With Pirohi and Love

2012-01-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

2012-01-23T06:51:00.000-08:00

New shawl

2012-01-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

My mountain dulcimer

2011-12-21T11:37:00.001-08:00

Eli and Fred.

2011-08-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

2011-07-31T19:28:00.000-07:00

2011-07-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

Lotus.

2011-07-18T19:08:00.001-07:00

First sunflower in my little garden.

2011-06-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

My youngest niece.

2011-05-22T19:20:00.001-07:00

Almost pascha

2011-04-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I find these surroundings more in keeping with my dignity.

2011-04-16T06:02:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

2011-04-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

Cherry Blossoms at the Japanese Internment Memorial

2011-03-22T16:35:00.001-07:00

I always make it a point to go to the National Japanese American Memorial when the cherry blossoms are in bloom. It commemorates the Japanese internment and valor of the Japanese American community during WWII.

It's near Union Station and the Capitol and like the community it represents is fairly easy to miss being small and private.

In front of the memorial is a reflecting pool surounded by cherry trees.

You enter through a gap in the wall and are confronted by a plinthe with two cranes pinned down by barbed wire.

On the wall are the names of the camps and the number of people that were in each one and the names of the men who died while their families were locked behind barbed wire for years.

2011-03-21T09:42:00.000-07:00

Rockman exhibit

2011-03-15T06:09:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been going to a lot of art exhibits at various museums around town. Last Friday Max and I saw an amazing exhibit of Bukharan silk robes that were stunning in their complexity and colors. Yesterday I went to the American Art Museum in Chinatown and saw the Rockman exhibit there.

His paintings all were centered on the interaction of birth and decay and natural conflict in general. This played out in a number of pieces in odd ways.

There were a number of paintings that featured extinct animals with modern equivalents in the same swamp or aquarium.

Or industrial themes combining with nature. I rather liked the fetid swamp birdbath.

There was a clarion call warning of impending ecological disaster and the potential extremes that could produce. There were a series of paintings involving a sort of outer space arc of preservation that was intriguing.

If you are in DC you really ought to go see this exhibit. The paintings are enormous and complex. One of the aspects of Rockman that is not conveyed by photos is the depth and contrast of his paintings. The background are glossy and flat while the figures create almost a diorama like effect popping out of the painting with bright colors and gorgeous textures. This diced up bird is actually a real gull preserved in resin His primary early inspiration came form looking at museum exhibits and this shines through clearly.

It has been awhile

2011-03-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

So for whatever reason I have been rather uninspired to write here for a number of months. I think for many people uncertainty is a thing that spurs innovation but for me it causes a very distinct circling of my mental wagons where I'm very conservative with my mental energy. That being said I feel like I should be documenting at least a few things outside of Facebook for the sake of posterity. I've been keeping a written journal of my weekend meandering since January and think that I'll transcribe that onto the blog along with my knitting.

2010-11-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

Geppetto and Elias.

2010-10-31T04:29:00.001-07:00

Rib our tummies. Now.

2010-10-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Spices

2010-10-15T11:30:00.001-07:00

It has been forever since I have blogged. I blame facebook. I had all but run out of spices and so needed to place a big order. Here is my spicy bounty.

Elias in the lilies.

2010-07-25T19:47:00.001-07:00

Lotuses and Lilies

2010-06-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went with Dave to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.

They were founded after the Civil War by a one armed veteran who planted acres and acres of water lilies and lotuses in ponds.

I really enjoyed the lotuses as you see them so rarely.

When the light hits them they practically glow. We got there early in the morning when the lotuses were completely open and there were still drops of dew collected in the giant leaves.

Columcille

2010-05-31T19:14:00.001-07:00

A few years ago while I was in Saint Cloud I became rather interested in alternative building styles. I had helped some monks in the Mojave one summer in undergrad make a few hermitages and come form a family of builders so it's not a surprising interest.While I was researching I found this book.

Which had a reference to Columcille. A collection of megaliths north of Easton in PA. I of course added it to my list of places to visit.

