2:25 PM 3Jan 1996 en route to Kwangju

Korea has an interesting landscape. Mountains dominate the land, as far as I have seen. In the spring and summer it must be beautiful! Graves are placed in the mountains and are raised mounds, sometimes with headstones. Some of the rocky peaks have temples up on them, looking down over the precipice into the city below. The vegetation is not much different from home. Being winter, the deciduous trees have lost their leaves and those remaining are brown. The mountains are topped with pines of different sorts.

Some of the houses have brightly colored roofs. Every place possible has been terraced for agriculture. The whole trip so far gives the impression that Korea is under construction. The furrows in the terraced fields are not always straight. There are herringbone patterns and round curves. The fields themselves are irregular polygons, linking together in a puzzle mosaic. The mountains keep rising higher around us�.

Everything around seems cluttered, and yet there is some sort of order to it. When my eyes grow accustomed to it, then I will understand�.

Green, blue, orange dominate the colors of the house roofs. All the little monuments and graves scattered around the hills look so peaceful. The mountains rise higher and sharper in the distance, snow capping their peaks�.

--An excerpt from my journal written during the bus trip from Seoul to Kwangju in early January 1996. It is my first true view of the Korean countryside. For the most part, after reading this again now more than six years later, I would have to say that it is a fairly accurate impression.

This is a brief photo archive of my year in South Korea. Pages and pictures (and additional commentary) will be added as I have time.

Introduction - A Year In Korea
Page 2 - My First Term Students
Page 3 - Sonam Temple
Page 4 - Nagan Fortress Town
Page 5 - Tomal - the southernmost tip of the Korean Peninsula
Page 6 - Student Demonstrations
Page 7 - More Demonstrations
Page 8 - Springtime in Korea
Page 9 - Term 2 Party Day
- Spring Break 1996 - Wando
More Coming Soon.

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