Korean Culture

These are just a few things that made me go "hm...that's interesting" here in Korea.

1. I can't seem to find buns (burger or hotdog) in a Korean super market, specifically HomePlus, which is like a Walmart but with a Safeway-type grocery store attached.
2. Their eggs don't come in a dozen. They come in a ten.
3. The young women here wear heels ALL THE TIME. Whether it's date night or headed to the grocery store or even, yes, hiking, they have their cute heels on.
4. They have a ton of coffee shops here. I like to order mochas or lattes, which tend to be even sweeter here than in America. I call them candy coffees.
5. They show the most disturbing things on their cable television but they will censor it via pixelation. Extra bloody scenes will be played but the bloody body part will be pixelated. Porn will be shown but the crotch will be pixelated.
6. Motorcycles and bicycles ride on sidewalks and roads. They switch depending on the amount of traffic. I've had to quickly get out of the way of a speeding motorcyclist while on my leisurely stroll to work. On the sidewalk.
7. They don't believe in clothes dryers or ovens. Or separate shower areas (as Ships has shown a few posts back).
8. No one wears sunglasses, despite the enormous amount of sunshine they get here. The few who do wear sunglasses have usually spent some time in America or are very hip and fashionable and young.
9. They use umbrellas all the time: as a shield from the rain and as a shield from the sun's rays.
10. You can't shop anywhere and be left alone. There is always someone selling to you. I hate this.
11. Couples here like to wear matching clothes. This includes matching underwear. More pictures to follow on this.
12. Homosexuality is not as widely accepted here as it is in America. HOWEVER. Men here can do the following things and their sexuality will not be held into question: hold hands with each other, perm their hair, wear tight jeans or bold colors or stuff with lots of beading/bling.
13. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. If you are at a crosswalk and a car is coming, let the car go if you want to live.
14. ATMS close after 11pm at night.
15. Bars, conversely, never close.
16. Korean Pop music. That is all they ever listen to. I asked my kids what other kinds of music do they listen to here and they were all like "...other kinds?"
17. They don't do art. I asked one of the other instructors where can I buy good Korean art. Her response? "Yeah...they don't do a whole lot of art here so maybe you'll find stuff in a tourist shop by a Buddhist temple but there isn't a young artist scene here."
18. If you are at a restaurant, you have to say "yogi-yo!" (this means "here") in order to get someone to take your order or to get any kind of service. Otherwise, no one will help you. Ever.
19. We live in the suburbs. The burbs here consist of numerous high-rise apartments (teensy studios where a small family will live). This is insane to me considering the burbs in America means huge 2 story homes with SUVs and huge backyards.
20. Mi-Guk means American. Yong-Guk means British. Wei-Guk (like "WAY Guk")means non-Korean. This is funny to me because in America, I've heard Guk as a derogatory term for Asians.

- Chips

Learning Korean

Yes, we are trying. We could live our entire year in Korea not having to speak much Korean. You can do ok with a few words and hand gestures. But we are going to try to learn. I have a feeling that our experience will be a bit richer being able to talk to the natives. Chips is taking a class every week and I'm looking off her notes. We can now read a bit of Hangul and say please and thank you and butterfly and yes and no and few other words and phrases.

Not much more to write home about yet. Trying to get back into the routine of blogging though. Anyong...

Wow We're Slackers

It's been a little over a month here in a different freaking country and we've barely blogged about our experiences here. To be fair, the first month has been an insane ride of trying to get used to things and we're extremely busy. And unmotivated.

So. Yeah. One month. And we're still trying to figure out two major things:
- a regular schedule
- food

I work technically fewer hours here in Korea than I did when I worked a full time job in Seattle. But it doesn't feel like it. So Seattle, I worked full time (at least 40 hours a week but usually 45-50 hours a week) plus theater on the side. Weekends did not matter to me because I was performing or rehearsing or teching anyway. That was my life in Seattle. Here in Korea, I teach about 25 hours per week plus preparation time. I haven't done theater or explored a whole heck of a lot. WHY AM I SO TIRED ALL THE TIME?! I think it's a combination of several reasons:

1. I'm getting old. Ships and I are one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) teachers in our hagwon. This means we tire more easily and require at least 8 hours of sleep now.
2. We work odd hours. 4pm-10pm (but we usually show up an hour or two earlier). After work, there's dinner, followed by unwinding. We get to bed by 2am usually. Wake up at 9:30am or 10am. Prep some more for work. Get ready for work. Eat. Then head to work. It's lame. And it's never ending.
3. It's too damn hot to do anything. Like leave the apartment. Or get up.
4. It's takes a lot of effort to explore and do cool things. We had epic plans of checking out the Daegu International Musical Festival but the websites were all in Korean. The online translations were crap. So we called this hotline where they try to translate things for you in English. There was a lot of calling back and forth, trying to figure out times and locations for this musical. Then we had to call to figure out how to get there via bus and subway. Then we had to look up and learn a few phrases in Korean for the actual journey there. In the end, we just decided to go some other time.

