Back in Brussels

What can I say?
I was here in Brussels a little less than 7 years ago and it was the spark that changed the direction my life was heading in more ways than I can ever imagine.
Yoonah and I had flown into Frankfurt, Germany a few days ago because that was the cheapest ticket to Europe and because, well... why not? I had not been to Germany before. Our whole plan on this trip was to explore places and have fun. Frankfurt didn't actually impress me all that much. The food was good and the German guys working at the restaurants and shops were very funny and cheerful. But something about the city just didn't seem to be all that impressive to either of us, so we decided to take a 6 hour bus ride to visit Virginia in Brussels since she said she is only working part time now.

After a long day of waiting for the bus then what ended up being 8 hours in transit we arrived to Avenue du Roi in Brussels where I had to wait a whole 2 minutes before Virginia and Alexis were waiting coming up to us from the tram station. It was amazing how quickly I was transported back to the amazing warm feelings from 7 years ago. We sat and talked in her living room eating fine cheese and sausage from the south of France and drinking Jupiler beer. We reminisced and talked about how long ago that was but it really doesn't seem like any time has passed at all.

I told Virginia about how she sparked a butterfly effect with me, a story which I also told my 5th grade debate boys during my last week at Poly School in Anyang. The whole reason for me going to Europe was a series of minor events and a couple short emails without much planning at all. Without those emails I would not have learned the things that I know now about the world and myself. It would have not lead me to the wonderful friends I have met all over the world and taught my the patience and love that can only be acquired from being around kids. My life was already set on a great path since I was born and I am very grateful to have had all the wonderful opportunities that I have had this far. I am also very happy to have taken these roads that I have because it has been a truly incredible journey.

Today's agenda: maybe going to the market.... seeing Virginia's sister Florence..... maybe watching Alexis play some game with some steel balls?

A New Hope

Ok, my friends - I have updates since I haven't really posted a lot and a lot has been happening.

Back in Korea, a different city this time called Bucheon which is a close suburb of Seoul. I work at a private Kindergarten and afterschool for grades 1, 2 and 3 in the afternoons. The new job has been extremely challenging for me since I am not used to teaching kindergarten kids... like at all. And I have always had the most respect for the people that teach the youngest grades since those involve the most attention AT ALL TIMES. You cannot just tell the kids to write an essay and sit at your desk or put on a movie and expect them to just sit and watch it. You have to be at full alert all the time. This is course is a big change from my last school. At times I do miss the ease of my old school and the fact the kids had more life experience and aptitude to be left on their own for more than two minutes.. And also, I have to help my kids zip up their jackets and put on their shoes.... This is new to me. But my new school has some MAJOR differences in the other way and that is the Korean staff that works there. Let me go back a week to St Paddy's day.

I got in touch with my friends from my old city so meet in Seoul for a St Paddy's festival and shenanigans to follow. I meet my Irish friends Grainne, Finbar, and Patrice and it was so good talking about the good old days in Ansan and all the great people that have come to teach and have since left, and met a bunch more. Then we headed to my friend Miranda's apartment and had several more hours of fun and meeting new people and playing guitar and other games. It is truly amazing to know so many wonderful people. The next day I wasn't feeling so well so I just took it easy and rested in my apartment and tried preppy for my classes. Then my birthday came and I was absolutely ill. Just the normal cold/flu crap most everyone gets when they travel and/or work with small children. But it was even worse since it was only my third week in and I felt like I was just overloaded with work I didn't understand what the staff wanted from me and I kept getting conflicting answers to prefer methods on doing something. I also could tell in my first couple weeks working here that I was getting short tempered a lot here because I felt like the staff and fellow teachers were talking down to me and saying things like "I told you that on your first day, don't you remember?" and I wanted to scream "You told me a hundred things my first day!! Give me a break!?!" But I recently realized the hazard of teaching small children, especially when you work with a large staff that doesn't speak English that well in a lot of cases; you speak to EVERYONE like they are children. 

