A Lot of Peppers

These are hot peppers laying out in the sun to dry in the yard in front of the monks' quarters at a Buddhist temple in Seoul.
I am officially on vacation until October 9th! Next week is Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving and one of the most important holidays. I'm going on a backpacking trip with some other expats across a mountain ridge in the southern part of the country. I'm really excited, especially since I've never been that far south in Korea. On Tuesday, we're going rafting, something I've never done before, and Wednesday through Friday, we're hiking along the mountain ridge and staying overnight at national park shelters. I expect to have lots to say and lots of photos to share when I return next weekend.

Field Trips!

Yesterday and today were field trip days for the kindergarten and first grade classes. We went to a very nice woodland park at the base of the mountain nearby. The weather was beautiful for playing games, singing songs, and generally just enjoying ourselves outdoors.

Long Overdue Update, Mea Culpa

I've been fighting off a cold for the past few weeks. It triggered my asthma just enough to be annoying. I haven't been able to keep up my regular hiking/jogging routine, so I'm a little nervous about my big hiking trip across one of Korea's national parks in a couple weeks. Until this cold set in, I would head out for a hike/walk/jog for a couple hours everyday. I'm still getting out and walking around, just nothing strenuous. I'm planning to take it easy this weekend and am hoping to be back on the trails on Monday. We'll see if my lungs agree.

My classes are going well for the most part. I have my princesses on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have two kindergarten class, one preschool class, and one advanced elementary class (2nd graders). I teach a mothers' class for two hours every Thursday morning, and I tutor a very proficient elementary school student (5th grader) on Wednesday evenings. Next week, I'll start teaching another preschool class on Friday evenings. I'm staying pretty busy, but I like it that way.

This past Tuesday, my lesson in kindergarten was "big, bigger, the biggest." One of my very sharp little girls, who is also a little sassy and bossy, made the astute observation that she is bigger than Christina. The she went on to say that "Ellen-teacher is the biggest."

"Yes, you're right," I said, but I wasn't going to pursue it since I don't like the idea of comparing people's bodies.

Even without encouragement, that led a little boy in the class to come up with "Ellen-teacher is fat." And then the first little girl added "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig." That resulted in explosions of laughter from the rest of the class, and then everyone was chanting "Ellen-teacher is a fat pig."

I tried to reestablish order, but it was futile, so I called the school director to handle the situation. He chewed them out in English while the school's receptionist translated and added her own chewing out in Korean. By the end of the day, I had received phone calls from three mortified and apologetic mothers. Today each student said "I'm sorry" to me on the way into the classroom, and the little boy who came up with "Ellen-teacher is fat" handed me a note: "Allan i'm soli. Allan teacher. Pig is talking and laughing is i'm soli."

That whole class was exceptionally good today. I think we're friends again. I made a point to tell their mothers at the end of class how good they were. The mothers all laughed. I wonder what exactly they threatened/bribed the kids with this afternoon. Whatever it was, it worked. I was never upset about the incident. I knew I couldn't just let it go, but I actually thought it was kind of funny. I was even a little impressed. At least they had good subject-verb agreement, put the adjective in the right place, and pronounced everything correctly.

Here are three of my students showing off their artwork. These kids are from the "fat pig" class. Two of them are the instigators. They've been angels ever since that incident, by the way.My princesses have been standing on their chairs lately. I've tried all sorts of things to get them to stop, including taking away the chairs entirely. Most of them have stopped now, but on Wednesday, I had to mention something to the mother of one of the repeat offenders. The mother pulled the little princess aside before class and had a very calm conversation with her about acceptable classroom behavior. Said princess was so mad at me for ratting her out to her mom that she refused to come into the classroom and spent the afternoon pouting in the hallway on her own accord. Okay, kiddo, suit yourself. I thought that was pretty funny, but I hope she's over it before class tomorrow.

