I'm gone!

This is the last post for a couple of weeks as I am heading off to the Laos Peoples Democratic Republic. I will post pictures and I hope lots of stories when I get back.
Take care all,
ara

skiing

With Rachel and Nate, Ruthies brother and sister, here in Sokcho for the first time, we wanted to show them a good time by planning a little skiing trip at Yeong Pyong, South Korea's premier ski resort, and a hopeful Olympic site. Alas it was not to be as both Nate and Ruthie were crippled by some sort of weird stomach bug, but their lose was a gain for Carrie Ann and Ashley, two beginner skiers who were able to make the trip with us on short notice.
After leaving Sokcho very early we drove south and west, deep into the largely snow less mountains, finally getting a view of man made runs off in the distance.
After the girls got geared up, I didn't have to thanks to Jason (I owe you brother) we headed out.
The skiing itself was a blast, especially in the morning before the real big crowds got there and the snow as all pushed to the sides of the runs.
After teaching Carrie Ann, who is from Zimbabwe, and Ashley, from Maryland, two girls who had never skied before the rudiments of getting down the hill without killing themselves Rachel and I headed up and explored the mountain.
Even though the snow was almost entirely man made and Koreans ski like they drive, with no cares or fear of others and without looking around, stopping and sitting in the middle of the run is quite normal, the day was great as we skied thousands of vertical feet.
From trails to wide open runs we carved turn after turn down the mountain and I even got to get on a couple of black diamond runs despite the late afternoon crowds.
We had such a good time on the lower peaks that we never got to ride the gondola up to the far peak and do a 5900 meter run, but oh well, there is always next time.
Pictures
1. Rachel and I getting ready to head out
2. Rachel at the top of Gold Peak
3. The view from the top of Red Peak
4. Ashely looking up to the puppy slide (as Carrie Ann christened the bunny hill)
5. An actual action shot of Ashley in mid wipe out

nate and rachel in sorak-san

Another trip to Sorak-san, this time with Ruthies brother and sister. No matter how many times I come to this park I am always amazed by the stunning beauty of the mountains. Wether it is summer, fall, winter, or spring there is always something stunning to see here in thies exceptionally beautiful part of Korea, if there is a god he did create paradise here.
Pictures
1. The Wilson family with the biggest Buddha in Korea
2. Look, another temple shot
3. A Buddhist shrine
4. Another temple
5. View from the cave at dusk

dick sticks

Korea is filled with fun little products that you don't see any ware else. This is my current favorite.
"Hungry? Grab a Dick Stick!!!"

saturday cook off

A couple of weeks ago I was challenged to a little cooking contest by one of Ruthies friends, Ashley. We set a Saturday and proceeded to out do each other. She made an excellent Indonesian dish called Bami, chicken and noodles over rice, layered with a mix of soy sauce and brown sugar and I made pasta with clams in white wine with pork wrapped scallops, in the end we ate a lot of food, and really too much butter, and drank a ton of wine.
Pictures-
1. Bami
2. A little appetizer I like to make, chillies, mango cheese, horseradish and jelly on crackers.
3. Wrapping scallops and tomatoes in pork
4. Ashley and I in the kitchen
5. A mess of clams and noodles

seafood

What one gets in the Sokcho fish market for a whopping thirteen dollars. A kilo each of scallops, oysters, and clams

a sunday drive

Well not only is it prime driving season here in the good old land of morning calm, a perfect time to get out and see early winter at its brownest, with the rice fileds and mountains brown and crusty from the lack of rain, but it is also election time!
For the first time in four years it is time for a national election as the current pretender to the Korean throne is bound by the national constitution to hand over his seat on 19 January.
The leading claiment to the throne is the great manipulater, Lee Hyung Baek, currently being investigated for alleged insider trading. This fine upstanding citizen is the candidate put forth by the ulra-conservative grand national party.
All together there are 12 men vying for the golden sepctor that will give them control over the entire country.
What does this mean? For me, not alot except that we get a day off as an election day here is a national holiday.
In the long term though this election could very probably be the end of my time in Korea as with it comes the promise of new visa changes that will more closely govern and control my time here in K-land.
So my salute goes out to K-Land for so generously fucking over a huge portion of the mostly dedicated teachers who have helped to strengthen their society.
Pictures-
1. Rice fields waiting for next spring, Sorak-san is in the distance.
2. The twelve men waiting for 19 January, Lee Myung Baek is number two.
3. On the streets of Sokcho the banners, and the dancing girls are everywhere trying to lure the voters.
4. An old shrine on a desserted road.

