Seoul, Korea - August 25, 2005
Well, I am still teaching at a university in Seoul, Korea. I teach 12 hours/week for 15 weeks/semester twice a year. Right now I have just finished my summer vacation and will be teaching again next Thursday.
So where have I been this summer?
Well, I finally flew into Honolulu, Hawaii! I have to say I absolutely love that city! I went there twice this summer. The first stop was just for a couple days. I stayed in a hostel for $18/day right on Waikiki Beach. When I left the US at the end of the summer, I stayed once again in Waikiki in a hotel instead. The second time I also took a video camera and rented a car, to capture the entire island of Oahu with my movie camera. Someday I hope to spend significant more time there. In fact, I bought many real estate guides and newspapers to examine this more during my free time. I also bought a ukulele and have been goofing around with that this summer. I have been thinking that whenever this university gigs, I will try to live in Honolulu and write significantly more extensively about the experience at that time, much like I did at the beginning when I was reading the Seoul Journals.
Another destination for me this summer was Washington DC. If anyone had been reading much of my journals while in Spain, they'd remember I was seriously considering moving to and living in that city. Well, after renting a car and driving all over DC and Northern Virginia, I can definetely say I lost any interest in that. Sure DC was a great city, but I just don't think I'd want to live a busy hectic fast-paced East Coast type of city again. Georgetown was beautiful however, but the rest of the city was somewhat ghetto in feel or extremely suburban with the extended car culture. Just not a place I'd want to spend any significant time in the future.
Most of my summer was spent in Las Vegas at my girlfriend's apartment. Many of the days were well over 100 degrees. That being said, we had air-conditioner so I didn't mind that much. My first impressions were as they always have been, that I'm just not that interested in living in Las Vegas.. its just a great city to visit only. However, the more time I spent there, the more I began to appreciate the city itself. Its also growing enormously and housing isn't anywhere near as bad as elsewhere on the West Coast. Plus most of the housing is brand new. Particularly after visiting DC, I realized how much more interesting and enjoyable a city like Las Vegas actually was for living.
During my time there, we took a few trips. One consisted of a visit to Orange County, California. I've driven through it before, but never actually made it a destination. The beaches of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach were BEAUTIFUL! So was much of Long Beach (at least near the ocean). We drove around and found entire areas with nothing but Korean businesses or Vietnamese businesses. I particularly enjoyed hanging out in a shopping mall with my Filipina girlfriend in a Vietnamese area. I was the only white guy I saw anywhere in that mall. Kind of intoxicating feeling to me. The beaches were phenominal as well. On our last day there, we found the Cambodian area of Long Beach and ate at a great Cambodian restaurant. I really enjoyed that short trip.
Another trip we took included a road trip through Nevada and into Oregon and back. We drove the Alien Highway along Area 51 in southern Nevada. However it was a disappointment as there were just a few signs here and there in a touristic kind of way, but nothing much else there to make the out-of-the-way roadtrip much worth it. I was impressed with driving through Nevada though, we even saw a really nice and large lake out there. I didn't expect that from anywhere in Nevada for some reason.
Now Oregon is always nice. We drove along the southern part of the state towards Crescent City, California, and then drove northward along the coastal towns. Klamath Falls was a nice surprise. I didn't have very high expectations for it, but the downtown was pleasant and there was a large hill of houses overlooking it. Afterwards we went to Medford which basically looked like one really large suburb. I was surprised it was so disappointing, but for the shopper, I suppose it has everything. Next was Grants Pass, a pleasant small town. I was quite shocked when I picked up some real estate information in that part of Oregon and saw how skyrocket housing prices were! Unbelievable. Afterwards we took the coast, and one of the small towns was Brookings. Supposedly it has the best climate in all of Oregon, and I also had high expectations that it would have something real attractive about it. However, it turned out to basically be a really small town mostly for boating or older retired people. Driving further up the coast, the towns were interesting though, including Florence and others. Finally we got to Portland and spent the next couple days at my friend's house along with his Korean wife and recent daughter. A great trip overall.
At the end of the time in the US, I can say I really missed and enjoyed my time there. If I didn't have my current university job, I would have loved to have just stayed and lived there for awhile. However the idea of looking for work again, probably doing stuff that would require a lot more of me time-wise and other-wise than my current easy breazy university job!
One of the things I did this summer in Korea was teaching at a summer camp. I taught students around the 12-13 year old range. The camp was only 3 weeks, but paid quite well to the university-employed teachers who taught there. They had a bonus pay for us. The camp was significantly better than the other I had preiously worked at. I will definetely try to keep doing those camps during every break I have.
In regards to my Masters Thesis. Well, I'm still working on it. Now I have around 75 pages written, but still trying to add another section or two, as well as wrap-it up up in a coherent manner. Its definetely a lot of work, but now is the time to be finishing it while I can. I can't believe 8 months have already went by since I left Spain, and I'm still not finished with it. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like many other students from Castellon are finished with it either, so I could still hurry up and finish it before others (its an encouragement for me to keep working on it!)
From time to time, I've also mentioned that I wrote a book about my time in Korea way back in Busan in 1996. I wrote it in 1997-1998 when I lived in Brazil, and it mainly consists of my first year in Korea combined with a nice dramatic interesting breakup with a girlfriend in Oregon because of it! Once I'm finished with my Thesis Project, I will get to work at finishing up all the rough edges - its essentially already written, just need to fine-tune it! I've read of www.lulu.com which publishes books that people have written online. I will be doing that, and making it available to anyone who reads this website. Keep an eye out for that! First I gotta finish this Masters Thesis however!
The other side project I hope to get started doing this year, is pursuing a 'Postgraduate Certificate in International Trade' through an online Business university in Barcelona, Spain. It would fit somewhere imbetween the BA and the MA. I figure I have the time, it doesn't cost much, and its something I am strongly interested in learning about. So that will by 3rd side project during this current semester of teaching.
And now for the biggest news.. my girlfriend living in Las Vegas.. will be moving to Seoul to live with me here for awhile! Fortunately I have a nice large apartment which would be ideal for two people. It will be a big challenge to live together in Seoul though. But its probably better than just this constant long-distance relationship we've been maintaining for too long now. On another note, during my next vacation (December-February), I'll be spending it in the Philippines! Her and I will go down there together and explore her country. I'm looking forward to that.
so anyhow, if I still have readers out there after these long extended absenses as of late, keep on reading! I'll actually have a lot more things to be talking about here this year!
Next Journal Entry in Korea:
October 27, 2005
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com