Seoul Olympic Park

The beautiful Olympic archway that is the centerpiece of the former Olympic grounds.

The park now plays host to myriad families and their preferred outdoor pursuits every weekend. The young kids in roller blades were by far the most fun to watch.

These four are practicing their speed skating maneuvers in front of their equally serious coach.

Said coach, wearing skates twice the length of her feet.

My good friends Becky and Marshall (and my chin) onboard the Olympic Park tram. Made us all feel a little lazy.....taking a tram to see olympic venues where athletes had performed amazing feats.

Becky giving thumbs up to an enormous thumb sculpture. Very original Becky.

Notice big sister's perfect technique.

Clutching the olympic torch with my BARE HANDS.

Dr. Fish

Some coffee shops in Korea have "Dr. Fish" outposts in them....tanks of hungry fish that are supposed to eat all the dead skin off your feel, but which really just tickle the hell out of you until you're about to jump out the window.

A close up of a particularly hungry guy. I'm dunking just my heels because I couldn't handle the nibbling up my shins.

Swarming....

My good friend Becky trying her hardest to leave her legs submerged.

The knees/legs of myself, Becky, and Marshall. For a couple bucks you get 15 minutes in the tank. I probably had my legs in for 4 minutes cumulatively, in 30 second increments.

Another Farewell

Outside our favorite bar Fongs on a warm August night.

Myself and the head teachers assistant from school. He knows almost no English but we always have a fun time.

My friend HJ, who was leaving for grad school in the US, giving a teary speech to everyone gathered to see her off.

Me before trying my first and last chickens foot.

Some foreign and Korean teachers enjoying soju and beer. In the foreground is the back of my friend Peter's head, who was also leaving the following week.

Through the Looking Glass

My extended family at a lake house in the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania, video skyping with me here in Korea. My young cousins were particularly interested who this talking head on the computer screen was.

Talking to my 92 year old grandfather via skype was also a trip.

My dad and sister video skyping with me from our house in Sonoma.

Korean National Museum

An ancient Korean pagoda, anchoring one end of the museums light filled main gallery.

No explanation necessary....

I can only imagine the sounds that would come out of these two.

The Korean National Museum is a huge structure, one of the largest museums in all of Asia. It houses mostly Korean artifacts but also has impressive collections from other Asian countries, notably China. At the time of my visit the museum was hosting an Egypt exhibit and they had pasted giant stickers on the face of each step, creating the cool image above. The picture is of course invisible to the people sitting on the steps.

Something akin to a crown made for the Korean royalty a thousand plus years ago. The picture does not do its ornateness justice.

East Sea III

The majority of the young Korean women we saw at the beech walked around in high heels, bikinis, with lots of make up on. I spent most of the day trying to get pictures of them without being too obvious. Sadly I didn't get any of them actually walking on the beech, with their heels sinking into the sand at every step.

A environmental show was being tapped at the beach. We got a picture with the mascot.

My friends Tom and Laura with the very tan Korean lifeguard.

My friends Justin, Laura, and HJ "posing" so that I could get a picture of the women in purple, wearing the green high heels, at the beach.

Very chipper women's changing booths were spread out all over the beach.

Dancing Liquor

They're dancing to one of the more popular K-pop songs....a classic that everyone in the country has probably heard 150 times, willingly or otherwise.