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!!!!!
aw

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!
aw

Time marches on.

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Time is FLYING by as it always will do.
I figure the only way to keep up with it is to learn to fly too! :)
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I left off just before the Ansan half marathon a couple weeks ago and i think that most of you few that read this probably arleady know the scoop... but that's never stopped me before!
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Ansan is a 1.something million person city on the coast up outside of Seoul a little bit. We made it into town early in the afternoon on Saturday and had plenty of time to look around, eat a delicous carb-loaded dinner, relax and get a good nights sleep - all the opposites of my race prep for the last 'half' a month ago! I felt truly ready. I hadn't felt this poised for a perfect run since high school cross country.

The busy and dense downtown of Ansan, South Korea. Plenty to do and see as is the trend over here.
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Race morning came and everything was on track. We were the first ones there and felt fine. The rain was clearning up and I had nothing but a personal record in mind. Sarah had made a last minute decision to go ahead with her run eventhough she had the 2nd degree burn the size of a silver dollar on the top of her left foot from the 'hair straigtener incident' a few days before. the 10K that morning would be her first race in years! Both excited and ready to do something amazing, the race started and soon proved to have other plans for us.
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Here come the excuses: the most humid conditions I have EVER run in made everyone's legs feel like cement by maybe the 5 or 6 mile mark..... except we had no idea where any mile (or kilometer) mark was becasue there was absolutely NO indication of how far you were along the entire course!!! i've never seen anything like it. Those markers let you know your pace, give you short-term but significant goals to pick off one-by-one and keep you going. Never had a clue the whole race!! Top it off with only having five water stops on a half marathon course in July! AND the 5th one was OUT of water by the time the first 20% of runners came through! This was the first of my 5 half marathons that I ever walked even a step - and I walked much more than only one step.
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However; at long last.... the stadium and finish line came into view and the horrific course became a memory. I never even looked at my official time but it was around and hour and 51 minutes - right about the worst half i've ever run. Nonetheless, another half under the belt and many lessons learned!! Perhaps the most important thing that I took from this race is a serious hunger to run like a world champ in my next runs to make up for it! Sarah was able to fight through the foot pain and finish her 10K too! What a gal! ;)
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There's the exhausted finishers with their medals and great senses of relief.

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Next in line-

Aug 24: The King of the Mountain in the southwest of Korea: 18K up, along the top and back down the other side of a 2400 foot mountain! for charity and going to be a BLAST!

October 29: Chuncheon Full Marathon, will be my thrid full, but only the first where i'm even remotely near to prepared properly! can't wait to see how I actually do?? life goal remains.... QUALIFY FOR BOSTON.

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Then last weekend we headed for The Seonudo Islands along with Adventure Korea - our righteous tour group that we've found over here. This was a trip primarily planned as a biking trip since there are only a handful of cars on the islands. The islands are tiny, touristy and connected to a whole string of beautiful islands that are accessible only by narrow bicycle bridges. true getaway feeling, extreme beauty, some light hiking and biking all for dirt cheap! :) actually, the weekend was a gift from my lovely girlfriend anyways so even a better deal for me than most! ;)

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Easily the most extreme tides i've ever seen! the shores draw back almost a mile to the point where you can walk to other islands! on the islands, they call this the 'Moses miracle'. Really a cool thing to witness though! you can see the boat landlocked by more than a hundred meters is anchored down. :)
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excuse us little guy... just passing through and want no trouble! 3 inch spider that looked like one mean S.O.B!!

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A great little spot that we found as we ventured out to the little ports around the island. Was an awesome experience!

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What's next? tomorrow morning we leave for the Borean (spell check??) Mud Festival!! a giant party on the beach when the soils and clays turn into pure mud due to the raininess of the season. We are going with a group of about 60 foreigners on a bus that includes mainly everyone we know in Daejeon. it will no doubt be a complete and total RIOT! (but we'll be safe, Ma!) ;) tons of pics of mud wrestling and general mud-cakedness will be popping up on facebook in a few days, to be sure!

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after that, i have two more weeks of work and then our 1 week summer vacation the first week of August! not sure what yet, but pretty sure something incredible has to happen! will work with the budget on that one!! After vacation, BOTH of my coworkers are heading elsewhere so we're going to shuffle the chips and see how things land at work! i'm optimistic. ;)

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thanks for checkin in with me! miss you guys badly, particularly on the 4th of July! better drink SEVERAL up at Kilworry for me next month!!!!

