T-minus Oh My Lord This Sh*te is F'ing Happening!

The last couple months have been a bit hazy for me. Evidence: A little while ago, while I was biking around the city, some jerk in a white SUV started honking at me. I gave him a piece of my mind through his tinted window, yelling things like "If you want to pass me, just do it!" and "I've got the right to use this road, too, you know!" (I was pretty proud that I knew how to say that). He kept honking, and eventually things escalated to the point where he stopped to get out of the car and I turned around, dismounted my bike, and prepared for the worst. I started mentally listing all the reasons why bikes are better than cars and why that fact alone ought to be enough justify any and all of my road behavior. The guy got out of the car, with a big fat smile beaming across his face. It turned out the SOB was in fact one of my best friend's fathers and had been beeping to say hi. He asked if my mom had returned safely to the States, if I'd had a good trip with Jeff, and how long I'd been back - they were waiting for word of my return so they could invite me over for dinner. I did some quick calculations and told him about three weeks.  Only later did I realize that the answer was more like seven.

The last two months have been too good to call a funk, but too weird not to.  Even though I have a free place to stay, several families willing to feed me, a free means of transport, money in the bank, and friends all around, I've been a little confused.  Daegu feels so much like "home" that I can hardly imagine living anywhere else; and yet not having any work to occupy most of my time generally leaves me wondering why I've stuck around so long.  I did have to wait about two weeks for a new US passport and three for my visa for China, but in the meantime, I could've biked around the country, I could've done more prepping for my trip, I could've packed up more stuff to send home, I could've sold off the stuff not worth keeping. Mostly, though, I just killed the daylight hours cooking, doing dishes, reading Mother Jones, and watching the Colbert report, then headed out on weekends and evenings to hang out with a wide variety of splendid peoples I have been fortunate enough to meet while living here. Inevitably, the conversation would turn to my bike trip: when are you going?  are you ready?  what's the plan? 

I could never answer any of the questions.  In fact, this is the reason that until now I haven't blogged about the trip. I wanted to write something big and fluffy about freedom, something trumpeting up the trip and making it into some sort of Odyssey. The reality, though, was that inertia of just being around Daegu was stifling, too easy and pleasant for me to want to escape. Despite having been talking about the trip for six months and gearing up for almost four, it still didn't quite feel real.  Even after giving away more than half my clothes to the Beatiful Store (think Goodwill), shipping all my mementos back to Virginia, and dropping $700 on a new used bicycle, I hadn't felt that "click." 

I still hadn't felt it when two friends and I did a weekend ride about 100km (each way) down the Grand Canal river course, camping out for one night drinking rice wine and frolicking in the river. Even on the next trip, a week-long jaunt around Jeju, where two other friends and I rode about 60k a day and camped or mooched every night for a week, something was still missing. Even when telling just about everyone we met that we were in training for a longer ride, from China to who knows where, I continued deflating every sentence by adding..."but that's just a plan in our heads." 

Then, on Tuesday, my Chinese visa came in the mail. I had applied for the most massive one - twelve months, multiple entries, ninety days on each stay, figuring mostly that since the price was the same I might as well aim for the stars and wait for the consulate to crush my dreams. Instead, they gave me the green light, and I'm completely in the clear until July 2013!  Not that I intend to spend a whole year in China, but it's good to know that I can pop in and out of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, and maybe even Tibet (fingers crossed on that one) relatively freely.  Next thing I knew, I found myself in the dollar store, buying the last little odds and ends: a tongue scraper, some carabiner clips, CR2032 batteries, bag organizers, crappy rubber shoes.

Then I realized that, 1) I have everything I need, and 2) I don't have anything left to do in Daegu.  Sounds like it's time to go.  I woke up this morning, packed all my bags, and decided to give my bike one last tune-up. Unfortunately, it turned out that the back rim was bent pretty bad and needed some serious truing from a hand much more experienced than mine. I took it over to the old man who's in charge of the longest-running bike shop in town (80 years) and had him work his magic, and I also bought a few extra spare parts.  Now, with the bike in good shape, and with all foreseeable problems properly prepared for*, I really have no excuse but to get the f on the road. 

