Alchemy of Seoul

  Snow on the Quad! Dec 16, 2023 Bare trees beneath tall buildings      The staff Holiday Party was held on Dec 8th, a Friday. I was invited by the Head of School to serve on a committee of 4 people to plan the party and make sure there were fun activities for all. After polling a few people who had been around for awhile I realized that the party had some things for kids (traditionally a visit from Santa) but not enough child-centered activities. So I set up a craft room in a small cafeteria off the main one (where the party was held) and kids came in and out all evening to make ornaments, play with playdough, watch Charlie Brown Christmas, and solve puzzles. And play with glow sticks. A good time was had by all! But I was sure tired by the end of that week.  Right around the last week of school the weather got really cold, below freezing every night, and quite a bit of rain during the last week. I was in a grading frenzy so I barely noticed the cold, but Satur...

Fall leaves outside of Asan Medical Center on Thanksgiving Day 2023 Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Korea but since SIS is an American school, we got a four-day weekend. I spent Thanksgiving morning at Asan Medical Center near Olympic Park. I went to see the dermatologist (I have a mole I wanted to get checked and I have been suffering from an outbreak of shingles on my right hand) but I also got a flu shot and had a check up in the international clinic. It had been about 7 years since I had seen a doctor so this was a good chance for me to make use of the excellent health insurance from my contract.  When I left the building I was walking back towards the subway and I realized that there was quite a nice little park across the street. So I stopped in and took a few photos of the vibrantly colored fall leaves.    For most of my wander back to the apartment I was encountering fantastic fall foliage. It was such a nice day to be outside. I also encountered a magpie in a tr...

Silver grass in the DMZ, Nov 18, 2023 (my photo) On Saturday, Nov 18th, a group of teachers and five students took a school bus to the DMZ. The students on the trip had organized it as part of a culminating report of their research on various birds and animals that live in the DMZ. These students have been conducting research with university professors from South Korea for several years. It was an amazing experience to be lead through the ecosystem by such an interesting group. The university professors joined us for the trip and narrated (while the students translated) the important details for us.  Rice fields in the DMZ (from the bus, Paul Sperry's photo) I had my phone camera with me but there were a few people on the trip that brought serious cameras and they shared their photos with us in a shared file. This one of the rice fields from Paul Sperry was a lot of what we saw by the waterways in the DMZ. I tried to capture this with my phone camera but Paul's view of it was m...