Koryan

Apartment Tour

2010-08-09T02:11:00.001+09:00

Goodbye

2010-05-31T18:47:00.003+09:00

Finishing up my time in Korea is finishing up a marathon: more willpower than endurance, more psychological than physical.

When I got the acceptance from Arizona State a few months ago, I started looking forward to the time that I would be in the United States. I started planning for things: furniture, apartments, cars. I left Korea and mentally I moved. I was there. I was here, of course, but I was there.

Then in this last few days, I got pulled back here. I started realizing that almost every day every time I said goodbye was potentially a real goodbye. See you later, I'd say, but I wouldn't see them later. Goodbye, I'd say, and I meant goodbye forever. These were people I had known for 3, 4, 5 years. People with whom I had had Thanksgiving dinner, rang in the New Year, and celebrated my birthday. They were family more than friends.

And when I went back to America, I knew that I might see one or two of them here or there, maybe a visit as they passed through my new city. Maybe I'd stop by their house as I passed through theirs. But the vast majority of my goodbyes were real goodbyes. Even if I saw the individuals again, I'd never see the group again. The family would never be together again: no holidays, no birthdays, no reunions.

I realized then what a profound affect Korea has had on me. The culture and the language have shaped me certainly, but it's the people that have shaped me the most. Some of them Korean, but some of them not. Some of them just people passing through like me. Many of them have already moved on. Many of them will, like me, soon move on. And we'll say goodbye--a real goodbye.

It's rare when you're aware of this kind of finality. In high school, you're too naive to realize how final it is. In college, you think you won't make the same mistakes in high school. And in general, we delude ourselves into thinking that we won't lose touch, that it won't happen this time. But when you're on the other side of the world and you watch as your friends scatter, there are no illusions. You can know it's the end, and you can be happy that you had that time together.

You just put your head down, close your eyes, and push through--otherwise, you'd never leave at all.

R

Graduate School

2010-03-31T15:46:00.002+09:00

I walked out of the University of Illinois frustrated. The things that interested me in the program had been cut, moved around, or misrepresented on the university website. I had already invested several months moving toward the graduate applications at that point: preparing for the GRE, researching schools, deciding which of those schools to actually visit, setting up appointments with professors and graduate coordinators, and scheduling it so that I could see everything within the short window that I had in the United States. I had narrowed my search down to four schools, and my first meeting had already eliminated one of the four.

University of Illinois at Chicago (X)

My meetings at the University of Texas, the University of Pittsburgh, and Arizona State University went significantly better. I left the schools excited about the programs and ready to apply. I started getting my application materials together soon after returning to Korea. This took months: I researched and wrote a new 20-page writing sample from scratch. I wrote and rewrote statements of purpose fine-tuned to each school. I found recommenders, paid application fees, gathered transcripts, updated vitae, and provided each idiosyncratic paper for each school. I then checked, double checked, and triple checked that I had everything in order. I made lists and checked off the items. I reviewed the applications websites and rechecked the items. I sent everything to Mom in America, where she added things that had been sent to her, and then we went over my lists one more time and rechecked everything one last time. Then she sent everything off for me to meet the deadlines: first Texas, then Pittsburgh, and finally Arizona.

And then I waited.

The deadlines ranged from early-December to mid-January, but there was no chance that I would hear from schools until at least mid-February. After sending everything off, I had a huge sense of relief. It was done. My applications were out there. There was nothing more I could do. It wasn't long, however, until the panic set in.

It was early-February when I first really started to get anxious. I started looking around for any hint of when I might know the results. I surfed graduate message boards and tried to find out when last year's results had come out. According to my research, Pittsburgh would notify first. Last year, the first person to hear anything got his or her response on February 9. But as I anxiously waited, the 9th came and went. I didn't receive a response, but neither did anyone else.

The first person to post a response online came from the University of Texas on February 11. It was a rejection. I took this to be a good sign. If rejections were going out, and I didn't get one, then maybe I was accepted, right? But I still had two more weeks to go until I finally received my email from the University of Texas. In the meantime, I had waited patiently as acceptances came in at both University of Texas and the University of Pittsburgh. I was nervous and worried. I wavered between optimism and panic. Some days I didn't think about my applications at all, but most days, I checked my email during every break between classes and sighed deep and hard every time I saw that the message wasn't there. The message finally came on February 25th.

University of Texas at Austin (X)

The University of Texas was my first rejection and with it came a wave of dread. I knew that getting in was a long shot, but to actually see the rejection in front of me was deflating. It was then that the questions started to flood through my mind: What would I do if I didn't get in to any of the schools? What if I had made some huge glaring mistake in my applications that I was too naive to see? What if I just wasn't cut out for grad school?

Both acceptances and rejections had come in at the University of Pittsburgh, but I hadn't heard a thing. I emailed the coordinator to ask what was happening, and he told me that there were still many names to announce and that I shouldn't worry. But of course, I did. On the graduate message boards I had found, people began discussing their acceptances and how they were getting funded, and where they planned to live. I encouraged them and said I hoped that I would be joining them soon. By late February, I wasn't sure what to think. A single acceptance had been sent out to Arizona State, and I was starting to think that maybe I really was going to get rejected from all three schools.

I started considering what I would do if I didn't get in. I looked at job possibilities and ordered a few books about technical writing. That might be something I could do, I thought. I could do it, and if I hated it, I could apply for a PhD again next year. I read through the books I ordered with interest at first, then with detached boredom, then with resentment. It seemed like a job I'd do to fill the time, not a job I'd do because I wanted to.

