Continued: Another Amazing Day of Training; 추석 (Chusok) plans

To sum up last post...I love 성생님...and training days...

Today I met two American friends to go to Jalgachi Market (the Fish Market) and Busan Tower. It was a very fun day. The fish market - I wish I had pictures but I didn't take any because I didn't feel right taking pictures of things I wasn't intending on buying - was pretty crazy. Fish EVERYWHERE. All kinds, all sizes. Octopus - there was a lot of those. Stingray - pretty much everything you could imagine except whale, shark and dolphin. After walking through the fish market, we went out on the deck to see these views posted here - not too bad, eh? (Gotta love the mountains on the sea!!) Anyways..

After Jalgachi, we got some food off the streets before going to the Busan tower. This was my first experience with street vendor food. It wasn't bad! Actually it was quite good. I had Gimbop - its like a rice rolled in seaweed with pineapple bits and beans? in the middle. However, one thing I didn't know about street vendors is that they give you a ceramic bowl and you eat it right there. Which I think is great - reduces waste - but it was just a surprise. Anyway, lunch was delicious. Then we head off to the tower.

I got horrible pictures of the outside of the tower - I apologize for that - but below will have to suffice for now. What I failed to capture on camera is the long ascent to the tower - a very long staircase, building up to this very tall structure. The picture to the left is the summit of the ascent and the base of the tower, and the picture to the right is an attempt at showing the

neck of the tower.

Also, a few other pictures underneath show some scultpures at the base of the tower - they were pretty sweet.

Once we got to the base, we went into the building and bought tickets to go up to the Observatory. What a view! It's pretty amazing up there.



Yea...it was pretty nice up there...

So we stayed there for about a half

hour, and then walked around

Jalgachi for a bit (it is a pretty sweet

city - I loved it - there were Nike/

Adidas/New Balance/Patagonia/etc

stores everywhere, as well as stores

like Armani (I think I saw one there)

...I was a fan.

After that we went for some dinner and then just chilled around Busan.

It was fun but I am definitely a party pooper - I was ready to go home long before they were, and I had left my bag at one of their apartments (which had my wetsuit and bathingsuit and goggles and Korean books in it so I really did not want to leave it there...) so I waited with them for a bit so I could retrieve my bag that night. But since it was about 12a when I got to my friend's apartment, and the subway stops running at 11:30p, and I still don't know of any major landmarks (other than one which I was dubious about) near my apartment for a taxi, I decided to try and stay at my friend's. However, I wasn't getting much sleep, so at 2am I decide to try and get a taxi. Sure enough, the Mansion near my house (which I think most taxi drivers in my area would know but I wasn't really close to my area) wasn't familiar to the driver I hailed, so I just had him drop me off at a Subway station from where I knew how to get home...although it is a 40 minute walk...(closest subway...I know...bummer...) So I'm walking home at 3am. I know what you are thinking, bad idea - however, Korea is so amazingly safe that I didn't feel unsafe at any point. There were a few other people out as well so it wasn't so bad. I just wanted to get to my bed and prepare for tomorrow's festivities - going to lunch with a co-worker at her apartment and then going to a temple in Songjeong, which should be very fun (although I really need to get in a run tomorrow so I am kind of worried about fitting everything in...)

But it was a very interesting day, I learned a lot. Tomorrow should be similar! (But I miss weekend workouts!)

Another Amazing Day of Training; 추석 (Chusok) plans

This weekend from 12 September - 17 September is 추석 (Chusok), which is Korean Thanksgiving. It is the second biggest holiday in Korea aside from the New Year, and it is a big family event. We get Friday (yesterday), Monday, and Tuesday off from school (at least the elementary schools get off! Universities do not, at least they don't get Friday and Monday off..), so after less than 2 weeks of teaching we have a vacation! It's kind of crazy.

