P. Ben May – Words of…Something

Some of you know that I started a new job last month. It’s been a really good experience for me. I am managing and building online content, designing and implementing social media programs, writing articles, and hiding from bigwigs. On top of all that I am illustrating a children’s series on the side.
That’s why I pose the question, how do you find the time. With just work I am gone for 12+ hours a day. Then there is dinner,  and sleep. If I am lucky can get in an hour, maybe two, of drawing a day. Any thought of a social life is pretty much gone.
If only I didn’t have to sleep I could get so much more done.
That is my rant of having so little time. Thanks for reading.

This weekend I had my brother Seth and his family come up to visit. He was up to visit the parents and to race in a cyclocross event up in Vancouver.

Now, I don’t know if you have ever hear of cyclocross before, but here is  a basic description. Think of Mountain biking, but with a road bike. You’re thinking, sure sure, not to bad. Well then add in steep inclines, steeper declines and large obstacles right in your path. Oh, and for good measure they through in some road in there too. Then they take a plot of land that is too small and they make a mile – two mile course to run the whole thing through. Then you add in the potential to crash and blood and guts, then you have cyclocross.

At any rate, Seth raced in the David Douglas CX event in Vancouver as a Clydesdale (The category for the… umm… larger men.) As they all prepared at the start line they had to wait for the Men’s C group to go. Once they were gone, all the Clydesdale’s started “mooing” as they moved up to the start line. Goes to show they have a sense of humor about themselves.

I spent the rest of the time there wandering around the park taking pictures of the racers and enjoying watching them struggle up the run ups and wipe out on the sharp corners. It’s pretty rare to come out of a race uninjured.

The following day Seth and I went up the the Alpenrose Dairy to watch the first race in the Cross Crusade series. It was a huge event with more than 1400 racers (a world record for a cyclocross event.) They had a large variety obstacles and terrain to race over including stairs, grass, gravel, dirt, and a velodrome.

It’s a whole different type of racing, and one that I’m getting more and more interested in doing as time goes on and I see more and more races.

I have been cycling almost every day since I have been home. I have tracked out a few routs around the Portland area that I have found to be enjoyable rides. Some of them are shorter than the others, but fun none the least.

Last week I decided to take a longer ride. I started out at the Clackamas Center Mall and went up the 205 bike paths, around the PDX Airport, down to the Portland Water front, and back on the Springwater Corridor. It’s about a 40 mile ride. It’s a fairly flat ride, but enjoyable.

I decided to take a rest day and then the next day I wanted to ride it again. That morning I had a disappointing interview, not a great start to the day, though I did get to eat at Cafe Yumm (Great food, eat there if you get a chance.)

That afternoon I started out on my ride. I parked at the Clackamas Center Mall, and started riding north on the 205 path toward the airport. I was riding quickly and feeling great when I came upon the Sandy Blvd intersection. Little did I know that that intersection was going to make the day a little different.

The Sandy Blvd intersection is a very busy one, which makes it one that I try to be cautious around. The path starts at one corner and bikes must cross over two cross walks to get to the opposite corner. I got to the first corner and hit the cross signal and waited for the light to turn giving me my turn to go. When the light changed I started into the intersection…

The next few details are fuzzy, but this is what I remember. I saw the color red and I heard the sound of metal bending in. Then next thing I remember is laying on the road, a red bumper right in front of me, and my bike no longer underneath me. I did a quick limb and digit check and started looking around.

The first person to come to my aid was a beggar who was holding a sign on the corner, then a girl from the car came and started to talk to me. I suggested we talk on the side of the road and slowly got up and walked to the side while others moved my bike.

The next few minutes everything seem rushed and it took me a little while to clear my head enough to grasp what had happened. Several people came up and told me they saw what happened and many asked if I needed an ambulance since they were on the phone with 911. I told people no and just tried to focus and get all the important stuff done (insurance info and calling someone to pick me up.)

Soon a firetruck showed up and they hopped out and started looking me over and hooked me up to a machine, then an ambulance showed up and they hooked me up to another machine, then the police showed up. They didn’t have a machine to hook me up to, but if they did, they would have.

