Hey all! few fun updates to send back home... :)
Summer is here and things are finally starting to pick up out-doors-wise. Sarah has bought her own climbing gear and we are almost ready to start hitting some rocks full force! in the meantime, we have been showing her mother and daughter around Korea! We'll get to that later though...
Wednesday we got to go on a field trip with my school and checked out the local zoo. It was a little bit shabby of a zoo but apparently the best they've got around here. It kind of reminded me of Como Zoo where the anmials hung out on concrete in small spaces and looked mostly unhappy and lifeless. I think maybe i've been spoiled into a zoo snob though now after living so close to Omaha Eppley for that year plus. Hard to enjoy any other now!
But the kids had fun of course and we got to spend the day in beautful sunny and 70's weather instead of in the classroom. The highligh of the zoo was the safari ride where we actually drove a mostly-glass bus through the 'cages' which were much bigger and more comfortable looking. Lions, tigers, bears (oh, my... i know), zebras, giraffes, an elephant, etc that could walk right up to the bus! Very cool. : ) here's a couple of pics from the day.
William looking in awe at the giraffe :)
The driver was throwing them snacks! This was the most fun for me and the kids alike i think!
Thursday, i played hookey from Korean class again to go climbing with the crew.... only to find out that the wall was closed all weekend for a competition on Sunday. BUMMER. so i tracked down the other place i've been meaning to in daejeon which is the local bouldering gym. a friend had given me directions so i headed out with his map in hand.
I expected a bouldering gym but instead i found the COOLEST basement i've ever seen! This gym seemed to be someones old basesment totally converted into a massive bouldering area totally packed with holds and routes of all kinds! even all alone, i had an awesome climb sess and then headed to our now-regular screen golf thursday night! - improving but still have a LOT of work to do!
If i have my way, this is exactly what my basement will look like someday. visible in this picture are less than HALF of the holds that were on these walls. no square foot left uncovered! SIGH dream come true! :)
Then comes Friday. An advisor to my boss offered me dinner after work and i would have been a fool to turn him down eventhough it cut my packing time for Seoul down to about 15 minutes. I crammed some stuff in a backpack, shoveled in some food and headed to meet Sarah at the bus stop so we could go meet her mom and sister at the airport. We had about 3 hours to manage a 2 hour trip so we are way ahead of schedule, until...... bus is SOLD OUT! instead, we have to walk to the subway, subway to the intercity train station, train to Seoul and then use Seoul's massive subway system to get to the airport almost an hour away from there - it ended up taking us over 3 hours!! Not to mention, there had been a delay in one of the connecting flights for Sarah's family and we were not even sure if they had gotten off the ground in Tokyo or not!
amidst all of this, a thought occured to me... "man, am i glad the marathon is Sunday and not Saturday! I can't imagine how terrible it would be to have to run already tomorrow morning after all of these mix ups and run-arounds..... OH S***." It struck me just as i was thinking about how bad it would be that it actually was the case! I had Sunday the 29th in my head and realized that could not be correct. I called muc who was at his computer and he confirmed - i had barely eaten, barely slept and we still were nowhere NEAR going to bed.
Finally, as we sat helpless outside of the baggage claim, Sarah's mom and sister appeared magically form behind the big double-doors and life became good again!! we shuttled to a nearby hotel, checked in set my plans for morning and passed out.
I slept for about 3 hours and BARELY decided to force myself to put my feet on the floor and make my way to this race... it probably would have been better if i just stayed in bed but instead, almost 3 hours later, i was toe-ing the line in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world 'ready' to race. Being outside the US, there were no mile markers - only Kilometers so that certainly was an adjustment but i kept on pace for the first 18Km (about 12 miles? - i was actually on pace for my best half time ever until right about this point!). The last few Km's were MURDEROUS however... i slowed significantly, was dizzy to the point of worrying about passing out and was in pain all over my body. I finished just under 1:36 - about a minute and a half over my best time - and practically collapsed outside of the finishing gate.