This weekend my friends Timothy, Will, and I finally got there. The stone circle is behind this beautiful wrought iron gate. The entire collection was erected over the course of twenty years by a gay couple who were inspired by the celtic spirituality of Iona.

The two largest stones were "Thor's Gate" , which was roughly 15' by 20'.

And the "Guardian Stone" which was a solid twenty feet high at least.

It was a lovely way to spend the morning. I enjoy admiring the life's work of people devoted to making beauty for others.

Elias on the calvert cliffs.

2010-03-24T06:32:00.001-07:00

Baked beans

2010-03-18T01:31:00.001-07:00

Soak 2 1/2 cups of beans for 24 hours. I prefer a black or pinto bean. A good soup bean is great.

Change the water two or three times during that day.
Preheat oven to 350
Bring beans a boil in enough water to cover them plus two cups. I use a duth oven for all of this if you haven't got a Dutch oven use a very large casserole for the baking.

Add the beans and water to your
Oven proof covered dish.

Add all of the following
Two medium onions diced.
4T dried basil
3 T white vinegar
Quarter cup mollases or dark brown sugar
Quarter cup real maple syrup
2T olive oil
1/2 lb thick cut ham diced large
2T butter
1 tsp salt
1 T ground coriander

Bake for six hours checking every
Two hours to see if more water is needed and to stir.

This recipe is enough for six people easily and doubles with ease.

Ginger Beer

2010-02-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

To make the "ginger bug" mix 2 teaspoons of grated ginger w/ 2 Tsp of sugar and 1/2 C of water. Add the same amount of ginger daily until the whole thing starts bubbling.

The top will look like this when it is ready.

Grate about six inches of ginger into 2 Q of water and bring to a boil for about fifteen minutes. Stir in 1 C of honey and 1 C white sugar.

Strain Out all the ginger

Add the juice from 2 lemons and 4 limes.

Allow to cool and then mix the STRAINED ginger bug with the warm sugar/ginger concentrate.

Add three more quarts of water and bottle in bail top bottles that can take pressure. Mine are stoneware.

Ferment for two weeks. Refrigerate after that.

Elias in an igloo

2010-02-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

SnOMFG

2010-02-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

So DC received two feet of snow this weekend. Here are some pictures of the food and frivolity. Elias loves romping in the snow. Yesterday I baked two loaves of Pascha with Dave and they turned out rather well.

Elias romped both by day and night.

Snowy Evening

2010-02-03T20:31:00.001-08:00

Squirrellllll!!!!!

2010-01-26T10:53:00.001-08:00

Sunny day

2010-01-25T09:40:00.001-08:00

We are back

2010-01-21T06:08:00.001-08:00

Heading to Pa with Fred.

Gurye Market at night

2010-01-07T02:44:00.001-08:00

The traditional market street is open every day. A few blocks down there is the 5 day market which is much larger. You can buy anything you might want at the traditional market that is korean and unprocessed. There is a chicken seller, two butchers, a steamed dumpling restaurant, and a multitude of fish mongers and vegetable sellers. I enjoy walking through at night when only a few of the shops are open. The lighting is fun and you can watch the old ladies scurrying about finishing their days business.

The boys had a gay pride assembly line going

2010-01-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

Drying tamarinds in the traditional market.

2010-01-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

Candle making in gurye

2010-01-06T16:59:00.001-08:00

Today we are melting crayons and cheap Buddhist candles to make cute little rainbow candles in soju cups.v

Winter Camp Craft Projects

2010-01-06T00:57:00.001-08:00

Today we did a paper marbling project at winter camp in Gurye. It went well as soon as the kids got the hang of the process.

2010-01-05T18:57:00.001-08:00

I don't want to play with the scarf. Rub my belly!

2010-01-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Elias and I at winter camp

2010-01-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

Jajamien

2009-12-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

There is a Chinese Restaraunt in my town. Calling the town mine might be a stretch. I am here in Korea. The town is here in Korea. I'm in the town. I doubt the town is mine though. There is one Chinese restaraunt. I go there once a week. Sometimes twice a week. I always order Jajamien.

