Saturday started the same way as the past few Saturdays here in Korea except for one major thing: instead of being picked up to bike, I brought my bike with me in my new bike bag to meet the team. Taking the bike on the bus and on the subway was very interesting. It was a little difficult the first time because I wasn't sure into which positions I could move the bike without having everything slip out of place (basically the bike is in 3 parts in the bag: each wheel is separate and then the frame and everything else (e.g. aerobars and pedals) are one piece. The wheels are not held securely in the bag; rather there are big sleeve-type things for each wheel and they are located on the perimeter of the inside of the bag, so the frame goes in between the wheels). Anyway, I was being quite cautious of everything falling out of place especially since it was my first time taking it in the bag. Even though it was a Saturday morning, there happened to be a lot of people on the bus and on the subway (moreso than usual when I travel on the bus - because children have school on Saturday and today there were lots of girls in uniforms crammed in) and so I am chillin with this huge black awkward-shaped bag on a relatively small bus with lots of people. It was interesting. :)
Once I got off the bus I got onto the subway - which ended up being fine, especially after I was able to move the bag into a more vertical position (on the bus I had it laying upside down on the handlebars, and it was taking up a lot of horizontal space), which made me feel like I was being less of an inconvenience to other people. But everything ended up fine, and I met my team at 10am, threw my bike into the car, and we were off for Songjeong Beach to ride :)
The tendon in the back of my knee was still hurting me Saturday, although it felt a lot better than last night, for last night (especially after I tried to ice it - that was a badd idea) it was very sore and quite painful and I wasn't sure if I would be able to exercise today. But after heating it and stretching it a bit last night it ended up feeling a lot better, and since my knee doesn't extend fully when I bike, riding ended up feeling perfectly fine :). So we rode for just under 3 hours at a very chill pace - ahh I love biking! When we got back, we went to get some cheap and delicious noodles at the same place as last week, and then went to get some pappingsu (I'm not exactly sure how to spell that - but it is the Korean ice-cream type food with ice and beans and small rice cake-type things and a bit of milk product I think - sooo delicious - this pappingsu also had a lot of fruit) with Coach's wife and son. At this point we were experimenting with me speaking only Korean (this had been going on for an hour), so I was basically saying "uhhhhh...." and pulling out my phone to look words up in the dictionary every 30 seconds...haha it was frustrating not being able to speak!! But I gave up after about 90 minutes because I don't know enough grammar to put the verb in the correct form even if I can find the verb in the dictionary.
Anyway. After that, we went for a swim at 4p at the Grand Hotel in Haeundae (this schedule, biking in the am and swimming at the Grand Hotel at 4-5pm will always be our Saturday workout - although next week no biking because Coach has something planned for school in the morning :( ). The swim was kind of hard! We did our warm up and then did 20 x 50m sprint...!! Although I pulled (with a pull buoy instead of swimming normally while kicking) because it hurt a bit to kick, so I pulled 20 - 50m sprints...haha. It was actually cardiovascularly much easier for me because, well, it just is inherently (at least I think inherently) harder to get your heart rate up high when you are not kicking. However, this means that my arms are working overtime, and after even 5 sprints my arms started to feel somewhat numb...haha. But it was great. I was very tired while doing the workout, especially after the long bike and still recovering from not much sleep over the past week, but after the swim I wasn't very tired at all. We finished the workout, went to eat some delicious food, and departed for home.