Regarding food. I don't need to explain this too much. We're trying to be brave. It's a slow process. I'll post up picture soon.

a while

It has been a while. I'm still trying to get back to a routine. But we are here and have been for a month now. Classes are going good. Co-workers are very friendly and fun. South Korea is pretty cool too. Here is a tour of our apartment:

Here is our dining area with climate control. Peeking out behind the door is our laundry room. And to the right is my closet.



Here is where we sleep. It gets pretty bright around 6am. We have to figure that out.



Here is our entertainment center. We are still on the hunt for art in Korea to put on our walls but it's tough to find here.



Here is our lounge. A bit of the dining area seems to have made it into the right-hand corner of the picture as well. Also featured is how we turn on the hot water and the floor heater and our fan. The fan is much more useful right now.


Here is our kitchen. Burners, sink, cupboards, and fridge. The fridge gets pretty hot so we keep the door to the kitchen closed at all times, but the plan is to use it as our heater in the winter.



This our bathroom. Sink, toilet, the showerhead is above the sink so the whole bathroom is kind of our shower. You get used to it.



And lastly, our view out the window of Rose Heights which is name of our building The building behind the truck in the picture is also what our building looks like.
That enough for now.

-Ships

In Korea for a while now

But haven't really had the time or energy to blog about it. Here's a quick break down of things that have happened:

We arrived in Seoul Saturday 5/8. The flight took 13 hours. We spent the bulk of it napping or watching movies. Once we arrived, got through customs and picked up our baggage. It was a journey to get to our hotel. We were given very specific directions and made our way to Coatel Hotel (yeah, really). One awesome moment: we took a bus from the airport to Seoul and it was dusk. The sun was a bright flaming orange and you could look directly at it. We were exhausted and looking at that sun drained us. Then the sun sank into the mountains and we arrived at our hotel. It was nice a hotel. We had a bidet. I used the bidet at some point...not my favorite. I prefer wiping my ass. We had all of Sunday to rest up before we began our week long training. It sounds like it would be enough time but we suffered major jet lag throughout the entire week. We slept most of Sunday and ventured out into the city (Gangnam district) for a while before we got exhausted and had to go back again.

We began training Monday. I will blog more about this later because this beginning part of our adventure was insane.

We obviously completed training Friday 5/14 and were immediately transported to Daegu. We took a three hour train and arrived in Daegu around 10pm at night. We have since been getting acclimated to our new home and feeling completely welcome by our fellow ESL instructors. Whatever doubts that developed during our training were immediately erased by the people in Daegu. And while I'm still nervous, I know that we made the decision to have this adventure for a good reason.

Things we have explored in Daegu:
- Sam Duk Seo Bang So: nightlife in Daegu with lots of westerners, foreigners, Koreans alike. Lots of bars, restaurants, shops, neon lights, excitement, pretty boys and even prettier girls.
- Banwoldang (downtown Daegu): lots of shops. Korea is very compact and crowded. We watched Iron Man 2 and buying a ticket to see this movie was a mini-adventure as well.
- Seumun Market: old school market that sold lots of fish and eel and crabs, cheap goods, textiles, exotic vegetables, puppies (for eating or for petting)...

- Daegu Arboretum: exactly what is sounds like, but even more peaceful than what you probably have in your mind

- Korean cuisine: galbi, kimbap, kimchi jeon pizza, shabu shabu (apparently, this is actually Chinese but it tasted Korean to me), chewy noodles, bibimbap, etc.
- Dongwasa Temple at Pangolsan Park to celebrate Buddha's birthday

So. We've been busy. We start teaching Monday and we're currently preparing for our first class. Actually, I'm procrastinating right now but I'll get it done.

Goodbye!

I turned 32 a few weeks ago. I celebrated by going to the Getty Villa in Malibu with my family.





The Getty formula for success:
1. Rise early.
2. Work hard.
3. Strike oil.

It sure worked for them. It's a beautiful and impressive place with many cool things to see and be around. I liked the Getty Museum a little better though. There is something about being in a place that was built to support the arts that feels better than being in a very fancy house. But it was a nice day with a nice picnic at the end.

