Some notes, and some things about vacation

I never finished my vacation chronicle, but there wasn't really much to say. Sokcho was interesting, but a little weird--things had really exploded there and so it turned into a resort town that my meager wallet wasn't happy with. I wandered through fish restaurant street, saw a beautiful temple on the sea, and went up to the top of one of Seoraksan's famous mountains--mostly to see nothing because it was raining and I was, hence, in a cloud. I stayed in a creepy, but cheap yeogwan with sweet old ladies. The room had no window and no fan, so it was quite stuffy, but they did have air con and a regular style bed. The elevator was the freakiest part--and because I didn't want to climb up five flights in a rickety, blinking metal box--I decided to take the stairs. That was scarier still, I realized (though not enclosed--except by darkness) as I found my way up five flights of stairs in the dark. The rest of the building's floors were empty, you see, and being behind the fish market at midnight was, well, rather frightening. Luckily, though I wasn't worried--Only that it would be too expensive--and I enjoyed two nights at a price I wanted.

Here's a picture of the beautiful temple in Sokcho--Naksansa. I recommend it to any temple enthusiast. It's on the ocean and it's BEAUTIFUL. Anyway, I'm saving up my words because I'm going to write about it in my next article for Teach ESL Korea.

In other news--I have two kindergarten students who are in love. It's absolutely amazing. They have the same absurd "I love my life" personality. He has the most intoxicating laugh. Neither of them have their front teeth. She is always in her taekwondo uniform, with enormous eyes and this squirrely squiggily disposition. They talk to each other with this unbelievable authenticity, completely engrossed in each other without any concern for the outside world. I'm not even sure that it's occurred to them that they're in love, and that's why it's so great. On Friday, I was teaching the class, and they were twitching out as usual, but the whole time they were just talking seriously, and he was curling her hand into a little fist--the hand that only has three fingers. The Korean coteacher told me that lately the kids are realizing that she only has three fingers on one hand, and that they're teasing her about it.  But not him. He's just curious. And like someone who's head over heals in love in a 100% healthy way, he's just interested in everything about her, including the things that other people think are faults.

Makes me believe in love again, I'll tell you that.