I tried my best to push my obsession about the letters out of my mind, but I still compulsively checked my email and the message boards several times a day. I checked and was disappointed over and over again. On March 4th, the University of Pittsburgh suddenly had a flood of rejections as applicants received letters by regular postal service not email. I text messaged Mom to see if I was on the mounting list of rejections. She texted me back with an answer between classes at school.

University of Pittsburgh (X)

I almost couldn't even teach my next class. The only feeling that I can liken it to is a break-up. These were schools that I had imagined going to and planned a future around. And again--for the second time in two weeks--that future was suddenly dashed. It left me with a feeling of deep hollowness. I felt like a tree that had been stripped of all of its wood. I was only the remaining bark.

After a few days of recovery, I started to seriously think about my other options. Hye Sook and I talked about it and decided that acceptance or rejection, we'd move to Phoenix. She could still go to cooking school. I could get a job. She applied and got in within days. I looked at jobs and felt that maybe something was waiting for me. I forced myself to stop checking my emails, and I tried my best to just let go. I had moments where the possibility of rejection would still suddenly hit me, but I was dealing with it better than I had been. Hye Sook was going to cooking school for sure--we were moving forward. We could at least start to plan our move even if we didn't know for sure what we'd do when we got there. At least that was a little comfort.

In the following weeks, an acceptance or two came in for ASU, and with each one, I felt a little panic. Several came in all at once, and I thought for sure that it was the Pittsburgh situation all over again. I thought for sure my rejection would come in the mail. I got to the point where I didn't really care if I got in or not: I just wanted to know. I just wanted to know so that I could start to plan one way or the other.

On Monday, March 22, I sent an email to the coordinator at ASU, and the next day she got back to me with a short reply: "Hopefully I will know something tomorrow or Wednesday." I tried to let go and not let it bother me. I had already lost too much sleep, and I didn't want to lose any more over something that seemed rather tenuous. It was on Wednesday, March 23rd that I finally got my last response.

Arizona State University ( )

Hye Sook must have been as nervous as I was because on that morning, she sat up in bed and watched as I checked my email. Before I even opened the reply, the subject gave me my answer: "Welcome to ASU English." The relief was overwhelming. I was almost late to work because I spent the next twenty minutes sending replies to the university and emails out letting everyone know. The feeling I had at that moment reassured me that applying to the schools was the right decision: this was what I wanted to do.

It was only yesterday that I got confirmation that I received a teaching assistantship (teaching classes in exchange for free tuition and a stipend). Everything had fallen into place. I finally stopped obsessively checking my email. Just this afternoon, I put away the half-read technical writing books.

R

10 Best Restaurants I've Eaten At

2010-02-04T13:12:00.002+09:00

There's a reason I haven't updated in a while. I'm waiting for responses from the PhD programs, and that's always on my mind. But that story really needs an ending before I write about it. Hopefully that ending will come soon, but in the meantime...

I was sitting in Minga, one of my favorite restaurants, today. I got to thinking about some of the best meals I've had and how much I really enjoy good food. As I'm wont to do, I started making a list in my head of all the restaurants that I've eaten where I just had that feeling of "ahhhh" after my meal. Here are ten of my favorites:

1. The Chicago Diner--Chicago, Illinois

The Chicago Diner gets #1 on the list simply for it's milkshakes. The food is great, sure, but the milkshakes the reason that I generally book my flights back to the US for Chicago and not Fort Wayne. I need a stop off at the Chicago Diner before going home. Definitely the best vegetarian restaurant I've eaten at.

2. Minga--Busan, South Korea

I really love this place. It's near my house and is just a simple little house made up to be a restaurant. It actually only has two main dishes, both a kind of bean soup. I suppose when you make it perfectly, though, you don't need anything else. The dish I normally have is dwang-jang soup, which is a spicy soup a little bit similar to Japanese miso. The place uses only fresh vegetables and makes all of its dishes on-site. Really great food.

3. Mother's Cafe and Garden--Austin, Texas

I only have been here one time, but after just that once, I wanted to move to Austin. I had BBQ tofu and mashed potatoes. I don't even like tofu that much, but I nearly crapped my pants when I took that first bite. The rest of the food was equally good. I generally don't overeat, but I simply couldn't stop eating this stuff and ended up lying on my hotel bed moaning in glee after finishing.

4. Mad Mex--Pittsburgh, PA

Man was this place good. It's definitely the best Mexican food I've ever had, and I really love Mexican food. Hye Sook, Joel, Danielle, and I stopped there on a whim while in Pittsburgh, and I was pleased to find that they have tons of vegetarian stuff on the menu. I got the enchiladas and had some of Hye Sook's burrito. I couldn't believe how good the stuff was.

5. Loving Hut--Busan, South Korea

Despite being a chain and being run by a creepy cult, this place is surprisingly good. I find myself making the trip across town to get some of their "Sweet and Sour Delights" at least once a week. There are three branches of this place in Busan (and others around the world) but the best one is in Seomyeon. There's a branch of the same restaurant in Fort Wayne (there called the Loving Cafe) which is also pretty great.

6. Taj Mahal--Fort Wayne, IN

I've been around the world now, and I tend to eat at Indian restaurants no matter where I go, so I've tried quite a few. Oddly, my favorite one is still Taj Mahal in Fort Wayne. They have great samosa and aloo gobi. They have a cheap lunch buffet ($8) that always has lots of good things on it. The only Indian place that even comes close is the India Garden in Indianapolis, but I just don't like it quite as much. Who would have thought Indiana would have such good Indian food? Maybe it's the name.