An old man runs the place. He might be Chinese. I walk my dog down the main street of town every night. I open the door push Elias to the side and bellow, "Anyeonghaseyo". From the back bumbles the old man he grins and pushes a menu toward me. People walking down the sidewalk dart into traffic to avoid getting close to Eli. I smile and say "Jajamien joseo". He shapes a bag with his hand and points to the door. I smile and nod again. The people in this town must think foreigners smile a lot.

He shuts the door and I wait for the noodles to cook. Elias does his best to look cute. The Korean children giggle daring each other to pet him. We try to stand against the building to avoid scaring 40 year old women. The bean and meat sauce cook in ten minutes and get dumped on the noodles. The old man pops out of the door and I give him the 3500 won for my dineer. I tried to give the a bowl to put it in. They put the noodles in a Styrofoam bowl anyway. I smile, again, say, "Gansamneda" and scatter the crowd of children gathered around Elias, the noodles get cold in ten minutes.

Elias attempts to block my keyboard

2009-12-15T04:42:00.000-08:00

Elias' Fourth Birthday

2009-11-13T00:24:00.000-08:00

Elias turns Four today. It's been a lovely 3 years with my puppy who will always be my puppy regardless of his age. I got him some nice pot roast and a piece of sweet potato cake for dinner.

Hat and Stashbusting Scarf

2009-11-10T14:31:00.000-08:00

I thought I would want a new hat by the end of the winter and so brought two balls of Jamieson with me to make this little guy.96 stitches on 7 needles using a five point decrease worked every round start 3/4 of the way up the pattern.I've also been working on my scarf for the season. It's a whimsical entrelac scarf on 8's using 4 balls of Silky wool that have piled up during my Latvian mitten making adventures. I'm almost half done with it.

Eli gets diminutive Korean lovin.

2009-11-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

Gangjin Celadon

2009-11-07T05:16:00.000-08:00

A serving dish of some variety.
I wish these weren't so blurry.
A 3 million dollar ewer.
An authentic celadon bathroom.
A teacup
An ewer.
A million dollar melon teapot.

Korea has been along so very long that nearly every town has a historical specialty. Gangjin on the southern shore of the peninsula is noted for its making of celadon. In case you want to know what celadon is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celadon . Gangin has all the indgredient for making great ceramics and was a center of celadon production for 500 year during the Choseon. era.

Nagan Folk Village

2009-10-31T05:45:00.000-07:00

Some fifteen kilometers NW of Suncheon lies the Nagan Folk Village. A functioning , as in people really live there, 17th century korean walled village.

In fact Here are the walls.

Interestingly they are all mortarless.

They run for a solid 2 kilometers around the village and are roughly 15 feet thick. They have paved a pathway over the top.

All the houses in the village except the lords home are roofed in rice straw thatch.

Here is some recreated Korean bondage.

A rather nonplussed cow.

The ever present Korean shamanistic totems.

And a traditional Korean swing. Apparently women used to love these things.

Kimchee Festival

2009-10-24T03:22:00.001-07:00

Today I wandered t the kimchee festival in Gwangju. It was a foodie paradise.

Every good Korean Even needs to have a mascot. I refrained from asking for a hug.

Oddly I think he is supposed to be a leafy cabbage; which is the sort you use for kimchee as opposed to the denser varieties we in the West favor.

There were dozens of kimchee booths offering up uncountable goodies of Korean provenance.

Lotus roots and Radishes.

Garlic in salt and vinegar. I bought a kilo of this for presents to my Korean teachers.

Korean Pastry.

Kimchee; lots and lots of Kimchee.

Kimchee cook offs.

Kimchee instruction for hopeless unenlightened foreigners.

Directly next to the kimchee classes for children : ) We got a cute little plastic kimchee bucket.

