Ultimate days!

I'm a man who needs nothing

yet has EVERYTHING.

: )

Once again, it's been ages since i've last written any kind of update. when it comes time to try to balance doing stuff and writing about doing stuff....... DOING STUFF usually wins. of course it does. If I didn't view life that way, this blog really would be lacking the essence that makes it feel worth writing - go, do, NOW! :)

I guess if the month of October had to be described as succinctly as possible, the word 'ultimate' would come to mind. primarily of course, because of the many consecutive weekends spent traveling around the country as part of the city-wide Ultimate Frisbee team - The Daejeon Pandemic. **obligatory shiver when you read the name** And secondly, due to the ultimate nature of the kinds of people I've been meeting and spending my time with!

Let's go all the way back to early October when the frisbee team was still new and talking basic strategy. Our second weekend of disc was down on the beautiful beaches of Busan. Sarah, Vinnie and I made our way down a day early and started the party drinking and relaxing on the beaches in the gorgeous early fall weather. When Jason found us there, he had the beautiful offer to meet up with a good friend of his father who would be happy to treat all of us strangers to a dinner ~ sounds too good to be true?? it actually turned out even better than it sounded!! we would quickly come to realize that this family friend was "kind of a big deal" in Busan! While treating us to drinks and a +$50 /person prime-rib dinner directly overlooking world-famous Haeundae Beach, he handed Jason a room-key to the $400 per night (or much much more??) Westin Chosun hotel!!!

The Westin Chosun in the background where we got our free room on Haeundae Beach!

after we all hugged Jay and gave due props for the sitcom-worthy hook up, we headed out onto the town, feeling something like celebrities. eventually we landed ourselves at the Paradise Casino just down the shore. there was only one spot open at the blackjack table so we pooled 20 bucks each and took turns sitting with the stack. We made a mad run and ended up cashing our mutual bankroll close to 500 a couple hours later!! we found a night cap spot with a sweet Phillipino band and finally stumbled our way home at 4-something in the morning laughing and dancing at the ridiculous luck that was being poured onto us everywhere we could turn! the mood of the night definitely matched our high-roller hotel reservation and fancy-pants dinner!!

The spectacular view from our balcony at dinner - Haeundae beach at night.

We woke up the next day and checked out of our hotel - there was, after all; still some frisbee to be played that weekend! we forced lunch into our slightly feeble stomaches and went to work playing 2 or 3 matches right there in the sand on Haeundae. things were going smoothly until the only other undefeated team at the time - the Busan Heat - stepped up and gave us our first loss of the season. We chalked it up to home field advantage and promised to meet them in the finals at the end of the month!

The home turf of the Daegu teams, host to half of our matches throughout the season.

The season continued and everyone on the team (and in the whole league, for that matter) grew closer to each other, better at frisbee and more and more enthralled - perhaps to the point of an unhealthy obsession - in the game of Ultimate. i was completely in LOVE with it; for the simplicity and pureness of the game, as well as just for the opportunity to compete in an organized sport once again - something that I tended to take for granted growing up and through college. This was my chance to get back into the action; an ultimate extention of college life; and, in that sense - a continuation of feeling young, healthy and excited!!

The weeks leading up to the playoffs netted me a very difficult decision. The frisbee playoffs happened to land on the Saturday before my marathon I had been registered for and looking forward to all summer. There was, of course, a possibility to still do both. however, it involved a train to Daegu Saturday morning, Frisbee playoffs all day, a train to Seoul that evening, find a place to sleep for 5 hours and then take a 2 hour bus to Chuncheon at 5 AM before the race, run more than 40 kilometers without stopping, bus back to Seoul and finally a train back to Daejeon. It would have been absolutely NUTS and that actually gave it extra appeal in the mind of a guy like me. But in the end, I decided to enjoy the weekend in Daegu with my teammates after the tournament, win or lose.

What does that mean for my marathon that i've been studying up on, training for, talking about, working toward since last spring??? I didn't do it. : ( it was sad to give up on something I had dedicated so much effort toward, but the bottom line in the decision came to this - there will be plenty of marathons,.... but only one chance to party in Daegu, South Korea with all of these incredibly awesome new friends I'd grown so close to - hopefully celebrating Daejeon's first Ultimate Frisbee championship all the while!