Because of 추석 , we don't have normal training this weekend :(. So 성생님 (Coach, literally 'teacher') and I met up at 10am at the Yacht Club, where we had practice last Sunday. We did an hour ocean swim in Haeundae, and then went for a 30-minute recovery run -very chill - it is so great to actually have a coach to monitor how hard I am working, because if I weren't under his guidance I would have gone much faster, and probably would be on the road to getting injured. After running, he took me into the APEC Building - Asian-Pacific Economic Corporation.
*누리마루 APEC House - (Nurimaru - That's the name in Korean) Added 17 Sept*
It is BEAUTIFUL. We just walked in, sweaty and in triathlon clothes...and walked through this stately building. It is a little strange - it has a room that looks like a Senator's room, with a big ring-shaped table, with a seat for all participating Asian countries. Outside of that is a room with lots of technological devices in glass cases, like digital cameras and maybe even cell phones...I can't remember exactly - that threw me a little...just because I don't understand the significance - I'll make sure to ask 성생님 next time. Those are the two main rooms in the building, and then there are a few halls with pictures and maps (there is a sweet map that shows the time of day in each time zone). Outside of the building there is a balcony that surrounds the circular building that overlooks the ocean (Haeundae Beach). It's amazing. Then we went downstairs and walked around a very scenic area with lots of trees and lots of colors, again, right on the water. From there we took the back way back to the car to go get lunch (I asked 성생님 if we can take pictures in there and he said yes - that next time we will bring cameras - so I will post those later :) ).

We went and ate some food, and then went to Starbucks for some coffee and chatting (Starbucks in Korea...I heard it was more expensive, but it is literally 1.5times more expensive than in the States - 3,000 원 (about $3.00!) for a small coffee!!) We sat and talked about training, and various other things, for about an hour. He is going to help me get a stationary trainer for my bike, because biking in Busan is so difficult that getting a trainer is almost essential. :( But at least the rides that we do do will be beautiful, because Korea is amazing. Also, he was giving me advice for membership to pools and suggested instead of a membership, just taking morning lessons several days a week, for apparently it is much much cheaper to do it that way, and then I am guaranteed a lane to swim in, as well as an instructor. Sweet! I'm psyched about that. I just need to find out how to get a bus home from the subway, because as it is now it takes me about 90 minutes to get home from Haeundae and only 60 minutes to get there...

Sorry that this post is all over the place, but I am a little rushed, because I am going to visit a friend near Gwangali to go to a fish market and then to the Busan tower. So I'll continue this post later :)

Trash, Toilet Paper, Mosquitoes and Training!

It might not sounds exciting but it is.

Trash in Korea is very interesting -much more complex than in the states. So much so that I still have some cardboard boxes in my apartment and I don't know what to do with them. But there is an involved trash schedule dictating which things can do out which days. So on Sunday, we put out trash (normal trash, aka anything that is not otherwise specified) and food trash (anything that is food that you might put in your waste basket in the States goes in a separate bag here - we also put all of our uneaten food and drink in a pail at school - I think thats kind of great actually); Monday is Paper bag and bottle recycling; Tuesday is Can, paper, and scrap iron recycling as well as food trash; Wednesday is vinyl and film recycling and trash; and Thursday is trash and food trash. (I definitely had to refer to my notes to write all of that down). So my problem is...where do I put cardboard boxes? That may be a dumb question, and I will ask 수정 (my co-teacher - Su-Jeong in roman letters) tomorrow, but if anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful! But yea...trash is pretty complex here. You actually get charged at the grocery store for bags - very interesting. Also, if they give you a bag, they usually stuff everything into it...and if things don't fit they normally don't give you another bag. My apartment is about a 5 minute walk from the grocery store...and I sweat like a mongrol when I by a lot of stuff because one arm is weighing me down the the ground and the other arm is awkwardly carrying some big misshapen thing that couldn't fit in the bag (most likely a 2L bottle of water that definitely starts hurting the fingers when you are carrying something else in that hand as well). Anyway - I'll just have to figure out how to ask for another bag in hangul - that shouldn't be that hard...

