Of bicycles and boxing

If you travel enough, your thoughts on entering a new country are often reduced to the bare practicalities. You consider how you will handle currency and budget your money, you book places to stay and research how you will get around, and what you will try to see and do. It's easy to lose sight of the real substance of traveling, which is not in all these sundry details, but rather in the interactions that you have with real people in a foreign land, and in the alchemy that takes place in your soul as you become a part of something that previously you knew nothing of. As they say, you can't see the forest for the trees.

In my case, traveling to Thailand has been no exception, but I had good reasons for focusing on the nuts and bolts kind of details. I came here not with sightseeing or culture-absorption in mind, but something a bit different. For almost ten years now, it's been my plan to travel here and train in Muay Thai, otherwise known as Thai boxing. With that as my central focus, I've had little time for seeing temples and cultural landmarks -yet I've learned a lot already in my time here. First, I should describe where "here" is and how I got here.

Right now I'm living in Chiang Mai, the largest city in northern Thailand, and the second largest city in the country. Chiang Mai is an old city located on a historical trade route between China and points further south, and Thais are proud of their quaint old capitol, with its ancient walls and moat surrounding the city. Upon arriving in Bangkok at the beginning of June, I knew I could just hop a train/bus/plane up here, but I had a desire for a more adventurous (read: stupid) way of getting north. So after a few days in the insanity that is Bangkok, I bought a brand new bicycle with the intention of riding it 700km north, all the way to Chiang Mai. As you may have guessed/known, I did not end up biking the whole way.

I started off by taking a train 90km north to Ayutthaya. Being a former capitol of the young Thai nation, as well as a Unesco world heritage site, I figured it would be a good way to get a look at some really authentic and ancient Thai architecture. An added bonus was cutting some distance off my trip and avoiding the traffic coming out of Bangkok. After a couple days touring and photographing the various temples and ruins of the old city, I decided to start my biking trek north. Having a decent map and a route planned that avoided major highways, as well as a kitted out Trek mountain bike with all the bells and whistles, I felt pretty prepared for what lay ahead. And I was. Sort of.

The first day was only an 80km ride. I kept a great pace in the morning and had stunning weather. There really isn't much in rural central Thailand but rice paddies, a few factories, and small towns every 30km or so. Things were going so well I took a nice long lunch at a roadside restaurant. Waiting out the heat of the day with ice cold water and smoking hot pad thai turned out to be a great idea. The thing about tropical weather is that, well, it's hot. You know it, and I know it, but now I know it in a way that you don't. Bicycling on a blazing hot black tarmac in the heat of the day, roasting in the blazing midday sun, is enough to cook the brains of the most seasoned bad-idea-havers. So, I took my time at the restaurant and got back on the road in the mid-afternoon, making the crucial and highly regrettable mistake of failing to reapply my sunscreen, which I had done a good job of sweating off over the course of the morning's ride. Needless to say, as I pulled into the town at the end of the first day's ride, I was pretty fried. My knees were screaming with pain, and so was every inch of exposed skin, which had turned a sort of vicious candy apple red. As I pulled into town, I had to get off the bike for a few minutes and recuperate in the shade before trying to find a place to stay the night. Maybe it was the heat, or the dehydration, or the sunburn, or some combination, but I remember feeling about one minute from passing out on the side of the road. Staying hydrated was a huge challenge - drink too much and cramp up, don't drink enough and pass out. Anyways, I found a hotel in town after some miserably poor efforts on my part to speak Thai using my Lonely Planet book. My own room with A/C and a hot shower for 300 baht, which is about 10-12 dollars depending on exchange rates. I took stock of the damage that evening and realized that I needed to cover up most of my skin the next day if I was to make the journey without serious damage.

As luck would have it, down the street from my hotel was a massive night market. I bought a long-sleeve shirt for 100 baht and filled up on fried chicken, rice and fruit. I felt pretty prepared for the next day's trip as far as provisions and practicalities were concerned, but that was a pretty miserable night in all other respects. Taking on that kind of trip alone calls for a kind of fortitude that was difficult to summon when I was sunburned, exhausted, sore, and maybe for the first time since I left the states, a bit homesick. My thoughts often turned to the people I miss back in my country, and I kept asking myself: what am I doing here? Why am I doing this? Not just biking, but why am I in Thailand? Why have I wanted to come here for so long and train in Muay Thai, probably one of the most violent sanctioned sports existing in the world today? Not coming up with any solid answers made it really hard to find the motivation to want to continue the next day, especially since day 2 would be 100km, which is about 62 miles. However, having discovered that the only way to get on a bus or train north was to backtrack all the way to Bangkok, I was determined to make it to Nakhon Sawan or bust.

