From the US to South Korea

The day I left for South Korea will always be a day I remember very well.  It was the beginning of the greatest adventure that I have ever been on.  I will attempt to describe the events of that LONG day the way I remember it.

November 30, 2011

I did not sleep the night before I was due to leave for South Korea.  My flight out of Philadelphia was at 7:35 AM and I was much too excited to sleep, so I spent the night watching a movie in my basement.  The basement at my parents house had been my area of solitude since I moved home in November 2010.  I had a 42" plasma TV down there that I had relaxed in front of every night after 11 or 12 hours of work.  On my last night in the house I wasn't watching my plasma TV because I had moved it into my mother's room, so she could use it during my absence.  Instead, at around midnight, I set up an old 20" TV, so I could relax and pass the time.  As I stared in front of me at the absence of my plasma TV, I could feel my absence from this place becoming a reality.  Many things in the basement were mine, but the plasma TV was the biggest and most obvious.  Without it I felt that the basement was missing something.  I thought of how if someone were to come down there while I was away this is what they would see.  How this basement would be a quiet, empty place while I was away.  I didn't feel sad at the time, just contemplative.

At around 5 am I was dropped off at the Philadelphia airport by my father and it was still pitch black outside.  We removed my luggage from the trunk and he embraced me very firmly.  As we said our final goodbyes, I could feel the emotion in his voice, so I quickly gathered a hold of my two large bags and began to walk away.  I feared a teary goodbye because I didn't want to begin my journey in that way.  I knew it would be a long day and I did not want to let emotion drain my energy.  I knew I would have plenty of time on the airplane to reflect.  

The next steps in the journey were a 2 hour flight to Chicago and then a 13.5 hour flight to Seoul.  I didn't really sleep at all during my flights because I was so excited and nervous all at the same time.  I can still remember the first time I looked upon the Korean landscape out of the window.  It immediately struck me that it looked nothing like any of the places I had visited in my entire life.  The small rocky islands I could see as we approached the coast were beautiful.  After arriving at the Incheon airport, I had to collect my bags, and take a shuttle to a smaller airport called Gimpo that was about 15 minutes from Incheon.  The flight from Gimpo would bring me to the Gimhae/Busan airport.  Luckily, after going through customs, there was another confused American looking to catch a shuttle to the Gimpo airport.  Ironically, his name was also Matt and we joined forces to navigate our way.  We found the shuttle with some help from a few friendly Koreans.  Before we knew it, we were at the Gimpo airport and it was once again night time.  After wasting a few dollars trying to use the pay phone, I successfully called my parents and notified them that I had arrived in South Korea in one piece.  After about an hour, Matt and I said good bye as he boarded his flight to Gwangju and I boarded my flight to Gimhae.  He was the first fellow expat I would befriend during the next 19 months and not enough can be said for meeting a stranger while traveling.  Although you don't know them, the comfort of common understanding in an unfamiliar place can really put a person at ease.

My flight to Gimhae was full of Korean businessmen and one other foreigner.  South Korea was covered by overcast that night, so I couldn't really see much from my window. After an hour flight, we descended and circled the airport above Busan and I took in the beauty of the city lights.  After exiting the plane, I struck up a conversation with the other foreigner who was on my flight. He turned out to be an American, and we exchanged names and decided to stick together.  That didn't last long, as the moment we walked into the terminal a Korean (his school's recruiter) approached us and escorted him away.  I was alone and I quickly realized after walking around the room that there was no one there waiting for me.  There were Koreans waiting there, but no one waiting for me, so I just waited around for about 10 minutes.  After becoming impatient, I attempted to use another dreaded payphone similar to the type that I already had issues with at the Gimpo airport.  I was attempting to call my recruiter, as that was the only phone number that I had.  After two failed attempts I was all out of Korean coins and no closer to knowing why there was no one there to pick me up.  I was getting stares from around the room as I was the only foreigner and obviously looked confused.   Then a Korean man came up to me and gave me some coins and attempted to help me call.  He couldn’t speak a word of English, but he was very kind and persistent in helping me.  After a few frustrating minutes, and no one answering on the other end of the phone, another Korean man hurried up behind me and grabbed my bags and said “come”.  I tried to ask him if it was Matthew that he was supposed to be picking up, but he didn’t speak any English and I just trusted that this was my ride.  After we got in his car, he dialed a number and spoke in Korean to someone on the line.  Then he handed me the phone and I was greeted by a  woman’s voice speaking to me in English.  I assume she was someone from the recruiting company, and she told me that this man would bring me to meet my director and that I should “Do a good job.”  After I hung up, we drove down the streets of Gimhae and I got my first glimpse at the city that would become my home.

