Butterfly Corner: November 2007

This is my last post on this page simply because that year is over and done with. I've enjoyed my time in Geochang and Korea immensely. The time and place was perfect in Geochang. All of the people that I got to know who lived and worked in Geochang are some of the coolest and wildest people I have met thus far. Maybe that's why we all found ourselves in Korea.

I'll remember the mountains that surrounded our little valley that Geochang was nestled in. I'll remember the main street with it's hideous neon that lit up an otherwise dark town. Getting together on Fridays and Saturdays to go out for a beer or a G&T and to just play cards. The way everyone got together for special occasions in force, and especially how the boys broke it down in Noria Bangs. There are video's and to many pictures to count.

I'll remember that whenever we said hi or spent a little extra time with the people in Geochang it meant so much to them. How people continuously took my photo on their cell phones. How restaurant owners who continuously give us things for "service" (free) to encourage us to come back. How J&B rocked out whenever we could convince the owner to play her sax. How I could literally walk for ten minutes and be at the base of a mountain.

I'll remember that the "working girls" (also known as coffee girls) paid a bit more attention to me than the boys. What can I say I am just that sexy *wink*. I'll remember all my experiences at my all boys middle school; good, bad and ridiculous. I'll remember the bonding experience that the EPIC group went through when we first got to Korea and how it continues even now.

I can't even begin to really describe everything that you go through and experience when you are over here. How it feels to be illiterate and effectively deaf to words. How you can't do the simplest thing by yourself.... at least the first time around. The acute loneliness and the spark of connection you get from the people you met. The sense of adventure and the sweet taste of success over the simplest things that I took for granted at home. Trying to learn the niceties of another culture while maintaining a connection to your own. Learning a profession through trail and error. Exposing the fears you didn't know that you had and laying them bare until the fear vanishes.

Travel. It's said that it is another form of education, another way to open your eyes and soul. I think though that it goes further than that though. You don't just analyze what is happening to you, you start to see how this effect is having an effect on other faucets of your life. I know my parents didn't want me to move to Korea ( although I think that they understood why I decided to), I KNOW my friends just thought it was talk. Some people will never be ready to do what I have done in this past year. Personally I think that it takes a special kind of person to put themselves in the position I was in and that I am still in. The people who have travelled how I have will understand. The ones that haven't............maybe later on you'll discover it.

As for me, coming to Korea has just wettened my appetite more for travel. Hope you enjoyed the pictures, the stories and the ideas.

This was really Steve's last weekend. He left on the Tuesday of this week. So we got together and made his neighbour's hate him.

A bit of music...

This is from "man chicken". The chicken man who insisted that his name was man chicken.... and seriously who would argue....

Sonny and I with Steve's view of Geochang.

Steve 1 and Jack discussing......something interesting no doubt..

Steve, Mick, Jack (downing his drink) Steve 1, Myself and Martyn with Sonny taking the picture.

Later on....... the craziness started to occur more frequently...

Phil, Dillion, Myself, Dave, Chris, Kara, Mick's arm and Martyn. This might have been around the time when we were trying to write down all the provinces, states and counties of Canada, America, the UK (later England) and Australia respectively.