Vacation at home (and much more)

I just can't help but wonder how almost another month has gone by since i've put any updates on here. Seems strange to write too much about my trip home since i'm sure most of the people that read this were right next to me almost the whole time. I'll give the brief rundown though if only to commit the awesomeness to official record!
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I left my apartment at 5 something on Friday morning. Almost 24 hours later i got home at 1 pm the same day! It felt like i had been traveling for a week yet only 8 hours had passed on the clock! things like that really make you realize what a man-made fabrication time actually is!
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My dad picked me up at the airport, took me to get my tux fitted and finally i got to get home and see the family and my little blue kitty! I unpacked and had only a couple of hours to settle in before it was time to start setting up for the poker game at my parents' house that would take place as the start of tony's bachelor party. We had a SOLID group of brothers, and brother-like cousins and friends; and even one adventurous uncle Deaner! Tony cleaned house all-around by taking down the tourney, the prizes Brian chipped in and a bunch of money donated to him from the guys - just the way we all would have had it, i imagine tonz! We headed for a bonfire and drinks at Broey's house, spent a couple hours at the Sherwood Lounge and then back to Broey's where it was every-man-for-himself to find a place to crash.
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It was the first time EVER that all four of us brothers got to party together and an uncontrolable riot of a night!! Hugemongus thanks to Brian and Joe for putting everything together while i was struggling from the other side of the world!!!! was a great night with most of the best guys i know!
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The rest of the week was a whirl-wind barage of my favorite people, places and restaurants without hardly stopping to breathe! i even got to see not one, but TWO Twins game at the wonderous Target Field tuesday and weds nights! We even ran into one of my favorite teachers ever, Mr. Doepner, who happens to be the biggest collector of Twins gear in the history of Twins gear and also the curator of Target Field! i had no idea, but it proved to be to our advantage when he gave us the VIP intimate tour of the different areas of the new park!

Taken just moments after ariving at our seats for the first time at Target Field.


We are 2 and 0 when i am in attendance at the park! ... they'll have to give me season tickets next year if this continues!!
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Thursday was the wedding rehearsal, dinner and then some late night swimming at tony and michelles beautiful apartment in Woodbury. ...... which brings me to.... THE WEDDING!! :)
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The cermony was beautiful and ran smootly. I really enjoyed the fact that it was at Blessed Sacrament in St Paul - the same church where i used to attend grade school, was an alter server and sang in the choir. very nostalgic and comfortable being there!! the priest commented as the ceremony concluded on 'Tony and Michelle's beaming happiness and energy that they give off' and noted that they were the 'happiest looking couple he'd ever married'!! I couldn't agree more guys! :)
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We put the 'PARTY' in 'wedding party' (just for you tonz) as we got onto our trolley - cooler locked and loaded - and headed into St Paul for pictures at Mears park and the capital. with the buzz rolling, we piled into the coolest reception hall i've ever been to! It looked more like a fancy restaurant/dance club than it did a hall for rent! I was thrilled to see hundreds of family, including DOZENS of tiny little Adrians i hadn't seen forever, one Smiley Marie out walkin' and dancing around, my nieces-in-law JJ and Em and Nearly all of the 50 odd cousins that I have. It turned out to be, truly, one of the best nights of my life!! Thanks to my parents and Michelle's awesome family for making it all possible!! Picture perfect!!!



the very talented and super cool friends of tony any schmelle's; The Limns. Put on an awesome show and must have played for almost 4 hours it seemed like?? everyone was having such a blast that we had a tough time ever letting them off the stage! such a great addition to the party!!



This has recently become one of my more favorite schwenny photogs! love these two for all time!! :)



Finally, we were able to let go and allow the guys in the band to pack up their stuff as we took over and belted out a few of our favorite tunes... then they picked their instruments back up and played behind us! if you missed the late-night karaoke, you should feel great shame!! ;) a fantastic finish to the eve.
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Through a brilliant appearance from the wedding singer (Mr. Broey Hart!), limbo, congo line, crowd surfing, hours of dancing and dance-offs, karaoke and 10 hours of drinking, you'd have thought we'd be about ready to crash, right?... that's why you don't party as hard as we do! 3 hours after bar-close and after having had more than one gentle conversation with the hotel security guard; the day was done. it is certainly on the all-time list!! :D

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I made it back to the D a few days later and jumped right back into work to the realization that we had no supervisor - she had walked out with a one day notice while i was away! I managed my way through what was left of the week and was starting to get caught up. Our weekend plans for a King of the Mountain Race in the South West of the country were foiled by severe weather so we packed up and headed east instead toward Pohang where we met up with one of my good friends from college, Amy Matthews. Luck would have that it was her birthday the following day! That fact combined with the South Korea and U.S. world cup games happening in the middle of the night, AND a nice hot following day to spend playing beach volleyball at the beach made for an awesome last minute substitution plan!! Thanks Amy!!! great to see ya! ;)

