$#!* my students say…and write…and wear
I teach English to eleven and twelve year old students at an elementary school in Seoul. I taught fifth grade in 2011, and now I’m teaching the same 210 students this year in sixth grade. For the most part, their English skills are extremely poor, but there are a handful of students who speak relatively well....
Hike with the Crowds at Bukhansan National Park
Spring is here! It’s time to break in your new hiking boots and throw on a florescent windbreaker. As seen in the photo above, hiking is a national pastime in Korea, and Koreans are as stylish on the mountain as they are in everyday life. Despite the small size of the mountains, the hikers are...
Heyri Art Valley: get inspired by Korea’s hidden art village
HEYRI ART VALLEY was named after “the song of Heyri,” a traditional farming song from Paju province in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Since the days of singing after laboring in the fields, Heyri has evolved into an international village for artistic types to sing in their studios as they labor on their own creative projects. Due...
Tastes of Taiwan
I’m obsessed with food. When I travel, I’m constantly eyeing street food, scrutinizing packages of mysterious snacks in convenience stores and pointing to random dishes on the menu in restaurants. In my opinion, trying local cuisine is essential to learning about a culture. In Taiwan, I was overwhelmed with delicious dishes and vast assortments of...
Photo Essay: Koya-san, Japan
Recently, I visited Koya-san (Mt. Koya) in Japan, located about 50 kilometers south of Osaka. The Buddhist monk Kobo Daishi founded a temple on Koya-san in the early ninth century, and ever since, the Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism has thrived on this sacred mountain. An array of monasteries, temples, pagodas and burial grounds are...
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