Sorry, I know you've all been waiting desperately for my amazing tales. Shhh~ don't worry. It's all okay now. I'm back.
I've finally sat myself down and finished writing this one. Hwacheon town has plenty of moths and other seasonal bugs, but that's about all I had to write about last year. Now that my house is way off in the farmlands/mountains I've come across a whole new world. Living in as rural a place as I am now, I've had numerous animal encounters (beyond just farm animals).
If you've read my previous few posts, I've mentioned a few, but that's just the beginning. Since then I've seen many more bugs like praying mantis, grasshoppers, dragonflies, mosquitoes, giant beetle like things, and the plague of gnats every evening. Also frogs, snakes, ducks, cranes, mockingbirds, medium sized blue birds, and more birds I don't know, and river otter....
Fear not dear reader, I've had no more pleasant meetings with wild boar.
(all you heartless people expecting my K.O. fight with one should just leave now. Yeah. Or suck it up and continue reading about cute animals that won't kill you)
One more note before we go on, most of these stories I started writing about a month ago... so the days were longer and much warmer. I'll give you a quick update on what the present environment is like at the end of the post. Now let's pretend this is the end of September-ish and proceed!
Let's start with the cutest of all my stories.
I was biking home after picking up some groceries and saw a few people taking a walk on the path in front of me. I slowed down a bit, and they moved to the side, but as I was passing them I noticed a small form that was not human. The family had a very excited puppy, who must've been delusional, seeing me as:
Because as I passed it locked eyes with mine and was basically like:
Then starting running to me, in the opposite direction of it's own humans. It caught up to me then ran, barking along my bike for maybe 20 seconds, then zoomed ahead.
I promptly stopped my bike, hoping the lack of competition would make the dog stop, and I turned to look back at the family I passed. They called out to the little dog... It did not turn around to look back at all despite the calls.
By then the little guy was so far ahead, I felt bad that the family would have to run that far to fetch it. Figuring that me, on a bike, could catch up to the puppy much faster, I started biking again. But still kind of cautiously so maybe the dog wouldn't view me as competition anymore. And of course, as soon as I started biking again, the puppy turned around and saw me biking towards it. I had inadvertently encouraged it to keep up it's ridiculous little race.
Inner Gabby
The puppy ran up the big hill leaving town and continued on down the red bike path next to farm fields. I would occasionally stop hoping the puppy would as well. But it never did. The few times it did slow down and look behind, I was always madly biking and trying to catch up.
I kept on calling out to it: "야! 강아지! 미친 강아지! 이리 와! 그만 뛰어~ 강아지~ 멍이~ 멍이야~"
And it kept running. Quite a few times I lost sight of it only to see it waiting at another bend in the road ahead waiting to sprint ahead like.
I started pedalling faster and faster. It's embarrassing to lose a race to a puppy...
I had lost sight of it for quite a while so I just stopped hoping it would come back. Then an elderly man on a bike went past me. I waited a bit longer... Sure enough the puppy started barking somewhere ahead when the new bike came. It didn't sound too far off, so I parked my bike on the side of the bike path and jogged ahead. The old man had stopped his bike and was staring at the puppy confounded as it barked furiously. (thankfully no longer running)
I apologized to the old man and let him go on his way. Then I picked up the little puppy and started walking back the way we came. Of course as soon as I picked it up, the puppy went quiet and started panting, tongue lolling out happily.
It was a long walk back. Our little chase went almost all the way to the army base (over half the way to my place). As I walked I fake-scolded the puppy and sang some random songs. At least the puppy was soft. It was like carrying a really heavy stuffed animal on a long walk.
Eventually I approached the hill at the end/start of the red bike path. That was where the puppy's owners were, searching in the nearby street (probably expecting the worst..). When they saw me coming with the dog they were visably relieved.
I passed over the fuzzy creature and apologized for the trouble as they thanked me. After clipping on a little makeshift leash, we started walking back on the bike path together (they on their way home, and I back to my bike). As we walked we talked a bit.
