Meeting My Korean Family

What a day.

Today I met my other co-teacher at Dong-Sung Elementary School. Crystal came with me to introduce me. The new teacher was very nervous to meet me because she doesn't speak very much English at all, but she is very nice! Apparently she majored in Art and didn't study much English - probably why I am teaching at that school...after meeting her and going over the weekly schedule, we went to meet the Principal of Dong-Sung. He is very nice, much less outgoing than the Principal of Allak Dong. But very nice :)

I had emphasized to Crystal that I had to be at Busan National University at 5:30 to meet my triathlon coach, especially since I don't yet have a phone so I can't call to cancel. So she, my new co-teacher and I walked back from Dong-Sung to my apartment so that I would know how to get there tomorrow and also so that my new co-teacher would know where I live. Crystal also showed me which bus to get on to get to the subway, which was great because the closest subway is 30 minutes from my house. So I changed real quick, caught the bus early expecting problems, and got the the subway and headed off to PNU. I got to the stop and actually couldn't get out of the gate - I think because I didn't scan my bus/subway card when I got off the bus, so there was some sort of error - so I had to push the help button and some man let me out of the gate. That was weird. Once I got outside, I asked someone for directions to PNU and arrived abotu a half hour early. I was so excited! So I walked around a bit so I wouldn't be just anxiously standing there.

About a half hour later, someone comes up to me and says hello and shakes my hand. I said, Catie? Haha - I don't know what I was thinking...but sure enough it was my coach! We waited at the gate for a few minutes to meet two other team members, and then myself, Dr. Chanho and one other triathlete headed to C's car to drive up the huge butt hill (probably 400m and the grade is huge) to the track (the other guy had to finish school stuff) (just to be clear - there are most than 4 people on the tri team but these are the only people that could show up today - there are apparently 7 adults and about 30 younger people - although I'm thinking the younger people are like teenagers...more on that at a later time). I was so excited but also a bit nervous because I haven't been working out much this week, but I knew I had to do a workout with them - if they are sickeningly fast, I will just have to work super hard and will get much better much faster. Once we got to the track, we did a 2 lap warm up, and then did a 4K on the track (I thought he said 4K repeats at first, and I was like...craaapppp...but it was only one, thank goodness! They are at the beginning of their season so no one is in crazy awesome shape). C told us to go at our own pace...so me and the other guy, I will refer to him as S today for failure to remember his name) went out together at a chill pace. After 2 or 3 laps he picked it up a bit, and by the 8th lap we were had picked it up a lot (I was dying - it was crazy humid!), but I was able to stay with them, thankfully! It was kind of crazy - good to know that I am in decent enough shape to train with them though! There were a lot of other athletes at the track too - football players, track people, etc - so there was a lot of stuff going on.

After the workout a sprinter guy came over and was talking to C and S, making a comment about me - I think he said something like 'she's pretty good!' or 'she's fast-' because he was looking at me and pointing and making some wide eyes and saying 'good'- and said I should do his 400 workouts - 400run, 200 rest/jog x 5 or 6 - maybe next time I will jump in with him on that :). Soon after that C and S and I head back down the hill to meet up with the other guy who had class, and we all went to dinner.


Dinner was DELICIOUS. We had Albop (I think thats what it is called) and come delicious hot noodle and vegetable soup. SO GOOD. My favorite meal yet (and not just because of the great company). We ate, C insisted that I didn't pay because its a "welcome dinner", and then we went out for "coffee" (aka beer) where we talked about training...(anyone who knows me is probably thinking that I am making this up because it sounds too good to be true - these Korean triathletes, SUPER nice (C is really really nice and genuine and has a great laugh, very easy-going), let me workout with them and then take me out to food and drinks and pretty much abandon their beautiful language for the night to make me feel comfortable (not at all times, of course)...yea, it was awesome. C even had S call a bike shop to order me a soft bike case so I can take my bike with me on the subway, since it is really hard to bike in downtown Busan...!

After some beer-drinking and talk of training, C and the other guy, who is a student of C (C is his mentor in Exercise Science) had to go to a meeting, but C said that if I wouldn't mind waiting then he would be happy to drive me home...! So S and I chilled out in the "coffee house" and attempted to talk to each other - he taught me some Hanguk-mal (Korean) and I confused him with asking him somewhat involved questions in English...haha - it was fun. Soon after that, C and the other man (I can't believe I can't remember his name, sorry) came back, and we hit up the car to go home (this is 5 hours later...haha). We decided that our practices will be Wednesday and Thursday after school/work, and Saturday and Sunday will be longer workouts/doubles. This Saturday we will be biking and then swimming in Haeundae (apparently a beautiful beach area), and since I won't have the bike bag by Saturday, C offered to come pick me up Saturday morning...!! Seriously...this place is freaking awesome. I can't believe how lucky I am!

It's officially way past my bedtime, but it was worth it to reminisce all of that :) Until next time!