People don’t drink the tap water here. Most people either buy bottled water or fill up bottles at artesian wells along the mountains. For the past several weeks, I've been filling up a couple bottles when I'm out hiking. The city governments maintain the wells and test the water quality regularly, so it's safe.
Last week, I was filling up my bottles when this old man with a cane walked over to me. He stood about 2 meters away and just started yelling and shaking his finger at me. He kept pointing at my feet. I think he was upset because my foot was just a hair over the grate and drain, not that that would make any real difference anyway, since the water that drains off does not reenter the clean water source. "I don't understand," I told him in Korean. He kept yelling, shaking his finger, and pointing at my feet. "I don't speak Korean," I said in Korean. More yelling. So I stood up and told him "thank you" and "good-bye" in Korean and walked away. As I left, I realized I missed a great opportunity to use my three different phrases that mean "Be quiet!"

I went back to the well this week, and the same man was sitting there on a bench. I bowed, said "hello" in Korean, and proceeded to fill up my water bottles. He just sat there and glared. I need to go back tomorrow. I wonder if he'll be there.

Presenting . . . the Princesses!

I’ve decided to name one of the princesses Nancy. The other little girl I was supposed to name decided that she wanted to be called "Aurora" since that's Sleeping Beauty's real name. It lasted about three days. Now she prefers her Korean name, which is just fine with me. It is my honor to introduce the world to . . . the Princesses!

Sunday School

Here are my Sunday School kids. A couple of them got out the door before I took the picture this morning. You can click on the picture to make it larger.

Way to Go, September!

Sunrise, as seen from my 11th floor apartment, 6:13 AM.

Click on the photo to make it larger. Wow, September!

A Visit from a Cousin and Observations on Public Transportation

Well, September, you've really outdone yourself. Just keep up this beautiful weather for the next 29 days, and I'll be one very happy English teacher. Wait a second, I am one very happy English teacher! Well, just continue it anyway.

Tonight I had dinner with my cousin (I guess that's what's he is) Ian Gillies who has been here in Korea for the past two weeks training with the Army Reserves. I met him near the big army post in Seoul, and we went out for "bulgogi," a type of Korean barbecue. Excellent food, and it was fun to visit with him. I think the only other time I met him was at my grandfather's funeral about a year ago. We have plenty of family members in common to talk about, though. I wonder if any ears were ringing.

Someone told me that bus drivers in Korea are paid according to the number of circuits they make during their shift. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it does explain why they drive as fast as they can until the last possible second before stopping for the shortest possible amount of time before taking off at rocket speed once again. Sometimes the buses don't stop at all the stops. If someone isn't flagging the bus down at the bus stop and if someone inside the bus didn't push the button to signal the driver, the bus just keeps going, so you have to pay attention or you'll miss your bus or your stop. If you're one of the last people on the bus at a stop, you can bet that the bus will be at least to the next block before you've had a chance to find something to hold onto, let alone actually find a seat.

I was riding the bus earlier this week and thinking about this. There were so seats available, so I stood toward the front, holding onto a pole for dear life, while the driver went as fast as he could for a block and a half, then slammed on the breaks at the bus stop, and then repeated the pattern. At one point, I looked at the dashboard and realized that through all this speeding and stopping, speeding and stopping, the speedometer held at a constant 30 km/hr.

The next day I was standing at a crosswalk. When the light turned green, I hesitated for a second. Just then a bus barreled through the red light. Had I been in the crosswalk, I'm quite certain that all my theological questions would have been answered that day. I can hear Dad's voice saying "Look both ways before crossing the street" echoing in my head. I'm not going to need another reminder about that one.

The rest of the week went pretty well. I had a new girl join the princess class, and I started a new kindergarten class with three little boys. My advanced elementary class is a lot of fun. There are two 8-year-old students who are quite proficient, so there's a lot I can do with them. It's a big change from colors, numbers, and ABCs in kindergarten! I also sat in on a mothers' class which I'll start teaching next week. I’m still thinking about names for the two little girls.

I received a postcard from Uncle Dick Gillies from the Panama Canal. We now have Halifax (Canada) and the Panama Canal marked on our postcard map at school. The kids love it. We’re going to start a pen pal project soon, too.

No big outings this weekend. I really need to spend some time on my lesson plans, so I'm just going to stick around home tomorrow and get together with a friend for lunch. Then I'll have the usual church responsibilities on Sunday and probably come home and finish my lesson plans after that. Not every weekend can be an adventure, right?

