Ok! I know it has been weeks since my last blog update, but between a week of English camp and 14 hour days, traveling and adjusting back to life here, I have been busy! This will be a very long update; I have a lot to cover!
I have been back a full week now, and things have been going great. I am loving being home, seeing all of my friends and family, being in a familiar environment, eating good food, it has all been great! But, before all of that…
My last full week in Korea was spent at a regional English camp, staying at the university where the camp was held. There were four other native English teachers and although the days were insanely long (around 14 hours) my friend Rebecca, helped keep me sane! I am pretty sure everyone there thought we were actually insane, as we both are very silly and crazy at times. Some of my very favorite girls were there from my school (five schools were there, and only the best English students from each school were there, a total of 50 middle school students), and I really enjoyed getting to know other students, all of whom wanted to be there and spoke much higher levels of English than the average student. They were the, “good” students. It was really interesting because it was a mix of girls and boys, and because I’ve only ever taught girls, it was interesting to see not only how boys act, but how they act together! It definitely created an interesting dynamic, some flirting and things like that, but much less than I would have expected. It was fun to have a last hoorah with a bunch of students, teaching only fun lessons. I taught a lesson on the US, how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (peanut butter is NOT big in Korea, and I had students literally gagging because they had never had peanut butter!) and a few other fun lessons. We had a homeroom and had to prepare them in creating a skit and song/dance. We (I, lol) chose the song, “Baby” by Justin Bieber (lmao!) and I choreographed an entire dance for them! At the performance at the end of the week, I was like a stage mom I felt like, because I was in view of them, doing the entire dance so they wouldn’t forget anything! Camp was overall fun, other than one crazy Korean teacher who was leading it, and one stupid annoying native English teacher, but no one liked him, so no big deal! It was nice to have my last week Jang-free! One night in the dorms, Rebecca and I made PBJ sandwiches for tons of the girls with the leftover supplies that we had! It was a fun time that I will remember (mostly) with fond memories.
After my week of English camp, I had my last weekend in Korea. I was leaving Korea on Tuesday, and had one more day of work left on Monday, and I did the weekend up in a good way! It happened to be the Mud Festival, which is a festival of…well mud. It is like clay-ish mud, the kind you would have put on your face in a spa. There are inflatable toys, slides, mud wrestling and other such insanity, all in mud! I had been told this was the, “best weekend in Korea” so was really excited! I left early Saturday morning with some friends and we arrived bright and early. My friend Molly had the most ingenious idea ever! No bottles of any kind were allowed into the Mud Festival, including water, so she bought and filled up a huge squirt gun with SOJU!! She (and the rest of us) took turns squirting people and drinking from it. Such an awesome idea! The first thing we did was go on this very tall, inflatable slide. I got to the top and looked at my friend Sarah, and was like, this is REALLY steep!!! She was like just go!!! She went, and I followed, very hesitantly (I have a moderate-severe fear of heights, though it has never stopped me from doing anything, but is has resulted in a few tears, LMAO!!) and began my descent. In my panic of sliding down a mud filled, very steep slide, my natural reaction was to stick my arms out to stop/slow myself. BAD IDEA. But, I was scared and wasn’t thinking. My right arm and right leg got caught where the slide folds up…but the left side kept going. I spun around, eventually became free and landed at the bottom. I was lying in mud, and all I could feel was intense pain in my shoulder, it felt like it potentially could have been dislocated. It was clear right away to the people manning the slide that I was hurt, but I was just thinking, “get up, GET UP GET UP!!!” You know, when you have hurt yourself, but not enough to overshadow embarrassment? That is what I was experiencing. I willed myself up and as soon as I stood I realized my knee was very screwed up too. Fortunately, after a few hours, my shoulder was back to normal, and my knee after about a week or so. Unfortunately, it turns out I sprained my hand (I went to the doctor a few days after I got back) and it is still hurt! Oh well, all in the name of MUD!!! After the slide, we did some like partner hugging thing where you are on a bungee, attached to the wall, and have to run to the middle and hug your partner (also on a bungee) and then let go and fling back!! Remember, everything is wet and muddy so you slide pretty damn fast! It was really awesome. Then, we went to, “Mud Prison” where you are in a prison and mud is flung at you. Was great…until it got in my eyes while wearing contacts! Mud Festival is NOT for the faint of heart, apparently, thank god for SOJU!!! After that, we decided to get painted. There was colored mud and people painting for free! We waited a good while and the Americans in the party (the majority) were very embarrassed by the very crass and obnoxious (and drunk) American military people around us at 10:00 IN THE MORNING! We survived them and all came out painted! It felt sort of strange on your skin, sort of drying, so after not too long we all went for a very cold swim in the ocean! It was cold, but AMAZING! I ended up in and out all day and stayed for long periods of time. It was amazing to just be out in the water again, I love swimming!