This will be my last post on this continent. By this time next week I will be in orientation in Seoul. So goodbye America! Take care of yourself while I'm gone. I'm sure you'll do fine. I expect my blogs to get a lot more interesting now so stay tuned. And happy Birthday Mom!

Last California Moments

Major update: We got our visas and our flight itinerary! We have a nonstop flight departing Los Angeles on May 7 and arriving in Seoul May 8. We are feeling the following emotions:

- Relief
- Excitement
- Nervousness

We're closing out a few last details before we head out but mostly, we've just been having as much fun as we can.

Korea Stuff: We've been learning hangul and can say a few phrases in Korean. We've been reading up on a few "How to survive teaching your first year" guide book type things. We've also been reviewing English grammar stuffs (as you can see by my writing style, I've never had any real grammar lessons growing up).

Fun Stuff: We explored downtown Los Angeles a bit more, Chinatown, and Venice Beach. The highlight was exploring the great architecture of downtown Los Angeles and hanging out with old college friends.


The low point was getting Ships' dad's car towed in Chinatown.


If you are in Los Angeles, wherever you park, check all the signs within at least a one block radius because if you don't, you and your wallet will have bad thoughts about Los Angeles. And really, it's a great city despite its bad reputation and horrible traffic.

Next up, as part of Ships' post birthday celebration, the family is going to The Getty. This may be the last trip we'll be taking to Los Angeles.

I'm still deciding whether or not we'll be able to visit my family in San Diego one more time but it's looking unlikely.

It's amazing how just a few days ago, I was all like "Dang Korea! Send me my visa code already!" and now there isn't enough time to spend with our loved ones. Two weeks from now, we'll be across the world and a day into the future (because of time zones). I can't wait to tell you what the future looks like from a different country.

Still waiting...

The adventure this week was the LA County Museum of Art.

And the La Brea Tar Pits.


We are still waiting to hear back from Korea about visa codes and we continue to prepare as we wait. As we do, I'm still working on my photography. I haven't been liking what I've been shooting though. I'm a pretty patient person but I'm not patient with taking a photo and I generally don't know why I'm taking a photo until after I look at the picture. These two I like but it took me a couple of attempts to get it.

This one I like because of the symmetry.


This one I like because I thought it was a little strange to have such a dramatic Rodin in sunny LA.

Lacking in Actual Adventures

We're still waiting to complete the Visa process. Korea procrastinates. The idea was to be in Korea by March. We got offered a job guaranteed for April. But we didn't hear back from our recruiters until late March (like the 31st of March) whereby they stated our job will now start in early/mid-May instead. Our next step is to just prep as much as possible (in any way you think you need to prep) and get our Visa. We are currently waiting to receive our Visa code from Korea, before we have to head to the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles to interview and then get the actual Visa on our passports. Once that happens, THEN we buy our plane ticket to Korea and then off we go.

And Korea is procrastinating. Again. We were supposed to have heard back from them on the codes by yesterday.

If they procrastinate so much and come back to let us know that we will be teaching in June or beyond, I may explode.

We've turned down three other offers. If we had accepted them, we would have been in Korea by now. But we're not. We're still waiting.

For those of you who are interested in possibly doing this someday, I would like to say this is fairly normal. Other people who have done this before may have had different experiences but based on a crap ton of forum entries I've read on various ESL sites, there is a lot of waiting. In fact, I have a friend who is currently teaching in Korea and she didn't hear about her job until about a week before she had to pack up and go.

Sigh. I hate waiting. And I hate feeling like I'm not in control of my destiny.

We've been spending our time learning hangul (Korean language), purchasing a year's worth of toiletries and food faves, loving friends and family, and finding suburban adventures to pass the time. I can't complain too much if that's what my life is like... I mean, essentially, I'm taking time to make my dreams come true. That's kind of a big deal and I can't bitch about every time there's a road bump. Though I probably will.

Our "adventure" last week was an exploration of Oxnard/Port Hueneme (Ships' old haunts). Hueneme Beach was vast, hot, uncrowded and gorgeous. We also went to the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard (which sounds epic but sadly, it is decidedly not). Just outside of the museum is this war memorial. We decided to just check it out and take a couple of shots. Ships gasps. Turns out, he recognized a name engraved on the memorial, a kid he lived next door to. Just to be sure it was the same guy, we went on line and did a bit of research. It was the same Kevin Luna he knew as a kid.


