Teaching in Korea

I will be in Korea three weeks this coming Tuesday. I am enjoying teaching English. I have two classes in one university and a special student in another. I think I am relearning English by teaching it as a second language.

There are few students and fewer people who speak English fluently. My MP3 player is not working well as I cannot figure out how to recharge it. There are two professors here in my department who speak English fluently. One is from Australia and the other is from Michigan. I don't see them very often. My best friend has become my journal and I have been writing in it more than I did before. One of the problems is I can't seem to buy one. I bought three with me, but I gave one away and filled one up already. I was at a Korean book store and there were these very small journals, but not the kind that I am used to. Almost everything one would buy here is made in Korea. There are some English bookstores in Seoul and I will try them when I get paid. If not, I will be using notebooks.

My Sony Reader is one of the best things I got when I came to Korea. There are lots of books to read in it. I also found a room of English books in one of the universities and I have already checked out two books. Many of the fiction books are books that are available on the Google Books as they are public domain but there is a full set of Harry Potter books along with some young adult books popular such as the Twilight books.

Everyday, I am writing in my journal and describing what I am going through. At least I can speak in English there.

The wait is finally over

I finally got my Visa, my suitcase and will be packing tomorrow, Sunday, and leaving for Korea on Monday morning. I have my ticket and everything is ready.

I went to dinner the other day and got a fortune cookie that said that adversity will give me the courage that I need. This has proven to be the case as the present surroundings of the house that I am staying is very chaotic for no particular reason but it is rough being here. I am not used to it. People are yelling, shouting and constant shopping by the lady of the house. I hate shopping.

I am very anxious to get to my job and see what classes I will be teaching and hope that it will not be composition classes as I will not have time to prepare. I am sure it will not be any history of any literature classes as that sort of classes takes even more time. I will be working with one special student and I have met him and we get along very well.

What is keeping me sane is my journal and the music that I can get off my mp3 player and this computer. I have a paid subscription to Rhapsody. I also have Pandora, but I have not transferred that to this laptop since I am leaving soon.

The wait is not over....

I am in Los Angeles waiting for a number to be taken to the consulate so I can get my passport stamped. Last night there was a phone call from Korea that a number has been issued and then the person hung up. There was no confirming Email this morning. Someone will call this afternoon or so because of time differences and then I will be able to go to the consulate and start this last process.

I got my Sony Reader yesterday evening and loaded 130 books from Google Books from the lap top that I am using now. It was hit and miss for a while until I learned how to do it. I am not the most literate person using computers although I love using them. I have to be careful with my money for a while and used the free books that are available on the Google Books and there are quite a few of them. You can use only those books in the public domain. I was surprised to how many are available. I have books by Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forester, D.H. Lawrence and many, many others. The copyright law did not go into effect into the beginning of the 20th century and even that was limited. For instance, all of the books of Sherlock Holmes by Conon Doyle are in the public domain but not the literary figure which is still in copyright to the best of my knowledge. The same goes for Tarzan.

I am still writing in my journal and on my blogs. It is hard to find a table that has a comfortable chair since where I am at presently does not have these places. Still, it is very nice here. I am in a house overlooking the city of Los Angeles. Today is another clear day in the Los Angeles area. The dog next door has killed a golfer and everyone is out there looking at it. It is a big one and is probably an old one and why the dog, Shasta, was able to kill it. Since Shasta is fed regularly, she is not chewing on the golfer but likes to admire it. We are next door to a state park and there is a nice green belt surrounding the two houses, this one and the owners of Shasta.

Part of the requirement of living in these two houses is that nothing can be done to desturb the ecology of the grass and plants of the two interconnecting yards which has natural plants of this area. That is why there are golfers here. The view alone is worth living here for. We can see the sign, Hollywood, and the buildings of the downtown area of Los Angeles.

The wait is finally over....

It is finally over. I am leaving in a few days. I will be going to Los Angeles for a few days until I get my Visa and then to Korea where my job at a national university is waiting for me. I already have a place to stay. It is a done deal. The ordeal of waiting to see if I am going or not is over. Now, I am preparing my list of what to take and how things will be handled in my absence.