The novelty of Mud Festival wore off after awhile, and that combined with drinking in the sun for many hours, we were all tired and wanted to head back. We had originally planned to stay with a friend who lives in the town where the festival was at, but decided because we were leaving so soon, we would just change our train tickets and head back early. The only problem: our friend was MIA and all of our stuff was at her apartment!! We had very unwisely each only brought enough money to get us in and buy ourselves lunch, because we were worried about losing money. We didn’t have cell phones, credit cards, or anything. Not the smartest move on our part! After hours of not seeing our friend, the three of us decided she had probably gone home, and we would go to her apartment. Only problem: No address and we didn’t know where she lived!! We found someone else who knew where she lived, and told the cabbie. We arrived to her apartment, a bit forlorn at this point to find that she….WASN’T HOME!! At that point, panic set in. Full on, absolute panic. We had used up the majority of the money we had left together to get to her apartment, had no way of contacting anyone else, and had almost no money left. We were starving, and so went to the convenience store and got some ramen for around $1 each…as that was all we could afford, lol! We took it back, ate it in her hallway and tried to figure out WTF to do. We ultimately decided we would take the train back (about 90 minutes) because we had a friend meeting us at the station with tickets he got for us…and would have to come back in the morning. We used literally the rest of the money we had left to take a taxi to the station. We were still muddy, hadn’t changed (or showered) and Molly didn’t even have a shirt! She did have a Rambo headband and a squirt gun full of soju though, and I mean, what else matters in times like these? We hung out at the station like a bunch of muddy hobos for a while until our friend with the tickets showed up. He had talked to our friend (where we had planned on staying/where all of our shit was) and she was back. It was decided that Molly would go back (she had no return ticket for the morning, Lindi and I did, and they were all sold out) we would stay the night and bring all of the stuff back in the morning. Everything ended ok, but for many, many hours, we were literally homeless and had almost no money! It was an experience, very stressful, but I can laugh about it now! I found some face wash in the bathroom at the train station and used it to wash my face…lmao. That is how desperate the situation was! It wouldn’t have been a proper send out had Korea not provided one last crazy ass night for me.
Monday rolled around, and my last day as a teacher in Korea had finally arrived. I had been counting down for so long, that I hardly expected it to ever roll around, but alas, it did. I went to school and saw Mr. Jang for the first time in weeks (he was in the hospital for over a week with high blood pressure, and then I was at English camp), and let me tell you, there was no hugging or hand holding! I had nothing to do for the day except send my money home (it was payday) and close my bank account. I was leaving in the evening for Seoul on the train. I spent the morning playing around on the internet and watching some TV, and then after lunch headed for the bank to pay my final bills (my coteacher escorted me and THEN asked for the receipt as proof) so that my school would pay me my salary. After that was finished, and there were some awkward pictures with the principal (who speaks no English) and my shitty co-teacher, I was told I had been paid, could not only go to the bank, but could leave early! Woo Hoo! My coteacher had told me (all throughout the day) that I had to clean my room (my apartment) that it was my duty. I understood completely (although when I got my apartment, it was NASTY, I mean absolutely disgusting) and was tired of him saying it constantly. When I left to go to the bank, he handed me a small, hand-written note. I thought, could it be? Could there be perhaps words of thanks? An apology for being a dick? Or perhaps him telling me to fuck off? None of the above. Instead, it said, “you must clean your room. It is your duty.” OMG, at that note, I was like THANK GOD I am done with this POS man who is a horrible human being!! Off I went to the bank, practically skipping with joy! Until…I got there. No money! I hadn’t been paid. The transfer is instant, we have the same bank and I have access to the money usually five minutes after they do it, and it had already been over 20. I called stupid Mr. Jang…and of course, no answer! I kept calling and calling and finally called the area supervisor and explained my situation. She called the school and then he called me, said it had just then been paid, at this point; I had been at the bank over 30 minutes. I waited a bit, checked after while…and…NO MONEY! This process would be repeated for two and a half hours. Keep in mind, I had to send my money home THAT DAY, because I was leaving the country early the next morning. Business hours were closing in, I was actually starting to panic that they were going to completely screw me. Finally, at 4:25 (the bank closed at 4:20, but allowed me to stay and finish my transaction) they made the transfer (the bank kept checking their end, since they have access to see my school’s account, and they didn’t do it until 4:25), this was over THREE hours after they initially said they had made the transfer. I was LIVID. Just another reminded to me why my school is shitty. But, I got my money and was able to transfer it, so all was well in the end!!
