Ajumma elbows bride

Wait for it....wait for it....oh no! she didn't just...oh yes...she did.

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If I auto-send you these posts, I'm sorry about all the re-sends. I am still figuring out how to compose pictures & words and I am picky. You may have gotten that Everland post about thirteen-million times!

Everland Happy Halloween!

Everland is Korea's Disneyland theme park dealy-type place. It's located about 45 minutes outside of Seoul, in a tiny little town called Yongin. you can't see it until you actually get IN there, because it's nestled inside all those wonderfull sloping hills that makes up Korea's landscape. The theme was Halloween, and honestly, have you ever played Kingdom Hearts? I swear this place was built off those blueprints. I was walking around the first little "town" in there, and it was totally "traverse town" the place where the main character meets Donald and Goofy. There's a little cafe and a clocktower, and I was just imagining myself in giant shoes and holding a keyblade, fighting off black heartless creatures and doing cool flips off the rooftop awnings. Ah! just thinking about it makes me want to play the game! and to quote Joowon from the other night, "Gosh, Susan, I had no idea you were such a geek!" Well yes, Joowon, yes I am.

The rides were fun! We waited in line to ride the T-express for over two hours. It was the largest roller coaster I've ever been on. (the second time I've ever been to an amusement park) The jerky motions or upside-down moves aren't that bad, and it's not even really the falling that freaks me out, although it's scary. The scariest part is when you're being dragged in a downward motion sooooooooo fast, faster than you could physically fall, so as you're going down, you're also falling up. I HATE that part. ugh! Why do people do this to themselves? Why do I do it?

All of this line waiting had us acting a little crazy.

There was strange music in german town that had us doing the polka and bobbing around a lot. Cari and I got into a fake fight in the Rock and Roll line at "little America;" she pushed me & I ended up slapping her. All in good fun, I swear!Happy Slapsgiving everyone! ;D We texted our good friend William, who was on his way to San Francisco for the next few weeks. We sent him a month's worth of texts while waiting in line.

PS. Thanks to Joowon who took these lovely pictures!

'Walk of Shame'

With friends in Hongik Univ. Dist.

in a gigantic mirror sculpture

the morning after

-an all-night-

of dancing

Wooriwei /Oooh-ree-whey/ Korean Farming Experience

Wooriwei means us-together, I think...The groups' idea is to bring together foreigners and Koreans to learn about Korean culture and exchange--well our cultures, I guess? with korean college students from around Seoul and the surrounding province. We arrived in JinWi Station around 7pm on Friday night and ate dinner together (Boodae jjiggae) it is jjiggae--orange with kimchi and veggies and hotdogs in it, sefved with a side of rice. It is soooo tasty. The farmers we would be helping out for the weekend donated to us fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and makoli made from chestnuts. I've never had such sweet makoli, and it kept coming out in those containers you might use to carry gasoline in when you need it for your lawn mower, and it seemed endless. We drank and played drinking games and learned silly chants. Drinking local alcohols in Korea is as natural as drinking guiness with your cornflakes in Ireland. It's more common than water! Especially in Korean college culture. We stayed up and socialized until about 1am, and we all tucked in for a few hours' sleep. This was the farmer that had weeding for us to do (ick) my butt got all wet and it was unpleasant. but at least I got to ride there in a tractor! It was scary sitting in there riding along narrowly paved roads, as the farmland is RIGHT THERE, and it dips down pretty steeply into rice beds. Me, Kelsey, and Hyunbeon (i'm probably butchering his name)...and Haylie/Helen behind the camera. Our litte foursome took on this cuke greenhouse. We pinned up each baby cuke to a string.

As we worked, H. taught me a korean kids' song

it goes like this:

In the woods there lived a family,

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear.

Papa bear is very Fat.

Mama Bear is slender.

Baby Bear is very very Cute.

They all do very Well.

To say the least, it was quite a new experience. I was disappointed that the farms we were working on were more factory type farms rather than the traditional korean farming experience we'd been promised. But Hey, I got a new t-shirt & gardening hat, and met a whole bunch of new, and different types of people than I'd meet in my day to day life. I got to get Soooooooooo dirty, and it felt good. But in the end I think I prefer to do weeding on my own terms and for my own needs.

The Korean Harvest holiday, Chuseok, is upon us, coming up this Saturday. Koreans will get together and eat Seongpyeon (rice cake) and jajamyeon (sweet potato noodles) and apples and stuff. If they are buddist or practice old confucian traditions, they will honor their ancestors and pray, many will go to temples and perform a bowing ritual, 108 times! I plan to get together with my friends in the park and bring a picnic.

I'm excited for this coming fall, probably more than the other two I've had in Korea. I'm here for the change from Summer to Fall; I've experienced it, so I know what to expect, and it's settling in my bones comfotably; and I don't know. it just feels so nice and chill. It's really put me in the mood to buy vegetables and fruit while they're still cheap, and cook and freeze.

A friend has been talking about freezing and cooking and planted the idea in my head. I have the next five days to myself. I plan this Thursday to be my cooking day. I will make applesauce/applebutter, some soups, and other things. I want to just get creative. Here's to Fall, Y'all! I hope your harvest season is settling in well with you, too!

Phonebooth

Fun at Olympic park, 9/22/09. before all the glass and the cuts and the nervous laughter.

Hiking with SHiTY: Bukhansan

Sunday Hikers into Trekking Yet (again) hiked up to the fortress wall of Bukhansan (translation: South-Korean-Mountain). It's a really intense hike that's right on the subway line in Seoul. Just up in the NorthEast end of everything. It's straight uphill with lots of steps, and it was plenty sunny out--no worries, Mom, I wore my sunblock (actually it was Kim Bo Hyun's, but whatever)--so we sweated a lot. My whole back was all sweaty! the group was a mix of a few familiar faces and lots of new folks to meet. Mia, who I met through the venerable Rob Cherry, was leading this SHiTY hike, and she was hardcore. rest, move, let's go. The thing about Korea and hiking, is that it is HARD. always it's a challenge--although it's nothing in elevation compared to hiking in Montana--and when you reach the top, the scenery is magnificent..AMAZING...so worth it; it's like you remember what all the work was about.

