I arrived here ahead of schedule yesterday afternoon.  The plane flew in daylight the whole way.  I made myself stay away and watched about 6+ movies (Inside Job, The Sentinal, Keeping Mum, Poseiden, Sleven, Kinky Boots and part of Nacho Libre).  There was a choice of 80 new, "classic" and foreign films to chose from.  Using the remote you could start them at any time, pause reverse and fast forward!!!

I was on Singapore airlines and the service was quite good.  Lots of space in economy class, I thought.  (A Boeing 777.)

I stayed very near the airport last night (at a Best Western!), getting into bed before 8 PM.  In the morning I went back to the airport and took the express bus downtown Seoul where I met Louis.  The trip took about 1.2 hours.  I met Louis is South Africa several years ago.  Now he teaches English here.

Coming up is a holiday week.  This is what the tourist guide has to say:

We spent the weekend in Seoul.  After meeting at the bus terminal, we took the subway to an old-town area ... a tourist street with cobblestone streets and lots of shops.  We found a modest hotel there.  In the tiniest room, we had a 45" plasma screen TV on the wall.  On another wall was a desktop PC with a flat panel monitor.  The bathroom had an electric seat, but I couldn't get it to work.

The first stop of the day was the electronic market.  Big buildings with floors and floors of all kinds of electronics.  I didn't find anything, though.  Stalls and stalls of cell phones, computers, software, hardware gadgets, GPS, dictionaries, some appliances and so on.

I was carrying a small back pack (which felt "large" after a while) and my black man-purse.  We were able to leave my bigger bag in the hotel.

On Monday, Louis and I took the bus to his city.  He lives further away from his school now and can't walk.  It's like being in the country side.  There are high rise dorms on one side of a man-made lake and university buildings on the other side.  Louis teaches at this university, but at the English Language Program which is "downtown". 

Louis needed to be a work at 11:00 AM.  I took the bus with him.  Louis went to teach and I make a long walk further away from his place ... to the city center.  I've done a lot of walking the past 3 days!

I ended up at the market hall (lots and lots of stalls in several adjacent buildings).   Before I even got there, the sidewalks were lined with vendors ... selling roots, boiled silk worm larvae (ugh), fruit, beans, green onions and so forth.  Women were sitting on the cement peeling chestnuts and ginseng roots.

On Tuesday we took the train in an easterly direction to a little village called Yemi.  The train was efficient and comfortable and we had reserved seats.  We are in the foothills in a former coal mining area.  It is very rural.  We started walking to the next town.  The buildings are very modest here.  Rice was being cut and dried in nearby fields. 

Louis' first teaching assignment was for a month in this town so he knew the area.

We decided to return to Seoul on Wednesday, so we took a taxi to the Wonju bus station and took the "Excellent" bus to the city.  A friend of Louis' named Henry was in town for a job interview and met us at the terminal.  Henry is 27 and liveswith his family near Incheon (airport city).  We returned to the electronic area so Louis could look into having a dead pixel on this laptop fixed.  (He will have to have it done in Wonju, we learned.)

Today is the middle of the Fall holiday (Jusok) so most restaurant and shops are closed.  In the early afternoon we walked around the nearby man-made lake that is adjacent to the Wonju campus of Yonsei University.  Louis lives on one side and the school is on the opposite shore.  

We could see the city of Wonju in the distance in this largely rural setting.  Crops are approaching harvest time.  We saw grain (barley?) drying on the shoulder of the road. 

Today we took at trip downtown ... shops were still closed.  We got off of the bus near Louis' school and walked a couple of miles to the express bus terminal.  From there we got a bus that brought us back to E-Mart ... a large department and grocery store.  I bought a sweater-jacket and small bag (that will hold my computer.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I attended performances of the 2006 Wonju Tattoo ... an festival of international military bands.  The opening program was on the first day and it ended with an brilliant display of fireworks.  I also went the second day and saw the bands plan in earnest.

Here are some pictures taken before the performance and during the concert.  I found it all very entertaining.  The bands marched around a lot and featured singers and drummers and gun twirling, etc.  Details are further below.

I left Louis' place on 10AM with a 3 hour bus ride to Incheon Airport (Seoul)  The plane left Thursday at 5:50 PM and a 10 hour flight back home ... getting me home Thursday at 2:00 PM.