And finally a Magic Kimchee Garden which was ver proudly all organic and inside the convention center. I had a wonderful time.

Down to the River to Play

2009-10-21T01:50:00.000-07:00

Elias loves his river here. And fortunately its not polluted like the vast majority of Korean waters.

Rice harvest

2009-10-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

So rice paddies are really small compared to other types of grain fields and so rice threshers are also rather small.
Out in the country the local farmers harvest and dry grain fro their ow use and to sell at a higher price than unprocessed grain. The old men and women use large rakes to spread it out on long narrow platic mesh tarps.
It makes me think of Zen rock gardens.
On Mondays I walk a mile between two of my country schools and a solid half of that mile has these stretches of rice bleaching in the sun.
The farm wives are also busy proccessing tons of other plants. These weeds are beaten with a stick to loosen the seeds and then sifted to remove the leaves that come off during the beating.
The farmers are always puzzled when I take pictures but don't seem too mind that much.

This evening's centerpiece

2009-10-09T02:19:00.000-07:00

In Korea you work with what you've got.

Our mascot for the evening is Archimedes my little wooden owl.

Damyang Bamboo Garden

2009-09-26T02:54:00.000-07:00

Korea is such a small place and Koreans were unable to travel for so long that it has a very well developed infrastructure of fun day trips. Today I went to the town of Damyang which is known throughout Korea as the bamboo capital of the peninsula. Most of Korea is too cold to have the larger varieties of bamboo and almost all of the arable land here is used for agriculture so despite the cultural connections they have with bamboo there are very few bamboo forests here tough patches are fairly common.It was an extremely beautiful and vertical place. I was especially interested in the roots which snake through the ground. Some of the bamboo in the grove were thirty years old; which is amazing for a grass.

Michael's Mittens

2009-09-24T08:25:00.001-07:00

Finished Michaels mittens. 64 stitch cast on increasing to 80 stitches on #2 needles using just over 2 skeins of Elsabet Lavold Silky Wool. A simple pattern but a pain to knit because half the front consists of solid rows of colour which involves carrying the yarn behind and twisting every three or 4 stitches. I'll mail them out Saturday after they are washed and blocked.

Eli served as the backdrop. Thanks Eli. Now m mans hands will be nice and warm this winter.

Craft

2009-09-21T04:01:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has known me for awhile knows that I love craft.

craft: O.E. cræft "power, strength, might," from P.Gmc. *krab-/*kraf-. Sense shifted to "skill, art" (via a notion of "mental power"), which led to the n. meaning of "trade."

I have always loved craft. One of the hallmarks of my childhood was my inability to sit in one place for very long unless I was making something. This was not very different from most children in kind but by degree it was magnitudes greater. So I went through a succession of activities, braiding, a hand loom, wood working, carving, origami, and God only knows what else. All of these were supported by my family because my parents loved craft as well. My father could assemble anything from parts imaginable and made etchings and sand carvings in glass of ridiculously dorky things like the the Enterprise. My mother crocheted and painted ceramics and was fairly good at both.

There is something wonderfully universal about craftsmanship. It is the exercise of knowledge over a situation. Not just any application will do. The craftsman is aware of all the pieces he is working with, she knows where all the pieces can fit, and if blessed with some artistry how they "should" fit. How wood grains meet, how fibers wear, what people think, whether two words flow seamlessly, all of these are knowledge of a thing applied with subtlety or in the old use of the word they are crafty.

All the people I most admire and the men I have loved have been mighty in their respective crafts. I find power extraordinarily sexy and I adore the immediate. A well placed word, touch, or note have each at some point in my life been the closest to paradise I've ever been. There is an art to love and there is a craft to it; I have been loved by men who are both artist and craftsman. I doubt that I could love a man who wasn't both.

For me craft is an ordering of passion. Whether that passion is for man, or God , or objects makes little difference. Craft is stepping back and observing a situation and then applying the sum of your knowledge to the observation and acting in a way that creates greater beauty. Craft frames what is inherently beautiful in any given thing and adores it in the process.