7. Pita Jungle--Tempe, AZ

Despite the really stupid name, this place had amazing food. I went with a group of friends and everyone really enjoyed it. I had a great falafel pita with a side of new potatoes. Both were great. Actually, just writing about it right now makes me want to go back.

8. Dragonfly--Columbus, OH

While taking a trip to the east coast once, I decided to stop off in various cities along the way and try a restaurant in each. I got to Columbus early, so I had to wait in my car for a hour before going in for lunch. I'm glad I did. I like it so much, that I hit it again on the way back home--and again a few years later while in town--and tried to again while staying at a bed and breakfast an hour or so away (but couldn't because it was closed). Simple, classy, delicious food. I only wish it were open more often, as I've had to wait around for it to open or simply missed out every time I've stopped by.

9. Thai Basil--Tempe, AZ

I love Thai food, but I only wanted to put one Thai restaurant on the list. It was a close call between this and Hello Thai in Busan. Despite actually having BEEN to Thailand, I still think both of these restaurants have some of the best Thai food I've ever had. Thai basil had an amazing green curry that simply had more and fresher vegetables than the one at Hello Thai (which itself is pretty good).

10. Life Restaurant and Bar--Hong Kong, China

I didn't like the food in Hong Kong much, but this place was great. It's an odd little mix of Western and Eastern food, reasonably priced and delicious. Hye Sook and I had a good meal there and then wanted to go back the next day but couldn't make it across town to try it out. I'd definitely stop in again if I was in Hong Kong a second time.

Honorable mentions:

Hello Thai--Busan, South Korea
Josan Kalgooksoo--Busan, South Korea
La Victoire Suprême du Cœur--Paris, France (now closed)
Le Potager du Marais--Paris, France
Guen Mai--Paris, France
The Spa Resort--Kao Samui, Thailand
Three Rivers Co-op, Fort Wayne, IN
India Garden--Indianapolis, IN
The Blue Nile--Columbus, OH
Flat Top Grille--All over the freakin' place

R

The Fall

2009-10-20T22:10:00.002+09:00

While I've known for quite some time that my time in Korea was drawing to a close, the reality of it finally ending has actually started to hit me. I'm starting to do things, albeit small things, for the last time. I renewed my Korean visa for the last time today. I found what will be my last job in Korea just last week. And because of the new schedule, this Thursday will most likely be my last French class at Alliance Francais. Things are beginning to wrap up, and there's a real sense of finality with each one.

And then it hit me: A bigger ending is slowly sneaking up on me. This is my last semester at PNU, and it's over halfway finished. My students, some of whom I've taught for several years now, will no longer be my students anymore. My office won't be my office anymore. I won't even be able to say I'm a PNU professor anymore. That'll all be done. It's sad for me to think about since I've enjoyed the job so much, but it's also time to move on. I can't stay frozen forever.

I suppose it's also possible to see all of these endings as new beginnings. After all, my applications for the universities that I hope to go to are also just about done. But it's hard to see an important beginning coming. It's easier to see endings coming. Beginnings you can really only see in retrospect. You only can assign importance to an event once you've realized it's important, and it's impossible to do that until it's already happened. Maybe my life is full of beginnings now--invisible beginnings--but I won't be able to tell you for sure until after those things have begun.

R

One in the Hand

2009-10-08T15:22:00.004+09:00

The first time I saw one was out the window of my office. It was zipping from flower to flower, eating nectar as a student came in for a conference.

"Come see," I said. "I think that's a hummingbird."

She was impressed, having never seen one before.

I saw one again in traffic with Hye Sook and her parents one day.

"Look," I told Hye Sook. She, too, was impressed.

I started noticing them on the flowering bush in front of my apartment building when I came back from the States this year: first one, then many. Some days the bush would have as many as five or six feeding at one time. I also started to notice them on various flowers around my neighborhood--the morning glories on the bridge, the lilacs near the subway station--any flower was guaranteed to have one if you waited long enough. They zipped to and fro quickly, almost too quickly to follow.

It was a hummingbird epidemic, I thought. If you're going to have an epidemic, I supposed that that was one of the better kinds.

I became fascinated with them. I'd stop and watch them after my morning jog. Sometimes I'd even put my hand up right near them and feel the air flowing from their furiously beating wings.

And then one day I caught one.

I simply scooped it up in my hands after a jog. It was surprisingly easy. I rushed upstairs and, unable to turn the handle with the furiously flapping animal in my hands, I rang the doorbell until Hye Sook came to the door. Groggy, she stared at me, completely uninterested.

"I caught one," I said, "a hummingbird."

"Really?" She perked up a little.

We tried to get a good look into my hands but it was so small that I feared even a little crack would set it free. It's wings beat and beat against my palms. After I had shown Hye Sook my prize, I let it free. Off it zipped as soon as I opened my hands a crack.

Unable to contain my excitement, I went online to try to find out exactly what species I had caught. This site led me here, and that one led me there. No hummingbirds were listed for Korea, and every species I found was a bit larger than the ones I was seeing. The Bee Hummingbird was the closest one at 5 centimeters, which was about the size of the one I had caught, but they lived in Cuba. Eventually, I came across a site that made it all clear: what I had caught wasn't a hummingbird at all. It was a hummingbird moth--which explained the powder substance on my hands when I captured it. I thought that the hummingbird had just been really dusty or perhaps that hummingbird poop came out like that.

I was disappointed in my new knowledge. I had been fooled for weeks as to what I was seeing. I went out to look at them again and try to find signs that it was indeed a moth. Sure enough, two tiny antennae poked out from it's tiny head, and what I had mistaken for a beak was actually a proboscis which curled back a little every time it moved to a new flower. You see what you want to see, I suppose, although to my credit, it was hard to see details when they moved so fast.

