Nonseong Fortress

Nonseong Fortress is a small park about 20 minutes' walk from our house.  It is primarily for walkers but also has exercise equipment out like most parks in Korea--elliptical-like exercisers,  bars for pull ups, seats for sit ups.  There are several paths around the park, and at the center is a square of earthen walls or berms that surround a flat area with some trees and smaller areas surrounded by flower fencing.  Dogs on leash are allowed, but we have broken the law and played frisbee in this surrounded plateau.  The walkers here are accustomed to seeing dogs and wave and even stop to pet the dogs.  The photograph below is of that plateau where we play frisbee.

This photo (below) is taken from atop the earthen wall of the outside area of the park.

Our walk to the park carries us past mostly residences and a few businesses.  The shop keepers seem to be okay with us now.  They reply to my greetings and no longer duck back into their stores.  I make sure the girls do not offend anyone!  I think the whippets' jackets make them more approachable.  Here we are at a monument that stands in the park.  The lettering at the base is in Korean and Chinese, so I am not sure who the man is that stands atop this, but I think he was a nature lover and protector.  (As an aside, while I write this, the Korean cable channel I am watching has had commercials for Baskin Robbins, Chevrolet, and Philadelphia cream cheese, in Korean, of course!  Luckily the English speaking movie I am watching has Korean subtitles.)

 There is also a tiger on one side of this but I did not get a good picture of it.

Through my volunteering at the Red Cross, I discovered an old friend from dog training in Savannah was here in Korea.  Liz Joffrion showed me this park, and we have walked with her and her 15 year old Cairn, Apollo.  My girls are a bit more active than he, so we tend to stay longer, but it is nice to know another dog person here.  Here the girls are on top of the earthen wall.

 The houses are in the town of Anjeong-ri.  The buildings farthest back may be on Camp Humphreys. 

 Tweek, my intrepid adventurer, was the first to scale the earthen wall.  Marie followed, and Pepsi waited for me to go before she did.

 Those are the dog's jackets on the ground.  We play frisbee without jackets, even when it is in the 20s. 

I enjoy seeing the dogs have fun, and I also enjoy seeing bits of every day life here.  I noticed the smoke then saw the woman working in her garden.  She was hand threshing, using a stick to knock grains from harvested stalks.  I suppose she was burning the stalks, but most folks use those as hay or feed.

On our last trip to the park, a Sunday, we met two groups of children.  The first group was in the park.  One brave girl came after us, asking to pet the dogs.  I showed her she could, and she did!  The other three kids came over, and as Tweek approached them, one backed up quickly.  I asked Tweek to sit, and she did, and petted her again, and the brave girl petted her, then petted the whippets.  The older boy petted her and the whippets while the youngest two stayed back.  The kids said, "Bye!" and I said "Bye!" and then in the residential area three boys on bikes stopped.  They were asking me questions I did not understand, but they all petted the girls, and I was able to communicate the dogs' names to them (Marie becomes Mahlee in Korean; there is no true 'r' sound in their language) which they proudly repeated.  I really need to work harder on my Korean language skills.  I hope we see them again sometime on our walk to Nonseong Fortress.