Flips and Kicks

Taekwondo Performers from Kukiwon Taekwondo Academy in Seoul. They are such a good school, that they only train black belts. they have 30-some black belts that they train regularly, as well as a large troupe of black belt children. They perform regularly at Gyeongbokgung Palace as part of the "Sparkling Korea" campaign, to improve Korea's global image. here we are, posing with the group.

The women in front were dancers. more than dancers, though, they were performers, jesters, and drummers. They glided and skipped and twirled around and did most of it while drumming.

After the performance, we got a chance to train with one of Kukiwon's black belt instructors. A two-hour lesson, We were sweating and sore at the end of it. "We don't tell our students we love and respect them," the instructor tells us, "I show my students. I show them by make the sweat. I make the sweat, I work for you. This the only way you can show the respect." and believe you me, I was respecting all over the place. You'd never know it'd been raining just an hour before all this. We met at Gwanghwamun Station in order to go together to the taekwondo performance. We got caught on a stoop near the station as rain poured torrentially around us for the next 30 minutes or so. I snapped pictures as poor souls who had to be somewhere trudged or tiptoed through the growing lake that was making its way at our feet. However, the rain stopped and the sun came out, and we all went on our way, the performance went on ontop of wet & muddied pavement, and it turned out to be a lovely sunny day.

In Korean, tae (Hangul: 태, hanja: 跆) means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon (Hangul: 권, hanja:拳) means "to strike or break with fist"; and do (Hangul: 도, hanja: 道) means "way" or "method"; so "taekwondo" is loosely translated as "the way of the foot and fist" or "the way of kicking and punching".

Seattle in Summer

Sus & Brooke at Capital Hill8/21/09

Sus & Elisa at The Matador 8/20/09

Best happy hour Nachos in the World!

Then rock climbing, right down the street!

Bellingham

"Takin some time... to think

space to...figure it out

going over it all in my mind.

I think I'm due to unwind, sit back,

make peace with all that's real

just to stay sane, and take hold

of what's to come with a smile

it's been quite a while..."

~Lyrics, Dave McGraw's song: Bellingham

I <3>

When I am feeling tired and lonely in Korea, I like to listen to his tunes. I feel like I am sitting in a rainy car, driving across the I-405 bridge again. the air is dark & cold, the rain is peaceful and the tunes are slow and right on the money.

Home Home Home. Oh Bellingham! How quickly you forget me!

I was home for an ENTIRE week! a WHOLE week! and how you have changed. but you have not changed one bit. the faces are different, but the smells, the hair, the overall Bellinghammyness of this little mountainous slice of home is all the same. Your people they even say the same things in the same manner, and they think they're so original. They wear the same trends and although that's what the alt. girls of Bellingham wore--EXACTLY--no, really exactly: vintage, they call it. Forgetful, sleepy town I say. There's a new building at the University, but those kids are still spouting their academic bullshit as if they've known the world just like I did when I was 21. People still party with Hula hoops every Wednesday night and flirt and drink and toke in the alley, and they think no one's ever discovered a BB Scotch Ale; your taste buds are the first ever to discover it~you shout like you're the first ever girl to re-claim the "C" word as a feminist term, although outside the HAM, you'd never actually use it because well, frankly it's still has no practical application in real life.

But nonetheless dear Bellingham you are mine, and always I will be yours. I love your beer and your bay and the way your people talk on the streetside. I love your farmer's Market and Buy Local Attitude.

These are some highlights from my trip in Bellingham. WW University's waterfront property at Lake Whatcom. *Anita and I slipped out there and into the cool lake on a hot evening after the lights had gone down.**The park at Capital Hill in Seattle is a great place to cool your feet and the people are so colorful and diverse. Everyone is so friendly. Anita drove to Seattle and took me home to BHAM. **Seattle Youth Garden Works is a necessary stop along the way. My old non-profit workplace. the garden was STUNNING!!! and visiting Jackie and her family at their new house in Lynden. we shared dinner, banana creme pie, LOTs of small talk, a tickle fight with her middle daughter, Mari, and some rock band to tie up the night. lovely. **finally, Karen came from Toronto to Vancouver, and spent a day with me in my hometown. We called up Scott, aka "Gumby," and hit up free street music and good beers.

I saw a lot of wonderful people, Laura Brown, Shawnee Kilgore, Good old Amy, and even....Steven..... um..... there were lots of times I'd expected to be hanging out that I'd end up spending on my own, and there were times in Bellingham that I'd had to come face to face with the changes that have happened and the fact that frankly I may not be a part of any of those. It stings a little bit. It's hard to see that life moves on. I mean, of course we all know it. There's so many songs about it. but to see it and then have no way of relaying that this is also happening for me elsewhere--in a place that no one really has any way of understanding or connecting to. it's like an anomaly.

It's like when I used to go away to camp for the summer. people would tell me I was giving up a whole summer. but I never saw it that way. Camp was a part of who I was in the summer. a VITAL part of my identity, and I lived for those summers sometimes. I have few recollections of summer without camp. Spending the summer out of school, on a beach, or hanging around the mall is a foreign, foggy memory of years and years ago. but how could you know that? unless you've been there, had a similar experience. I can't figure out exactly how to best explain it, and it makes coming home tough, accepting the change--for better or worse--not being a part of it, and then to be felt as a "person on hold?" hmmmm....?