Friday, December 31, 2010

This time from Seoul!

Our trip has continued to be excellent, overall. We accidentally bought train tickets for Tuesday instead of Wednesday and  ended up having to stand a lot for a long time rather than having the relaxing afternoon watching the country roll by as we had planned. But on Wednesday morning we walked up to the top of Busan, including at least part of the 1,000 steps that are apparently famous. We went to a huge lovely bookstore yesterday, and I now have The BFG; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; and A Wrinkle in Time to give to Xiaoxuan when I visit her family fort the lunar new year in February (going back to Chinaaaa!). We then ate some excellent Vietnamese food and saw Tron: Legacy in 4D (meaning 3D glasses and seats on hydraulics so when the characters swoop, we swoop).

Today we are staying in until evening, when we're going to Hongdae to do whatever is done when the year changes at midnight. Jei and Christian are going to make me watch the 1st and 3rd Indiana Jones because I don't think I've seen either of them in their entirety.

Christian and I put off buying any travel tickets until we'd actually left and were worried that it would make this an expensive trip, but we bought plane tickets back home from Seoul (since we came by boat from Jeju to Busan and train from Busan to Seoul) and they only cost us 30,000won (less than $30) each. It was a very new airline, so I'll be able to tell you better on Sunday WHY they were so cheap, but I am confident they will at least get us home.

As far as things-Christian-says updates, which should probably become a regular facet of this blog, he has periodically channeled the spirit of New Yorker (or something like it) Odysseus, or "Ody" for short ("'ey, c'mon, we're pals, right?"). He also informed me that he is naturally built like Brad Pitt, with a slightly larger nose. But is allergic to "stupid poop-heads" and since he spends so much time with ME, is always swollen.

A kind man.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Coming to you from Busan, South Korea

Hello fair reader! I am in the PC bang (computer room/cafe) in the shared floor of a Jimjilbang. The women's sauna is on one floor, the men's on another, and the shared sleeping floor, with cafe and computer room and massage chairs, on yet another. Christian is on his way up, he's just texted me, and we'll be spending the night here before spending another half-day in Busan (the highlights of which will be the beach, again, and the RussiaTown near the train station) before catching our train up to Seoul to stay with a friend there through new years. We took an over night boat from Jeju-si last night, and didn't sleep much. We got into Busan port a little before 6am and have been wandering ever since, so I'm not feeling too bad about having hit the sauna around 8pm and just chilling for the rest of the evening.

More updates when I'm back home!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Movement and Stillness; Silence and Sound

There is a magic in traveling, whatever the distance. It takes me out of myself and gives me permission to look at the world. Even taking the bus home from my school a few towns over, feeling the landscape rolling past me puts my place in the world into more perspective. I can see more clearly how far I have traveled and how much world there will always be left to explore.

In part I owe this to the motion sickness that I sometimes view as a tragic irony. I can't read in cars or especially on buses and only sometimes on trains or planes. I sometimes can't hold conversations well because I can't keep turning my head to look at the person I'm talking to.* I have always gotten motion sick, as far as I can remember, which has meant that car rides (and more recently plane and train rides) have left me with nothing to do but be in my mind. It makes me a less-than-ideal travel partner; as soon as I sit down in a car, my brain sets to meditative work.

I love thinking about the world without being altogether in any one part of it. I love tracing a line that has connected who knows how many other people. And I love that my responsibility is just to be wherever I am. "I'm on the bus, dude." or "I'm on a train, dude. In China." and "I'll deal with it when I get there." It is an opportunity to turn off my responsibility/stress mind and just think about whatever comes.

It is often when I am traveling and staring absent-mindedly into the distance that I am able to articulate myself the best.

This year has probably been my richest ever in terms of travel. I was on Jeju staying with Christian for six weeks just after the year began, then I went 'home' to Nanjing for Spring semester. Afterwards I traveled to Chongqing by 25 hour train, then to Yichang by three-boat on the Yangtze river, then by 13 hour train to Beijing. There I was picked up by Xiaoxuan and her father's entourage, and hosted in Langfang and Guyuan, near Inner Mongolia. I went home for three and a half short weeks, and zigzagged my way all over the Mighty Midwest seeing people I love. I've been in Korea for a few months now, spending most of my time on Jeju but some in Seoul, and Christian and I have another trip to Busan and Seoul in just over a week. **

What matters the most, of course, are people. It is wonderful to travel with or towards people I love, but I also like to travel alone. I have had some lovely conversations and even made friends on trains and waiting for them. It is very easy for me to feel isolated sitting home alone, or when I am at work with no one to talk to. But even if I am by myself on a bus, I feel connected to the people riding it and to the places I pass. And as I begin to learn the history of whatever place I live in, I begin to be able to trace lines back through the reasons for and implications of what people say and do, what kind of work they do and where. It is magic that there are so many lines to trace and to continue.