The Name Game

Today I was asked by two mothers to give English names to their little girls. English names (or names that would be recognized in the English-speaking world, though not necessarily of English origin) are really popular here for kids in school, and they tend to keep their English names as adults when they interact with Westerners. Business people tend to use their English names since they're easier for Westerners to remember and pronounce. (For example, I had a little boy in one class whose name was "Suk-kyu," which is potentially problematic for English speakers.) So I have to come up with names for two very cute little girls.

Uncle Dick Gillies sent me another care package. Wow! Mail! The care package included jello, Kool Aid, gummy bears (I'm saving them for an emergency), black licorice (impossible to get here, one of my favorites, almost gone already!), and crayons and a pencil sharpener. I shared the black licorice with a friend while we were out exploring Seoul on Saturday. We both agree that Korea would be better if black licorice were available here.

A Little Bit of Everything

I can hardly believe an entire week has gone by since my last update. The days go by so fast. It's now the end of another term, and I'm really sad to say goodbye to some of my students. My 11-year-old student who is going back to Germany stopped by the school to say goodbye to everyone. I wasn't there at the time, so they had her call me, which was sweet. Here's a picture of us on her last day of class.This is my class of only two little boys. One is moving, and the other was going to be moved to the princess class. His mother has decided against it, so he is going to take this next term off, and hopefully we'll have a class for him the following term. I'm going to miss both of them. Here they are:One of my princesses is going to take a term off, too, but she got out the door on Friday before I could get a picture. Her mom said she'll come back the following term, though. Tomorrow is the first day of the new term. I'll still teach my other three kindergarten classes. I'll also start teaching a higher level elementary class and possibly a mother's class as well. I'm looking forward to all of them. I've only taught an adult class once when the regular teacher was sick. It's much harder than kindergarten. I'm a little nervous about it.

I had a nice weekend. I have a friend who likes to explore Seoul with me on Saturdays. This week we went to a replica village that gives you a glimpse of traditional Korean life. It's sort of the colonial Williamsburg of Seoul, except that the history here goes back much farther. Then we went to a really trendy part of the city and walked around. It started to sprinkle, so we took shelter in a Haagen-Dazs shop. Flavor of the day: Belgian chocolate. How can you go wrong? When the rain let up, we ventured back outside, only to be hit by the hardest rainfall I've ever experienced. We were soaked clear through just from sprinting from one building to the next. Drenched and shivering on the air-conditioned subway, we headed home again.

It was a good day at the church. I had 28 children attend Sunday school, which is a huge increase over last week. I have two high school students and one adult who are going to help me with the class next week. Several of the kids speak English at an advanced or near-native level. Others aren't quite so proficient, so it will be really helpful to have some adult interpreters!

Life As Usual

School is going well. I'm finished tutoring both of my individual students now, so I'm just teaching kindergarten these days. I miss my individual students. They are great kids and were a lot of fun to work with. The boy is going back to high school this week. I had a two-hour lesson with him every weekday during his entire summer vacation, and I assigned a lot of homework. My other student has a week of vacation before returning to her home in Germany. I wonder where life will take them. I hope I get to find out someday.

My kindergarten students are exceptionally cute. I have one class of 6 girls that I call my "princess class" because they are all just too adorable and frequently come to school wearing pink sundresses and pink bows in their hair. Little girls here really, really, really like pink. I have never seen so much pink in all my life as I have here! My fairy princesses haven't figured out that I don't understand Korean. One fairy princess especially loves to tell me stories. I look at her and ask "Really?"

"Yes!" she answers.

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yes!" again. At least she's consistent.

Another kindergarten class has only two students, both boys. One of the boys is very bright and is catching on quickly. The other day, he came to school early and was looking at the globe in the classroom. "Teacher, where Korea?" he asked. I showed him. "Where America?" he asked, followed by "Canada?" "Poland?" "Nigeria?" "Ghana?" "Switzerland?" "Netherlands?" I was floored. This kid is 5 years old and came up with all those countries' names himself. He then went on to name all the continents, minus Antarctica, in English. Unfortunately (for me), his family is moving, so I'll be losing him at the end of the week. The other little boy will move into the princess class. He's a real handful. He tried to use the globe as a soccer ball. Watch out, princesses!

My other two kindergarten classes are just fine. One has three boys and one girl, and the other has three girls and two boys. It's so much fun to have small classes!