My friend Chol had messaged me during the day to see if I had time to meet after I got home, so we met up around 10pm and he took me bowling. I actually think this is the first time I have even been "big-ball bowling" (as opposed to Candlepin, which they don't have in Korea). Since I don't think I have ever been big-ball bowling, I can't make a comparative comment between Korean BBB (big-ball bowling) and American BBB. But I can say that they are quite intense about it here (not in a bad way of course!) I didn't see one person there who didn't seem like they knew what they were doing - to put it in a more efficient way, I didn't see anyone there who looked like they had no idea what they were doing, whereas in the States (at least at Candlepin) there are definitely people there who are just messing around who maybe don't bowl much at all. It seemed like everyone at the alley that night had been bowling many many times, and their form appeared very impressive (at least to the layman over here). Chol actually told me that form is very important to Koreans during sport, and that many people get embarrassed if they do not have proper form (although he wasn't insinuating anything by telling me that, I was definitely one of those people, at least at the beginning of the night...the man next to us told pointed out that I was putting the wrong foot first - haha - which I am glad that he told me because once I got the proper footing down I was hitting 9 pins down with most of my first shots (what do you call a 'turn' in bowling? I have no idea...). Also at the bowling alley I experienced a somewhat awkward staring incident - a little girl came over to me on at least 3 separate occasions and stood in front of me and stared at me in a somewhat disturbing manner - like she was horrified at something I was doing - right up in my face - haha. The second time I said "An-nyong (hello, spoken to someone younger or sometimes same age as you) but she didn't flinch...haha whatever. It was weird though. But anyway, it was very very fun, and very interesting. I'm glad I went with Chol - he is a very interesting and fun guy, and I learn a lot about Korean culture from him.
On Sunday I woke up planning to go to Haeundae for a swim and a run, but Coach called right before I was about to leave and said that ocean swimming was cancelled (apparently this word can be spelled 'cancelled' as well as 'canceled'? Sorry for the jump off subject but I looked it up even though I always spell it with two 'l's just to make sure and there is a lot of controversy about the spelling of this word...I need the OED...!). I was so sad! The rest of the team went to swim in Grand Hotel but because I was so far away I couldn't make it in time :( So I left an hour or so later to meet them and go for a run. I didn't bring my wetsuit because I thought that I wouldn't have time to swim but I think if I had brought it I could have snuck in a swim, sadly! Oh well, I will know to bring it for next time. When in doubt, always, always bring extra workout equipment!! (What an amateur)
After running, we ate some delicious food (as always), and then went to a bike shop (I told Coach I wanted to buy a trainer so we went to try and find one :) ) But apparently bike trainers, at least quality ones, are not as available here as they are in the States...and we couldn't find one that was worth buying. There was one in the shop that we went to that I may have bought it if weren't for the two guys in "Ironman Switzerland" jerseys that came in to talk to Coach and said that they didn't recommend that style...Ironman Switzerland!!!! Oh man. Just seeing people with Ironman stuff on got me sooo excited! And I was wearing my Ironman Wisconsin jacket, so it was even better. Seriously, when you meet other people who have done an Ironman, you are instant friends. It's practically a rule. It's great. :) But they were very nice, and it's awesome to be able to meet all of these athletes and triathletes in Korea! My coach has been doing triathlons since 1987, which was the year in which triathlons first started being offered in Korea, so he knows probably most if not all of the serious triathletes in Busan and probably many of them in the rest of Korea. I can't believe how lucky I am to have found this team!!
Anyway, no luck on the trainer. But Coach said I could borrow his. Normally I don't like to borrow things, but since I knew one week of having a trainer would definitely benefit me, especially since it is hard to bike near where I live and also because I can't bike at night, I accepted his generous offer. But once we got to his apartment, he brings down his trainer - very light, very nice - fluid trainer! yayyy - he says, I'm looking to sell this, so if you want it...!!! Yay!!! So he is selling it to me for a very very good price! :) Ahh I'm so happy! I have almost everything I need here now! (After I buy a few more clothing items I should be set!)
So I take my bike and my big backpack and my new trainer with me to the bus stop (S and S2 (my teammates) helped me bring them to the bus :) ) and I happily loaded all of my belongings onto the subway. I was afraid of how I was going to get everything back to my house after the subway though, because if I took the bus, I would still have a 10 minute walk (10 minutes with no oversize luggage), and it is all uphill too...at points VERY uphill (I love it)...I knew it was definitely possibly but it would be difficult. So I'm thinking of taking a taxi, but since taxis in Korea go by landmarks and not by street names, it is somewhat difficult for me to get a taxi (depending on where I am taking a taxi from - if I am somewhat close to my apartment then the driver should be able to find it), because I don't live near any significant landmarks. So I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get one (I have only taken one taxi in Korea so far and that ended up with me getting dropped off 40 minutes from my apartment by foot...haha). ANYWAY, I found a driver who knew where the Mansion (apartment building) across from my street is, so I jumped in, threw all of my things in, and rode the 7-10 minutes with my chainring poking into my left rib: the feeling of success :).
