Springtime in Korea; Trekking and Tromping

Cherry blossoms near the riverside in Yecheon

Ji Hye and I take an afternoon trip out to the small farming village she grew up in.  It's small and quiet enough that when we arrived an old woman near the taxi we were getting out of cried: "oh, looks like we've got a special guest here today!"

A statue of King Sejong, who created the Korean alphabet, Hangul, sits in front of the now-closed elementary school.  Children from the village now attend classes in a more populous area.

The old slide evidently still sees lots of use from children in the village.  These girls are all sisters.

The school hallway

I was waiting for ghostly child laughter to emanate ethereally from somewhere, but it never came.

Up behind the village, a small orchard buzzes wildly with bee activity.

On our school's Field Experience day my co-teacher and I take some of our middle school grade one (AKA grade 7) students on a hike, or, as some of them would probably refer to it, a death march

The rest here are mostly just insect shots taken on a hike through the hills behind Yecheon.  Yecheon is big on insects ... I mean, really big--the town has an insect museum and is hosting an international "insect bio expo" this summer.  Anyway, thought I should get a jump start on documenting some of the bug action out there at this time of year.  You know, before it's cool.

The Asian giant hornet (장수말벌), also known as the yak-killer hornet, is the largest in the world.

These are poisonous enough to be considered dangerous.  The neurotoxin in it's venom, mandaratoxin, can be lethal to humans if stung with a sufficient dose (then again, I'm sure any toxin is lethal if administered in a sufficient dose).  In Japan, at least, 30-40 people a year are killed from being stung by these things.  I'm not sure on the stats from Korea.  Anyway, that makes this shot awesome, because it's not like you could have just found a different one, taken safely with a zoom lens, somewhere else on the internet.  You're welcome.