I still don't know if I will be getting a Kindle before I leave. One can't buy one in South Korea and has to be purchased outside of the country. They can be used, however, in the country without difficulties. With my first paycheck I will be buying a laptop as I don't want to take the own I own here as it is an old one and a bit shaky. I will be continuing my blogs. I don't know how long I will stay. It could be from six months to unknown. I also don't know how I will be working on my projects.

One suitcase that is part of my set is missing and I will be looking for that one at a relative's house. I will need it for sure. It is good to know what will be happening now instead of just sitting here not knowing.

Still here and still waiting

I had a dream last night that my agent told me that I need to be at my new job on March 9th and that it was on a Saturday. I changed the calendar and saw that March 9th was a Tuesday. I talked to him last night and he had been to the consulate and it is very likely that I will be leaving soon. I am running out of food soon, but I don't want to buy any food as it would be a waste, and I still have some in the house.

My projects have been lying idle because there is no way I can finish them and send them out before I leave. I have been writing, however, every day in my journal and in this newspaper forum that is very instructive in the editing process and in dealing with skills that needed to be sharpened. For instance, I tended to believe people when they gave me "facts" that sounded logical and true. I have since learned not to do that and to take apart whatever is written on the page. Also, I get easily distracted when someone wants to wiggle out of being caught in a falsehood by changing the subject. I should have learned this a long time ago, but I didn't. When writing in a journal, I also don't allow myself to do the same.

I have said many times in my journal and elsewhere that reading and writing feels the same at times. I also read with a pencil and now with a open laptop so that I can look things up. I don't let things slide such as not knowing for sure what a word means or who someone is. I just look it up immediately. I learn a new respect for some writers whose references are right on track and others who did not do their homework which is often rare but it happens. It creates avenues of reading that I did not have before.

I have also slowed down in reading and look more carefully at writers' skills. One writer that I really admire is D.H. Lawrence. I love reading his work. I am hoping to read more of his work. I am reading "Rainbow" now. After "Rainbow", I am planning to read "Women in Love". He could really make the English language do what he wanted it to do. He would describe the landscape and I would see it in my mind's eye.

I go out to Whiskeytown Lake and I know I could not describe what I see out there. A few weeks ago, I saw odd and wonderful colors swirling in the water of the lake, and I thought I was imagining it. I have looked for it and not seen it since. I have the added problem of not believing myself or other people. This is not good for being a writer. Lawrence did not have this problem. He was very sure of himself as a writer and believed in his vision of what he saw and what his message was. This lack of confidence is one of my problems that I am trying to solve right now and has been for as long as I have been walking on this earth in this life.

While I was out at the lake today, I was able to go anywhere I wanted as it was very overcast without rain. I could park anywhere without worrying about the sun baking me in the car. There are several places with wonderful views and few people to create lack of privacy today. I was reading about Ram Dass and how he considers himself to be a lucky man because he dies in his life and starts a new life. To him, that is the middle path not thinking about the past and nor formulating what will be the future. I realized that I never understood what the middle path and mindfulness was until that moment and how they blend into each other. Dass who is now living the life of a man trying to get over a massive stroke doesn't think about not being able to play the cello or not driving his mg or that he has to have people to help him get out of bed and wipe his bottom. He is in a new life and doesn't consider his past life's events nor thinks of future events.

In my life, I have had to get over many traumatizing events and most of the time I have carried them around in my back pack, remembering them, getting mad at the same people who were unkind to me and often those same people are not alive anymore. That is a lot to carry in a back pack and it has been very heavy to cart around everywhere I go. Now, as I look at a tree and can see only the bark, the knots and the branches further up I can see that is really all that is there. I can put down my pack and follow the middle path too. Yesterday really isn't there anymore and it doesn't matter at all. I have died and it is in the past. It is like remembering past lives. I remember some of them, just bits and pieces, but it really does not matter because the people I knew then are spread out in the universe doing their own new lives now.

It is so interesting to just stay here and remember and to wait and not know which road I will be taking and which road will be the one not taken. In this case, the decision will be made by others. I have a feeling whatever the decision it will be another "small death" and another adventure is on the horizon.