Christmas in Korea

Christmas in Korea was a very interesting experience. First off, the weather is not very reminiscent of north-eastern Christmases gone by, and neither is the general ambiance. Well, there are a few Christmas trees, lights, and 'Merry Christmas' signs here and there, but the mood was so different that I didn't get a Christmas-related homesick at all.

The main difference between American and Korean Christmas is the holiday's target audience. In the US, Christmas is primarily a family holiday, and in my mind, it secondarily targets close friends. However, in Korea, Christmas is a couple's holiday (and this is not a determination based solely on speculation; I was told the same thing by more than two Koreans). When I walked out of the subway to meet my Korean friend on Christmas Eve, for a moment I was completely convinced that it was Valentine's Day, because he had a bouquet of roses and a gift wrapped in silver paper with pink hearts. Also, apparently it is very hard to get reservations at nice restaurants on Christmas Eve. We went to a pretty nice place and it was already starting to fill up by 6:00p.

Christmas day, however, was no comparison. I went to Seomyeon (one of my favorite places in Busan) to meet a friend for lunch, and it was just infested with people, primarily couples. The subway was packed, the shopping malls were packed, the restaurants were packed, and most surprisingly to me, the streets were packed. My brain did not know how to process this information. My friend Liz, with whom I went out to lunch, and I agreed that it looked more like Black Friday than Christmas. What a strange experience that was!

Back to Christmas Eve for a moment. So after dinner, coffee, and a stroll around Haeundae, C and I departed, because he had to work 7-5 the next day. Yeah, that's right. 7am to 5pm at a pool on Christmas Day. How lame is that! Anyway, I headed off to Seomyeon, because a group of Americans, Canadians and Englishman (one) met at a noraebang (Korean karaoke) to do Secret Santa. We reserved a noraebang because it was one of the only places that we could have all to ourselves and that could also fit about 30 of us (at the noraebangs you get private rooms). It was a lot of fun - I met some people I had never seen before, because I don't see other foreigners much - but we felt kind of strange after an hour and a half because we weren't singing, and the people who worked there a) didn't understand why this was the case, and b) had other people waiting for a room. But overall, it was a great night.

I worked today, but not much - maybe 2.5 hours - but I'm still exhausted because I only slept about 4 hours last night because of my wonderfully-thin walls. The administrator at my school came to my apartment today and had someone fix my stove (which has been out of commission for almost 3 weeks), helped me figure out why my gas bill was 142,000,000 won, about 4 times as expensive as last month, even though I hardly used the stove and didn't use the heat all that much more, and called the TV man to come fix my TV which has been out of commission for about 2 months. We also discussed the noise problem but I fear that that, the most important of the issues about which I complained, will not be remedied much. So I will have to try and figure something out...the solution which I have been resorting to the past 2 weeks are not acceptable.

This is a complete aside, ish, but the TV man just called my cell phone, speaking in Korean...and after we got past the "yeoboseyo" "hello?" "yeoboseyo?" hello?" "yeoboseyo?"...me not knowing who it is, so I just speak English in that case so that I won't have to hurt myself trying to understand someone who has the wrong number...but then he said, TV? So I started speaking a bit of Korean...and he wanted to know where I lived, so I gave him my address... in Korean!!! I was so proud of myself to have had a phone conversation in Korean...although it was probably the simplest phone conversation possible, but still - my address is a bit different in Korean than it is in English because you say things in a different order. Yea I know I am wayy to excited about this but hey this is how I get my kicks.

So he is here now and I have to try and use more of my almost non-existent Korean communication skills, so I should leave it at that :)

Work, Work, Work; Planning Winter-Training Trips

This past weekend was a very interesting one. I hadn't seen my coach in a week and a half and I had to further prolong our next meeting because of the wonderful amount of work that I had this weekend for English Camp. I am a tad bitter about that because due to miscommunication (or just lack of clear conveyance) I had to restructure the lesson plans twice. I spent 15 hours on the lesson plans and hardly did anything else that weekend. Bah. But whatever, it is done - and I think we have a good program for the camp. So that is exciting :)

About 2 weeks ago, I told my co teachers that I was looking for a Korean tutor who could teach me 5 days a week. I love my Korean tutor now, but once a week is not going to cut it for me; I need to start getting serious because I really do want to learn the language, so I need to start investing some serious time. Anyway one of my co teachers told me the other day that she found someone who wants to teach me! So she gave her my cell phone number, and we've texted and emailed a few times and decided to start on Monday! I'm so excited :) :)

I finally saw my coach on Tuesday, after a 2 week hiatus. I went to PNU ready to run (and scared because I hadn't run in almost 2 weeks because of my blisters), but Coach said that he just found out that he had to meet someone for dinner in an hour, so we just went to grab a cup of coffee. We were just catching up for a while, and then we started to talk about training over winter break. He has been planning a 4-day trip to Jeju in February for some quality bike training, and he told me that he was going to make the reservations soon. So he asked for my full name so that he could reserve a ticket for me, and then he tells me that he wants to pay for my plane ticket...!!! I don't know how or why I was given the blessing of meeting this man and being able to train with him and my wonderful team, but I am so incredibly thankful. I'm speechless on that matter.

Christmas in Korea has been a very interesting experience, but I have to save that for tomorrow. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Me Whining

I think the universe is trying to tell me to stop being stubborn when I feel any sort of mediocre pain, because due to the most recent injury I am now 100% disabled for triathlon training.

Last Friday I ended up having to do an unexpected errand, which required lots of walking (at least 60 minutes). No problem - walking is great. However, I was wearing new shoes... Everything was fine up until around the 45-minute mark, when my socks slid down below the back of the top of the shoe. I felt this happening but decided to ignore it. A few minutes later, that area started to really hurt, so I stopped and pulled up my socks. Unfortunately, I caught it too late...and also decided to walk the rest of the way home in the shoes even though there was a good amount of pain there. About 2 minutes from my house, when I turned off the main road, I finally decidid that I should take my shoes off because the pain was now nearly unbearable. After taking the shoes off, they felt fine, so I was thinking, maybe the shoes just really hurt and my feet are fine...no such luck...

I now have 2 blisters so bad that I couldn't even walk around barefoot in my house with my heels touching the ground without cringing in pain. Naturally, with this kind of pain, there was no way I could put shoes on that have a back to them which would touch the blisters (most any shoe except sandals and clogs), thus now both running and biking are out of the question. AWESOME CATIE. AWESOME. Way to go. Now, 6 days later, they feel much better, and I can now touch them gently without pain. But walking in shoes still bothers me, and the blisters are still 100% there. I hope to get back into running and biking this weekend...if not I might explode on the Allak 6th graders on Monday.

Speaking of Allak 6th graders...sigh... I yelled, legit, for the first time on Friday, and I was extremely mad. They are so disrespectful! I think I made a few enemies that day, but I really don't care. Rawrrrr. At least I have all the other classes to keep me in tact.

So Saturday and Sunday I did nothing. Watched some movies, hung out a bit, studied...looked at some linguistic graduate programs for a while. But that's it. Uneventful. But it still tired me out. I can't WAIT to get this thing off.

Monday my 6th graders didn't bother me much because now, since I know I can't take points off when they are talking or being disrespectful (because my co teacher thinks that tests should measure their ability...although I think if they are acting like they are animals in a zoo while taking a written test, a) they definitely could be cheating because they are all talking to each other, and b) they need to learn somewhat appropriate behavior, and I think that they would respond more to their grades being affected than having them do pushups), I am just going to stand there and let her discipline them. I'm not going to yell, and I'm not going to get mad. I am there to teach them English, not to discipline them, and if they refuse to try to learn, I might as well not even be there. Rawrrr.

Dong Sang is always the ray of light amongst the storm clouds. I always look forward to Tuesdays and Wednesdays so much (although Thursdays aren't bad because the 5th graders at Allak are fine). But anyway. Went back home after school and did nothing, and was still exhausted.

And, to add to the exhaustion, one of my neighbors is RIDICULOUSLY loud, and has been preventing me from sleeping for the past week. Not everyday, but most days she has been coming home anywhere from 10p to 11:30p and making a point to inform me of her arrival. Oh my goodness. And earplugs don't quell the sound. One night I actually had to put earphones in to shut out the noise, but then I still couldn't sleep. Last night I conquered the situation though -although had to revert to the sleeping-aid-in-a-box that I brought with me - but it was necessary. I was running off of 5-6 hours per night for the past few nights. I hope this doesn't continue, because if so, I am going to move. I neeeed my sleeeep.

It's 6:30p. Almost time for bed. Haha. (Seriously, though.) Blub.

Fingers-Update; Christmas Shopping

Been resting a lot lately. This stupid hand is making me tired.

So last Thursday when I went back to the doctor (myself), he gave me medicine for 2 more days, and apparently told me to come back in 2 more days as well. Which I...did not catch.

On Tuesday at Dong Sang, I was talking with my CT and telling her that the doctor had said that I have to have the cast on for 4 weeks. We were looking at the calendar and I (miscalculatingly) thought that that day came close to the Christmas holiday, so I was worried about having to keep the cast on for an extra week if I didn't get it off on the 23rd. My CT said, he didn't tell you when to come back? And I said, no, he didn't give me a specific date...so that in addition to the fact that I told her that my parents wanted to see an xray or the doctor's notes about the fractures prompted her to suggest that we go see the doctor after school on Wednesday. I was so happy that she suggested that, because I hate asking people to come with me places all the time like I am a 6 year old.

When we got there, I found out that I was supposed to have come back to the doctor's on Monday...so it's lucky that my CT is so awesome and insisted on taking me. It was particularly lucky because we needed to make some changes to my current treatment. At that point I was only in a half-cast which started at the back of my fourth finger and went 270 degrees around my hand in the direction towards my pinky. Actually, maybe only about 210 dgrees, because my fourth knuckle was exposed. Anyhow, when the doctor took a second xray to check the healing progress, he discovered that there was none. Thus, he told me that I had to switch to a full cast (no slipping out of this one) in order for healing to occur in a timely fashion. I'm thinking, man this smells - I have hardly been using the hand at all - why has it not gotten better? Now I have this neon-green piece of fashion spanning half-way up my arm, which, if not expediting the healing process due to some malfunction in my body which is attempting to ruin my 2009 triathlon career, functions merely as warmth, as well as potential weaponry (is it classified as weaponry if I maintain stasis and a child comes crashing into me due to disregard of any and all other objects that might exist in his vicinity?). At least it is neon green though. I gotta hand it to the doctor - he knows how to create silver lining. At least for someone as easily amused as myself.

