Doombus Omnibus

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Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:37:00 -0400

remnants of childhood
in crumbling brick, guilded dome
cozy windy chill

By the numbers

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:52:00 -0400

The folly of planning
Days spent preparing for life in Japan: 134
Days lived in Japan: 20
Of those, days spent in transit, jetlag recovery and on-the-job training: 8
Days of regular employment at Nova before resigning: 3
Days spent preparing for life in Korea: 0
Days lived in Korea by the time of departure: 303
Plans for post-Korea made and broken: 7

Working at LCI
Teaching days in 10 months at LCI: 203
Average yearly classroom days for North American teachers: 182
Average daily classes at LCI: 6.5
Average number of students per class: 7
Number of Korean teachers employed by LCI at one time: 10
Total number of Korean teachers who quit during our tenure at LCI: 14
Number of pay-cycles during our employment: 12
Of these, number of incomplete or late payments: 5

Leisure Time in Asia
Number of trips to Japan: 3
Number of trips around Korea: 5
Flights taken since arriving in Korea: 0
Maximum number of modes of transportation taken in a single weekend: 6
Highest elevation: Gwangjan-san, ~900m
Lowest descent: Tunnel of Agression #3, DMZ, -72m
Longest transfer-less journey: Busan-Osaka ferry, 18 hours
Most consecutive nights spent at home: 98
Most consecutive nights spent in a jimjjilbang: 2
Buddhist/Shinto/Shamanist temples visited: 14
Subway systems ridden: 5
Number of walks on the Philosopher's Path: 2
Total words written in novels-in-progress:115,653
Sudoku books nearly solved: 2

Life-changers
Children conceived: 1

Great Expectations (a time for announcements)

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:28:00 -0400

Planning is fun, but chance alone is possessed of magic.

What maelstrom is formed when all carefully structured notions of next steps are instantaneously irrevocably shed, when a not-yet-planned but well-known potentiality takes matters into its own hands and actualizes? What, when a inkling of instinctual suspicion is confirmed, then twice confirmed? What, when discovery makes two people dance their jitters in Gimhae's littered dusk; what, when they search out again the mysteries of each other's palpably known eyes; what, when perspectives implode and reform but daily routines must yet remain? What then forms that contains the joy and the irony the challenge the suspense the relief the improbable necessity?

Whatever thus forms in the heart, it better be ready to adapt to that which has formed, is forming, in the body.

We are 8 weeks in!

I don't want to be Jumper

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:00 -0400

The project of planning a month of independent travel in China has been on our collective mind since at least January. Because China is China (because of where it lies geographically, and because of the place it occupies in our imaginations), it has been one of the focal points of our Asia-overland journey. But every time we have come close to having a concrete plan, events in China have turned tragic. (Really, tragic.)

Before we knew much else, we knew we wanted to visit Tibet. We planned a Far East / India / Central Asia / Russian Europe trip around the idea that we would go to Lhasa, would bus it to Kathmandu in Nepal from there, would cross the Himalayas on land. Just as this plan solidified in our heads, Tibet exploded in nearly a month of violence, and tensions remain unresolved. It's hard to know for certain what's happening, because foreign access to TAR has been closed off.

China without Tibet seemed incomplete at best, and closed the overland route to India. After a month of staring at maps, we came up with a new plan for China -- and a new all-around route, too (see earlier post). A chunk of the trip was to be spent in Sichuan province, in the Bamboo Sea and in Chongqing and Chengdu -- the closest you can get to TAR now. Yesterday, Sichuan exploded in an earthquake the ramifications of which won't be known for days, at least -- but already thousands are reported to have died, villages levelled.

It's hard to think about tourism in the face of such immense suffering. On the one hand, it's clearly wrong to go to a disaster-stricken place unless your presence there is both safe and helpful in some concrete way. On the other hand, simply rearranging our itinerary to avoid the messy parts feels like an act of trivialization; it feels cynical in the worst way.

There was a terrible movie Dina and I saw, called "Jumper" -- the protagonist had the superpower of teleportation. Early on, he is watching television and sees, live, flooded New Orleans. People are on rooftops, awaiting help. He resolutely turns off the TV (he's going to help them, I'm thinking, hoping) and teleports to a bar in London where he picks up a woman for a one-night stand. New Orleans and Katrina are never mentioned again. No question is ever raised about what responsibility is entailed by the privilege of his power.

Where is this line between service and hedonism? I don't know, and I don't know and I don't know -- but I must go to work in less than 8 hours.

Plans

Fri, 02 May 2008 07:55:00 -0400

Ever since we set foot on Korean soil, we've been planning the next step. In the nearly seven months that have passed, many ideas have been born, researched, turned into plans and then scrapped. The volunteer gig at a Malaysian orangutan-rehab center turned out to be too expensive. The four-month teaching job in Japan was run by rules-crazy corpodroids. A change in Korean employment was not justifiable vis-a-vis new and ridiculous visa requirements. The ethical question of whether to travel through Tibet became moot in the middle of March. Long-considered ideas for Chinese travels have had to be bumped because of new and ridiculous visa requirements. The 3-day music festival outside of Tokyo featuring Gogol Bordello is forbiddingly expensive in every way.

Some of you have hurtled accusations of elusiveness at the windows of the Doombus as if they were eggs and the bus were an evil president-elect's inauguration limousine. Nay! Not elusive, merely uncertain. To prove as much, and also because Dina and I both want to be joined on our upcoming travels by fellow world-participants, here is the tentative bus route:

July: finish work on the 25th, fly to Thailand.
August: Thailand with occasional Malaysia/Singapore, then trains through Cambodia to Vietnam.
September: Train, bus, river-ferry travel through China. Roughly, begin at Nanning (Vietnamese border), train to Shanghai then Wuhan, Yangtze ferry to Chongqing, short trek in the Bamboo Sea, train to Xi'an; then make our way West to Muslim China, the Gobi, and Kashgar.
October: India by train via Pakistan. Spend October travelling and volunteering in India; fly to Nepal.
November: 7 - 10 days in Nepal, Kathmandu valley chilling. Return by air to North America: NY, Calgary, and ultimately Vancouver.

These are, of course, only rough outlines of the post-Korea plans. But they are solid enough that we want them available, in the hopes that you and yours will join us for any or all of it. Get in touch if you've got the time, the opportunity and the desire!

Doombus Omnibus

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By the numbers

Great Expectations (a time for announcements)

I don't want to be Jumper

Plans

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