As mentioned briefly in the last post, I no longer have a job. This means that once again, it's decision making time. I am electing to go home to the United States to bet on a job there... But not before taking advantage of being on this side of the globe to plan a trip and check some other to-do's off the bucket list. Not that I actually have a bucket list.
How did I lose my job? Nothing extraordinary. A couple of kids quit the academy - kids quit all the time - so that's what the vice owner and owner told the head teacher, to save face. What is actually happening is that the academy is rapidly losing money, because the youngest kids' school days got extended to make up for the new lack of school on Saturdays. Many of these academies are not managed all that well, so when it's time to cut corners, the foreigners come first, and I hit the jackpot. The only other foreigner at that academy is a Canadian man married to a Korean woman, so he is bound to be staying for a long time.
So what are the first things that I did after getting laid off? I modeled for a photoshoot (this isn't new, I've been modeling for about several months now) and ran a 10k. It was a swimsuit shoot near Osan, my first swimsuit shoot. Then I would have a Chinese cheongsam shoot at Seoul Grand Park, and a spontaneous shoot at Woo Am.
Modeling is something I picked up in Korea, though I had thought about it before coming here. I wasn't interested in it before, but the emphasis on fashion is real and everywhere here, so I eventually decided to learn. It involves listening to the photographer's ideas about what he wants to shoot, then picking my outfits and makeup carefully. If I don't have some items, it's time to go shopping, but I tried to buy versatile products so I wouldn't have to spend so much money. Even though all photographers are different, all logistics are agreed upon before a shoot: paid or unpaid, date and time, and location.
From this, I learned to put together different types of outfits and how to better apply makeup. However, on a daily basis, I still prefer to be bare faced with tshirt and jeans or shorts.
The next day, my friends and I ran a 10k. One woman ran a 21k. Some others went for the 5k. In high school, I had run cross country for a short period of time. I was no good at it. Even so, I still got hooked onto the idea of making my body stronger and the feeling of adrenaline.
Because of these same urges, yesterday two friends and I went paragliding. This means going to a place where there are mountains, wearing air suits over our own clothes, becoming attached to a parachute (and my paid guide) to run off the mountain and be carried around in the air for about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Aside from the Cheongju trip, I had never really planned anything before, so the build up to the actual paragliding itself was a lot of getting organized. My friends asked just the right questions for me to go do my research. I stayed at my friend's house the night before, and we woke up at 5:15 to catch the 6:43 KTX to Seoul Station, taking the Metro from there to Hoegi and transferring to the Junggang line, and then getting off at Asin Station. There, I called my contact JJ and he assigned someone to pick us up.
The man arrived in a black Mustang convertible, which played Lady Gaga as we drove past their offices and then to the landing site. There, we paid the organization's leader 100,000won each since I deposited 60k for myself and one friend while the other deposited the money herself. Then we went to their offices for a short rest while they took pictures of a man who had finished the whole paragliding training course and gave him a certificate. Then we all piled onto a pickup truck and rode to the top of the mountain, where the takeoff pads are.
Our ears were popping on the way. We made conversation, and the ride itself took about maybe half an hour. When we got to the top, they took out all the gear, and strapped us into the suits, the padding behind, the plastic knee and shin pads, the helmet and the gloves. We each got paired off with a guide, and then waited. They decided to move to a different mountain top, because the wind wasn't picking up where we were. So we did that, then my guide, Mr. Yeong, strapped himself to the parachute, then himself to me, and told me to run. I felt like a harness dog from Call of the Wild for a few minutes.
Then we lifted off! It was amazing. I know pollution is pretty bad worldwide, but you wouldn't know it from looking at all the trees over there 700m below, and feel how much oxygen there is while floating in the sky. My guide took photos and a video, which I will send to my friends when I get them through email. Then he pointed out landmarks in his accented English, and sent us spinning like it's a roller coaster ride. I got a tiny bit nauseous, but was okay for the most part. The view was still beautiful, and in a few minutes, we landed.
The ride back was mostly sleeping. When I got home, I planned some more, and then fell asleep. Right now I'm in Incheon, ready for lunch, and tomorrow will get on a flight to Tokyo, Japan.
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