Needless to say, make it I did, though the experience was in no way enjoyable, at least not in the traditional sense of that word. The heat that day was absolutely ferocious. I felt like the sun was trying to rend my flesh from my bones, though it was having to penetrate long pants and sleeves in order to do so. Surprisingly, having my skin covered didn't make me any warmer when I was on the bike, traveling at speed. I finally understood why many indigenous peoples from desert areas keep their skin covered - clothes really do protect from the sun. However, the incredible heat and associated fatigue slowed me down quite a bit that day, and it being a longer ride anyways, I fell behind on my pace and nightfall caught me 20km from the town I intended to stop in, and it was raining cats and dogs to boot. Also, I'd managed to get off my quaint small road and onto the main highway. Sharing the road with 18 wheelers in the pitch black and pouring rain for the last two hours, with every muscle in my body cursing my stupid brain for thinking this idea up, was a tough time. At least I had a little light on the front of my bike. It threw off about as much light as a candle but at least I could say something of the road ahead. Finally pulling into town somewhere around 8-9pm was an incredible feeling. I found a great hotel right away, with a huge room for only 400 baht. After the last two days of cycling, that room was probably the greatest hotel room of my entire life. Granted, I haven't stayed in many hotels, but this one represented an accomplishment, something I'd never done before.

That night some things came together for me. Sitting in the room, I realized that the electrical sockets would actually allow me to plug in my laptop. All the hardship and introspection got my brain working overtime, and I randomly came across an online conversation with an old girlfriend that I'd saved to my computer. I decided then and there to write her a letter explaining what I was doing in Thailand, among other things. That letter is a whole other story, but writing it helped me clarify what I'm doing here, and why I want to train in Muay Thai. Briefly, for those who don't know about Muay Thai: it's a martial art and the de facto national sport of Thailand. It resembles kickboxing, but includes knee and elbow strikes, as well as clinches and throws. It's legendary for being incredibly difficult, with intense conditioning of the sort normally undertaken only by professional athletes. Two three hour training sessions a day, six days a week. The fights are often brutal and punishing. This ain't your weeknight Karate class with Master Bob. I realized that I wanted to train in this largely because of how difficult and punishing it would be. I wanted to throw myself on the fire, dedicate myself completely to something insanely difficult, but mentally and physically, and see what would happen. What would I become?

The answer to that question still lies ahead. One thing I knew in that hotel room that night, however, was that I wanted to get started training and cut the bike trip short. So the next day, I caught a bus the rest of the way north to Chiang Mai. I threw my bike in the belly of the beast, took a seat in the back next to a monk, and tried to sleep most of the way. Upon arrival around 8 in the evening, I intended to find my training camp and stay in a nearby guesthouse. I hopped in a songtaow (red pickup truck taxi) with my bike and pack, and an English girl who was going to some hostel called Spicy Thai. After repeated attempts by the cabbie to drop me off at various Muay Thai fight venues, and repeated (useless) attempts to explain that I was looking for Lanna Camp, not trying to see a fight, I gave up and tagged along with my fellow traveler to the hostel, figuring I would sort things out in the morning. Well, Spicy Thai turned out to be one of my favorite hostels of all time, and due to the fairly low price and various other factors, I'm still here.

So, for the past few weeks I've been training Muay Thai at Lanna Muay Thai. I had dreamed of the place for so long that actually seeing the camp was a surreal experience. Jumping right into training and living in Thailand has been pretty interesting. Obviously, my level of fitness, while pretty good for most people, was not up to par for training twice a day for three hours. So I've worked into it slowly, trying to concentrate on getting the technique down. I intend to stay here a few months at least, so I have plenty of time to build fitness and stamina before I have my first fight. In between bouts of food related sickness other random body failures due to training, I've gotten to most of the training sessions since I've gotten here, and I've noticed my stamina and technique have started to improve. I did skip practice today, but that's due to injury.