*I was recently lovingly reminded that much of this may be in my head. I am better in motion if I am not struggling with anxiety, if I have been taking care of myself mentally and physically. I am better if I have someone's hand to hold, and that has little to do with my inner ear.

**that was a really long brief overview...

Sunday, December 19, 2010

My heart is often in Iowa

My grandparents have had an extremely difficult year, and after finally moving back in with my grandfather for less than a week, my grandmother is back in the hospital. She has always planned on "getting to 90 and then slowing down," and did just turn 90 last month. She has been incredibly brave in a year of being moved back and forth, from her home to the hospital to an assisted living home to a nursing home, another nursing home. I think that she and my grandfather have spent more time living in separate places this year than they have together, which would be unfair any year but is unbearable to think about as the list of things her body is surviving keeps getting longer.

It breaks my heart to be on the other side of the world while they are both facing things they shouldn't face alone, with only my thoughts and love and too-infrequently my voice in Iowa. But I am wary of the short trips home I might be able to finagle with my brief vacation days-- I don't want to have to leave before I feel like I'm home and lose the buffer-money that will be letting me stay in Ames when I do get there, almost certainly at the end of July. I have been trying to decide if this is wisdom or selfishness, and am not sure. In any case, my heart is in Iowa.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Me-update

Sorry I didn't post earlier in the week! All is well. This is solely a Kara-update, my mind hasn't been coming together for a more thoughtful topic.

I think I have decided to get a masters of education and teach middle school science, and then get certified to teach in montessori schools. I don't just want to do the montessori thing by itself, I believe, because I want to be more flexible in where I can work and because I am pretty sure I want to work with middle-school aged students. This is such an important age to be encouraged and empowered, as youth are becoming aware that they are both intelligent and mature, but often not being given ways to use those qualities constructively, I think that I can feel good about spending my whole life with them.

I have just recieved (from my dear mother!) and begun reading a book about the Montessori philosophy. But it is essentially based around Maria Montessori's discovery in late 19th century Italy that all children have a spontaneous interest and self-discipline for learning, when they are given the help and encouragement to act on them.

I am looking for Masters of Ed programs and may be applying for next fall to a couple with late deadlines, but will probably wait to ensure that I have applied for sufficient funding.

Christian and I are going to visit Seoul and Busan (the capital/biggest city in SK and the second biggest, respectively) the week after next for our vacations. We're taking a boat from Jeju to Busan, a train from Busan to Seoul, and a plane from Seoul back to Jeju.

The first week of January my school is hosting a joint English Camp with a few other schools (including Christian's) and I'll be teaching about 15 4th-6th graders a day on the exciting topic of "money." We'll be designing our own currency and ending with a treasure hunt.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Words, words, words.

I read a lot, and have since I learned how. I must say that part of my motivation to read when I was a child was the praise it got me and, as Christian can attest, I still want someone to witness my reading progress. Another reason is often escapism. I prefer novels-- the longer the better-- because they allow me to spend the most time in a world outside my own, and especially when I was young loved most to re-read favorites, because I knew I could be prepared for whatever happened. I still like stories that are long enough for me to spend time in a world, and I still love to relive stories-- but maybe not quite as often as I used to.

I also write, but less confidently (naturally, I suppose). I journaled more or less regularly through middle and high school, but have had trouble keeping a regular journal since then. Most of the time, though, when I sit down to write I have to write my head into order before I can even pretend I am writing about anything other than the state of my mind. Hence most of the contents of this blog. I am trying to write creatively, but with my current project am teetering on the line between knowing I have a story I want to write that will give me room to explore all the things I want it to, and feeling that all the pieces of it are spiraling out and should never have been connected. That's a little melodramatic but, y'know, I live in my mind so little things in here often seem pretty big to me.

I brought almost all new books with me to China last year, and decided halfway through the year that it had not been the best plan-- the living on the other side of the world business was enough 'new'ness and I wanted familiar stories. So, I brought more with me this time-- in large part through that previously mentioned e-reader, though I am filling up the shelves here with books anyway.

I have been reading a lot on Jeju, in between the teaching, spending time with Christian, and large amounts of sitting and thinking which fill my days. I have read:
1) the remainder of Red Mars, and about half of Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
2)The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (again)
3) The Man who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
4) The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (again-again)
5) Briar Rose by Jan Yolen (again)
6) about half of Anne Frank's diary in German
7) about a third of 藏地密码 by 何马
8) a couple of stories in my 科幻小说集 (science fiction anthology)
9) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (again)
10) most of China Mieville's The City and the City
11) The beginning of Tintenherz by Cornelia Funke

Goodness, I was thinking to talk about each of them a bit but that's a long list.  They are all recommended!