Monday, September 17, 2007

sorry been on the road

So now its down to about a week. I still don’t know when exactly, but its sometime within the next 10 days. A couple of things have happened since my last entry.

Minor thing. I even toped the 133 kmh and threw 135…84 mph. something has to be wrong with that thing.

Other things… Amy was here for a visit. It was good to see someone from outside again after such a long time. Well my family doesn’t really count.
It was good and I hope Amy also had fun. We toured all of Seoul within a weekend, so that was cool, I finally also got to catch up with all the traditional things of korea, which I had seen before, but it had been 5 years and I didn’t go this time before last weekend. Then during the week I went on a road trip with my sis and my mom, which was fun, cause we pretty much went around korea in 3 days. From Seoul to the most northern part of south korea at the North Korean border. Then down the east coast to Daegu and further to Busan. Busan seems like it’s a cool area for partying and it had a very nice beach promenade. On the way we saw some palaces and caves. So it was really good to finally see more of korea then just Seoul. I might have been to those places before but none that I can remember. So I finally got something to remember.

And then most important of all. It was a farewell this Saturday. One of the guys I hung out the most here in Seoul went back to Germany, but it was not just saying goodbye, because actually I ll probably see him again soon in Germany. It was also saying goodbye to a lot of other people as I don’t think I ll really do a farewell anymore.

So its finally going back home. Wow this past year went by so fast, yet it seems like a lifetime that I was in Germany for real, I mean without those short stopovers. It will be back to that before long, finally back to university and writing those thesis. Back to work, to less sleeping. Back to working out and playing baseball, pushing my body to the limits. Riding the highway like it was nothing.
Anyways, not there yet…its still time to say goodbye. Goodbye for the 4th time. Goodbye to everyone. I don’t know if you have experienced it before. I m sure some of you have, but it seems so cruel. Just when you start growing close to people they are ripped out of your life again. People that you care about you might never see again in your whole life. You wonder how they are, or what they do, but they seem so far away and all those times you just hit the road again and never look back. Well you do, but you cant really.
I will miss Korea, like I miss Indonesia, Germany and of course Canada. At least in a certain way. Like I ve explained, probably I couldn’t live in Indonesia, Korea and Germany for a long time, maybe not even in Canada, but it was still good and every country has its pros and cons.
I wanna go back to the farewell party though. I saw his face when he sang that last song at karaoke, how he doesn’t want to leave, how it seems like his heart is being torn apart. I ve been there before. I think people cant really understand until they actually are in that situation. How hard it is to let go. Let go of things that you cherish so much, that mean so much, but there is nothing you can do.

Anyways, lately I haven’t really been able to express my feelings properly in my blog. I don’t know why. Maybe its just too much coming up in my head. Too many thoughts in too short a time. Too many memories that jump up.
Sometimes I really get confused where I am right now and who is there and what am I doing, its just all been so fast and I haven’t really been able to take it all in. I think in a month or two I will know and maybe I will understand and then I will let you know.

For now I will say goodbye to Korea, goodbye to you my friends…Farewell to a world that I got to know……

Btw… I ll upload a vid about my time in korea on youtube soon, so I ll let you know about the link here, once its done.

For those that already want to see some of my vids from past experiences check “wingert8” its actually my friends user account, but he lets me upload my vids…hihi

Monday, September 03, 2007

82 mph

For the guys from my baseball team that are reading. On Saturday I went to a Pitching thingy with radar gun. It was actually 1am and I was kind of wasted. Anyways, I really wanted to do that. So I pitched 10 balls, 9 of them for strikes and guess what my speed maxed out at. 133kmh, which generates to 82mph. haha. How is that even possible? haha, i ll take it.

then sunday i went to a batting cage and hit some balls of a 110 kmh pitching machine. haha...

then i found out the youth and the kids team both won their playoff games...


what a baseball weekend... amazing =)

62 "rich" days

62 days in the life of Rich, Pich, Thai, Junior, Charlie, Kim, Pichy, Richard, Richy or what ever you may call me.

Today another chapter in my life ends. One that has taken me to my roots, to my heritage, where still I probably feel more foreigner than in any other country in the world. Being half blood and not being able to speak the language fluently makes you a not just a foreigner, it makes you a person that has lost its heritage in a sense. Yes I still have lots of the gestures and attitudes in my blood and I follow them. Some people say I even have them in an exaggerated sense as when you see those gestures after such a long time you pick them up more than you might have to. Coming back to the point though. I was really hoping to feel better bout korea this time around as I thought I could speak more than I could last time and actually in the beginning of course I could get along a lot easier than last time, unfortunately it hasn’t improved though. I guess working in an international company where you speak mostly English doesn’t help that much. I wish I really could and I tried at first, but then I guess partying and hanging out got in the way. Yes it was my choice and I guess for the piece of mind I made the wrong choice. I took the easy route this time. Then again, what would have changed. I ll leave korea again with more emotions and more impressions than before, still this country with the people and their attitude make me feel like a stranger in his own home. A lot of people know that I m a half blood that doesn’t know where my home is, because everywhere I will be I will be seen as a foreigner because of my looks and I guess there is no place where I really fit in.
Anyways to get back to my internship. I think I couldn’t live in Korea for a longer time, not because of the internship, but because of the Korean attitude, which I explained earlier. Still this internship on one hand was boring, cause unfortunately our project didn’t work out as planned, yet on the other hand I got an insight on Korean life, on media business and different strategies, negotiations and Korean working style. So that was definitely worth it. I guess you always have good and bad things, right?
Its funny, just a couple of minutes ago, someone asked me if I was sad this internship ends and the last 2/3 weeks I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Right now another intern is leaving and you know another chapter in your life is closing, some people that have shared your path, even though just for a short while and maybe barely affecting you or you barely affecting them makes you feel gloomy. For a moment it makes you sad and you wonder whats next. There is so many chapters in a book, so there is no reason to be sad for a chapter to close as there is sure to be a next one, yet the author might never turn back to open that chapter again and it might be looked away forever.
Anyways, what I m trying to say is, I just spend 62 days with this internship, its 1/6 of a year and therefore if you look on your life it has changed you, moved you and shaped you into someone else and therefore you will never forget. I hope I have left an impression on some people, even If just a minor one that may have made them smile for a day.
Goodbye Reuters, Goodbye Summer of 2007, Goodbye tour of the world.

I ll catch you on the other side

oh here is something else i wrote while i was bored on my final day of work

Just another day

Its just another day
Then something catches your mind
You turn your head
and look outside the window
the sun is going down
Another day has passed
You think its just another day
But there is a different feeling in your chest
You look around, nothing has changed
Its just another day
A day like yesterday or any other day
You turn your head again
And take a look around
People sit at their desks, tired from the week
They sit and stare
Noone is aware
But for you there is a little change
You see that one guy,
He is picking up his bag
It will be one last time
He bows down and says goodbye
Goodbye it is, for the last time
A chapter he has written will close
He turns around and leaves and no one will look after him
So why do you care
You think again
Think about the last time you left a place
Its just another couple of hours and then
Then its your time to say goodbye
Goodbye for the final time
Part of you will regret
Part of you will be proud
Then you turn around
You look back at all those days
The days you barely came out of bed
You thought to yourself, what for
Then again you still go
You go and a smile awaits your day.
Something keeps you going
Something that keeps you wanting more
Now today this will come to an end
Tomorrow you will wake up
And then it crosses your mind,
You will never come back here again
Today it ends
This day ends
Just another day ends