Last saturday, one of the trainers in the camp decided it was my turn to do some sparring with him in the ring. It was kicks only, and we were wearing pads on our shins and feet, which sounds pretty light and controlled. This was my first time doing any kicking sparring at the camp so I was pretty unsure of how to handle myself. Fully power? 90%? 50%? The trainer answered those questions for me by pummeling me with kicks to the legs. I'm sure he was taking it easy, but suffice it to say that I stayed in the ring until he got bored with it (I only found out later I could've stopped the session at any time) and I was in a lot of (very obvious and vocal) pain for most of my time in the ring. He then added insult to injury after the session by telling me that my kicks were weak, and top of that, he thinks I look gay. Well, well well. Far cry from the environment and attitudes of other places I've trained in martial arts. Pedaling home after practice, barely able to move, I was pretty furious. The lesson I was supposed to learn, I think, was to protect my legs better and hit harder in retaliation. However, the beating I took was a bit more than was necessary to teach those lessons. In any case, I didn't come here to get my hand held and make best buddies, so I've put my frustration aside, and I'm determined to go twice as hard when I start training again later this week. In a way, getting hit and learning to deal with pain is part of why I came. And I certainly can't afford to waste any time or energy taking offense to anything anyone wants to say to me. So, the only thing to do is heal up and get back to it twice as hard.

In other news, a friend from English teaching in Korea is coming to Chiang Mai tomorrow. Mitch and I had originally planned to do some traveling in Laos for a few days, but injury on my part and passport shenanigans on his will keep us in Thailand, I think. That's fine since I'm still having trouble walking correctly. I guess now I'll take the time to really check out Chiang Mai proper - training a lot keeps me too tired to do much of that most of the time, and my vows of abstinence from sex and alcohol while I'm in Thailand reduce my desire to check out the nightlife very much.

On a final note, I know I always say that I'm updating the photos section soon, but I really am this week. Not being able to train properly or move around too much means I have lots of time to get the site together and updated. Look for a huge photos section being reborn in the next week.

I hope you're all happy and healthy. Things are tough here in some ways, but I am getting plenty of R&R as well, no worries.

Roll Out

The time is fast approaching. I leave Korea on June first. The last 6 weeks has been pretty eventful, what with the wedding, all the socializing, and preparations to leave. Seems like I'm pulling all nighters all over the place trying to get my stuff ready to go (it's not) and my website updated (it isn't.) I have managed to do a minor facelift and finally get up Ryan and Helen's wedding photos! So take a gander at those. Ok, better get my nose back to the grindstone, or finally hit the hay...

Changes are afoot

Changes in both my life and my website are forthcoming. First, life:

I decided to take advantage of a long weekend to travel to Tibet. Whilst there, I protested the Chinese crackdown on protesters, which in effect made me a protester. I was placed in a burlap sack and beaten, and I now write this from the slimy muck at the bottom of a jail cell in Sichuan province. My captors have agreed to update my blog for me, and have even given me pen and paper. All I had to do was promise to quit singing Kenny Loggins at the top of my lungs at all hours. Chinese prison guards HATE Kenny Loggins. Yup, my constant threat of singing KL has made me big man on campus around here. All the other inmates are forced to relinquish their gruel'n'guts eggrolls to me at mealtimes, and my guards give me a footrub on the hour, every hour. I'm thinking about staying here and starting a traveling band of inmate musicians. We will cover Abba, and only Abba, for every tiny podunk Chinese village for a thousand miles. If that all sounds pretty ridiculous to you, I suggest you take a look at the date on this blog entry. April second for me is April first for you USA types...

And now for something completely different... (reality or something like it)

I'm contracted to teach through the end of May here in Korea, at which point I will go ahead on to Thailand. I am midly considering extending for another month or two in order to obtain a faster laptop for my continued travels. In any case, at some point in the summer I'm going to Thailand, where I will remain for at least the rest of the year. How long I stay after that depends on how things work out. I will be training in Muay Thai full time, so I guess we'll see how I jive with that lifestyle.

Coming past the one year mark in Korea is a good time to look back. I've had a pretty excellent time here with few complaints of any sort. Or regrets for that matter, save one - I wish I'd spent the time to learn Korean and get truly immersed in Korean culture. This whole ex-pat scene has been a huge wake-up call for me. You come here and there is a friend group of english speakers pretty much ready to go. That plus high speed internet in your apartment can really kill your momentum on learning the local language and making local friends. It's taken me a long time to see how the habits and patterns form here, but I'm glad that I've learned how this works, because this will definitely not be the last foreign country that I live in for an extended period of time. In the meantime, it's never too late to learn - I intend to spend the rest of my time here hanging out with Koreans as often as possible and making a stab at speaking as much of the language as I can.