Anyway. I have to be without-hand until December 30, minimum. At that time I am to return to the doctor and get another xray to see if I am ready to break free and commence therapy...although being realistic, I don't think that freedom will be granted on that day, especially since there was no progress in one entire week of almost exclusive rest. But I'm hoping!

I went back yesterday (Thursday) - doctor's orders - so that I could voice any discomfort, etc that I might be having, and to have one last check before my vacation from my busy schedule of visits to the doctor. He also informed us today that while cycling indoors and running are acceptable activities, sweating is not conducive to a speedy recovery...hmmm.... that is NOT good news. I mean I have to exercise...so maybe I will just severely cut down on food and water intake prior to exercise so that my body cannot generate the profusion of sweat that usually accompanies my exercise...(don't worry, that was partly a joke...). BAH.

But no time to dwell on that, because I had to finish my Christmas shopping last night so I can send it out today and hopefully have it arrive in Weymouth by Christmas Eve. Actually, most of my shopping was done last night...it was almost embarrassing how many bags I had. Towards the end I actually couldn't fit down some aisles because of the extra width I had accumulated. But I got some great stuff (although I wish I could have gotten more - there are some great gifts that I wish I could have gotten 10 of and given to everyone, but I only had limited limbs for carrying and limited space in the package I am going to send (although it is still going to be monstrous I think...some of my friends have already sent packages and one girl said hers was 15kg...I think mine might be similar...haha :) ). So I will have to wait to send over more things. Anyway. That was fun - good times shopping with some great friends who I haven't seen in a while...oh man...there were some great laughs, let me tell you. Good times.

On a separate note, I want to include a priceless conversation with a student yesterday. It was between classes and I was writing notes that would accompany my gifts, and a student came up to me and we had the following transaction:

Boy: Hi!
Me: Hello!
Boy: What are you doing?
Me: I'm writing a a letter to my sister!
Boy: (Starts to smile meekly, then bows). Thank you. (And runs away.)

Hahahaha. I thought that was great. That entertained me for a few hours.

Ok I must go to class. Yay for Fridays...

The Dinner

Saturday was the dinner that I have been nervous about for the past few weeks. I'm not going to go into too much detail here (I will save that for an email), but lets just say that there were many surprises, lots of nausea, and (thus) lots of imbibed alcohol. I'll give the focal points: the whole team was there (surprise #1, achieving highest level of nausea); after dinner we moved on to another venue for some more talking/drinking (and it was actually a REALLY nice venue at that...); it lasted 5 hours. The rest is email material.

On Sunday I did my longest consecutive run ever: 2 hours!!! (Actually I stopped once after 105 minutes for one minute because I had just run up a monkey load of stairs and my legs were really tired so I stretched briefly, but other than that (and one brief bathroom break), no stopping! My legs are still sore. I went home after that and did almost none of the things that I had planned to do for the remainder of the day, so I think I am going to have to forego Korean today to get some of those things done (unfortunately) :(. But I am very proud of myself to have surpassed the 2-hour mark!

Current typing speed: 37 wpm (left-handed). Goal by the end of December: 50wpm.

What I Did Today (doesn't sound interesting, but...)

A) Yelled for the first time at the devil 6th graders. 6th graders, 6th graders, 6th graders (I wonder if that isn't a coincidence...). Only a few times but still. I have commenced unleashing the fury when absolutely necessary. I'm sure this is overdue, though. My unfortunate circumstance just helped me reach my potential for dealing with these certain classes.

B) Was a partial cause of a 6th grader to go from running to being sprawled out on the ground. Key word is partial. Ok. First let me say that I probably don't despise these kids as much as I might make it sound. Some of them I definitely do like (key word in that sentence is some). And the worst thing I do is make them do pushups. Having said that...I was on my way (walking) out the door a few minutes before class, and one boy comes running full-speed into the room. His path, if uninterrupted, would have led forcefully into my stub. Luckily (for me), I saw him just in time and put out my left arm to shield the source of my current frustration (which was a bit sore from an earlier incident involving another 6th grader thinking it would be fun to punch my stub...granted I did play along with the boxer stance that he took to me, but honestly - my hand is CASTED - in what way would someone think it would be any shade of a good idea to hit a casted limb? Anyway, back to the main attraction...), and his body made contact with my arm in such a way that resulted in him ...well, in him making contact with the ground instead of my broken fingers (notice there is no verb of intent used..). Yea, that might have looked a little bad. Maybe he will learn that that is what happens when you run around corners without looking. I'm teaching him valuable lessons.

C) Made a conversion chart from miles to kilometers and kilometers to miles to hang on my wall and memorize. That doesn't sound noteable but it is for me. :)

D) Made a calendar for counting down the days until my cast comes off to give me something to actively look forward to. Since I can't attach an excel worksheet, I will just include a few days'notes on my schedule for the next 4 weeks:

Sat 6 Dec: Dinner with Coach to talk about alternate training plans. Replace / supplement crying with endless abs.
Mon 8 Dec: Korean (every Monday for that matter).
Tues/Wed 8/9 Dec: Restoring sanity (aka track practice, the only outside exercise I am alloted in the next 4 weeks).
Thurs 11 Dec: 1 hour abs / abs until vomiting.
Fri 12 Dec: Try to run in am, but can take today off if need to go out for sanity.
Sat 13 Dec: Wake up, brief feeding, trainer within 20 minutes. No checking email first - get in zone...
Sunday 14 Dec: Run. Trainer. Korean.
Thurs 18 Dec: HALFWAY THERE. Suck it up and have a drink.
Fri 19 Dec: DO NOT GO OUT UNTIL 75 MIN ABS. CATIE! NO! Don't even think about it. Be a triathlete, really now.
Thurs 25 Dec: Abs like (edited for content). Til it burns baby. Thrice.
Fri 26 Dec: Appreciate Tolstoy's genius (W&P) tonight for 2+ hours. Frustrated? You know what to do.
Thurs 29 Dec: Take that (edited for content) OFF yo. CELEBRATE. In the pool (if doc/coach... gives ok!)

I wrote all of that with my left hand with the one exception of hitting "Ctrl i" for italics, which is ...rawr, actually possible to do with one hand now that I try it. Whatevs. BOO-YAH.

젠장 (Bad Word in Korean)

Rawrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I think my blog entries for the next few weeks will be extremely short...

My fingers are broken and my hand is in a cast, wrist and all (even though the wrist is fine) and so it actually hurts to type with my right hand. So I'm left-handing it all. I'm already tired from this post.

I really think the wrist immobilization is unnecessary - that may be mysteriously removed in a few days...(ahhh ::lots of bad words::)

I'm crying again. Hah. I cried 3 times yesterday because I was so frustrated that the doctor told me I can't swim for 4 weeks...and if my wrist is still in bondage then I can't bike on the roads either....(more tears)

Ah this hurts more now that it is wrapped up. Is that normal?

If anyone reading this happens to know a doctor who is an athlete, particularly a swimmer or triathlete, could you find out if there is any possible way to swim with broken 4th and 5th fingers without making it worse? For example, tape them really well and tie some device over my hand so my fingers don't touch the water, so I would just be using my forearms? Anything! If anyone gives me any information as to how I could swim with this I promise you I will send you something awesome from Korea...

Otherwise I guess I will have to supplement swimming with Pilates or something...I guess the bright side is I could end up with killer abs. We'll see.

Ok I've reached my tolerance level for typing left-handed.

Korea still rocks my world.

Baek-il (100-day Birthday); Devil 6th Graders

Muppet hand has turned into a slight deformity...no more bandage, and swelling is down, but when I hold my hand in a normal limp position the pinky juts out to the right ever-so-slightly too much. And now its just a sore-type pain, so it is getting better. But I still can't completely bend or straighten my last two fingers so I think I am going to go to the hospital today (actually I thought I would be there by now so maybe I am not going today..? I will insist on going though because, ouch. Ish. But it would be nice to have all of the functions of my fingers in the future. And hey, if not, I will just find some way to use it to my advantage.

This weekend was an interesting one. I didn't go to practice at all on Saturday because Coach thought it would be better if I didn't ride on the roads if I didn't have full use of my right hand, which is used to operate the brake for the back wheel, which is the more important break or the two. I also took the day off swimming because it was sore...so I studied with C for much of the day. After studying and riding my trainer, C came back to pick me up and took me to a party that one of his co workers was having. The party was for his baby's 100-day birthday, called 'Baek-il". There were "Happy Birthday" signs, and balloons that said "It's a Girl!" (in English) so I felt a bit familiar with those - but other than that I was completely lost. Especially since there were over 200 people there and I knew...one? That actually didn't bother me too much - the only thing that makes me feel awkward in situations like that is when people try to talk to me in Korean and I can't understand. I know I say this all the time but I feel rude being in other people's countries and not being able to speak the language - I feel like they all automatically have a bad impression of me. Anyway.

So this party took place at a really nice restaurant, which had a really big buffet. Lots of food - huge King Crab to name one of the noteables. And since it was a Saturday night, there were LOTS of people there...that actually made me really anxious and a bit uncomfortable, I'm sure only because of the initial discomfort. But it was very interesting. I need to start taking more pictures (and I actually just bought a new camera so expect lots of new pictures soon :) ) There were multiple big rooms in this restaurant and C's co worker had rented out one so we were all in there together. The father and the mother were both wearing what looked to be traditional Korean celebratory dress, which was very beautiful. The baby was also wearing traditional dress, which matched that of her parents. She was SO cute! And hour or so into the dinner the baby started to pick numbers out of a bowl (I think it was a bowl) as a raffle-type thing, but I don't really understand what that was about (I should ask C...I was too busy just looking and sucking it all in...the atmosphere was so nice, everyone seemed like one big family, very energetic and vibrant and loving). During and after the party I met a few of C's co workers - they were all really nice, especially a few of the older ones (by older I mean in comparison, probably in their 30s) who knew a bit of English - they were very extremely welcoming and friendly. The man who was having the party at one point even came over and said, "Hello, Catie! Welcome!" (Or something to that extent) I was very surprised to hear my name...haha.