I digress. This last birthday pretty much took the cake for worst birthday I have ever had, after 11 hours at the school I trudged the 15 minute walk to my apartment but first got some udong soup to go from the local shop across from my building and ate it while feeling so exhausted it hurt and watched The Office on my laptop. Bummer right? And Tuesday started out the same way. But then one of the Korean staff saw I was sick and took me to the hospital (which is really just the doctor, no one freak out.... *mom*) and not only were we in and out and back in school within 25 minutes the whole thing only cost $7 and that is after the prescription meds. I went home not feeling like the pills had worked their voodoo yet, but I got on facebook and saw all the birthday comments and messages from all my friends and it really did make me feel a lot better. It was in a really strange way that is hard to describe, because every time someone wished me happy bday, all of the good memories with that person rushed back to me and made me feel so lucky to have done what I have done, gone to the places I have, and to have met all those wonderful people. 

The next day (yesterday) I was feeling a thousand times better. I really should have just called in sick but felt like that would appear bad being so new and all. So mad props to my Korean staffer who took me to the hospital (though the doctor spoke perfect English and no translating was needed, he still knew where to take me).  But wait, the goodness doesn't end there. We had planned for the March birthdays party (another new teacher's bday was the 12th) to be celebrated today. I didn't expect much but when they called us into the cafeteria there was an awesome spread of pizza, chicken wings, and fresh fried potato chips sitting on the tables. There were about 12-15 staff members there including the directors and the school and we all had a great time just talking about our kids and telling funny stories. It was so nice to be able to communicate with all of them and not having the typical odd "all white people sit over here and speak English and all Koreans over on this side" segregation.  

In sum, this new job is going to be a challenge for me, but you all know that I can use a challenge like this to keep me from being so lazy. Nine months of bouncing around Washington, Oregon, Canada, Alaska, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, and Hawaii, have made me ready to put some real effort into something. Thank you friends and family for being there to support me, no matter how many thousands of miles away you may be. 

robbed...

So I have been staying on a small island (Bastimento) in Bocas del Toro, Panama and meeting some super awesome people and having a great time going to the beaches and swimming in the Caribbean. I have done an awesome cave expedition, snorkeled (a bit), and have been going to wonderful beaches with wild coconuts that was just crack open and eat.

I got here from Boquete, Panama with a great american couple Jason and Ann who had rented a car and Matthias, the best Belgian I have ever met (since Virginia Petranto of course) who had stayed here just a couple weeks prior.

Last night Jason and Ann had to move hostels closer to the mainland so they can drive to Panama city, and Matthias and I were out of cash so we needed to hit the mainland up for the ATM's. So off we went with two other Peace Corps volunteers to have some good food and then go to Jason and Ann's hostel for some swimming and drinks at the bar area. I had my wallet plus $500 i just withdrew (this is the most i have ever taken out but I planned on just staying here for another week on the small island with Mathias so i was wanted to make sure I had enough for chilling and maybe getting some food to cook an American Thanksgiving.

By the time with got to their hostel it was much more of a club than a bar, and for those of you who don't know me, I am not a club kind of guy. I am a "enjoy beers at the local dive bar or anywhere where they have a pool table, or better yet, let's just have some beer on someone's couch while playing Rock Band/Halo/Borderlands etc." But we are here and there is some cool swimming around there - I started hunting sea urchins for Thanksgiving feast and leaving them in our water taxi. But before I went swimming what was I to do with my camera and wallet, especially with all this cash? Never fear, you can pay $1 for the man to "lock it up" for the night.... well it was just a cupboard but he said he would sit there all night and only I could retrieve it. Good plan. So 2 Germans that we had meet in Boquete were also there, plus Jason and Ann, plus the American Peace Corps girls. We threw all of our stuff (just wallets and cameras) into one bag and checked it in. about 2-3 hours later after we were all ready to go and the bar area was closing we got the bag. We were all saying our goodbyes and thought 'Let's get one last picture' so Jason got his camera out but his memory card was full so I fished mine out and we started posing for a few shots, then some guy jumped in and started photo-bombing us and then the flash wasnt set so about 45 seconds later we were good to go. I asked the German girl for the bag but my wallet wasn't there..... Panic time. How did this happen? The bag was never unattended? and also Jason's camera was stolen! I think he had set his on the counter for the brief 45 seconds, but I hadn't seen my wallet since check in. In an instant both things missing.