Martial arts wise, I continue to grow in capability and mental strength. Physically, flexibility remains my number one issue. But practice and exercise have become part of my mental and spiritual landscape to the point where I cannot imagine a life without training 4-5 times a week. There's a feel to it, a constant energy that is with you all the time. I've been getting more sleep lately too and that's always beneficial.

As far as the website goes, I'm basically reworking the entire thing. I've been using a Mac-based program to build and maintain the site, which has had pros and cons. The program is incredibly easy to use and enables me to do slick things (like those pop up menus on the photos page) without actually knowing what I'm doing. The downside is that it ties me to the Mac platform. I've been a Mac user for years, but lately speed and power have become most important to me as far as computers are concerned. Speed and power carry a hefty premium in the world of Mac, unfortunately. Also, I'd like to migrate my website activities to something that's more platform independent. As in, learn how to write html myself so I can build/maintain the site no matter what kind of computer I'm on. That's the end goal. This also ties in with my photography - I've stopped using iPhoto (which ships with all Macs) due to the fact that it cannot handle massive picture libraries like mine, on old/slow machines like mine. I've transferred all my photos to an old-fashioned regular old files and folders set up, once again with platform independence in mind. Ideally, I get a new laptop, run Linux on it, and do things the geekier/harder/ultimately more rewarding way.

To that end, the site is going to look really, really basic in the coming months. Also, I'm going with a new approach with the photos. Rather than having hundreds and hundreds of photos on the site, I'm going to pare it down to the shots I'm really, really proud of. I'll still try to keep things in chronological/geographical order, but I'm going to be a lot pickier about what I put up. Or maybe I'll just say screw it and put up a bunch of picasa web albums and call it a day. Only time will tell!

Real quick to my theatre friends: I miss you guys like crazy. Not living around a bunch of weirdo artists and doing theatre all the time is what's going to get me back to the states. For anyone who's wondering, yes I'm definitely coming back, and yes I'm going to work in theatre.

For those of you who have followed my Asian adventures and kept up with me via the website, email, chat, and what have you, thanks. As I look back on this past year I've realized the importance of community, and it's nice to feel that there is one/several that I can jump back into when I'm stateside again. I hope you're all doing fantastically well.

Busy Bee

Lots going on this month. Finally updated the site - I added a few hundred pictures from my trip to China. Also I changed the look a little bit, feedback is appreciated. I've got my black belt test in Hapkido coming up on the 22nd, which will go fine if I can remember all the moves and also stop injuring myself once a week. On the 23rd I leave for a 10 day vacation in Japan. I will be in Tokyo for most of it, with perhaps a couple days in Kyoto. In any case I'll be in Tokyo for new year's, which ought to be pretty wild. In other news I met a lovely girl, but it's unclear yet if she's realized that she's met a really great guy. Harhar. In all seriousness, and despite setbacks, I'm going to go ahead and hold on to my unwavering optimism/confidence/ faith in the mysterious. Life is short. Carpe diem! I'll conclude with a quote from my main man Kahlil Gibran, from his masterpiece, The Prophet.

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

Coming up for air

Welcome back! It's been a minute since my last update (read: much longer than a minute) but I've been busy finding my way in the world. Here are some of the things I've done since July:

I had a week of vacation back in August, which I spent in China, as planned. That was about the only thing that went according to plan, especially given my loose notion of making a "plan." Let's just say that several boats, planes, and minor crises later, I am most certainly wiser. I did wind up in Beijing and spent the week there, which was fantastic. I met up with an old friend from the states and also met some great people at the hostel where I was staying. Beijing is an incredible place. I've never seen a place with so much history crashing headlong into the future. There is something a bit oppressive about the city, but at the same time, the strength and tradition of the place are plainly obvious to see, and there's also a lot of beautiful stuff to see. Highlights included Beijing Opera, the Forbidden City, the Hou Hai lake/bar district, and of course a 10k hike along the Great Wall. As you will see very soon, I took a lot of photos and will be filling up the currently empty China page with a few choice photos. It was my first serious outing with the Nikon D40, and I got a couple really nice shots. One more thing I'll say about China is that as cheap and awesome as it is to travel there, the attitude of the general populace certainly made me appreciate Korea a lot more. The atmosphere is definitely wilder and woolier than the more calm, if still crazy at times, feel of Korea. At least at night and at the markets.

Since then things have been pretty uneventful. People have come and gone at work, as contracts expire and begin all around. Silly office nonsense happens all the time and we all deal with it in our own individual ways. I have yet to make a dent in learning Korean. I finally stopped being addicted to novels and video games long enough to start updating my site and getting my photography in order, language is next on the list. I've certainly still got time to learn quite a bit, which leads me to my next bit of information.