So off to the finals it was! We worked through the day beating two teams to earn our bid against the number one ceded Busan Heat in the finals just as we had promised them. We had a bit of an interesting history leading up to the game: both teams had finished the regular season 11 and 1, both of the teams' only loss coming against one another! The stage was set for a battle. Corny or not, I hadn't felt thas much like a gladiator since standing at the starting line of the conference cross country meet of my senior year in high school. ; )

We came out flat and they got ahead 5 - 2 on us shortly before halftime. We picked up the slack and battled back to take our first lead with about 5 minutes left in the game!! Time started to tick away with our lead holding at 7 - 6. "Final possession" was called while Busan had the disc way back literally in their own endzone - they would have to progress the entire length of the field and score without missing a pass to force an overtime period - one interception, one out of bounds or any incompletion would result in the end of the game and our victory!

any facebooker's that are interested (and friends with Sarah?) can watch the 2:30 video of the final point here: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=877165236945

WINNERS!!!! Daejeon Pandemic - Fall 2010 Daegu Ultimate Frisbee League Champions

We must have posed for 300 pictures with our golden trophy and all the booze that accompanied him!

The after-party was almost just as exciting as the game itself. Nearly the whole league made it out to Daegu's downtown and we let that city have it until the WEE hours! What an unforgettable season with some of the funnest people i've met in recent years! - to think i stumbled upon the league by accidentally running into and striking up conversation with one of the Daegu guys on an island who happened to be wearing his DUFL t-shirt this summer!? STRANGE HOW THINGS WORK OUT! (Thanks, Chris! sorry we knocked you out in the semi's!)

Thank you, Pandemic!!!!! :)

Icing:

On Halloween day, some of my teammates hosted a tournament in Daejeon where everyone who signs up is dropped into a hat and picked out on to random team for the weekend. This is where I first got my hand in a game i had slowly been learning about throughout the disc season - "The Icing Game" i guess you might call it?? whenever someone tricks you into unknowingly grabbing a Smirnoff Ice (a kind of lemony malt liquor drink about as strong as a beer) you have to drop to a knee and slug it down. they might hide one in your backpack, in a bag of tortilla chips, in a cake box or even hanging on saran wrap over the toilet bowl for when you lift up the seat! ;) that's the fun of the game; you always have to be on your toes!

Enjoying my first Icing at the 2010 Daejeon Hat Tourney. tastes like kool-aid spiked with sprite! what's not to love???

Halloween night was an absolute RIOT with all of the frisbee peeps in town! We went as the Daejeon Sparkle Party (which I'll thank most of you to not pry too deeply into) but it vas a super fun opportunity to dress like ziz posh gay German-Austrian man. Who vouldn't have a great time viz zat, yah?? :)

........ (sorry, Ma!) :)..........

Our costumes - The Daejeon Sparkle Party with John Lennon and Yoko.

Life at work has been incredibly functional and civil these days! Enrollment is still MUCH more healthy than previous months (and climbing weekly all the while)! we have a boss who DOESN'T live in her office, and co-workers who teach and truly care about the kids! All of which seem like a given, i'm sure... but trust me when i say "you'd be surprised!"

Once our new boss was comfortable in her role, I was able to step back down to my normal duties as just a teacher and eliminate some of the extra hours and stress that came with the brief stint as English Teacher AND Educational Team Manager. Things are going great now and the school is a place that anyone should be proud to send their kids!!! (p.s. none of my bosses will ever read this so you know i'm not just ass-kissin!)

The Kid's College - Dunsan crew on our November field trip to the flower festival!

Little "Amy". I snapped the photog because someone was jumping on my back and i wanted to see who it was. It accidentally turned out to be one of my favorite shots of my travel so far.

This is a part of my life that i will NEVER forget (thanks in part to pictures like this one).

me and Muc surprising my co-worker Da-Jeong. Most Koreans would consider this kind of behavior out of the question as it does not 'save face'. guess Muc and I haven't been in Asia long enough to adopt that one! ;)

muc caught me showing off a little bit! :)

running out of chances to climb at my beloved Daejeon Wall!!

Pandemic season end party!! a LOT of people got iced that night!

The Daejeon boys doin' their thing up in Seoul for Gina's birthday!

There's no people like frisbee people!!!!

*smooch*

Sarah and I are doing better than I could easily explain to you in a couple of paragraphs, so you'll just have to take my word for it. it couldn't be more perfect!! we've started to realize that our time in Korea is winding down a bit and with exactly 3 months to go.... it will be over 'tomorrow'. with that, will start our next chapter that involves 2 months of travel and a few months of family vacations back home!! Broey will be meeting us here in Korea in the middle of Feb and then.... the world is OURS! the heavily edited (but nearing finalization) itinerary is....

(March) Vietnam

Cambodia

Thailand

Malaysia

Singapore

(April) Egypt

Italy

Switzerland

France

Spain

(May) ALABAMA

(June) MINNESOTA

Can't wait to see everyone again back home or out on the road somewhere!!