So, with the intro out of the way, if I may, I'd now like to get to the real point of this post, which is that I bought lots of sweet stuff and need you to ogle it.** 

Here's my brand new used bicycle.  I bought it from German guy in Seoul who was substantially taller than me, which means that the bike is also a liiiiiiittle on the big side. This means that you'll also probably eventually see a post about me falling off.  The bike originally cost about 1400 dollars, but I got it for 700.  It also came loaded with a handlebar bag (about 60 bucks), custom climbing handlebars (50 each), a high-powered rechargeable flashlight (80), a wireless speedometer/odometer (70), and several safety lights (50). My buddy and partner-in-crime Mingyu also furnished me with a quality front and rear racks.  

Care to know about my load? I've got two 22-liter waterproof rear bags, two 15-liter waterproof front bags , a handlebar bag, a tent, a sleeping mat, and a 40-liter backpack with a sleeping sack in the bottom compartment, with the top empty for fruit or whatever else I decide to carry around. 

Handlebar bag: phone, flashlight, fake wallet filled with expired cards, camera, a bit of money, compass/thermometer/whistle/magnifying glass/LED,  plus waterproof wrap and belt for fanny-pack conversion. 

Front Bag 1 ("Cycling"): Toiletries/medical supplies, a hammock with incorporated mosquito net, tools, spare parts.

 

Front bag 2 ("Cooking"):  Two pots, two cup/bowls, salt and pepper, one container of leftover pampered chef chipotle seasoning, one spork/knife combo, one UV water sterilizer pen, one water bottle full of couscous, and a bag each of peanuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and raisins. Conspicuously absent: fuel for stove.  

Rear Bag 1 ("Computing"): Laptop, hard drive, mouse, harmonica, kindle, cords, chargers, books, maps, diary.

Rear Bag 2 ("Clothing"): One large organizer of riding/farming clothes, one small organizer of "looking like a normal person clothes", one swimsuit, two towels, waterproof rain jacket, waterproof pants, waterproof cap. I'll probably also stash my real wallet, passport, and cash supply somewhere in this bag.

Here's the whole happy family. Meet Almost Everything That I Can Imagine Needing For The Next Phase Of My Life.

I loaded everything out and went out for a short ride around downtown this afternoon. Everything seems to handle well, and riding isn't particularly tough. I was able to maintain normal downtown speeds of 25-30 km/h. Definitely enjoyed honks coming from taxi and bus drivers and the stares coming from pedestrians and everyone at bus stops.

The apartment complex just broadcasted a typhoon warning: close all your windows and remove all plants and clothes from your verandas. Good thing I'm not out in my tent tonight! Tomorrow, though, I'm out of here rain or shine.***

____________

*anyone care to wager on how soon I'll be eating those words?
**One other reason preparing has been so hard is that I hate spending money to procure unnecessary things that are made by using nasty machines and toxic chemicals to transform parts of our precious Earth.
***Unless, that is, it rains.
****Full disclosure: the plan is to cycle for a week or so around mainland Korea, then to spend a weekend plus a few more days here in Daegu to say bye to my best buds, who are all leaving in early August, then to spend one more weekend with my two Korean families, then to be out of Korea and into China by August 10th.  So soooooon!

It's Out!. Finally! Well, almost!

After months and months of back and forth and delays, I am proud to announce that I have officially received the video file for my TED talk, "My Path to Green Living."  17 minutes, 12 seconds of me hogging the spotlight, enunciating, flopping jokes, and trying to explain how I've changed, and why, since December 2008.  With no further ado, I beg you to watch and share my fifteen minutes of fame:
















Just kidding.  Bossman says if I show it to you via youtube or facebook, it will unleash a host of penalties and sanctions and embargoes and other unpleasnatries on the TEDxPalgong team.  Wouldn't want that. 

I have half a mind to upload a script - I had been meaning to do that anyway - but the truth is that I've got 3 hours before I head out with a friend and a bicycle and a tent and make my way down to Jeju Island, more affectionately known as "Korea's Hawaii." I hear that food is expensive there, that tangerines are plentiful, and that and that people speak a dialect so thick as to be unintelligible to mainlanders. 

The timing on this video release is so odd!  I felt like the fact that the TED talk itself occurred just in that narrow gap between when my teaching had ended and Mom and then Jeff were to visit was itself pretty perfect. And now, the video itself comes out the day before I initiate the warm-up phase of my MASSIVE BICYCLE TRIP which I guess is for real now because I spent 300 bucks applying for my visa for China yesterday, and also sent 20kg of books and souvenirs and stuff back home.  But more on that later.