So amongst all of the other people who were there (family and friends, etc), there were many people from the man's work, which is the pool where C works. So, later on in the night, I met a bunch more Korean swimmers (or x-swimmers). A few of them were pretty sick (meaning really fast..:) )...they are very interesting people. I love how I randomly meet C who happens to be a swimmer and then I meet all these other Korean swimmers...I almost know more Korean athletes than American athletes now (not really but if we are talking percent of American athletes and percent of Korean athletes, I probably know a higher percent of the latter). So that was fun.

On Sunday I realized that my heart rate for running 8:30 miles is insanely high - way higher than it should be - although I am not breathing too hard...I'm not sure what that means...my resting heart rate is decently low (like low 50s) but when I am running 8:30-ish miles (maybe towards the end around 8:10s, with somewhat long, low-grade hills) my HR is between 178 and 185...?! But I am breathing with my mouth closed comfortably (like not trying to keep my mouth closed)...is that normal?! And my max HR is only like...well I have only gotten it to 197 since I got my HRM...but I will mave to monitor this because it is a bit unsettling...ha. Anyway.

Also, I bit the bullet on Sunday and told Coach about my special Korean man-friend...I was really nervous about this because Coach's opinion means a lot to me so I told him that I wanted him (Coach) to meet him (C). For the first time I saw his face go serious...haha. I was prepared for that, although not expecting it. And he started asking me many questions, like what his occupation is and where he goes to school, etc. My heart was beating so fast in anticipation of how he would react (he and his wife of course, both of their approvals mean a lot to me). I told him that I love them so much and so I want them to meet him to make sure they think he is a good guy, and Coach said he thought that was a good idea (haha :) ). His wife later makes a comment that 'he (Coach) is so serious!' But she said he is only like that because they really care about me and want to make sure that this guy is good for me. So we will all meet sometime probably in the next week. I am a little scared, but interested to see how it goes, and what Coach thinks. It's not like I would do anything that he said without thinking twice about it, but I feel that I know him well enough now that I can definitely say that I trust him and his wife, which is not a word that I throw around lightly. So yea...that's that...

On a more...UGH...note, 6th graders are wearing me out. I stayed up for about 2.5 to 3 hours last night making a Thanksgiving-day powerpoint (yes I know it is late) for today's class, and actually put a lot of effort into it to make it fun and interesting and educational. One class got to maybe the 4th slide out of 14 because they were so obnoxious. I lost my appetite after teaching 3 classes. If I get an ulcer here it will be from the 6th graders at Allak..ahhyyyeee. Don't get me wrong there are a few that are good, but...bah. Anyways. At least I learned a lot about Thanksgiving that I actually didn't know before making the presentation. It's interesting (and maybe pathetic?) that it took me traveling to South Korea to actually learn all about a holiday that we celebrate in North America...

Haircut; Korean Progress; Being Dropped Off At A Wrong Location With No Money and No Idea Where I Was; Teacher's Training Day

I still have muppet-hand, so this entry will probably be pithy (at least that will be the goal), and although it takes much more time to use correct punctuation and spelling I will try my best because it pains me to look at my writing that is lacking those things.

On Monday after school my CT took me to get my haircut before Korean lessons. It was a very interesting experience, especially since the last shower I had taken had left me with a big knot in my hair due to my inability to wash myself effectively. Actually, it was borderline embarrassing - have you ever gone to get your hair cut with your hair tangled so badly that it was an effort for the hairdresser to brush your hair? Doesn't really bode well for others' impression of your personal hygiene. At one point there were actually three women brushing my hair...haha, yea. But they did a fantastic job with my hair and now I feel rejuvenated from the elimination of split ends and the like. Sigh.

Then we met my other Korean tutor, and we went to eat steamed chicken and noodles. The noodles were probably two feet long, and when you add left-handed chopstick usage into that equation you get 1) chopsticks on the ground, and 2) my CT feeding me noodles. At first glance I probably looked like that foreigner who couldn't use chopsticks to save my life. Whatever. Although I was doing ok eating the rest of the food. Just those devilish noodles... So after eating we went to study, and since taking notes was somewhat out of the question we focused on speaking. We discovered that my phone can record messages...so we had a lot of fun with that...

On Tuesday I was supposed to go watch another native English speaker's class. I could probably write a short novel about this experience-gone-awry, but for now I will just give the much-less-interesting account (although this is an experience I'm sure I will never forget so I can embellish at a later date). Basically, I was supposed to go to Yeon cheon Elementary School, and despite the fact that I gave my taxi driver the name of the school written on a piece of paper to avoid confusion, I still ended up at the wrong location...in fact, the school I was supposed to go to is only 10-15 minutes from my house, but I was in the taxi for 40 minutes...with a limited amount of money...so when we finally arrived at the destination (which I obviously didn't know was the wrong destination) I didn't have enough money to pay the full fare...(which I worked out)...and then I got out, and realized a few minutes later that he had taken me in an extremely round-about way to YEONG cheon Elementary School instead. Which was pretty much on a highway with no banks around and no convenient stores where I could take out cash. So I'm stuck there with no money, on the outskirts of Busan, with only a bus/subway card for possible transportation usage in the absense of finding a bank. I found a random bus, rode that for a while, and after a few more embarrassing moments I finally found my way to a subway station. Needless to say I missed the class. That was a very interesting experience...

When I got to Dong Sang, my CT told me that the 5th graders were asking where I was and were very disappointed that I wasn't teaching today. I thought that was sweet :)

Today we had a teacher's training day run by EPIK for Native and Korean English Teachers. That was very fun. I learned a lot from the four classes we had, and will definitely use some of the games and techniques that we used. Some are very interesting but my stub is starting to get sore so I won't be sharing any of those today. It was so strange to see all the Native English Teachers together again, especially since I usually don't spend time with English-speaking people. It made me wonder how my life would be different if I didn't spend most of my time with Korean people. And while many (and I'm sure most) of the Native English Teachers are very nice and interesting, I don't have any regrets about how I spend my time. I feel that I am maximizing my experience here with my choices as well as getting to know some really great people. And it was nice to be reminded of that :).

I still haven't showered since I got home from practice and I am trying to procrastinate that process. Ugh I hate showering with my stub...

Solo Hosp Visit; Sweet Training; Crash

This entry will be very short due to my current situation which has rendered me incapacitated for typing. And as as u can see now i am going to take most all possible typing shortcuts bc i am writing only w my left hand. this will be a different style entry.

wednesday, hospital: went alone. thought it would be much easier than it was, bc was told it would be by co teacher (ct). overall, the nurse had to escort me to various places in the hospital; saw the doctor one more time as a follow up consultation type thing; got the prescriptions (paper); went downstairs to pay; was directed to pharmacy with piece of paper to give them. didn't fully understand how that worked so i ended up standing in front of the counter like a fool for about 10 min trying to hand them a piece of paper while the people behind the counter just looked at the paper and then looked away and avoided eye contact. i'm assuming they didnt speak english and couldnt explain that i was suppsed to come up only when my number was on the screen...i had no idea how the system worked...but 10 min later someone called my name and spoke to me in english to instruct me on how to take the meds. got 6 months worth of 2 medications for 122,000 won. sickeningly cheap. left hosp with a monkey load of med. looked strange im sure.

thurs: ran 85 min in am - didnt go to practice wed bc hosp took so long so thats why i ran thurs. longest run ive ever done! was super pumped.

sat: got wall fixed because there was water damage, so had to miss bike practice in am. swim practice at night was amazing. super fast, at least for me. did long sets compared to usual sprints. 500 warm up, then 1000m at 85%m 500m at 90%, 500m at 95%. last 500m was 9min flat, with pull buoy. i was suuuper pumped! after swim practice went to see bond movie. excellent.

sun: ohh sunday. basically....crashed into a pole, broke my bike, almost broke my hand (i'm pretty sure its not broken). was one of those pole=gate type things that they have so motor vehicles cant get through (i think thats why they are there) - 3 or 4 poles, space between about..i dunno, 2 feet? we were doing laps in a parking lot and it was the 15th lap or so so i had no excuse - was going too fast and took the turn to pass between the poles too fast and at too small of an angle and smashed right into the pole on right hand side, and fell down. in front of one of the girls on the team (was riding with the younger kids). bent my right hand shifter....hugely. derailleur wouldnt move. luckily there was a mechanic at practice who fixed it, and in a very short time too. and he unbent the shifter, i dont know how. miraculous.
after practice we went to coachs house and he and his wife took care of my hand - gave me ice and treatment and bandaged it. then we ate some egg and apple and jam sandwiches....soooo delicious...and then some persimmons (soooooo good too) and some oodeng, which is like moist fish bread (its much better than i am making it sound). then we took a rest before running. unfortunately no swimming bc of my hand. bah. it was such a nice day too, like 60 deg and sunny! :( but we went to igidae park, my favorite place in busan, to run. it was me, coach and his wife, and we hiked for a bit and then they set me loose to run. i ran for 110 min!!!!! longest by far that i have ever run! and since i was able to do that with minimal stopping i have decided that i will do the marathon in january. im scared but it will be good practice. :)
after that we ate some more food - left handed chopsticks are very interesting....and then they took me home because they didnt want me riding my bike w my hand as it was. so a very eventful day. and a very eventful week at that.

It's Hard To Get Over A Cold When the Bus and the Subway Are The Only Places That Are Heated

It's cold.

And don't get me wrong, I would rather be really cold that really hot. But not when I am trying to get over a cold. I have been sick for over a week now...and while it is definitely getting better, it just won't completely go away! And it is worst in the morning and night, which I can't remember if that was the case when I was sick in the States....but anyway. I should just suck it up and go to the pharmacy again and get some medicine, because last time I did that it worked pretty well. But I'm lame and scared. But I think today I will try to make another visit.

Tuesday was my first open class, which means that the Vice Principal and other teachers were going to come in and watch me teach one of the classes. It also meant that we had to submit a very detailed lesson plan almost a week in advance, so that took a lot of extra time. The day of my open class was quite an interesting day. First, I woke up to a text from my coach saying 'Good luck today! I'll be there for you." !!!! That made me sooo happy :)

The open class went pretty well overall. The Vice Principal was not there for the entire class, but she was there for the part where we dictated sentences to the kids as part of a future game...and as she walked around and looked at the kids' work I started to get nervous. First of all, dictation in a foreign language is not easy for many people despite the age, and I knew that many of the kids wouldn't get everything. But as she walked around I realized that more kids than I thought weren't writing anything at all...which does not bode well for me and me activity-choosing skills (or my ability to teach dictation skills). But apparently after the class, the VP told my co teacher that she thought the dictation (she singled that out) was a really great exercise, which I was really excited about - because although I took the 'Speed Speech' game from another teacher (that was what we used the sentences from dictation for), I added the dictation part myself. So, yay.

