Month: November 2004

It’s Friday in Korea, but it’s Thanksgiving Day back in the States, so happy holiday to all my family and friends back there. This is probaby my favorite holiday, when I’m with my family to enjoy it, so I am a bit homesick. I like Christmas, too, but it seems to be more of a season than a one-day celebration. Officially, I guess, I would have celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary, though, but I did test for my red belt in taekwando class last night. Part of the testing involved punching my way through two 1-inch boards held together back-to-back, effectively becoming a 2-inch board. Well, I did it on one punch! My knuckles hurt for a while, but they’re ok this morning. Hopefully, the pain will result in the belt. I go up for my black belt in March. God only knows what sacrifice I’ll have to make for that. :rolleyes:

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain tapping on the window. Late November and it’s still raining, rather than snowing, though I noticed on the weather forecast that rain is also expected back in Great Falls and Missoula today. If the snow stays away until Dec. 23, that’ll be ok with me.

Yes, winter seems imminent. The temps here have dropped into the mid-twenties overnight, still not bad by Montana standards. No snow yet, but flurries are in the forecast today. The leaves, of course, have disappeared from the trees, so Korea, too, now has that gaunt, stark look about it. Can you tell that I’m not a fan of winter?

Our semester ends very shortly: just 1 1/2 weeks of regular teaching left, then final exam week, then a week of entering grades, then . . . THAILAND! I will leave the Land of Morning Calm and fly to the Land of Smiles, arriving in Bangkok on Dec. 23. I haven’t really set an itinerary yet, but I’m going to spend the first 4 days in Bangkok at the {{link http://www.suk11.com/about_us.html Suk 11 Hostel}}, a nice-looking place in the heart of the city. I checked it out when I was there last summer and it seems ok. After that, I might go to northern Thailand, to Chiang Mai. I might also go to Chiang Rai and then to the Laos border, there to take a speed boat down the Mekong River to {{link http://www.visit-laos.com/where/luangprabang/ Luang Prabang}}, Laos, a {{link http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31 UNESCO World Heritage}} city. Then, eventually, I’ll go down to Southern Thailand for a stay at one or two of the beaches. I’m sure I’ll spend some time at {{link http://andaman-island-hopping.com/islands/sukhon.htm Ko Sukorn Island}}, my paradise of this past summer. I’m sure its isolated, “desert island” ambience will have changed, since it will be the peak of the tourist season. After the beach stay, I’m going back to Bangkok to spend an extended period there of, say, a week or so. Then, I return to Korea on Jan. 23. A full month of fun in the sun! I can’t wait.

Other than that, there is not much else going on here at the moment. I think that I’ve FINALLY posted all of the Mask Dance photos, so you can check those out at the main site. I’ll probably haul the big digital camera to Thailand, but the problem with that is storage of the photos I take. Since I like to shoot in RAW mode (basically, a digital negative that allows for much more adjustment than JPG files, but also takes up much more storage space), I’ll have room for only 58 photos on each of my 512 MB flash cards. I’ll probably end up shooting partially in RAW and partially in high-res JPG. I think I can get them burned to CD in Thailand, but I don’t want to be hauling those fragile things around, too.

I was up and back yesterday on a quick buying trip. I didn’t try to see the protest that was supposed to be taking place, but here is a {{link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4009571.stm BBC link}} with the story. Sounds like there was a bit of a clash with police, some violence, etc.

I also ended up buying a {{link http://www.wacom.com.sg/products/products_index.html Wacom Graphire 3}} graphics tablet for my computer, mainly to aid in editing photos. . . another toy to keep me busy.

Speaking of new toys, here’s a photo of the bicycle I bought last weekend. It’s a Corex, Korean made, costing about $200, so it’s not top-of-the-line but it’s light weight and it gets me around good.

Not too much to write about from this neck of the woods. We’ve had a lovely autumn, but today the wind is whipping around and has stripped most of the remaining leaves from the trees so that the area is looking much starker than just a few days ago. It’s a reminder that winter is just around the corner, but it’s also a prod to get me working on my January vacation to the warm climes of Thailand and Laos.

I’ve posted some more of the Mask Dance photos in the gallery, so take a peek when you get a chance. I’ve only a few more to go and that task will be done, at last. It’s the one big downside to digital photography, the processing of the photos in Photo Shop or Paint Shop Pro or another image editor. It’s fun, but it can also be tedious.

Tomorrow, I’m off to Seoul to do some much-needed shopping for certain Western products that I can’t get in Andong. I’ve also been informed, by an email bulletin from the U.S. Embassy, that there will be large-scale demonstrations in Seoul this weekend, one group of 15,000 (estimated) protesting government agriculture policies on Saturday, and another group (20,000) on Sunday protesting labor policy. I might take my small digital camera with me and try to get some photos.

Finally, the Korean Championship Series finished in a pouring rain last night as {{link http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200411/kt2004110123102311620.htm Hyundai topped Samsung 8-7}}. The Unicorns won 4 games to 2 in a series that can only be described as bizarre. Last night’s game was played in a downpour for most of the night, with standing water accumulating on the basebaths and around homeplate. There appeared to be a small rivulet of water flowing between 1st and 2nd bases, and players were sliding around in the mud with water dripping from their caps and batting helmets. I’ve never seen a game played in such conditions. But, with 3 ties in the series, I’m sure the officials did not want to postpone this game–the 9th overall. Hyundai “poured” it on in the 2nd inning, scoring all their runs to take an 8-1 lead. To their credit Samsung made a game of it, almost pulling it out in the 8th. This game, on top of a 10-inning no hitter, a steal of home, and a rare triple play, made the series one to remember.

Note: I’m still adding more Mask Dance Festival photos–I’ve recently posted Latvia, Poland, and Turkey. You can check them out in the Photo Gallery on the main page.