I have grown up a military brat and I was in AJROTC. I have a long history and complicated opinions about the military. This was quite shocking to Ships, I can only imagine. May PFC Luna rest in peace and may his family heal.

A small adventure in the suburbs took us to our childhood and we questioned our mortality.

Chips

To read more on Kevin Luna you can go here and here.

We are going here

This is Daegu.


This is where we will be living and teaching for a year.

In the first week of May, we will be flying to Seoul for a whirlwind week of training and then we will be set loose in Daegu, South Korea's third largest city, 80km from the seacoast in the south-eastern region of the country. It's getting exciting!

We also have been told that we will be teaching 9-11 year old students with a few jr. high and high-schoolers mixed in. This means we can spend the next month preparing specific lesson plan ideas and learning a bit more Korean and finding a few more things to do in Southern California before we hear off.

Like this.

International Pillow Fight Day.

- Ships

Second Chance San Diego

We spent a few days in San Diego with my sister's busy family which includes a hubby, twin two year old girls, a large mischievous dog, an old grumpy cat, fish, tadpoles, various plants, a large house that looks like it exploded with toys and food. I exaggerate about the explosion...just a bit.

I went on this trip to spend a bit more time with family. Because of a very complicated history, I don't get a long with a lot of family. This was my baby-step of an attempt to maintain some kind of relationship with them. And it went well. We did a lot of basic hanging out and spent some time at the Wild Animal Park. It was glorious and very tiresome. New things I experienced:

1. How to give twin two year old girls a bath and get them ready for bed.
2. How to help these girls go to the potty.
3. Have to spell certain words so as not to create twin hysteria (words like donuts and chocolate)
4. High pitched screaming directly into my ear, immediately followed by high pitched giggling into my ear.
5. Reading the girls a bed time story (I was only allowed to read one, as it was mainly mommy's job).
6. The panic and agony of losing one girl's Yummy Bunny.

This was the most Tita Time I've ever experienced. Boy howdy, those girls tired me out. The first time Ships and I got away in the car to run a quick errand, we sat in our rental car for a moment and reveled in its silence. Constant thinking on your feet, running after rowdy girls...throw into the mix a large Labrador with a licking and eating problem...chaos. And I miss it already. The girls are growing up so fast. In the past, I've been known to say that I hate children but I will be official and honest now: I truly love children. This is what my weekend was like:


Outside of family, I had a lovely brunch with a few of my closest girl friends, two of whom I have known since I was seven or eight years old. Shout out to Sonny, Quel, AM and Bermuda. It had been ages since I last saw them (Sonny, being the exception) and it always amazes me how some friendships can stay intact despite years away and immeasurable changes in life and person. We reminisced. We laughed. We ate. I love them:



Growing up, I was pretty much confined to the house because of a very strict father. I left for college and it seemed as though San Diego was some kind of lame hell full of bad memories. So far, I've had two San Diego visits where I actually enjoyed myself. I may try to visit more now.

Returning to a place of misery after years away, after you've grown or changed has been eye opening. I saw what I missed out on and what I would have continued to miss out on if I hadn't given it another shot.

Chips

My nephew is a lot of fun. It's been a very long while since I've spent this much time with someone less than a year old. He has yet to master walking and talking but he is a very charming person nonetheless. He's a good sport, intelligent, persistent, has a great sense of humor and a great smile. I'm privileged to be his uncle.

That being said, I should say that I feel privileged to be an uncle to my four nieces as well. They are all terrific people. Sadly, I don't see them much more than once a year, but when I do it's a lot of fun. I'd highly recommend becoming an uncle.

- Ships

I'm Never Here Long Enough

I could rhapsodize volumes on my love for Santa Cruz. It would be annoying for you. But I just need to officially announce that I don't think there is any city that I could love more than Santa Cruz. If you have not had the pleasure of living or visiting there, I highly recommend it. There is something for everybody. If you're able to visit for just a few hours, here are my recommendations:

Cafe Pergolesi

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Downtown Santa Cruz

Totally touristy but three hours is all you need.

- Chips

I am in Santa Cruz

Chips and I went to college here. No time to post anything substantial. We love it here and want to be in it as much as possible.

Apparently, this is what Chips and Sonny ate all the time. I personally don't get it:

One the best coffee spots in the world:

Nori, Raybon and the new one:

More on Santa Cruz next time.

- Ships

Weekend of Being Tourists

Now that we are set to leave the country next month, we've been trying to cram as much fun/visitation time as possible.