I got home at 4:40p and I had told Chol that I would probably be ready to meet around 5p (to do some Korean cooking! He offered to help me the other day), so I called him to buy myself some extra time so I could shower, but more importantly, so I could set up my bike on my trainer in my apartment....!!!!! I couldn't wait!!! Now my bike is happily set on the trainer, ready for me to ride, whenever I want (basically whenever I have free time in my apartment!). Ahh!! I'm so excited!
I met Chol around 6p, and we went to the Megamart, which is a huge supermarket. It is basically like a Shaws and a Walmart combined, with some small restaurants mixed in there as well (multiple floors). It's amazing. SO BUSY. So we go there, and he is asking me what I want, and I tell him...I have no idea! I want to be able to make Korean food for my team...what kind of Korean food is relatively easy to make? We start to look around, and he asks me what I have at home. I say rice, hot sauce, fruit...yup, that's pretty much it. A few noodles too. No cooking oil, no salt...nothing...haha. He looks at me in amused shock - "Really?" hahaha. So he says, "I'll call my mom and ask her what you should get..."!!! Aww!! Awww. He is so sweet. I'm so lame. Hahaha.
We pick up the essentials as well as some pig meat, lots of vegetables, eggs, etc. Spent a butt-load of money, but that is expected I think when you don't have any basic cooking ingredients...haha. We spent over an hour at the Megamart, and then drove back to my apartment to start my Korean-cooking education. Once we get back, Chol asks me to get out my rice, so I pull that out...and he starts laughing. "That's not rice!" ...? How do I get THAT wrong?
I need a new paragraph for rice. Even though I'm not going to go much into it here, but rice in Korea is kind of like snow to Eskimos - they have what, 50 different words for snow? Because it is omnipresent and so important to them that they can't just have one word for it or just one type (to be clear, that is the reason I am devoting a separate paragraph. I'm still not sure if I am being clear...sorry...). Anyway. So I bought a 1 kilo bag of rice. That should have been a warning signal right there...(all of my friends had been talking about how they couldn't find a normal size bag of rice in the supermarket but yet I found one that seemed normal sized...shame on me for not paying more attention...) - I thought this was normal rice because I looked at the pictures on the bags of this grain and the bags of the grain around it and it looked like rice, and what was in the bag looked like rice (not white rice but still I thought it was just like a hybrid or something...) but anyway, what I had bought was just something that people cook with rice as a rice-integration type of thing. You can't cook what I bought by itself. So we are chillin in my kitchen, missing the ingredient nothing much short of essential to a Korean meal...so we headed back off to the supermarket. Haha - wow. But Chol forgot butter also so at least we weren't going for the sole reason of my stupidity. Anyway, we get to the supermarket, and I saw what my American friends were talking about - the smallest bag of rice (pretty much, there might have been two or three other bags in the entire store that were less but they are very hard to find) was 10 kilo...yup. It looks like a bag of kitty litter, one of those big bags that you struggle to put in your shopping cart. Keep in mind that this is a city! And I don't have a car! So if I want to buy rice (or toilet paper...you'll know what I mean if you have been reading my blog), I have to walk 10 minutes downhill to the store, and then lug these monstrous amounts of goods up a 10-minute (plus fatigue-time) hill...hmm...I'm really glad I have nice friends with cars...
So we get back to my apartment and start cooking. He teaches me how to make 김치국 (kimchi guk, or Kimchi soup), and then he made some eggs and of course rice. The Kimchi soup was AMAZING. (He actually didn't think so because he added 파 (pa, which is green onion) at the end and then tasted it and started grimacing saying..."oh no...oh no...that's bad!!!" Haha - I thought it was great - really. I thought it tasted really good! But it's good to know that if I make that for my team that I should leave the 파 out. Haha.