The weather in Busan has been pretty warm up until Monday, and on Tuesday it dropped significantly. It's weird, I actually think it is colder inside than outside since there is no heat in the schools and you can't really move around much inside to keep warm. Anyway, so my friend C knew I was still a bit sick, and that I had practice today, so he called me during lunch to say "Hey! It's cold out there! Take care of yourself." etc. Which I thought was really sweet also :)

At lunch, my co teacher told me that the VP had asked her to go to another school to teach/watch another class. However, she wanted her to leave right after lunch, even though we had one more class after lunch. My CT (co teacher -I'm getting tired of writing it out every time) was really nervous and apologetic, saying that she didn't want to have to go - because this meant that I was to teach the kids on my own. I was a little nervous, but I told her, 'don't worry! I can handle it - they may not understand everything that is going on but I can definitely handle it.' She still didn't like the idea of me having to teach by myself without a Korean teacher there, so she called up another teacher (the homeroom teacher of the class that was supposed to come) and told her the situation, I think asking the homeroom teacher to come and be there for disciplinary purposes if needed. But the homeroom teacher said that she could just keep the kids for that period, that it wasn't a problem. So I ended up not having to teach that class at all. I'm not gonna lie I was actually kind of excited to teach by myself to see how I would teach differently and how I would handle things, but I was also relieved. Anyway, I got the rest of the afternoon to myself because my CT was at another school, so that was nice :) Later on that afternoon I got a text from her saying 'I really appreciate all of your help. I am very happy to be teaching with you.' !! The third really sweet message of the day. Wow. I'm so lucky!

After school I went to practice. It was the perfect weather to be running...after running for about 20 minutes and the body is warmed up :) After our warm up, Coach took off 1 of his 5 layers...hahaha...he actually had a sweater vest as one of his layers...I thought that was amazing :) He also told me the exact date of the marathon in January, and I'm pretty sure I am going to run it. Apparently it is a really big race, like 6000 people run in it, although there is a full marathon, a half, and a 10K. But still, 6000 people is 6000 people. That will be interesting.

There is more to tell about another hospital visit (by myself...), a breakthrough in running, and perhaps some school stuff (although it might not be appropriate for the blog) but for now I'm going to rest.

One of the Best Days of My Life

I wake up Sunday morning feeling about the same as I did on Saturday, aka with a sore throat and congestion. But since I skipped swim practice the night before to rest, and also since we would be riding with the younger kids and thus not at a super high intensity, I didn't think twice about going to practice, although I was debating whether or not I would swim and/or run. Anyway, I woke up early because I had to meet Coach at the subway at 7:20. We started riding aroun...maybe 8:30a when everyone had gotten there and put bikes together and whatnot. Coach assigned the older kids to ride with each group of younger kids, as always. I'm standing over near the Cs, thinking he would definitely put me with them since I told him I was feeling the same as I was the day before, which ended up turning out to be a horrific bike performance. But for some reason, he puts me on As...I looked at him in shock...!! What?! But Coach knows best. Naw but I wasn't feeling absolutely horrible and I knew that even the As wouldn't go super fast, so I was cool with that. Just surprised.

The first hour was pretty chill - I was riding up in front and one of the kids' fathers was riding with us as well as the second older person with the group. When kids ride in a group with elders though, I often see them leading and setting pace and the elders in the middle or right behind the leaders. But today they were all staying behind me...kind of in a straight line (pacelining)...so I'm not sure if I am going too fast, too slow, or what. Eventually I had some of the kids come up beside me or take the lead because sometimes I would end up dropping them not knowing it...and other times I think I was just going too slow. Anyway. Towards the end, though, two of the kids in the A group started doing sprint intervals...and then were actually really fast! But at this point I'm not thinking 'ah, my body can't handle this' but rather my mind is automatically thinking 'keep same pace because you need to make sure that everyone is safe', so I wasn't really focused on the amount of energy I was exerting. To make a long boring story short (or at least shorter), towards the end most kids had already finished (we were doing loops so As just did more), so some of the older kids started hauling (Coach was behind making sure everything was ok), so I went ahead with them and tried to push it for the last few kilometers. At first I felt like I was going to get dropped, but once we hit the top of the hill I started hammering (I don't know where I got the energy from) and hammered it in most of the way back, hitting about an average of 28mph. It was sick.

After riding, the older kids (like the coaches for the kids' team) and the adults - like the people who bring the van every weekend for technical support if needed, as well as some food and coffee - went to lunch (like the last time we biked in this area). Delicious food, as always. I was wondering whether or not we were going to swim and run, and Coach said that S didn't bring his wetsuit so he wasn't going to swim. Also, Coach said that he knew I was tired so we didn't have to swim or run today, but since I didn't swim Saturday I wanted to at least swim a little bit, even if just for a few minutes. So Coach said that was cool, and that he would go with me. So he, his wife, his son and I went to their apartment to rest first and to change. Then we went off to a 'special place' to swim...

We went to the place where Coach took me the first weekend that I trained with them...I remember writing in my blog that that was one o the best weekends on my life, so I think it is safe to say that this place, Igidae Park, is one of my favorite places in the world. We got there, got into our wetsuits, and jumped in the ocean/bay water. We entered through a rocky "beach" type of area which had a big sign saying "No Swimming" (even in English)...haha...(I love the fact that I train with the first triathlete in Korea (at least first documented) because I don't have to worry about warnings like that...haha), quite similar to the beaches in Hvar, with no sand at all - and started on our way. Ok. Even aside from the view, the swim was the best I have ever had. The water was just amazing - open water, like I like it - not completely serene, but not too wavy - definitely not like Haeundae has been lately. There were a few small swells somewhat frequently, which was very pleasant. And I was just gliding through the water - I think swimming alleviates all negative things that are going on, because I didn't feel sick at all in the water. And occasionally I would stop so Coach and I could reconvene from our respective routes taken, and we would take a look around us (oh this is all deep water by the way, which does make a difference I think - I think its more enjoyable, more at-one with the water)...oh my goodness. Breathtaking. Honestly, I felt like I was in a dream. I cannot explain it.

After swimming, we were going to go for an easy run, which turned into a really hard hike, around Igidae Park. Again, breathtaking. Amazing. I'm glad Coach takes so many pictures! (I really should buy a camera that works and start taking more pictures...) Before hiking, we changed on the beach...they brought a tent and we took turns going on and changing...haha awesome...and had some healthy snacks, and then dropped off his son (whom I will now refer to as T) at his grandparents.

Hiking was amazing, and the company was even better. Every time I am with them I am so thankful to have happened upon this amazing bunch of people, over the internet mind you, who give me motivation to train, great training partners, and help with pretty much anything I need - and just knowing that there are people out there like them gives me so much comfort. Ah. :) So after hiking, they asked me if I wouldn't mind going to their house for dinner... :) :) So we went to the market to pick up a few ingredients, and Coach's wife taught me how to cook this delicious (and very nutritious) meal called Samgetang, which consists of a small chicken stuffed with jujubes, garlic, and ginseng. Oh my goodnesssss. And then she took the excess water from the pot after cooking to make the rice that goes with it - I forget what it is called - but its like a thick rice soup with a really delicious flavor to it...wowwww. Oh and then they send me home with like 50 packets of a drink called Baejeup - (I think, that is what is written on the packages), which is made from pears and is also really healthy for you - and a bunch of kimchi. :) :) :) Then they drove me and my bike home because it was too dark to ride safely. So...yea...amaaaazing day. I think I will be happy all week just from the memories.

Another Night at the Choral Festival; Hardest 70km I Have Ever Ridden

On Friday I went to the Busan Cultural Center again with another friend to see four more choral groups perform. Tonight the groups were from Malaysia, China, Indonesia and USA. The group from Malaysia was AMAZING. Other than the Russian group the night before, they were my favorite by far (and the Russian group was my favorite because I am just partial to Russian music). However, the group from the USA was amazing too. They actually got a standing ovation! I mean they were really good but I was very surprised that they got one and no one else did...I think the group from Malaysia deserved one too. Anyway. While the sound of the group from the USA was probably the best, I don't think I would say that I enjoyed them the most, only because all of their songs were religious and churchy. Not that there is anything wrong with that - but they all had the same type of mood, whereas other groups kind of mixed up the types of songs which to me was a little more enjoyable. Overall though, it was a great night. I'm glad I went even though I was feeling sick :) Oh, on another note, I was wearing a really long skirt that night, and I was walking up the escalator and started to run a bit and tripped and fell...and tried to 'run it out' but it was totally clear that I had fallen on my face...and there were tons of people behind me and in front of me who saw...hahahaha. Oh man that was great.

I woke up Saturday morning and felt twice as badly as I had on Friday...really bad sore throat and today I was also congested whereas I wasn't the day before (I'm thinking this might have something to do with the big thing of mold that I found on my wall a few days ago...? I recall seeing a few flies swarming around that area of the wall when I moved my suitcase so I'm guessing it isn't super sanitary...), so I was not happy about that. But I had skipped practice Tuesday and Wednesday earlier in the week due to "work" (some of it was work and some of it was being tired and some of it was me acting like a 12 year old and not wanting to see a certain somebody - but at least I can say that I did do work for a bit of the time that I was not at practice) and I hadn't seen my coach in what seemed like a really long time and I didn't want to skip out. I thought, if nothing else, I will just ride my bike there and meet them and if I feel crappy then I will just ride back home. But when I got there I was feeling...decent...and it was a BEAUTIFUL day, and I had already told Coach that I was going to have to go slow today, so I went. We rode 70 km (I actually rode about 80km - about 50mi - because it is about 10km from my house to our meeting place) - the first 35 with the group (aka with my coach because I was staying back and chilling with him) was fine - but the last 35 was horrible. I actually felt faint on the bike towards the end. And I felt like I was going to cry at points because my body was so tired. I'm sure it had something to do with not fueling myself as properly as I should have but I couldn't get much food down anyhow, and the feeling in my throat had killed any desire to put anything down my esophagus. But it was still a fun ride. I just went really really slow. I felt sort of bad, but Coach knew I was sick and the others were aware too so it wasn't as bad as just randomly going like 12mph for the last 20 or more km - not lying... and I was using effort too - my heart rate wasn't high but my effort level was at its maximum. But I was riding a lot my myself or with my coach, and this was a new style of riding, because normally we are with at least one other person (or sometimes it was just me and S but there is a different mood there too because I can't completely relax when training with him - not for any reason but I just can't completely relax while riding my bike with most people, my coach is just an exception I guess), so I was able to relax and not feel pressured to go fast. And on the way back I was riding by myself at times, which I really liked, because I definitely didn't feel pressured. Although at about 25 km to go, one of the elder men (by elder I mean older than me, not old - I'm not sure how old this man is - I will call him W - but I know he has a son (I think son, maybe daughter?) that goes to college in NYC, so that gives you an idea of his age) came back to ride with me. And he made it really comfortable too because he did interval training while I struggled to make it back to base. He was working on cadence in his lowest gear, doing like minute or 2 minute intervals and then dropping back - so I could see he was doing something beneficial, but also he was making sure I didn't die. Haha. No but that was nice. I definitely wouldn't have minded going solo because I'm almost positive that I would have been able to find my way...haha...but I didn't feel tense riding with him which was good. W is a really really nice man, and speaks English quite well. He and one other elder (this elder is probably in his 30s - maybe late 20s, but probably 30s...I'm bad with age...) have started to ride with us on Saturdays, which is great. They are SO nice, and I need them pushing me. I don't know if I will ever be able to keep up with them without drafting, but that doesn't matter because I will get much faster just attempting. :)