I love craft.

Harvest time soon

2009-09-20T04:40:00.000-07:00

The rice is ripening and looks rather lovely.

The peaches are peaching

Korean Bacon Restaraunt

2009-09-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

Boy but they love fatty meat here in Korea. It's more than a little frightning but oh so very tasty. Here are some pictures of the korean bacon restaurant I went to w/ Dean and Jen.
There is a lot of kitchen shear action at Korean restaraunts. We must have had two slabs of bacon but fortunately the waitress cuts up everything at the beginning of the meal.

All we hungry diners needed to do was toss some veggies on the grill and wait for the meat to cook. the technique for eating this and duck involve grabbing a lettuce leaf or sesame leaf and making a small foliage taco stuffed with bacon, kimchi, and rice. You then shove that entire package into your mouth. It is amazing.

Plus you need to eat quickly to get any meat for yourself and to keep from tasting the soju . Which is mind numbingly awful.

Shawl for Niko's Mum

2009-09-13T06:01:00.001-07:00

A shawl for Niko's mother in Silky Wool on size 10 needles.
The pattern is a conglomeration of old Shetland lace including cat's paw and waves. It was a relief to knit on such large needles.

Myeong dong in Seoul.

2009-09-12T00:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend I am in Seoul with old friends from college, Jen and dean.

Elias loves peanut butter

2009-09-10T05:56:00.000-07:00

To bribe him into not barking when I leave Eli get a spoonful of peanut butter in his kong every day. Once a week or so the glorious occasion arises when he gets to lick the insides of the jar clean. If he had opposable thumbs we'd all be doomed. Or subjected to ceaseless licking.

New Bike

2009-09-03T04:36:00.000-07:00

Behold my one speed old korean lady bike. The two kind people in awe of her are Rob and Jeane two of my fellow expats here in G u r y e.

She comes with slogans and apparently prefers Sunday

My love for mountains

2009-08-29T04:05:00.001-07:00

I grew up on a mountain. A shattered abused insignificant mountain amidst a thousand equally insignificant others in the hinterlands of Pennsylvania but it was my mountain or in all likelihood I was its person. Whatever the trials I faced and regardless of how uncertain I was the mountain was present. It represented constancy for me. I loved that mountain simply because it was there.

I have an inexplicable need to see mountains. In DC I regularly drag friends and Michael into the country or back up to Pennsylvania and in truth there is an element of pilgrimage in those trips. My greatest joy is to give gifts to people and I suppose forcing my loved ones to wander up hillsides is one of my many attempts at sharing.

It's nice to be able to see mountains outside my window and to be among a people who obviously hold this landscape in deep veneration. It's customary in Korea to build these small cairns of flat stones along rivers to mark particularly beautiful spots. When placing a stone one is supposed to make a prayer or wish.
So I happily spent my afternoon clambering up riverbeds in search of cairns in Korea. It is wonderful to be back in the mountains. Now if only I could right poem about my heart being in the highlands and not have the Scots place a bounty on my head ...

Elias my escape artist

2009-08-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

So Elias can operate Korean sliding windows. Two of them. And screens are no barrier to him. So I'm leaving the window open. Observe the technique

E-Mart in Suncheon

2009-08-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Suncheon in search of booze and butter. Suncheon is the closest city to my town which is not large enough to have it's own department stores. Apparently E-mart is the more expensive of the two and I definatly approached the 200000 won mark.

My biggest complaint about Korea is that the booze is terrible. Not just bad but downright terrible. Everything is either incredibly sweet , mind you I love sweet liqueurs and sherries, or just inexplicably foul; yes I'm talking about Soju.

And I got up off my snooty ass and went into the big city in search of alcahol and behold I found a wine section. The selection was suprisingly thorough though there were no champagnes; it was about as good as you might find in a liquor store in a grocery store that targeted middle class Americans. Lots of penguins and kangaroos on bottles. I picked up two malbecs and then spotted the hard liqor shelf.