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Then came a true work-place disaster. An over-night flood of a bar two stories above our school caused me to be greeted by ankle-deep standing water throughout most of our school! with a few buckets, some extra hands and a whole lot of teamwork, we managed to somehow carry-out the entire school day! one of the leakiest spots in the building happend to be our teachers' office and there seemed to be a steady stream coming down directly over my desk all night!!! All of july's books, finished graded homework, my schedules.... everything totally ruined. Of course it happens on end-of-the-month testing and recording day... and when we have no supervisor. DISASTER. although there was a strange feeling of accomplishment in over-coming the chaotic circumstances, i hope to NEVER go though anything like it again!!! things are now getting back closer to normal now.....
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The school week is finished now here just hours ago and i head into a 4th of july weekend again filled with travel, new places and a half-marathon PR in mind! The 'Ansan Li-Ning Half' will get conqured on Sunday! Hopefully Sarah can run her 10K that she's registered for despite a 2nd degree burn on the top of her foot acquired from her hair straightener the other day!! poor thing; i told her that her foot hairs looked fine curly!!! ;) We are doing great and she can't wait to someday meet everyone back home!!!
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HAVE AN INCREDIBLE 4th at the cabin!!!!!! i will be there in spirit! love you guys!!!!
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aw :)

Mama, I'm comin' HOME!

Okay, where did i leave off?? After the Seoul weekend and the 3 or 4 days recovery time for my legs that followed, the weekdays were spent showing Katelyn and Sandy (Sarah's mom and sis) around Daejeon. We showed them our favorite places to eat, play darts, get a drink, and of course.... let little fish nibble the dead skin off of your feet. :) Dr. Fish is a little cafe that has such fish and everybody seems to love it if you can get past the overwhelming tickle sensation at the start. Sandy was the biggest gamer at the fish farm and the fish seemed to think her feet to be the tastiest by far.

The gals seemed to have fun in Daejeon (where I live, in case you didn't know that) but then they took advantage of Sarah getting a few days off and headed to beautiful Jeju Island where I would meet up with them on Saturday.

In the meantime, I took advantage of yet another random holiday.... Election day. Anyone who knows what a thick Asian accent would sound like pronouncing Election day should be smiling already... "June 2nd, no school. ERECTION DAY!" my boss told me excited a couple of weeks before! we foreigners had a lot of fun with that one! we celebrated the important national holiday by going out after Dr. Fish on Tuesday night. A big dinner started our buzzes rolling and then we moved on to our new favorite hot spot downtown - the local convenience store!! That's right, they have picnic tables set up on their patio so you can buy beer and sojo (Korean rice whiskey) for dirt cheap inside and then hang out on there all night for free. it's a perfect place for culture-watching and just relaxing all summer - no crappy American music all night either!!

Last stop that night was back to back "Noray-bong" (i guess you would pronounce it). These are karaokee rooms where you rent out a private room for you and about 6 to 8 of your closest and least vocally talented friends and sing your hearts out for HOURS. as always.... bring your own beer!! :) I walked (i use the term loosley) home at dawn and enjoyed my wednesday off!!

Friday after school i headed directly to the train station and bolted south where i was treated to some impressive South African hospitality from my friend Paul who lives in Busan. He met me at the train station and showed me around the new city utill about 3 am. We had a blast and i will be hard-pressed to ever find that kind of hospitality again.... he made himself a bed on the floor and insist that i take his bed! Cheers, man! I owe ya one!

I headed off to the airport after a few hours of sleep and finally made it to Jeju Island around 1 pm on Saturday afternoon. The Alabamian ladies met me at the gate and we bolted to soak in as much as we could in my less-than-24-hour stay there. Jeju is THE tropical vacation spot for Koreans... kind of like if Hawaii was a $65 flight away from the U.S.



We ate lunch on this patio first stop when i got there. BEAUTIFUL weather and views everywhere!!



You find this little statue guy EVERYWHERE on the island... he's aparently some god or protectorate of the island in their ancient beliefs?? I couldn't figure out why they shaped his head like the tip of a penis, can you???

an inviting path leading down to a scenic waterfall....... see below :)

As always, the picture never comes CLOSE to capturing the size, beauty or feeling of the waterfall. It was 100+ feet high and more than 30 across. immediately behind you on the other side was the sea, a rocky volcanic beach and 3 or 4 foot waves crashing in. this was one of my favorite stops on the quick trip!

