We Meet Again: Hey Sister Seoul Sister

A wonderful consequence of living abroad is the simple fact that you meet people from all over, from so many walks of life. And if you're lucky, you meet those people with whom you just click and become fast and forever friends. I've been fortunate enough to be still be able to call the friends I met in Korea my dear friends even as I've moved back home, but all the distance doesn't allow for all of us to interact in the same way as we did before, obviously.

All that means that when we can reunite, we are bound for the best of times. One of my Seoul sisters, Erica, was recently in town and we picked up right where we left off and got to spend our days doing what we love best, being outdoors and under the sun!

Erica and I playing at Central Park, August 2013

Friendships like ours are just another reason why I am such a proponent of living abroad. Erica is also an advocate of an international lifestyle, and through our experiences, both shared together and retold, our collective understanding of life and humanity and the awesomeness of the world is enriched and compounded and made beautiful. When we were walking around nyc, I asked Erica if she felt weird being in the US (she's Brazilian-Italian and has lived in so many countries), and she responded so simply, saying that the more countries she visits and the more cultures she experiences meaningfully, the more she's able to see what makes us the same rather than different.

                                 

Erica and I on my last night in Seoul, March 2013 

Not to say that we should become one homogenous world, but its that desire to known our neighbors as our neighbors and not as something exotic that we aspire to. Each place has its own history and has something unique to offer to the world, and should be celebrated of course, but I think you can appreciate how a place is different from what you know without seeing it as other.

                                         

With some of our other Seoul sisters, Andrea and Julie, on what has become one of my favorite days in Korea, February 2013

I have so many friends who share my love of travel as our perspectives tend to run along similar lines, but in particular, it was so great to have one of my dearest friends from Seoul around for a few days. Because no matter how many stories you tell to others in order to explain what you've seen or how you lived, they remain mere stories and somethings can't be explained in words. With Erica, there was no need to explain anything because she lived through it with me, and reminded me of the who I was at a specific time of my life. As we swapped stories and memories, she was able to make Seoul come alive for me again in a way that nothing else has. For a few days, it was like I was able to visit Korea again.

Back in the Trenches: Subbing

For my ESL job, I primarily deal with test writing and the editing of text books. Hidden in all the fine print of my job description is that I should be open and willing to take on other tasks for the company, as needed. My first day on the job—my first minute on the job—I was thrown into the lion’s den, working the front desk and acting as the first point of contact when people walked in or called. Although the danger? threat? prospect? of stepping in to teach a class loomed near, I was able to somehow avoid the call. That is, until last week when I got an email from my boss asking me if I would sub for a week to replace a teacher that just wasn’t working out.

There was no way I could say no. And, to be honest, I didn't really want to. Sure, my last teaching experience wore down my spirits and tarnished my outlook in teaching English overseas, but now that some time has passed, I began to miss teaching. Or at least, interacting with students. Although I am at the centers 4 days a week, I sit in my office working on computers and with books and I don't interact with any of the students that pass my door on a daily basis.

Thus, I went home on a Tuesday evening armed with books, curriculum for the week, and a tentative lesson plan for the next day’s class. And I was up and teaching intermediate English the following day from 8am to 11am.

I could not tell you just how nervous about subbing. My natural disposition is to be nervous and I was never able to quell those first-day jitters as a student, never mind as a teacher. My butterflies were compounded by the fact that I was completely unfamiliar with the texts, the classroom, and how the center likes to run its classrooms. I arrived not knowing how many students I would have in my class, what resources I would have at my disposal, or even what the attendance policy was. That many unknown factors practically spells DISASTER for teachers because that means parts or even the whole of their lesson plan could fail and then you're left scrambling. It's one thing when I find out that something in my lesson plan doesn't work when it's my class, because I know the material and the students and can figure something out on the fly. But to be left floundering in front of a class is never good. Especially when you're a sub. You have to overcome so many things going against you before you even walk into the classroom.

Besides not knowing all the things about the class that their regular teacher would know, you have to work hard to gain their trust and hopefully, respect. The older the students are, the harder it is to get them to put their faith in you that a) you know what you're talking about, b) that the work they're doing in your class does count, and c) despite you being a sub, you care about the students and will support them for as long as you're there. In my case, it was all of these things, plus the fact that they had just gone through a teacher who didn't deliver. If anything, walking into the classroom last week I had more distrust going against me than usual.