Koreans for whatever reason love scotch. I think it is in keeping with their general love of booze that tastes like it has been drug through the fens of England. There were two types of vodka and I gladly shelled out 25 dollars to be able to make a screwdriver. I had no idea what the "commander vodka" was but at 8000 won a bottle it must make the angels in heaven weep. Maybe I can use it for limoncello.

my second realization about Koreans today was that they really like fatty meat. Even more than Ukrainians. I invite you to take a good look at this bacon. First the sheer amount and then the artery clogging potential.

Gimbap Wikipedia article

I went out to eat in my town after getting back from the market and taking li for his evening walk and found a cute little Kimbap place. Kimbap is like sushi but without raw fish.
I had no idea what most of the words on the menu were and so got some very spicy pork and rice, a bowl of udon soup, and a ton of mandu, for seven dollars. I heart Korea even if it has terrible booze and will give me a heart attack.

Semojin River

2009-08-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

My valley here is dominated by Jirisan Mountain and the Semojin River. Yesterday Elias and I wandered in the general direction of the river to find somewhere for him to run.

About a twenty five minute walk from the house we found a nice set of soccer fields right along the river that tapered off into some dense underbrush. Just the sort of thing Elias loves to lope through.

Elias went for a quick swim and I noticed two umbrellas a bit up the river bank and decided to go be nosey.
There was quite the set up. Net, coolers, two umbrellas one chair.

And Five Fishing lines. But no little old man to mind them. What's more we didn't see anyone in the whole two hours we were there. I thought it was a little odd personally.
Elias seemed unconcerned with this mystery and was content to just lie in the grass attempting to catch bugs in his mouth.

The Reality of North Korea. Even China has more lights.

2009-08-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

Why I'm not worried about the North Koreans

My apartment in G U R Y E

2009-08-25T03:46:00.000-07:00

So I have arrived in my little town which is in fact quite a bit bigger than many of the small places that I could have gone. I think the population is somewhere around ten thousand upwards to 15000. My apartment is about a kilometer from my school and is in a building with seven other units. The building like most korean buildings is ugly as sin but the apartment is amazingly large for here and relatively well furnished.

Most enjoyably I have a small tub. I would live in a closet with a tub : ) Korean tubs are rather small ; my best guess is that you are meant to sit with your knees raised rather than stretching out. The building is long and narrow so my apartment has windows on both the east and western sides of the building.

I also have two long narrow porches that run the length of the apartment. My unit is on the ground floor So Eli's barkin will only bother one person.

The front porch hold the washer and dryer while the back porch is empty and just begging to be filled with herbs.

The doors onto the porches are complicated affairs comprised of three pairs of sliding panels that meet in the center of the door. If all the windows are open in the apartment there is a really nice breeze but it is terribly humid here in the summer and so I am utilizing the enormous air conditioner.

The living room has a small couch, dinetter set, giant tower air conditioner, and a tv that I have no intention of using. Elias seems to approve of the set up.

The bedroom is probably 10 by 12 and comes with a queen size bed and two scary space heaters. I have a creeping suspicion that the house leaks heat like a sieve.

The kitchen has a full sized freezer and fridge, a rice maker that sings at you ( every electronic device sings in korea ) and two little burners on which I made dinner for my coteacher last night after wandering around Jeollanamdo filling out paperwork. My first big purchase here will be an oven large enough to roast a turkey.

After the tub I wasn't expecting any more suprises but the kitchen closet turned out to be a very small bedroom with enough clothes storage for me and my camping gear. It is of course in complete disarray.

More Mittens

2009-08-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

I am making these mittens for Michael and finally finished one of them while in quarantine for swine flu here on Southern South Korea.
They are 64 Stitches across and somewhat blocky looking but I think design wise they will keep his hands pretty warm. The simple cross pattern is actually difficult knit because half of it involves carrying and twisting the yarn behind the showing color. This has resulted in the mittens taking longer than usual though I think the second one will be finished in a few weeks.
I used Elsabet Lavold's "Silky Wool" which while not a warm as solid wool is not a horror to knit with in the summer and comes in some really wonderful colors.