I have never had to work that hard on a race or been that fatigued after one. Maybe major over-share but i actually had to pee in my shorts a little bit becuase i could barely control my body functions and was too exhausted to move anywhere more appropriate. it took me 20 minutes to walk away from the finishing gate!!
Bottom line of that story is....... I WILL NEVER RUN A RACE THAT UNPREPARED AGAIN!!
then the tourism began! I met back up with the gals (Sarah's sister loves when i say that word - gals - guess they don't have it in the south :)) and they were very patient with me as i hobbled on behind them as we tourized Seoul for the 2 days that would follow. We saw it all and did it all, i would swear by how tired i was!
A demonstration of ancient battle and martial arts near Seoul Tower. Fun! :)
One of the last things we did was to take an elevator to the top of Seoul Tower where you have a 360 degree view of the entire city from about 1000 ft above sea level. They had distances to most major cities in the world written on the window that pointed toward them so i couldn't help but think about home and take the picture below:
Heading THAT way soon!!! it's strange the things that i'm looking forward to seeing and doing back home (other than the obvious friends and family of course!)
1. My cat!! i miss little blue more than i realized i would!!
2. Taco Bell, Davani's and Subway.... to name a few.
3. Driving a car! will i remember how??
4. Twins Games!!... this would be higher on the list if i wasn't too lazy to go and re-write this now
5. Hot tub! haven't found one here!
6. non-smoking clubs and restaurants - seems like everyone smokes here.
7. having a sofa to lounge on... my apt is bare bones.
8. listening in on conversations when you're bored... tough to do if you don't know the language their speaking.... reminds me of everyone constantly telling secrets around you... i wanna know!! :)
9. Bowling, casino nights, Karaokee on a stage instead of a little room!
10. Bonfires and the cabin!
AH, it's all coming up so soon!!!!!! can't wait! :) especially now after writing this!
This week: wednesday off for yet another holiday!! hiking and exploring with Sarah's fam, Busan city on the coast Friday night and Jeju Island Saturday!
thanks for reading! see you SOON!!
Summer is here and things are finally starting to pick up out-doors-wise. Sarah has bought her own climbing gear and we are almost ready to start hitting some rocks full force! in the meantime, we have been showing her mother and daughter around Korea! We'll get to that later though...
Wednesday we got to go on a field trip with my school and checked out the local zoo. It was a little bit shabby of a zoo but apparently the best they've got around here. It kind of reminded me of Como Zoo where the anmials hung out on concrete in small spaces and looked mostly unhappy and lifeless. I think maybe i've been spoiled into a zoo snob though now after living so close to Omaha Eppley for that year plus. Hard to enjoy any other now!
But the kids had fun of course and we got to spend the day in beautful sunny and 70's weather instead of in the classroom. The highligh of the zoo was the safari ride where we actually drove a mostly-glass bus through the 'cages' which were much bigger and more comfortable looking. Lions, tigers, bears (oh, my... i know), zebras, giraffes, an elephant, etc that could walk right up to the bus! Very cool. : ) here's a couple of pics from the day.
William looking in awe at the giraffe :)
The driver was throwing them snacks! This was the most fun for me and the kids alike i think!
Thursday, i played hookey from Korean class again to go climbing with the crew.... only to find out that the wall was closed all weekend for a competition on Sunday. BUMMER. so i tracked down the other place i've been meaning to in daejeon which is the local bouldering gym. a friend had given me directions so i headed out with his map in hand.
I expected a bouldering gym but instead i found the COOLEST basement i've ever seen! This gym seemed to be someones old basesment totally converted into a massive bouldering area totally packed with holds and routes of all kinds! even all alone, i had an awesome climb sess and then headed to our now-regular screen golf thursday night! - improving but still have a LOT of work to do!