San Diego

We stayed with our friend, Sonny and rocked the following:
- An 80's party
- Late night carne asada nachos and horchata
- Coffee and conversation at a non-Starbucks
- Cabrillo National Monument
- La Jolla Seal Beach
- Salsa dancing
- Tide pools
- Late night/early morning drunken conversations
- Healthy home cooked meal
- Girl power movie and The Oscars
- Ice cream
- Mini family reunion

Hollywood

Our friend Heigen showed us around Hollywood:
- Walk of fame
- Grauman's Chinese Theater
- Griffith Observatory
- Boho burgers

I like being a tourist.

Chips

And the answer is...

Offer Number 1: M-Sat, minimum of 24 teaching hours, 4-10pm typically, housing is taken care of, the flight over is reimbursed, 50% of medical care is covered, maybe a severance, 7 days paid vacation.


Offer Number 2: M-F 9am - 5pm, flight to and from is paid for, housing is taken care of,50% of medical care is covered, severance guaranteed, 20 days vacation, paid less.

We have made our decision. We are going with offer Number 1.

It feels good to know. We don't know where in South Korea we are teaching yet or for what age group or when exactly we are leaving, but it's good to know that it's definitely happening. I'm quite relieved by that. Now I can be anxious about everything else.

-Ships

Journey to Korea or My Year Off

I moved to Seattle right after college and then, almost immediately, was hired at a large global financial services firm where I did a lot of (busy) administrative work. I worked there for about 5 years, though after about 2 years I was extremely unhappy with the type of work I was doing. I stayed for so long because of all the cliche reasons: it was stable, great benefits, steady (awesome) paycheck. In the end it really wasn't enough. By year four, I had it in my mind that I had to leave before what was left of my soul would just crap out quietly without my knowing. The economy started tanking but I still didn't really have a game plan. I just knew I would leave by my self-allotted deadline and figure things out then. My employer beat me to it. During this round, 30% of their employees were laid off, myself included. And I was OK. Ships and I went to Belize for about 10 days and I tried not to think about being a statistic.

I came home and started the job search. I was immediately offered a job at a law firm. Which I turned down. I didn't want to start down that path again. I had a game plan: travel and have fun before I settle down and become a grown up. During my year off, I rested (a lot), volunteered as a Production Manager for various non-profit theaters, did more acting, received my TESL (Teach English as a Second Language) Certificate, worked a preschool, and enjoyed my life.

Which brings us to Korea.

Oh Korea. We were fairly undecided about which country to teach at until around November or December 2009. We decided on Korea because, of all the other countries we were considering, it offered the best contracts and we knew the least about its culture. Why not?

We began "Project Learn About Korea and Apply Apply Apply" immediately after we decided on the country. We did this in the middle of getting rid of our worldly belongings and moving to California to spend time with friends and family there so the actual applying was a bit more sporadic. We officially relocated late January and were in Accelerated Apply for a Damn Job mode:

1. We sent 50 emails, applying to at least 80 different jobs (all couple positions).
2. Not to mention applying online to about ten different recruiting websites.
3. All required us to send a photo.
4. Most required us to state our ethnicity.
5. Of the 50 emails (80 available job posts), 3 people contacted us to request more information. 2 people informed us that the jobs were now unavailable.
6. We responded to the three who wanted more information and never heard back from them again.
7. Two agencies had extremely extensive application processes. We wrote essays, created an introductory video, sent scans of all of our qualifications, phone interviews, etc. They both responded fairly well.
8. One recruiting agency phoned us and spoke to Ships only. She asked him what our ethnic background was. He responded extensively about his half Caucasian and half Japanese (American) background. They asked about mine. He responded that I was born in the Philippines but grew up in America. She responded that they only hired "native born English speakers." He informed her "we ONLY speak English, would you like to speak to my wife?" She declined and said "but her parents were born in the Philippines...We'll call you back." And they never did.
9. I've suffered a few bouts of intense upper back pain which I believe to be mental or stress related because of this situation.

Frankly speaking, there are many factors contributing to why it has been so difficult to obtain a job abroad. Many college grads with no experience are able to get jobs abroad. Why couldn't we obtain a job as easily? I can't say for certain that it was race/skin color. It's more difficult to place a married couple, there's been a new movement in hiring "kyopos/gyopos" (people of Korean heritage who do not reside in Korea), we're a bit older, the economy is bad so we're in competition with more experienced instructors, the list goes on. But it was hard not to let myself feel like I was being discriminated against because of the way I looked. Having done some acting, I'm supposed to be used to audition posts that require someone Caucasian or blonde or whatever even though the part itself doesn't specifically require someone white. I'm used to constantly playing someone exotic. I have to accept that as part of acting. And apparently, I have to accept that as part of being an ESL instructor. Why? Because in some countries, schools have marketing materials that advertise learning English from a native English speaker and all of their damn perceptions mean that they'd be learning from young, pretty blonde folk. I could write pages on this issue. But it happens and sometimes it's easy to accept. Other times, not so much.