Toilet paper. Very interesting. I just discovered this about an hour ago too, while at the grocery store trying to buy some. Apparently toilet paper in Korea is only sold in packs of 12 or more. No lie...this is one thing that I don't completely understand here - I need some toilet paper! And I live 5 minutes away walking, and I actually have other things that I need to carry back to my apartment, so I can't buy toilet paper which would require me carrying it with two hands!! (It definitely would not fit into a bag). I mean, certainly not everyone has cars here either! Am I missing something? Maybe there is a section for normal packaged quantities of toilet paper somewhere that I am neglecting...or maybe I should try some other stores and hope to get lucky...but this is a bit strange. I ended up buying paper towels...so that is what you will find in my bathroom as TP substitute until I crack this mystery.

Mosquitoes. GEEZ. I have at least 7 bites on my legs, probably closer to 10. They seem to all have accumulated within the past two days. The other day 수정 bought me this contraption to plug into the wall that is to ward off mosquitoes - strangely enough, I didn't really start getting bit too badly until I got this thing. Yea i just counted now and I have 7 on one leg and 2 on another. It's quite unattractive. And I noticed at practice today that none of the other guys had any, or at least enough that it was noticeable. What is that about? I know with my shorts being a bit shorter than theirs (but not much) more of my legs are being exposed, but come on now, thats just not cool. (Oh and Coach's shorts are actually shorter than mine...haha. It's great. As it should be though, because his legs are crazy toned and if mine looked like that I would wear shorter shorts...haha.)

Training!!! So we had practice at Pusan National University (PNU) again today, at the track. I was scared. I'm always scared for running workouts. Because I bust my butt soooo hard to keep up with these guys and I end up pushing myself to race pace everytime, almost too hard. But what ends up happening sometimes is that since I have very good endurance and not as much speed, they will be fine for going a bit faster that I would normally go for 3/4 of the run and then drop a bit and I'm stuck trying to maintain and I'm DYING. After the run today, which was supposed to be 8K (20 laps around the track) but ended up being more like 9K because we had to run in the 5th lane because of track practice, I was soooo tired. We did it in just over 40 minutes, averaging around 7:14s per mile - for me, for 5.55ish miles, that is very fast!!! And it's very humid as well. I don't know how I am doing it - I think I'm trying to look good in front of the Korean triathletes...haha. Coach stopped after about 15 or so laps and started just taking my splits, and started my last lap a little ahead of me so he could push me at the end... :) :). He is so great!

Haha speaking of Coach being great...(Dad you will love this...) so before the workout, I told him that I finally got a phone, so we exchanged numbers. After the workout, I had gotten a text message from one of my friends (one of my Korean friends! -수정's friend whom we had dinner with one of my first nights here - he is a very nice kid :), and my age, so we are automatically friends :) ), and so I checked my phone to see what the noise was. Anyway, about a minute later, my phone rings, and I look at caller ID - it's Coach...and he is standing right beside me....hahaha. And I start laughing, and he starts doing his awesome giggly laugh- hahahahaha. Ohhhh man. I told him, haha - my Dad does that stuff all the time!! Oh man, good times...

I also changed in the men's locker room today...Coach and S2 (the other man who trains with us whose name I couldn't remember the other day (I remember now but am not going to write his name here)) - he is the one who is doing his masters in exercise science with Coach - they both had me go into the men's locker room (no one was in there) and they guarded it for me - because the women's room was locked...haha. Good times.

After the workout, we went out to eat. Ahh I love them so much. Coach (and the others) make fun of me when I pronounce words incorrectly...hahahaha. Hahahaha. Oh man. I love how other people say I have good pronunciation, and they make fun of me. Haha. (Although I think it is just certain words that I was pronoucing wrong, and other than that I feel that I do have decent pronunciation...plus, we are triathletes, and we don't settle for mediocrity so that may be why they comment on it - but I love it - especially since I want to actually be pronouncing things correctly...). For dinner tonight we had 추아탕칼국수 (Chu-a-tang kalguk-su) (those hyphens are completely random by the way) - and this is an AWESOME soup with AWESOME noodles. Awwww soo good. I wrote it down in my phone so I could remember and order it again.

And now I am home, ready to go to bed. Another amazing day of training. Below is a picture taken on Saturday with the team - left to right is: Coach (선생님), me, 승연, and Keri (a girl who teachers English at a University in Busan - she rides with the team often - very very nice girl!!!) And since that picture is a bit dark and hard to see I'll throw in another below:

to the left: me and Coach;

to the right: me and 승연

First Day of Class at 동상 (동산? I forget how to spell it...)

