[FRIENDS OF KOREA] Reunited after more than 30 years

I was sluggishly adapting to my first winter in Onyang, a town in South Chungcheong Province. I arrived in Korea in summer 1974 as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). After an intensive three-month training in Korean language, culture and English teaching methodology in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, I headed west to Onyang, where I would live for the next two years. For the first six months, I rented a room in a family’s house. The arrival of winter was a shock: I hadn’t experienced a Manchurian cold front before, and my room’s only heating sources were charcoal cylinders that burned in flues under the flooring. While teaching many English classes at a boys’ middle school, I organized a “special English class,” selecting four of the brightest students. Twice a week, at 6:30 a.m., I’d pile on layers of clothing to limit my exposure to the freezing temperatures, fold my mattress and spread out my blankets so my students and I could plunge our legs into the warm refuge. I could then welcome them to my room and begin our 60-minute lesson, which usually took the form of open