Fast forward to now...two hours after I had finished crying to Ships about the futility of it all, we received two job offers and are now trying to make our decision! We are leaving for South Korea in April. Needless to say, it's been such an emotional roller coaster. Having felt like I was making wrong decision after wrong decision, not being given a chance, hating the entire world for being so damn racist...just getting the job feels like I conquered something already. Korea can't stop me from doing what I intend to do.

My advice to all would-be ESL instructors: be as prepared as possible, keep trying, and try not to let anyone fuck with your mind if you have goals to accomplish.

Chips

The Beach

Today I went to the beach for the first time since getting back to California. It's been a while. It costs twelve dollars now to park at the beach. Or nothing if you park off the highway. I took this picture through my sunglasses.


It was a nice day.

Ships

The Burbs

We've been at the burbs now for almost a month. Contrary to popular belief, there IS stuff to do; you just have to try harder and get off your high horse. It's different from city life. Things that are different:

1. There are no local coffee shops within walking distance.
2. The malls do not have bookshops (though I suspect this is everywhere).
3. No one walks here. That's an exaggeration but when people walk here, they walk for exercise. When I walked in Seattle, it was to get to my next destination.
4. People don't stick around for movie theater end credits.
5. Everyone says hi to each other or acknowledges each other with a smile.
6. There isn't really a subculture, at least I haven't seen evidence of one.
7. There really is a California casual dress code.
8. Everyone is white.
9. The dogs are not as friendly. I think it's because they mainly associate with their owners whereas city dogs have to deal with dog-less people like me who try to pet them on sight.
10. More chains, less local everything.

At least once a week, we try to go for a walk to this nearby waterfall. It's kind of amazing that it's right there in their backyard:












I know. Super pretty. It's almost enough to make me give up city life. Almost.

Chips

Two Windmills

I'm a late blogger.

Here it is Monday and I'm doing Sunday's blog. Oh well.









I'm trying to become a better photographer to prepare for our trip. I've never tried to become a photographer before. I think I found carrying a camera around to be a bit intrusive. I'm liking it now. I find myself looking more carefully at things. Above are two photos I took of the same thing about a week apart. I like the one on the right better. At first I wasn't sure why, but two quotes I got from the internet might help.

The recipe for a good photograph is:
"A foreground, a background, and nothing else."

and

The recipe for a great photograph is:
"Consider how the parts interrelate with the whole".


-ships

Santa Cruz Reunion in Long Beach

We spent Valentine's Day weekend with our beautiful friends Obizuth, her hubby, and my lovely friend, Sonny. It was a lovely reunion of old college friends and we hadn't seen Obizuth in 8 years. Whoah. She treated us to whale watching, the Aquarium of the Pacific, Wii, and foodie-fun.


Whale watching is akin to falling in love: You go out there in the open waters, hoping to find something awesome and inspiring, something that reminds you what an amazing world it is you live in. You brave the cold, stinging air whipping at your face until you can't see straight. It's a bumpy ride and it can make you sick or make you fall over. You wait and look and think it's never going to happen. Then you're suddenly surprised to see, across the glimmering ocean, a mist of water in the shape of a heart (seriously, heart-shaped blows created by gray whales). You chase and chase, and sometimes you can't reach them. But when you finally get near one and see its back rise up to the surface, you kind of just feel lucky and special. And then it's gone. And then you head back for land, all smooshy feeling. You're looking at the beautiful red sun sinking into the waters and you look toward the city lights. You're tired and exhilarated. You're glad you've experienced it at least once.


The Aquarium of the Pacific. I cannot say enough good things about this place. We pet sharks and rays. Saw alien creatures in bright colors. I was glad there was a thick piece of glass between me and some of those things. Some of them look like they came straight from some Ridley Scott alien/sci-fi movie. I saw these shark eggs that looked like mermaid's purses. The aquarium did this thing where they peeled off the outer shell/skin so you can see the development of the shark inside. Totally creepy. Totally gross. Totally awesome:


It was a good trip. It did not feel like 8 years had gone by. They were still the people I met in Santa Cruz, where I found joy and discovered who I wanted to be in life. They are a great reminder of hope in myself and in what I want for the future. I had a nice weekend full of love.