The weather has cooled down considerably. When I'm done with school, I go hiking in the mountains, though I haven't done anything as adventurous as my Tuesday trek. On Saturday, a friend and I spent the whole day in Seoul. We went to the fashion and textile district, ate lunch, walked to the top of Namsan mountain, saw a bird's eye view of the city, and then sat in a coffee shop and chatted. It was a great day. On Sunday, I went to church in the afternoon and then went for a walk through a very trendy part of Seoul since it was such a nice evening. Everything is fine at the church. The children's Sunday school class is a lot of fun. The middle/high school class is an icy wall of silence. The Korean pastor told me he has heard that I'm a "dynamic teacher." He apparently didn't hear that from the middle/high school class. The congregation is still impressed that I can read the announcements printed in the bulletin in my native language. That's what I call talent.

Mmmmm . . . Peaches

Yesterday a student brought a big grocery bag full of peaches to school to share with all the teachers. They came from his grandfather's orchard. They are very sweet a juicy but a little crisper than peaches in the U.S. Today we were eating them in the staff room, and my two Korean friends looked at me aghast when I bit into one.

"Ellen! No! You're supposed to PEEL it!"

"Peel the peach?" I asked. I know that Koreans peel apples and pears because of pesticides, and they peel grapes (concord grapes) because they don't like the peels. They don't peel nectarines or plums, and peaches seems similar to those, so I was confused.

One of the teachers explained to me that people have allergic reactions to the fuzz, and it's not good to eat it. I’ve never heard this before. I've been eating peaches, peel and skin and all, my entire solid-food-eating life, and while my allergies can be a bear, I've never noticed any connection to peach fuzz. I always heard that the peel is the best part of the fruit to eat because that's where most of the vitamins are stored. I can understand peeling it to remove organisms (big problem in tropical countries, not a problem in Korea) or pesticides and chemicals, but because the fuzz isn't good for you . . . what's up with this?

So tonight, when I got home, I ate a Korean peach, peel and fuzz and all, in the privacy of my apartment. I hope I survive the night.

I refuse to peel grapes.

Liberation Day

Today is the national holiday Gwangbok-jeol which celebrates the liberation of Korea from Japanese colonial rule in 1945 and the establishment of the Republic of Korea exactly three years later. The Japanese occupation of Korea was quite horrible, and many Koreans still have a strong animosity toward the Japanese.

Since it was a holiday, I decided to follow the mountain trails that Edward (see the post on 8/13) pointed out to me. He said the route should be 4-5 hours. Exactly 8 and a half hours after leaving my apartment this morning, I returned hot and sweaty and dirty and sore but thoroughly satisfied with my day in the mountains.

I left home at 11 AM. According to Edward, the route I was on went along a ridgeline to three separate peaks. Seulgi-bong, which I visit frequently, is the first peak. I made it to the top by 12 PM. The trail is in good shape, and though it's a steep climb, it's really not that difficult. From Seulgi-bong, I found the trail leading in the direction of Suam-bong (the second peak) after a little bit of searching. It wasn't particularly well-marked. This trail was a lot more rugged and very steep with some places that required using a ladder (bolted into the rock) or a rope (also well-maintained by the park system) to make my away along it. I scraped up my knee on a rock and was sweating so much that a bandage wouldn't stick. I rubbed some alcohol-based hand sanitizer on the cut (OUCH!!!!) and kept walking.

At about 1:30 PM, I passed two men and a woman who were having a picnic just off the trail. I nodded to them and said "anyounghasayo" ("hello") and kept walking. They called after me, and one of the men stood up and motioned for me to come over to them.

"Where you from?" he asked.

"America." (No one understands "United States" here.)

"AH! America! I love America!" Then he lifted his paper cup in the air. "Toast to America!"

"Toast to America!" the other man and woman echoed and raised their paper cups in a toast.

"What your name?" he asked.

"Ellen."

"AH! Ellen! Toast to Ellen!"

"Toast to Ellen!" the others echoed.

"Ellen, you like kimchi?"

"Yes." Kimchi is Korea's national dish. It's a very spicy pickled vegetable, usually cabbage. I usually like it. Even if you don't like it, though, the answer to "Do you like kimchi?" is always "Yes."

"AH! Kimchi! Toast to kimchi!"