So the food was delicious, lessons learned and conversation priceless, and around 11p he went home and I ate the rest of the soup :). It was a great, great day, and another amazing weekend. :)
Once I got off the bus I got onto the subway - which ended up being fine, especially after I was able to move the bag into a more vertical position (on the bus I had it laying upside down on the handlebars, and it was taking up a lot of horizontal space), which made me feel like I was being less of an inconvenience to other people. But everything ended up fine, and I met my team at 10am, threw my bike into the car, and we were off for Songjeong Beach to ride :)
The tendon in the back of my knee was still hurting me Saturday, although it felt a lot better than last night, for last night (especially after I tried to ice it - that was a badd idea) it was very sore and quite painful and I wasn't sure if I would be able to exercise today. But after heating it and stretching it a bit last night it ended up feeling a lot better, and since my knee doesn't extend fully when I bike, riding ended up feeling perfectly fine :). So we rode for just under 3 hours at a very chill pace - ahh I love biking! When we got back, we went to get some cheap and delicious noodles at the same place as last week, and then went to get some pappingsu (I'm not exactly sure how to spell that - but it is the Korean ice-cream type food with ice and beans and small rice cake-type things and a bit of milk product I think - sooo delicious - this pappingsu also had a lot of fruit) with Coach's wife and son. At this point we were experimenting with me speaking only Korean (this had been going on for an hour), so I was basically saying "uhhhhh...." and pulling out my phone to look words up in the dictionary every 30 seconds...haha it was frustrating not being able to speak!! But I gave up after about 90 minutes because I don't know enough grammar to put the verb in the correct form even if I can find the verb in the dictionary.
Anyway. After that, we went for a swim at 4p at the Grand Hotel in Haeundae (this schedule, biking in the am and swimming at the Grand Hotel at 4-5pm will always be our Saturday workout - although next week no biking because Coach has something planned for school in the morning :( ). The swim was kind of hard! We did our warm up and then did 20 x 50m sprint...!! Although I pulled (with a pull buoy instead of swimming normally while kicking) because it hurt a bit to kick, so I pulled 20 - 50m sprints...haha. It was actually cardiovascularly much easier for me because, well, it just is inherently (at least I think inherently) harder to get your heart rate up high when you are not kicking. However, this means that my arms are working overtime, and after even 5 sprints my arms started to feel somewhat numb...haha. But it was great. I was very tired while doing the workout, especially after the long bike and still recovering from not much sleep over the past week, but after the swim I wasn't very tired at all. We finished the workout, went to eat some delicious food, and departed for home.
My friend Chol had messaged me during the day to see if I had time to meet after I got home, so we met up around 10pm and he took me bowling. I actually think this is the first time I have even been "big-ball bowling" (as opposed to Candlepin, which they don't have in Korea). Since I don't think I have ever been big-ball bowling, I can't make a comparative comment between Korean BBB (big-ball bowling) and American BBB. But I can say that they are quite intense about it here (not in a bad way of course!) I didn't see one person there who didn't seem like they knew what they were doing - to put it in a more efficient way, I didn't see anyone there who looked like they had no idea what they were doing, whereas in the States (at least at Candlepin) there are definitely people there who are just messing around who maybe don't bowl much at all. It seemed like everyone at the alley that night had been bowling many many times, and their form appeared very impressive (at least to the layman over here). Chol actually told me that form is very important to Koreans during sport, and that many people get embarrassed if they do not have proper form (although he wasn't insinuating anything by telling me that, I was definitely one of those people, at least at the beginning of the night...the man next to us told pointed out that I was putting the wrong foot first - haha - which I am glad that he told me because once I got the proper footing down I was hitting 9 pins down with most of my first shots (what do you call a 'turn' in bowling? I have no idea...). Also at the bowling alley I experienced a somewhat awkward staring incident - a little girl came over to me on at least 3 separate occasions and stood in front of me and stared at me in a somewhat disturbing manner - like she was horrified at something I was doing - right up in my face - haha. The second time I said "An-nyong (hello, spoken to someone younger or sometimes same age as you) but she didn't flinch...haha whatever. It was weird though. But anyway, it was very very fun, and very interesting. I'm glad I went with Chol - he is a very interesting and fun guy, and I learn a lot about Korean culture from him.
