good friends.............

Good friends. Man. They make up those moments, those memories, which in the end, seem to be the lampposts of our life. So, when my good friend Kathy Christensen came to Korea recently for a 9 day visit, we were happily in pursuit of fresh deposits to our respective memory banks to provide light on other less light days to come. What fun.

The first night out we went to a local performance called Namsadang nori. It's an outdoor performance made up of some rope walking, plate spinning, acrobatics, music and dance. Very traditional. It was a gorgeous night; you could see the mountains in the distance.

We went with Johann and Susan from S. Africa. I love this guys hat. What do you say Vincent - can we add this to your hat collection?

The next day was Jin Ji Bang day. Kathy and I both got a body scrub for $15 by two women dressed in bra and panties who scrub you and scrub you and scrub you, toss buckets of warm water on you, drape you with hot towels, slap you around a bit, and when you are done, your skin is soooooooo smooth you can't believe it.

Next adventure was the singing room - ('Nori Bang' in Korean). This is the Korean take on Kareoke. You get your own private room for you and your gang of friends equipped with a huge screen, a gazillion songs to choose from, disco lights and sound system and then start having fun.

It was so sweet that all of the teachers in my building came out for this little gathering; they knew it was Kathy's birthday and they really wanted to help her celebrate. I've got some really great people with me over here.

Mrs. Lee and Lisa, Sarah and my new co-teacher Steven

Then came the beach!! Yum. I had been to the lovely city of Sokcho earlier in August and fell in love with it. It's the best of two worlds; on one side you have the beautiful East Sea and on the other you have Mt Seorak National Park. Mountains and ocean............. hmmmmmmmmmm does it get any better than that?

See the shadow in the upper left corner? That is the finger of this adorable little Korean woman who didn't have a clue how to use a digital camera and after I TURNED IT AROUND the right way, she still kept walking around trying to see an image before she would take the shot, which, of course, was impossible because it was way too bright out there. This shot took about 3-4 minutes to get - and it was worth every second of it.

And Kathy had her first official Korean food in Sokcho. She said it was an 'acquired taste'. But I'm seriously thinking about opening a Korean restaurant in lil ol Asheville - 'cause I think I can fusion this food out to suit the Yuppie palate and that the basic style of eating is very cool and very healthy - so yeah, Asheville needs a Korean restaurant!

Our 2nd visit to the beach we were walking along the boardwalk and all of a sudden these 5 people - all dressed in black and white, appeared and started arranging themselves for various photos. It was clearly a performance troupe of some sort. When the elder of the group positioned herself on the short wall for a pose with her vagabond suitcase and her PUPPET - well, I just had to say hi. We played for awhile. It was fun.

Then we were off to Seoul. We met up with (another) Kathy (my Kathy's niece) and her teacher friend Lizzie. What a day!! We went to two different shopping areas: Namdemon and Insa dong, We went to the biggest Palace and saw the changing of the guards, and we took a riverboat ride at night to see a light and water show shot off a bridge. Sorry, no pictures of the riverboat ride, my camera was plain tuckered out by then.

It was a great visit. It's funny - it was almost like being home! It had a strange psycholgical effect on me; it was comforting.

I am coming up on a year here and will share some thoughts about that soon. I hope all is well with each of you.

I hate that I can't be there to celebrate my sister Paula's committment ceremony this weekend. I miss all of you, but please know I am well. I am content. And I still love my job. Until next time....................... p. o'connor