Now that Spring is officially here, we decided to break out of the Seoul bubble and go exploring in Korea. Last weekend a group of us went down to a city called Kyongju in the southeast portion of the country. We left on a 6am bus, arrived about 4 hours later, and then rented bikes and spent the day exploring the area and riding to our hostel. We thought it was going to be a nice afternoon stroll through town… but it turned out to be a 10 mile uphill journey! It was definitely the most intense bike excursion I’ve had in a longgg time (maybe ever? Which is pathetic.) We were SO relieved when we finally arrived, I practically collapsed onto the wood floor in our hostel room. Even though it was a rough day, it was also filled with beautiful scenery, millions of cherry blossoms, and great company.

The next day we went to Bulgoksa Temple, the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism (thank you wikipedia). It was a really cool compound full of beautiful traditional Korean architecture and giant Buddha statues. We also took a long windy bus ride and a short, cold hike up a mountain to Seokguram Grotto, which includes a giant Buddha sculpture on top of the mountain. It was built around 750AD, so it is quite old. Buddhism is such a beautiful religion; it’s really cool to see it up close here in Asia.

     Luckily we had decided to take the train back to the main town to catch the bus, because there is no way we would have survived the journey a 2nd time. I thought I was fine… until I sat on the bike and almost cried because I was so sore. Even just the couple mile trek from the hostel to the train station nearly killed us. I guess I won’t be signing up for the Tour de France anytime soon (my dreams have been dashed!). It was a short 2 day trip, but a perfect intro to set the pace for the rest of Spring. I love Seoul, but it was really nice to get out and see some countryside. Turns out that once you get past all the giant high rise apartments, Korea is a really beautiful country.

My weekend looked like:

• movie night at Beenish’s
• a long bike ride along the river
• Kimchi soup
• naps and cold recovery
• a Korean baseball game
• weather nice enough for SHORT SLEEVES

The baseball game, like most things in Korea, contained some minor twists on the American classic. The rules were all the same, but there were no vendors walking around the stands selling hot dogs. Is baseball the same without hot dogs? I’m not sure. Luckily there were like a million KFC and Burger Kings in the stadium so we were well fed throughout the afternoon.

The stands were PACKED and the spectators were crazy. Everybody sang and cheered the whole time and banged the red blowups around incessantly. If I remember correctly, in America when your team is up to bat everybody gets quiet and lets the players concentrate. This was not the case in this game, and everyone was loud the whole time. Even though we randomly picked which team to support on the way into the stadium (both teams were from Seoul), by the end of the game we were fully decked out with Twins hats, sweatshirts, jerseys, and blow-up toys. We lost… but due to our major investment in Twins gear I doubt it will be our last game of the summer.

Oh, and also I’m famous in Korea now. Despite all the cheers and songs, apparently the wave is unknown or unpopular in Korea. Sooo a few of us decided to go down IN FRONT OF EVERYONE and taught them the wave. I can only do these things in Korea when I can play the foreigner card and people think we’re awesome and not just a bunch of weirdos. Apparently the news caught part of our cheering/dancing/wave teaching up front and it was on the Korean news last night. GO TWINS.

ps HAPPY EASTER. It’s not a huge holiday in Asia so I accidentally forgot about it until the morning-of when the internet announced it. Go eat some Cadbury Mini Eggs for me. Or mail me some, that’d be cool too.

I know you are just waiting on the edge of your seats for a weekend update… but sadly you will be let down today. Friday night was fun, although typical with its ‘galbi-MillerTime-noraebang-4am galbi’ pattern, but I spent the rest of the weekend in bed with a killer cold. Boringgg. It’s still looming, but thanks to massive amounts of sleep and a bag of oranges from the school, I think I’ve almost kicked it.

Aside from being sick, 2 really awesome things have occured this week.

#1: I bought a bike!

We found a little used shop in Uijeongbu, and John, Beenish, and I each got our bikes for less than 50 bucks! I also got a basket on the front of mine, although the picture doesn’t show it. Now we can cruise around the neighborhood in style, and I can get to the gym much faster than walking. After we bought them, we rode from Jihaeng to Donducheonjungang to Bosan for some Subway (like the restaurant. YUM), and then back and to our respective houses. What used to take forever and cost money and be a big hassle, is now made fast, fun, and easy. Plus it’s like the cutest bike in the world.

#2: I finally took out the recycling!

I know this seems like a ridiculous reason to be excited, but seriously it was getting out of control. Recycling is made so easy here, and is basically REQUIRED, so I really appreciate the convenience. (In Utah I had to DRIVE and search for places to drop off recycling. That is so stupid!!!!) However, I still allowed several months worth of plastic and cardboard to accumulate, but finally decided enough was enough and loaded it all up. think my apartment just doubled in size.

