Well, my vacation's over. I caught a cold through most of it, but I've rested up and I'm feeling great now.

I saw a lot of cows today. This one seemed to like me.



I took the scooter to the east side of Halla Mountain today and just road around, stopping to check out beautiful views. It's a shame it'll soon be a little too cold to do this.



The foliage was nice but nothing like home -- I miss New England!



I found this path through an evergreen forest on one of the small hills here on Jeju ... it seemed almost like something out of a fairy tale -- or a horror movie??



Well I've been telling everyone I know, so I might as well post it here - I've decided to try the National Novel Writing Month contest! Yes, this gives you permission to heckle me and ask me how many words I've written so far. I start at 12:00 AM on November 1st, and I have till 11:59 PM on November 30th to write a 50,000 word novel. I'm thinking about posting chapters as I finish them here - good idea? Wish me luck!

Well it's been hot and humid since I arrived here in Korea, but this past week the weather took an abrupt nose-dive into almost visible-breath, winter-coat conditions. And unfortunately I caught a little sniffle as well. I had the week off from Uni classes, and spent most of the time hanging out at cafes, reading, and working on my little pet project lately ~ putting ALL of my photos online. I think I've got about 10,000 on my computer, and right now I'm uploading what I have to Flickr and sorting through them. You can't see them yet, but in a week's time they should be all public, check them out. Here's a few recent ones:

One of my best students, Geonbeom, tries a fruity cocktail at a bar renowned for it's homebrewed beer. I guess just to be different?



Minbeom shows off his book balancing talents.



One day 3 out of the 5 students in my Level 2 class decided to wear brownish bluish plaid shirts:



The view of Jeju City from Dodu Oreum (near the airport).



I feel like I'm really settling in here at Cheju University, which is I guess somewhat strange to say. I've been traveling and moving around since last May, and the prospect of staying in the same place for a while has seemed almost alien. Until now. I'm happy here, my job is fun and fulfilling, and I can see my progress in the Korean language. Well, I guess I'm jinxing myself, but -- life's been good. :)

I'm on vacation! Well, sort of. I'm teaching only one class per day (kids' class at 4) for the next two weeks. Any recommendations on how I should fill my time? I've been doing a lot of hiking lately, and I plan to do more in the mornings this week. Below is from a hike I took last Friday to the oreum (volcanic hill / mountain) right behind the University. It was really hard to find the path up the mountain, I had to go through an army target shooting field. You can actually see my dormitory, its one of the buildings with a reddish roof in the middle to the far right. In the distance you can see Jeju City, on the sea.



The view of Mount Halla from the same oreum.



Butterflies were everywhere.



Easily the winner of this year's "slug on a mushroom" picture award:



Hillside gravesites.



On another oreum, tall grass and Mount Halla:

MOUNT HALLA!

This past weekend was pretty dismal and rainy and dull, but last week we had a day off on Wednesday for Korea's foundation day, and my friend Cathy and I decided we'd climb Mount Halla, the volcanic peak in the center of Jeju Island.



Halla Mountain is home to all kinds of exotic wildlife. We were continually divebombed by these cute (but deadly??) hummingbirds attracted to the yellow in Cathy's hat - they tried to suck her head nectar on more than one occasion. I caught a picture of one next to a legit yellow flower.



Also, the toilets smelled.



But of course the views were beautiful.



On the way home we passed a horse in the middle of the road. So we tried to creep toward it, but it was wise to us and kept moving away -- this was as close as we got. I think this pic would make a great album cover?!