Autumn is heeeere!!

I can see leaves falling, so it looks like coloured rain.
Ryan, grade 1.

My Weekend

Started off with an all-day workshop on Saturday. Not bad I guess, for having to give up my Saturday. After the general assembly in the morning we had seminars, at which my co-teacher and I presented. We were enlightening about 90 other teachers on our methods of teaching the Reading curriculum. Thrilling, I know. ;)
Then it was off to Incheon where I lived last year, to visit friends for the night. There is an obvious need for more public transportation on the weekends. Hello! It's the most frustrating thing about Korea...you can't go anywhere on the weekend without being completely squished and crammed and moving at a snail's pace. More infrastructure people! Lord, there's only 20 million people on the move on a Saturday night. Jeez.
Ah, well it was only a 45 minute ride. After that it was friend time!
And on Sunday it was arty-street time. Is this not the coolest entrance to a framing/art shop?
And I caught the last second of this monk painting a giant sign.



All in all, an absolutely fabulous weekend darling!

Burma

The Great Day That Dawns

I think over again my small adventures, my fears,

These small ones that seemed so big.

For all the vital things I had to get and to reach.

And yet there is only one great thing,

The only thing.

To live to see the great day that dawns.

And the light that fills the world.

-Inuit Song

Relax

Relax everyone. It's not so bad.

I Love the Whole World

Thanks to my sweet little brother for this.

Swimming brains

Sooo, I had a fabulous long weekend on a charming little island very close to the mainland (3 minute ferry ride). It's called Muui-do, and I've posted about it before. Lots of laying around, dozing in the sun, drinking coffee, sitting on the beach, etc...regular vacation stuff. :)

I wanted to show you this 1 minute video I took today between Muui Island and a another little island that you can walk to on low tide. Lots of people go out into the flats to dig for clams and catch crabs, and apparently octopuses. This video shows the latter, sort of. Seems they were transferring the octopuses from a net into a styrofoam box.

Just this past week, in fact, I watched a fabulous video about octopuses on National Geographic Kids with my kindergartens. You can also watch it, and I suggest you do (it's only a couple of minutes). Did you know that some octopuses can change colour or drop their legs if in danger? They also say that octopuses are basically swimming brains. So I feel bad for them, being ripped around by fishermen...they seem easily torn. Koreans eat loads of octopus...cooked, raw, and even, unfortunately, alive. If you go for the raw or alive version, apparently you have to be careful that the suction cups don't strangle you by sticking to your throat on the way down. Well...I think that's karma for chewing off a live animal's appendage. ;)

Parlez-vous Korean?

Non, mais un peu de francais! :) Going away for the long weekend folks (it's Korean Thanksgiving), so I leave you with the view of downtown Seoul from my French class window. Yes I am blessed. Plus a cool bug and prehistoric toad I found whilst gallivanting around the countryside a few weeks ago. :D





Adieu, adieu. ;)

A Single Autumn

The year my parents died
one that summer one that fall
three months and three days apart
I moved into the house
where they had lived their last years
it had never been theirs
and was still theirs in that way
for a while

echoes in every room
without a sound
all the things that we
had never been able to say
I could not remember

doll collection
in a china cabinet
plates stacked on shelves
lace on drop-leaf tables
a dried branch of bittersweet
before a hall mirror
were all planning to wait

the glass doors of the house
remained closed
the days had turned cold
and out in the tall hickories
the blaze of autumn had begun
on its own

I could do anything

~W.S. Merwin

New Yorker March 3, 2008

Snack Street!

I saved the 'best' of my Beijing pics til last. And by best, I mean strangest.

I know you've all heard stories about the outlandish things that the Chinese eat. In general, they eat very 'normal' food, you know...noodles, rice, meat, veggies, and the like. But there's one street in Beijing, aptly nicknamed "Snack Street," lined with vendors selling things westerners would not consider food.

Let's start with normal.

Pineapple rice:
Candied fruit:

Veggies & noodles:Mini lobsters:
Ok, enough normal. On to strangee.

Sea urchins! (I assume we don't eat the pricklies?)
Starfish!
Seahorses!

Who knows!Sheep testicles and penises! (the middle are the penises in case you were curious):

Bugs!
Giant larvae!
Scorpions! (honestly...giant exoskeltals on a stick? I'm wondering which poor, starving, desert wanderer started this trend):
And what, you may be thinking, did our adventurous Bethy try? Intestines? Private parts? Insects? No, no, no. I'm not a 'try anything once' kind of gal. I did, however, suspend my vegetarianism for one bite of snake:

Just like chicken! hahahaha

Do you seed what I seed?

The BBC has such an amazing little photo/video clip about seeds! I wanted to put it here, but I can't figure out how to embed it. Anyway you can watch it on their website. Please do! It's astounding how beautiful seeds can be on a microscopic level!