As I was standing there watching them, a man came up to me and warned me to stay back. I wasn't the only one confused by this strange little creature.

"Those are hornets," he said. "If you catch one, you'll have to go to the hospital."

I nodded and smiled, not wanting to contradict him but confident in the fact that if you were to catch one, you'd be just fine.

R

2009-10-08T15:08:00.000+09:00

2009-10-08T15:07:00.000+09:00

Running

2009-09-18T19:58:00.002+09:00

I'm not sure what it is about running that I like so much. I like the time alone with my thoughts, but I get plenty of that elsewhere too. I like pushing myself, and that's certainly something I do in various aspects of my life. I like the goal-oriented nature of running, and I like the feeling I have when I finish a hard run. But what I really like about running is something that's hard to pin down. I just feel good when I run, more awake and more aware. It's something that I don't get in other areas of my life--including other kinds of exercise. I sometimes think of running as therapy, but I'm not sure why.

I suppose I first got interested in running when I was in elementary school. I've always been okay at sports, but I was never a superstar. I've always been far better at exercise that I have at sports. When we'd run the mile in school, I always led the pack. I wasn't ever a stand-out in baseball or basketball or soccer. And that's probably why I joined the cross country team when I was in sixth grade, and probably why I continued with the team for the next couple years even after I tried and quit baseball, basketball, and wrestling.

During high school, I ran track, but I didn't run cross country. I chose football instead, which is a decision that I'm still not sure was the right one.

I didn't get back into long distance running again until college, when I started doing 10k's with my Uncle Scott. I had a good time and did okay, but I was never great. I hurt my knee running in a race after a year or so, and since I had no insurance, I wasn't able to ever really find out what the problem was. That's when I got into biking (which didn't hurt my knee) and forgot about running entirely.

I started running again seriously about a year ago. A doctor here helped me figure out what the problem with my knee was. Through exercise, stretching, and building up my legs on the treadmill, I was able to start running on the road in early August 2008. It wasn't long before I remembered why I liked to run. I felt stronger, and happier, and more alive. Because of the running (and some change in diet), I took off all of the weight I had gained since coming to Korea (nearly 30 pounds). What started as just a few kilometers for exercise became more and more. I ran my first race since starting back in March and have run a race every month or so since then, including a sprint triathlon (one of the hardest things I've ever done) last July.

My next race is October 11th, the day after I have to take the GRE Subject Test. It's a 10k, and I'm hoping to get my best time since I was in college (just under 40 minutes is the fastest I've ever run a 10k. My goal this time around is about 42 minutes--I'm getting closer). Then it's on to a half marathon in November and maybe a full marathon in the spring. I don't want to become a marathon runner, and I'd prefer to stick with 10k's, but I'd like to stay that I've done it once. Running long distances puts a lot of strain on your body, and I'm just as happy running 5 kilometers as I am running 25, so I don't see the point after I've done it once.

Regardless, running has been, is, and will be a part of my life for a long time. It's something I look forward to, dread, enjoy, and push through. It's something that makes me who I am.

R

Time

2009-09-01T21:50:00.000+09:00

I've been living in Korea for over 5 years now. I've had times when I've loved it and times when I've hated it. Obviously the good times have outweighed the bad or I wouldn't have stayed here this long. I met my wife here. I got married here. I've met great people and made great friends. When I think of how good I have it at my job, I find it hard to imagine any reason why I'd want to leave.

But I do. Finally, I do.

I hadn't had any strong desire to go back to the United States until fairly recently. I'm not sure when it came upon me, but it snuck up somewhere in the last year. I began to have an inkling when I started looking at universities for my PhD, but as many university websites as I looked at and as many emails as I sent, it all still felt very far away.

When I was actually back in the States this summer, I felt more comfortable there than I had on previous visits. I had missed the food, missed the people, and just missed speaking in English. It's odd to me that I had overlooked how much I missed these things before. The feeling was there, but it wasn't as present or instinctual as it felt on this trip. And when Hye Sook met up with me in Phoenix and came with me on to Pittsburgh, I knew that we'd be great in the United States. The feeling became clearer but still felt far away.

Really, the real momentum of going back didn't hit me until the last few days. Last Friday, I submitted the first round of paperwork for Hye Sook's residency visa (her green card). Tomorrow, the universities that I want to apply to begin taking applications. I've been preparing materials since I got back to Korea, and the thought of actually turning them in feels very good. It feels like there is movement in my life where previously there was none--like I'm moving toward something instead of just moving with something.

I'm scared too, certainly. I'm scared that my applications will get rejected. I'm scared that Hye Sook's visa won't go through. I'm scared about finding an apartment, a job, enough money to get by. I'm scared in a way that I haven't felt since I came to Korea, and that's exciting.

This is odd, but I'm also scared that I've forgotten some things. When I was back in the States, I found myself mentally asking myself, "Do Americans do this?" My own culture had become visible to me, and I had to view it, whereas in the past is was invisible. I've become so used to observing culture and trying to emulate it to fit in that I can't even turn it off when I'm in my own culture. I'll be able to turn it off again at some point, I'm sure, but it's an odd feeling to feel like a foreigner in your own home town.

I'm worried that I'm going to come back from Korea a jerk. Someone dropped something in front of me today, and I didn't stop to pick it up for him. It's simple, sure, but back home I know I would have done it. Here, I don't. It's something Korean culture has turned off in me (Koreans don't do it, and it's odd for them if I do). I've got to get used to holding doors open again. I have to relearn to say "excuse me" when I bump into people. I have to relearn to keep eye contact.

