One Year Ago

It is the farthest that I have travelled on my own.

One year ago, I arrived in South Korea for the first time since March, 1999. I was fulfilling a promise that I sort of made to some of my Korean students and friends, and to myself at the end of DW's and my two-year stint, teaching English.

Because I was also working on my sequel novel to Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary, I wanted to return to refresh some memories and play with a new story line, where the main character, Roland Axam, returns to the Land of the Morning Calm.

For this short, eight-day visit, I also brought my small 360-degree video camera, and I recorded this excursion from the Ottawa airport, through Seoul, along the Honam Expressway, around Jeonju, over to the Buddhist temple of Keumsansa, back to Seoul, and finally at the Incheon airport that brought me back to Canada. By the time I was done, I had almost three hours of video footage.

It took me several months to edit the video and put it together in a single, mini documentary. I finished putting the video together in early October and shared it on YouTube. I finally moved it to my Brown Knowser channel last December.

If you've run out of things to watch on Netflix and want to see my first attempt at a 'movie,' watch it here.

With the exception of a few weekend trips to Montreal and Toronto, Korea was my last big vacation. And especially during this pandemic, one year ago seems much further away than a single year.

DW and I are becoming discouraged as our next big vacation date grows closer and the notion that it won't happen seems more and more like a reality.

Taking a drive across the city, these days, seems like about as much of a trip as anything else.

Ugh... you suck, 2020.