In any case...today was my first day teaching at 동상 - Dong Sang Elementary School. It actually went very smoothly! It was a very good day.

I taught 5 classes today - two 5th grade classes, two 3rd grade, and then another 5th grade - so I had the first four periods, then lunch, then the last class. It was quite tiring! (Although I haven't been getting enough sleep also - but that should be remedied this weekend). The kids at 동상 aren't as rowdy in general as compared to the kids at 안락동 (Allak Dong) (By the way - someone had asked me a while ago what "동, or Dong, meant - and to clear that up now, it translates as "Village"). I love both schools, but they are definitely different.

My co-teacher at 동상 is fantastic. Her name is 문정 (Moon-Jung), and I have a great time teaching with her. We did some "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes" today with the 3rd graders - that was SO MUCH FUN. Much of what I do in class reading things off of the computer screen (and then have the kids repeat me), asking questions, and just basically be their source of auditory English. Other than that I aid my co-teachers in any way I can - I try to have the work at least split evenly if not me doing more, because the children only get 40-80minutes of English a week, and I want to maximize their exposure to authentic native speaking (that's what they are paying me to do!) But it was an interesting day. I'm excited about tomorrow as well - I will be teaching three 6th grade classes and one more 3rd grade class. It's almost a weird power-trip feeling to be in control of so many kids - although since I have a co-teacher I relinquish a lot of the power to them, because they have been managing the class since March (in Korea the school year starts in March so I am coming in for the second semester). But I think if I had my own class I could do a pretty good job at getting the kids to behave and to motivate them to learn. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to implement those techniques here, at least not for a while.

I turned on my phone today after class! 문정 (and 수정, my original co-teacher from 안락동, Allak Dong) helped me register it and get it into English (수정 called 문정 's cell and had her help me on the spot... :) ) They are so nice to me here! I also got my TV delivered - although the cable is not hooked up yet, but that's fine with me, no rush here. I should be sleeping anyhow...

I've been studying a bit this evening so I can practice on my teammates tomorrow at practice, but I've been drifting off...and I wanted to make a few CDs for my teammate S and I can't go to bed until that is finished...so I am going to go finish that now. I'm so excited about practice tomorrow though! (I've been eating a ton these past few days and haven't exercised since Sunday so hopefully I will make it through our tempo run with a little bit of dignity left...

First Day of Class!

Today was my first day actually teaching. I was definitely a bit nervous, but more nervous that I wouldn't satisfy or live up to the expectations of my co-teacher. The co-teacher that I worked with today is the one I was most worried about - 6th grade at Allak Dong. Mrs Moon (I'm probably spelling her name horribly wrong but that's what it sounds like) is my co-teacher for these classes. She just came back from maternity leave so she had been out for a while. She is very very nice, but older than my other co-teachers (not old though - I don't know I would say maybe in her early mid 30s), and especially since she has kids, it is less easy for me to relate to her than with the other younger co-teachers whom I could go hang out with.

Anyway -the first period was a little rough - of course it would be though, my first experience teaching a class of 30 students. I froze a few times, and in my first class I definitely wasn't as fun as I was for the next two because I was a bit nervous and didn't know what to expect or how to react...but as the day went on I definitely relaxed and learned some techniques pretty fast. I got to sing a lot though! That was great. (6th graders don't necessarily like to sing...)

The second and third periods were a lot better - less nervous, but still made a few mistakes. But it was my first day, what can you expect? I finished the day with three classes, and was pretty tired from that (I'm still recovering from the weekend!) I studied some Korean for a bit...looked at some lesson plans...some 4th graders (who I don't teach in Allak Dong) came in and gave me another gift - a nice little planner - they are SO cute - and then Su Jeong (Crystal) and another woman who has been helping me, took me to get some more furniture. We went to order a mirror, tv stand, and a table (I got the table that is really close to the ground...so you have to sit on the floor...I'm so excited! A table with chairs just won't go well with the ambiance in my apartment). Then we went back to school to meet some other teachers for dinner.