- Chips

PS: Thanks to Obizuth for a few of these pretty photos!

Mission Mundane

Today I was on a mission: To find a cheap pair of athletic pants without a stripe going down the leg.


I found it.

I also had a job interview. I hope it will turn out as successful as the first mission.

The Getty

I have never been to The Getty. It may be my new favorite museum.

Top 3 Reasons Why The Getty Blew My Mind
1. It's free ($15 for parking but get a car full of folks and it's the price of a Big Mac).
2. The structure of The Getty is so beautiful that if you get bored with the exhibitions, just step outside and you're good to go.
3. Culture in LA? Beyond Hollywood? Holla.

We parked. And to my surprise, we took a tram up into the mountains. We slowly teetered over the LA freeway. It was like floating up into the sky where we finally arrived to a white stone castle that was just moments from reaching the sun. We stepped out and the stone blocks on the exterior of the building are actually made of not-stone. And if you knock on each block, it produces a musical note, each one different from the other. Each time we passed a building, we played a song. Many of the surrounding trees were bare, with the exception of a few fragrant peppercorn trees. Every corner reveals a little pocket of beauty: dancing lights from the ripples of a fountain, iron sculptures, a lone window that spies above LA.

We saw works by Rembrandt and his students and an exhibit on urban landscaping among other things. All works were beautiful but I was already too moved by the actual building itself to pay any attention to the work inside. Here is the only low point of the trip for me: we sat down for a little refresher at The Cafe (which is actually a cafeteria). I was totally craving a chocolate chip cookie and perhaps a latte or mocha. I was expecting at least a Starbucks. But I ordered my latte from a machine. I pressed a button, and this machine spurted out lukewarm milk and weak coffee and it would not stop until my cup overflowed for about 20 seconds more. Then I bought a cookie sealed in a little plastic pouch. It was so hard, I could have used it to file my finger nails. It had been quite sometime since I went out for coffee and conversation and this was supposed to be the highlight of my Getty visit. And it didn't happen. I missed Seattle.

The gardens were a manicured arrangement of succulents with bursts of red-purples and oranges, surrounded by a man-made stream. At sunset, just when the last of the light delved beneath the mountain, we made our way through the labrynth and the museum lights lit up the garden. We boarded the tram once again. How could I go back to the reality when I had just experienced heaven? We slowly descended over the city lights. Got back into the car and enjoyed the rest of the night: short exploration of Hollywood before dinner at Vinolio (both experiences that deserve more of a mention but I fear this post is already too long).

Good night.

Chips

Out with the old

Back in California visiting before our big trip. So far: Scrabble, Mom's cooking, cable TV, hikes. It's very relaxing and nice to be home. I'm a bit restless at times. We've started to try to help organize the attic. We're going through all my toys which I may have difficulty letting go of. I've started to rebuild my lego castles just to see if all the pieces are still there. We found some old report cards and other things from school. I got pretty good grades. Here is an essay I wrote in 1986:



Here's to dwelling in the past! That's all for now!

- Ships

Things I Already Miss

We are currently staying with family in the LA area. We left the unseasonably sunny skies of Seattle and arrived to the gray drizzle of LA. Venice Beach had an endless shadowed sky surrounded by little blasts of colorful beach houses. The mountains were marbled from the mudslides during their past few days of rain. And we are now in a quiet, loving home in the burbs, attempting to take care of things.

Now that we are sort of homeless, it feels like I have a heightened sense of "place", something I never had or noticed before. Seattle feels different Newbury Park which feels different from National City which feels different from Santa Cruz. Each home signaled some kind of rebirth for me. I wonder who I'll be in Korea?

This is a little hint of who I was in Seattle:
- coffee patron and conversation buddy to Maggie
- summer hot dog eater of Dog in the Park at Westlake Center. Kosher combo meal!
- morning walker at Volunteer Park, hiking up the stairs to the water tower
- badass, braving the Seattle rain sans umbrella
- dog radar for MacDaddy, Rufus, Tum Tum, and Bacon (famous bulldogs of Capitol Hill)
- theater participant
- rock climbing pansy with Sara
- vintage shopper
- philosopher and swinger at Cal Anderson Park
- nosher of the awesomest lunch at Baguette Box: tofu samich, truffle fries, limonta
- experiencer of heaven at Broadway Grill: Broadway Cookie Sundae (holla)
- English language partner
- a body living without a soul for 5 years
- a giver of the best full body hugs you will ever experience

I miss Seattle. I miss everything Seattle had to offer. I miss me in Seattle.

