Wind Farms

Hi all,

Finally, I am a free and unworried man again. Yup, yesterday I emailed in both of the masters assignments I have been working towards for (some of) the last five months, and I can look forward to a month off before it all starts again for the third time. I'm not entirely sure how I've done on this set - grammar and phonology. You're asked to achieve an awful lot in 3,000 words each (I ended up a combined 18 words shy of a 6,600 word limit) and there's no way you can talk about all you need to in the detail that I would have liked. Anyway, I know I've done enough to at least pass this module, but I'd really like an A. Results won't be out for a month, so I'm not going to worry for a bit.

All this leaves me with a degree of freedom for the next couple of weeks. I have to go to school for the mornings, but the students are still on holiday, so I won't be teaching at all. I'm determined not to waste the time though - I still have some books to read, and I feel like I should be leafing through some journals while I have access (ATHENS is a wonderful, wonderful resource). I also want to put a bit of time into some Korean study - I'm resolved to get much better this year. Finally, I'll probably be wandering around my little town a bit trying to visit everywhere one last time, as after these two weeks I'll be headed to my new home and job. Exciting times, but for a blog once I actually get there.

In the meantime, these are some photos I've been meaning to post for a while. They were taken in December, in the hills around Hoenggye, the next town over from me and where the 2018 Winter Olympics will be centred. I've always been rather fond of wind farms, and I've never really understood the argument that they spoil the countryside, I think the photos below show that they can often enhance it.

I really love the colours in this photo - it really was this colour when we were there. The blue was vivid enough to be slightly surreal.

 Before (above) and after (below)

 I wasn't really dressed for this kind of adventure.

 This is the ear-popping 800m descent to Gangneung on the eastern coast, with some amazing clouds.

 Stacy doesn't think she looks very good in this photo.

She might be right, I think she looks much better here.

Having written the above, I'm now off to hide somewhere until she calms down. Will post more, perhaps from a secret location, very soon.

A

At last!

It's a sad fact, and one that does the profession no good at all, that English language teaching can be seen as something to do for a kind of working holiday; a chance to see the world for a bit while earning a little pocket money, before returning to your home country to get a 'proper' job. Strange then that I seem to have worked far harder over the two and a bit years since I left the UK than I ever did within it's borders. This has never been more true than over the last few weeks since getting back. Fortunately, things now seem to be settling down a little bit after the initial slog at the beginning of the semester, and my weeks are starting to be punctuated by public holidays, elections and school trips. Good news for you, dear reader, as I actually have some time to write my blog, and I have some half-interesting things to write about.

School Picnic

My first non-teaching day for 7 weeks fell last Friday, when the high school decamped to the sports ground for the day for the school picnic. This was a nice diversion, and was largely a chance to eat all day and play dodgeball, football and foot-baseball. The only photos I have are of my first year girls foot-baseballing; this is a shame as it doesn't show my triumphant performance in helping class 1-1 overcome 1-3 in the big football match. I don't think I've ever played a higher pressure game, as the respect of my students was on the line. Fortunately we won 4-2 and class 1-1 are now eating out of the palm of my hand. Class 1-3 were also suitably impressed, expect for the one of my students who I managed to headbutt. Oops.

My co-teacher, who for a woman of five feet two in her late 40's possesses a pretty decent right foot.

Cherry Blossoms, Raw Fish and Caves

The weekend after the picnic Linda and I set off to see the cherry blossoms in Gangneung. Though time seems to pass fairly quickly here, it does seem like a long time ago that I made this post about them last year. It was great to catch them in (almost) full bloom this year, though the howling wind was stripping them from the trees as we watched. It also gave me the chance to visit the lamest festival I've yet been to in Korea. A ragtag collection of stalls selling 1,000 won crap, and a hotdog stand. Still, we managed to pick up a pig ornament for Linda, so all wasn't lost.

After that we headed down the south coast to Samcheok, one of my favourite places on the east coast. It's port area has an array of excellent raw fish restaurants, which was a big reason we headed there. The fish was excellent, but the highlight (sort of) was the dish of still moving octopus tentacles you can watch me chow down on below.

Meat that moves! from Alexander Grevett on Vimeo.