The people reading all of this probably already know and have her in your prayers, but please keep my aunt Mary, (who recently found out that her cancer has made a resurgence) in mind!! We love ya', Mary!! Be strong!!!!!!

Vacation in Korea!

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Politicians lie;
The media hypes;
Meteorologists guess;
Trust your experience.
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Hey peoples and love ones of Earth! a ton to catch up on and i shall do my best before it becomes too big a task that i never do it, or before i just forget everything that happend altogether. well, now that i think of it, i've already forgotten most, but here's what i still have bangin' around the old noggin from the past couple of weeks.......
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to start off my vacation and finish Sarah's, we headed up to yet another beautiful and exciting camping/climbing area with Jake and Kyung Ah. The place is called Gahnyeon and seemed to be a haven for camping and swimming as any and ALL open grass or sand was pounced on and coverd up with thousands of tents overnight. we got our tents down late on Friday night and we were already forced to the more remote area where we were 2 of the only 3 or 4 tents there.... less than 24 hours later, we suddenly barely had room to walk since the place had exploded with tents like dandelions. A small string of shops and restaurants have sprung up over the years to accomodate all of the campers along the beautiful and perfectly swim-able river that runs through the park. camping was less than $2 per night for each tent and freshwater swimming seems a bit of a rarity here so the place was PACKED on a busy summer vacation weekend!!
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while the river, campground and shops were all nice additions to our situation, those were hardly the reason that we were there! each morning, we would pack up our gear and head across a long foot-bridge to the other side of the river where they laid a stunning chunk of rock!! we must have run upwards of 10 or 12 routes both days including busting out the headlamps for my first ever night-climbing session!! The weather did just what we needed it to, and we - once again - put in a bid for BEST weekend.......
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Sarah and our new climbin' bud/righteous schwenny, Heidi heading out to that breath-takingly sexy rockface you see in front of them. look close and you can spot a couple of other climbers already on the wall.
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the man, Jake, headin' up a tricky little start just to see if he could maneuver his body into the yoga-like position required to hit this.
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We were so thankful for Jake and KA to have brought us to this spot... seemed like a pretty well-kept secret since there were almost NO other foreigners included in the 1000's of bodies that were camping here. We even had a few of the Korean climbers remark to us in their broken English... "How did you find this place?!?" seeming to marvel that we had been in country only a number of months and were already at their secret gem of a crag!
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This picture shows nothing of the tents that sprung up. this is actually the more desolate area of the campground! if this were in the main area, there would be a tent or TWO stuffed between my red there and those other green ones next to it... you could barely walk between them!
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Down underneath the footbridge. easy to see why so many people head to this spot!!
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The majority of our crew here enjoying a traditional Korean BBQ dinner after a looooooong first day of climbing - but still with night climbing to come! left to right is Jake, Kyung Ah, Hyeon Ho (sp?) and Sarah, of course. :)

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i will be SURE to get back to this location before my time in Asia is finished!!! the trip was action packed and cause enough for a recovery day on Monday! luckily for me, i had just that while Sarah headed back to work, the poor thing!!
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part of my monday off would be to try to sort out just what I should like to do with my following days off - remember that I was truly just beginning my vacation time at this point since the previous had been crammed into just a weekend! as I was considering what to do, I noticed a post by my good friend and fellow Minnesotan, Marilyn - for the record, she is the one that first suggested the idea of coming here to me as a real possibility. Anyways, her post said something about traveling around South Korea, unsure exactly where, for the next few days.... i quickly sent her a text for her to let me know where she ended up and that maybe i could meet up with her somewhere along the line. She did me one better however in calling me right back to say that she still hadn't left and that I should just join her the next day heading south to Busan and Gwangju!

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I had been been to Busan only for a few drinks on an extended layover with a friend and never seen Gwangju, this seemed like - on no uncertain terms - the answer i had been looking for! I knew only of her plan that she had arranged 'couchsurfing' plans so we could stay cheaply - this merits an explaination, i know! http://www.couchsurfing.org/ is an utter fit-of-brilliance that helps you find FREE places to stay with proven, tested, vouched for awesome people that are willing to give you a key to their house and usually show you around the city too! you can search just about any city in the world and find a place to crash for nothing! I know what you're thinking (Mom, in particular ;)) it sounds crazy and dangerous, but it's tried, tested and true! I plan to be an active user of this site for years to come!!

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And so, easy as that, we arrived at our host's house the following day. He was a dood named Chris from the northwestern US, in fact. he showed us multiple sleeping options including a double bed for Marliyn and a matress on the floor for me! blankets, pillows, hot shower, kitchen, internet, AC... the place was fully loaded and it seemed to be Chris' pleasure to host us!! he showed us all the places on his googleearth map that we might be interested in and set us loose in Busan along with the one other couchsurfer who was staying with him....