- Chips

Scavenger Hunt

Soon, I will be inviting more people to this blog. Smaller people. This Friday I leave behind a class of about twenty-six 2 1/2 to 5 year olds. I will miss them. We will be keeping in touch via this blog. The idea is that they will be sending me on a scavenger hunt. They will ask me to find or experience certain things on my trip and I will send them pictures and stories back.

Less than a week left in Seattle. It's kind of fun living in an empty apartment. We're not buying much at the grocery store so I'm having to forage food from the leftovers in the fridge, trying to finish things rather than throw them out. It actually can get pretty fancy. My lunch today was organic peanut butter, white wine jelly, on a toasted hamburger bun and drinking Crystal Lite from a plastic champagne flute.

-Ships

It took me two years to fall in love with Seattle

It is a typical day in Seattle right now: gray, overcast, misting cold rain, slight wind chill. All the trees, and there are many of them, look like they are covered in and dripping off diamonds. Our balcony sits empty; our summer plants have been taken indoors, waiting to be pawned off on craigslist before our impending move to California then abroad to...KOREA!

We turned down a job in Taiwan because it didn't offer free housing. Korea has been the country that has consistently offered the best contracts for ESL Instructors. The way I'm wording this sounds like we don't have a job settled there yet. You are correct. But we are working on it and that is all I'm willing to say. By writing it as vaguely as possible, it sounds as though we're actually quite busy and working on it. So. Yeah.

Back to Seattle. On a day like this, I recommend sitting in the warmth of your empty living room, looking out at the dreary miserable cold through your picturesque balcony window. Drink a hot cup of green tea. Listen to Abbey Road. I wish I could take a picture and show you my daily gray happiness but we're working on this whole uploading pictures thing on this blog. Apparently, our computer is so slow, that every time I try to upload the picture, I'm giving "invalid URLs".

Let me be as descriptive as possible to make up for the lack of visual representation: There is a simple old brick apartment building across the street where you can spy on the neighbors' silent coffee moments, our balcony has a few toasted crispy leaves on the floor, one evergreen is covered with cold sweat, another tree is an intricate maze of naked branches, down the hill is a metal echoing lake full of still boats from Seattle's well-to-do and the promise of rainbow dotted lights within the span of a few hours as Seattle gets dark very early in the day still. A car whizzes by and a few blocks down, several teenagers are practicing tricks at the most amazing bike park under a freeway ramp. A few blocks the other direction, there is probably a grimey junkie sex offender trying to make his life work and up the hill from him, jaded hipsters in their leather jackets, boots and striped shirts are talking about a low budget film that no one else in the country has probably seen, a beautiful couple will stroll past them with their child dressed better than me and their pug, cold and happy.

Last Chair

Things are happening quicker than I expected. Our apartment has more boxes now than furniture. Our dining chairs our gone and tomorrow our couch. My wife and I are going to be fighting over our one chair these last few weeks. We've been in contact with about five or six people about jobs abroad. It's still hard to picture what my life will be like in a couple of months.

My New Year's resolution is a bit vague. Or it can be defined flexibly at least.

Try better.

I can physically feel the difference between my lazy and my active state of mind. I've been opting for lazy too often, taking the back seat to my life. It's time I start driving. If I'm going to survive traveling the world, leading a classroom, teaching English for a living, that's got to become a habit. So get buckled Asia.

Making it Happen in Twenty Ten

2010 is here and the only resolution I have is to be more like a duck which can be interpreted as follows:

- Like water off a ducks back, I will try not to let things bother me so much.
- They like to fly south for the winter. In theory, I’d like to move around more, as my life dictates a better opportunity is available.
- They fly in a perfect V-shape, as witnessed in Disney’s The Mighty Ducks. I will try to be a better team player.

I’m doing ok so far. This January will be full and busy. We’re set to leave our current home in the sometimes lovely Seattle in order to spend some time with the family in southern California before leaving to go abroad and teach English. Where? We don’t know yet. It’s a headache and if I write about it, it will stress me out. Which will make me a failure on the whole “I will try not to let things bother me so much” goal.

As of today, we have about 25 days to get rid of 90% of our worldly possessions (which is difficult because I like stuff), settle on a job (which is even more difficult because it’s kind of out my hands) and tie up any other loose ends (and I discover a new string to tie every day). It’ll get done because it has to. For now, I have a mondo To Do list and I’m trying to remain calm and organized.

Quack quack yo.