving early, I need to save all my money for the big trip that I’ve been planning for three years, which is to start when I leave Korea. Therefore I can’t really afford to go anywhere over the break. That could change if I can find a ridiculously cheap flight to someplace warm, or get so bored I don’t care about money and hop a ferry to Japan. Regardless, I’ll be leaving Korea for good on March 23rd, or a week or two later (depending on if I can squeeze out a few more weeks of salary + overtime). That makes January 23rd my notification date. I’m really dreading telling my manager because she’s been great to me, and so has everyone else at my school, but sometimes I have to do what’s best for me.

It’s not all bad, though. I’m a celebrity at my school and in my neighborhood as well (mostly because that’s where all my kids live). I can’t walk two steps without someone yelling out “Hello, teacher!” or “Engel teacher!” I thought that would get old after a while, but it really hasn’t. Provided I’m not out of breath from walking up 5 flights of stairs and grumpy from my morning fog, I love it. And these are kids who usually bow respectfully to their Korean teachers, hoping they won’t really be noticed. I think they like me. Some kids come by just to talk, which I’m not great at, but learning to enjoy. I have to walk through a neighborhood of 15-story apartment buildings to get from my apartment to the shopping center, and I rarely make it one way without being accosted by one of my kids, amazed that I’m a person who exists outside of school. I remember the feeling. If they have food, they always offer it to me, and I never turn down free food. On the other hand, sometimes six of them ambush me walking home with a pizza and demand some. I often think I’m heartless because I don’t give them any, but then I remember I’m hungry.

More reasons for leaving early… You just can’t beat April, May, and June as months for travel. My step-sister will be studying abroad in Beijing, which is where I’ll be heading immediately. Both my mom and my dad want to take trips abroad in the spring, and I’ll hopefully be meeting up with them in Europe at some point. It’s freakin’ cold here now, and in the summer it’s going to be freakin’ hot and my apartment has heat but not air conditioning. Having a routine here makes me miss my old routines on the homestead. I miss my family.

Reasons for staying… I have a lot of friends here, more so than I did back in college. Funny, I also drink more here than in college. I hope that’s a correlation and not causation. Anyways. The money is incredible. I mean incredible. And good luck to me finding a job when I get back home. There’s a lot of Korea I haven’t seen yet. Public transportation is GREAT! I really do enjoy some of my kids, when I don’t have to teach them.

All that being said, I think its time to move on. I’m three months in and I’m already itching for the next leg of my big trip. The fact that there are seven huge world maps around my classroom that I have to look at every day does not placate my wander lust in the least. Still, I have another month yet to decide, so any input would be helpful (THAT MEANS LEAVE COMMENTS PLEASE).

Merry Christmas and a Happy Passover, everyone. It’s been 4 months to the day since I left Charlottesville. I’ve traveled a lot, seen a lot, done a lot, and learned a lot, but I’ve also missed a lot. And I’m still missing. You.

Oh, and if you happen upon any teachers from my school, please don’t mention any of this.

Here are some of the stranger thing I experience on a daily basis. Laughter is encouraged, but only because I can't see or hear you laughing at me. Enjoy.

There’s a typo written in irremovable ink on my English classroom wall – “World Famous Beauty Spofs.”

Chocolate did not encourage my students to participate. It did, however, encourage me to eat it in front of them.

I wonder if my kids know Sanford and Son. If they don’t, they certainly know the theme song because that’s what I sing to them all day.

Yelling really loud with a booming, bass voice will instantly quiet and scare the shit out of a room full of 40 students. Cracking up as a result reverses that effect.

No baseball bats in the classroom, therefore plastic tennis rackets = bats as props for role play. Line: “Is this your bat?” “Yes it is!” No, it isn’t. It’s a tennis racket and it belongs to the school. What the fuck am I teaching these kids?

My mouse-wheel squeaks.

My pointer lost a finger.

My hair broke a set of clippers.

I never thought I’d utter the phrase “You are going to sit quietly while I have my coffee.”

I accidentally changed the language on the copy machine from Korean to English. I couldn’t figure out how to change it back.

I couldn’t figure out why my good students who volunteer in class were angry when I gave chocolate as incentive to the students who wouldn’t, and not to them… until I actually spoke those words out loud.

Korean apartments are heated by steam pipes running under the floor. As a result my clothes are warmer than I am at night. I’ve never had a better reason to clean my room.

The 3rd floor of my school is an “English Only Zone”. My classroom is on the 5th floor. Something is amiss but I can’t figure out what.

In Korea X’s and O’s as symbols mean the opposite of what they mean in the U.S. No wonder my love is unrequited… I’ve been sending it out all wrong.

