Chasing Donguri - A blog about two people attempting to live in necessity...

An Afternoon in Jeonju

Marisa — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 01:32:07 +0000

This past weekend we took Jed on a quick trip to Jeonju to see the traditional Hanok village. They have one of the largest surviving groups of traditional Korean houses there and it's a big tourist destination in our province. We were lucky enough to go on the same day as some sort of festival; we think they were celebrating the deity in a tree. We made a little video about our experience, some things to look out for are: jump roping, a cute puppy and Marisa dancing.

The DMZ and North Korea

Marisa — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:18:52 +0000

Sometimes people ask me if I think it is dangerous to live in Korea. I always wonder why they ask me this because Korea is a very safe place with very little crime. Sometimes I remember that they ask me this because we live so close to North Korea, and word on the street says it's a little crazy up there. Generally for me though North Korea is just a place on the news that other people worry about (my mother not included).

This weekend Jordan's good friend Jed came to visit us, so we picked him up at the airport and took the opportunity to visit the DMZ. The tour started in the Joint Security Area, an area that has both a North and South presence, where the two sides meet for talks. We were "lucky" enough to see real, live North Koreans on a tour from their side.

Apparently this is a rare occurrence and both sides were busy taking pictures of the other side. The visiting rules are very strict, so we couldn't point, wave or make any gestures to the visitors on the other side. There are very serious South Korean guards standing around you all the time to make sure you behave and to keep the North Koreans from getting you.

After the Joint Security Area, we toured a tunnel dug by the North Koreans to secretly flood Seoul with soldiers. Luckily the tunnel was discovered before this happened. So far they have discovered four tunnels, however they estimate that as many as 17 more exist. In order to cover up their true intentions, the North Koreans painted to tunnel black and claimed they were looking for coal. Any rock sample will tell you though that the rock is solid granite. We got to wear cool hard hats as we walked through the tunnel, but pictures weren't allowed, so you will have to imagine us looking cool.

We ended with a view of Freedom Bridge, which was where prisoners of the Korean war were exchanged when a cease fire was declared. Now it's a place of pilgrimage for South Koreans to leave messages for their families in the North.

Click here to see more pictures.

Looking Back at 2009

Marisa — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:57:11 +0000

Looking Back at 2009 from Chasing Donguri.

Let it Snow

Marisa — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:56:50 +0000

It's been snowing for so long here in Gunsan that I no longer remember it not snowing. Yesterday we took a walk out to the park to enjoy the fresh snow, please enjoy some of the pictures we took.

Living Like Weasels

Jordan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:08:26 +0000

I was reading some Parker Palmer today, and something he said reminded me of Annie Dillard's weasel essay, found in Teaching a Stone to Talk. I read the essay again, and seeing as it is the inspiration for our blog's byline, I thought I would go ahead and post it here. It is one of my all-time favorite essays.

Click on the "continue reading" link to see the whole thing.

ANNIE DILLARD

LIVING LIKE WEASELS

A weasel is wild. Who knows what he thinks? He sleeps in his underground den, his tail draped over his nose. Sometimes he lives in his den for two days without leaving. Outside, he stalks rabbits, mice, muskrats, and birds, killing more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home. Obedient to instinct, he bites his prey at the neck, either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and he does not let go. One naturalist refused to kill a weasel who was socketed into his hand deeply as a rattlesnake. The man could in no way pry the tiny weasel off, and he had to walk half a mile to water, the weasel dangling from his palm, and soak him off like a stubborn label.

And once, says Ernest Thompson Seton--once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth to neck, and nearly won. I would like to have seen that eagle from the air a few weeks or months before he was shot: was the whole weasel still attached to his feathered throat, a fur pendant? Or did the eagle eat what he could reach, gutting the living weasel with his talons before his breast, bending his beak, cleaning the beautiful airborne bones?

I have been reading about weasels because I saw one last week. I startled a weasel who startled me, and we exchanged a long glance.

Trimming The Tree 2009

Jordan — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:09:27 +0000

Our Bunny-foo

Jordan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:40:09 +0000

Keep watching, and you'll get some crazy hops starting at 1:20.

Wonder Girls debut at #76 in USA Hot 100

Jordan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:42:21 +0000

We hear the Korean version of this song almost every day here. It is much loved by our middle school girls. Now it is apparently much loved by American middle school girls as well. Notice how the beginning of this music video is obviously just a dubbed version of the Korean video--and yet the thing still managed to do well on MTV...

The Birds Have Flown

Marisa — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 03:38:37 +0000

Yesterday I was witness to the giant migration of the Baikal Teal. At least we think it was the baikal teal, as there was no English around to inform us and I had to look it up when we got home. Huge groups of these birds meet at this one place in the river delta near Gunsan and then fly off. From what I read on wikipedia it sounds like Korea could be the end of their trek, as they start from the Baikal region in Russia.

I was invited out by our friends Jim and Carol. Jordan was busy working on a game (to be released later today I think), and didn't join us. We had an adventure on the bus, first missing our stop and worrying the bus driver, then walking in the frigid Gunsan air (sometime overnight it turned freezing, there's a chance of snow today). There is a bird zoo and museums at the site of the bird's landing, and an observation tower. Since this was the big weekend, there was also an exciting festival going around. I think Carol and I will feature in next year's informational brochure because there was a photographer following us around for a while.

We almost missed the birds whose party it was because unless you looked really closely they just looked like a sandbar out on the river, despite the sandbar being pointed out as a thing of interest by the men in charge of the binoculars.

For more pictures click here.

sniff, sniff, the end of our trip

Marisa — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:47:23 +0000

After two wonderful weeks in Ljubljana, Jordan and I are preparing for the long flight back to Korea tomorrow. Our first week here had excellent fall sunshine and changing leaves, our second week has seen mostly rain and clouds. But you can hardly complain about the weather when the country is so cute and sells cheese in the supermarket.

If you are looking for a place that is idyllic then you should come to Slovenia. They have no ugly parts. And my parents have a giant guest apartment where you can make a mess and no one will know.

Great sites of Slovenia include:

Lake Bled

Ljubljana

Castles

Caves

Pizza

and my parent's house

For more pictures, click here.