North Korea - I'm sure that for some of you, hearing the name invokes images of a country that you might think would be awesome to see, however, knowing fully well that you'll most likely never go there, you don't feel guilty about wishing to visit a country with a deceased head-of-state (for those of you who don't know, Kim Il Sung, the former dictator of North Korea, is still listed as the head-of-state, even though he died in 1994).
However, I've long harbored a desire to at least visit the country for a weekend on a sponsored hiking tour of one of their mountains that borders South Korea. (I'm presently looking into spending four nights in North Korea during the end of July, however, that is highly unlikely due to the high cost). This past weekend, I was able to join eight other teachers from my school to travel to Kumgang Mountain



Now, I'm not going to bother you with the whole story of the trip - that would be far too big to put on my blog, and it would be far too boring for some of you to read. What I'm going to do is to write the whole story up in a word document, and then if you're interested in reading about the trip, drop me a basic e-mail at my blogs e-mail link (on the right column of the site) - don't post a comment with your e-mail address, otherwise website-reapers who scan websites for e-mail addresses might pick up your address and send you lots of fun stuff. I'll post another blog when the story/letter is finished - in the mean time, if you want to read it when its finished, just drop me an e-mail.
I hope and pray that things are going well with all of you - if you just want to see the pictures, check out the photo site, which has an updated folder of photo's (some with propaganda!) from the hiking trip.
take care, and I'll catch you on the other side of the bend.
me