Things have dried up here a little bit, and clean up efforts are still under way. Getting around is a lot easier now, so we set out to find a giant flea market I heard about, but with no luck. I think I got the day wrong or something. We did however find some tunnel with ajumas selling trinkets and some random clothes and things. We picked up a few little key chain things to give to some Vietnamese kids when we head that way. It is always a good idea to make friends with the locals, I think. Treating children to random little things is a good way to make people happy and welcoming! 

After bumming around the Ttukseom area, north of the river, we headed back to Gangnam and found a massive and stylish coffee shop and had some sandwiches and iced coffee before Josh and Ryan found the batting cages and worked up a real sweat. I began to feel pretty sick by the afternoon, some stomach something, so I headed home and slept the whole afternoon and evening. Woke feeling somewhat better, a little groggy from all that sleep! 

  Some photos from this weekend:

What distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their ability to act according to their beliefs ~Henry Miller

water in the city

Josh and I never take taxis, not anymore anyway (that is another story). We have become experts at public transportation, navigating the hundreds of bus lines and dozens of subways. So when at 7:15am I said with a hint of worry in my voice that we should maybe take a taxi to work it should be an indicator of how intensely it was raining yesterday morning. I love rain, it doesn’t bring me down or slow me down, in fact I welcome it! But this was more than rain; this was probably hour eight of non-stop torrential downpour. Of course we skipped the taxi and instead packed some extra shoes and I put on my knee-high rain boots, we grabbed our giant umbrellas and began the five minute walk to the bus stop. Down down down the hill we went and as we reached the intersection and we call “our intersection” we noticed a lack of cars, a lack of people, and well, a lack of road or even sidewalk! A two-foot deep lake had replaced our intersection, and traffic was not going through, except a brave vehicle here or there. Not sure what to do we looked for the bus stop, foolishly thinking it would still be an option to take our bus. After a motorist came through causing a hip high wave that drenched us completely we abandoned the idea of the bus and trekked in the other direction to the subway station. Underground we will be dry, so we thought. We made our way back across our neighborhood to Yeoksam station, every few steps being blinded by close lightening and equally shook by its accompanying thunder. Once in the station we felt some security, so we called work, told them we’d be late, for sure, but we were on our way.

Bangbae station, our stop for this particular trip. Second to Sadang station, it’s closest neighbor, was the place hit the hardest by the heavy rains, and as we tried to exit the station there were scores of people lined up in the stairway, huddled from the rain. We made our way our hoping to catch a bus to our school, and we were greeted with quite a shock- the water was rushing down the streets like a mountain river in spring, causing meter high waves at the side of every car. The water was brown and muddy and the scene lingers in my memory. Going to work seemed foolish and insane to me, but work is the most important thing to most Koreans, so even after many calls to work, they insisted that we try to get there. Walking seemed the best bet at this point, traffic was at a stand still, cars could hardly make it up the hill in opposition to the water rushing down the hill. As we walked along with hundreds of other people, all stranded, needing to be somewhere, we stopped along the way to determine if crossing was safe, for certain places the water was rushing so fast that one slip would mean injury or worse…

Finally one woman informed us to not go further because there had just been a landslide, so it was not safe to go up any further, nor was it safe to go back down, so we stayed. The smell of the air became dank and earthy, an eerie smell, considering we knew what it was now. And then the water began to really flow, along with trees and rocks and dirt and branches. Debris getting stuck on cars, crashing into buildings and making for a dangerous morning for all! Over 30 people died because of the landslides, it was crazy, scary, intense and dirty! After three hours outside, my boots were filled with mud and water, my skirt and shirt and hair were all wet and dirty, our fingers were wrinkled as if we’d been in a hot tub for an hour. We got the word from work that we didn’t need to come in. Finally! Then we began our trek home. Less dangerous, yet quite uncomfortable. Power was out in a major portion of the city south of the river and water lines had been cut in many areas as well. We had both, luckily. Emergency vehicle sirens rang out through the city, desperate to get through the grid locked traffic to those injured in the landslides.

Crews began working immediately and are still working around the clock to clear water and debris. And the rain keeps coming down…. I didn't have my camera, so I borrowed someone's to take a few snapshots of the aftermath, here ya go!

cars submerged at Daechi station. Cars have been abandoned and are still littering the streets. There was some fear that subway stations would collapse under the weight and pressure of the water up top.

one of the landslides, photo courtesy of Yonhap News

about one hour before I took this shot I was on the other side of the street, where those men are, as this thing was sliding down. Good Samaritans were helping people cross dangerous areas like this one.

the sidewalk

barricades were put up to help keep water from flowing down into the subway stations

to see some footage from Korean news check out these videos:

and another one

city workout mountain and more

About a fifteen minute walk from our house is this really neat forest park/workout facility. Leave it to the Koreans, with their crazy healthy bodies, their commitment to their appearance, being in shape, etc. to create and maintain a very elaborate system of outdoor gyms. This could be called a small mountain or a large hill, depending on how you compare it. It spans a lot of area with its steep hiking paths and thick forested ravines. Throughout the cris crossing trails and paths are little “turn-offs” leading to these gyms with pull up bars at many heights, inverted benches for sit-ups, exercise bicycles and free weights, some workout “machines” that look like they are from the 70’s, some strange machine’s that I have no idea what they do, and my favorite: hula hoops! Hula hoops of all sizes and weights, just hanging from pegs here and there, or a tree branch, or the one I happen to like best is at this kind of gazebo thing with Wisteria growing all around and over the top. The wonderful thing about this mountain/hill/gym is that it isn’t just one big area with all these options for working out, it’s dozens, scores probably, all tucked away in a dense part of the trees, or on top of hill with a cool view, or in a deep gully, all seemingly private and serene, all outside and all free! So not only can we do some mild hiking, get away from the din of the traffic and breathe some fresh air, but we can do pull ups and pec flies if we want!

Of course the lovely Belka is in heaven when we go up there, she got to chase some bunnies and get exhausted. It’s still fun to have her here at our place, despite the white dog hair that is now everywhere and her (natural) desire to have to pee at seven am, but we love her still.

 Summer school started today. After a seriously relaxing weekend exploring our neighborhood more and spending every day with Peeps, we begrudgingly set our alarms for the crack of dawn and started another chapter of our lives as teachers. Summer school. It is so easy, and actually fun! There are those days, or even weeks, when I wonder if I even like teaching, if I’m any good at it, these kinds of doubts, well, it’s gigs like this one that make me like what I do! I have a class of twelve students, at an advanced level, so basically all fluent in English (which I requested), and we have class from about nine 'til noon each day, with the curriculum already prepared for me and complete freedom in the classroom to conduct things how they fit for my students and for me. It’s great, and after meeting my kids today I think we will have a good three weeks! So it’s not bad to be doing a half day each day and not to mention Josh and I are at the same school for this, so it makes our early morning bus ride more enjoyable.

Tomorrow for dinner we are going to Josh’s coworker Kim Ni Young’s house for dinner, for some Korean home cooking, which will be fun, and it happens to be in the artsy Hongdae neighborhood that we love so much, so we’ll probably bum around for a bit before or after.

I hope that everyone is enjoying summer, and living each moment to the fullest! xo 

easy living...

regular session of school is out for the summer, giving us a super long weekend before our summer school starts, which is gonna be a piece of cake. only twelve-ish students per class and off by one o'clock, easy. we are happily dog sitting for Nathan and Irina while they are out of town for ten days, enjoying our time with the amazing little Belka in our little home. She is such a good dog and brings a playful energy into our  lives.

Josh was busy brewing beer with some friends so Belka and I went to the top of Namsan, a mountain in the middle of the city. It was a hot afternoon, humid and threatening to form a lightening storm. we slowly made our way to the lookout point, working up a sweat and a serious thirst. The view was beautiful, but slightly obscured by the coming clouds.

after a few snapshots we made our way along some of the nice trails that cover the mountain and eventually made our way down to go meet Josh and Kevin for a game of dice over a beer at the mini mart. it was too hot to stick around, however, so we played quickly and headed home. 

today was our free day off! a friday with no plans. we found an awesome score on craigslist, a backpack for less than five dollars! So we took the hour or so walk to get there, through a new neighborhood in our district. We needed to buy a backpack for our upcoming Vietnam trip, and this one was perfect! I don't know why this lady was selling it for so cheap, I would have paid thirty for it... but five is way better. It was a successful walk that left us and the dog pretty tired. Now we rest for a few hours, Ryan is over, a serious game of chess is in progress between the guys. We will make dinner soon and head out into the hot night to find some adventures!

as promised i'll show you the updates to my project of mastering night photography. still have lots to learn, but it's a fun learning experience!

love, nic

On finishing a good book

I just finished a good book, The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I hadn’t read this book for years and saw it on Nate’s bookshelf, the same copy I read years ago when I lived in Germany! I sent that copy with him on his travels when he was visiting me in Garmish-Partenkirchen some five years ago (!!).  After all these years I was happy to have it back, considering my lack of books in this country. I only packed two books with me and those are long since finished!  Except for my NY Times crossword book, which is quickly filling up.

The Sorrows of Young Werther: a touching tale of a young man tormented by love. It is a beautiful glimpse into a world of many generations ago, a simpler time, yet still such rich and complex emotions are portrayed through the exchange of letters between Werther and his good friend. Werther has a passion for nature and knowledge; he is a gentle and sensitive young man, loafing through life at a slow and easy pace. The book is largely based on a period of time in the authors own life, which I did not know the first time reading it (should’ve read that forward). Knowing this now made me have a new love for Goethe, I feel akin to him in his love for nature and deep emotions.

Having finished the book I became eager to replace it quickly for I can not stand going too long without a new story to indulge in. In our adventures around Seoul this past weekend we happened upon two separate libraries, on two separate days, in two opposite ends of the city.  Both were, well, kind of a failure. I love libraries, and so to say it was only a failure would be silly, but did we find any books to take home? No. The buildings themselves were beautiful and the grounds surrounding one of the libraries was something like an estate, well manicured, luscious and green! I found one section with English language books, with not very many titles, but I imagined I could find something; I’m not too picky. No go, they had the most bizarre and boring collection of books. No novels and no poetry, lots of nonfiction, mostly about the English language, which makes sense.

I ended up taking the long walk to the express bus terminal subway station, which is more like an underground city, I knew of a bookstore about four stories underground. I checked it out. Pretty decent foreign book section, but what? Freaking expensive! I mean 33,000 won for a paperback Moby Dick? That’s about 30 dollars, FYI. I just couldn’t get myself to pay that price. I miss Powells. So I continued my quest for a good read, and ended up in the expat neighborhood Iteawon, where there is a beautiful little bookstore with sliding shelves and stacks of old magazines and a dusty back shelf with records, this place is splendid!

 I found everything I could have wanted there and then some. They even have a philosophy section (with about 7 books, but hey….). I picked up a few paperback novels that I’ve never heard of, but sounded interesting enough, both with a strong female character. While I Was Gone by Sue Miller and one other that I can’t recall now, cause it’s at home. So I guess I will see! I don’t even really mind reading a book that isn’t all that awesome, as long as it keeps my attention, I figure everything I read helps me to be a master of my language and gives me ideas for my own writing!

So here’s to books, to authors, to readers, to writing in general!  Through this brilliant use of our words we can communicate and entertain, immortalizing people and capturing entire time periods and specific states of being.

Some of my favorite excerpts from The Sorrows of Young Werther:

"There is something coldly uniform about the human race. Most of them have to work for the greater part of their lives in order to live and the little freedom they have left frightens then to such an extent that they will stop at nothing to rid themselves of it. Oh, human destiny!"

"Nothing can fill me with such true, serene emotion as any features of ancient, primitive life like this. ... Oh, how thankful I am that my heart can feel the simple, harmless joys of the man who brings to the table a head of cabbage he has grown himself, and in a single moment enjoys, not only the vegetable, but all the fine days and fresh mornings since he planted it, the mild evenings when he watered it, and the pleasure he felt while watching it grow."