But I also have to unlearn bowing, leaving a silence after a question is asked to me, and the closer sense of personal space.

When I leave, I'll be leaving a lot of good things behind. Luckily, the best thing that I've found, Hye Sook, gets to come with me, and luckily, I'll get to keep the memories until my brain turns to mush, but there's still a feeling of lose--a feeling that I'll miss as a country I've grown to love really grows and changes into something greater than it is.

But, I suppose, that's also something I've been missing about the US for the last five years. It's time to go back.

R

Pictures of the United States Trip

2009-09-01T21:46:00.003+09:00

These have been a long time coming. I kept forgetting to post them, but here they are. Enjoy!

R

2009-09-01T21:45:00.002+09:00

I can't even remember what they were laughing about.

2009-09-01T21:45:00.001+09:00

The four of us siblings in the same place at the same time for the first time in at least 2 and a half years.

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Joel after saying something funny that Danielle didn't approve of.

2009-09-01T21:44:00.000+09:00

Tater (and Alissa)

2009-09-01T21:43:00.001+09:00

Danielle, Uncle Scott and I after finishing the triathlon.

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2009-09-01T21:42:00.000+09:00

Boo with the stand-in for Hye Sook. Since Hye Sook couldn't come along for most of the trip, I decided to take pictures of this stuffed anteater in her place.

R

2009-09-01T21:40:00.000+09:00

Downtown Austin.

2009-09-01T21:39:00.001+09:00

Me in San Diego

2009-09-01T21:39:00.000+09:00

Eric and Mika.

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Damian and I in a park in San Diego.

2009-09-01T21:37:00.001+09:00

Tijuana.

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San Diego beach.

2009-09-01T21:36:00.000+09:00

Damian, Judy, and Hye Sook. The next several pics are around the Phoenix area.

2009-09-01T21:35:00.002+09:00

2009-09-01T21:35:00.001+09:00

2009-09-01T21:35:00.000+09:00

2009-09-01T21:34:00.001+09:00

2009-09-01T21:34:00.000+09:00

Phoenix from the airplane.

2009-09-01T21:32:00.000+09:00

Danielle enjoying her birthday cupcake in Pittsburgh.

2009-09-01T21:31:00.002+09:00

2009-09-01T21:31:00.001+09:00

Pittsburgh.

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Mom, Dad, and Hye Sook.

2009-09-01T21:30:00.001+09:00

Mom and Hye Sook.

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Pittsburgh

2009-09-01T21:29:00.000+09:00

Pictures from a photobooth in the Warhol Museum.

2009-09-01T21:28:00.002+09:00

Pittsburgh in the day.

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Pittsburgh at night.

2009-09-01T21:28:00.000+09:00

Grandpa and I after the Cowboy Shoot. I had already taken off the cowboy gear he brought for me. I wish I had gotten one with it still on, but I didn't think about it.

2009-09-01T21:27:00.000+09:00

Grandpa waiting to help people unload their guns.

2009-09-01T21:26:00.000+09:00

One of the best pictures I've ever taken. This is Grandpa walking back to his cart after shooting at the Cowboy Shoot. Surprisingly, this wasn't posed.

2009-09-01T21:25:00.000+09:00

Grandpa's friend, Mike.

2009-09-01T21:24:00.000+09:00

Grandpa at the Cowboy Shoot.

Phoenix (including San Diego and Tijuana) and Pittsburgh

2009-08-05T03:43:00.004+09:00

I got into Phoenix on a Wednesday, and Hye Sook didn't come until Saturday. In the meantime, Damian and I visited Arizona State University (which was nice enough) and headed over to San Diego/Tijuana for some fun and to meet up with my friends Eric and Mika (who live in Korea too and just happened to be in San Diego). We spent Thursday on the beach in San Diego before heading down to Tijuana.

San Diego was a lot of fun, but Tijuana was rather disappointing. We didn't have much time to do anything or to see much, unfortunately.

Once Hye Sook arrived (and we arrived back) in Phoenix on Saturday we toured around the city a bit. Phoenix is a nice city. The scenery around the city is amazing, and it's even more amazing once you get outside the city, which we did on Sunday when we visited Damian's girlfriend, Judy.

Monday we spent looking at cooking schools and Tuesday we headed off to Pittsburgh, where we met up with Mom, Dad, Joel, and Danielle. Although it was rainy and overcast the whole time we were there, we had a lot of fun. Aside from the usual university and cooking school visits, we had a lot of good food, saw some sights, and did some shopping.

Hye Sook and I decided Pittsburgh is probably our number one choice if I get into the university there for a number of reasons:

--The university there seems great. It has everything I want and more.
--Hye Sook's favorite cooking school was there.
--It's fairly close to home, so seeing family would be easy.

Austin and Phoenix definitely have their good points too, and we wouldn't mind if we end up in either city. This all hinges on what schools accept me, of course.

After Pittsburgh it was back to Korea for Hye Sook and back to Fort Wayne for me.

R

Austin

2009-07-22T08:34:00.002+09:00

I got up very early on my first day in Austin. I couldn't sleep well on the bus, so I went to bed almost as soon as I got in, but as usual, I can't sleep more than 8 or 9 hours.

In the morning, I looked at a cooking school and visited the local comic shop. In the afternoon, I visited the University of Texas and another cooking school. I left UT with a far most positive feeling than I left the University of Illinois. It seems like a place that I could spend my time.

That evening, I had dinner with a friend I know only named Rod and his wife, Rachel. They were a great couple, gave me some great advice about what to see in the city, and generally, made me want to live here even more.