Ryan and I have decided that we will almost certainly extend our contracts here in Korea. Our year is up at the end of February, but it looks like we'll be staying until the summer to make some money and for other various timing reasons. I plan on being in Thailand at the end of next summer, and I'll stay for as long as I can, probably just teaching some English on the side and training full time in Thai boxing. I've gotten a lot of "when are you coming back to the states?" type questions, which I love, because it's nice to know that people are thinking of me just as I'm thinking of them. But the answer is, I don't really know. As far as a permanent return, I'm loosely planning on early to mid 2009. As far as visiting, I'm going to shoot for a week in the states at the end of February, when I renegotiate my contract. I've got a week of vacation in December, but with plane tickets to DC running close to two grand, I've decided to fulfill another long standing dream of visiting Japan. It being literally at my backdoor, it's a great opportunity and also, it'll be cheaper. I have to remind myself that I need to be saving money here!

In other news, I hurt my knee in Hapkido. After taking a month off of training to let it heal, I'm back in the dojang (school) training 5 nights a week. The knee is hugely improved, but I'll probably be seeing a doctor soon to get some MRIs or other tests done. Might as well with my free health insurance! The master wants me to test for black belt in December, from what I understand, so I've got to be ready and stay healthy.

We just did Halloween at the English school and I was in charge of building the haunted house, along with Ryan and our head teacher, Aldrin. We definitely put in the hours and came up with a great setup, and after a full workday of screaming myself hoarse, wearing creepy masks and hiding in dark corners, I can safely say we scared the bajeesus out of those kids. My job is really great sometimes. (Really getting my mileage out of that theatre degree! Sigh.)

To all you folks back in the states, and you know who you are, I miss you. My life here remains interesting, instructive, and productive, but especially with the holidays coming on, thoughts of home are on my mind more often these days. I hope you're all doing well!

New pictures soon!

5 months in and I'm already skipping town

That's right, I'm leaving Korea.

It's time for summer vacation, which starts friday!
I'll be taking a 25 hour ferry from Incheon, South Korea, to Tianjin, China this friday. From Tianjin I'll be catching a train to Beijing, where I'll meet up with a friend and galavant about the Chinese capital for a few days, possibly followed by a short trip to Shanghai to see another friend. I'm beyond excited, especially now that I'm packing this little piece of kit:



That would be my new Nikon D40 dSLR. It's pretty cheap as far as digital SLR cameras go, but it has capabilities and qualities that my old digital camera can't hold a candle to. Much as I loved that Kodak and took some great shots in Europe with it, it's time to move on to bigger and better things. If you take a look in the photo section you'll see a bunch of new albums up; everything that's new has been shot with the Nikon and I think it's a huge improvement.

Besides my impending trip to China, not a whole lot is going on here. July 4th came and went with absolutely no fanfare (of course,) and that was actually a little bit sad. I'm not the most patriotic person, but you never know what you've got until you don't. That includes fireworks, crappy American beer, and bug bites.
I've been doing a lot of rock climbing, including two outdoor trips to nearby mountains with folks from my rock climbing gym. Those trips were incredible, especially the second one: a multi-pitch ascent up what I'm told is a roughly 600 foot face. It took all day, and we completed one section, we would clip into anchors drilled into the face and rest for the next portion. Definitely the most frightening experience of my life, including running with the bulls. Of course I was on a rope the whole time, with almost no chance of serious injury, but try telling that to your jangling nerves when you're 500 feet off the ground, holding onto a mountain using nothing but one tiny finger hold and the sheer friction of your climbing shoes on the rock.
In infinitely more boring and mundane news, management is being juggled around at work, with unpleasant consequences. The job is now no longer as much of a cakewalk as it was before, but remains a pretty decent living. I do have to say that my initial desire to extend my contract past the original 12 months has cooled somewhat. Right now I'm thinking I'll go straight to Thailand in February, when my contract is up, spend 6 months there, and then maybe move on to Hong Kong.

One never knows.

My next update will be packed with info and stories on my trip to CHINA. Stay tuned.

Brave New Warble

Note: I wrote this entry on June 20th, but I'm posting it July 20th. Things have gotten a bit behind on the site due to work, figuring out my new dSLR camera (!) and all that jazz. A really, actually new blog entry is coming within the next 48 hours. And so are a bunch more pictures. Stay tuned!



Hey! No big events these last six weeks. Korea continues to entertain and more importantly, educate.