kimchi

Fall here in Korea means Kimchi making time, and for our trusty band of foreigners that meant getting together the ingredients and heading over to Paul and Aubry's house so that we could make this staple of Korean Cuisine.
For those of you who may live in a black hole and not know about kimchi it is a slightly spicy fermented cabbage dish that is served at literally every Korean meal from breakfast to a late night snack.
While the main ingredients of chili powder, fish sauce, dicon, and cabbage stay basically the same, the periphery ingredients can include all manner of seafood and other asian vegetables. Even though it takes a little while to get used to for some people it almost invariably grows on people and you get to the point where you cannot envision a meal without it.
Pictures-
1. The ingredients we would be using.
2. The sacred red pepper powder, a stable of every, and I mean every, dish in the Korean cookbook.
3. At work, mixing up the goodness.
4. The finished product.
5. Ruthie sampling

thanksgiving one

Thanks to the greatness of Costco we were able to have thanksgiving party at ECC, where Ruthie works, with all the trimmings. It was great to have turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and everything else people brought from steamed pumpkin to Etheopian grain (thanks Jen!) A totally awesome thanksgiving with some great friends.

pictures

1. The sacred bird

2. The table all layed out.

3. Everyone ready to eat, Brits, South Africans, and Americans.

4. Brian holding the newest addition to his family.

thanskgiving two

Ah Thanksgiving, a time for friends, family and everyone to be togethor. Unless of course you live in Korea and you can leave the family out of the equation and have a pot luck. Anyway, both thanksgiving celebrations that I went to were really nice international affairs bringing together Americans, Brits, Canucks, and of course, the obligitory Koreans. Good times were had by all.

At this celebration at Paul and Aubs we had pizza, roast chicken, stuffing, a lot, and I mean alot, of mashed spuds, three differant kinds of salad, gravy, and my pastry filled sausage rolls, along with pumpkin pie and cheese cake.

Pictures-

1. Ruthie getting ready to eat chicken.

2. Babbi, Kelsey, and Rebacca

3. A portion of the mass of food on the table

4. Seaumus ogles a really nice piece of cheese cake all dressed up.

up on scary mountain

I wish I could take credit for this post but Ruthie gave such a good description of life up on Scary Mountain that I decided to just use hers, it is better than I could do anyway.