They joked to the puppy, "Ah, so you like American women?"
And, "Are your ears blocked? How could you ignore us?"
One of the older men asked how long I had been in Hwacheon, saying he remembered seeing me around the past year. We talked a bit about my situation, where we lived, and the weather. Great stuff.
My bike was right where I left it. All the groceries still in the basket. Yay trustworthy Hwacheon!
That was my fun puppy and other story I mentioned briefly in my last post "People of Hwacheon".
And now for a few more animal encounters, all much briefer that the previous story.
First up! I finally got a light for the front of my bike (an essential now that it gets pretty dark around 5:30 as I go home). This encounter was just before I got a light. I was in town later than usual and was biking home well past twilight. My eyes were in super night-vision mode, and if I had big ears they'd be straight up and on alert. (no more wild boars please please please, was my mantra)
Thus I caught a glipse of the extremely elusive river otter.
I saw some at the otter research center nearby last spring.
They are really cute, especially the babies. (photo credit to Amelea~)
But there's something about seeing animals in human environments like zoos and research centers/human-crafted habitats that can't compare to seeing them outside in the wild.
The one I saw was running into the side bushes as I approached. So I just saw a glimpse of it's head, and a much clearer view of its haunches and tail.
Okay. Not a super exciting story. But it was really exciting to see!
For most of early October, there were tons of praying mantis all hanging out on the bike path. I have decided that praying mantis must be the stupidest of all the bugs in Hwacheon. They pose in the middle of the pathway, sunbathing or expecting praise for their form.
They're all like, "Don't I look fabulous?"
And I'm like,
Speaking of murdering creatures. Yes, I have killed at least two more frogs (they always come out onto the path when it rains... I'm like, "dude I can't see when it rains! How am I supposed to not run you over??") and one snake. Yes, The snakes in Hwacheon are venomous. No, I did not purposefully think it'd be fun to see who would survive. I was zoned out and jolted back to the present when I ran over a mini pile of rocks. And snakes like to camp out by rocks... so here I am, airborne from my rock-lauch and I land, smack on poor Mr. Snakey. When I biked past the next few days he was in the exact same spot. So eventually I poked him with a stick and yeah. Dead.
Even though I do complain about the bugs quite frequently on my Facebook page (I just really hate mosquitoes okay?) I have seen quite a few bugs that astound me. Like grasshoppers. I've seen grasshoppers in little terrariums and other contexts like It's a Bug's Life...
But I've never seen one fly a significant distance in real life. As I cruise along on my bike, grasshoppers and dragonflies often zoom right next to me or as a few crazy dragonflies did, right in front of my face.
There was one time I parked my bike and I went to sit in a little gazebo-type resting house along the trail. A grasshopper started trying to climb up my rear wheel. It kept sliding back down as it couldn't get any traction on the inner wheel. Then a snake slowly came out from under the gazebo, eyes fixed on the grasshopper. I stood up quickly, and the movement scared the snake back to its hiding place. I quickly shooed off the grasshopper and biked away.
See sometimes I can save lives too!
Final quick note about birds. There's still lots of birds around. Especially ducks. Unfortunately the dozens of cranes I saw have all migrated whereever they go for winter (maybe South.. maybe East or West. Who knows where the secret warm spots of Korea are.) There's just two or three who are either stranded or trying to prove their grit sticking it out in this cold cold weather.
It's gotten really cold. The last two days we've been at freezing or below in the morning. I've already wiped out on a frosty bridge yesterday. I don't think I'll survive when it gets really icy.
I have survived in terms of no more boar sightings! That first one really messed with my brain though. Every evening/night when it starts to get dim or darker I'm always on 500% alert. Every rustle in the bushes by the bike path makes me tense up (even though it's 90% of the time just a bird or the wind). It's really just the cold I have to fear for survival. I've already doubled up my lower layer and wore four layers on top this morning.
BRING IT WINTER. It can't be worse than last year right?
....
겁난 Gabby us
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