This is a picture unrelated to Korea. It was a picture sent to me by Leslie from back home... yup good ol' Canada. In fact it's really only for Charlie to show him that we really do have pet beavers in Canada. :-) 

Yes, that sign DOES say "Danger, Mine Zone". And I was running around in the middle of it on a hash with Leslie and Rich. Notice what's written on my pants? Yeah, you'd think that I escaped from the ward... But really, the path that we were following was pretty much clear of mines - they put signs up in case they missed any, I guess. We made sure to stick to the path. Hashers are nuts... 

Me sitting in one of the trenches (I'm guessing). I was pretty hesitant to jump down into this pit with all the minefield signs around... oh well... what're a few mines going to do anyway? 

Some days at school leave me feeling like this... actually, most days do, but only on rare occassions do I succumb to my impulses. Well, actually, most days... *sigh* who am I kidding? 

Leslie has gone back to Canada and has now been accepted to the grad program at Fort Kent. Yay Leslie! This is how we like to remember her... 

Another one of my artsy-fartsy pictures. I liked the way all the dishes reflected off of the coffee carafe. This was at Leslie's farewell party. We went to an expensive Chinese restaurant next to the school. Chinese food is really quite expensive here... strange, don't you think? 

Last week, the school went on a field trip to the railway museum. It was a pretty drab field trip, but I did manage to snag this nifty picture of an old train engine.  

Here's Heracles class. Look out! That train is going to hit you! 

Jo and I headed out to Kyeongju this past weekend. Kyeongju is in the south of South Korea. We took a fast train to get there and a slow one coming back. Kyeongju was really impressive and very relaxing. We saw Pulguksa temple, the Seokkuram grotto shrine, the Kyeongju museum of Shilla history, had a great tour of the large park there, watched traditional dancers and drummers in the park, and ate some really great food. Well, interesting. Some of it was great. Some of it was creepy. Anyway, here's the countryside at high speed on the way to Kyeongju. There were lots of rice fields that were about to be harvested, or that were already harvested. 

Bamboo forest on the right of the trail. 

A pond at Puguksa temple. 

At the entrance to Pulguksa temple, there is an arch passageway in which there are 4 huge (12-feet tall) statues of sky gods - protectors of the temple to keep any negative energy out.  

The other side, where two more sky gods guard the entrance to the temple. They are holding a stringed instrument and a sword. 

This is the south section of the main temple. The large overhang used to contain a large bell and drum that would call the monks to prayer or other scheduled events. 

The steps leading up to the temple. There are 33 steps... a sacred number representing the 33 different buddhist "heavens"... 

The northern side of the main temple complex.  

Korean bells are really everywhere. They're distinctively Korean (and not Japanese or Chinese) because of the tube at the top.  

A passageway to another part of the massive temple complex. 

A pagoda at Bulguksa temple. You'll see a replica of this in a later picture. 

The overhang of one of the temples. 

This picture is a little dark and didn't turn out as well as I would have liked - but the clouds and the multi-toned mountains in the background was a really breathtaking sight. 

A nifty shrine that we saw. I forget what it was devoted to... 

Prayer stones. 

Prayer stones set up around a particular inner temple devoted to another Buddha.

A pond area at Bulguksa.