I subbed for 4 days. The first day, as always, was the hardest, and I thought each day was better than the last until the last day when I had to say goodbye to them. They were all surprised that it would be our last day together, and while they voiced their disapproval, "Why do you leave us?" "Why do we keep changing teachers?" I knew they were also nervous about the teacher who would come after me. It's never a good thing to keep changing teachers on students, it's so disruptive. And I really felt for these students; I wouldn't want to keep adjusting to a new instructor every week. But I think the new teacher will be the one that sticks.

And I had soo much fun with the students. They were so diverse (lots of south americans and europeans, but just a few asian students!) and I loved seeing them learn from each other. They were so great and I honestly couldn't have asked for a better group of students to spend a few days with. I got a few compliments on my teaching and that made me happy because I really tried hard for them as I wanted them to have a good experience coming out of their time with the previous teacher. They could have been trying to be nice, but I appreciated the words nonetheless.

Long story short: I forgot just how exhausting teaching is! To be so mentally engaged for hours at a time! I was mush afterwards! But I also forgot just how much I actually do like being in the classroom. I'm not looking to go back in as a full-time thing just yet, but it's nice to return to every once and a while.

Thoughts from CA: These are my people!

One of my favorite traveling experiences happens whenever I get to the gate in an airport terminal that leads me home. There are few things I love more than arriving at that gate and settling into a pleather seat. Yes, it is literally the gateway that will lead me home, but more than that, I love being surrounded by other people also heading to San Diego. 

I've been on a lot of flights bound for San Diego, and even within California itself, there's nothing quite like the feeling of the people who are on a flight bound for my hometown. Maybe I'm a bit biased here, but people just feel friendlier, seem happier, and are visibly excited. Also, there is an energy in the air that is less crazy and more relaxed, as if everyone is collectively breathing a sigh of relief for making it back home. 

Of course, there's still the crazy. Being the tourist city that it is, you do get the people who are flying in for a visit, those who are, of course, welcomed, but they inhale when the rest of us are exhaling. I've been asked this so many times about what is particularly interesting to do or see in San Diego, but that's not it. The best thing about San Diego isn't what you do there, it's being there. It's a state of mind. 

So when I arrive at the gate and see all the other people waiting to board, I like that moment when I settle into the atmosphere of people like me, hearing their conversations of the times and places all of which I know intimately, which I carry with me wherever it is that I go.

NYC heatwave

It has been freaking hot.

Temperatures in the 90s with high ass humidity. Temperatures at night still in the 80s.

Simply put, it has been miserable.

And New York being what it is, there's quite often no central air. I've had to go without AC before, but I've never had to try to sleep without it. It makes sleeping at night nearly impossible to do.

I remember last summer in Korea, the AC unit in our classroom broke, and after break I came back to the classroom there was christmas music blasting, a youtube video of snowfall was playing on the projector, students were drawing snowscapes on the white board, and everyone was eating ice cream. It was all an attempt to get their minds thinking that it wasn't hot, that they were experiencing the cold of winter and not the oppressive heat of summer. I got free ice cream out of it and a great memory. That class in particular was a joy to teach.

the TIME CAPSULE: a good kid/ FB adventure

Around 10 years ago, a small group of my friends got together and did something which I consider to be the greatest thing we've ever done as a collective group (besides choosing to be friends with each other): bury a time capsule.

The four of us were coming upon our last year of high school and, as anyone can attest, it is a time of solidarity with your peers, of excitement for the future, of wanting to hold on to the past. Although I don't know whose idea it was to make the time capsule or the details of how it all came together (I have a strong feeling that we were inspired by an episode of Saved by the Bell, you know which one I'm talking about), one night my friends Sonya, Sadaf, and I gathered at our friend Stacy's house carrying armfuls of stuff we wanted to include in our time capsule.

I couldn't tell you really all the things I personally included, but I remember we all cut off a section of our hair (WHY) and wrote predictions about where we thought we would be when we finally retrieved the time capsule in 10 years time. I have vague memories of saying that I would be in a producer's chair in 10 years and that our missing-but-ever-thought-of friend, Joanna, would be wearing bonnets and sundresses and have a small army of children.

