Back, back, back ....
I've been busy. That's about the only lame excuse I can give for not updating the blog, but I'm adding about six entries today covering some of the craziness and our travels in the last six weeks or so. Anne and Jack are both doing well, and Patty remains the mom of the year.
Patty Jack and Anne skipped this even, a Korean corporate tradition: the let's-get-smashed-out-of-our-minds-in-the-name-of-bonding retreat. At least once a year, the JoongAng Daily drives up north about an hour, rents out cabins and has a huge feast. The kalbi was amazing here. Although no one stayed overnight, there was a campfire, lots of alcohol and plenty of karaoke, of course. The guy with glasses (hanging out with the designers) is the head of the entire newspaper, the equivalent of a publisher. He went around with boilermakers (whiskey shots dunked in a glass of beer) and called out "no exceptions, no exceptions!!!" Of course, that made things a bit awkward for those who don't drink, but they didn't get pushed too hard. The other guy below, at right, is our features editor. At the end of the night, everyone drove home.

Next to our hotel in Sokcho, right next to it, was this farm. At the farm, there were about 30-40 dogs, which we heard each morning. I took one close-up photo (below) before getting shooed away. We also followed a pickup truck almost certainly taking dogs to slaughter. I later went to an old-school market in Seoul and saw a cage of dogs in front of a whole bunch of sliced meat. I even saw a woman butchering a dog. I was really horrified and sickened. I know that much of that is my Western sensibility -- here, eating dogs has been going on for a long time and is rather widely accepted -- but it's still hard to stomach. I know it's cultural and I should accept it (the wide availability of guns in the U.S., for example, makes many outside countries ill), but it's not easy.

Sokcho. Mount Soraek is one of Korea's most famous tourist spots and this town sits right at the foot of the mountain. We got a deal through the JoongAng Ilbo (our mother paper, or the 'mothers' as I like to call them) to stay at a pretty basic hotel for $50 a night. So, we made a long weekend out of it. At left, is a giant statue of Buddha in the mountains. It's probably 75 feet tall. The bridge is Sokcho at night. Patty's uncle met us on the last day, and took us to a fresh fish barbeque which was one of the best meals I've had here. They just kept throwing the fish on the grill until we couldn't eat any more. We also rode a strange ferry that went about 100 yards across a canal. You had to pull on a rope to drag it across. We all pitched in. Also below is Anne next to the ocean (the light was fantastic), Brian and Anne at a fresh fish market in Sokcho (cheap sushi for everyone), Patty, Jack and Anne working the telescope in the mountains and another tasty dinner of chicken and tons of veggies ....

These are just a few random photos. I've been taking a photography class, and have probably shot 1,000 photos in the last two months or so. So I'm in the zone. I need to learn the "delete photo" zone. At left is Jack outside the chic "W" hotel in Seoul, in front of a light that turns on at night. We went to the "W" for a one-year birthday party for the daughter of Patty's cousin. The other two photos were taken in Sokcho, outside our hotel. Sokcho is where the mountains slam into the beach on the East Coast of Korea -- a really long swim would bring you to Japan. Below, is a rose bush outside our hotel and a shot of Jack. The other photo is Patty and Anne at the playground.

We decided to go visit Patty's aunt (baby grandma, as Jack calls her, because she's the youngest) one weekend in May. Somehow that turned into a full family get-together with most of Patty's eight aunts and uncles. We ended up renting a new house in the middle of farmland in an area called Gongju. We had plenty of Korean barbecue, soju and -- of course -- no re bang. That means karaoke, and that's what's going in the photo below. It had rained a lot recently, so Jack managed to get covered head to toe in mud. Fortunately, there were lots of aunts and uncles around to help out .... :)