Learning to Breathe on Jeju, Part II

January 8-11, 2013
Mulme Healing Farm, Jeju 

Jeju winter ranges from cool sunny days to biting wind and sleet. 

It wasn't a warm night, sleeping on the floor in the big meditation room. But with the promise of climbing Hallasan, Korea's tallest mountain, on Thursday, we woke up bright and early Tuesday morning. Halla mountain greeted us As with all the following mornings, we began with exercise, kumdo and meditation before breakfast. With the kumdo sword, we never got past the steady basic strokes. But I was instructed to do them a few hundred times, adding one hundred each day. It was a great warm-up exercise for energy, meditation and focus. The meditation came easy for me too. Sitting in half-lotus on the floor is almost a natural position for balance.

오래만이다

[Jan. 2, 2026 Note] This was a short description of my previous work with the International Strategy Center. For more information, check out their website: https://www.goisc.org/home

The Korean Economics, History and Politics international team met in Busan over the weekend of June 6-7. On Saturday afternoon, we exchanged the 2014 program and our group's vision with the AGIT Collective, a group that is plugged into the Korean social movement through art, street performance, festivals, ska music and a wide-range of progressive political views. We met at the AGIT space, where we listened to an introduction of the collective and a few of their current international guests, from Japan and Italy. 

Saturday evening, we went to a concert put on by members of AGIT in the Pusan National University (PNU) area. The headliners were the Skawakers, one of just a few ska bands in Korea who are often seen at protests and demonstrations for various social causes around the country. Most recently, they have supported the rural Milyang county struggle against the building of nuclear-powered electric towers.