Pictures from afar

Hello everyone~ Here are some photos that I took of the Bongguksa Temple I went to go visit. As promised, I have also posted the video (actually a recording of a 2 minute segment in the chanting ceremony). Oh and there are some random photos of me making toast...that's right - TOAST. I am too cheap for a toaster - Gotta MacGyver that shit up! (Jenn's toaster : Tongs and gas stove - Yeah, baby)

A little background on the Bongguksa Temple in Sujin:

It was built in 1674, Ordered by King Hyeonjong to be built so to allow him  to pray for his two daughters who died at an early age. The inner structure of the Daegwangmyeongjeon Hall enshrines Amitabha, the Buddha of Mercy, Gwaneumbosal, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, and Jijangbosal, the Bodhisattva who is said to have saved mankind.

With Love,
The Je+N^2

Happy Turkey Day!

Measured out in coffee cups.

First cup~

11.18.11 - 7:00AM

Arrived yesterday. Early to rise today, I awoke exhausted. Everything seemed backward; sleeping, I felt awake, and awake, I felt as if sleeping. I made myself my first cup of coffee, black. Training for my new job to start at 230PM. Out the door by 8AM, the fog in my head and the sleep in my eyes vanished for a few hours. Clarity’s windshield wipers kicked in; caffeine angel.

Bakery for breakfast, then subway station, goal for leaving this early: to find a three-prong converter for my laptop computer. Took the subway to Daechidong – transferring once, which confused the hell out of my caffeinated brain cells.

Second cup~

11.18.11 - 9:00AM

Arrived at Daechidong Station. Searched for three-prong converter in vain, all electronic shops and stores aside from coffee shops, closed until 10AM. Picked up my second cup of coffee at Café Edelia in some corporate building. Ordered in Korean, it was choppy and concise but understood. Stores opened, and no converter. Hopped a bus to the COEX, Asia’s largest underground mall, in search of the three-pronged grail - no luck.

Third cup~

11.18.11 – 12 NOON

About to leave the COEX, stopped into a Starbucks. Chai tea latte with a double shot of espresso should be staple to my forehead. At this point, exhaustion has left me no shame, but to doze off slouched on comfy leather chairs in cafes. Epic power nap, hopped the subway back to Daechidong Station to head into work for the first day of training. Walked to the building, 2PM as I pulled the handle of the door open, and wouldn’t you know, three-pronged converter, my grail, last one of it’s kind, hanging in the entrance of a convenient store, three floors down from where I was to be training; irony.

Airplane Confessional

Two movies, thousands of miles up in the atmosphere, and from Seattle, all I can think about is where I‘ve been and where I am going. There is something strange. You know that feeling when you feel like “FINALLY this is it, something big is about to happen” HA, and then you realize that this is really what living is like and what you thought was living was actually wrong programming, bad advice, and fear. That is what I felt when I got up this morning, repacked my bags for a last obsessive hoorah, skipped the coffee, recorded a general goodbye video to post, went to the airport, and jumped on a plane to South Korea.

Ralph Waldo Emerson popped in my head. A quote that has been pinned to the corkboard of my life since adulthood, “The world opens its roads to those who know where they are going.” I took the quote from my corkboard this morning and shoved it in my pocket. Just a piece of yellow paper, folded into four equal quadrants, terrible handwriting, and black ink, but it means more to me than most other things. I don’t need the paper to remember the quote. To me, it’s home - a feeling of security that no place has ever significantly provided. For a long time, probably for always, home will be a feeling not a place.

My yellow paper with Emerson’s words, my leather bound journal, my shoes on my feet, my music in my ears, my ideas, and aspirations – home.

South Korea, Virginia, North Dakota, North Carolina, Florida, New York, Mexico, Hawai’i, Washington – places.

----12 hours later and 5,509 miles west of Seattle.
A girl named Jenn landed at Incheon International Airport.

Here I am.

Last hour in Seattle.

When I say "gals" in regards to Belle Pastry Folk. I mean Cameron and Will too.

...Goodbyes...

Among many of my unskilled talents, I am horrible with goodbyes. If I can avoid those welling up tears, bulging eyes, endless huggy "when will I see you again" moments - Yes, sorry guys, you have found a fault. I am a professional escapist, at your service; tip toeing out like a ninja. I received an email today from my contact in Korea and she is flying me out this coming Tuesday, November 15th. The day has finally come, and at last I can quit my obsessive compulsive packing and repacking in efforts to have some organization to duffel bag chaos. Did it really help at all? No. But that doesn't stop the obsession.

I have all sorts of thoughts right now and as jumbled as they are, if I had to peg an adjective to scoop the heart out of this entirety - epic.

Enter a nervous chuckle as I sip my scalding corn tea, the HR Director of the school I am to begin teaching, gave me instructions on where to meet her. HA! Stranger to a new country and she says: find the limousine bus, and an hour and half later - get off at Daechidong Station, then presto she will be waiting at the stop for me. Sounds simple enough. What are the odds in a huge metropolitan city that there will be only one limousine bus in the entirety of Inchun Airport? Yes, I laughed too. Email - already sent.

Goodbye Seattle.

...awkward firsts...

To get a handle on things and getting the first post awkwardness out of the way, here goes. I just received my E2 work visa from the Korean Consulate in Seattle. Have I left yet? No. BUT...now that the visa mess is out of the way, smooth sailing from here to Korea. They should have little ol' me on the next flight out here soon. The job they are holding for me, starts mid-November and they have already arranged my living situation. Exciting! I have condensed and condensed, items upon items and I have gotten down to three bags. I know, I KNOW! I said I was going to make two bags the absolute max, but before you scowl me for being a girl about material items and such. PLEASE hear my side! Ok? Are you sitting? Good. I have only one big duffel bag that I am checking and then two carry on; one backpack and a laptop bag. Ha HA HA!! I bet you were thinking colossal mounds of matter needing to be vacuum sealed to even fathom fitting into any piece of luggage! Or maybe you weren't, either way, I'm proud. Material is no match for my effortless detachment and impeccable paper toss aim to the waste basket. Yay me. A true testament to this coming up year. Huh, this first post wasn't so bad. I better quit while I'm ahead. In a few days, I will be writing from the future, well, to you here in the United States. To be continued...