Adventures in Korea: Nami Island. Part 2

Hello, Folks!

I sliced my Korea adventure story with several other posts, but now I’m back to continue it. What happened on that morning of the trip? Read on if you wish to find out.

Welcome to Nami Island!

As I mentioned in part one of this story, I wanted our trip to Nami Island to be relaxing, fun, memorable, and yes, even perfect. I expected all these things and more because how could one go wrong with a visit to an island? Islands served as gateways to the simpler, more chill life. I dreamed of silence, sunshine on my face, and isolation with my close friend and companions. It was like I ordered the universe to deliver all these conditions because I deserved them after the long, tiring, crowded week I had endured. That Sunday at Nami Island was meant to wash away the ache, temper frustrations, and massage out all the kinks and knots of stress matted at the base of my neck. A one-day cure all.

It gets better. 

HOWEVER, the trip to Nami Island was an adventure all in itself. It started at the station where I arrived first, and later Rebecca and her students joined me. We waited for our train, but the time for its arrival passed with no sign of our grand chariot. So, despite my efforts to get to the station on time, we were behind schedule. No matter, I thought. These things happen and it was still early in the day. With the help of our adept smart phones, we discovered the Seoul Subway system decided of all days to finalize its newly revised route!

An hour later we finally caught a train with no available seats because old folk in very expensive mountain gear packed our cars and all the remaining cars for that matter to the point of suffocation. Apparently I didn’t get the memo that this morning was part of a peak mountain-hiking season, but I had thought the elderly here hiked no what matter the season. It was different today because excitement laced their conversations and their eyes crinkled with expectation for a wonderful day, no different from mine earlier. I sucked it up because I dealt with this crowdedness on a regular basis in Seoul so this situation should not have come as a surprise. It was the island that was supposed to be deserted not the public transit system.

A tree of wishes?

After another hour of standing in the train, we reached the station where we would take the bus to the ferry. Now, this bus. THIS BUS. The driver of this small bus deserved an award for: 1.) Violating the sacred personal space of individuals by allowed an incomprehensible amount of people on board 2.) Ignoring the vehicle's capacity for so many passengers and 3.) Driving at ridiculous speeds around the bend so that all passengers rub and fall on top of each other like lovers in some crazy orgy scene.  I counted the seconds in my head as my arm ached from tightly gripping a handle above a seated passenger that, despite my small frame, I was sure I would crush from the sheer force of the sharp turns the bus made. And let’s not forget those potholes that the driver gravitated toward. I smelled the sweat of my neighbors’ sweat and rubbed skin with more people ever in my life in one location and time. 

The ride continued for twenty minutes, and when I jumped off the bus, I told myself it certainly could not get worse. HAHAHAHAHAHA! How naïve I was back then. Rebecca and eyes exchanged looks of horror when we spotted the ferry. IT. WAS. FULL.

So, what did we do? Dum dum dum. Stay tuned for the next part!

Ever had a similar situation when going on a trop? Would love to hear it!

Thanks for reading,

Sammy :)

What is that you ask? A tree of Soju bottles. -_-

Adventures in Korea: Nami Island. Part 1

Hello, Folks!

So sorry I’ve been slow with the updates lately. So much happened in the past week and on and it took time to settle myself into a new life: new place, new jobs, new people, but same ole me. :)

Good memories stifle and taunt you the moment you feel the most vulnerable to nostalgia or feelings of good times gone by. My solution? Write it out. I have a memory of a trip I took with a very lovely friend (whom I shall call Rebecca) in Korea, along with a few students. Our purpose was to escape the quick-paced bustle, inch-to-inch people bumping of Seoul. I proposed the idea of going to an island called Nami that I read about online. What better way to escape the city than to go to an island? I patted myself on the back for that one and felt so proud about my idea.

All Right! 

I invited my fellow teacher Rebecca to take the trip with me, and being the reasonable person that she is, she researched it with her students before giving me the A-OKAY. She invited two students and one brought along her boyfriend. We had ourselves a party, folks! I was excited for the trip and longed for the ship that would give me a break from the crowded streets, pollution, and shoves and pushes from grandmas. I felt like the Elves from the Lord of Rings taking that boat into the west in the ridiculously long ending of the third film in the trilogy. However, I digress.

Morning of our trip arrived and we had to be at the train station at 7:00 AM. Now, usually an early morning appointment, class, meeting or whatever is the biggest drag under the sun for me, but not that morning. The anticipation moved my usually moody morning body out of bed, into the shower, and out to put my outfit and make-up on. I arrived first at the station, which would be a shock to anyone who knows me because tardiness is tattooed in invisible ink on my forehead.

