the return

i got back stateside yesterday. i'm in nyc for a few days. hang tight, i took and saved over 1800 photos in the past 3 weeks, and that was a conscious effort not to take 3000. when ever i get some down time, i'll post some for you.

to tide you over: dalian was cold and drunken and fun. hong kong was nice and drunken and fun. bangkok was a big shit-hole. chiang mai and jungle trekking were fantastic. siem reap involved a panic attack, an emergency room visit and tonsillitis, but angkor wat was pretty epic.

don't worry, i won't post all the photos.

recent and upcoming events and stalagmites

so it's been a while, nearly a month. been busy.

i'll be in korea for one more week. my last day at work is monday.
replacement teachers are here and they've been sitting in on classes. they'll probably start teaching tomorrow and i can just observe until i leave. great!

daniel will be here saturday night, can't wait! he and i will be leaving thursday the 26th on a three week trip around asia. first stop: dalian, china to see uncle wally for 5 days. next stop: hong kong for 6 days. next stop: bangkok, thailand. our departing flight from bangkok is not for 11 days, so we'll be heading north to chiang mai and hopping the border at some point to go to angkor wat and siem reap in cambodia for a few days. all this business is going to be so rad.
we'll stop back in korea for one night to get hyunjoo and some more luggage (we're only taking backpacks for the three weeks), then head to new york for a couple days before arriving in florida just before christmas.

i'm currently trying to secure a teaching position in the public school system here to start in february. hopefully something will come of that soon. have a couple interviews before i leave next week.

this is a foot bridge in dongbaek at hyunjoo's.  the main reason this awkward photo is here is because there is some crazy stalactite/stalagmite business happening.  the stalagmite is what's most impressive.

 

i don't know how easily i'll be able to post while on this trip, so be prepared for thousands of photos in a month or so. i guess that is all dependent upon battery life and recharging capabilities. hopefully i'll come back with some.

weekend adventure: addition

i forgot i had these photos that were taken with rich's camera.

 

rich travels to the uk a lot. he was a british lit major in college. this is the british 'f-u'.

 

she never made it out on to the rocks. she's just too short. ha.

 

 

 

 i'm one good looking dork.

 

 

don't forget to put the squid out to dry.

 

i'm going to take a stab at the spelling of this 똘라이 = ddol-lai = psycho. (pun intended.)

 

 

weekend adventure

last weekend 서정욱 (aka richard), 박현주 (aka hyunjoo) and 조시아저씨 (aka me) went to 강원도 (gangwon-do). it's the northeastern province of south korea. we decided to leave friday night after work instead of saturday morning to beat traffic. it rained the whole way there.

the restaurant we ate at in bundang (or somewhere close) before getting on the road.

 

 

 

i ended up falling asleep, but woke up as we arrived in 경포 (gyeong-po).

 

 

 

we had our on autoclave in our motel room. it's not an actual autoclave, i think it uses uv or something to kill bacteria. these things are in almost every restaurant.

woke up and we were at the beach. i hadn't realized the night before that we were so close to the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

some close-ups of the shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

rich, hyunjoo and i enjoying the nice weather and beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

we ended up in a market. i never got the name of it. you know, the typical 'eat any and everything from the sea' kind of shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

we stopped and ate some raw fish and 매운탕 (maeun-tang), spicy soup.

 

 

blowfish?

 

 

 

the mountains looked so nice.

 

 

  

we did a little cycling around a huge lake. great time.

 

 

there were dozens of statues running a long stretch of the lake. i'm going to assume there was some kind of narrative involved. here are a few of them.

 

 

 

 

 

it's becoming autumn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i think someone wanted this man dead.

 

 

we were exhausted so decided to stay a second night. you have to love the 'love motels'. such good lighting.

 

 

  

this area is famous for 순두부 (tofu).

my batteries had been pretty much dead for a few hours at this point so the photos stop here. came back to the motel and relaxed with some imported beers and damn delicious persimmons. the ride home was another sleepy one for me, but driving through the mountains, the autumn colors were amazing. too bad you don't get to see it.