The Scooter Diaries

So, today I had the day off. Yes, well, I haven't actually taught a class since October 16. My students had exams last week, and this week is some sort of class field trip (token foreigners not wanted on the voyage - boo!) to Jeju Island.

Although the weather has changed (autumn is in the air!), Nina and I decided to brave the cooling temperature (and a bit of rain) to take the scooters out again.

It's amazing how the landscape changes: Only a few streets away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Suncheon, we find old style houses and fields. It's the real Korea, where farming and harvesting and the way of life hasn't changed in decades, where Nina and I were flagged down by two young ladies who wanted a lift (my first time driving my scooter with someone riding behind!) just because we happened to be going past, where goats and chickens cross the road, where I saw one of my first Korean cows (not many of them here), where dog farms are out in the open, where a village of mudbrick houses twists up the side of a valley, following the terraced fields, and an abandoned school stands to prove that this way of life is on the decline for future generations.

Photos are: man carrying threshed stalks of rice on back in traditional style carrier, dogs in cages (note ostriches behind!), inside hallway of abandoned school, small village where ladies asked for a ride, bridge leading to more fields.