the girls class

So I have this class first thing three days a week and it is by far, the most entertaining class that I have. I have taught these four girls, Yujin, Shihyun, Minyoung, and Harim, for about six months, and they have been a constant source of amusement for me. Every day one of them brings me a treat or a sticker, and every day they clamor for a game or some sort of entertainment, this may be why it has taken us almost four months to make it through our vary basic grammer book.
These are great kids and much to my almost constant amazement, they really seem to be leaning something from me. Even with their constant playing and climbing on me they seem to be grasping the rudiments of the english langauge.
They are even cuter than the pictures when we leave the class to go on one of our "field trips" and they all somehow have to find a way to hold my hands. They also each give me a hug, and sometimes a kiss on the cheek, when the bell rings.
Pictures
1. The girls in typical form, bottom Yujin, back row from left, Harim, Shihyun, and Minyoung
2. Minyoung just had to show everyone up and take a picture of her own.

Up North

I really love heading up north from Sokcho. You go up this long and winding road that parallels the sea and swings through little fishing villages and beach towns that litter the coast, and then, before you know it, you are there, at the last point in South Korea, the farthest north one can get with out heading into the D.P.R.K, or as it is more commonly known, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
This was my second visit up to the border, around fifty miles north of that mythical line in the sand, the 38th parallel.
Just like the last time I was up here you could not see anything going on on the northern side of the border. From where we were it looked completly peacful, covered in trees with an incredibly long, clean beach reaching from the border checkpoint to some rocky islets that were obviously part of the D.P.R.K.
Pictures-
1. This is what remains of Route 7. It sits here, at a lonely bend behind the observation platform. From looking at it now you would think that it was just a little overgrown road, but this road has seen a ton of traffic in its day as it was the main axis heading north on the east coast.
2. The north will do almost anything for a few dollars. Do you remember the stink they put up about the 25 million bucks in that bank in Macau? Well any way here at the border one can buy foodstuffs directly from our fraternal socialist comrades. Yes they may not have enough food for their own people but they can export soju and pretty good beer to their capitalist enemies in the south.
3. Proof that one only needs to wait a few years before the walls come tumbling down.
4. And to the right of the sign, the passport and control center for travel to the north, I sincerely doubt that the north has the same type of facility on their side of the border.

Monsoon Sorak

At the end of June, just like clockwork, the monsoon rains move up the Chinese coast, past Hong Kong and Tawian, and eventually make their way to Korea. They bring with them soaking rains and cool temperatures, perfect for growing rice and flowers, and as you can see, turning what are normally trickles of water into roaring cataracts as the water roars off the pourous limestone that, try as it might, cant hold any more water.
These pictures are from a pretty rainy day in Sorak-san national park. The rivers that you can see are usually no more than a thin ribbon of water, you can walk across them with just a little leap adn kick of the foot.

Helens Birthday

Helen's Birthday Pictures
1. Our cuisine for the night, boiled pork with oysters, cabbage, pancake, kimchi, and assorted other goodies
2. Pre dinner drinks at Helen's house
3. Hels and her new friend
4. The birthday girl gets her cake on!
5. The gangs all here

Last week the whole gang got together to celebrate Helen's birthday in true expat fashion, that is with drinks, karaoke, and lots of food.
We all headed over to the lucky birthday girls house on a warm Saturday evening about five thirty to enjoy some beer and vodka watermelon libations that I had whipped up with my new, at least new to me, blender.
After a few hours of drinks, snacks and stories while watching a gorgeous red sunset, we headed off for the birthday dinner of bossum, boiled pork, at our favorite place just down the road, Arirang Bossum.
It was a great crowd that we had that night. There were people from A.P. and Helen's school, Dari, along with friends from around Sokcho, both old and new as we ate drank, and had a good time.
After dinner we headed out to the Western to continue the party. I left early, as I usually do, to get in some time writing and hanging out at my place, but I here that the rest of the crowd hung out at the Western and then the Karaoke bar till about five that morning and a good time was had by all.

Goodbye to two good friends

Yesterday was finally the end of the Korean ride for Helen and Kirsty as they finished their contracts and headed out to North Korea, China, Kyrgestan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Turkey.
Guys, I dont know if you will ever read this but I just wantd to say that you have been great friends and I am sad to see you go. I wish you all the luck in the world and I hope that your trip is as great as you hope, I will miss you.
Thanks for the memories!
Ara
Pictures
1. Kirsty giving a present to our bosses, Won-gi and Yeon-soo
2. Kirsty in fine form cracking open her last bottle of two dollar champion for some pre trip drinks
3. The girls, packs and gear ready to go

The Unknown Festival

Walking into Yang Yang on our little stroll we were pleasantly surprised to find some sort of cultural festival going on with a big market around the festival grounds selling lots of junk. It was really cool to see the normally reserved Korean masses out enjoying themselves in the sun light. We even saw, gasp, kids without computers playing games, something that you don't see much of here int he land of the morning calm.
After grabbing some much needed street food, we were kind of famished after our little trek, we headed down to the festival proper and checked out the archery and tug of war competitions. Not the best festival that I have ever been to but it was a nice way to spend the day.
Pictures
1. For lunch we had these really nice corn pancakes stuffed with onions.
2. At most shooting galleries at fairs and such one wins games and toys for the little kiddies, not true however here in Korea. If you are a real dead eye Dan one can win bottles of whisky! You have to love living here sometimes.
3. For seven hundred plus years this bow was the mainstay of Korean defence, now it is regulated to archery clubs but it is still fun to see in action. This little bow fires arrows a long, and I mean a long , way.
4. The tug of war action really starts to heat up.
5. You have to love a country like Korea that takes drinking to places the rest of the world only dreams about. In Korea you can get the potent national liquor, soju, at any store, day or night, for the low price of ninety cents or so. It comes in little plastic flasks, big two liter bottles, little glass bottles, and for the kiddies, a juice box version, perfect for the lunch box. Here we see the good marketing tactics of the Jinro company at work trying to lure some young customers by dressing up as your friendly soju bottle

Today was a gorgeous day to walk along the back roads to Yang Yang, a small market town south of Sokcho. Paul and I set off around 11:30 and walked about three hours through woods, fields, and small farming towns.
I really love to get out into rural Korea where the people are always nice and eager to talk, even with a couple of waygooks like us.
The whole trip was fairly short as far as hikes go, we were at our destination about three hours after setting out but it was worth it to get out and enjoy some nature before the monsoon rains come and then the horrible humidity.
Along the way we were both impressed with how green the country looked. Everywhere you turn in Korea right now the hills and fields are alive with the green colour that we were hardly able to see through the long brown winter. Now the fields are filled with new rice plants busily growing in a thin film of water and flowers are busily blooming in every nook and cranny, there are so many flowers that every time you take a breath the air reeks of honeysuckle and myriad other flowers that I cannot name.
Pictures
1. A nice country road, who knows what is around the bend?
2. An old tower of some sort, here for a very long time. It could be an old watch tower, maybe a beacon tower for signalling, but its use was probably much more mundane. It was probably some sort of grain storage.
3. An old abandoned house that we found in, literally, the middle of nowhere. We walked up and looked inside but it had been totally cleaned out.
4. And now for something truly differ ant, a herd of goats that appeared out of nowhere.