Although I was extremely exhausted, I couldn't stop staring out of the window at my new surroundings.  It was fascinating to finally be in South Korea after so much time thinking about being there.  After about a 30 minute drive, the driver pulled the car onto the sidewalk, which I thought was weird, and he purchased me a drink at a convenience store that was below my academy.  A few minutes later, my director came downstairs and introduced himself and asked if I was hungry.  He said that everything was closed except McDonald's and the “Korean McDonald's”, since it was after 11 pm.  Five minutes later, I found myself eating a chicken sandwich as my director and the driver watched me and spoke in Korean.  After I finished eating they took me to my apartment building.  The ends of the hallways of my apartment building were open to the outside, so it was cold, dark, and not very welcoming.  We entered my room and I was instructed to remove my shoes.  My room was freezing because the sliding door at the back of the apartment was open and the cold December air was blowing in.  After teaching me how to use the water heater for the shower and floor, and reminding me that someone would come by at around 11 AM the next day to take me to the school, my director and the driver left. Alone in my room for the first time, I was much too excited to go to sleep, so I unpacked all of my belongings and put them in the closet.  Then I took a shower and made up my bed.  After reading for a little while I went to sleep for the first time in Korea.

I can still remember opening my eyes for the first time the next day, and it dawning on me that I was in Korea.  It was a strange realization at first, but it was quickly followed by a wave of excitement.  It had been my dream to be on my own in a faraway land and experience everything that comes with that.  When I think back on the day I left the familiar and went to South Korea, I feel really great.  It was such an important step for me personally.  The next 17 months in Korea would be a true adventure for me.

Since arriving back home in the States I have met some people who see teaching English abroad as a waste of time.  They might point out that our late twenties are when large increases in salary occur or other important career advancements happen.  They see the job, "English Teacher" and wonder why someone like myself, who is not a licensed teacher in America, would want to teach English. What they don't see in the job title is all that comes with living abroad.  For me teaching children English was an amazing experience, but the most amazing parts were everything else that came with living abroad.  Things that I would need a book to describe and emotions that I can't really explain to someone who hasn't done it.  I am left with a feeling of unrelenting optimism about life that I never had prior to living abroad.  Life is an adventure and those that just look at what job you work at, or how much money you earn, are missing an important part of what being alive is really about.  Seek adventure and do something different because I believe it's a great way to begin the task of seeking who it is you really are, what you love, and what you can become.  In the end, I don't lecture people that don't understand my decision to live abroad.  I understand that it is not for everybody and that they don't know what they are missing.

This first picture is of part of my apartment.  You can't see my bed in this picture, but it is just to the right.

The next few pictures are among the first shots I took of Gimhae the week after arriving.

Local market located about 2 minutes from my house on foot.

               
 Market at night.                    

First Overnight Bus in Thailand

Early morning
May 2, 2013

I was awoken in the middle of the overnight bus journey to Southern Thailand to a stopped bus.  As I was opening my eyes, I could hear the storage compartment of the bus being opened. There was apparently someone else joining our bus. After a minute, our driver entered the door in front of me and there was a woman of about 30 behind him.  He pointed to the empty seat next to me, and she promptly took her seat. We nodded hello to each other as I moved my bag and made room for her to sit down.  I was only half awake, but was a bit disappointed that my extra leg room was being taken away from me.  I couldn't really complain because I was the only person on the bus that had a vacant seat next to them.  As much as it sucked to give it up, I had to appreciate the extra room I got for the first 3 hours of the ride. While she was settling in, and I was re-situating myself, I looked out the window.  What I saw out the window was a first for me.  There was a 20 year old woman driving a scooter with what appeared to be her mother, of about 40 something, sitting on the scooter behind her.  Her mother was sitting with both of her legs hanging off of one side of the scooter as she sat sideways.  She was holding an infant of no more than 3 months out in front of her.  I think she was holding the small baby like this to maintain her balance while they began to move.  Neither woman was wearing a helmet and they were doing a U-turn in the middle of the road. Now, in South Korea, I witnessed all sorts of unorthodox scooter practices including, an entire family of 4 on a single scooter, scooters driving on sidewalks, down crowded alley markets and through red lights.  However, I had never seen an infant on a scooter before, let alone one being held by a woman who didn't even appear to be safely seated herself. After the scooter disappeared from view, the bus pulled away and I tried to fall back asleep.  This would just be the first time I would see ridiculous situations on scooters in South East Asia.  I would eventually become quite numb to the danger and craziness and Vietnam would eventually set a new standard of scooter insanity.

About an hour later, the bus was once again stopped and I woke up.  People started to stand up and the bus doors opened.  I looked out the window and realized we were at a rest area, so I got out of the bus with everyone else.  I walked into the building and took my first look at a South East Asian rest area.  The first thing I noticed was a strange smell that was not appetizing in the least.  I can't describe the smell, but it was something awful. Closer to a smell I would expect in a port-o-potty, not a place where I might eat something. The building did not have a wall in the front and was opened to the driveway where buses were parked. There were rows of things for sale and a kitchen in the back.  The kitchen had a counter with a window in front of it, and there were some girls working in the back.  To my surprise, there were travelers ordering food and sitting down to quickly eat before the bus would leave.  The food was white rice covered with some sort of meat and vegetables, all covered in a brownish sauce.  Now maybe I'm just paranoid, but there was no way I was going to eat anything coming from that kitchen.  Not only did the smell dispel any slight appetite I had, but I was about to get back onto a bus for another 8 hours.  I mean I like to try different things, but that is only if there is a bathroom nearby.  Granted the bus did have a tiny bathroom, but not one I would choose to have an upset stomach in.   I don't mind an upset stomach in my own home, but I would prefer not to have one in the middle of the night, in a third world country, while I'm surrounded by a bunch of strangers.