"Toast to kimchi!"

They insisted that I sit down and join them. It had been a steep climb, and I was tired, so I did. They offered me some of their lunch (bulgogi, which is Korean barbeque--really good stuff--kimchi and rice), and I shared my nectarines and apples with them. They laughed at how sweaty I was, since my clothes were completely soaked by this point. I also had dried blood from my knee and dirt all over me, too. I must have been a sight! After about 20 minutes, I explained that I had to be on my way to make it to the top of Suam-bong, and off I went while my three picnicking friends hollered "Toast to Suam-bong!" behind me. Remember these three, "the picnickers." They will make another appearance in this story.

It's about time for a photo. Here's what I saw on my way to Suam-bong:
Above: I felt sorry for the donkey since it was a really hot day, and he didn't have any water. A little farther down the trail were some vendors selling cold drinks, popsicles, and snacks. I'm guessing he was used to haul the stuff up there. I gave him some of my apple.

Below: The ridgeline trail from Seulgi-bong to Suam-bong went along the fence of some kind of military observation post, hence the barbed wire. The peak in the distance is Suam-bong.
Here's Suam-bong from a helicopter pad a little closer:
This is my route as seen from the top of Suam-bong. Note that my apartment is on the other side of Seulgi-bong. You can see the helicopter landing pad from the photo above:

I had to climb all the way down Suam-bong into the valley and then climb back up to the third peak, Taeeul-bong. Here's the route:

By the time I made it down to the valley, the last thing I wanted to do was climb back up a mountain. At this point, it was 4 PM, and I was starting to get sore and ready to go home. However, since "home" is on the other side of those mountains, "up and over" was the only choice, other than a rather expensive cab ride. (Mom, you'll be glad to know that I carried enough cash for a cab "just in case.") There was a nice park in the valley with several restaurants and lots and lots of people. Among those lots and lots of people, guess who I ran into. The picnickers from a whole two hours ago! They must have stayed and picnicked for quite a while, since their route to the valley was much shorter than mine since it bypassed Suam-bong.

"Ellen!" I heard someone shout my name.

"AH! Picnickers! Toast to picnickers!" I shouted in return. They laughed and toasted imaginary paper cups in my direction. We talked for a few minutes. Then they headed down the valley to a different city, and I began my ascent to the ridge that led to Taeeul-bong.

The trail up to the ridge was steep but not too difficult, except for the fact that I was tired and sore. The ridgeline trail was another matter. It was very strenuous and rocky with several places that required climbing ladders (once again, bolted into the rocks) or using ropes. The view, however, was beautiful, and it was starting to cool down.

Time for some more pictures:
Above: I passed several of these pine trees on the ridgeline trail. It's amazing how they grow out of the rocks. Their bark is really smooth from people using them for support while climbing the trail.

Below: A tired, sweaty, sore, but nonetheless happy, hiker.
I made it to the top of Taeeul-bong by 6 PM. Here's the view of my city from the peak. Home is within sight!
I walked through my apartment door at 7:30 PM. I had a great day, but I know I'm going to be hurting tomorrow!

Hiking, Bratwurst, and Other Such Delights

This week has been fine. There is really nothing to report. Classes have kept me busy this week. It's very hot and sunny here lately. I try to go walking in the mornings and/or evenings, but it's hard to be motivated when it's this hot. I guess I shouldn't complain. At least it isn't rainy season.

Today was a little cooler, so I picked a new mountain trail to explore. Much to my surprise, I ended up at the same peak I've climbed before. It was a very sunny afternoon, but there was still a haze in the distance. At the peak, I met a British hiker named Edward who is very familiar with the trails around the town I live in. He pointed out some good routes that I didn't even know about, so I was really glad to have met him.

Tuesday is a holiday here (Liberation Day). There is a huge anti-American protest planned in Seoul. They're expecting 6,000-8,000 people at the start of it and as many as 30,000 people at the end of it. The US embassy sent an email out to all Americans who are registered with them, telling us we should avoid that whole downtown area of the city. I guess I'll stay here in the suburbs. No sense inciting people who are already angry! If the weather is bearable, I might try out one of the trails Edwards recommended.