After getting back, we went for some traditional Korean beef stew, which really hit the spot. It was really really delicious, but I will have to get it again sometime soon I think because I wasn't able to really enjoy it that day. Still though, it was great :) We then rode back to our meeting place, and Coach told me that I shouldn't swim today, and that I should go home and get some rest, which I completely agreed with. I had no business being in water at that point...ha. So I went home, and actually relaxed. It was amazing. Although now it is 5:30am on Sunday and I can't sleep again because of my throat. BAH. But today I will rest a lot as well and hopefully I will be feeling better by Monday. As for today, I will get to enjoy one of the probably last-remaining days of weather in the 60s in Busan for a while, with some sun to boot, on my bike, but I will be able to go really slow and not have it be a problem because today is riding with the younger kids, and I will just ride with the slowest group :) We might be riding at nearly the same energy level..haha. Naw, but biking makes me feel better afterwards, getting all of the things out of my system that clog up and prevent endorphine-release.I may opt out of swimming and/or running today, but we will see how that goes.

Damn mold. I blame that for feeling like this. But its all good.

Tutoring; Getting Lost On the Streets of Busan; International Choral Festival; Beginning My Global Education

On Sunday after eating, I met one of the kids on the youth triathlon team to help him with essay writing. Let it be known that I am not accepting money for this because I know it is against my contract to do so...incase anyone from EPIK happens to be reading this. :) Also I don't want to feel committed to tutoring anyone here, so refusing money will prevent any obligatory feelings. Anyway, the boy (I will refer to him as M) and his father came and picked me up at Starbucks because I forgot the map that his father had drawn me which showed where they lived. Then we went to their apartment. Uhm...first of all, any place in Haeundae is beautiful, because Haeundae is just a beautiful place all around. It is the most expensive place to live in Busan because of this. But their apartment was particularly nice - the interior was beautiful, and then they had a huge glass window overlooking the beach. Oh MAN. It was amazing.

So M and I go in to study. He didn't have anything particular prepared, so I had him show me some past essays that we could take a look at. He actually went to elementary school in Canada for two years (he is in middle school now) and goes to an English academy twice a week, so he is very good at English. He is probably one of the best English speakers that I converse with in Korea. Anyway, so in the back of my head I was thinking, ok, he doesn't have anything specific that he wants to go over...so...hmm - I wonder how I am going to go about this in a way that will benefit him. But since I wasn't accepting money I wasn't too worried about it. So we took a look at one of his essays, and I just started writing down tips that I thought would be helpful in general for writing essays based on what I was reading. For example, I would make lists like "words to avoid when you begin a sentence", and alternatively "words that can be helpful to use to begin a sentence", since his writing seemed advanced enough to tell him that it is better to try and use different words/vocabulary at the beginning of a sentence. We also talked about some general grammar rules, etc, and then looked at his essay and made some changes. I was only planning on staying for an hour, but we ended up working on this for about 90 minutes. It was actually really fun. Aside from feeling good about helping someone, especially someone on the team, I also can work on my teaching skills, and thinking/organizing-on-the-spot skills. After we were done, his father invited me to use the sauna in their hotel with M's mother - apparently the hotel has a really nice sauna and swimming pool. I don't doubt it by the appearance of the hotel. But I had biked to practice on Sunday and I didn't want to be riding home in the dark so I said maybe next time.

It took about 20 minutes for me to get to practice from my house in the morning, so of course I am estimating that it will take the same amount of time on the way back. Also, I always try to be conscious of landmarks when I am going somewhere for the first time because I know the road will not look the same on the way back, especially if there is a hidden land-tributary which could make things confusing on the return trip. Which is what happened ...causing my 20 minute commute to become 60 minutes of riding around the streets of Busan, a trip which consisted of moments where I thought I might have to take my bike in a taxi and get driven home...haha. But I eventually found my way...and once I knew where I was, I was glad that I had gotten lost, because it added on an extra 40 minutes of outside riding :)

This past week was pretty boring. My Korean lesson was great, as always. But I didn't go to practice Tuesday or Wednesday, mostly because I have an open class next Tuesday where the Principal and Vice Principal and other teachers will be coming in to watch my class at Dong Sang, so my co teacher and I have to spend extra time preparing this lesson. Also this week I have just been feeling kind of out of it, sleeping a lot and also doing non-triathlon related things. Which is ok, because the race is still more than 5 weeks away, and I still don't have my heart rate monitor yet. Once the 19th comes though, and especially once I get my heart rate monitor, I am going to be very strict with my exercise. So this week can slide a bit.

Along these same lines, I decided to forego my second workout on Thursday to go to the International Choral Festival. One of my co teachers told me about it, and printed out the schedules in English for me :) There are many groups singing at one time, but each night there are groups which are featured in the main hall. On Thursday, the choruses in the main hall were from Indonesia, Korea, The Philippines, and Russia. So of course I wanted to see this night! Especially since there was only one group from Russia, and most other countries were represented by many choruses. I almost didn't end up going at the last minute because the person I was going to go with had to go see the doctor, but I called up another friend and luckily she said she was up for going. We ended up getting lost on the way to the Cultural Center (where the concert was held), but luckily they were letting people in during the concert. And we only ended up missing about 10 minutes even though we were 20 minutes late. So it worked out well! I'm really happy that I ended up going that night because although all of the groups were good and very interesting, the Russian group was by far the best, at least in my opinion. And I'm not just saying that because I like to sing in Russian... :) Their costumes/dress were very lively and vibrant, as were the singers. And listening to the Slavic tongue reminded me of how much I love those languages - Croatian, Russian, and the like. Listening made me want to pick up a Russian textbook and study. Sigh. But anyway, it was fantastic.

Today, Friday, I don't have class. Kind of. I apparently have one class in the afternoon but we are just going to play a game the whole class -which will actually probably be more tiring than a normal lesson, because the sixth graders are crazy noisy. And I'm not really feeling well today so it will be interesting. But for this morning, no class - so I started looking up some geography, because I was talking to my friend last night about visiting Russia and realizing that I wasn't exactly sure where St. Petersburg was situated. Looking up a map of Russia turned into reading about all the facts of Russia, turned into 'how many countries are there in Asia?', turned into 'I should really know the geography of the world...or at least want to...', turned into me deciding that I am going to try and learn about 2 countries every day, starting with Asian countries. Today I learned about Yemen and Vietnam - I'm starting from the bottom of the list because it will make me feel like I am making more progress, since the first letters of the countries change more quickly at the end of the alphabet (e.g. there are 4 Asian countries that start with 'A' and 5 that start with 'B'). But learning all of this really hurts my head, because I just want to know more and more and more and I don't have time to do it! For example, when learning about Yemen, I noted the capital (of course), which is San'a' (or Sanaa or Sana'a...), its geographical location (in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, amongst other reference points), the political orientation (republic, since 1990) and how the system of government works if I am not already familiar with it,the important government figures (which I won't state here, if you are actually interested you can ask me or look it up :) ), the HDI (Human Development Index...I didn't know what that meant until today and it is very interesting...), the flag, the monetary unit (rial), and of COURSE the language (Arabic)... and that is where I get lost and confused. I decided that I wanted to know how to write the name of the country in the country's official language, so I tried to find "Yemen" written in Arabic in bigger script than where I was getting my information, since I don't know Arabic and couldn't make out some of the strokes. So..to make a long story short, I ended up on a page which teaches you the Arabic characters, and how to write them...I then found myself on a page which has simple Arabic lessons...helpppppp. Oh god this is so interesting. I wish I were back in school and my job was to learn about languages and how they were derived and the alphabets and sounds and not feel a bit guilty that I should be doing something else with my time. Anyway, so that's that. And then I learned about Vietnam and Vietnamese language...how it was primarily influenced by Chinese and much of its vocabulary and grammar are such related (apparently many of its sounds sound similar to Cantonese...that's for you Mom), but when Vietnam was invaded by France, French succeeded in imposing some of its phonology...(I'm not sure at all any of these specifics unfortunately...yet...). Anyway, that's what I have been doing all morning (other than writing this entry). Teaching is fun, but I wish I could do this all day!

Back to learning!

Hospital Visit #2; Tutoring; Getting Lost On the Streets of Busan

I am supposed to have a teacher's class on Fridays (where I teach English to teachers, if that wasn't clear...), and I have managed to only teach on half of those scheduled days. Not that I was trying to accomplish this, but things like second hospital visits sometimes get in the way. I'm not entirely sure why I had to go back to the hospital...well, I mean, I know why I had to go. Apparently I don't have medical insurance...I thought that my first hospital visit had taken care of that insignificant detail, but in fact it did not (I have no idea why, and that doesn't make sense to me...). The fact that I don't have medical insurance actually only came up because I was telling my co teacher that I have to fill my prescriptions soon, and when she asked the administration how we go about that, she found out that I don't have insurance. Sweet. So we left school to go get that taken care of. While we were there, we went to see the doctor incase I would be able to get my prescriptions then at a reasonable price without insurance (things are much cheaper in Korea). But in order to see the doctor that I needed to see, we had to wait a 'long time', which ended up being maybe an hour, which is almost standard for seeing a doctor in the States when you have an appointment. Anyway I needed to see her so she could confirm that I needed to be hopped up on pills. Well, it was almost like that. She just needed to get a medical background, what I was taking, why...etc, etc. She was very nice, although I was wondering if she was thinking...why did they let this girl into our country? Whatevs. I'm not worried about it. So anyway, when I asked about the price, it was...a bit more than the budget I had set, so I decided to just wait until my medical insurance kicks in and then make a third visit to the hospital - assuming I don't have to make another visit before then. Crazy medical hooplah.

