Bondi Beach

I'm just now getting around to posting these photos of our day out at Bondi Beach back in July.



As you remember, we were kind of stuck in Sydney for two weeks, waiting for our new house to be available, so we spent some time seeing the sights of our new home town.



Bondi Beach is a well known beach in Sydney for surfing and made famous by silly reality tv shows like Bondi Rescue. It's not really a swimming beach because of some pretty strong rip tides but it is beautiful and a great place to lay in the sun.



It wasn't too warm that day so our sun bathing plans were thwarted but we did find ways to amuse ourselves by watching the surfers, reading books, burying our feet in the sand (until a big wave caught us and we got soaked), and unwrapping our new Settlers of Catan game.



It really is a beautiful place and as you can see, the view is beautiful here.

The Village People

While walking through Sin Chai, we found these SUPER cute little H'mong kids using crooked sticks as stilts. They were so fun to photograph (except when they asked for money).

This little girl was away from the group looking for sticks around someone's house. She was SO happy when she found two that worked!

This kid cracks me up. I love his dirty little shorts, his JOE sweater, the way he slouched, and the defeated little look on his face. Adorable. Taken in Cat Cat.

This funny little kid from Cat Cat was gnawing on a big piece of sugar cane. I can't imagine that's good for his teeth...

While walking in Sin Chai, this old lady came up to us and invited us in to her home for some tea. We though she was being friendly (which I guess she was) but of course, she was also being industrious... She brought us there to sell us some of their handmade goods. But who cares! They were so nice and the hot water was great for such a cold day.

These girls were busy making purses and thought it was hilarious that I had knew some Vietnamese and could count to three in their tribal language (though that's all I knew). I would just say, "Oi zoi oi!" Which means, "Oh my God!" in Vietnamese, and they would just collapse in giggles. We ended up buying two purses from them.

It was really dark and smoky n the house. This was taken without the flash. I still like it though. I like the way they are kind of hidden in the shadows.

It was pretty rural out there. There was some electricity in some homes (we knew which ones they were because there was usually a crowd of 20 kids or more and a blaring TV with cartoons) but most were only illuminated with natural light from open doors or small fires in the middle of the home. We walked away smelling like charcoal but were happy to smell. It was really cool to visit a real H'mong home and commune with the whole family.

If you want to read more about H'mong, I HIGHLY recommend the following book: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It's a medical/anthropological documentary about a H'mong family from Laos who escaped during the Vietnamese war and resettled in rural California. It's about all the struggles a group of physicians face when their daughter develops severe epilepsy and can't communicate with the parents due to language, culture, religion, and the ins and outs of the American health care system. A FANTASTIC read. Really.

The promised catch-up

Graduate School

So, I've been accepted to both of the universities I've applied to: The University of Queensland and The University of Technology, Sydney. Oh, what a pain though. UQ offers US federal student loans but UTS doesn't. UTS has a great Master's in Journalism program in a great city for media work and UQ's is just okay--UQ is in Brisbane and too far from the city center... The only way I can go to UTS is if I get a private student loan but alas! No bank lists UTS on their approved school list. The only two banks that do are not currently accepting applications (damn credit crunch!). So, I'm stuck. I just can't go to the school I want to and it really makes me mad. UQ is a good school and obviously affordable, but I just don't want to go there anymore... Since the ball dropped on student loans last week, I've discovered one more school that may fit: The University of Sydney--they give US federal aid and are actually in the same neighborhood as UTS. The only problem: their program is a Master's in Media Practice and not a Master's in Journalism. I'm not sure exactly what the difference is yet but so far it looks like 1/3 less classes... Will a Master's in Media Practice be a reputable degree for what I want to do? I'm not sure... At any rate, I've decided that I'm still moving to Australia. I'm going to get my work holiday visa and just work for a bit until I can figure this school stuff out. Instead of trying to start in February, I might just wait until July. Maybe the credit crisis will be over then and I can get a loan for the school I want to go to... Or maybe in that meantime/worktime I'll check out The University of Sydney and find it's a great school with great opportunities and I'll want to go there... Who knows.

Anyway, as long as I'm putting off school for a big, I might as well do a little more travelling before I buckle down with a job and stuff in AU. Here's my current thought: India-Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka-Thailand-Cambodia-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore-Australia. I guess if I can't go back to school then I better spend my money elsewhere on something equally exciting! :)

Blog Business

I'm thinking about changing things up a bit... I realized the other day that my blog title and blog address are not the same (what was I thinking?) so I hurried up and snatched up the "twentyfirstcenturynomad" blog address and I'm thinking about moving things over there... I can't move everything as in old posts and photos, but I can make some links for past reading... I'm also thinking of switching from Picasa to Flickr as my photo sharing provider. Has anyone else made a similar move? What do you find to be Flickr's benefits and pitfalls? The big hassle and annoying part is that if I want to move my Picasa photos to Flickr, I will have to download each individual photo and re-upload them to Flickr. Bahh! That will take FOREVER!! Should I bother?

English Camp

Oi! Two weeks of 14 hour work days!! I can't believe I did three weeks of this stuff back in January! Camp went well. As always, I made some new friends with some really lovely foreigners though I won't lie and say that every day was happy. There were some cranky teachers that second week who really didn't want to participate! But I understand. We were all tired and just ready to go home. Looking back at my pictures though, I've realized we had some good times. The first week was a little challenging because my team was pretty quiet but they pulled off a first place win in EVERY competition and by the end of the week, I'd like to think they made friends with each other. The second week was MUCH better and the kids worked really well together. We didn't win a thing though. In fact, we were constantly placed last. Oh well. Lucky for me it never broke their spirits and they had fun anyway. I didn't take any photos from the second week because I got too tired to lug around my camera and it was too hot to work so hard, but I do have photos from week 1. Enjoy!!