Finally! I would be in nature, amidst trees, fresh air, and grass that stretched far and wide and uncountable unlike the few blades sticking out beneath the concrete. And water. I find it healing and after a hard, tiring week of teaching, I longed to appease my soul with a meditative gaze to the point where the water hits the sky. My hopes and expectations for the day flew at stratospheric heights and I smiled worse than that loopy, purple Cheshire cat because this was my idea. I wanted everyone to have fun and enjoy the day.

Oh, but don’t you love life? One thing it teaches you over and over again: expect the unexpected. My trip to Nami Island turned out to be one of life’s precious gifts on that front. The story continues with the next post!

Ever have high hopes and anticipation for something and it turned out to be less, more, or a mixture of less and more than you expected? I’d like to hear about it.

Thanks for reading,

Sammy 

Ahhh, Nami Island 

Underemployment Sucks! So Make Your Own Path: E is for Establish.

Happy Tuesday, folks!

Nearly three months have passed since I returned home from Seoul, South Korea. I left behind a city that I would always remember for its gorgeous mountains; insane amount of coffee shops (one every single block—I kid you not); never ending talking saleswomen wearing oversized white knee socks and mini-skirts as they stood in front of beauty boutiques that blasted K-Pop music to passing pedestrians; the snappy dressers, the wild dressers, and the dressers that elicited the biggest WTF from me and my fellow teachers;

Oh, just another regular day in the subway

the businesses that used random English words mixed up to create the funniest, incoherent phrases or clever ones like the love motel named She'll or the coffee shop called Exorcist Coffee. 

Whaaaaat? That's a motel named She'll.

Have some coffee brewed by your friendly neighborhood exorcist.

I even miss those pesky delivery scooters ready to run me down on the sidewalk; the old ladies that pushed me aside better than any NFL quarterback to get a seat on the train; and hell, even those taxi drivers that drove past me dozens of times at 1:30AM because I stood on the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Ah, Korea. I miss you terribly. And of course, I miss my students most of all. The friendships I forged there will always remain in my heart, along with the adventures we took through the city and beyond. 

No matter where we are, we'll always be friends.

And who can forget those Saturday nights in the singing room, Noraebanging our hearts out (Karaoke in Korean—yes, I made it a verb)? This is only a snapshot of how I lived in Korea, but I hope it gave you a little sense of what I experienced. 

Back in America: Don't go away just yet, Fall! D:

NOW, I am back here in the ‘burbs, settled and readjusted to American life. (Was there always this many obese people here? We need to do something, country.) I’ve applied to more jobs than I care to count and tweaked cover letters to the point of ad nauseam. The results are a couple of part-time teaching gigs which I’m grateful for because money is money, and that's a whole lot better than a long day at home, being broke with nowhere to go. 

However, I see farther than the life I have now to a place where I have control over my career and achieve the goals and dreams harassing my mind. And this is where the E in ESPER comes in. Remember, ESPER is the goal setting/achieving model from the website Personal Excellence by Celestine Chua that I’m using to finish the edits and rewrites of COT and get it published through the difficult, hyper-competitive traditional publishing route. I’m not crazy; I have back-up plans A, B, C, and so on.

The E in ESPER stands for establishing your goal. 10 components make up this section but I’ll share five. You can find all them here:

1. Is your goal defined in the context of your life purpose?

I believe one of the key purposes in my life is to connect with as many people as possible to share joy, happiness, love, and care. I see writing as one of the ways I can carry out this purpose because it allows me to communicate with a wide audience. I hope that my books can not only entertain, but also inspire and bring joy and happiness to readers, and hell maybe even change the world for the better. No reason not to add that in the mix.

2. Ensure that your goal is a key goal with an 80/20 destination: part of the 20% of goals that will give you 80% happiness.

Hellz yes! I’d be very happy to be a published author. Not much to elaborate on here.

3. Plan for BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goals   

Nobel Prize in Literature. If you don’t go all the way, why go at all?

4. Start with Long Term, then break down into short term:

             

90,000 words in 2 months

45,000 words in 1 month

11, 250 words in 1 week

1,600 words in 1 day             

5. Use positive framing:

I will write a novel I love that is ready to publish. I believe I will finish a novel I love that is ready to publish. Forget my under-employment, pressure from parents to get a real job or go back to school, external environment, pressures from society, and from my own limitation, impatience, and delusions on the lack of ability or talent or whatever that negative voice in my head thinks up to put me down. Purge the negatives. Time will take care of itself. You take care of yourself and your goals. You are not wasting your life because this is your goal, your big effing dream. Life is rich and full of opportunities that you have to create. Continue to grow and take control over your life.

And, that is where I am now. And it feels good. 

YIPEEEEE!

Thanks for reading. :-)

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