Hwaeomsa Temple

2009-08-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

We all got in two buses and went to Hwaeomsa Temple this morning for about three hours. This is pretty ironic because it is the temple that I was accidentally taken to by the overzealous bus driver two days ago.

The temple is high up a side valley and is made up of three large courtyards separated by gates in a long rectangle with the buildings being ordered from least to greatest importance by their position. The more important the more gates there are and the more stairs you have to climb to get to it.

The monks who live in the temple live in the second courtyard. to get to their quarters on the main path you pass through the second gate house which has four giant figures staring down at you.
Each monk has a sliding door and a small room to call his own.

All the stairs are divided into three sections and apparantley the middle portion is reserved for the King or a god. Needless to say a few of the Canadians walked up the middle stair
Inside the third courtyard are about eight temples with the main one directly in front of you but interestingly obscured from sight by the lesson hall. I am not certain what the symbolism of this might be but considering how intricate everything elese is I am sure the placement of the building is pertinent.
The main temple was placed length wise towards people coming up the main stairs and while we were there a fairly intricate service was going on with seven or eight monks leading the chanting congregation.

It seemed to be a feast day of some sort or perhaps the temple is just a very liturgically active place but all three of the main temples had monks conducting services.

There were half a dozen of these stone pagodas which are the oldest buildings in the monastery; everything else was burnt to the ground by the japanese in the late 1500's. Each temple had a few giant gold Buddhas and like every other religous site I have ever been to a few old ladies paying their respects.

My favourite aspect of the temple was their method of roof upkeep. All the buildings are covered with tiles and those tiles are rather heavy, expensive, and numerous. So to cover the costs there is a tradition of donating a tile to the temple. You write your "best wishes" on the convex surface of the tile which is the placed facing th inside of the temple or building. I found it very charming and a nice way for the people to participate in the temple's fundament.

My First Korean Misadventure: A Fishy Bus Journey

2009-08-18T01:30:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had my first korean mishap in trying to get to this fish market in the town that I will be posted in. Fr whatever reason the market occurs on every day ending in the numbers three or eight and as you all know I am a sucker for markets and so I hoped on the bus and wandered down the valley a half an hour from the hotel.

The Market itself was actually fairly big taking up 3 or 4 small city blocks and having maybe a hundred stalls. There was an enire row devoted to fish. Some of those fish were more than slightly questionable considering that the temperature was well over 75 degrees and there was no ice on them. Even the fish that had ice were forlornly lying on top of bags of ice and not the ice itself. I think if I were to buy fish here it would be from the giant tupperware bins that still had live fish in them. I watched three octopus trying to escape into a sewer grate only to be apprehended by a 13 year old stall attendent on the last tentacle of their journey to freedom.

I then wandered uphill in the general direction of my school complex and found it after badly asking for directions from another middle school girl using my dictionary and a lot of pointing. All schools in Korea seem to have a courtyard filled with sand about the size of a football field. Behind the school are some ungodly ugly residential towers that look like one of Stalin's wet dreams where I fear my apartment will be.

Of greater interest was the fact that the Catholic Church in town is half a block from my school. It was really easy to find because every other church in town has the same hideous steeple which is usually attached to an old factory building. The catholic church on the other hand was acceptable even if it did have hideous windows.

The inside was pretty standard Asian Catholic. So I may be a good boy and drop in once in awhile and at the very least will have a place for high holy days albeit in Korean.

I went back to the bus station and was promptly directed to the wrong bus by a very helpful bus driver. I knew something was wrong when instead of going up the left side of the valley we went right and came upon this. There were definately no three story gates over the highway on the way from the hotel. So I got out of the bus and wandered around the statue garden. Apparently there is a temple at the top of the mountain but I had a three hour walk back to the hotel and figured I could do the temple some other day. Amusingly I walked in just in time for orientation icebreakers games providing further evidence that in a past life I killed many many kittens.