The following day we headed out to Samcheok's principal attraction (perhaps even more famous that the penis park), Hwangseon cave. This is a 12km series of tunnels deep into one of the mountains around the town. Only the first kilometre is open to the public, but it's a pretty spectacular distance, as the cave roof is in places at least 100 feet high. Sadly the atmosphere is somewhat spoilt my the multi-coloured LED lighting that marks the gantries and rather detracts from the earthy feel of the place.

More cherry blossoms.

The funicular railway. Korea calls this a monorail. Fools.

Tee-hee.

Rejected Marilyn Manson B-side title winds up in Korean cave.

A spiral lime deposit, possibly unique in the world. Que exciting!

That's it for tonight, as I have some work to do on my teaching blog. In an attempt to make it look nice I'm learning to code CSS, which seems to be easy enough at the moment, but will doubtless become horrifically complex in the next few steps. There's not much exciting coming up in my life, but I should write about going to see Gangwon play last weekend. if I have time I'll post that up tomorrow.

Adios,

A

Chuseok Diary Part 3

We left the Jjimjilbang just before 9 on Friday morning, on the second and final leg of our cycling mini-odyssey. As you'll see from the photos, we could barely have chosen a better day for it. The sun was out and there was barely a cloud in the sky, and fall had drained most of the humidity out of the days by now. We immediately headed South down the coast from Gyeongpo beach, past Anmok. We went slowly, looking for somewhere to have a bit of breakfast, but found most of the towns to consist solely of closed raw fish restaurants. Finally, as we headed over the quite spectacular bridge below Anmok and towards the military base, we finally found a restaurant open, and headed in.

As far as I can tell, Korean breakfast doesn't vary greatly from any other meal in Korea. I always get slightly strange looks from people when I tell them that I just had toast for breakfast. The idea of having what is really just a light snack to most Koreans seems to be alien, and people struggle to believe I can get through a whole morning on just bread and a bit of fruit. In the restaurant we go to, there's certainly no breakfast menu, so we opt for Seaweed soup (Emily, definitely not me) and Galbi Tang (Tom and I), which is pretty much beef stew. As usual, this is accompanied by an array of spicy side dishes. I'm actually pretty good with stomaching kimchi in the mornings these days, but really I don't think I'd want to do it every day.

With appetites satiated we set off once more, turning away from the coast to work our way around Gangneung's Fighter Wing base. The jets are flying, so we're treated to almost constant flypasts of jets coming and going from the base. Without really knowing where we're going, we actually manage to work our way out of Gangneung with not too much fuss and even work our way back onto the coast road to escape the major highways. Today's journey is a lot more up and down that yesterday's, which was simply just up and then down. Still, before too long we've sailed past the warship and submarine anf arrived in Jeongdongjin, where we brake for Powerade, shade and cereal bars.

Getting to the beach can sometimes be tricky here.

After Jeongdongjin we make our first mistake. Looking to follow the coast road we instead take a turn into the hills. We realise this after it's too late to turn back, and so face a gruelling climb up a steep hillside in the hottest part of the day. Still, at least going up hills qualifies you to come back down them again, which is always fun. We detour briefly to the beach to see if there's a quiet coast road to follow, but find our path blocked by the large cement factory below. Getting back on the road does eventually afford us a nice view of Korea's sandy shores though.

By this time we're getting more than a little saddle sore, having been at it for 4 or 5 hours already. We power on for one more hour and reach the outskirts of Donghae, the next major city down the coast. We grab some lunch, Manduguk, which is basically dumpling stew and is very, very good. Then we make another big mistake (due to none of us having anything more than a tourist map) and proceed to take the main highway out of Donghae down to Samcheok. This proves to be a terrifying experience, with huge intersections to negotiate, including one expressway interchange, and enormous earth-moving trucks flying past us about every 30 seconds. Not really what you need after spending a full day in the saddle. It's mercifully short, though seemed longer at the time, and we soon pass a sign that tells us 4km to Samcheok. It's at this point we pick up a proper pavement, and so can get ourselves out of the road finally (Korean cycling laws being somewhat more lax).

We get to Samcheok and are treated to an excellent beach barbecue by our host Huy. His Vietnamese chicken recipe is a superb end to a very, very long day. Everyone's pleased to have made it, and made it in one piece. We stay Friday night, and then haul our bikes onto the bus a head back to Jinbu the easy way.