I came back to the hostel and Matthias paid for my share of the water taxi (he had also owed me some because I paid for our deepboarding earlier in the day, and the deepboarding story is a whole other adventure, but let's stay focused), I came back to the hostel and tried looking up Bank of America's numbers to cancel my cards, but the internet is so slow here and cuts our every five minutes that I didnt think it would work.  The hostel owner heard me thanking the American girls for all their help in searching for the thief and leaving a description of the photobomber because we think he was the one and just generally being so kind in my weak moment. Anyway, Enrigues (the hostel owner, said I could use his phone no problem and when i was finished just put it in the kitchen area of the hostel inside the dart board dart box. I called BoA and cancelled one card (but then got disconnected so I had to call back and verify) then she transferred me to the credit card side which is a completely different entity altogether and they have NO communication between the two of them, and yes got disconnected again but cancelled both of my cards.

So now I lay in my bunk, a little sad but glad I have Matthias here to cheer me up and I still want to show him a good American style Thanksgiving today although he will have to pay for the both of us :-(    We were supposed to go spearfishing today but I knew from last night I would be feeling this way and not up for an adventure just yet.

Then I wake up and talked to Enrigues and he asked me if I have the phone, I told him I put it in the bin and he said it wasn't there.... Great now I lost a super nice guys phone, and I don't have the money to pay him for the weeks stay I have already been here (Lucky it is just $6 a night). I hope we find it soon somewhere. I said goodbye to the American girls, then goodbye to an awesome Austrian couple that have been staying here, but then the Austrians come back 2 minutes later and gave me a $20 bill- Which honestly if you can't tell by this post already- There are still many many MANY more good people in this world than the bad ones. It hasn't put me off to traveling the world and I believe that meeting all these wonderful people that I have met is world having a bad day like today.... and maybe tomorrow. I learned my lesson about not keeping your eye on your things (4 years ago in Barcelona when my attention was lost in Las Ramblas and I lost the DSLR, iPod, glasses, and the list goes on) and I swore I wouldn't be that careless again. And I don't believe I was careless. I didn't drink too much, and my stuff was in the 'locker' The German girl didn't set the bag down for even a minute I don't think. C'est la vie.

So now my task is to try to find a way to get money from my accounts without having the cards so I can get to San Jose by Dec 3rd to get to Mexico City for a week, then home for a few days then Hawaii.... Although now I may have to change these plans and just head home shortly, and maybe from Panama..... I will see how I feel in a day or two.

Today being Thanksgiving, I will say I am very thankful for all the wonderful people I have met in my life, the kindness of strangers, my wonderful family who has always made me feel like I have a home to come back to and always supported me in my travels.... even when I scare them by being so far from home... and English speaking doctors. I am thankful for my health as I know it could always be much much worse (and again mom, I am still healthy). And I am thankful for all of you that read this INCREDIBLY long post, my blog site was not allowing me to publish it today. So it goes, stayed tuned for more updates.


Update: Feeling a lot better today. Yesterday was just a day being up and down and laying in bed watching movies on my laptop. Today,Matthias and I went into the main island to file a police report, talked with the owner of the lounge where the money was stolen SUPER nice lady who felt really bad and helped me get arrangements to go with them tomorrow morning to Western Union to get money sent by my pare

nts. She also offered me some free breakfast and free drinks and free use of their safe for some of the days i will remain here. Talked with my insurance company and bank again today and there is no chance of getting any of the money returned or anything, but again - this is life. Bad things happened but my faith in humanity is unshaken. Still sad about losing $500 and all of my cards but I do have sometimes where I can look back and laugh at it.

 — at Isla Colón, Bocas Del Toro.