Tiny crabs

2009-08-18T01:28:00.001-07:00

Trying to teach the local toddlers how to gamble.

2009-08-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

More river platforms

2009-08-15T03:19:00.001-07:00

Today we wandered with fifty out of shape Canadians to the head of the valley. It was a 4 mile climbed up two lane roads with Koreans either honking their horn in disgust or lust at the Canadian girls in bikini tops. It was like March of the Penguins but with dehydrated white people.

At the top of the ridge there is a two tier dam where all the people in the valley go to swim on the weekends. Some enterprising person bought the land on either side of the river and has put up 12 by 12 table platforms on stilts where happy Korean families can go and play cards while cooking on their portable Hibachis. The platforms extend on both sides of the river for about a mile up to the dam. It was like Korean Norman Rockwell.

The Canadian Girls elicited a lot of attention from Korean men who apparently do not get to see cleavage because of a conservative culture and the petite bust size of Korean women. Amusingly enough some of the boys in group recieved giggles and a few brave calls of "Hey Sexy!" from the more adventurous women watching their moves like hawks and sizing up their earning potential as a future husband.

Korea makes me smile.

Elias was a center of attention as always

2009-08-15T03:17:00.001-07:00

Row of soon to be teachers

2009-08-15T03:15:00.000-07:00

The valley I'll be living in

2009-08-15T03:12:00.001-07:00

Korean pumpkins

2009-08-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

To Korea and Beyond

2009-08-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

It is my nature to be conservative. Not politically of course but philosophically and in the ways that I order my life and my dealings with the world around me. That being said so for it has been the case that when I have stepped past the normal boundaries that govern my life that I have been amazed, astonished, and more than likely blessed with happenings and people more interesting and astounding than my generally pedestrian existence would allow for.

It is with the hope for such encounters that I go to Korea tomorrow afternoon to teach for a year in the boondocks of South Jeolla province. I'm frankly trying to decide what to do with myself . My personal life in DC is happier than it has ever been. Michael is the sweetest of men and the most loving of partners and my friends are wonderful people. I am not off on some vague attempt to find myself, I know who I am as much as any 20 something does, but rather to find a function that I can be happy fulfilling.

I will not mention any place names in this blog or any names of people in Korea to avoid the ever present eye of google. Next week I'll post a map of where I am and contact information for mailings but the names of my town and school can't appear online. I'd imagine I'll post once a week and see what happens.

Elias is sure to be upset about the 15 hour flight but he'll recover I'm sure.

Oh Elias

2009-08-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Are you sure I can't go into storage instead of rural Korea?

Temple of the sum

2009-07-28T20:11:00.001-07:00

Machu pichu

2009-07-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

Peru!!!!

2009-07-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Peruvian schnauzer

2009-07-25T10:59:00.001-07:00

Cusco cathedral

2009-07-25T10:58:00.001-07:00

Last visit to this damned office

2009-07-10T05:09:00.000-07:00

2009-06-07T11:17:00.001-07:00

Monticello

2009-06-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Elias likes to snuggle

2009-06-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

Sushi is yummy

2009-05-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

Azalea bonsai

2009-05-24T21:35:00.001-07:00

Picture from a few months ago

2009-05-19T19:11:00.001-07:00

Hindu gods by my students

2009-05-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

Eli loved ice cream

2009-05-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

Elias waiting fir thai food

2009-05-01T10:38:00.001-07:00

Beans are sprouting

2009-04-24T15:23:00.001-07:00

Sarah Eli's African step Sister

2009-04-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

Someoen was compensating for a lack of Elias. I bet she's not as soft.

Elias sprawls ; he starts inside his bed and then ends up like this by morning

2009-04-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

Micheal is so cutesy

2009-04-13T16:49:00.001-07:00

At shenendoah national park.

Printing press lesson.

2009-04-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

Beginnings of the container garden

2009-04-04T15:14:00.001-07:00