After they were convinced I was alright they left and I waited for Ken and Dorothy (my uncle and aunt) to come pick me up. Thanks again to them for doing that. The guy who hit me waited with me to make sure I had a way home.

All in all I was very lucky. Yes I was hit by a car, but it could have been a lot worse. I ended up with a scrape on my elbow, a giant bruise on my butt, and small bruises on the inside of my knees. My head was undamaged, except for the few seconds that I don’t remember.

There you have it. Getting hit by a car sucks and it hurts, but it gave me another good story to share with you all.

I have been back from Korea for a while now and it’s been an interesting experience adjusting back into American life. First off, there are a lot of white people here. It’s kinda tripping me out a little bit. I had just gotten used to the fact that I was always surrounded by Koreans and I would space out most of the conversations around me since I couldn’t understand them at all. But now I can understand everything and it makes everything much louder.

Then there is the food. I spent a better part of the last year missing a lot of the foods I left and I thought I would dive right back into them. Little did I know that one of the first things I would do is go out and find a Korean grocery store where I could buy all the Korean food that I missed even more.

Now that I’m back it’s time to get back into job hunt mode. From what I have seen so far things have improved from last year when I left for Korea, but it’s still not great. I have been looking in several difference places. I’ve also had a few interviews, but so far nothing has worked out.

So in the mean time I have been filling my time with cycling and working on some freelance projects. I’ve mentioned a few of them in my latest projects page.

I am currently coming up on a year in Korea and it has been a very good experience. I will be headed back to the United States very shortly and have been making the most of being here. I have seen several sights that I have been longing to see since before I got here.

I have also started to focus on several projects. You can see a list of them the Latest Projects page. There I will post links as I complete different steps of the projects.

These projects include everything from websites, comics, books, and several other things.

Well I’ve been in Korea for 6 months now. It’s still surreal to me that I’ve been outside of North America for so long. It’ll be really interesting when I head home. I have gotten used to the fact that I can’t understand anyone around me (whether they are trying to speak english or not.) When I’m out exploring it’s like I’m in my own little bubble, my brain filters out most of the chatter around me. But don’t worry I have been able to learn some of the language. I can read most things in Korea (I don’t know what they mean, but I can sound them out.) It really helps when I’m wandering around on the subway and on the bus system. I can at least know what stops I’m passing by.

I also have a lot of the food names memorized, or at least the ones that I like. I also have come to crave kimchi. I know it’s weird but what can you do. I’ll have to learn to make it just to keep it in check.

On top of me being here for 6 months I have also started a new school year which has completely changed the atmosphere at school. Instead of teaching the most advanced kindergarten class I now teach a beginner class. It’s still fun though, but it does create new challenges. I could say the same thing 10 times and all the kids understand me but one. And he just gives me the blankest of looks.

The 6th was my birthday and two of my friends also have birthdays this month. We decided to spend it in style at a theme park called Lotte World. It’s a park in Seoul that has two parts, indoor and outdoor. Indoor is pretty much all the kiddy rides with some more exciting ones. Outside has the main attractions. You know all the big rides. It was good.

To top off everything I have been very busy with a variety of different projects. But I’ll talk about those more later.

Hey, I’m still alive here in Korea. Things have been pretty steady for me here and I just haven’t gotten around to writing a new post.

There are many things that I have done however. I climbed to the top of a mountain and prayed at a Budist temple. That was pretty awesome. I also went to a Korean Theme park called Everland. It was my first theme park ever. It was quite the experience. They have a pretty awesome wood roller coaster there. I also got to see a huge gallery filled with Andy Warhols paintings and works of art.

Lets just say it’s nice to have a job that allows me to explore. There are many markets around Seoul that give an interesting perspective on things. Many of the venders are just trying to get by while others try to get every cent out of you (or sorry every won.)

On another note, I have been able to get some more stuff posted for Leet Brothers. Though I haven’t had as much time as of late to do so. I am also working on a coloring book with a short story. I’m excited about it, I just don’t know how I will get it printed yet.