On Sunday I woke up planning to go to Haeundae for a swim and a run, but Coach called right before I was about to leave and said that ocean swimming was cancelled (apparently this word can be spelled 'cancelled' as well as 'canceled'? Sorry for the jump off subject but I looked it up even though I always spell it with two 'l's just to make sure and there is a lot of controversy about the spelling of this word...I need the OED...!). I was so sad! The rest of the team went to swim in Grand Hotel but because I was so far away I couldn't make it in time :( So I left an hour or so later to meet them and go for a run. I didn't bring my wetsuit because I thought that I wouldn't have time to swim but I think if I had brought it I could have snuck in a swim, sadly! Oh well, I will know to bring it for next time. When in doubt, always, always bring extra workout equipment!! (What an amateur)
After running, we ate some delicious food (as always), and then went to a bike shop (I told Coach I wanted to buy a trainer so we went to try and find one :) ) But apparently bike trainers, at least quality ones, are not as available here as they are in the States...and we couldn't find one that was worth buying. There was one in the shop that we went to that I may have bought it if weren't for the two guys in "Ironman Switzerland" jerseys that came in to talk to Coach and said that they didn't recommend that style...Ironman Switzerland!!!! Oh man. Just seeing people with Ironman stuff on got me sooo excited! And I was wearing my Ironman Wisconsin jacket, so it was even better. Seriously, when you meet other people who have done an Ironman, you are instant friends. It's practically a rule. It's great. :) But they were very nice, and it's awesome to be able to meet all of these athletes and triathletes in Korea! My coach has been doing triathlons since 1987, which was the year in which triathlons first started being offered in Korea, so he knows probably most if not all of the serious triathletes in Busan and probably many of them in the rest of Korea. I can't believe how lucky I am to have found this team!!
Anyway, no luck on the trainer. But Coach said I could borrow his. Normally I don't like to borrow things, but since I knew one week of having a trainer would definitely benefit me, especially since it is hard to bike near where I live and also because I can't bike at night, I accepted his generous offer. But once we got to his apartment, he brings down his trainer - very light, very nice - fluid trainer! yayyy - he says, I'm looking to sell this, so if you want it...!!! Yay!!! So he is selling it to me for a very very good price! :) Ahh I'm so happy! I have almost everything I need here now! (After I buy a few more clothing items I should be set!)
So I take my bike and my big backpack and my new trainer with me to the bus stop (S and S2 (my teammates) helped me bring them to the bus :) ) and I happily loaded all of my belongings onto the subway. I was afraid of how I was going to get everything back to my house after the subway though, because if I took the bus, I would still have a 10 minute walk (10 minutes with no oversize luggage), and it is all uphill too...at points VERY uphill (I love it)...I knew it was definitely possibly but it would be difficult. So I'm thinking of taking a taxi, but since taxis in Korea go by landmarks and not by street names, it is somewhat difficult for me to get a taxi (depending on where I am taking a taxi from - if I am somewhat close to my apartment then the driver should be able to find it), because I don't live near any significant landmarks. So I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to get one (I have only taken one taxi in Korea so far and that ended up with me getting dropped off 40 minutes from my apartment by foot...haha). ANYWAY, I found a driver who knew where the Mansion (apartment building) across from my street is, so I jumped in, threw all of my things in, and rode the 7-10 minutes with my chainring poking into my left rib: the feeling of success :).
