Fantastic weather!

I took the little guy up the mountain today and we started in coats. Half way through the climb we were down to shirts and I was considering switching to shorts (I was wearing hiking pants which had zippers around the legs so they can convert to shorts).

At the top, in the wind, we wore our coats and I wrapped a beach towel around my son as he ate his pastrie before we began the descent.

The windows and verandah doors are open so a warm breeze is running through the apartment.

On top of all that, KwandongWife returns from a week overseas on business tonight (this may be a mixed blessing as I have to clean wildly before she does get here).

A wonderful weekend to all!

Electrocuted trying to save Lil' Paper-face

I have an evening class at the university that I get to choose the material for. The topic for the past week was 'emergencies'. In the third and final class of the week, I taught a little first aid, specifically the Heimlich Maneuver. I also taught the students to take care of themselves first, before attempting any sort of a rescue. After all, increasing the number of victims by one, by definition, isn't helping the situation.

Upon noticing an incident where someone or some people (or some animals or even plants, I guess) are in danger, first keep yourself out of danger or at least understand the risks.

I taught the students the mnemonic, "No wire, no fire; No gas, no glass". These are things to look out for; I think the 'No glass' part is for completeness. Although I wouldn't want to kneel in broken glass, it's danger or terror value is much less that the others on the list.

Then, I brought the students, one at a time, into the next room where Lil' Paper-face was laying motionless (by a lucky coincidence, on a beach blanket). The first student reached out to see if he was sleeping or unconscious, disregarding the wire that (in the rules of first aid training, and almost as immutable as the rules of horror movies) naturally meant there was an electrical hazard.
The next student then had to rescue two victims. Well, I feel I could teach the steps of artificial respiration but had no intention of doing so; the important next step (after removing the wire and checking to see if they were sleeping) was to call 119 (911 in North America).

The second student performed the steps correctly so the two were saved, although poor Lil' Paper-face just fell to pieces after the class.

Are there established rules or etiquette for interpretation?

Kwandongwife will be traveling with a delegation of the Korean Coast Guard to a few South Asian countries and will be doing all or most of the interpretation. Although her language skills are strong, this is something she has not done before.

We have learned that interpreters should use direct speech and not say, "He said that he...."

Interpreters should say, "....Correction,....", rather than "...I'm sorry,...."

I spent a long time googling and found many sites for interpreting dreams, law, the bible, various computer languages and sign language, but no set of guidelines that human interpreters of spoken language generally follow (Some of the sign language stuff was useful, though). If any readers can offer advice or point me to a website, thanks a lot.

First snowfall of the Fall.

Thursday was cold and the rain and drizzle that fell all day felt even colder. I was not surprised to see Seoraksan snow covered on Friday morning but I was surprised to see how far down the slopes the snow actually reached.
The Korea Times has a photo.

In previous years, the first snow fall was typically later in November with 2003 having the earliest fall: November 14 (probably the first year I recorded dates). My pictures of previous years can be found here.

Middle-aged, Sub-urban Parkour

My commute from home in Sokcho to my university in Gangneung is fairly long and expensive. To get some more exercise and reduce the expense, I often walk from the Gangneung terminal to the university. That's good but it takes even more time. To shorten the walk, I have been trying a few different routes.

I now get off the bus and scurry across the bus parking lot, keeping my eyes open for moving buses. I then squeeze around a fence and go through the Gangneung Information Centre to City Hall Street (I think - you know how Korea is for street names). I legally cross the street and illegally walk up the Southbound lane of Highway 7. Upon reaching the bridge crossing the NamDae River, I take a little set of steps (maybe the bridge is a sort of emergency shelter).

Next, I go to the river and cross on a line of rocks that make a simple good-weather bridge. Once on the south side of the river, I stick to roads to my university.

This route takes about 30 minutes, which is a little faster than walking past the city hall and Doosan Soju, but mostly it is much more fun.

My little guy was sick at the beginning of the week and my sleep was intermittent. In taking my new under-the-bridge route, I found this guy.


This picture is from Tuesday. On Monday morning, the blankets were hanging evenly and smoothly around the styrofoam pad. He looked as if he went to sleep hours ago and hadn't moved at all in a comfortable, untroubled sleep. Tuesday, he still looked comfortable.

I know the guy must have problems aplenty to be sleeping under a bridge. And to be sleeping after 10am, he may well have been stumbling around most of the night, trying to keep warm, looking for food, whatever: still, in this snapshot of time, he looks relaxed.

I mentioned this to my wife and she let me know we had extra blankets and such if I wanted to head out. Probably, she was joking.

In unrelated news, at the Yangyang campus (now only the dormitories are used there), I found this set of pictures.

Today is frickin' miserable, but recent weather has been great but really dry. I have noticed wardens at all the San-Bul Jo-Shim (beware of fires) kiosks on the trails recently and these pictures from 2005's Naksan fire are a good way to encourage caution. Looking at these pictures, I feel most sorry for the poor cow. Normally, steak is dead before it is barbecued.

A review of 'Koreanclass 101'

The EFL Geek noted that a new Korean Language study website has appeared and wondered if anyone would review it. I decided to do so and posted it as a guest author on his site. Find my review here.

36 summits

Today, I made my 36th climb of Cheongdae Mountain. Again, if you are new to my blog or don't keep track of my doings, Cheongdae is not a giant mountain or anything, its just a handy fitness goal.

It was my third climb of November (today is the fourth (day of November)) so I'm well on my way to achieving 52 climbs by the end of the year.

Here is the Kwandongfamily at the summit yesterday. The climb was warm but East-coast Gangwondo's winter winds were back so the peak was cold. I was wearing only a shirt so my back could dry a little before putting on a sweater and vest.




The little guy is ambivalent about the mountain. I think the babysitter takes him up now and again (I mentioned earlier that he may have more summits than I do) and she claims not to carry him. Some days, I carry him a little and some days a lot. Yesterday, I carried him a lot, so I was hot and panting and wet at the peak.

Today, I tried something different. I jogged around the mountain to the other side and then summited and finished at my starting point. I had walked the route on Thursday and took an hour, seven minutes. Today, by no means fast, I managed forty-one minutes.

2 down

Hallowe'en, one of my favouritest days.