More river platforms

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

Row of soon to be teachers

The valley I'll be living in

Korean pumpkins

Sent from my iPhone

To Korea and Beyond

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

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