Revitalized with tired eyes and energized by pious cries,
Arrived to bind the conscious mind with unknown thoughts always left behind.
The shrine was lined from side to side, with bending thighs I knelt beside,
Trying to find a peace of mind, obliged to rectify self with divine.
Enlightened, surprised, mystified and clarified.
Glorified, deified, sanctified, and spiritualized.
I left the alpine shrine mesmerized, with a refined new thinking of the sublime.
The life of a monk on Buddha’s time collided with this little mind of mine.

And now for what actually happened. I had no intention of going on this trip. I didn’t have the money. Then I got offered a free spot on the bus because it wasn’t going to be full. So I jumped at the chance. It was a trip to Gyeongju, a place I had been wanting to go for a while, combined with a Temple Stay, and a trip to Haeinsa on the way home. A Temple Stay is a program allowing you to overnight at a Buddhist temple while participating in the daily routine of Buddhist monks.

Gyeongju was the center of the Shilla dynasty back in the day. It is the most respected religious and historical site in Korea. The Kings of this great dynasty are buried there in huge burial mounds surrounded by flat open fields, the whole of which is ringed by mountains. It’s an absolutely gorgeous place.


We left Seoul at 8am (requiring a 5:30am wakeup time) and departed on the four hour bus ride. Upon arriving, we first toured the aforementioned burial mounds and the famous temple in the area: Bolguksa.



After that we headed the Seokguram Grotto, carved into a cliff side, which houses a very large statue of Buddha, unfortunately kept behind glass.


The temple of the Temple Stay, Golgulsa, was the last stop. Dinner was served as we arrived: rice and Korean vegetables that I don’t like. It was a small dinner even though I was required to eat all the food on my place (or else I would be cursed with nine years of bad luck).

After dinner was Sunmudo training. Sunmudo is a martial art/meditation technique combining the skill of quick, explosive motion with control of the body and breathing. It’s incredibly difficult. I wobbled and stumbled and quietly contemplated my way through the exercise. An hour later I was in bed. You have to go to bed early if you’re going to wake up at 4am.

One of the most amazing things I have experienced is being woken up in complete darkness by the tapping of a woodblock in time with the chanting of a monk, echoing throughout the alpine temple complex. It’s a strange sensation hearing that sound resonate so clearly throughout the world from indoors. I trudged my way up the mountainside to the temple where the service had already begun. I snuck in the back and began to bow and listen. For thirty minutes I sat and meditated with the monks (and many other foreigners), trying not to move or make noise. That was more difficult than I thought, especially with an adorable dog resting on the mat next to me. I don’t know if it was the sleep deprivation or what, but the meditation was indescribably relaxing. When the sitting meditation was over I headed outside for the walking meditation. About ten laps around a religious statue (of some kind) in slow, cautious yet unnoticed steps, in the fading black, followed by a decent down the mountainside at the same pace brought me to breakfast refreshed and renewed. I was there, but I wasn’t. I remember all of it and I remember none of it. Is it possible to be inside and outside the mind at the same time? Do the opposite states somehow cancel each other out a la some ridiculous fundamental algebraic equation? I’ll leave those questions for my next meditation.

Breakfast was a ritual in and of itself. Here it is: Bowl (one big bowl with 3 smaller bowls inside) placed in front of right knee. Set placemat on floor. Put bowl at bottom left corner of placemat. Remove 3 bowls with your thumbs, place them on mat clockwise. Remove wooden utensils from sack, place in the water bowl. Rinse big bowl with water, pour in the next bowl, rise, pour, rinse, pour. Hold big bowl with both hands for junior monk to place in rice. Touch bowl to your head out of respect. Same with soup bowl. Self-serve vegetables. Rinse a piece of Kimchi in the soup to use as a scrub brush to clean the bowls when finished. Eat every scrap of food except that piece of Kimchi. Wash bowls with hot water, rise, pour, rinse, pour, scrubbing with Kimchi each time. Drink the remaining soup of hot water and food remains and eat the scrub. Rinse again with cold water. Pour out the clean cold water, drink the water if food specs remain. Dry the bowls with a rag. Return bowls and utensils to their initial state. It took more energy to have breakfast than I got from eating breakfast.

A brief nap after breakfast, followed by tea, followed by a bus tour to another temple and a trip to the East Sea, followed by lunch, consisting of the same food as dinner, and we were off on the road again.

Destination: Haeinsa. Haeinsa is a temple famous in Korea and around the world because it houses the world’s most complete collection of Buddhist texts. They are carved onto wood blocks and housed in four huge buildings. Incredible how much effort was put into the creation of this text.


We arrived back in Seoul at 9pm and I was home by 10; utterly exhausted yet strangely exhilarated.