Thanks to Chan Tha for introrducing me to the Cambodian countryside and to Michael Pollan for writing books and to Sadhana Forest for being there and to Suzie for the editing and coaching and to Junyoung, Seongmin, Mija, and the rest of the TED team.  Assa! And thanks to everyone else for reading and being cool and inspiring me in your own ways.  

Something tells me today's gonna be a good day!

Top 10 Posts

As the last post may have made clear, I'm in a retrospective and pre-nostalgic mood, undoubtedly because I'm gearing up (physically and mentally) to leave Korea for (what will most likely not be) the last time.  More on that later.

For the last six months or more, I've been in a bit of blog despair.  It was a vicious cycle: first, I wanted to spend more time and effort on the Daegu Green Living blog which, I though, might actually make a difference somehow.  Two years and 80 or so posts later, it certainly did.  But it came at the cost of me not having the time or energy or inclination to write about, or perhaps reflect on, my personal stuff.  Then, I assume due to my lack of activity here, it seemed that most of my readership had died off.  (PS Thanks to the die-hard fans who leave and comment on just about every post!  It means a lot to me.)  Then, with views and comments and such dying off, I felt like I was indeed right that this blog wasn't so important, and gave up on it  even further. Add to that the stress of writing for the First Korean Tour for Foreign Foodies project, which essentially drained all joy from the act of blogging, and ripped my soul out by not even giving us first prize, and you'll understand why I had no steam at all. 

But that last post  about tying up loose ends got me going again. It led to me going through old posts, checking stats and hits and all that, and, eventually, to wondering what my top 10 most-read posts of all time are. The list is quite odd: 

10) "I See Through You" A relatively recent post about spotting fake smiles.  300-some hits. 

9) "Vipassana: Things I Didn't Say Before" Filling out the Vipassana story.  Almost certainly owes its popularity to the photo of me and the two Pekema boys with our pants down (underpants up) at Yosemite.  Was that really 3+ years ago?  417 hits. 

8) "The Morning After (My Arrival)"  I woke up and, hey, I was in India.  Short and sweet, one of my favorite and most intense posts. Just thinking about that day nearly brings tears to my eyes.  Over 500 views. 

7) "The King of Fruits," a fairly Mike-esque random tribute to the Durian.  This post definitely deserved all 669 of its hits, but I have no idea how it got them. 

6) "Vipassana: The Experience" One of the rare posts lucky enough to have a title more than tangentially related to its contents.  This one got picked up and shared on somebody else's blog, so the nearly 700 hits don't come as a huge surprise.  

5) "As if I needed more proof that I'm not as smart as I like to think I am."  About, of all things, my exploits trying to find a proper position for my shower curtain and the general life reflections the process brought to the fore. Apparently 800+ people enjoy crappy MSPaint diagrams.  

4) "Where Am I Now? (As I Write, not as You Read)" A pretty plain description of where I was and what I was up to in Cambodia, unremarkable except for the pretentious list of the books I had been reading.  Nearly 1300. 

3) "Daegu Bike Rally," maybe the third or fourth Daegu Bike Festival event I attended, before I was even staff.  Not sure how this one got so popular.  Maybe a Korean found and shared it?  Regardless, 1500+ hits.

2) "WJWD on New Year's Eve," a recounting of how my friends and I wound up welcoming 2011 by staying up all night chanting sanskrit sutras with a Korean Buddhist monk and her congregation at a hermitage on top of a mountain. I don't even recall what the title refers to, but I'm sure I thought it clever at the time.  3,128 views.  What the heck?

1) "This post is turning out to be much longer than I intended and actually I'm making up the title about an hour into writing it just because I need a br," a total armchair rant about what I see as the fundamental problem with our civilization: its lack of attachment to or care for the specific place it settles in.  No clue how, but this one got 3,241 views! The lesson: people like it when I gripe about the state of the world! Can do!

All the Things I Meant to Write About in 2010, But Didn't.