I didn’t really make New Year’s Resolutions this year because January was like a big blur. As an alternative, I made an “Age 23 List” of all the things that I must do while I am 23. The top ten components of the list include:

1. Learn all 195 countries and locations
2. Run a 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon
3. Read one book per month
4. Update blog at least once per week
5. Pay off one credit card
6. Lose 30 pounds
7. See 3 new countries
8. Learn to read Hangul
9. Become an intermediate Korean speaker
10. Learn to make 12 new international dishes

So far progress is going pretty well. I learned all 195 countries and their locations, thanks to the magnificent website Sporcle.com. I highly recommend everyone go and play because it is so addictive and you get so smart. Yesterday I officially passed the WHOLE WORLD at once, in record time of 10 min 18 seconds. Someday I will do it in less than 10. Then I will be like the Kim Yuna of geography.

Well Korea doesn’t really celebrate St Patrick’s Day, but Seoul is full of foreigners who would just die without extra excuses to celebrate holidays that involve dressing weird and drinking too much. So, even Korea got a taste of St Patrick’s Day this year. 

I’m not sure about the 23 part (because in Korea that’s not actually my age), but the free part is for reals.   

My actual birthday was on a Tuesday and I had to work, so the school got me a cake and sang me a Korean Happy Birthday song. They are so nice to me. Then the Dongducheon crew surprised me and came over that night and brought me anotherrr cake and sang some more songs. Korea is really into cake… big pretty delicious ones.

The celebration was bumped to Saturday, when we went to Seoul for the bike extravaganza then out to Mexican food in Hongdae. I haven’t had a quality burrito in months, so I was beyond delighted. Then we moved along to the clubs of Hongdae where we just hung out and danced and danced and played all night. Eventually we ended up in a cheap Love Motel down the street and had McDonalds for breakfast. I am convinced that McDonalds is only delicious in the morning. I even splurged on a Green Tea Milkshake. Yupp bet you’re jealous now. America needs to get with the times. Anyways, the pictures speak for themselves, but there’s a quick recap for you. Overall, a really fun night!!! Thanks to everyone for the nice birthday notes, messages, and calls. It’s nice to feel connected with home even when I’m far across the ocean.

Now that it’s warming up outside we’ve been trying to take advantage of Saturdays and play outside. There is a mountain really close to our house called Soyosan, so Beenish, John, and I decided to take a hike and check it out. Since we can’t read Korean we ended up taking the hardest route and essentially walked up a muddy stairstepper to heaven.. But the view from the top was great and it gave us a kick start to our new little “health plan.”

Soyosan Hike- March 6th

Last Saturday we all got together for a bike tour of Seoul. Usually we’re only in Seoul at night for going out and such, so it was fun to get some fresh air and see the city in the sun. Seoul is ginormous so we only saw a little fraction of it, but it was nice to get familiarized with a new area.

Seoul Bike Tour March 13th

 (our last week night outing before school started again. it’s much harder to stay out all night on a week day when you actually have to teach the next day…although i guess it is likely to happen again anyways)

School is back in session!

The pros:

• I’m not so bored just sitting around all day
• I’ll probably be better at blogging because my time is more structured
• All the teachers are back so I have more friends at school
• I feel like a celebrity again
• These kids are hilarious
• My new classroom is awwwesome

The cons:

• I forgot how much energy teaching requires sometimes
• My patience level decreased from lack of usage and therefore I am more irritable.
• 4 back to back classes every morning, every day. And then daycare in the afternoon.

Clearly the pros outweigh the cons, so I’d say it’s been a pretty successful first week. I did almost have a freak out in one class (4th period, 4th grade.. bad combination) so I just need to remind myself to not take myself and the class so seriously. Sometimes kids are loud, sometimes they don’t listen, sometimes they will pull each other’s hair out. Deal with it, it’s not the end of the world. So with that mantra in mind, maybe next week will be a little smoother. It’s also exciting because some of my daycare kids are in 3rd grade now, so I get to teach them in class anddd daycare. It’s fun to see them in a real English class setting and see that they’re a little bit further ahead on the English front than most of their classmates. Makes me feel like my daycare classes aren’t a complete waste of time.

Tonight I’m off to another teacher’s dinner—which we seem to have a plethora of lately. Last Friday was a farewell dinner for the teachers who transferred to different schools, and this week is a welcome dinner for the teachers who are new to our school. That combined with a whole lot of eating lunch out with everyone (for various random occasions) has equaled a whole lot of free, delicious Korean food for me. If every week goes by as fast and smooth as this one, I think it’s going to be a successful year.