Today, I saw the last cooking school (briefly) and then headed to see a movie at the famed Alamo Drafthouse. Generally, you're told to show up for the movie about 45 minutes early here. The reason why is that they forgo regular ads and trailers, but instead show various other kinds of entertainment before the film: short films related to the movie, funny clips, classic trailers from old movies, and various other things. You can actually order food from your seat (I just got some chips and salsa), and the theater serves a whole selection of beers and wines (which I chose not to partake in). It was by far my best movie going experience and wasn't any more expensive than a regular theater. I highly recommend it for anyone passing through Austin.

Which brings me to now. I'm sitting back in my hotel room, missing my wife, and wondering what to have for dinner. I leave for Phoenix in the morning, where I'll meet up with Damian and visit Arizona State University before heading to Tijuana and San Diego then back to Phoenix on Friday evening.

R

Indy to Austin

2009-07-22T08:15:00.002+09:00

The bus trip started off bad and then remained about the same for the 27-hour-long trip. Even getting on the bus was a hassle, a hassle observed by Mom, Dad, Toby, Heather and Rachel as they stood off to the side and waited 15 minutes for me to board. The first leg was from Indy to Louisville and then on to Nashville. The people on the bus were very different than the people you see on airplanes. There was an Amish family, several people using plastic grocery bags as suitcases, and an unproportionally large amount of Spanish spoken. The bus itself had seen better days. The windows were scratched. The barrier behind the driver was covered in residue left by duct tape. The floors were sticky and worn. During my first leg, we remained about 15 minutes behind schedule. This was relatively close to our actual schedule, I'd find. Most of my other buses left much later than their scheduled times.

In both Louisville and Nashville, I wanted to get out and look around, but time simply did not allow for it. Both of them seemed like very nice cities. I had images in my mind of them as being fairly small and run-down, but this didn't appear to be the case at all.

The next leg of the trip was the longest. I left Nashville for Dallas, hitting Memphis, Little Rock, and various other little stops along the way. Most of this trip was at night, which made the time pass slower. One thing I love about taking the bus is simply looking out the window, but at night, the windows don't have much to show except headlights and road.

The person sitting next to me liked to spread out in his sleep, slowly reducing my seat space between Memphis and Little Rock. Hoping to be able to sit alone, I changed seats in Arkansas, but the bus was booked full, and I ended up with another buddy. This one was better than the first, though, and allowed me a little sleep.

I got into Dallas late, of course, and had only about 40 minutes to look around before boarding my next bus. Dallas, too, seemed like a nice city and one that I wish I could have looked around more. Perhaps another time.

The last bus I boarded took me to Austin. The scenery in Texas is different than the Midwest, but surprisingly not as different as I had imaged. I spent the 4 hours from Austin to Dallas anxious to get off the bus. I found reading difficult, so I listened to an audio book and stared out the window.

It was 100 degrees when I got off the bus in Austin, but people are right when they talk about the "dry heat." The lack of humidity makes the heat seem bearable. While Busan isn't as hot as Austin, it's actually far more uncomfortable because of the humidity. My biggest fear of living in Austin doesn't seem that bad.

I took a taxi to the Airport and then headed back to my hotel. The next day, I'd start my real tour of the city.

R

Chicago to Indy

2009-07-22T07:55:00.004+09:00

I got into Chicago in the early morning after a long flight. Aside from my usual Chicago stuff, I checked out two cooking schools and the University of Illinois that first day. The cooking schools seemed great, but I left UI feeling unsure about my choice of the school. Everything I liked about their program was being reduced or eliminated. There were two more cooking schools the next day (and one that I wasn't able to see) and then a haircut and "hand detailing" (read manicure) before Alissa and Mom met up with me in the evening. The following day, the three of us enjoyed the city together and then headed back to Fort Wayne.

Aside from seeing family and friends, there were two major events in the Fort before heading out: I ran a triathlon and took the GRE. I was happy with the results on both. I finished the triathlon (a sprint tri, meaning 400 meters swimming, 20 kilometers biking, and 5 kilometers running. That's a quarter mile, 12.4 miles, and 3.1 miles for those of you that are metrically impaired) in just over an hour and twenty minutes. The GRE was only 4 days later, and I did well on that too. I got a 650 on the verbal portion (the 92nd percentile) and a 750 on the quantitative (84th percentile). I'll find out my writing score in a week or so, but I felt very good about that portion of the test, so I'm expecting good things.

Every time I go back to Fort Wayne, I regain a little of my affection for it. I liken it to moving out of your parents' house: while you're there, you hate it, but after you're gone, you're always happy to go back. Our careers will probably keep Hye Sook and I from ever living there, but it's a nice place to visit, and there are certainly worse places I could have ended up. In a perfect world, I'd be able to spend my summers back home. We'll see.

Of course, the best thing about being back is spending time with my family. I genuinely enjoy their company, and I can honestly say that I think I'd be friends with all of them even if they weren't related to me. Mom is a sweetheart and a wonderful woman. She's definitely my mom, but she's also one of my best friends. Alissa is fun to be around and seems to be really growing up. Danielle is more like me than I ever realized. And Dad and I's relationship has come a long way since my high school days. I hate to be living far away from them, but there's so much I want to do in my life that I just can't do in Fort Wayne.

The only down side of being in Fort Wayne is being away from Hye Sook. I've been video chatting with her every other day and emailing all the time, but it's just not the same. The distance seems even farther now that I'm away from my family too. As I write this, however, it's just 4 more days until I pick her up at the airport in Phoenix. I think I can make it.