I was planning on being fun this weekend, but I achieved nearly the antithesis. I believe I went to bed at 8pm on Friday...haha...and did pretty much nothing on Saturday. Coach had to go to Seoul for a coach's conference-type-thing, so we didn't have practice. Actually, I didn't leave the apartment Saturday at all save 10 minutes to run to the store and get yogurt and kim (seaweed-type stuff). Although I did manage to go to bed around 2am on Saturday...I think I was watching the Office..haha. I'm so lame.

Sunday was a very interesting day, with a few firsts. It was the first day that I rode my bike to practice, rather than taking it on the bus and the subway in my bike bag. I was nervous about this, because the roads are so busy, and one one portion of the semi-main road (which I could probably actually avoid if I tried) there is a lot of construction, which in this case means slippery metal spanning the entire width of the road for about...200 meters. Basically as long as I don't hit my brakes on this part I am fine (and probably ok if I had to brake but I wouldn't chance it), but still. It was my first time. And I was hoping that it was as easy to get to Haeundae as it appeared in the back of the cab last weekend. :) So it was about 8km to get there, and it was actually really nice to ride to practice rather than unnaturally lugging my bike in a big bag and taking it on public transportation for which I have to pay. So I am psyched about this new development. Plus, it adds on 20 minutes of riding each way, so thats awesome for me :).

I rode with the youth team Sunday, for the second time (I rode once a few weeks ago too). I think Coach asked me because we weren't able to ride together on Saturday. Of course I accepted - I love the kids, and spending time with the team in general (mostly...I won't elaborate on that comment though :) ). It was raining a bit in the morning, so instead of going out on the roads (which I'm not entirely sure they always do anyways), we rode in a circle around the parking lots at the Yacht Club. It was like a crit, and they practiced as such, by riding in a paceline (one behind another, as close as you can get, so you end up using 30% less energy because the person in front of you is blocking the wind and pulling you). I actually helped coach a bit on Sunday, it was fun! Although I refrained from speaking at first because I don't want the kids to start getting frustrated by me saying foreign sounds to them when they are trying to paceline, which is not the easiest thing in the world. But apparently, there are a bunch of kind on the team who speak English very well. And, three new kids just joined the team that day, all who are doing something English-related in Korea. One of them is from Canada, another from Japan, and the last from New Zealand. So maybe I can be more of a help with the youth team now! After the bike, the kids ran a few laps in the parking lot. I had forgotten my sneakers amidst my excitement of riding my bike to practice, but I wanted to run with them and encourage them, so I ran in my socks. I jumped in with a few girls and one of them spoke English pretty well too! Wow! I also jumped in with a few people who did not speak English and tried to speak a little Korean-encouragement to them. It was great. I'm so glad I joined them!

After that we went and swam in the ocean, as always. I am getting to be a much better swimmer! Too bad swimming is the least time-consuming event of triathlons. Bah. Whatever, I love it, and that's what counts. After swimming we ran for a short time on the beach without sneakers because awesome me forgot her shoes. Bah. This actually hurt. I strained the backs of my ankles, like high achilles area, about 7 minutes in. After some post-run icy-hot it was fine, but it wasn't fun trying to keep up with S and failing, a situation which would not have presented itself if I had brought my running sneakers (by situation I mean failing at quality beach running).

Lunch was 'nak-sam-bul-go-gi', bulgogi being meat type food (kogi/gogi is meat, bulgogi I think is meat in a special sauce) and the naksam part of it...I'm not sure of the direct translation, but it meant that I got to eat spicy octopus. SOOO DELICIOUS. This is my new favorite food. Oh man. So good.

Oof, my tutor just texted me and said he arrived early so I'm going to head out and finish this later.

First Korean Test; Mountain Climbing; The Joys of Teaching Children Part 1

On Monday after class, my co teacher and I went to another elementary school to watch another foreign teacher's class. These classes are called 'open classes' (I have my first open class in a week and a half and I'm not gonna lie, I'm not looking forward to it with the utmost enthusiasm...). So we watched this foreign teacher teach with her co teacher, and the class was actually amazing. It made me think 'wow, I stink at teaching...' Not that I think I am a horrible teacher, but compared to this class my classes are not up to snuff. Even though at my schools we follow the lesson plans given with the textbooks, I still now feel responsible to come up with more interesting and engaging things to do. So I will be working on that in the following months.

After the class, we went to an analysis of the class which lasted about 75 minutes...if that happens to me, I just hope everyone speaks in Korean so I can't understand... so that was pretty intense. And when that was done, my co teacher and I went to a coffee shop for my Korean lesson. Normally we go to Seomyeon and meet my tutor(s) there, but my main tutor could not make it that day because he was given school duty of some sort at the last minute. But today I was scheduled to have my first test anyway, so my co teacher printed it out and we went to a place near our homes in Allak Dong. The test was 3 pages long...I was sooo happy!! Oh man. I LOVE tests!!! Although...I didn't know that it was going to be as comprehensive as it was (I had asked my tutor what would be on the test and he just gave me the main parts and not the smaller sections - which is fine, because for next time I will just know everything) - so I got most of the adjective section wrong...haha. But for the grammar and verb tenses etc I did pretty well! My co teacher gave me a 90%, which, I thought, she was being a little generous - but still!! I was sooo happy! The first thing I thought was, 'I can't wait to show my coach!' :)

Wednesday was an interesting day. I came to realize that one of the reasons that 6th graders are more difficult than other grades (in general) is because of the 'death stare.' That's what they do. They look at you like they want to kill you. Not all of them, but if you get the death stare from two or three kids in one class it is enough to phase you a little bit, and reduce the excitement that I usually build up before teaching each class. But hey. It happens. Also, I've been hearing some brave comments lately from the 5th and 6th graders. So usually, every lesson we show a dialogue on the CD ROM and then ask questions about it. One of the characters (there are probably maybe 15 or 20, and some appear more often than others), Peter, is black. So when I asked 'who do you see in this dialogue?' a kid in one of the classes said, 'Africa!' My mouth dropped open and I looked at him and said, 'what did you say?' I didn't know the appropriate way to react in a class of 5th/6th graders so I added a little bit of a smile with the reaction...but I'm thinking, ok, I know they are youngins, but still - do I encourage racism just because they are young and cute? And when I asked the kids in the next period class, one kid said, "Obama!" !!!! Geez! The reason that I was more phased by this than I normally might be though is because they have seen Peter's character before, so they know who he is. And even if they can't remember, they know it is not 'Africa' or 'Obama' (of course they know it is not Obama if they know who that is). But anyway, that was an interesting day.

After teaching at Dong Sang on Wednesday, I went over to Allak at about 1:30p. The Principal and Vice Principal at Allak had asked the Vice Principal at Dong Sang if I could go mountain climbing with the Allak teachers. I actually felt really weird about this, because the Dong Sang teachers went mountain climbing in the afternoon last week and I couldn't go because I didn't know far enough in advance to change around my schedule. So even though Allak gave me plenty of notice, I still felt bad leaving Dong Sang in the middle of the day to go hiking with Allak...so I was not super excited about that at first (especially since I was still getting over a cold). But once we got out there...oh man. It was fantastic. We went to Beomeosa, a temple-mountain area somewhat near PNU. I actually have some pictures of the base of Beomeosa in a previous post...I had gone there with a teacher from Dong Sang last month. Anyway. So this time we hiked to the top...it took about 75-85 minutes to get to the top, and it was somewhat intense! Especially at the top...there were ropes attached to the big boulder-ish rocks that are too big to climb over without the help of ropes. Oh MAN. It was great!!! Although...I had a track workout after the hike, and while I was aware of that and knew that I shouldn't over exhert myself on the climb, once we started getting to the more intense areas I started to do some running up the trail and four-handed climbing and jump-and-roll momentum maneuvers to get myself over the big rocks without taking the easy way up. It was really really fun, but I definitely felt the climb during the track workout...ugh. My times were significantly slower. I'm glad I told my coach before hand, ha. When I told him I had gone hiking, and that they made me go (they actually pretty much made me go - I ended up having a great time but I kind of didn't want to go because I didn't want to create a bad relationship with the teachers at Dong Sang and also I didn't want to compromise my interval track workout), he said (somewhat jokingly), 'next time, tell them that your coach says you can't go mountain climbing before a track workout.' Haha. Yess.

After practice I received the worst news that I've gotten since I've been in Korea, and it has been sucking the enthusiasm out of me ever since, in all capacities. I'm trying not to think about it but I feel like my heart is slowly turning to stone. Thank goodness I am working with children, because on my way to school I was feeling extremely apathetic and lacking enthusiasm, thinking it was going to be a long day today. But when I got into the schoolyard and the kids looked at my and said, 'Oh, hi teacher! Teacher Catie! Hello!" so enthusiastically, a huge smile always instantly appears on my face as I greet them in return. While elementary school kids can be tough sometimes, overall, I am so thankful to have a job where I can see happy, smiling faces - kids happy and cheerful without the burdens that age tends to impose (not to say that it is easy being a kid, because I know it isn't). But sometimes it really makes you think about life in a different way, in a more simple and innate way - the way maybe life should be, or perhaps how it is at its best. In any case, working with children helps me see life from many angles, and it also can take me away from my perhaps petty problems and zone in on the fact that today I could make a small difference in a kid's life if I just teach them one new thing or even just give them motivation to learn. Of course, you always get those occasional if not frequent priceless sayings that children so often utter, especially when they are trying to speak in a different language and there is a language barrier. Although the one that one the cake today I don't think was due to a translation error. We were drawing houses in 5th grade today to reinforce the rooms in the house, and the kids were about to present their houses to the class. I was walking around, and would comment on houses into which the kids had put particularly impressive effort. So to one group, I said, 'Wow! Very good!' And they all smiled. Then the boy (whose essay on fire safety, which was ultimately for an English speech contest, I had just finished reading and enjoying) pointed to the toilet and said, 'this is where you poop' - so matter-of-fact-ly. Hahaha. It was AMAZING. I was laughing for a minute, minimum. Oh man. FANTASTIC.