This is just a quick post for you guys. I’ll post again when I’m not supposed to be watching a class full of 6 year olds. (hehe)

After flying back to Korea I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had met another teacher on the plane and was pretty confident in my ability to make it back to my apartment. (Note: My boss wanted me to call when I landed so that she could give me instructions on how to get back.) I walked by a whole line of buses until I found one that said Dongtan. I was feeling pretty good about that. I hopped on and off we went. After an hour or so the driver told me to get off. I did so and I looked around and thought to myself, “Crap, I have no idea where I am.”

I had the address for my school so I figured if I go there I could make it back to my place. I hopped in a cab and handed him the business card with the address. After about 5 min of him talking to me and me shrugging my shoulders and saying thank you, we where off. I figured we were pretty close to where I lived. But as time went on and the meter kept ticking, I realised I was way far away. Finally we got to where the GPS said my desitmation was and I paid the driver and hopped out. I didn’t reconize anything.

I decided to walk over to a gas station and call my boss. I got on the phone with her and after handing the phone back and forth to the gas attendant a couple times she was on her way to pick me up. And then I waited. I there for close to an hour and I figured I was still way off.

Finally my boss pulls up and I hop in the car. She explains to me how worried she was that I didn’t call and I explained that I thought I could make it without bothering her. Then I asked how far my apartment was from there. She points to a building two blocks away and says “There is your apartement.”

I stared at her blankly for a couple minutes and then started smacking my head. I was so close. I just didn’t know it because when you are new here everything looks the same.

So she dropped me off at my apartment and I got settled in. I even did some exploring after that, but I made sure to memorize the land marks before doing so.  It was quite the adventure.

I have been in Korea for a month now and have yet to write anything about my stay here so far. So I’ll start from the beginning to fill you guys in.

I flew out of Portland on Aug 24th to come to Korea. I left early in the morning and hopped onto a small plane to Los Angles. That flight wasn’t too bad, there just wasn’t a whole lot to do for the two hours. after arriving in LA there was a long walk to the international terminal. Not too much to complain about there except for the five hour layover. I met a lot of other teachers before taking off and learned that there was a huge JW conference occurring in Seoul so the flight was full of them. Then there was the twelve hour flight to Korea. If it weren’t for the personal entrainment center, I would not have survived. I was able to watch a few Korean movies, Castaway on the Moon, very funny and My Girlfriend is an Agent, I met one of the main people in that movie.

When I finally arrived in Seoul, and went through 10 forms of screening, I was met by my recruiter who drove me to my apartment. It was reassuring to meet the person I’d been working with for the last month or so. We drove for a little over an hour before getting to my place and there I met my boss and got moved into my apartment. It’s pretty small but livable for the next year.

I’m living in a place called Dongtan. it’s about an hour south of Seoul near a city called Suwon, if you want to check it out on a map. It’s a really new area and isn’t very populated… yet. There are new businesses opening up everyday. My place is about a 40 minute walk away from my school where I teach. A little far, but it allows me to get some exercise in twice a day.

After two days of arriving here I was off to Guam. My boss dropped me off at a bus stop where I caught a bus to the airport. Buses are great, but are a little slow. I was able to get to the airport with 20 min to spare. Then I hopped on the plane for another 5 hour flight. I slept most of the way, they only had one movie and it was not worth watching. I also had the row to myself so that was another bonus. I arrived in Guam at 3am and got to my hotel. When I woke up I was able to get the things done I needed. I went to the Korean Embassy and started the process of obtaining my Visa. I had to fight for it though, they were a man short and wanted the whole weekend to process it. I told them my situation and then had my recruiter call them. He was able to resolve the situation.

I spent the rest of the day exploring the little city I was in. It was a huge tourist area so there were lots of outlet malls and shop mingled among lots of over priced restaraunts. But of course I had to eat at one of them. So I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. It wasn’t bad, but I’ve had better. I was going to buy a shirt, but not for $40. I went to bed early that night and was woke up by the front desk at 12:30 am to catch my flight back to Korea. 

Since it has been so long since I have written I’m going to break it up into small chunks. It will be easier to read that way.

Another project is completed for my design class. I procrastinated this one way too long. It all worked out though, here is the finished product.

Click Here to view.