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

So about two weeks ago I went to Albuquerque to take a test because I have this idea that I’d like to be a teacher in New Mexico one day. It could, I suppose be a simple and clean cut proposition, but remember this is me we’re dealing with. I’ve managed to turn a simple trip to Albuquerque into a massive Homerian (Simpson, that is,) undertaking. Still, the story is worth telling because it has everything to do with where my head has been, and why I haven’t been writing so prolifically these past few months. Ok, ok, why I haven’t written jack shit since I can’t remember when.

To be as succinct, as I can possibly manage, the story of why I went to Albuquerque begins about a year ago during my 2006 visit to the US, wherein I decided that what I really want to do with my life is to become a “real” teacher in an American public school. Throughout the past year I considered the problem of how to get certified to teach in the US when suddenly, with the help of a friend, I hit on the idea of trying to get into an alternative licensure program in the state of New Mexico. Up to that point I had been considering several different geographic locations and routes to certification, but when I heard about the program in New Mexico, something just clicked.

I ran with that idea for as long as I could, being so convinced that I was taking the right course that I talked about my plan as if it were a done deal, and neglected one small detail. That is, I forgot to check whether I was actually eligible for the program. It logically follows that this would not be worth mentioning had it not turned out that I am in fact, not eligible. Oops, my bad.

Frustrated, but determined–to borrow a phrase–to find a new way forward, I reevaluated my plans and decided first to drop the “alternative licensure” route and pursue teacher certification through somewhat more traditional means yet still aim for New Mexico. Secondly, I decided to return to Korea while I work on getting my education and financial duck lined up in preparation for my big move back to the states.

Perhaps it would make sense here for me to mention that the main thing holding me up is that I don’t have enough English credits in my background. Funnily enough, tt turns out if you want to be an English teacher you have to have spent some time studying English. Go figure. My French major (je ne sais pas pourquoi) plus some decisions of a decade earlier, left me a few credits short of the “highly qualified” requirement. As of right now, I am registered to take some English courses by distance learning from a university that I shall not name for the time being.. Since I can do the coursework anywhere I want–that is the whole point of distance learning after all–it just made sense to go back to Korea where I have a large circle of friends already established, and where I can work less than six hours a day, earn a full-time salary and live rent-free.

By the time all that fell into place however, I had already signed up to take the NMTA, a basic skills test required of anyone who wants to become a teacher in the state of New Mexico, and which is actually a pre-requisite just to get into the teacher education program I want to enter. So I decided to just go ahead and get it out of the way right now. It also wouldn’t be a bad idea, I figured, to at least go check out the place where I was planning to spend at least three years of my life, and hopefully longer.

On September 7th, with a rented car and a reservation at a national motel chain that must waste a lot of electricity, what with their leaving lights on all the time, I arrived in Albuquerque.

I’ll not say much about the city of Albuquerque right now. My judgments about Albuquerque are probably unfairly influenced by my feelings about Portland. I think in time I could develop quite an affection for Albuquerque…but I didn’t have strong feelings about the place on first glance, not like I’d hoped I would.

As for the test itself…it was mostly ok. There was a lot more algebra on the exam than I expected. I got bogged down on those parts and then had to hurry through the essay at the end. In retrospect, I should have concentrated on writing a good essay, since writing is my strength, and then gone back and just guessed at the math questions, since my chances of getting the correct answers would probably have been about the same, if not greater.

When the test was over, I had a minor panic attack in my rented car in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart near just down the block from the testing site. I guess it’s good that I managed to have the attack after the exam, and not during. Looking back now, I guess I probably did ok, but I won’t know if I passed the test until early October when the scores are released. Until then it’s a waiting game, which I don’t worry about too much, unless I think about it, like right now for instance.

The rest of my summer played out in a similarly murky fashion, but that will have to wait for another time…but not too long, I promise….

Oh and, for those who have kept checking the BoB during this long dry spell…Thank you, I do appreciate it.

Labels: The life of Brian, travel

Last night I was invited to an impromptu dinner at the apartment of a young teacher who just moved into the building where I live. Of the six of us, I was the oldest and had also been in Korea the longest. Two of the young newbies started talking about their plans for the upcoming Chuseok holiday. They mentioned trying to travel in Korea, or maybe even going to Japan, more or less on a whim.

“Forget about it,” I warned them. I mean, everyone who knows anything about living in Korea knows you do not try to travel on Chuseok or during Lunar New Year, but they remained undaunted. All it required was some flexibility, they smugged. If they couldn’t get a seat on a train they would stand, all the way to Busan if necessary. If they couldn’t get a motel, they would sleep in the station, or on the street. If they couldn’t get a flight or a ferry, they would just hang around until something opened up. It adds to the adventure, they said. “It adds to the pain in your ass,” I thought.

There was as time when I thought as they do, and it wasn't all that long ago. All the things they described are things I've done at some point in my life. I’ve spent whole nights wandering the streets of a new city because I didn’t have enough money for accommodations. I’ve languished for hours in airports and train stations, and slept in dodgy quarters more times than I care to remember, and loved the adventure of it all. Nowadays though I want wheeled luggage, an aisle seat, a reserved room. In brief, comfort matters. When did that happen?

The guys I hung out with last night are obviously still in the young adventurer phase of their lives, and I couldn’t be happier for them. They will probably return from their holiday with tales of standing toe-to-toe with other travelers in a train car packed to the gills with Kimchi and roasted squid. They’ll talk of missed connections, chance meetings, wild mishaps, foul weather, dangerous reprobates and good Samaritans. It will sound to me like a perfect description of Hell, and yet they will have had the time of their lives. It’s the natural order of things I guess.

Labels: aging, chuseok, Korea, travel