We put everything in 1 small tin box and 1 cardboard box, then put the boxes in a garbage bag--totally secured from the elements, I know. Dressed in all black like the cliche we were, we piled into a car armed with two shovels, flashlights, and the time capsule.

We drove to our high school campus. Under the cover of night we buried the time capsule under 2 inches of dirt--the place we decided to bury it had concrete-like soil that was impossible to break through, and then the sprinklers went on and we gave up trying to trying to dig deeper when we were getting soaked and water was entering our shallow hole in the ground.

And that was that.

Flash forward 10 years and the four of us are back together again in San Diego for Stacy's wedding. Much like our former selves, we dressed in black but convened at my house this time to not only dig up our time capsule, but also to make a new one!

We tried to include tokens of the things we'd done and experience over the last 10 years. I threw in some small trinkets from my travels in Southeast Asia, some photos, and the moleskine I used when I first got to Korea--as in, THE moleskine. You travelers know the significance of that moleskine and can only imagine how hard it was for me to part with it.

And now for photos in dark lighting:

Getting the new time capsule ready

Sonya and Stacy going through Stacy's "FB box" full of the best stuff from our high school days.

This is an example of one of the shirts we would make in high school. This one is the "LOVER" shirt. 

On the front, it says "What a lover." On the back is a GIANT list of all the people we considered "lovers"-- attractive and desirable guys, and not our real lovers, because I think I'd keep having Orlando Bloom as my lover a secret and not publicize it on an iron-on shirt thank you very much. 

Lab reports.

Sonya's drawing of JC from Nsync that she gave to Stacy. 

The one on the left is FREDDIE, the senior boy we loved as freshmen (although Graham was way hotter). For one morP he wore a pig costume, and he was in an airbands group called "Kids Incorporated." This was made by Sonya, but we don't know who the person is on the right. 

This time around we threw everything in plastic in plastic in plastic and loaded up the car to headed over to campus. 

 The new time capsule! Hopefully it withstands the elements and years better than the first one!

It was so bizarre and hilarious going back to our old high school as 27/28 year olds. So much has changed and we had no idea if the school had upgraded its security, if the fences and gates would be locked, or what we would find when we got there. There was an air of uneasy nervousness as we drove onto school grounds, and it was such a dramatic contrast to 10 years ago when we were fearless and the atmosphere was predominated by the feeling of reckless excitement. We kept thinking about what we would do or say if we were somehow caught, and it occurred to us that we had more to lose this time around, or, I should say, something to lose this time around (we had nothing as 17/18 year olds).

After much ado, we gathered our supplies, parked our car in the shadows, and slipped onto campus towards the spot that contained our time capsule. To be honest, I had high doubts about being able to find it again. We weren't sure if it had been found (it was only covered in 2 inches of dirt, mind you), and after like an hour of solid digging, our hands blistered from the wood of the shovels, constantly fearing getting caught, and AGAIN, the sprinklers going off on us, we started to doubt if maybe we had remembered incorrectly and were digging in a completely wrong spot.

The dirt was still concrete-like, and there were all these crazy roots growing everywhere, and more than once Sadaf got frustrated and started ripping out roots with her bare hands. We were at the point of giving up when Stacy suggested digging under this particular root that we had ignored earlier. I dug in and there was a flash of white.

It was like the a choir of angels started to sing.

Immediately we got down into the hole and using our hands, we discovered the white plastic bag we had used to put our boxes in! Finally prying the very worn time capsule from the jaws of the earth, we threw in our new time capsule, covered it up again with 2 inches of dirt, and very tiredly made our way back, happy in our discovery.

And a discovery it was.

Sonya said it best, I think, in likening our time capsule to the remains of the Titanic.

Everything was disgusting and reeked like 10 years of neglect and copper pennies. Water had destroyed and aged much of what we had included in the time capsule. Our letters to ourselves and our predictions were fused together and were unable to be separated and read. We picked through the time capsule like vultures a carcass, trying to find anything worth having. Oddly enough, we did find our hair (disgusting), and the things that survived the most were pictures of nsync that had heavy-duty lamination!

As disappointed as we were with how poorly our time capsule survived over the years, overall it was a great adventure and I'm so so happy that we had the brilliant idea to do this when we had nothing in our heads as youth about to set-off into the world. But more than that, I'm grateful we're all still friends and were able to successfully retrieve the time capsule!