The Dipper and Cassiopeia

Last night when I came home from shopping in Gumcheon, it was only about eight in the evening, but already it was really dark out, almost pitch black. I live in the country so there aren't many street lights to begin with. It was a cold night. Except for this morning when I woke up to such a harsh chill, yesterday was the coldest day to date. (But, I can still be grateful that I don't have to suffer through the bloody unforgivable winds in Ottawa, so I did not complain.)

I opened the door to my low-rise to meet Keiko's high pitched squeals of happiness, dropped my bags inside, said hi to Beatrice, and then took Keiko for a quick potty-run. I am surrounded by farmland, but there is this dirt road trail that takes you back to a barn where all the cows are. I normally take this trail on my morning walks with Keiko, passed the cows and around the nooks and crannies of the little village. Well, we were walking along this trail and I decided to look up. It being so dark out and a remarkably clear night, I saw the sky exploded with a million stars. I've never seen so many stars in one sky before. It was so beautiful! I could see the Dipper and Cassiopeia, and a bunch of other constellations that I don't know of. The longer I looked, the more stars came into focus and filled the night sky and I became dizzy, a little delirious. My fingers became numb and my neck got sore and Keiko did her business so I went back in.

I want to learn all the names of all the stars and lie down in my backyard come summertime and find them all.

The Stones of Peace

I'm take-out coffee too.

Behind me is North Korea. I don't understand how people surrounded by such beautiful mountains can focus so much energy on oppression and violence.
Two of the grade 11boys in my school told me their life in the next five years: Finish high school next year, spend one year at university, then spend two years in the military, and then three years finishing university. I think that's actually six years.

North Korea.

The train that got blown up.



"The stones of peace" is a monument of stones collected from war zones around the world.
"Together we pray that this country divided into North and South be reunified and its people divided into left and right be reunited."
DO NOT COME CLOSE OR TAKE PICTURES

So over the weekend, I went with a tour group to see the DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone, since I live practically across the steet from it. There was a lot of barren land and areas we couldn't get too close to unless we wanted to get shot at or blown up by a land mine. The North Koreans actually dug these huge tunnels underground, like four of them, that were intended to go all the way to Seoul for a surprise attack. We got to walk in these tunnels but couldnt take pictures. It was pretty crazy.
The weather was beautiful. Sunny and blue skies.