The Hyatt - Jeju. Look at it perched up on the rocky bluffs above the sea. We didn't stay there, but we did enjoyed an incredible dinner inside and it was a gorgeous property. Strangely, their tourist season here is strictly july and august so many things were still closed, including our hotel's pool still (which they highly over-advertised)! so the gals may have crashed the hyatt for more than just dinner. :)

When we finally got to our hotel, it was close to midnight and when we went to check into our new room, they only had one left... the honeymoon suite! we all stayed in style the last night and enjoyed our massive balcony atop the hill overlooking the sea, jacuzzi tub and spacious living room! The entire week, Sandy and especially Sarah made SURE i didn't pay for anything (not so much as a bus fare)!!! Thank you both for the past two weekends - i had a BLAST!!!!

Now, i'm ready for bed, suitcase packed behind me except for the laptop that i'm typing on! my loooooooong journey starts at 5 am Korean time and ends at 1 pm the same day in minneapolis where my mom and dad are picking me up! it seems strange that only 8 hours will pass on the clock but i will have been traveling for almost 24! -- more bizarrely; my final flight from Tokyo to MSP leaves Tokyo at 4 pm on Friday.... i arrive home after 13 hours have passed and it's actually 3 hours EARLIER on the clock. TIME WARP. :) all of this equates to June 11, 2010 being the longest day of my life.... almost 40 hours long!

I love you all and will see you so soon i can taste it!.... and it does NOT taste like chicken afterall.

weekend done with SEOUL!

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!!

Overdue update!

Ah, my dear friends and family! Sorry for the delay if anyone's been checking in regularly hoping for an update (Mom :) )! I've been finding it tough to find time lately. There's always so much to do around here. Anyways, there a lot to say so I will try to sum it up as best I can without getting to wordy.


Last weekend Sarah, Muc and I packed up our things and headed to Seoul late on Friday night. We got there after midnight but still had enough energies to enjoy a couple of beers outside the convenience store that was near our hotel. We B.S.ed with some local peoples who seemed eager to practice their English along with their hospitality, and then we headed off for a few hours of sleep in our skeezy over-priced hotel.


The next morning, we met up with a group called Adventure Korea and sat in the back of their bus as it quickly flooded with foreingers - 'waeguk-eun' as we're called here. Our first stop was the Demilitarized Zone - famed as DMZ - which is the area surrounding the deadly border between North and South Korea. For an area a couple miles deep and hundreds accross said to be 'demilitarized' there sure is an aweful lot of military personell around. Can't say that I blame the south since the north was found to be digging invasion tunnels all along the border during the 70's. Four of such tunnels have been found over the years and the search continues for what they believe to be another dozen or more that exist!!


Although the media is continuously ominous about the Korean situation and there is a constant high strung tension at the border are, it has been years since any actual physical conflict there. The talks from both sides are wanting to unify so they have that in common! Only problem - which is no slight one - is that both sides want to unify with one condition... that their government system prevail.


It was an awakening and educational experience - truly felt like standing on a tower looking over into the Berlin Wall.




All able-bodied South Korean men are required at least two years of military service before their 30 years old. Most of them do-so straight out of secondary school so the DMZ - especially touristic areas of it - are manned with young guys like the fella in this picture who seemed to enjoy a good hug-five as much as the next reasonable person.


If you think that 2 year mandatory military service seems harsh, you should know that the north requires something more like 15 years!!! From age 18 to your early 30's in a military run by a communistic dictator (or so we were told by our South Korean tour guide). It warps your brain to know that people still live like this in our world!!!

Muc and Sarah in one of the infiltration tunnels - a very interesting thing to see, but when you get down there you realize one thing that should have been obvious all along.... it's just a tunnel. :)

A panaramic view from one of the observatories into North Korea. Here we are, free as the day we were born and to be two miles north means you have no life of your own - strange feeling!

Finally of the last things we did on that eventful Saturday was to track down this beautiful bridge....... and bungee jump off of it! All 3 of us got the job done - it being the first time for Muc and I. We all LOVED it and came out unscathed minus some popped blood-vessels in Muc's eyeball. It actually looks pretty cool and he's been able to torture his young students with it in the meantime! Here is a link to my video below if you haven't already seen it on facebook. listed in 'videos' on my profile, there are a couple more videos of the weekend too - one being of us trying to catch catfish with our bare hands in a rice patty swamp marsh; some kind of Korean rite of passage?? :)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=185106315&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=617182740532

I've been here for 2 and a half month now and have been with Sarah mostly everyday since day 10 that I arrived. She is fast becoming one of my best friends and we're really doing well aside from missing all of our family and friends back home!

I can't belive the wedding is coming up in a couple of weeks!! I have some big things to do in the meantime too however - including rock climbing and baseball yet today, Seoul next weekend to meet Sarah's mom and sister when they land to visit, a half marathon the following day and Jeju Island the weekend after that!!

I love you guys and will seen you soon!! Thanks for reading! :)