#1. My bus driver is probably the funniest Korean I know. Besides his funniness, he is also genuinely awesome. Usually he is the driver for my 8am and 5pm busses going to/ from school. He has this cute little smirk, and he is the only bus driver that always makes eye contact with me and says ‘Anyong haseyo’ every time I board. Once he sees I’m about to get on, he always smirks and does a little bow, and then says hi. Also, he never starts driving until I am to my seat, which most drivers are never courteous enough to do. Whenever I get off, we make eye contact as he looks up from his mirror, I say ‘kamsameeda’, he bows a little and smirks, and then I get off.

Welllll the other day, he totally slammed somebody in the bus door! He pushed the “close” button too early, and it caught this lady in the door and she couldn’t move for a few seconds. After he reopened it and she broke free and walked alongside the bus towards the front and I was suuure there was going to be a chew out session. Instead she just laughed a little and waved, and then I looked up at the driver and he was laughing SOOOO hard. He thought he was the funniest person ever.

I thought it would be kind of a wake up call for him to be more aware of people exiting the bus, but since then he has done it 2 more times!! Each time laughing harder and harder. The 2nd time I thought was maybe an accident, but by the 3rd time I realized that he totally does it on purpose! I mean, he probably gets pretty bored just sitting there taking the same route each day, so it’s like he’s developed this little game for himself. He closes it just late enough to catch a piece of clothing or a leg, never like square on the shoulders or something. And the second they get caught, he gets this HUGGGE smile and starts cracking up. My love for him just keeps growing. What a funny dude.

#2. There is this old guy that wanders around the school all day, and honestly I have no idea what he does. He must be some sort of maintenance guy, because I know he is not a teacher, and sometimes I see him carrying random objects around. Well I have NEVER heard him speak a word, and he is also a bit creepy looking. He kind of hunches over when he walks around and looks accusingly at all the little kids when they run by. I’m not scared of him, but I’ve just been really confused because he never talks to me and usually looks away as soon as I enter the room. I kind of just assumed he hated me or was annoyed that I was a foreigner invading his school.

Well today he came into my classroom, and out of the blue just started talking to me in English. WHAT?!? I thought he was mute, let alone had the ability to communicate in ENGLISH with me. He said, “Yesterday you left the window open” and I was so shocked I could barely respond. I apologized, smiled, and then kind of assumed he would leave after that. Instead he just stood there for a minute looking around my classroom, and then started to talk (in broken English) about how he wished he was better at English and he learned it in middle school but now he’s over 60 years old so he’s not as good at it and that it’s hard but he’s going to try and hopefully I can help him a little. What a precious old guy!!! Totally made my day and I got all teary when he left. Moments like that just make me fall deeper and deeper in love with this place. 

***

Well sorry this post is long and wordy and I don’t have pictures of these awesome dudes to entertain your eyes, but I will work on it. I’m sure I can get a secret shot of them somehow… I just had to share my love for these guys to the world. This Korean adventure is full of big fun events that are easy to explain, but it’s the cute little interactions with friends, teachers, and students that I’m learning to appreciate the most.

I ran a 5k last weekend!!! The weather has finally started warming up and running outside is actually bearable so I decided to sign up for my first race of 2010. Our little group of friends in Dongducheon is part of a larger group of friends from all over Seoul called TEAM DIRT. Its purpose is to raise money and awareness about an eye disease called Choroideremia.. sooo by running together and playing, we’re also supporting a good cause. Everybody in the group is lots of fun and it’s nice to get to know people from other areas too.

After the race we hung out at the stadium for a few extra hours waiting for the people who ran the longer stretches (like half marathon and FULL marathon!) to finish and then went out for dinner and then for a long night out in Ilsan. The picture of Clint, me, Jono, and Jon with all the Koreans is to document our winning of the red vests and volunteer badges. For some reason we decided it’d be cool to fake we were race officials, so we found random kids on the train who had been volunteers and rock-paper-scissored them for the vests and badges. I lost to my guy twice (the one about to bite the water bottle…) but he still gave me a 3rd chance to beat him-which I did. I figured it made me look more official so I had an excuse to look gross during the rest of our Seoul adventures that day.

Anyways, it was a fun race and it inspired me to get back into shape now that its spring and perhaps become a true runner. My official goal is to run a half marathon by the end of 2010… This is HUGE considering I’ve never run more than 6 miles at a time in my life. Soooo I better kick it into gear—this year is already going by fast!