I got home at 4:40p and I had told Chol that I would probably be ready to meet around 5p (to do some Korean cooking! He offered to help me the other day), so I called him to buy myself some extra time so I could shower, but more importantly, so I could set up my bike on my trainer in my apartment....!!!!! I couldn't wait!!! Now my bike is happily set on the trainer, ready for me to ride, whenever I want (basically whenever I have free time in my apartment!). Ahh!! I'm so excited!
I met Chol around 6p, and we went to the Megamart, which is a huge supermarket. It is basically like a Shaws and a Walmart combined, with some small restaurants mixed in there as well (multiple floors). It's amazing. SO BUSY. So we go there, and he is asking me what I want, and I tell him...I have no idea! I want to be able to make Korean food for my team...what kind of Korean food is relatively easy to make? We start to look around, and he asks me what I have at home. I say rice, hot sauce, fruit...yup, that's pretty much it. A few noodles too. No cooking oil, no salt...nothing...haha. He looks at me in amused shock - "Really?" hahaha. So he says, "I'll call my mom and ask her what you should get..."!!! Aww!! Awww. He is so sweet. I'm so lame. Hahaha.
We pick up the essentials as well as some pig meat, lots of vegetables, eggs, etc. Spent a butt-load of money, but that is expected I think when you don't have any basic cooking ingredients...haha. We spent over an hour at the Megamart, and then drove back to my apartment to start my Korean-cooking education. Once we get back, Chol asks me to get out my rice, so I pull that out...and he starts laughing. "That's not rice!" ...? How do I get THAT wrong?
I need a new paragraph for rice. Even though I'm not going to go much into it here, but rice in Korea is kind of like snow to Eskimos - they have what, 50 different words for snow? Because it is omnipresent and so important to them that they can't just have one word for it or just one type (to be clear, that is the reason I am devoting a separate paragraph. I'm still not sure if I am being clear...sorry...). Anyway. So I bought a 1 kilo bag of rice. That should have been a warning signal right there...(all of my friends had been talking about how they couldn't find a normal size bag of rice in the supermarket but yet I found one that seemed normal sized...shame on me for not paying more attention...) - I thought this was normal rice because I looked at the pictures on the bags of this grain and the bags of the grain around it and it looked like rice, and what was in the bag looked like rice (not white rice but still I thought it was just like a hybrid or something...) but anyway, what I had bought was just something that people cook with rice as a rice-integration type of thing. You can't cook what I bought by itself. So we are chillin in my kitchen, missing the ingredient nothing much short of essential to a Korean meal...so we headed back off to the supermarket. Haha - wow. But Chol forgot butter also so at least we weren't going for the sole reason of my stupidity. Anyway, we get to the supermarket, and I saw what my American friends were talking about - the smallest bag of rice (pretty much, there might have been two or three other bags in the entire store that were less but they are very hard to find) was 10 kilo...yup. It looks like a bag of kitty litter, one of those big bags that you struggle to put in your shopping cart. Keep in mind that this is a city! And I don't have a car! So if I want to buy rice (or toilet paper...you'll know what I mean if you have been reading my blog), I have to walk 10 minutes downhill to the store, and then lug these monstrous amounts of goods up a 10-minute (plus fatigue-time) hill...hmm...I'm really glad I have nice friends with cars...
So we get back to my apartment and start cooking. He teaches me how to make 김치국 (kimchi guk, or Kimchi soup), and then he made some eggs and of course rice. The Kimchi soup was AMAZING. (He actually didn't think so because he added 파 (pa, which is green onion) at the end and then tasted it and started grimacing saying..."oh no...oh no...that's bad!!!" Haha - I thought it was great - really. I thought it tasted really good! But it's good to know that if I make that for my team that I should leave the 파 out. Haha.
So the food was delicious, lessons learned and conversation priceless, and around 11p he went home and I ate the rest of the soup :). It was a great, great day, and another amazing weekend. :)
2 comments:
I'm not going to use my "Doctor" voice or anything, since you wouldn't hear it anyway, but make sure you take care of that tendon. A busted leg isn't going to get you to cloud nine.
haha aww thanks :) and I know :)
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