Working

My shoebox classroom.

Holy cow, work is hard!  Trying something new is hard! Will I ever get to that point where work is easy?  When I don't have to put so much effort?  When I can become an expert at something? Maybe not.

Everyone says it gets better.  And yes, it's true each day I am becoming more comfortable.

But it's good for me to remember that not everything can be easy all the time.  That at some point everything was difficult for me, even walking.  Fearlessness and effort and many mistakes, may be the key to success!

workfeet

On a high note, the students I work with are BRILLIANT.  Not only do these students read, discuss, and criticize academic articles above their comprehension levels-- they do it in their second language.  Some of the students don't really want to be here, but who can blame them?  A three hour academic course after their full school day would be rough for anyone.

Seriously though, these kids are so bright!

Um... they just decided to draw a map of the world on the whiteboard.
They knew more country names than I did.

Home Making

Here's a short video I made for my family.  It's a tour of my apartment in Busan, Dognae-gu, Oncheon-dong.  It's a great space and I can't wait to put up more pictures after it's furnished and decorated! YAY!

Being

안녕하세요!

Training for work was more rigorous than I expected it to be. But luckily, I have some experience teaching so the experience wasn't as daunting.  Between teaching a class of 6 year olds vs. a class of adults-- not so different as I thought it would be.

Directly after our final evaluation we were given information about our hagweon (school).  Some of us had taxis waiting outside to take us directly to our new homes.  I, on the other hand, was one of the few to stay in the hotel another night and be picked up the following day.

As I walked back to the hotel by myself I had a realization.  At that moment, I was alone and without a plan for the first time since I landed in Korea.  There was nothing I needed to do.  There was nowhere I needed to be.  It was both terrifying and liberating.

And so begins a series of my feet all over Korea...

So, I walked the streets of Seoul for a while and when it began to get dark I made my way back to my hotel room.  I turned on the TV to listen to Korean programming while I finished my left overs and drank a can of Cass.  And after this lengthy, heavy week, I called it a night.

Arriving

I'm here.

After a an hour in San Fransisco traffic, a twelve hour flight, and a three hour bus ride later I arrived in Seoul's Gangnam district where I would stay for the week long work training.

Subway station #222

Seoul streets

and of course, #littlekids, #socute, #iamacreeper

The next day I went exploring Seoul.  Training for work started the next day, so for now this would be my only opportunity to do some sight seeing

First, Bongeunsa Temple.  A Buddhist temple situated in the midst of the bustling city.

as we entered the temple

one of the many prayer halls

architecture

In the evening I met with Jessica, a very close friend from college (TUNAMELTS shout-out! ).  Jessica has been living and working in Seoul since we graduated college. She treated us to dinner and took us to Seoul's Lantern Festival.

first thing we saw was this LANTERN TEMPLE!

The festival was held at Cheonggyecheon, the public stream part in downtown Seoul.

one of the many elaborate pieces on the river

under the bridge was my favorite piece

a collaborative piece

and up close... notes written!

><(((*>

Here is a video of us walking through the lantern temple!

Packing

Oh, how I will miss this city.

I have been reading the blog Becoming Minimalist for some time now and I have always been inspired by the ideas of living more simply--  that by actively choose less, you can begin to focus resources and energies to what really matters the most.  No, I'm not trying to live as an aesthetic (I love beautiful things!), but I aspire to make more of an effort to contemplate & reevaluate how I live my life and what I spend my time doing.

As I embark on a year abroad, I took this opportunity (NECESSITY) to try minimalizing my possessions   I took on the daunting task of cleaning out my home and packing my livelihood into three suitcases.  Okay, so I still have like, 10 boxes of stuff stored at my parent's house.  But I think I did alright.  Inch by inch, right? Life is a process like that, I suppose.

Here are some things that helped me throughout the moving/minimalizing process:

1. Work in stages.  I began the process of cleaning out my apartment months before I was leaving on the trip.  I worked one day at a time organizing my possessions into three piles: keep, donate, trash.  What helped me most was starting now and starting small.  Even by just going through one drawer a day made a difference. 
2. Sell your stuff and earn MONEY.  Selling your possessions can also act as incentive to get rid of more things and make parting with your favorite "whatever-it-is" a little easier.  You can sell clothes at consignment stores (like Crossroads) and Books/CDs/DVDs at most used book stores (like Half Prices books).  The internet has countless website to help sell your possessions (craigslist, eBay, etc.).
3. Digitalize your memorabilia.  Instead of keeping the big shoe box of letters & cards anyone has ever written to me, I took pictures of them and saved the pictures onto my hard drive.  The words and memories are still with me, just taking up much less space.
4. 
   

   

   my yttp graduation card

5. Choose one item to symbolize something more.  For example, I choose to keep a small box filled with tiny memories.  Each of the items in here represents a time in my life.  And this small box is all I need to remind me of all the lovely times that have befallen in my life.
6. 
   

   

   mini memory box

7. Give.  Something I wish I would have done more of. Either by making a “please take” box that people could peruse through or giving a gift to someone each time I saw them.  It feels good to give!