While grocery shopping this week, I found "Wisconsin Bratwurst," so I thought I'd give them a try. Not too bad! They're MUCH better than the Korean sausages I’ve tried. Now I just need to find sauerkraut.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my Sunday school lesson for tomorrow, and then I'm calling it a night. It's so much easier to teach Sunday school when you have a curriculum! I've been writing my own lessons these past few weeks. It's especially challenging since I have a wide range of ages and English proficiency. The kids get a Bible memory verse printed in English and Korean every week, and they try to memorize it by the following week. (That reminds me--I haven't prepared that for tomorrow yet either!) I made a deal with them that if they try to learn it in English, I will try to learn it in Korean. I don't let the kids write the English verse phonetically in Korean, so they don't let me write the Korean verse phonetically in English. They think it's great. I wonder what I was thinking.

믿음은 바라는 것들의 실상이요 보지 못하는 것들의 증거니

In case you're curious, that's Hebrews 11:1.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Typing in Korean is good practice for me, I think.

We also learn a story each week. I draw or print pictures that tell the story and then have the kids narrate what's happening in the pictures. Then I have one of the more fluent kids read the story (or part of it) from the Bible. I try to include an active game or two that relates to the story. And of course, we have songs, lots and lots of songs. Why on earth I always end up leading music with small children is beyond me. Music is NOT one of my gifts. I can't sing, can't read notes, can't play an instrument. I don't even own a radio (CD player, MP3 player, etc.)! So how exactly do I end up leading music?

A Care Package!

This morning I glanced at my mailbox on my way out the door, and much to my surprise, since it's ALWAYS empty, there was a package sticking out!

Thank you, Uncle Dick (Gillies)!

He sent Kool-Aid, Jello, LifeSavers, and gummy worms. I took them to school and shared them with my coworkers and a couple of the high school students. The LifeSavers were a huge hit all the way around. Two people tried the gummy worms, but the others were a little grossed out by the idea of eating candy worms. I don't understand that since REAL SILK WORMS are a popular snack food in Korea. (I've eaten two of them and don't ever plan to do it again.) I promised to take Kool-Aid in tomorrow, and I'll fix some of the Jello before too long. It was a lot of fun to share a little bit of home with my friends here.

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Thank you for expressing concern about my Aunt Jane. From what I hear, she's in the hospital in Dubuque now and has a long road ahead of her. Please continue to keep her in your prayers.

Laundry Quandary

Since I don't have a washing machine, and since I really don't want one in my very small bathroom, my directors decided to give me a small stipend each month so I can use the laundry service in my building for one load a week. Last week, I had no problems. I took my laundry downstairs before school and picked it up on my way home. They don’t have dryers, so I had to hang everything up in my apartment to dry, but that wasn't really a problem.

So yesterday I headed back downstairs with this week's load of dirty laundry. The women who helped me last week weren't there, but a man was there, so I figured he could help me. He looked confused, though. I pointed to my bag of dirty laundry and pointed to the washing machine. "Yogiyo," ("here") I said. He nodded and wrote down my apartment number.

When I returned that evening to retrieve my clothing, the man was gone, and the women from the previous week were back. They looked at me in utter confusion when I showed up and started glancing around for some sign of my clothes. None. "Clothes" I said, pinching my shirt to indicate what I was talking about. "Odiyeyo?" ("Where?") The women had no idea what I was talking about. Another customer was attempting to interpret for us, to no avail. Finally, I had the laundry women call my director, and I got the story from her.

It turns out that the man, who was only filling in while the women went to lunch, decided that the foreigner's clothes needed special care, and instead of throwing them in the washing machine, he sent them out to be dry cleaned. That might not have been such a problem if they had been my nice work and church clothes. However, this evening, I picked up the cleanest, most perfectly ironed blue jeans, t-shirts, pajamas, and bedsheets in all the world. I ended up having to pay over $30 to get my clothes back, which is more than my monthly laundry allowance. I was also told that they've recently stopped the wet laundry service and only process dry cleaning and do repairs now. So I guess that brings me back to my laundry quandary. Small things are easy enough to do by hand, but it's awfully inconvenient to wash blue jeans in the kitchen sink. No laundromats in Korea. No laundry service other than dry cleaning in my building. I'm really worried that someone's going to think that putting a washing machine in my bathroom is a good idea again!

