Selling Out for The Man

A few winters ago, my school asked all of the teachers to pick a project to help out on during vacation.  As we all received far more time off than our contract promised us, we were in a position of being unable to refuse. Some of us picked website work, some picked extra classes, some picked school broadcasting, and somehow I wound up doing this advertisement.  Watch and cringe!







PS If you snoop around, you can also see the video of the mock lesson I submitted to the school way back in 2009 - the video that nailed me the job! Seriously, who wouldn't want to learn English from I? 

Days 2-4, or, Up the East Coast

Frank assessment: Days two through four failed to live up to day one in terms of weirdness.   

Day two consisted mostly of me alternately riding on a highway under the blazing sun and pulling over at rest stops to fill up my water bottle and soak my hat, shirt, scarf and armbands in water to keep me cool while on the road.  I enjoyed a massive lunch and then enjoyed an afternoon floating in my hammock, napping and reading unpestered by ants and mosquitoes.  Also fun was climbing over the highway median divider to help a trio of cycle-touring college students to fix a flat tire.  Because of the delay caused thereby, I wound up stopping at a tiny beach with no markets in sight and bumming some onions, taters, and a gourd off of a sushi restaurant lady and then figuring out how to use the stove to a very weird couscous mélange.  I then had the good fortune of getting invited to sit down and have a few beers with an overconfident, undercompetent, totally drunk “CEO” and his four employees, who were out on a company retreat.  “I tell you, I’m not particularly interested in America or Americans, but you know, I just said, hey, ‘Let’s have a drink with this guy.’’  He used that line about twelve times.  I escaped to bed/tent when the youngest employee picked him up and took him to the edge of the parking lot to puke. 

 What the sunrise really looked like

What "foliage mode" makes it look like

Can't not take this picture

Cycling for a whole month on a crappy bike with low-quality gear.  I said "you're brave."  He said "No, I'm an idiot."

Cop man.

Yup.

Lunchtime Chemistry Lesson: 

"What is water?

- Water is a ubiquitous, colorless, scentless, flavorless liquid necessary for the preservation fo all life.

1.  Water is the ultimate source of all life.

2.  The human body is made up of more than 75% water.  (Brain 75, heart 75, lungs 86, liver 86, kindyes 83, muscles 75, blood 83, bones 22)

3.  Water doesn't need people, but without water people can't live."   

Another five dollar lunch.  I love Korea.  

 

A perfect afternoon.

 If only NK would open its borders!

2-second timer...

Campsite

 First try on the stove.

 Day three contained next to nothing notable.  Having grown more confident in my stove-cooking skills, I grabbed a few ingredients at the market, then pulled over at a gravesite (a little morose, I know, but I was starving and there were no other clearings since I was on a highway) after I made it into Gangwon province a few hours later and made an awesome Perilla noodle dish.  Onions, potatoes, noodles, sauce.  Wow!  Took a nap on a bench at a rest stop and then cycled till dinner time, where I was treated to the stickiest potatoes I’d ever tried.  I deliberated about whether or not to sleep at a Sauna and clean up, but figured I wasn’t quite dirty enough yet, and it didn’t look like it would rain anyhow.  Plus I hadn’t yet hit 100, so I trudged on until I found what I expected to be a small beachside camping ground.  Instead, it turns out it was a giant campsite which also happened to be hosting a giant karaoke contest.  From the comfort of my tent, I got to hear some of my favorite Korean songs as well as a pretty good rendition of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” as I fell asleep.

The ultimate breakfast: peanuts, raisins, seeds.  Even a little bowl like this, eaten before seven, keeps me full til twelve.  I still need to learn the fine art of seed sprouting, though.

 

"Next Rest Stop: 104 km"

Actual next rest stop: 4km. 

 Into the next province.  Frightening, as I had been told numerous times that the terrain in Gangwnodo would kill me.

 

My first crack at perilla noodles.  Not terrible.

I LOVE THIS COUNTRY

 Baby squash pancakes, stirfried shiitakes

Sticky candied potatoes. 

 1000km (since July 1)

 

 Slightly crowded in the tent.