Ok time to head to the pool. Looking forward to more good times ahead, I hope... :)

Halloween; I-Can't-Believe-I'm-Actually-Training-To-Qualify-For-Kona Bike Ride; Becoming One With the Ocean

Friday was my first Halloween in a foreign country, and let me tell you, it was a very interesting experience. I actually can't make any big comparisons to Halloween in the States because I never was much of a party animal and thus haven't experienced any of the crazy shenanigans that probably go on. But basically if you are dressed up in a costume in Korea on Halloween, people look at you similar to the way one might look at someone in the States if that person is walking around on the streets in the winter wearing a bathing suit, goggles, and a swim cap. So that in itself was an interesting experience. I didn't attract THAT much attention because I was dressed up as a carrot, so I was just wearing orange clothes and a green hat. However, my jacket was orange enough to attract attention, especially since all of my other clothes were orange and they pretty much did not match (that was intentional). However, I was somewhat oblivious to the reactions of others because prior to going out, I had drunk just about an entire bottle of soju, so I was in my own little hilarious world not caring about anything...it was amazing.

So we all (a group of EPIK people) met at a friend's house near Pusan National Univeristy. We drank there and played games for a bit and then went out to a bar. There were lots of foreigners there, all dressed up in costumes. It was crazy! Outside of the bars was pretty much a normal friday night, but once you hit those foreigner bars it was like Halloween in any other major city (I'm assuming). Lots of costumes, lots of alcohol, lots of fun. The streets also started to get a little infested with us after we started to disperse to other bars. I can't actually remember if there were many Koreans on the streets gaping at us or not, I just remember there being a lot of people wearing very interesting things... I left around 1:30am, because I still had practice in the morning. Usually I wake up at 8:00 to eat breakfast and then leave around 8:30 for practice, but since I went to bed at 2:30a I knew that wasn't happening. So I made a decision to take a cab in the morning so I could save at least an hour of travel time and gain an extra hour of sleep. I think I might have still been drunk in the morning, actually, because I was laughing at things that were not really funny for most of the morning and even into the afternoon...but you can never tell with me because sometimes I just break out into laughter for no reason every day...anyway. I am glad I got that extra hour of sleep, because our bike ride today ended up being one of the hardest rides I have ever been on, one that actually made me think "I can't believe I am actually training to qualify for Kona, this is craziness!" But to be fair, it was really windy, and the people I was riding with were really fast. At least compared to me. So we rode 71km, about 44miles, not too far. But, crapper. Coach was staying back with me when I was getting dropped, which made me feel bad. But when I told him he didn't have to stay back with me, he was like, 'no, my pace too!' Haha. That was great to hear.

Anyways. So after that, I was pretty sore, and tired. We went to a restaurant - me, Coach, S, and the two other men who joined us today (both Ironmen triathletes) - to eat "old men's food" - apparently because it helps control cholesterol...and I was told that most other people are not a huge fan of the food, but I liked it - thought it was great. It was just soup and fish (I think blowfish?) and lots of vegetables. We put vinegar in the soup to give it some flavor. Had some rice on the side. It was delicious.

Now I'm starting to get sore. We depart from the two men who joined us on the ride, and Coach, S and I went to Nurimaru to walk around before swimming. Swimming was really hard today too, go figure! (Although my times were faster than they had ever been before so that was probably a big reason why it was hard...but that is a great reason :) ) And after that, as if I hadn't sufficiently exhausted myself, I decided to go out with my friends again on Saturday night. Go me (aka stupid me...) - but it was definitely fun.

I met up with a Korean friend and his friend, and we then met up with a few of my American/Canadian friends. We went to a restaurant to drink some beer and then hit up a Makali bar, makali being a rice-wine type of alcohol. It was actually really good - especially compared to the makali that I had tried out of a bottle in the stores - the stuff in the bar tasted like a different drink. If you are ever in Korea and want to try some makali, do not buy it in the stores. Hit up a makali bar - it is worth it! And the scenery at the place we went was pretty sweet too - a quaint little straw hut. Fantastic.

So I left pretty early, around...oh actually, maybe 1:30am? So not early for me...and late enough for me to decide to sleep an extra hour and a half in the morning and take another taxi before practice...haha. And the ocean on Sunday was a bit of a challenge, probably partly because there was a yacht race (do you call it a race?) and I'm thinking that made the water a little choppy - but even if that wasn't the case, the waves were still pretty big and I definitely had some trouble breathing. However, after my first 1.5ish km lap, I started to feel out the ocean a bit, and started to learn its rhythms. By the beginning of the second lap, I felt like I was becoming one with the ocean! I could feel when a wave was coming, and was doing a pretty good job to time my strokes so that I would breathe on the top of a wave, even if it meant staggering my arm stroke, although I tried to avoid that and keep my rhythm. Also I started to adopt a rolling-over-the-wave technique, where if my next breath was to be away from the wave (towards the shore), I would speed up the stroke a bit before the breath and slightly exaggerate the turning of my body on its side so that the wave's momentum would not throw off my my momentum which was going in a somewhat-perpendicular direction. But anyway. That was a great experience :)

Monday was incredibly exciting because it was my first Korean test, but I will write about that later because I am still sweaty and smelly from practice today (Wednesday). I thought you would all like to know that :)

Last Classes for 3rd Grade; Oh the Blessed Pure-of-Heart; Shopping for Halloween Costumes; T-Shirts That Make You Pee Your Pants

At Dong Sang, I have been teaching the 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades. I will be teaching 5th and 6th grades with the whole time I am in Korea (at least until next August), but 3rd grade is a little different. I was told that I would be teaching 3rd graders for September and October, and then in November and December I would switch to 4th graders during the periods previously occupied by 3rd grade class. So, this past week, I had my last 3rd-grade classes. They are so cute, I am going to miss them. For the last class, we gave a listening test, and then taught them the Hokey-Pokey...that pretty much took up the entire class time. Such is the stress of my life...singing and dancing with cute little kids...I know, sounds horrible, right? At the end of one of the classes, when my co teacher told the kids that this was my last day teaching them (because 3rd grade English class was being moved to either a Monday, Thursday or Friday so that I could teach the 4th graders), a few of the girls ran up to me and grabbed my arm and hugged me. Haha. It was so cute! They are so adorable. Later that day when I saw some of them in the hall they did the same thing...haha. I feel a little bad though, I wonder how the other teachers think of me when they see the kids grabbing onto me and hugging me...I hope it doesn't create any negative feelings.

Anyway, so after school, today I was determined to take my bike to the shop. I was telling my co teacher at Dong Sang about my bike issues, and later on during the day she said, 'you know, if you would like, I can come with you to take your bike in - I'm just afraid I won't be able to help much because my English is not very good'...! I was so incredibly excited and thankful to hear her say that! She had graduate school after work, and she offers to come with me to the shop before going to graduate school...even though there was absolutely nothing obliging her to do so in the least. So we went back to my apartment to get my bike and then headed off to the shop (mind you it is about 15 minutes to walk to my house, and then another 20 to get to the shop, so I am also taking her on somewhat of a tiresome errand since I don't think she is used to all of that walking right after school, especially sine my place is up a big hill...). So while we are walking to the shop, I am trying to explain to her what I did to my bike, and realized, hey...this actually isn't so easy to understand...even someone who speaks English fluently might have had a little bit of trouble understanding the explanation of my thought process for..essentially breaking my bike. But we worked it out so she understood the basics - ultimately, the people at the shop didn't need to know WHY my derailleur was no longer on my bike, but I wanted to try and explain because if not I look like even more of an idiot...haha.

Before getting to the shop, I told her that if it was going to take them 1 or 2 weeks to fix the problem, then I can do without having the derailleur fixed, and we can just have them fix the chain (and if the chain was going to take very long, then I could just buy a new chain and do it myself...hopefully...haha). I was thinking it was going to take at least 3 or 4 days. But once we got into the shop and she explained what was going on (and after I had sheepishly taken my derailleur out of my bag to show them that I had so intelligently removed it), I heard the man say "sahm sheep boon", which means 30 minutes...I looked at my co teacher in disbelief, wondering if what I had heard meant the amount of time it would take for them to figure out what was wrong with the bike, or if it indeed meant the amount of time it would take them to fix it. She said that they had told her the latter; the only problem was that I forgot to bring the bolt to secure the derailleur, and since there are soo many different lengths and widths of bolts, they could not find one in the shop that matched the dimensions of the one that I left at home...bah. So they said that they could find something to hold it in place until I brought the original bolt to the shop, and until then, they would fix everything that they could fix without the bolt. The owner actually offered to lend me his bike so I could ride home to get it!!! (I told him that I had to be somewhere at 7p, so I wouldn't be able to walk back to my place and return to the store and still have enough time to meet my friend) I couldn't believe that - he was going to let a foreigner, whom he had only met once before, borrow his seemingly brand-new bike to ride a few km away...unbelievable. But I said I didn't fee comfortable doing that, because the streets/sidewalks of Busan are not the safest in the world, and if I happened to slip on something (there was plenty of construction between my place and the shop) and scratch the bike, especially since it looked so new, I would not be able to forgive myself. So I said I would return the next day with the bolt.

So I thanked my co teacher a thousand times, and headed off to meet my friend to shop for Halloween costumes. We met in the PNU area to do some serious shopping, because there are lots of stores there, many of which are very very cheap. Althoug in this area there are also relatively expensive stores, but they have ver good quality, so we hd the best of both worlds. Or just both worlds, I guess. Anyway, we went through racks like it was our job. And I spent money like I had a company credit card with which I was encouraged to use to buy things of partial necessity. But we won't talk about that much...let's just say I got a lot of great things, all of which were insanely cheap compared to the prices I would have paid in the States (I did need to buy more clothes, though - it wasn't like I was intending on just buying a costume...), and I also got a fantastic costume. At least I think so. I basically bought a bunch of clothes that were all different shades of mismatching orange, and a green knit hat with a big fluffy pom-pom thing on the top. Can you guess what I am going to be? I'll give you a hint: it's a delicious vegetable...