I've had this sticky note on my desktop growing  and expanding and bulging and taking over my entire monitor since summer 2010, which was about the time when I got started doing really interesting stuff here.  It was also the time when I stopped feeling like I had time to write about all of it on my personal blog.  Instead, I wrote articles for Daegu newspapers and magazines and for the Daegu Green Living blog - maybe a total of 80 posts or so.  To be honest, I was somewhat smothered by the feeling that the other work was more important than my old blog.  At times, I even felt it was more important than my personal life.  But that's neither here nor there!  What's here is a giant sticky on my desk, which I'd like to clear off.  So:

In July 2010, I did my first Vipassana.  I'm pretty sure I wrote about that.  Shortly after that, I visited again, this time by bicycle.  Spent some time weeding, chatting, prepping for the Asia Monodrama Festival, visiting an apple orchard, and hanging out with a family I randomly met on the bus who invited me back to their place to eat and work in the garden together. 

 In early August, I visited the Mungyeong Omija Village, where they specialize in raising hordes of O(five)-Mi(flavor)-Ja(baby/berry) berries, which, when left in sugar for six months or so, turn into an extremely refreshing sweet/sour/tangy syrup. I didn't get to help out much on the farm, though, since it was raining; nor  did I get to do all of the fun rice cake activities or berry processing, since they only run those programs on weekends when there are tons of guests.  Mostly, I sat around in my little glass cube of a bedroom, conveniently located next to an awesome pool, reading books and sneaking into the kitchen nearby whenever I felt I had earned a beverage.

In August 2010, I did a ten-day WWOOF (WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms) farmstay at Sweet Persimmon Village, just about 70km away from Jeju. At that time, there wasn't much to be done with the persimmons, which are harvested in August, so I mostly hung out with the other volunteers - Korean, Polish, French, and American - while weeding and dismantling greenhouses after they'd been used to grow watermelons.  Since, I've been back to the farm several times, whether just to hang out, pick persimmons, eat persimmons, or lend a friendly white face for the TV crews.  

That same month, I had a couchsurfer named Pablo Garcia Gomez.  He was from Argentina, and had biked to Korea from Africa.  He only stayed for a night or two, but I bought him a bowl of noodles and allowed him to take a much-needed hot shower in my place. I also received an interesting piece of advice: if you travel Korea in the summers, you can generally get away with sleeping at elementary schools, since the kids are all on vacation.

In September 2010, I joined up with Andzrej, the Polish guy I had previously met at Sweet Persimmon Village, and we went up to a sweet pumpkin/kabocha squash farm in the northwest for a week.  We picked pumpkins (the leaves and stems are super spiny!), stuck on organic labels, shipped them out, and then went and emptied out the greenhouses and planted some onions.  I got a sense here of the precariousness of the poor farmer's life - there was no warm water, and, worse, several windows had recently been broken in a storm, giving millions of mosquitoes free entrance every evening. I nearly choked to death on the mosquito coil fumes.  Nearby farms had also been devastated by recent typhoons, several losing up to $50,000 of infrastructure, mostly in the forms of plastic greenhouses.  On the good side, I did get to walk through a tomato farm and pluck little yellow cherry tomatoes off the vines and snack on 'em. 

In October 2010, I biked back to the Herb Garden the first WWOOF farm I visited in Korea, about 130km from my house.  That's still my longest day-ride to date, and it was before I knew about adjusting the seat on my bicycle or even oiling the chain.  I'm surprised I survived. Since the persimmon farm was practically next door, I popped over there for a visit, too.

In November, I returned to the persimmon farm, and in December, back to the Herb Garden to learn the fine art of making Kimchi. 

In the meantime, I had numerous vegetarian potlucks: with coworkers, with Indian friends, with Japanese friends, with other Daegu Veg*ans, with new friends at the Green Consumers Network; for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, for the Earth, for the heck of it.  I also participated monthly in the Daegu Bike Festival, started / continued putting on eco-film nights, leading group expeditions to veggie or organic restaurants around town, and searching out organic shops, chatting with the owners, and uploading it all to the Daegu Green Living blog. 

Oh, also, I had a job and managed to save something like 80% of each paycheck while having all this fun.  Hard to believe, eh? 

Next up, 2011!

FKFTFFF Result!

Apparently my blogging has been reduced to occasions when someone puts a video with me in it on you tube. 

This time, the final video for the First Korean Food Tour for Foreign Foodies that I wrote so much about back in October and November. 

Oddly enough, it was that experience that just about drained me of all will to blog. I'm still trying to recover.

In the meantime, if you have an hour to spare, watch this: