ten things i'm into this week:

10 things I’m into this week: in no particular rank or order

Apricots. They are juicy and perfect right now and I think they are so amazing.

Pinterest.com: A really great visual bookmarking website that is full of inspiration and ideas for organization and style. I particularly love the gardening section!

8tracks and music in general. As always.

Painting with watercolors, even though I’m not very experienced there is something really rewarding about transforming all that white paper into something colorful. Just add water…

the masterpieces of Josh, Nicole, and Ryan

Spanish verbs. Yes, it’s true, here in Korea Josh and I are both plugging away at our Spanish skills. I’ve been going through my flashcards like a diligent college student (oh I remember those days), and Josh is glued to Rosetta Stone. Josh made a good point that learning a language feels a lot easier now that we are teaching it. We clearly can see the results in our students, and all it takes is practice and repetition and some commitment. And how nice it will be to speak in the native tongue if we find ourselves in Spain next year….

Planning trips. This is so fun, of course it is! I have been reading and researching all that I can about Vietnam and Beijing and searching for airfare, how to get our visas, places to stay, and what section of the Mekong Delta to take a river cruise up! Pretty exciting stuff.

M*A*S*H. yes the old TV show. We have watched a couple old episodes from this show in the past few days. It is funny, it is goofy, it takes place near Seoul, and so a lot of names of places are referenced.

Silly you tube videos.  Like this one and this and also this. I think that by teaching middle school students I am slowly adopting their love for silly viral internet videos. I want to find the funniest, stupidest, most entertaining thing I can to show my classes and I always laugh the first few times I watch them. By the end of the week I’ve usually seen each video 20 times, so it does lose a little of it’s luster…

Bulgarian food at Zelen. This is an incredible restaurant in Iteawon, just north of the Han River. Josh and I shared a stellar dinner with Mr. Ryan McCoy and Cat (in town from Portland! Yay!) . It was by far the nicest night all summer, it had rained for a few days then cleared up, so the air was clean and the humidity was low, we sat outside on their garden terrace on top of a hill and drank sparkling wine and ate like royalty. I had pork-something-amazing with smoked cheese and veggies and stuffed tomatoes. Delicious. I love long dinners that last for hours into the night, full of good conversation, good food, good drinks and good energy.

Chess. The games are getting more intense and more frequent and I can tell we are learning a lot. I am glad that I began to play at such an early age, against my dad and my brother. My brother can kick my ass in about five minutes, but he could do that to probably almost anybody. I still enjoy playing him and usually get to do so a few games a week. Josh and I are a closer match, but he’s got far more wins against me than I do him (I move to hastily I think, or some other excuse…).

What are you into this week?

the beautiful DMZ

In the very NE corner of South Korea, just minutes from the border with the rivals up north, lies a beautiful town, with an incredible coastline. In the area surrounding Sokcho, South Korea are small and rural villages with rice farms and gardens galore. Small shanty-esque dwellings clustered on the hillsides are the foreground of the scores of mountain peaks all around. Everything seemed to be in bloom and the freshness of the sea air was very refreshing. Mixed in with one teeny neighborhood of humble homes and terraced gardens was one very out of place home. A mansion! Nothing about it seemed very Korean at all, except the lack of beds and ample supply of sleeping cushions (super comfortable, actually). The house had a really big open layout, half a dozen bedrooms and and bathrooms, really nice front and back porches with tables and benches lining them. Sixteen people all together were the inhabitants of this home for three days. What a blast it was. We all pitched in and did one large grocery shopping trip and ate like queens and kings every meal, with leftovers! There was a BBQ and a Mexican food feast and brunches that rival the Portland restaurant scene.

When we were not eating or relaxing around our little yard we were pretty much at the beach. The ocean was the most beautiful tropical sea blue color and the vast open beach was nearly empty.... it isn't "beach season" in Korea yet and it would be too outside the social norms to hit the sand before it was "normal". That was just fine with us, we managed to get a massive wiffle ball game going, and  played lots of frisbee. It was hot and sunny, the water was....um....refreshing (read: cold!). Everyone got a sunburn, I mean everyone. No matter how much sunscreen we were continually applying. The sun was so intense for our pasty white winter skin. I was happy as could be swimming in the water for hours while losing feeling in my limbs from the coldness.... it is hard for me to leave the water!

One of the most dangerous and heavily guarded borders in the world happens to be very beautiful and calm, creating an interesting contrast of thoughts and ideas. We took one morning off from our beach duty and drove the really short drive to the DMZ. It was a strange and cool experience. After a somewhat long process of registering our cars and all the passengers and paying a small fee we proceeded to the gate where heavily armed soldiers were checking the cars and paperwork before admitting anyone to the border. As we drove on past the check point the scenery became very desolate and tall barbed wire fences were just everywhere we looked. The beautiful untouched beach to our east and the menacing isolated enemy to our north. We walked up to an observation deck and there it was! North Korea, but it was hard to see much. There is a five kilometer DMZ in between the countries, no one lives there, no one goes there, nothing is seen there, except a big road with no cars on it and an empty train track and some empty buildings and of course the beautiful beach and lots of barbed wire.

At the border there was a North Korean market, not sure how they got that up and running, I think it is something that was grandfathered in from about forty years ago, when relations between the two countries were more stable. They were selling various foods and alcohol products and trinkets. There was a major demand for the rumored delicious North Korean beer. Sure enough it was killer! Beats any Korean beer I've had so far, but then again, this country is notorious for having bad brews. Along with a market and a few places to eat there is a cool park with a giant white buddha statue and some artifacts from the Korean War.... which my Grandfather fought in! We hung around enjoying our beer, the scenery, our friends, and especially being on the free side of the border! 

We made the most of our time and pushed it until the final time we had to leave! Of course it is hard to leave vacation, especially at such a beautiful, remote place, knowing that work is looming so close in the morning. And of course we are tired and dragging a little today, but it's worth it for sure! June and July will be a little busy here at school.... lots of exams and projects to work on. Then Vietnam in August! I miss my people back home! Take care of yourselves. 

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

— HENRY DAVID THOREAU 

love love love

away from the city....

....and to the beautiful countryside we went! Chuncheon province, outside of the city, to be exact. It was a short, but super sweet trip. Just a few days, but the days felt long, and in such a good way, not like those days at work that feel long. Our traveling companions were Ryan and Ida, and we had a blast together.

Chuncheon is famous for being the home of dakgalbi, which just so happens to be my favorite Korean dish thus far. It's spicy chicken stir fried with loads of cabbage and bean sprouts and dukbokki. Delicious. When we are not traveling this often, our local dakgalbi spot is a weekly meeting spot for Nate and Irina and Josh and I. They had a street dedicated to the food! The whole street and all the side alleyways were lined with restaurants serving the exact same thing! So we picked one and chowed down....

However we were on a mission.... to get out of the city! And that we did, we found a cheap cozy little hotel on the bus route to the high mountain hydro electric dam, which was a jumping off point, by boat or by hiking, to some remote forest areas and lush mountain trails. We took a refreshingly cool boat ride, a treat from the hot hot heat of the day....

Once we got to our destination we moseyed around the shaded paths and passed interesting vendors and restaurants. One of them was this sidewalk stand, equipped with it's bright, carnival-esque umbrella, where a guy was selling this thick dark brown juice from some giant roots he had lying around next to his cart. We gave it a try, and it was well.... really earthy and dense and tasted like some serious rootness! Josh liked it, and ended up finishing up all of ours, we didn't  love it as much as he did. But that is just how it goes sometimes, you have to try that strange and exotic thing, especially when it is only available in one place, at that one time!

mmmmm.....

We hiked our way up and up and up and believe it or not we came upon a temple! It is strange that temples, whether in the city or on a hiking trail, are now just normal to see, and not very surprising or exotic seeming. This was a really special place, the buildings were terraced upon the mountainside, with small bells ringing from the nice breeze that had kicked up. The buildings were enormous, and colorful as usual, but my favorite was the fresh running stream that weaved through the mountainside, with perfect shallow rocky areas to hang out and cool off.

We chatted riverside for a while, allowing our appetite to build again, for our third batch of dakgalbi (it is so different each place!). We hiked back down and once to a lower elevation there was this killer restaurant that had the most amazing dinning room ever, the river! It literally had these wooden decks resting on the rocks and cliffs that surrounded the small river, so the water was running underneath us as we ate and drank this strange milky rice wine... makgoli. 

We had to leave on the last boat well before sunset so we had some time to bum around the small neighborhood near or hotel and hang out outside a mini mart playing cards and taking in the beautiful sunset. The evening ended with a nice walk across the big and fast flowing river to see some rural farms by night and a few strange statues along the way. 

What a success the trip was, and still it is always good to come home. We are in town for five days before heading off to the east coast this weekend to celebrate Nathan's 30th birthday.... beach house style!! So more to come soon!