Hi, All!
It has, yet again, been quite awhile since I have updated everyone on my travels. After the weekend I just had it is a good idea to let you all that I am happy, healthy, and still enjoying myself. Two amazing things happened to me this weekend, the second of which changed my life and made me part of a very "elite" club that I am not sure I am proud to be a member of... read on, if you think you can handle it!
On Saturday, Ara and I decided to take a drive up north to an area called the Punchbowl. This is an area famous for a huge battle that was fought during the Korean War. It is named the "punchbowl" because it is surrounded on all sides by mountains, and does indeed resemble a bowl. It was a beautiful drive and we stopped frequently to take pictures and sample homemade mandu (wontons) at a road side stand. Around 2pm we decided to try and find a quaint place to enjoy some traditional Korean food. We needed to head south towards Inje, which is one town away from Sokcho to the north. Ara gave me the choice of taking the high road through the mountains or continuing back the same way we came. I thought the mountains might provide us with some beautiful photo ops of the Punchbowl, so I chose the high road. I guess I am taking all responsibility by saying that...haha
Everything was going great, and we were having a blast singing along with his iPod- until we were more than half way up the mountain. It had been lightly snowing the whole time were in the Punchbowl, but we didn't think anything about it because we are both from places that get a lot of snow. The snow was not laying on the ground and I didn't figure the fact of snow into my decision to go into the mountains (in my defense). Anyway- here we were, half way up a mountain and all of a sudden it starts snowing really, really, really hard. Ara eased up on the engine and we started getting nervous when we came upon a parked car that took off in front of us and couldn't stop from fish tailing. The car pulled off shortly and we continued on at a very slow pace. Things went from bad to worse when the white out conditions started as we reached the peak. I convinced Ara that I should drive because I have more experience driving on hills in snow, although my track record for driving in the snow is not that great, he consented and along we went- for another 200ft. As we rounded a bend we were approached by a police man who told us in broken English that we could wait for an hour to go down or we could turn around and go back. As we were trying to communicate with him, Ara looked in the rear view mirror to see an Army truck doing donuts behind us in an attempt to stop.
The Koreans decided to sit and wait for an hour and we decided to not let things get worse- we wanted out while the getting was not too awful. On the way back down we flagged down the few cars that were trying to do the same thing we had been and told them the road was closed in our very limited Korean. They all seemed surprised, although we couldn't decide if their surprise was from the fact that foreigners were actually speaking Korean to them or if the road was closed even though they couldn't even see it...
We dubbed the mountain "Scary Mountain," and changed the words to old songs on the way back down professing our undying respect for this snow covered death trap. This lifted our spirits and calmed our shaky nerves. On the right side of the road was a drop off that we could not see the bottom of, and the switch backs were unrelenting, as they had been on our sojourn up.
Forty-five minutes later we finally reached the bottom of the Punchbowl safely, and were surprised to see that it had not started snowing any harder than it had been when we started up. This time Ara made the decision to take the generally flat road back to Inje.
The next item for business was finding some place to eat. I had noticed a small little mom-n-pop on the way and when I saw it again, I suggested that we stop here for dinner. Once again, I am assuming responsibility for this decision and the "elite" club to which we are now members...
We walked into the restaurant confidently, and did our best to read the sign in Hangul. By the looks of the tables we were in a traditional Korean-style BBQ place were the meat is cooked in the center of the table in front of you. I might add that the sign indicated that this was a "Best Restaurant Eatery." We had never been let down by these signs before so we decided to stay and give it a try. Neither Ara nor I recognized any of the names of the dishes, but this is not unusual. We were greeted warmly by the owners and tried our best to tell them what we wanted. We ended up getting "tang" or stew-like soup.
Once the meal arrived we were so hungry that we both dug right in, and were soon singing the praises of this delicious stew. We both commented a couple of times about how lucky we were to have stopped at the first place we saw and get such a great meal on a chance... after our hunger had been satisfied a little we both started to wonder out loud what kind of meat it was. Upon first glance it looked like beef, but it was way too stringy and soft to be beef. Ara thought it might be pork, but there was skin still attached to some of the pieces and it was way too oily to be pork. I kinda got sick at the idea that we might be eating pork in which the skin had been left on. That is so dirty!
We ruled out other meat options and both stopped and looked at each other with horror in our eyes- we both realized at the same time that we were eating- AND ENJOYING!!! dog meat. To be sure, Ara called a friend of his who is fluent in Korean and has tasted dog before, and asked him to describe what a tasty bowl of dog soup would look like. He described exactly what we were enjoying and raving about. To be sure, Ara took a picture of the sign on his cell phone and sent it to his friend. The text message that came back read, "You monsters-you just ate dog- welcome to the club you horrible people!"
Under any other circumstances I don't think I would have ever tried dog, but now that I know what I am missing... I find myself eyeing up every little dog who crosses my path, thinking, I wonder... JUST KIDDING!!!!! To be honest I feel guilty for enjoying it as much as I did.
Well that was my adventure. I hope that you can find it in your hearts to keep me as a friend, even though I am a dog eater.
Hope all is well in the West. Have a wonderful holiday season!
Pictures

1. You have to both weigh limits on your signs here in the ROK both tank and truck. You never know when the Norks are going to attack.

2. Korea in the depths of winter.

3. Up on Scary Mountain.

4. What can happen if you go off the wrong side of Scary Mountain.

5. Ruthie, trying to figure out directions.

dog goodness

So here are some pictures of the wonderful puppy soup. And I am not kidding, it was really freaking good. A little oily and greasy, puppy is not known as a very lean meat but really tender. I think that they cook Fido a really long time to get it so soft. They also leave the skin on, this can be a little bit disturbing but over all, a great soup, not really spicy at all but good and hot. As with all foods in Korea it is served with kimchi, in this place we had three kinds, cabbage, radish, and water, onions and peppers to dip into red bean paste, rice, and some sort of sauce to dip the meat into.

Pictures

1. The spread all laid out.

2. Ruthie freaking out for some unknown reason

3. The soupy goodness.