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.
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
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