We played a traditional Korean game involving a top and a small whip. You tie the rope around the top and pull it away from the top to get it spinning. Then, to keep the top spinning when it slowed down, you would whip the top with the... um, whip. Here's Jeff trying to get his top spinning. They were tough little buggers.... the tops, that is, not the children.  

Here are two small children with really big hammers. Good idea??? Seriously, this is a fun little activity we did - it involved smashing a large hunk of rice dough (called dok) with wooden hammers. Sure, it may not SOUND like much fun, but believe me, you haven't lived until you've smacked dok. 

We told Rob to go fly a kite. So he did... Well, we all did... and Rob succeeded.  

I think Renee looks like she's doing a cool new hip hop move that involves a large wooden mallet... 

I believe Charlie was trying to atomize this piece of dok.  

Jo, smackin' that dok... 

Put some back into it, Sophia! 

Lois, working on the chain gang while everyone else just stands around and watches. Hoo! Haa! Hoo! Haa! 

We all had a hard time getting our kites up and flying. This tree, however, had no problem whatsoever. I think the key to good kite flying is doing nothing... 

Here is Lois eating a baked sweet potato. They're really quite good. I never used to like sweet potato, but after having one of these, I changed my mind.  

Various Exciting Tidbits

This past week has been rather eventful. A week ago today, Jo and I went on a day trip to see a number of Korean cultural heritage sites. These sites included King Sejong's tomb, Empress Myeongseong's birthplace and museum, and the museum of buddhist iconography. The museum of iconography was cool also because it had a large grounds with many statues and works of art. I go on to explain some of the sights I saw as blurbs under the pictures that follow. My favorite place was King Sejong's tomb and associated museum, detailing the achievements of his life. King Sejong was truly a philosopher king, and the people of Korea still love him today because of it. His final resting place was very peaceful, harmonious, and had a great feel to it. Unfortunately, I didn't get enough pictures of it. I forgot my camera at school on Friday and had to go the weekend without it. Instead, the pictures I do have are from Jo's camera phone. I think the pictures turned out rather well, considering.

I worked at school on Monday and Friday. We had Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off from school due to the Lunar New Year, but had to work on Monday and Friday... but I'm not complaining. I spent those 3 days going skiing at Yangji Pine Resort, about an hour outside of Seoul. It was really great. I went with Louise. I'm no professional skier, and hadn't skied in well over 12 or 13 years. Probably more... the last time I went skiing, I ended up falling down for more than 50% of the time, and had come home so discouraged, I vowed to never ski again. So, I was rather proud of myself for having ascended to the black diamond slope by the end of the second day, this time around, after having fallen not even once. Snowboarding was a different story, however. I rented a snowboard for half a day and spent most of my time on the ground in the snow. Rob tells me that it's tough to learn, but easy to master, while skiing is easy to learn but tough to master. Perhaps, but I traded in my snowboard, due to my time constraints and my desire to use the time I had to have the most fun possible.

And now it is Saturday / Sunday. I'm vegging and cleaning my apartment. Time alone can be golden at times. Sometimes, I feel like a real hermit. Unfortunately, since I got my computer, I have been spending my free "Ben time" with other people chatting on MSN, or with technology (burning CDs and games from the internet with my new computer and DVD burner).

I need sleep...

As you will tell from the next pictures, the snow on the mountain was artificially made. Here's what the regular snowfall looked like. 

Looking up the black diamond slope. I eventually made it up here and down a few times by the end of the second day. Yay me! 

Here is the rental house, cafeteria, and resort hotel, as seen from the top of the wimpy practice hill. Sweet sweet wimpy practice hill... you were my saviour. 

Some of the mountains in the distance. 

At night on the second day, the staff of the resort came skiing down the hill with flaming torches. After they made it down, the fireworks started. It was part of the New Years celebrations. 

Almost smack in the center of the photo is me. I'm the goofy dude standing up as straight as I can get (not the cool snowboarder guy). 

This is me, at the bottom of the intermediate slope. It's all blurry because I was travelling so quickly. ;-) 

Here's Louise coming down the Intermediate hill. What a pro-star. 

The top of the mountain, looking down at the resort. I was proud that I made it up (and down in one piece) to the black diamond course, having never skiied successfully before.