South Korea At First Glance

Hello! from Yangyang, South Korea. I probably don’t have to tell you how (enter slew of happy adjectives here) it is to be in Yangyang with my sister and Will, and that’s good news for me, as I would probably fail to convey the utter happiness and contentment I’ve been feeling since arriving three days ago. That, or I would bludgeon you with exclamation points.

To recap: I’m here visiting Theresa (a.k.a. “babycarrot sister”) and Will until February 13th, after spending 4 days in Beijing, China visiting work offices and coworkers there, and generally just being a Super Ecstatic Tourist (SET).

I’ve been posting updates on Twitter and Facebook, and uploading pictures I’ve taken with my iPhone to Flickr, but I thought it might be nice for me to update here as well (to say hello! and) for posterity’s sake. I have 1,001 pictures and stories from China to show you, and I’m super excited to do that, but for now I thought I’d share some of my favorite shots from South Korea I’ve taken thus far.

Will & T’s super awesome (super Korean) apartment:

Panda Head! (I saw kids and adults alike wearing these all over Beijing and so I bought one for Theres while I was there. Apparently they have them everywhere in South Korea, too.)

On Tuesday we walked to the Naksan Temple and wandered around for an hour or so. It was the first time any of us had been there, Will and T having saved the trip themselves until I was here. It was so bright and beautiful. This is (Theresa! and) the view before actually entering the temple grounds:

Will & T, being awesome. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of them, ever:

Love these trees:

Temple Guardian. He takes his job very seriously:

Naksan Beach:

Visiting the famous Rolly Espresso in Naksan:

On Wednesday we took a bus to Sokcho, a nearby coastal town, and wandered around their local marketplace:

Tag!

The food here is amazing. The company isn’t too shabby either:

From a trip to the Yangyang Market today (Thursday, the 4th):

Korean treats! (Koreans don’t like their sweets very sweet at all. I’ve found my people.)

You see these masks everywhere (in both Beijing and South Korea), and while they serve to keep germs at bay in crowded, enclosed spaces, they also serve to keep your face warm while you’re outside wandering around in Pretty Frigid Temperatures. Also: we are ninjas.

Back Diving

I posted a picture of him for a silly Instagram-related game and found him waiting for me in my dreams, something which occurs so rarely it still explodes solidly-constructed dams inside me each time I see his face, mustached and smiling at mine just the way he always did, just the way I always remember him. As usual he didn’t say much, not anything I could hear or remember, but he was there and I knew it, and when I → Read more...

Hiking Into Green Valleys

I have words washed out to sea. Words ushered quietly from my lips to my fingertips, waiting patiently for the right tide, for the moon to bring my stories alive.

I have words being reviewed, words accepted and words rejected, and I’m clinging to my favorite lines, fighting for them, and it feels strange and new and exhilaratingly infuriating, this tug-of-war of wills and how the slightest bit of caving can make me feel like I’m flirting with abandoning the sanctity → Read more...

Rivers And Roads

[Alternately titled: Story, The Second: The Girl Who Moved To Washington State]

It began simply. A direct message on Twitter first, followed by texts; those texts, in turn, begat plans. With those plans came anxiety and apprehension – I didn’t know you, not your face or your voice or anything else, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to – but also something exciting, a strange and unexpected hope hovering quietly on the horizon. And then we met, conversed and laughed → Read more...

Story, The First: The Pug Who Moved To California

Stories I said I had. Tangential stories and life-changing ones.

Until today I haven’t known where, exactly, to begin. And so quiet this space has mostly been because some beginnings are tricky. Sometimes it’s quite impossible to denote where something ended and something else entirely began.

I’m not going to be able to tell you everything, but then the best stories never really do, do they?

(That’s not a trick question. I promise they don’t.)

(Unless the story was penned by Henry James, in → Read more...