Bikes, Spikes and Sexy Times in Jeollanam-do

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Months had passed since I'd left my little Seoul apartment. I'd taken off after two years with my girlfriend to see what the rest of Asia had to offer and after that back to the western world. It was a much needed break and came with a deep sigh of relief. I remember that first week listening to the sounds of the Vietnamese jungle and not hearing a car horn of K pop for miles. No flashing neon, no storeclerks on bullhorns, just the quiet rustling of palm trees in the cool breeze and clear skies.

Eventually I started to think back on my experience in Korea. The food, the people, the late nights at the bar drinking dongdongju and heading for the noribang. The hiking, the rafting, the pure enjoyment of not knowing what would happen from day to day. I was lucky though. I had two people back home that I could share the experiences with and did so often. Each time I felt an urge to get back. "Why do you want to go back?" "What's in South Korea?" I found myself answering these questions frequently. "Jobs." "Opportunities." It's not true that there isn't any work in the States right now there just isn't a lot of good work. Sure I could have stayed at my retail job. Made a little more than minimum wage and tried to find a cheap place to live. But that option was never really a direction I wanted to go. It's hard to turn down free housing, excellent money and the chance to be apart of a world and culture that few people back home get a chance to see. Like the generations of Americans in the 20's and 30's that set out west to pick fruit in California I was taking my own way west. To the shores of South Korea to again teach English and improve my quality of life.

After ten months away I found myself once again standing in Incheon airport. Nothing seemed to change. There were the same restaurants. The same music. The same comercials played on the televisions that were playing when I'd packed my bags and headed off that prior summer. It felt good to be in Seoul. Someplace familiar. I had an American man come up and ask me if I was familiar with the airport and Seoul. "All to familar." I responded. He quickly asked me how to get to a certain subway stop to meet his business partners for a trip. It seemed so naturally to give him directions. As if I was guiding someone from S.E. Portland to the Rose Garden. It felt like home. Home in the sense that you're in a place where you feel completely comfortable, you know the area, the customs, the language (to some extent).

That night I met up with Jen who'd had her own trip from England. Somehow we mangaged to get into Seoul within 10 minutes of each other. We both felt like we'd never left this place. We made the call to our hotel and worked a pickup through broken Korean. A mutated version of Konglish. Our first night back was spent on the cheap. We had a 6:00 am wake up and flight so the night was spent with noodles, wine and korean t.v.

We've now been down in Yeosu for about two months. That first month was spent very carefully. We each had projected an amount of money we'd need to make it through it at times it was cutting it close. Luckily for us we'd been to Korea before and knew where to find things we needed for cheap. Whether it was dishes, food, clothing or a couch that you hijacked from a street corner and conned 6 Korean University students into helping you carry it the 20 minutes back to your house and then lug it up 3 flights of steps only to cram it into a studio apartment. These are essential skills you learn to pick up when your away from you mother land.

Soon though we could relax. That heavy sigh came from my lungs as I checked my bank account and saw that I'd gotten my 1,300,000 won flight money. The process went a lot quicker than some of the new recruits because I'd already had a Korean bank account. This was just another time I was glad that I'd been here before and already gone through the hoops for things essential to one's livelihood. From this point on the Ramen was gone. I'd had one bag left and it's still sitting in the back of our cupboard waiting for some dark hour when I crawl from bed, boil water and resolve myself to finishing off the last of it. For now though, I'll stick with the tortillas, fresh fish, shrimp, crab, Thai and Indian curries and the rest of our food bank, so much of which has been improved ten fold by the addition of our new roomates. Rosemary plant 1 and 2. These little herbs have improved many breakfasts and fish fillet's already. I look after them and they look after me. I know Jen would laugh if she read that I'm writing about them. She's constantly at me for spending so much time nurturing these two things but I don't here her say much when they're in her scramby eggs.

My work is going well. The first week was spent at a desk doing lesson plans, finding stuff online for games and the occasional spells of wikipedia or npr reading sessions. It took about two weeks to feel completely comfortable in the classroom again. The ages are the same as what I taught in Seol it's just that there are a lot more of them. Still the classes are very behaved. And if they're not I have my Korean teacher there to shout at them. I teach 3rd through 6th grade and do mainly 4 to 6 classes a day between 9:00 and 5:00. It's a pretty good set up when you figure that each class is only 40 minutes long.

Wednesdays are by far the best of the week. I get in, plan some activities, teach two classes and I'm done by 11:20. Then it's only a few hours until volleyball.

For some unexplained reason to me, Koreans have a fondness for volleyball. Actually fondness isn't the right term. They have some sort of deep primal desire for the game. I'm not sure where it comes from but I enjoy it. That first week I was admittidly pretty bad. I could play just fine but I hadn't served in years and found most of my attempts either going right or left. As the weeks go on though, I'm improving and by the years end I should be a pretty good quality volleyball player.

The thing I've noticed about the volleyball sessions is it tends to make everyone equal. I'm not sure if it's just my school or it's a nationwide thing but with the hierarchy of the Korean social system you wouldn't dare talk out of line to a superior but I find my co-teachers giving regular bullockings to the principal who takes the game very seriously and is an excellent spiker. He's about 5'7" and looks very much like a Korean Hunter S. Thompson. Just take off the Hawaiin shirts and short shorts and replace them with track suits or sweat pants.

For some odd reason he's always lined up on the opposite side of me and I've been really getting caught up in the competitiveness of the games. So much so that on my second weekend of playing I went up to block my principals spike and sent it back into his face and knocked his glasses of. I immediatly did an "oh shit" in my head and wondered if I'd just done something off limits and was gonna pay for it in the classroom when my teammates came up laughing and slapping me on the back because we'd one the game. They then turned and said a few things to the principal who started laughing. The next week I headed off to the game and was walking outside when one of my 5th graders saw me on the soccer field and shouted, "Mr. Justin, you sexy!" I hesitated and thought I should explain why it wasn't an appropriate time for that declaration but figured I'd only confuse the kid with my explanation and there was volleyball to get to.

This week my principal and I were again lined up across from each other when the same situation presented itself. It had the same results. He went to spike. I met it. Blocked it. Glasses on the floor. The next 10-15 minutes he spent putting the things back together. I hope he appreciates my effort and doesn't think of me as that damn foriegner who keeps going after his glasses.

So that's essentially my life to date. I go to class. Wednesday I play volleyball and Friday I teach at a second school that's much smaller. On the weekends we get out of town or explore our area and look for hidden parts of town where we can do some exploring. I've been riding the bike I bought every chance I can. The weather has been perfect and it's a good start to the day when you get to ride along the ocean. The only thing I didn't factor in is how hilly this area is. By the end of the year I should have legs like a mule and the volleyball skills of a Brazilian. I've also gotten my serve back.

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Photos

Yeosu
One of the coastlines.

Dolsan
This is a view of Dolsan bridge from the park.

Tourists.
Looking like a farmer.

Dragon cave
The dragon came out but I quickly made sure it would be his last time. You're welcome.

Hung
A wooden fertilty statue from the folk village.

Group photo
This is the new shipment of Yeosu teachers

Sunset
The sun sets behind a Korean mountain

Jinnamgwan
Navel fortress

Commuter
Everymorning starts with this.

cycles
Our new modes of trasport.

Yeosu City
Yeosu is split into three main parts. Yeosu, Yeosu-dong (where I live) and Yeochan. This is a picture of Yeosu.

Roof
Sunset from our rooftop