still adjusting

I haven't taken the time yet to work on this page like I hope to. The Google map of Korea is new, but I'm not sure I like it. I wish it showed Pyeongtaek without having to zoom in. By the time you zoom in it's not very helpful in figuring out where we're located. So, the map may not stay up long. For now I'm just playing with different things to see what I like. If you do zoom in, center the map near that waterway that juts inland south of Seoul. Pyeongtaek is near the river that that waterway flows into.

I took some new photos this week, which are now in the Republic of Korea folder if you click on the "Picasa web photos" link. I'll probably start a new folder each month. One morning I stopped to take photos as I was walking to the bus stop because the fog was clearing. Dew was still clinging to everything and the spider webs glistened in the morning light, making for some pretty shots.

We are still waiting for our shipment to arrive. We've bought some kitchen stuff to tide us over until it comes, but it will be nice to have more than one pan again and more than a week's worth of clothes! I'm ready to have my bike back too, so I can explore further. I can only go so far on foot. William has made it to the nearby mountains on his weekend bike rides, but I guess they look more like mountains from a distance than up close. He said they're not as big as he thought they'd be.

I've already walked a lot around town. On Friday I walked all over Anjeong-ri since I had the day off. That's when I took the photos of the community gardens, with the tall apartment complexes and other buildings in the background. Right after taking those couple of photos I continued walking and saw a little old women walking back to the road with a handful of onions she'd just pulled. I'm still not sold on the food, but I like this aspect: if there's a patch of open land, it doesn't seem to matter how small it is or where it's located, it seems likely there will be something edible growing on it. I've seen corn, beans, peppers, squash, pear trees, cucumbers, and some I haven't been able to identify. William says I don't know them because we didn't learn about them in my Wildlife classes (and they're not Indiana flaura and fauna) :)

Both in Anjeong-ri and Pyeongtaek, there are a lot of skyscraper-sized (Eastern European/Soviet style) apartment buildings, like the ones in the photo. I'm glad William didn't choose to live in one of those. I like our location. It feels like we live in the country but we're only a 10 minute walk from Anjeong-ri (for perspective, it used to take me 20 minutes to walk to campus from the apt in Boone).

Oh, and be sure to check out the photos of the apartment keys. They're definitely strange looking. William thinks they look like they might open up the ancient pyramids :)