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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mud and climbing!!

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You can't break out of a circle
that you never knew you were in.
-Connor Oberst
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Update time: last I wrote, i was heading to the world-famous Boryeong Mud Festival over on the west coast here in South Korea. this is something i've known of for years since seeing pictures on old college friends' facebooks or wherever them and their friends from all over the world partying on a beach CAKED in thin grey clay mud. i was intrigued at least and then suddenly found myself here and within range of it so it was a MUST ATTEND.
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We filled two full buses with friends and acquaintences and headed out early on Saturday morning after having partied nearly all night just before. we made the best recovery attempts we could muster and jumped back into an out of this world experience! we checked into our hotel, fuel'd up on food and beer and headed down the shore not really knowing anything about what we were doing - we knew only that we were looking for, of course, MUD.
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And find mud we did! primarily in the form of a massive tent area that looked like a war-zone. there were massive clay pits in the middle of the tents and civil-war style clay-ball flingers on either side standing about 25 feet apart. i jumped right in and up to the front lines where i quickly got separated from all of my friends and found myself getting pelted in the face - eyes, ears, mouth, nose, everything included - point blank by complete strangers. it was a bizarrely awesome experience despite itself!!
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I lasted in the front lines for about 20 mintues before i limped away and found everyone else. this is when i also got the news that one of my good friends, Vinny, had gotten split open when a nameless flying rock tagged him in the side of the head!!! finally, it became more obvious (than it should have been already) that what we were in the middle of was NUTSO.
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having made it out relatively unscathed, i can look back and say that it was one of the most FREE experiences i recall. completely animalistic 'lord of the flies' style chaos... but in a way that you could simply walk away from it at anytime and have no real consequences... aside from sand in your, well, everywhere!
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Sarah and I headed for the sea for a quick rinse, lost more friends, regrouped with others and finally went to check out the slightly more tame area. this is where we found the mud slides, mud wrestling, mud prision... put the word mud next to any noun or verb and you could pretty much do it!
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Most of my pictures from the event ended up being of strangers because when we were covered in the stuff, obviously it was tough to use the camera. if i ever went back or gave advice to someone who was, i would say to absolutely buy a waterproof disposable camera and you could get some intensely wild pics. this one is the mud pit free-for-all!
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After we cleaned up, we had a couple of beers, played some carnival games, ate some dinner and headed back for a rest. There was plenty to do that night around the area but took it somewhat easy compared to the 24 hours that had preceeded. That was the last time we were covered in mud that weekend. Every foreigner in Korea was (as well they should have been) there... go your first year you come here - you will have an incredible experience but probably never want to go back!! Thanks to Ring for setting it all up! :)
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Then back to another week flown by at work! the months are piling up in a way that never ceases to amaze me (just like always happens). I've been here almost 5 months now and have been in love with the entire experience. i've experience most of South Koreas larger cites, coasts and foods; i can phonetically read and am starting to be able to communicate very basic ideas in Korean; and feel well-versed as a kindergarten teacher! i would absolutely recommend this for any 20-something that isn't sure what the next step is; or anyone who is just plain bored with what they are doing!
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my work life has been as fun as ever! we have a blast and it is extremely rewarding to see the kids improving before your eyes as the months pass! we are currently looking to replace my two co-workers who both have less than a month until their notice is up and they move on to their next steps. I hope we can fill the spots soon!!! what are YOU doing these next 12 months?? ;)
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Then came the first weekend since sometime in may where we had absolutely no plans! it was kind of refreshing - the openness of the idea - but still, not wanting to waste anytime at semi-douchey 'foreigner bars' here in Daejeon, we rounded up some climber schwenns and headed out of town Saturday morning. We had no idea really where we were going, but did know that we were in the able and experienced hands of our friend Jake - an Aussie that's been here in Daejeon for almost a decade now - Climber extrordinaire and all around solid schwenn. He and his Korean-native wife, Kyung Ah picked us up at the subway station across town and we headed south.
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A few hours later we were on the island of Geoje-do and were making our way up the trailhead until we found our crag. Already close to 2000 ft above sea level, this gorgeous piece of rock looked super inviting towering out above the trees. After a quick refresher course from Jake, I lead up the first pitch with Sarah belaying me on her own! (she's a VERY fast learner!) and jake over to my right about 10 feet. The climb was steady - nothing too tricky or dangerous so was a perfect warm up / refresher.
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The view started out amazing and only improved from there! soon we were at the top of the quick 2-pitch and looking out over the bays, harbors and a dozen islands scatered around the sea - all right about eye level with the clouds across the bay! it was an amazing spectacle, a beautiful feeling and a place that I will forever want to go back to.
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We were the only ones who had this incredible view which made it all the better; there was only one way up to the top and it was certainly the road less traveled. You had to earn it and now you are reaping the benefits. THIS is why rock climbers go rock climbing.
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We hung out at the top for about an hour taking pics and resetting our gear to for the rapel back down to earth. It was a day filled with many firsts for Sarah; her first real rock (as opposed to climbing gyms like at Stout and Vertical Endeavors), her first multi-pitch and her first rapel; shown below! she is very adventurous, out-doorsy and an extremely fast learner so she did fantastic as I knew she would! Very glad to have a great gal that can share all of these things with me! :)
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Sarah rap'ing down Ae Bawi over the southern shore of Geoje-do!
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The Deajeon crew up on top! great peeps!! - We headed back down, found a traditional korean motel - where you sleep on the floor with blankets provided - right on the beach in the village you can see below the rockface and took it easy for the night. Fried chicken, home-made humus, and their home-brewed beer on the sea after a long day of travel and climbing..... THIS IS LIFE!! :)
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Jake made a an awesome pancake breakfast the next morning and we headed back up the same rock for another few pitches and a look around. After that, it was frisbee on the beach and a sleepy trip home after dinner. Absolutely a fantastic weekend!!
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The week since then has FLOWN by but was highlighted by a minor league baseball game date last night at Hanbat stadium with Sarah! they lost 9 to 2 but it was still fun. the fans stay true and intense all the way to the end... down by 7, 2 outs, and an 0/2 count in the bottom of 9 and the fans are still going nuts!! really great to see such optimism and support and always a ton of fun!
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This weekend begins a 10-day vacation for me (starting in a number of hours from when i'm typing this!) and there are many plans for more of the same. We leave for Jirisan mountain tonight and will get a full weekend of climbing, camping and beaches in there! - very excited to pitch the tent for the first time since i've been in Korea and I've heard only great things about the place so I should have some great pics come Monday morning.
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After that, i'll still have an entire week of wide open excellence! I took too long trying to book plans so the airfare, even for a 2 hour flight, jumped up to over 600 dollars on average! Now the plan is to maybe scope out the last bits of Korean areas I haven't made it to already and maybe get some serious training done for my marathon. I am in full swing and feeling great with 12 weeks to go until Chuncheon Full!! Stated goal range: 3:15 ~ 3:20. Bring it on!!
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Life is great! Hope to catch you guys on the phone soon! It has been far too rare that I've been able to.

Peace an' love!
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