Adventures in Korean Terraforming/ A walk

Last Wednesday Nathan and I were informed that -- surprise!-- we had half of Thursday off. This explained a nagging mystery: all day Wednesday students had been saying to us "Teacher, tomorrow, no school?", to which we could only answer "Huh?" Luckily, at the end of the day we cornered our director. After asking about the questions, she claps her hand to her head "Oh! Yes. No School. I guess... umm.. I forget to tell you?"

Like so many things, she had forgotten to tell us. Welcome to Korea.


But sometimes surprises are good, and in this case, we had an excellent, unexpected, afternoon reprieve. Since it was a gorgeous day, we used the reprieve to ramble for about 6 miles around Ohok. During the ramble we encountered a bizarre/amazing industrial landscape. We also found further evidence of Korean terra-forming projects, massive experiments in soil erosion, and what can only be called a small-scale industrial Paths of the Dead (more photos on that soon-- and, yes, Dean and Ceci, that reference was for you).

Following random roads, we eventually arrived at Aggregate Valley, an industrial-agricultural Idyll bounded by an enormous Han River flood-control channel and a "strait-as-shit" rural highway (Nathan's words). The valley itself is several feet below the flood plane, which leads you to wonder about the utility of the flood-control earthworks beside it, and organized into precise patchworks by strait concrete roads and irrigation ditches. Mixed in with all of it, were some lovely hay fields, a few lonely patches of rushes, and several swatches of actual greenery. Amazing: The perfect place to sit and watch the distant earth-movers, drink a bottle of Cass, read some Cosmicomics, and watch the herons fly overhead. It was a beautiful afternoon.

We have plans to return soon with bikes, more beer, more books, and friends.

Especially once the weather is warmer.

P.S. if anyone knows were to find a cheap bike that is big enough for a 6' tall man, please let us know. Korea is full of adorable cheap bikes for me, but sadly lacking in (any) bikes Nathan can ride...

P.P.S. We got a call today from our Director saying we may have to move imminently. Not cool. We just completed the epic battle against the awful bathroom smell!

Terraforming! Click for Huge!