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

puppet show and 4th of July

So one day my Korean co-worker comes to me and says, can you create a little puppet show for our 70 VIP guests who are coming to visit our Center next week. Just a little 3-4 minute thing. I said oh, like a commercial for the Center? Yes, was the reply. So this is what we did. I was soooooo proud of the kids. The 2 older girls did the puppeteering and the two younger ones did the voices. Too, too, cute!!

The lighting totally sucks. There is a sign on your left hand side of the stage that says "English Class". That's what the little guy is looking at and worried about.

And then came the 4th of July. Man did that day bring up some stuff for me! I was soooooooooo homesick; missin my neighborhood buds like crazt. I could taste the memories. All the years we have cooked out together then hiked downtown to our perfect spot for viewing the fireworks......... My cheeks aching at the end of the evening because I had ooooed and ahhhhed and smiled so hard. So many laughs and good times. So in order to be proactive I knew I had to do SOMETHING!! Rumor had it that they were doing some fireworks at the army base nearby. Rumor added that there was a barbeque as well. Man, the visions I had in my head; potato salad and barbeque beans, cole slaw, green salad ( oh the wonderful salads we make at home!) . WRONG. Meat and chips, folks. Meat and chips. Meat choices included hamburger (looked frozen), hot dogs (looked lame), ribs (I'm not much of a ribs) and brats (your choice of smoked, hot or mild). I opted for the brats and they were great - but man, I could have done with a little potato salad!! Still, it was a fun evening. I was in a gaggle of teachers - about eight I guess. Nice group.

When we arrived these guys were parachuting in.

It was a lovely evening........ but as Dorothy said, there's no place like home!

Cannot live without a dream!

This pretty much says it all.

...other fun photos from a public sculpture garden in Chonan

Korean women LOVE their accessories!

And this guy is literally 'hanging out'.

fun stuff.

The most amazing Buddha yet!

I had heard there was a lovely Buddhist temple in the city of Chonan, which is not that far from me, so fellow teacher Mary and I set out to see it. When you arrive at the bus station in Chonan you are greeted by this .......... !! Hey - they're very proud of their walnuts, OK?

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• The temple is pretty high up on a mountain and set back. I didn't COUNT these stairs, I FELT them!!
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  


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  It was a beautiful spring day and trees were in bloom.

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And then you come to the clearing...................... and there he is, in all his glory. Such a beautiful site.

And inside the temple is incredibly beautiful as well...................

...... more intricate carvings then I've seen anywhere else!

And after the temple, we hung out in the sculpture garden I shared with you already followed by some great food at a very Western restaurant called VIPs. It was a good day.

big love to all

p.

Our trip to Jenju - home of Hanji paper

So a whole slew of us foreign teachers went on an adventure recently that was more of a fiasco in the end. But it's worth telling you about the city of Jenju, because it is a huge source of pride for the Korean people. Any of you who have ever shopped the beautiful hand made papers at Blue dowtown Asheville or other places, may have been admiring Hanji paper; hand made Korean paper whose history goes back thousands of years and it's uses range screens for windows and doors to tables, to armor, to beautiful lighting. It can last up to 1,000 years. I am so in love with the paper that I'm into creating a variety of paper mache projects with it.

So Jenju, the city we visited, has the most famous paper of all. All Hanji paper is made from mulberry, and all is made in basically the same way, but the water in Jenju is said to be very pure and make the paper even more special.

So here's Johann (S. Africa), Mary (US), Maria (S. Africa) and me on the bus.

Nick and Sarah were also there (although clearly these are not pictures from the bus) and I want you to meet them because they are a really sweet couple from Canada.

The whole point of visiting Jenju is a trip to the 'traditional village' where all sorts of Korean made stuff is for sale. It was a quaint, very well done, touristy kind of place...................... the kind of place Korean families and couples go on a holiday weekend or Sat. Sun. jaunt.

We, unfortunately, chose to go on a National Holiday, and had no idea what we were getting in for. The traffic on the roads was horrible and I spent 7 hours on the bus traveling and 3 hours on the ground shopping. Not a good ratio! It was a cloudy day that eventually led to rain and that just added more melancholy to the situation. Ah well. Lesson learned. Either stay home or plan to spend the night!!

When we first entered the village they were doing a fashion show on a fairly large stage. That was fun!

And there was a Catholic cathedral there. A slightly rare sight in S. Korea.

I love the tiles everywhere; I think they're beautiful. I sooo want to do my roof like that.

My trip to Jenju gave me great appreciation for the Hanji paper and when we decided to do a special Hanji Project with our families one Saturday, I felt like I 'got it'Great fun - we went to a Hanji artist's studio very close to my school, and each family made a 'tea table' to take home. Yes, I got to make one too! What a great momento, eh? These are a sort of 'cardboard' form covered with Hanji paper.

Next............ my trip to another Buddist temple, but this time Buddha's sitting outside with the mountains as his backdrop!

love to all. p.