I went home (ran home, because I was so late) finished packing, and met some people for one last dinner. I had kimbap, Korea’s version of sushi, one of the only Korean foods I ended up liking. After dinner, Rebecca helped me carry my ridiculously heavy luggage to the station. She waited with me until the train came, we said our goodbyes, and then I was off! Last time on the train in Korea! I got to Seoul, and had to find the airport rail link, which involved some walking. My backpacking backpack on my back was causing me excruciating pain, and I couldn’t figure out why. It felt like my shoulders were going to fall off. The journey from the train-subway (about a five or less minutes walking) was probably the most physically difficult five minutes I have ever walked, it ended up taking about 20. I finally got on the train and realized that my bag was adjusted for the tallest setting (I need it on the shortest) and as a result, no weight was being displaced to my hips. I was carrying 55 pounds on my shoulders only! I fixed it and it was much better! I got to the airport, and before getting picked up by my hostel to be taken where I was staying for the night, I had to weigh my bags. I was flying Thai Air to Hong Kong, and could only check 44 pounds free of charge. Every kilo above and beyond is $7, which could potentially add up very quickly! I weighed my bag and it clocked in at 54 pounds!!!! I lugged them out of the airport, and went to the hostel.
I arrived and knew I had to completely repack, AGAIN, for the third time. I emptied out every suitcase and bag, and started a mad, crazy getting-rid-of-shit-athon. I got rid of tons of clothes, pretty much all toiletries and other crap. I could hear my friend Kristina and my sister in my mind (they have gone through this with me, forced me to get rid of shit) saying, “Really? A half used bottle of hairspray? THROW IT AWAY!!!” So, I did. I was sort of blindly getting rid of shit for weight purposes, and there are a few things that I wished I hadn’t gotten rid of, but oh well, it is just stuff.
I left bright and early for the airport and checked in, dreading what my overage charges would be. My bag was still overweight, but they charged me NOTHING!!! I was shocked. And very happy. Then sort of pissed off because I had just thrown out seven pounds of shit for apparently, nothing. I said, oh well, just be happy it was free! I went towards security, and a security agent pulled me out of line and made me weight my carryon suitcase (which of course was overweight and I knew it was, but I have NEVER, EVER, had it weighed in all of my travels) and was told I had to check it!!! Now, I was flat out panicking. The cost was going to be exorbitant, and I had stuff in the suitcase that couldn’t be checked (some glass vases and other items), so mad rush to repack/reorganize #4 commenced. I approached the desk and low and behold, they didn’t charge me again!! I was overjoyed at that point. I raced through security and immigration, was told that I was canceling my visa and wouldn’t be able to come back on the same visa if I did this, and they asked if I understood, and it took all of my power to not say, “I am never coming back!!!!” I practically skipped away towards my gate and boarded my four hour flight to Hong Kong. This would be the first four hours of nearly 27 hours I would fly in a week!
I flew away from Korea, very happy, ready to get to Sydney to see Colin, knowing it was putting me ever closer to home and my friends and family! Although I will miss the friends I made in Korea dearly, I was so ready to leave. I am glad I went, I learned a lot about myself and had a good time outside of my job, and it just wasn’t the situation for me!
To be continued…
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