So Wednesday I gave up going to practice (the only one of the week since my coach was still in Bali on Tuesday) to get my bike back ASAP. So I went to the shop after school (and actually my coach met me there because I had something of his that he needed back by Saturday) and picked up my almost-fully functional bike (I had to readjust the quick release levers after riding it for a few minutes because the wheels were not spinning freely, but that was an easy fix). I took out a monkey-load of money, not knowing how expensive it was going to be...and it ended up being around $8!!! I could not believe it - I looked so shocked, and I kind of feel bad because I think the shop owner might have thought that I thought that was expensive...but I didn't want to say, 'wow, that is cheap!' because I didn't know if that would be insulting...so I am just like, seriously? wow...and he goes through the breakdown of the prices...anyway. So I am going to stop by the shop sometime soon and drop off some fruit or something, as a thankyou. It has only bee about 40 hours since I got my bike back and I have already ridden it 4 times, a total of about 2h 20min. Haha. I love having a trainer in my house...

Oh, so briefly...haha - so one of my friends who is also teaching in Busan told us about a t-shirt that one of the kids was wearing in her elementary school. It said: "Shit Happens When You Party Naked." (Hey, an elementary school student was wearing that in school - if that is ok, then I think I can write it in my blog.) Hahahahaha. That is SO amazing. The thing is, most of the time I don't think that they know what their shirts mean when they display saying like that. Kids would probably be suspended in elementary schools here if they had that on their shirts...haha. Ohhh Korea. Amazing.

Tonight is Halloween. I'm so excited to go out and forget about the stupid things that are weighing me down and just have tons of fun. Hopefully I will have some great pictures to post as well. :)

I Won't Cry Over Spilt Milk, But I Will Throw a Fit (and Feel the Need For Comfort Food) When My Bike Breaks

WARNING: The following paragraph chiefly consists of a somewhat poetic account of my grapples with my bike. So perhaps some of you might want to skip to the next paragraph (which is probably 50 lines down...I got kind of carried away...). So the front derailleur on my bike hasn't been as cooperative as I would have liked in the past few months - even in the States, I think it had its limitations, but I'm sure I messed it up a bit more when I put the bike back together, especially after it had been in the bike box for 2 weeks (poor bike...). I have been toiling with it for the past few weeks, trying to effectively manipulate the limit screws and the angle of the derailleur, etc, but with no significant avail. I mean, the bike was working, but the chain was rubbing against the FD (front derailleur) in about...maybe 8 or 9 gears out of the 18 that I have..not a pretty sound, so I would just try and avoid those gears, thus significantly limiting my ability to fully utilize the bike. So, my affinity for mechanically oriented activities and further desire to triumph over any obstacle that may prevent me from riding my bike in the way it was meant to be ridden finally convinced me to try and fix the problem. So I tried and tried (let me just state that if the limit screws had been labeled this would not have happened - I have faith in my basic-to-moderate bike mechanic abilities) to figure out the intrinsic nature of the FD, but (pathetically) I could not figure it out to the extent that was necessary. Amongst all of this, I somehow managed to cripple the bike even further by annihilating the function of the FD (which is to move the chain from the big chain ring to the small chain ring, assuming the bike only has two chainrings). GREAT. So now I only have the use of the small chain ring, and furthermore, the chain is still rubbing while in 3-4 of the 9 gears which can be utilized by only using the small chainring. I still have not done my riding for the day... So I took a break, got a little frustrated, and decided that I was going to just ride and then try and fix it after. But my curiosity and excitability dominated my desire to ride with a sub-standard drive train, so I tried again to figure it out. After a bit I thought, hey - if I just remove the FD completely, at least I will have the full function of all 9 sprockets in the back, even though I will be limited to only one chainring in the front (those who are not following me, just take my word for it that this is an ingenius idea...at least for my brain in comparison to how it normally functions...I still thought it was pretty clever though...). So I go to take off the FD, and...realized that I had not spacially thought this through...because you cannot remove the FD unless you also remove the chain. Makes sense, because, WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO TAKE OFF THE FD. So I think, fine, I'll remove the chain. I have a masterlink (I think, either that or something close to that), which means that I should be able to remove that link with my hands, rather than having to use a tool to take apart the chain. However, I could not get the masterlink off - I thought it might be stuck. So I decided to use my chain tool to remove the chain. Here, my ingenuity stopped dead in its tracks and starts to rapidly retreat, for I decided to try and take the pin out of the MASTERLINK (for those who are still reading this and don't know what that means, it means this is an idea somewhat equivalent to the following situation: you have 26 t-shirts, 25 of them are white and one of them is brown. You also have a royal-blue marker. Your goal is to draw something of insignificance (the number 5) on one of the shirts and have it come out in a color such that when asked what color the number 5 is, any observer would say "blue[, of course]". But instead of choosing the simplest and most effective method to achieve this goal, you choose the brown shirt, because it had a cute little monkey on the sleeve...basically what I'm trying to say is that choosing the masterlink was a horrifically idiotic thing to do). Since there is no reason why anyone would ever try to use a tool to take the pin out of a master link (for the master link exists for the sole purpose of eliminating the necessity for using a tool to remove the chain), it is only natural that the link would break, thus altering the status of my bike from partially functional (and still acceptable to train with) to 100% dysfunctional. YAY ME. Bring on the tears. Enter comfort food.

You know, its strange. If I get lazy and decide I don't want to ride one day, and thus take a day off which I did not schedule, it doesn't bother me too much. But if I break my bike and cannot ride, its like my world is rapidly falling apart...particularly in Korea where I can't be assured that I will be able to take my bike into a shop and know that they will be able to fix it due to my inability to properly express myself and my (bicycle) deficiencies. It makes sense, obviously, because one scenario involves conscious decision-making and the other involves complete helplessness, but still. Grrrr.

Wow, that took way too long to write. I think sometimes my vocabulary gets more pretentious (which is unintended...is that even possible to be unintendedly pretentious?) when I get frustrated with my bike. I apologize for that... :) ANYWAY. So I legit almost cried Sunday...I did have a few bodily convulsions from internal sobs, and I definitely went out to buy some chocolate and other sugary things to console myself, as well as to make up for the calories that I would not be burning. I hate how that happens...this came at a particularly bad time too becasue I just signed up for IM China two days before this happened, and I was all starting to get into the mindset of training like whoa, and then this happens. Hence the sobbing. I didn't know if it would take two weeks to get this fixed...but actually, although I was scared to go to the shop myself with a lack of proficiency in Korean, this is something that would have forced me to get off my high horse and submit to the feelings of inadequecy and embarrassment.

Anyway, I canceled my Korean lesson on Monday so I could take the bike to the shop - bike/IM stuff = #1 priority (aside from work, of course). But of course, something else came up - which was that horrific bodily paid that I occasionally get in my stomach (the one I got junior year in college which resulted in my off-campus relocation...if anyone remembers that...). It wasn't as bad as in college but it was still bad enough that I couldn't stand up and my tear ducts were filled to the brim (damn, twice in two days, that's plain ridiculous). I was considering going to the hospital, since I didn't have much medicine with me for this problem, but I didn't want to resort to the hospital unless absolutely necessary. I'm not a fan of wasted time, and I consider that wasted time if I am not in a state of emergency (which I nearly was - I was getting feverish and dizzy...haha oh man...). So the teachers took me to the nurse's office where I took some more medicine ( I had taken a bunch of rolaids and some other related medicine in my office once I hit the floor from the pain) and laid down on a bed with a red heat-lamp radiating over my stomach. After about 30 minutes of being in the nurse's office, the pain started to subside, thankfully. But now my whole preperatory mindset for taking my bike to the shop has been extinguished, and for me, the mindset is 85% of the game when there is something of a stressful nature (of any degree) to be done. So I go home, don't take my bike to the shop...ugh.

So Monday I didn't get any exercise in (save 10 minutes of Pilates, but if I don't get in at least 30 minutes then I count it as an off day - actually even under an hour is pretty much an off day, depending on intensity), and with the bike problem compiled with the stomach madness and other personal frustrations, I can safely say that Monday was the worst day I have had yet in Korea. But for the worst day I have had in 2+ months, it still wasn't too bad. Definitely not comparable to some of the bad days that I have had in the States, ha. Actually, Monday I also started to discover my no-bullshit attitude in class (excuse the language, but that word is essential in portraying the actuality of the attitude). We continued with tests for 6th grade at Allak, and my focused-determination attitude of IM combined with my frustration of the day before caused me to unleash the fury. Or at least as close as I have come to that in class. So at the beginning of class, my co teacher and I would go through the flashcards that we were going to use for the speaking tests so that the kids could practice one last time, and so that we could give all of them a chance to get 100%. But when my turn came to go over what I would be testing, I gave very little mercy. Normally I would shush them and maybe wait a minute until they quieted down. But this time I got up there, said, OK - gave them a few seconds, and when they didn't shush up, I just continued to speak. I said, "when you come to me, I will ask you, 'How was your vacation?' And you will answer, 'it was good', it was great,' 'it was so-so', 'it was fun,' 'it was not fun.' You can say anything. BUT YOU MUST SAY SOMETHING. IF YOU DO NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION CORRECTLY, I WILL GIVE YOU A ZERO. (The kids start to hush up a bit now but still are kind of noisy) So, I will ask you, 'How was your vacation?' And you will say...(pause for kids to give response)." About maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the class were responding at first, and then I repeated it one more time, emphasizing that I would 'take points off' if they did not answer that question correctly. There were still some kids who did not hear what I was saying because they were talking, but I told them I would take points off twice, and I had them practice the answers to that question three times, so I don't feel bad at all. When they came to see me, if they did not know what to say in response to that question (which, all they really have to do is understand what I am asking, because they all know how to say "good" - I would have accepted that, even though it was not in a full sentence), then I would usually give them the answer in Korean - like say "it was fun" in Korean, for them, and then say, 'say that in English'...which most of them did not do...so I gave them a disappointed face (with a smile but still I made my point) and took off points. Take that noisy 6th graders. Just kidding. But seriously, I will not waste time out of the 40 minutes that I have with each class every week to hush them up anymore. I feel that I am fair, and in order to be fair, I cannot let them waste time in English class yelling and screaming and talking to their friends in Korean. That would not be fair to them for me to let them do that, and sacrifice the time they have to learn English with me as well as the money that their school pays me to teach them. Sorry. Game over. Time to learn.

Hmmm...so there is more to tell about school Tuesday with my last classes for 3rd grade for this semester, as well as my adventure bringing my bike to the shop...but I have to jump on the trainer before bed. So I will continue tomorrow... :)