If there is one overarching, all-encompassing and as yet unanswered question regarding all my adventures over the past several months it is this: What am I supposed to do with all my crap?

When I left Korea last August I stored the bulk of my belongings with two friends in Itaewon. The rest I either packed up and took with me or simply abandoned. I had some good shit too. Whoever got my apartment got some good stuff.

Once I got to Portland I re-visited some of my crap that has been in storage with some friends since I first left the US over five years ago. Some of it I got rid of, like the brass table lamp that seemed so precious in 2002 but that in the intervening years I'd forgotten I'd even owned. Some of it I moved from one place to another. Then there were a few things I took out, fondly remembered, and put back until the next visit, when I am likely to do the same thing again.

At my parents place in Arizona I dropped off a bunch of crap I acquired during my travels that I wanted to keep but that I don’t need to have around me on a day-to-day basis, like ticket stubs from the Bolshoi, and some of the “we love you teacher” notes I’ve gotten from students in various classes.

Also in Arizona, I participated in what has become a regular ritual during my visits home: going through my old stuff one more time and throwing away more of it. It’s amazing how as the years go by less and less of it becomes important. Things like letters and pictures are always automatic keepers, if for no other reason than that letters written on paper are such a quaint little throwback to the last century. Other things however, like the Scritti Politti cassette I bought for a dollar in 1994, I’m not so sentimental about. Into the Goodwill pile it goes. It was also fun giving away clothing that has suddenly become too big for me.

All-in-all, I reduced the net volume of crap I have stored at my parents from around four medium sized boxes to two. Along the way I did get a whole bunch more new stuff (But I really NEEDED it, don’t you see?) and ended up worrying about going over the airline luggage limits. I had no idea what I was in for. I’ve already recounted my China Airlines baggage saga, so I won’t go into it again here, but it’s just another example of how unmanageable (there’s that word again!) my stuff has gotten.

There is a price to be paid for this kind of life. There is a choice to be made. If you want to travel and be unattached, you have to either learn to travel light, or accept that you are going to have a more or less constant problem of what to do with your crap. You can pay extra to lug it around with you, burden your friends and family with it, or just abandon parts of it periodically to lighten your load.

Hey, wait a minute! It almost feels like I could extrapolate that into a larger statement about life and relationships…

Nah…guess not...

Labels: The life of Brian, travel

I’ve been in my new apartment for nearly a week now, but things are still very much in limbo with no word still on exactly when I will go to Japan for my visa, or when I will actually start working.

When you aren’t working it’s easy to settle into a state of inertia. Getting out of it is hard. Today I managed to get up at 7:30, get breakfast and have somewhat of a normal morning routine, but it was almost painful. After breakfast, instead of studying or doing housework as I had intended, I settled for watching Southpark DVDs on my computer. At a quarter-to-ten, as I was about to fall asleep again on the sofa, I shook myself awake and got myself out of the house.

Today I’ll meet a friend for lunch, go to my gym and do some other things, then pick up some more of my things from the goshiwon and head back home tonight. It’s become my standard joke that the apartment in Ha-nam is my country house (or dacha), while the goshiwon in Seoul is my urban penthouse. Neither could be further from the truth. Still, as long as it’s paid for, it’s nice that I can use the g-won as a place to stay on the weekends. That way I can stay out late on Friday or Saturday nights and not have to worry about catching the last train or bus back to Ha-nam. I even know someone who rents a goshiwon specifically for that purpose. He lives about two hours from Seoul and comes into town on the weekends. At around 300 dollars a month though, I think I’d better just suck it up and get to the train on time.

Two more quick things: It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any pictures. Tonight I will get my camera from Seoul and take it out to Ha-nam. Hopefully by the end of the weekend or early next week I can post some pictures of my new environment. Also, you (you know who “You” are) may have noticed I’m trying to write more frequently. That’s because it’s almost November. Nanowrimo is coming up, and God help me, despite everything that’s going on I can’t help but have another go this year. To that end, I’m trying to get myself in the habit of writing every day, and figured this would be a good way to do it. As usual, no promises, but I’ll try to keep writing throughout the next month.

Labels: The life of Brian

The good news is I sort of have a new job...only I haven't started yet and don't know exactly when I will. The other snag is, it's not in Seoul. It's near Seoul, but near Seoul as you may have deduced, is not the same as in Seoul. My new residence is in Ha-nam city, in Gyeonggi-do. Ha-nam (not to be confused with the Han-nam, discrict near Itaewon) is directly east of Seoul, past the terminus of the purple line. Although it's right next-door to Seoul, it is a world away. Instead of bleeding into the suburbs (as is the case with the Seoul-Incheon nexus) the city just stops suddenly after Olympic park. Ha-nam is decidedly in the country. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, at least not yet, just describing the scene.