Emergency Vehicle Appreciation Day

About 1:00 this afternoon I heard a whole lot of sirens from outside. I looked out my 11th storey window to see smoke rising from the building across the street. On the road below were 8 firetrucks, three police cars, and an ambulance. Unbelievably, the parade of emergency vehicles was stopped by people crossing the street in front of them while smoke continued to rise from the building. I've gotten used to pedestrians not thinking anything of walking in front of moving vehicles, but I'm always amazed by the complete disregard for emergency vehicles. No one yields to them. I've seen ambulances stuck at red lights because the cross traffic doesn't stop. Even this whole convoy of siren-sounding, light-flashing urgency was held at a dead stop by kids, shoppers, mothers, bicyclists, drunk guys, and English teachers crossing right in front of them! I had to leave shortly thereafter for class. The emergency vehicles were gone when I returned home, and the building looks about the same, minus the smoke, with no apparent damage from here. I probably won't ever find out what happened, but the city did put on an impressive display of emergency vehicles, even if they couldn't drive down the street.

One BIG City

Thanks to my friend Ted Newcomb for fusing these two photos together to make a panoramic view looking north over Seoul from Namsan (meaning "South Mountain"). Click on the photo for a screen-width image.

Vacation Resurrected!

The most amazing thing happened today. First, there was this brilliant light from the sky. Everything suddenly felt warm. Then I looked up and noticed that the sky was starting to turn the most incredible color--BLUE! Can you believe it? It took me almost no time at all to get outside to enjoy my last day of vacation.

I decided to use my little bit of sunshine to go to the top of Namsan Mountain, really more like a big hill, located in the southern part of Seoul. On top of Namsan is the Seoul Tower. I didn't go to the top of the tower because the clouds returned and visibility wasn't very good. When I do go to the top of the tower, I want to be able to see! Here's a view of the tower (foreboding black sky in the background) from close to its base. I'll post photos of Seoul from the top of Namsan when I figure out how to edit them together as a panoramic view.
This is a door to a shrine on the way up the mountain. I thought it was pretty cool!
After walking back down, I went to the Myeong-dong Cathedral for worship. Many Koreans, Catholic and Protestant alike, do not consider Catholics to be "Christian" so it is very uncommon for a Protestant to visit a Catholic church for Mass. I really enjoyed the experience and plan to go back when I can walk around the inside without disturbing worship. Here are a couple photos of the cathedral:
After worship, I walked around Seoul for the evening. Here are a couple photos I took from the middle of intersections. Don't worry, Mom, I had a green light!

Seoul Tower:
Namdaemun Gate:
Finally, one of the things I love about Korea is that they have these terrific fountains in public places, and kids are encouraged to play in them! There is one in the center of my town that is always full of kids. This one is in front of the Seoul City Hall.

Vacation Aborted

After spending today in a torrential downpour, I decided to abort my vacation plans and head home. I spent today walking from a town called Kangchon to the Gugok Falls. The umbrella served nothing more than psychological purpose. By the time I made it to the park entrance after walking about 3 miles, I was completely soaked. The plastic bags I tied around my feet kept as much water in as out. My backpack was soaked clear through. Nothing was dry.

Despite being the only visitor at the park this afternoon, I decided to walk up the trail toward the waterfall, only to "chicken out" once I got close to the base of the falls. It was mid-afternoon and had been pouring all day. It's a huge waterfall anyway, and the rainfall fueled it all the more. The stream below it was very close to the trail and exceptionally forceful. Since I was the park's only visitor, I didn't want to risk slipping on the slick walkway. The falls created such a strong wind that it was hard to walk and keep my balance, and I couldn't hold the camera still for the close up photo below. I can only imagine how strong it was closer to the falls. I'm definitely planning a trip back in nice weather.

Click on the photos for a larger image:

Above: The North Han River, looking upstream (east) from Gangchon in the direction of Chuncheon.

Below: Gugok Falls, just southwest of Gangchon. That's as far as I was brave enough to walk. I could hardly hold my camera and umbrella and stay standing to take this photo.

Vacation Update

They've changed the weather forecast from 100% chance of rain to 50% chance of rain for today, and guess what. It's pouring! 50% change of rain my foot!