I left Fort Wayne on July 17th bound for Indy to see Toby, Heather, and their new baby, Rachel. I always forget how easy being around Toby is. While we're very different people, we have enough in common that there's never a break in conversation. I always get dumber around him (in a silly, good way), but I also get funnier.

On the 18th, I spend the day with Mom, Dad, and Toby's family. Then in the afternoon, I boarded a bus for Austin, Texas, and the next leg of my journey.

R

Random Pictures

2009-05-08T22:15:00.001+09:00

Our recent trip to Seoul, just around the neighborhood, some mountain shots, and whatever else was on my camera just now. Nothing special, just random Korea stuff.

R

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There's only one and it's on the stair, but it's there if you need it.

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A random Lamborgini in Seoul. Who parks their $300,000 car on the side of the road? Seems like you'd shell out $10 for a parking garage...but then again, after buying a $300,000 car you might not be able to afford it.

2009-05-08T22:07:00.000+09:00

Art depicting chickens? Art made of chickens? Art made BY chickens? Who knows?

R

2009-05-08T22:06:00.001+09:00

The 63 Building from below.

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Seoul from the top of the 63 Building, a really tall landmark in Seoul.

2009-05-08T22:05:00.000+09:00

I should take more pictures of these advertisements. In Korea, you can see American celebrities on ads all the time: Brad Pitt selling watches, Drew Barrymore selling ice cream, George Clooney selling coffee. It's a little odd, since I imagine none of them would consider doing that in the US.

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Susie and Rob just after getting married.

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Dan, Darryl, and I at our friend Susie's wedding.

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Up the hill from our apartment a little. Our apartment building is next to those two tall buildings.

2009-05-08T21:59:00.001+09:00

Intersection near our apartment.

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Our apartment building.

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The running trail in front of our house in early spring (it's all tore up because they're trying to improve it).

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Cherry Blossom.

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Sun rising over the Gwangan bridge.

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The Gwangan Bridge at night.

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View of Busan from up in the mountains.

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Some friends out hiking with us.

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Hye Sook and I hiking one day.

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Our Apartment Building.

A Nap

2009-04-05T22:08:00.002+09:00

He was right there in the street, asleep. Not on the sidewalk or just over the curb, but safely within the yellow line. His arms were under his head like a pillow, as he lay on his side, legs pulled up at right angles like he was sitting. His shoes were right on the edge of the street, neatly placed beside each other with their toes just touching the yellow line. He had taken them off with care.

A car stopped as I cautiously walked up, still wondering if he was dead. The driver got out, woke him, and pulled him groggily to the curb. The street was a fairly busy one, after all, even at 7 am: He was slowing traffic. And maybe it wasn't as safe as he had thought when he had drunkenly chosen it as his resting place.

Korean drivers love to honk, but no one honked. They waited as he found his new bed on the sidewalk. They had all been there. They knew that after a certain number of drinks, everything turns into a bed.

R

Mystery Meat

2009-02-06T15:52:00.002+09:00

We planned to leave for the airport at 3:30. At 3, Hye Sook decided to step out to get some snacks. Soon after she left the doorbell rang. In our apartment, there's a small camera on the door that lets you see who's out there. Generally, if I don't know the person or I didn't order any packages or anything, I just don't answer. The reason why is that most of the time it's someone peddling one of two things: deep discounts on brand name merchandise that are too good to believe or religion. In either case, I'm not interested.

This person was persistent, though, and after the third or fourth ring, I answered. He tried to hand me a package.

"We didn't order anything," I said.

"Just take it."

"No, we didn't order anything."

He took out a piece of paper and showed me the address. "This is your place, right?" he said.

"Yes, but..."

"Then this is yours," and he tried to hand me the package again.

The package was a huge, big enough to hold if not a microwave at least a small toaster oven. And it was made of Styrofoam, which made it all the stranger. I wasn't about to take some strange foam package just because someone offered it to me.

"Who sent it?"

"I don't know. I just have the address. Just take it."

It was a couple more no's before I finally gave in, thinking I could just throw it away if nothing else. As he walked away, I asked him what it was.

"Meat," he said. That's when I knew for sure he got the address wrong.

I opened it up, and the man certainly wasn't lying. It was what must have been about 20 pounds of beef, nicely packed into baskets and then placed in the cooling container. Obviously, I'm not an expert on the cost of meat, but I venture to guess this was well over one hundred dollars worth.

Hye Sook got back soon after, just missing the action.

"Why did you take it?" she asked.

"He made me."

"Made you?"

"Yes, he made me take it."

"Who's it from?" she said, looking through the package.

"I have no idea. There was no address."

"What did the guy say?"

"He said to just take it."

She looked at me suspiciously. I imagined she was thinking this was some kind of joke I was playing. I could see in her eyes she was sizing me up, wondering if I would really go to this length just to play a joke, one she obviously didn't get. When she finally decided that it wasn't, we talked about what to do with it.

We had to leave for the airport, so we couldn't take it to a meat-eating friend or family member. It was too much to stick in the fridge and would most likely be in less-than-prime condition when we got back in four days anyway. We couldn't send it back, since the delivery guy had no markings, had given me no delivery slip, and there was no address on the package.

Eventually, we decided to give it to the security guard downstairs. He could give it back to the delivery guy once he came back after realizing his mistake, or at the very least, have a meat party himself with 20 pounds of free meat.

"No," he said.

"No?" I couldn't fathom why he wouldn't take it.

"No, if you give it to me, it's my responsibility. Call the company back."

"I can't. He didn't leave a slip."

"What did he look like? Did he have on a uniform?"