The school where I will be teaching is in the western district, while my apartment is in the east. The apartment is two-bedrooms and is located at the end of a corridor on the sixth floor of a block of flats in a typical Korean high-rise apartment complex. Standing on the balcony outside the front door and looking out over farmers' fields and the Han river and distant mountains, it feels as if my apartment is at the very edge of what could be considered the Seoul metropolitan area. It's probably just a psychological reaction...probably.

To manage the distance I'm actually thinking about buying a used car. Something no more than 1-2 million won (1-2 thousand dollars) should do. Also, I learned something yesterday that makes me feel slightly better about the whole thing. the route they originally told me about takes more than 90 minutes from my home to the center of Seoul by bus and subway. However, yesterday I discovered a different route that got me from A to B in about an hour. That psychological barrier of an hour makes a big difference.

There is nothing around me...and I do mean nothing. Just a "supa", a fried chicken shop and a couple of hogwons. It appears though that the next complex over from mine has a decent gym, so I'm going to look into that sometime next week.


I'll be teaching at an elementary school this time, and that's seriously just about all I know about the job so far. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the school and I'll hopefully learn more. Right now I'm waiting for my paperwork to be processed so I can go to Japan to get my visa. That will take a few more days, and then I guess I'll start work around the first of November.

Between you, me and the Internet, I'm thinking I might leave this job in a few months and try to go back to a Seoul public school. Changing jobs in Korea is easier said than done however. So many, many things remain to be seen...

Labels: The life of Brian

Let me try to get up to date as quickly as I can...

After I finished the test I felt unsettled and though I had intended to stick around and explore Albuquerque and Santa Fe a little more, the only thing I could think about was getting out of there. So I hit the road and decided to drive all the way to Phoenix, or at least as far as I could, in one night. A funny thing happened on the way though. Somewhere around Holbrook the ghosts of a thousand previous trips I'd made along those roads came rushing back and traveled with me all the way through northern Arizona along I-40 though Flagstaff and down I-17 to Phoenix.

The rest of my visit with my family was ok, once I settled into it. While I was a home a cat that had been in our family for 20 years, since the day she was born in fact, finally passed away. In human terms she was well over 100 years old. Though I knew she was old and frail, I selfishly hoped she would die either before or after my visit home. In retrospect however, I'm glad I was there when it happened. It was hardest on my mother so I'm glad I could be there for her if nothing else.

From Phoenix I flew to Thailand to see a dentist. The whole thing got far too complicated and expensive, but at least the dentistry part went well.

As briefly as I can put it, I booked a ticket to Bangkok on a whim more or less, then started having regrets and looked into changing the ticket. As it turned out, the cost of changing the ticket was only a little less than just buying a ticket from Bangkok to Seoul. So I went that route, but didn't figure in in all the extra costs that go along with that: hotel, food, the money I inevitably spend trying to buy my way out of boredom.

And then there is the luggage issue. The story is long and not all that interesting. Suffice it to say, the checked luggage allowance on inter-Asian flights is substantially less than on trans-Pacific routes. Airline clerks will give you a break if you ask nicely, but won't just let it slide. Just as there is no such thing is a free lunch, "free" stopovers are also never really free. In case you should ever need to know, it costs about fifty US dollars to send an 18 kilogram package from Taipei to Seoul by airmail. Also, the Taipei main post office is open till 9pm, but doesn't take credit cards.

I got back to Seoul on October 1st and have been staying in what's called a goshiwon. It's something like a dorm room that you can rent from month to month. They are usually located near universities, and are meant for students who are studying for exams and need a place to work uninterrupted. The main word that comes to mind is "small" followed closely by "dark" and "stuffy." It's about 2.5m x 1.5m. If I lay on the bed, which is little more than a cot really, touch my toes to one wall and stretch my arms back over my head, I can just about touch the wall at the other end of the room. There are no windows, so for the first couple of days I woke up at odd hours extremely disoriented. I would think it was 4am, and then would check my watch to find out it was half past ten.

This the first time I've come to Korea without a job already lined up. It's a different sort of experience. Tonight I have a phone interview with an elementary school at the eastern edge of Seoul. It's not ideal, but probably the best I'm going to do right now.

Oh, I also found out I passed the test I took in Albuquerque last month. Now I just need to get the English credits I need and then I can enter a teacher education program. I'm being patient. It will be worth it...right?

So here I am, back at the same table in the same cafe in the same city, still writing about all the stuff I hope I will do, and doing some of it, but nearly fast enough for my liking.

Labels: The life of Brian