I don't really know why you'd be here. I mean, I know I'm the single most interesting person, but don't you people have lives? Really, it's quite sad.
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Monday, August 04, 2008
Just a note to let you know that 1) we are still alive, 2) Paul's family is currently visiting, and 3) you can read wonderful accounts of the past week or so on his sister's blog since she's taken the time for it and I haven't had the time as I've been working most of the times when she's written her entries. Sadly, she is on her way back to the states now, but we still have a week left with the parents here.
Monday, July 14, 2008
I know, I know....I disappeared
Well, I ran back to the states quickly....OK, so I flew, but it was a quick trip that was productive, frustrating, and good all at the same time. Anyway, I'm back now and, as always, we are just keeping incredibly busy. Let me see if I can finish the pictures from when I first got here the FIRST time.
OK, I left off with the pictures of the village that reminded me of Okinawa. The reason? Narrow roads, close homes, and brick walls surrounding all the homes. That village was on the way to a temple--the first Buddhist temple I'd visited--to find a cache. Just a few days later, we took some of Paul's classmates (ok, the teacher) to the temple again as part of an introduction to geocaching.
This is an awesome picture that Paul took from the temple. (I apparently didn't upload any of the actual temple grounds.)
The one on the left is a classmate from Thailand and next to me is the teacher from Paul's class that week at Humphrey's.
Pretty much all the mountain temples have a big bell and drum like that. I think I've seen only one that doesn't. They all have ornate painting all over.
Many people hike up to the temples just for the hike, as you can see the path in the background, which is not how we got there. This was just down from the temple, though. Not sure why, but these kids had a rabbit that they were playing with.
So, of course, Paul took the opportunity to take some profile local people pictures.
On the way back and on our way to find another geocache, Paul stopped and took a few pictures of local farming techniques. This, we are pretty sure, is a pear orchard. Their pears are about double the size of a softball, so they have to hold the limbs up. It's either that or apples....their apples are about the size of a softball.
LOTS of stuff is grown in greenhouses.
The next cache was near this (and named after the tomb). It was very interesting.
This is the tomb from a distance.
This is obviously fancier than most tombs, but they all tend to be in the same general design. The mountainsides are dotted with tombs like this (minus the granite statuary). They are an area cleared of trees, fairly well kept, and the tomb itself is a round mound above ground. (Rhymes unintended but intentionally left!) It's very interesting. We've never seen anything like it.
This is a tree in the village of the Admiral. That particular roof color combination is also quite common, though we really don't know why!
This is a rice paddy very early in the season, just starting to grow and fill with water. Now you see them and it just looks like regular fields unless you look closely and notice thin strips of water reflecting light.
Paul had heard of ecobridges but had never actually seen one. This particular one has a cache on it. Surprised?
Finally, this is the Admiral's village again, but this is a typical thing to see: gardens full of little else other than garlic and a little onion.
Anyway, that's all I got right now.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I found it!!!!
I was beginning to think we'd have to go all the way back to Okinawa to find some of this again....then I found some in a crowded convenience store in Terminal 2 of Tokyo-Narita Airport.
Friday, June 06, 2008
New Old Furniture
Paul mentioned that we bought some new (used) furniture and I had promised I would post pictures, so here they are...
Yep, that's inlay. Four pieces total plus most of the items on the side shelves. It's not actually designed for a TV, which is why you see cords. That, btw, is our new (used) 220 LG TV to replace the one the converter fried. And our new (used) Sony 5-disc changer and surround sound system. The furniture alone is probably worth twice what we paid for all three items combined.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Pictures from the train
...posted while riding it, that is, not of it. The high speed trains here have free wireless internet. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.
OK, so here we go with all the pictures from the month of April. You want pictures. You get pictures. Lots of them.
Starting with the flight:
Somewhere over Canada.
Somewhere over or near Alaska, I think.
This is the, uh, lovely? room we were staying it at the Hotel Capital just off post in Seoul. It was quite the decorating job.
Seoul, out the dirty hotel window.
The magnolia trees were in full bloom...
And Paul likes taking pretty pictures.
Still doesn't look like Korea, does it?
The next week was spent in Pyeongtaek at Camp Humphreys (near Osan Air Base).
We took a drive one evening to the bay/port area. Several places around here, they have put in fountains in natural bodies of water. Some of the rivers even have them. It's pretty cool.
This was at an art park on the bay.
Gee, why would Paul have taken this picture?
While so close to the water, we decided to try one of the seafood restaurants basically along the boardwalk. We had no idea what we were ordering (that's usually the norm around here!), but it turned out to be a very good seafood feast.
Does that look a little more like I'm in Korea?Complete with a very dorky grin!
On the way back, we witnessed this very interesting way of transporting old computers. That's just pretty typical transport of anything, though.
The picture of our first cache in Korea is on Paul's cell phone. This was our second cache in Korea. I really should log sometime that we found it.
Oops. I lied. This isn't the exact train, but this is the high speed train, which I am currently sitting on as I write this post.
We found this monument as the result of a cache. This is why we love geocaching. It takes us places we probably would never have found otherwise. This monument is to the 37 airmen of the South African Air Force who gave their lives in the Korean war.
I took this picture because it reminded me of Okinawa (yes, I know, I'm still lacking pictures posted from there). The difference was...
and...
[NOTE: I started this post several weeks ago, so I'm just going to post it and finish posting the pictures from April later today possibly.]