"No uniform. He was just a regular guy with a package of meat."

"Why did you take it?"

Honestly, at this point, I wasn't sure. It had seemed like my only option at the time.

After several frustrating minutes, I think the idea finally sunk into his head: free meat. He took it.

As I sat on the plane, I wondered what could have possibly happened:

Someone sent me a gift? No, noone that knows me well enough to send me an expensive gift would send me meat.

The addresses got mixed up? Maybe, but if he wasn't sure, why would the delivery guy have been so insistent?

A practical joke? I suppose, but who do I know that would go to that length? I have to admit that if it were a practical joke, it was planned and timed perfectly.

I half expected a bill for wrongfully-taken meat to be on my door when I came back from Hong Kong, but there wasn't. One week back and there still seems to be no meat blowback. I hope the security guard had one hell of a meat party.

R

Hong Kong

2009-01-31T19:45:00.004+09:00

It was about midnight when we stepped out of the airport bus onto the streets of Kowloon district. Things were still busy, not just open but actually busy. We pushed through the sidewalk like it was 9 am in Manhattan.

Our hotel was located in a great area, right in the middle of things and just a couple subway stops from downtown. The room itself wasn't great, but it got us by for the 3 nights we had to sleep there. But that first night, we weren't quite ready to sleep when we checked in. We headed back out onto the streets to see the shops starting to close the shutters and people beginning to migrate into bars and clubs and apartment buildings. Hong Kong is very bright, so it didn't feel like 1 am, but it was. We got ourselves lost and then found again before deciding to try to sleep.

I didn't have a watch and our room didn't have a clock, so I can't be sure that it was about 3 am when the sound outside woke me up. It sounded like a flock of chickens clucking. It would quiet down and then roar up again, as though some predator was circling. I looked out the window to see about 50 men swarming and moving up and down the street. They were swarming, but not like bees. They were like ants on a crumb. At first the crumb was one man in the group and then another, seemingly chosen at random.

"Cluck, cluck," they would say and swarm toward him.

Occasionally one man would decide to run out of the group and a tendril would flick out and pull the whole mob after him. It was like watching an amoeba move along the street. They didn't seem to be physically fighting much that I could see. There was a lot of pushing, but I couldn't see any blows thrown. Just lots of shouting.

The group ran off before I could even hear the sirens. They seemed to have a sixth sense about the police, maybe built up from years of clucking on the streets. By the time the car actually pulled up, there wasn't anyone there. And when the car left, one by one, they were dragged back into place and started to cluck again. By the time the police made their second pass, all fifty or so were back and were running again before I heard the sirens. I expected to hear them the moment I started seeing people run away this time. The shouting continued in swells and ebbs as they ran away. If they came back again, I didn't hear them. I just went back to sleep.

The next morning Hye Sook and I woke up early and headed out into Hong Kong. Hong Kong stays up late, but it wakes up late too. Hardly anyone was on the street when we left our hotel at about 9 am. Not even Starbucks was open yet.

We headed downtown to take a bus to the peak overlooking the city. Near the bus station, dozens of women sat in small groups on flattened out cardboard boxes playing games like bingo, doing each others' hair, and chatting. They didn't seem homeless, as most of them were well-dressed. There wasn't a man among them. We weren't sure why they were there, and never figured it out, even as we saw similar groups scattered here and there through the city--always only women, always playing games and chatting and doing hair.

After coming down from Victoria Peak, we decided to just walk though the streets of downtown. It was packed in like it was the night before by now. There were dozens of small booths selling flowers. I'm not sure if this was a regular occurrence or was for Chinese New Year the next day.

For dinner we sought out a tiny little vegetarian place near our hotel but were never able to actually find it. As luck would have it, though, there was another little vegetarian place just a couple blocks away. The food was pretty terrible, greasy and bland. We found that Hong Kong food was really hit or miss like this. I wasn't particularly wowed by anything, but some of the food was at least palatable. Nearly everything we ate was very greasy, though.

We wandered the streets again in the evening. Like I've seen in most Asian cities, there were a lot of people begging on the streets. Some of them were pretty colorful, though: we saw a woman who had to be pushing 70 playing songs on a banjo outside a little coffee house and a dirty British man who insisted that I looked Spanish and kept trying to talk to me in what he presumed was my native language.

We also saw every imaginable product being sold out of hastily propped tents nearly everywhere--everything from video games, to iPods, to clothes, to sex toys all found conveniently right in the street for any passerby to pick up.

The next morning we went to Ocean Park amusement park, which ate up most of our day. The evening was spent again just walking the streets and taking in the city. Our last full day in Hong Kong was Lunar New Year, and we were right in the middle of a well-populated area. It was packed. Banners on the street for the event were actually even put up that said things like "full beyond this point" and police were standing guard making sure that no one else tried to crowd forward. There was a lot of performances and celebrating. There was a parade downtown being broadcast on huge TVs into our area. We headed back to our hotel room after getting sick of the crowds and realizing we'd never get close enough to actually see anything.

I tossed and turned that last night in Hong Kong. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't want to go or I wanted to get home. Regardless, it was nice to sleep in my own bed again.

Ryan

Videos of Hong Kong (and so forth)

2009-01-31T19:44:00.003+09:00

There's a place that sells soy ice cream downtown now, and when you buy some, they put dry ice in the package too. I couldn't NOT play with it.

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2009-01-31T19:35:00.001+09:00

Lots of trees like this in HK.

2009-01-31T19:35:00.000+09:00

We thought about going to check out this street, but it didn't sound very exciting.

R

2009-01-31T19:34:00.001+09:00