One thing that happens a lot in this line of work is people coming and going. Due to the 12 month contract that everyone has, and everyone starting at different times of the year, my office has a constant turnover and arrival of people coming from all over the english speaking world. It's kind of fun and exciting to have people coming and going, but it's also kind of a bummer when cool people leave the office to go back home, or on to other adventures. This month, we are losing Justin, Irish Ryan, and Nathan, who are all great guys. It's been awesome working with you guys!

Speaking of Justin, he, Nate and I have been doing a fair bit of rock climbing these past 6 weeks. Nate (not to be confused with Nathan, who is one of the people leaving,) was a pretty avid climber back in the states, I had some experience, and Justin was just starting. We're pretty well into the groove now, thanks to the fact that we live really close to a bouldering gym. Bouldering means rock climbing without ropes, but it's generally low height, so you don't hurt yourself, and very difficult. The gym is an interconnected set of rooms with thickly padded floors, and angled walls covered in factory made holds that can be screwed into most surfaces. It's been excellent for making me stronger, dovetailing nicely with hapkido, which focuses a lot on hand strength.

Speaking of health, I've gone on a diet for the first time in my life. Don't worry, I'm not trying to LOSE weight, I'm actually trying to gain muscle. My new diet is gleaned from the book "Natural Hormonal Enhancement" by Rob Faigin. He asserts, after doing a huge mountain of research, that the best way to eat in order to gain muscle and burn fat, is to eat lots of protein and not worry about having too much fat. My meals are cycled, such that every 3rd day I have a big meal of carbohydrates, and then every 4th day as well. In between those times I eat very few carbs. The idea is that the human endocrine system is millions of years old, and is based on eating a diet that's very different from what most people eat today. Our ancestors ate a lot more protein and vegetables, and very few, if any, refined carbohydrates, like white bread, pasta, etc. Anyways, the book is well reviewed and makes sense, so I'm going to give it a try. Also, I'll be starting a weight training regimen next week, in addition to my martial arts training, so this could be the start of a whole new thing for me. I'll report back on how it turns out/is turning out.

In other news, I miss theatre and the arts desperately. I've got to find out about the english language theatre and other things like that in the Seoul area. I know it's out there, I've seen links and ads here and there. Time to do some research.

I've been pretty prolific as far as music goes. Pretty soon I'm going to start adding a few songs of mine to the website so everyone can listen.

My roommate Ryan Ellis is getting married, for those of you who don't know. He met a lovely british girl here named Helen Kenny. They don't have a date set yet, but I guess I'll post it when I know and when the time is right. For all those of you who love Ryan Ellis and want nothing but the best for him, let me assure you that Helen is a fantastic person and I'm 100% behind them getting married. They've moved pretty quick, but hey, when you know, you know.

What else? Teaching is a continuing process of self-discovery. Just when I think I have a pattern down and there's not much else to figure out, some new challenge or unrealized part of myself leaps to the fore to make things interesting. I feel that there are many days when I learn more than the kids by a good margin. Specifically, teaching these kids is really teaching me a lot about the meaning of patience. I thought I was a reasonably patient person before I came here, but I think now I'm starting to learn what real patience is. Real patience is teaching the same thing 4 times in one week to the same kid, who just isn't getting it, and persisting with it, until he DOES get it. There's usually a reward for patience in this job, but it's sad to say that sometimes there are brick walls that it's hard to break through. However, you never know when a breakthrough will happen, so it's best to just keep a clear head and take deep breaths. Patience is really the key here! It's incredible, though, because patience is really a way of creating stillness within yourself. And when you can do that, you notice things that have been there all along, patiently waiting for you to discover them. Or at least, that's the way it's starting to become for me.

Oh and one more cool thing that happened. A couple weeks ago, the birthday of Buddha was celebrated here in Korea with a massive parade in downtown Seoul. People came from alllllll over Asia to join in the festivities, and there were a bunch of performances of both traditional and modern musicians and artists during the day. There was everything from traditional Korean drumming to yoga demonstrations, as well as traditional Indian dance - Katakali, believe. The parade started at night. Why at night? Because the whole thing is called the Paper Lantern Festival, and there are thousands of paper lanterns everywhere! The buddhist temple near the parade area was decked out with a gazillion of them, and at night, every single lantern was turned on. With that, and the parade, the effect was really beautiful. I managed to snag some lanterns and take them home for decoration purposes. Check out the pics section if you want to see what I'm talking about.

Thanks for checking in. Remember to check out the new pictures!