Summer Classes

Now that camp is over, I get to teach two summer classes for one and a half weeks. The pros: provided curriculum and small classes (one with 10 students and one with 4). The cons: the curriculum isn't amazing and I think the classes are too short (one hour). I really wish I had more time to really teach them something worthwhile and give them an opportunity to apply it. This curriculum is okay (it's not amazing) but it needs something more. There needs to be more activities and students need an opportunity to learn from context via deduction. This just doesn't offer anything more than scripted conversations. I really wish that Korean understood deductive learning. Everything taught here is by memorization. Seriously, what happens when these kids graduate or move to another country and can't speak or learn because there's no script for them? They need to learn on their own. Teachers need to teach kids to learn independently, not co-dependently. This is ultimately why I'm leaving Korea. But until I do, I have 5 more classes to teach. *Sigh*. At least this week is almost over!

Saying Goodbye

Two weeks ago, I left Munchang for good. My last two days there were filled with movie time with my boys and cleaning my desk. Saying goodbye to the teachers was okay but I realized I was definitely going to miss some of them. Jun has shown me true Korean hospitality and I am so grateful for everything she has done. None of my Korean teachers have ever gone out to dinner with me as a friend--no one except her. Saying goodbye was difficult. I also had to say goodbye to Kim Hong Gi--a co-teacher who has had a crush on me for a while. lol. He is a really nice man with golden patience. I can count on one hand the number of times I've broken down at work pre-Korea but once I came here, it happened a lot more often and unfortunately he got more of those breakdowns than anyone else. I am so glad he never judged me for it and was always gracious and attentive when it happened. I'm lucky to have had such good co-teachers.

I also had to say goodbye to Mr. Bak and another Mr. Jeong (I think that's his name!!). It was especially difficult to say goodbye to Mr. Bak. In the year that I've known him, we've hardly exchanged much at all because neither of us speaks the other's language, but we've somehow solidified a silent friendship over one commonality: photography. He is so amazing at it. Way better than me. He's a professional and he uses professional equipment. I'll never forget the first day we met; he was intrigued by my camera and wanted to show me his and his photos. I was immediately humbled. I don't want to sound too conceited, but I'm pretty much accustomed to being the best photographer in the room but when I saw his work, I was almost humiliated by my own. He's that good. Over the next few months, I taught him random Korean words and he would give me the thumbs up or thumbs down on my photos. He would bring in his camera and let me play around with his 300mm lens; I would bring in my fish eye and he would fool around with it. Then we went hiking with his kids back in March and I'll never forget what happened: his son fell off the waterfall, he fell in and both almost drowned with hypothermia. Saving their lives is the single most impactful and incredible thing I've ever done. I still feel a little lost on the subject most days. Knowing that you are responsible for someone else's life is indescribable. Sometimes it feels like a big secret--no one could ever understand or fully know the chain of events that day. No one will ever feel the divine the way we do when we think about what happened. On my last day at Munchang, I learned that he didn't even know how to swim. Mr. Bak said to me at lunch: "That day, I don't know swim. It is miracle." How can I put that into words? My skin crawled in the moment and every hair said a prayer of thanks. It really was a miracle. I also learned that he wanted me to come over to his house for dinner but when he asked his sons they started to cry--they didn't want to remember so the dinner was cancelled. I understand but I hope that one day they will be able to talk about it.

Near the end of my last day, I went to say goodbye to Mr. Bak in the music room and he greeted me with all of his new camera equipment. His English had improved so much from being my friend that he was able to tell me that he was sorry I had an Olympus camera and he had a Cannon; he wanted to let me borrow his equipment but everything was incompatible. Then he played me a song on his saxophone. I cried and everyone laughed. Oh well. Then he took me outside and took some photos. I probably looked like crap because I was still a little shaken but oh well. Then him and Mr. Jeong rushed me to the bus station because I was about to miss my ride to Incheon. We made it just in time and while I waited for the bus to pull away, they sat outside the whole time, waving to me. And just before it left, they disappeared momentarily and then reappeared on the bus with an ice cream of me. I was so moved. I balled the whole way to Incheon. Saying goodbye is a lot easier when people don't do nice things for you! But I'm happy they did. I will always have sweet memories of the teacher's at Munchang. They were a hard bunch to leave.

Moving on now...

I'm so tired of packing and cleaning. Today I scrubbed down my bedroom pretty good but it pretty much exhausted me and I still have two more rooms to do--the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom isn't too bad--just a little pink mold--but the kitchen is another story. I'm honestly shocked. So, before I left for camp two weeks ago, I really cleaned my kitchen good. However, upon my return home Monday, I found TONS of mold on the walls, on the counter, on the floor, and I even found a ton of weevils crawling around on my counter! I don't know how they got there! I haven't left out any bread or wheat products. In fact, I didn't leave out anything! I'm really confused... To top it off, my sink faucet is leaking and dripping all over the counter and my sink, adding to the mold problem and ruining my sponges. Sometimes it's really hard to believe that this place was brand new when I moved in... To give you an idea of how bad the mold problem is here, I once found mold growing in a bottle of BLEACH water!! Can you believe that?! I'm pretty sure that the sooner I move out, the longer I'll live. Something unnatural is happening in that place...