Random recent happenings

Whathaveyou from the Seoul front.

Buddhist temple food is good. I really like the lotus shaped holes in the universe.


I've been lucky enough to spend lots of regal time with my lovely friends Daron and Jee.

Traditional Korean festivities.

Which include throwing around little children.

and gravity defiance.

This is a woman but men do this as well.

I'm not sure how.

Gwanghwamun Plaza. Recently re-opened.

Seoul has its city square back.

with very expensive flowers which I'm told are really there to keep demonstrators from gathering in the square.

Incheon City is South Korea's third largest. It's a satellite city of Seoul's with very ambitious (and silly) plans to overtake Seoul as the major city of South Korea. I went to an international festival in an area of Incheon that is being built on reclaimed land. I'm not sure how much is investment and how much is government, but a tremendous amount of money is being spent to build a business hub out of scratch.

Anachronistic Easter Islanders dancing behind an hiphop backdrop.

"Hang gliding" from a janky crane. Good fun once we figured out that it was real.
A great surprise- West African music.

Korans seem to love teddy bears.

An international break dancing competition.

Japan won over Russia for first place.


Swine flu paranoia or an attempt to look proactive? Probably both.

An operatic Korean.

Changdeok Palace

with Namsan Tower in the background

Like everything in Seoul the palace was destroyed by the Japanese and has only been partially rebuilt.



This is part of the palace's Ondol system.

I'm really going to miss having heated floors.

Vegetarian Picnic at Seonyudo Park.

Koreans really value and use their public spaces.

A few pictures from atop a few mountains.

In front of a mountain Buddhist temple.














The sunrise as my window sees it. It's great to be a school teacher who can wake up after the sun. I won't have this luxury for too much longer.

At the moment I'm content and strangely comfortable with my life here. I'm not staying though. I promise.

Busan, South Korea

Went to Busan, which is South Korea's 2nd largest city with the guy who lives in the flat above mine.

We took a 2 hour bullet train.

Imagine if you could take a train from St. Louis to Chitown in 2 hours...sigh.
We stayed in a jimjilbang.
8 bucks a night.

You sleep on a heated floor with a bunch of other people in uniform pajamas.

Mosaic gasmask.

This is how Koreans socialize.

Cherry Blossoms everywhere.

Traditional Korean music is rad. Drums and gongs put together to sound like a very rhythmic train with a huge downbeat.

Wim Wenders! See

Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire if you haven't already.

A Buddhist Temple. The all have free food, and Buddhist.

An advertisement that was "jammed" by a drunk guy with a cigarette.

The scariest thing I have ever seen.