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Enter, Peter. Peter is a Hungarian dood that has been traveling the world via hitch-hiking and couchsurfing for more than a year now!! WHAT A CONCEPT!!! his original plan was to invest 4 years of his life this way eventually circumnavigating the globe back to Budapest! a silent observer of people and cultures everywhere he went, he was brilliant, open-minded and experienced. These are the kinds of people you meet while you're traveling that really reinforce the sense that what you're doing is right!!

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The first few days blurred together a bit but were a mash up of beautiful - but as crowded as i've ever imagined - beaches, city lights, bars, games, sight-seeing and just all around great times!! one main highlight worth detailing: one night, while relaxing on Gwangali beach, we were fortunate enough to land next to a group of Sri Lankan men playing percussion on their recyclables, clapping and singing the night away with korean booze and fireworks. The seemed as happy and fun-loving as any group of guys could be so we eventually merged our group with theirs for a bit after we'd caught something of a buzz ourselves.

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After singing a couple songs with them and even my solo performance of Sublime's "What I Got", their story came out. They come to Korea for 2 year stints to work manual labor from 8am to 11 pm everyday. Except they get a break on the weekends and only have to work 8 hours Saturday and Sunday (slackers!!). These guys said they get a total of 5 days off each year and they were directly in the middle of that vacation the night we happend into their company. These guys blew my mind and if that didn't just blow yours, you're not reading carefully enough; go back and try again! 90-hour weeks for 360 continuous days!!! I just wish the world could consider that the next time someone would otherwise start to bitch about not having coffee provided for them at their air-conditioned office building in Anytown, Anycountry - I know i'll certainly remember them!

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The Sri Lankan guys! see the white food container with chopsticks in the foreground? that's one of their drums they were playing all night. ah, the enjoyment of life if refreshing, isn't it?? These guys will be considered rich when they return to their country because of the insane hours their pulling at the moment,... and why shouldn't they be!? You'd consider them rich already if you saw them enjoying their night!
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The next days, we'd meet up with dozens more AWESOME people including Ross and Kelsi who joined our couchsurfing crew at Chris' pad. They are also from the Pacific Northwest, but have had an experience entirely unique to the other foreigners i've met here in Korea. They are based on a tiny island with a few thousand people living on it and where they are the ONLY foreigners. They take ferries each morning to the different islands around theirs to teach English to kids who will most likely never need to know the language since they will probably spend their entire lives there as fishermen just as the rest of their families do and have done in the past. it was really cool to hear how vastly different of 'Korean' lives they've lived barely a couple hundred miles away! we plan to go and visit them on their beautiful islands soon so this shouldn't be the last you see or hear of them in this blog!
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top left is Ross, then across the front is Kelsi, Peter, Marilyn, Me, Sarah and our host, Chris on our last bar night in Busan. YUP, Sarah finally made it down there to meet us for the weekend!! :) oh, and you may have noticed that we still haven't left Busan... we loved it and Chris just kept being more than willing to host so what was set out to be a couple day stint, turned into almost a full week!!
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A fantasy of a little spot we found for some rocky swimming, sun bathing and just general observation of beauty! we spent almost our entire last day here at this spot off of Song-cheong Beach.
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just a few hundred meter from our rocky oasis was the insane-o chaos of Busan beach life as seen above. notice that you can't see any sand on the beach?? just umbrella tops as far as the eye can see!! this is a typical beach scene in the south! I'm glad they didn't seem to know about our spot!!

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Here is me, Sarah, Peter and Marilyn in Blowfish Bar. This is a spot owned by a New-Yorker right smack in the middle of Song-cheong beach and had the best double cheeseburger i've found in Korea by far!! track it down if you're ever in busan!
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It was an eye-opening, refreshing and beautiful trip eventhough i had at first been dispointed to not be leaving the country! who needs to leave when you have all this right at your fingertips??!?
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As I sign-off, i know that the majority of the people who read this blog are already up at Kilworry and the thought of missing that has made me homesick most of this week!! This is only the second time in my entire life that i've had to miss our August week at the cabin and it hurts just as bad this time as the first... maybe a little bit worse in fact! i miss you and hope that you don't get to read this until you come back after a long peaceful week of family, relaxation and NO COMPUTERS! Drink one for me though, if you do get this!! I love you guys!!!! :)
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breaking news to go out on: muc and I have formally booked Hong Kong for 5 days in late September and hope to be adding some schwennies to that party soon! LIVE ON!!!!!
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