It did wind up raining that night, so day four started with a slow morning.  I woke up at six (usually it’s 5:20, when the sun comes up), lazed and dozed till almost eight, then packed up and was on the road by nine thirty.  The hazy weather was again nice to ride in, though, interestingly, while the previous day’s fog had inspired lots of poetic mind-wanderings, the fourth day’s fog just made me a little lethargic.  That didn’t keep me from improving on my noodle recipe by adding sweet potato, kale, and sesame leaves, of course. After lunch, I decided to hang my hammock amongst the pines, but realized I had left some crucial ropes attached to trees at the park from night two. I was thus forced to engineer an emergency hammock setup by using the carrying straps from my pannier bag. It didn’t look good, but it got the job done.  When I woke up from my nap, I hit the road again, stopping only to fix an unfortunate second flat tire, this time on the rear wheel.  Then the normal routine – back to the road, stop for dinner, pig out. The restaurant was nice and quiet so I asked if I could stay and charge my computer, and voila, the neighbors had wireless, so I was able to upload blog 1 and also get my first facebook fix in four days.  While it felt good to see that all my friend are still alive and well, the experience was mostly underwhelming and I concluded that I spend way too much time on that website. Since I had gotten some internet time in, and, again, since I wasn’t much dirtier that night than I had been the night before, I opted to keep riding and find a beach to sleep on.  Unfortunately, the waves were high and the beaches were small and the best I could do was to sleep on the concrete at the harbor, which scared me a bit because I’ve seen too many (fictional) movies about North Korean refugees getting smuggled through harbors, then stabbing their guards and everyone else in sight and running free into society. Needless to say, there were no such fiascos and I slept fine regardless...    

Lunch in the forest.

 Much better this time around!

Have I cycled out of the real world and into Super Mario Land?

 AKA Yangyang, which still sounds like something out of Super Mario.

Need I say it again?

On the Road, Day 1

 It's on!

Note:  It's currently the end of day four and I'm still alive!  I've biked between 100-110km a day and as I approach the (maybe better not to mention the name) border am heavily considering mounting a one-man invasion armed with my steed, two pocket knives, and several packs of sesame leaves.  I've been camping every night and eating raw breakfasts, stove-cooked lunches, and dinner smorgasboards most nights. Every day is pleasant, even the hard ones, but day one was the craziest.  Thus, I present you with the diary I wrote that night.  I'm mooching on a slow wifi connection, so no photos yet... 

What a first day!  I woke up and had leftovers for breakfast: eggplant pancakes* and some leftover beastly vegan rice cake chock-full of kidney beans, black beans, green peas, and slices of kabocha squash.  I set out in a timely fashion and rode about 30 km to Hayang meet my pal Murray, who showed me the vegetable patch that his school let him plant on campus and gave me a bright, reflective, yellower than you can possible imagine safety vest.  Another 20km later, I stopped in Yeongcheon to have a little visit with my buddy Luke, who let me convince him to order noodles made from acorn powder while I went with the old barley rice set.  50km down in 2.5 hours!   I was speeding away the day.  Until I took an hour nap at Luke’s place.  And spent ten minutes eating his wife Tanya’s ice cream.   

 Homemade brekky. Cost: less than $1.

Standard Korean set meal.  $5.  

I set off again, making good time up and over a mountain pass that was hard but much easier than expected and kept chugging on until I got to Yangdong Village, a UNESCO world heritage site about 2/3 of the way to my destination.  I had already made nearly 80k and it wasn’t even 5PM.  I took a short break at a bus stop, took off my ridiculously sweaty arm bands, read a few pages, and chilled for a few.  

 

the view on the way down the mountain

Less than 3k after resuming, I thought I heard a hissing sound coming from the front of my bike.  I leaned in and listened, but concluded that it was just the air rushing through the spokes as I sped downhill at about 45km/h.  I thought myself pretty cool until the bike started weaving to and fro and my mind flashed back to my first night in Sadhana Forest, when I had been given a moped and told to follow the gang out to a vegan pizza shop about 5k away.  And also, to give a cute young blonde American girl a ride.  I didn’t know how to ride the moped, and said so much to my embarrassment, but they told me it was a piece of cake, so I gave it a shot.  We reached the pizza slowly but surely, and had made it about 80% of the way home when the moped started to slide left and right.  Terrified, I couldn’t think of anything to shout to Kate, my passenger, except “It’s not my fault, I didn’t do anything!”  I managed to pull over without dumping either of us onto the road, and we got off to inspect the moped.  Verdict: a flat tire!  So, all of this flashed through my mind as me and my  40ish kg of bike and luggage were swerving down the hill.  Suddenly the hissing made sense and I looked down to see that what ought to have been the vertical walls of the tire were instead squished flat to the ground.  First day, first flat!   