After deciding that I wasn't going to eat the "fresh food", I decided to check out what kinds of packaged foods were for sale.  They mostly had all sorts of unidentifiable snacks that I won't even attempt to guess at.  I could tell that there was a fair amount of dried fruits that looked edible, but I wasn't in the mood for that.  After I wandered a bit, I decided to go to the bathroom.  While I walked down the dark corridor to the bathroom, I could see the reflection of a woman in one of the mirrors at the end of the hall.  I immediately thought I was walking into the women's bathroom, so I turned around  and walked back to the beginning of the hallway.  When I reached the store again, I looked around and saw that the women's bathroom was indeed across the room and I was in the right place.  So I walked back and awkwardly passed the woman that was brushing her teeth and proceeded into the area with the toilets.  I was greeted by a dark, damp room that had a bunch of stalls with squat toilets in them.  Each stall was really dirty, and wet, and the whole place reeked.  There were also dozens of lizards crawling on the walls and ceiling.  I quickly did my business and got out of there, as it reminded me of a place that I might imagine in a nightmare.  After getting back to the front of the building, I got on the bus and hoped I hadn't touched anything in that place.  A few minutes later, everyone else finished their food and cigarettes and we departed.  At around 2 am, about half of the people on the bus got off the bus and went somewhere else.  I think they were getting on a ferry to another island further North.  I really had no idea at the time and didn't bother to find out.

I was able to sleep for most of the remainder of the trip, and we arrived at Surrathani a few hours earlier than I had anticipated.  It was about 5 or 6 am when the bus stopped at a small house that had been turned into a store and office. The sun was just peaking over the horizon when we were told to get out of the bus.  The sky was clear and the air was humid, but not too hot.  The driver unloaded everyone's bags from beneath the bus and set them on the ground.  After the bus left, I walked around confused by our current situation.  I was under the impression that we were being taken to a dock to get onto a ferry to Koh Phangan.  Instead we were in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere with no water in sight.  I took a seat next to some other travelers and watched the stray dogs on the road.  One of them was missing a front leg and was hobbling to walk very slowly. I felt quite sorry for him and wondered how he managed to lose his leg.  The dog laid down in the road and rested as some cars and scooters drove past him. Then another dog appeared down the road and the three legged dog sprung up and sprinted over to greet it.  It ran so well on three legs that I don't even think his condition slowed him down at all.  It was only walking that was apparently difficult for him.  I would come to love the stray dogs in Thailand.  In America, strays tend to stay away from people. They tend to be very wary of people and don't always seem very nice.  Strays in America have learned that people generally try to capture them and bring them to the pound.  People also tend to mistreat stray dogs and fear contact with them because of diseases.  I found that in Thailand the strays are the nicest dogs.  I met hundreds of strays while traveling and they were as friendly as any dog you might find in your friends back yard in America.  They might be covered in scars and missing a leg here and there, but they are wonderful to interact with while traveling.

Here's a view of the sunrise while we were waiting that morning.

This is a stray I met on Koh Chang later in the month.  You can see that his back is covered in scars.

After a few hours of waiting, I was called into the building.  All of the other travelers had already been called into the building one by one and I wasn't sure exactly what they were doing in there.  When I got inside, I was told to take a seat and a man was sitting at a desk.  He asked me if I already had accommodation on the island and I told him that I did not.  He asked me if I wanted to stay in the busy area of the island or in an area with less people.  At the time I didn't have any idea where the best place to stay was, but I knew I was just booking the first night and I could always change location the next day.  After looking at a map, I opted for a more quiet location on the island.  I paid the man for the accommodation and he gave me a card with the name of the place, so I could find the free hotel taxi when I arrived on the island.  This situation is another example of how easy it is to get around Thailand.  I didn't even have to plan or search for a place to stay.  There was always a quick and painless transition from one place to the next.

When I left the building, everyone was already in a van, so I grabbed my bags and hopped in with everyone else.  After a 10 minute van ride, we pulled up to a bus and joined a larger group of backpackers.  The van was old and the seat in front of me was broken and kept falling in my lap.  I remember that a group of German guys around me were having a good time teasing some girls from Hungary that were sitting next to us.  They had a few laughs with some jokes that included "Oh you are from Hungary? Are you Hungry?" I remember being embarrassed for all men everywhere.  After a thirty minute bus ride, we pulled up to the ferry and I was happy to finally get a glimpse of beautiful Southern Thailand.

The ferry ride was beautiful and the deck on top was extremely hot, but I made sure I got a few pictures while I was up there. After we stopped at Koh Samui, to drop some people off, we made our way to Koh Phangan.  I finally arrived at the first tropical island of my trip and my vacation could really begin.