Veronika Wild

Queensland may have its Big Banana but in Gongju, Big Bear welcomes you as you come into town Until now, like the sound of the crickets under my window, life has been getting more and more frantic. Suddenly there is a lull and everything becomes much more languid. The Koreans have a special name for this short season -"pognal." Traditionally, dog was eaten at this time of year to give strength and to stimulate the appetite. Although the children assure me that this is rarely done now, I check anxiously each day to make sure that the two golden Labrador puppies which have recently been installed in the yard of the restaurant next door, are still there. Samgeytang, chicken stuffed with ginseng and rice is another popular 'pognal' dish and is supposed to do the same job. (Korea has special foods for each season as well as representative foods for each region). I learn to make it under instruction from the women who sell spices in the market. I don't usually do much...

An eerie mist envelopes the beach where we go to keep cool It's hot and it's humid. The aircon at the school works overtime, people fan themselves with small round fans to move the turgid air, which all seems like too much effort to me, and the ladies of leisure now play Go Stop under the bridge on the Jemichon to keep cool. I can't imagine what the wet season will be like as I have been rained on so thoroughly, so often already. Ross drops in from China. Election fever is in the air, and no sooner are they over, than Soccer season - The World Cup Series -begins. The students now look even more bleary -eyed than usual because it doesn't come on until 4 a.m. Election Fever in Gonju. This is a form of theatre in which all candidates have their own cheer squads and drive about the streets with music blaring, giving speeches to anyone who will stand still long enough Soccer Fever Soccer here is a national obsession. I've never been a big fan of spectator sports, much le...

"Hello Teacher!" is what I hear wherever I go in Gongju. In the beginning..... I arrived in Korea just after the first snowfall which was a bit of a shock after leaving the southern summer behind. None of my clothes were warm enough and hardly anything in the shops fitted me. Luckily, the flat was warm and cosy and my bosses gave me a warm leather coat and a thick woolly jumper. Gongju turned out to be a rather pretty town - not too many high rises, population ca.150,000, about one and a half hours south of Seoul, set among forested hills on the beautiful Geumgang (Ribbon of Silk) River. It has three universities and an ancient history, having been a royal capital in the Two Kingdoms period from 475 AD to 538. During this time, Gongju was renown as a centre of arts and culture. Relics of this period include the hill fortress with its great gates and pavillions and the recently discovered tomb of King Muryeong which shows that the Paeke Kingdom had wide trading links with both...