I was a little peeved, since a friend of mine who’s currently biking from Barcelona to Korea recently posted on his blog that he had just gotten his first flat on day 98, though he had been hoping to make it to 100.  I failed to make it even to 1!  Nonetheless, I was glad that it happened here and not in China.  I busted out my superbly stocked repair kit and tried to recall what I could from having seen others change tires.  I had received one lesson and seen it done several times, but this was my first solo attempt.  I managed to identify the culprit: some sort of rusty road staple had pierced the tire.  The tire came  off pretty easy, and the tube was releasing so much air that I could see and hear the problem spot.  I used my little patch kit, pumped the tube back up, verified that it wasn’t leaking, put the tire back onto the rim, and pressed.  It had gone soft again.  Leaning my ear in, I could hear the air escaping even through the tire.  On to plan B: I started over again, this time swapping out the entire tube for my backup.  All went smoothly and before I knew it (I.E. an hour later) I was back on the road.  

I decided to change course – I had been heading up to Wolpo, where some friends and I had played on the beach and stayed at a highly underused beach condo belonging to my dentist, but I figured it would be better to head into the city and find a bike shop pronto.  After asking a dude in a moped shop and then another dude on a bicycle, I managed to track down an MTB shop where the dudes fixed my old tube, telling me my patch kit was shit and I should buy one of theirs which I did.  It was already getting dark, so I got directions to the nearest beach with a campground.  

On the way out, I passed through the outdoor market and had a debate with myself about whether it was right of me to ask for a discount on rice cakes (from 2000 won to 1000) since it was late, they were no longer fresh, and nobody would likely buy them anyway.  I couldn’t gather up the courage, though, so I just wandered around until I found a restaurant.  The owner agreed to make me the japchae (julienned veggies and sweet potato glass noodle stiryfry) without meat or seafood, which I wolfed down before heading back out. 

At $6.50, a bit pricey.

From there it was a measly  3km to the beach, where I rode around until I found the public bathrooms, footwashing stalls, showers, and police booth.  The chief was pretty chatty, quickly asking the name of my college and my major.  When I mentioned Italian, he gasped and said his middle school daughter,  who had just gotten back from an exchange program in China, would be going to Italy soon to see a friend.  Then he asked if I’d be willing to speak to her over the phone to test her English.  Having seen a sign stating that there was a 1000 won fee for using the shower stall, I figured I’d do him a favor and see if it paid off in the long run.  So, after chatting to the daughter (who by the  way mentioned that Chinese food is awesome!), I mentioned to the Chief that I’d like to shower.  He said that the showers were out of order but that we could go use the handicapped bathroom, as long as we both went in an came out at the same time.  I didn’t quite get it, but I’ve been to enough saunas here that the proposition didn’t particularly weird me out.  Even so, I was grateful when just before we were about to go in another touring cyclist pulled up!  

I forget the kid’s name, but he’s a college student in Seoul, riding around on a cheap mountain bike with ratty panniers and all his stuff protected from the rain by nothing more than torn up black plastic bags.   He commented on how nice all my gear was, and I told him that he was twice as cool as me for doing it the hard way.  Then he, I, and the police chief headed into the handicapped bathroom and “showered” together using the kid’s cooking pots to scoop water out of the sink and douse ourselves.  There was surprisingly little weirdness despite the absurdity of the situation, and we even bonded a little over the fact that all of us had ridiculous tan lines.  

After wards, the kid and I chilled out on the beach and talked about traveling cheap and how his friends all called him crazy for not spending his summer vacation studying English to up his TOEIC score.  What a rough life.   Let’s be glad we all speak English as a first language!  

Summary:

106km ridden

Brekky: 1 Eggplant, 1/5 of a rice cake brick.  Less than 1 buck.

AM Snack: 1 nectarine.  50 cents.

Lunch: Barley rice mixed with leafy veggies, chives, and red pepper sauce.  Sides of soybean paste soup, burdock root with garlic, sweet stir friend anchovies, julienned humongoid radish, kimchi, steamed “thread-style” green onions,  and cucumber (i.e. mild) peppers dipped in soybean paste.  5 bucks. 

PM snack: one cup of ice cream, mooched.

PM Snack: remaining 1/5 of rice cake.  60 cents. 

Dinner: Noodles with onions, mushrooms, carrots, chives, and pumpkins.  Sides of kimchi, sweet radishes, and egg drop soup.  7 bucks. 

Lotsa water.   Maybe 10L. 

Vegetarianism on the road: easy as pie! 

Now to sleep for free on the beach while the cops guard my bike.  They promised me that it wouldn’t rain, so it’s just me and the stars tonight. Not that they’re visible through the clouds and over the neon

*Recipe: mix some flour, salt, and water into a batter that’s not too thick.  Heat some oil on a frying pan on low heat.  Swish the eggplant slices in the batter then fry, flipping and adding oil when necessary.  Dip into a sauce of soy sauce, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes.

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!