If i have my way, this is exactly what my basement will look like someday. visible in this picture are less than HALF of the holds that were on these walls. no square foot left uncovered! SIGH dream come true! :)
Then comes Friday. An advisor to my boss offered me dinner after work and i would have been a fool to turn him down eventhough it cut my packing time for Seoul down to about 15 minutes. I crammed some stuff in a backpack, shoveled in some food and headed to meet Sarah at the bus stop so we could go meet her mom and sister at the airport. We had about 3 hours to manage a 2 hour trip so we are way ahead of schedule, until...... bus is SOLD OUT! instead, we have to walk to the subway, subway to the intercity train station, train to Seoul and then use Seoul's massive subway system to get to the airport almost an hour away from there - it ended up taking us over 3 hours!! Not to mention, there had been a delay in one of the connecting flights for Sarah's family and we were not even sure if they had gotten off the ground in Tokyo or not!
amidst all of this, a thought occured to me... "man, am i glad the marathon is Sunday and not Saturday! I can't imagine how terrible it would be to have to run already tomorrow morning after all of these mix ups and run-arounds..... OH S***." It struck me just as i was thinking about how bad it would be that it actually was the case! I had Sunday the 29th in my head and realized that could not be correct. I called muc who was at his computer and he confirmed - i had barely eaten, barely slept and we still were nowhere NEAR going to bed.
Finally, as we sat helpless outside of the baggage claim, Sarah's mom and sister appeared magically form behind the big double-doors and life became good again!! we shuttled to a nearby hotel, checked in set my plans for morning and passed out.
I slept for about 3 hours and BARELY decided to force myself to put my feet on the floor and make my way to this race... it probably would have been better if i just stayed in bed but instead, almost 3 hours later, i was toe-ing the line in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world 'ready' to race. Being outside the US, there were no mile markers - only Kilometers so that certainly was an adjustment but i kept on pace for the first 18Km (about 12 miles? - i was actually on pace for my best half time ever until right about this point!). The last few Km's were MURDEROUS however... i slowed significantly, was dizzy to the point of worrying about passing out and was in pain all over my body. I finished just under 1:36 - about a minute and a half over my best time - and practically collapsed outside of the finishing gate.
I have never had to work that hard on a race or been that fatigued after one. Maybe major over-share but i actually had to pee in my shorts a little bit becuase i could barely control my body functions and was too exhausted to move anywhere more appropriate. it took me 20 minutes to walk away from the finishing gate!!
Bottom line of that story is....... I WILL NEVER RUN A RACE THAT UNPREPARED AGAIN!!
then the tourism began! I met back up with the gals (Sarah's sister loves when i say that word - gals - guess they don't have it in the south :)) and they were very patient with me as i hobbled on behind them as we tourized Seoul for the 2 days that would follow. We saw it all and did it all, i would swear by how tired i was!
A demonstration of ancient battle and martial arts near Seoul Tower. Fun! :)One of the last things we did was to take an elevator to the top of Seoul Tower where you have a 360 degree view of the entire city from about 1000 ft above sea level. They had distances to most major cities in the world written on the window that pointed toward them so i couldn't help but think about home and take the picture below:
Heading THAT way soon!!! it's strange the things that i'm looking forward to seeing and doing back home (other than the obvious friends and family of course!)
1. My cat!! i miss little blue more than i realized i would!!
2. Taco Bell, Davani's and Subway.... to name a few.
3. Driving a car! will i remember how??
4. Twins Games!!... this would be higher on the list if i wasn't too lazy to go and re-write this now
5. Hot tub! haven't found one here!
6. non-smoking clubs and restaurants - seems like everyone smokes here.
7. having a sofa to lounge on... my apt is bare bones.
8. listening in on conversations when you're bored... tough to do if you don't know the language their speaking.... reminds me of everyone constantly telling secrets around you... i wanna know!! :)
9. Bowling, casino nights, Karaokee on a stage instead of a little room!
10. Bonfires and the cabin!
AH, it's all coming up so soon!!!!!! can't wait! :) especially now after writing this!
This week: wednesday off for yet another holiday!! hiking and exploring with Sarah's fam, Busan city on the coast Friday night and Jeju Island Saturday!
thanks for reading! see you SOON!!
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