Five of us ended up going to a place called VIPS - it is almost like an American restaurant - it looks like Joe's American Bar and Grill from the outside - but it is like a steak and salad bar. I was kind of bummed that we wouldn't be having Korean food, but it ended up being like a Korean salad bar, but also with cookies and tiramisu and tortillas and mini hotdogs and soup, etc. I ate SO much! I love the girls I went out with - Su-Jeong (Crystal), Ji-an Ani (Ani is apparently something you add to the end of a person's name when they are female and older than you - it is like saying "older sister"), (so technically I should call Crystla Su-Jeong Ani), and two other girls whose names I still have to memorize. They are all SO nice. They also insisted on buying me a cell phone tonight - I wasn't going to ask, although I know sometimes English teachers can get their co-teachers to pt the phone under his or her name until the native English teacher gets his or her Alien Registration Card, which sometimes takes nearly a month, but Su-Jeong offered to put the phone under her name - so we went and got a cell phone after dinner! It's pretty awesome, I won't lie...

Tomorrow I go to teach my first day at Dong Sang Elementary. I have to get some good rest for that, and also to prepare for my next track workout on Wednesday!! This weekend should be great becasue it is Chosuk, Korean Thanksgiving, and so we don't have school from September 12 to September 17, so I will be doing a lot of exercising and sleeping! And studying Korean!

Week of Triathlon Amazingness Part II (see below for Part I)

So now it is Sunday. It's 10am and I arrive at the Yachting Club in Haeundae. When I get there, the youth team is just finishing up their bike workout for the day (it is so amazing to see a team like this - there were like 30-40 kids there, with S, the other elder triathlete H, Coach and S2. After the kids were done, we all took a team picture. I also met one of my to-be students at Dong-Sang Elementary - she introduced herself to me - I think her name is Jin-Sung, but I could be completely off (I actually could be) - she is so sweet - and it is so AWESOME that one of my students is ultimately on the same tri team as I am! Her mother came over after too and said hello, she is very nice as well. What a coincidence!!

After all of the kids left, H also left (I think he had driver's ed), and the rest of us (the five of us at dinner yesterday and S2) went to Haeundae Beach. Enter photos (my photos, not ripped off ones..)

(The photo underneath is of the hotel where we did the swim workout on Saturday night...right on the beach - great view from the pool!)

We get to Haeundae, throw on our wetsuits (me, S and Coach) and hit the water. We swam for 55 minutes. It was amazing! Tough, though - waves can be quite annoying. But that

is the nature of the beast of open-water-pada (ocean) swimming.

After swimming, we pretty much went right into running. Coach's wife stayed on the beach and guarded our stuff, and the rest of us (S2 and son included) went up the stairs to a nice little circular area with a track-like consistency to do our running workout for the day. It was a 40-minute run, at your own pace. I...was...dying towards the end. I think the loops were around 1.1K (around .68mi, maybe a little less) and we did 8 - I was pretty much taking the hills fast and then chilling on the flats, so I would catch up and then slow back depending on the terrain...but I was incredibly tired when it was done. Coach and S both made comments about sore muscles so I didn't feel as bad...haha. (Oh, check out on the picture to the left - on the right hand side where the water ends there is a staircase that goes up around the hill and behind the trees - that is where we did the running workout :) ).

After running, I think we were all beat...which is good though, it means we are working hard! I went for another swim in the ocean, this time just messing around - S and I were riding some waves - and then headed off to lunch of soup and fish and of course rice and vegetables. After lunch (which Coach paid for again - I hadn't paid for a meal with him yet - but starting next week we are going to go Dutch style, thank goodness! I asked if I could pay for the next one but he said no - I am supposed to invite him over for dinner to my apartment (once I get a table), for it is the Korean way to invite people over when you move into a new place - I am really excited about that!) I'll start that sentence over - After lunch, coach gave me the bike bag that he ordered me (I paid for that of course, ha) so that now I can take my bike on the subway and on the train, and then we threw my bike in S's car, said goodbye to my Coach and his family, and S took me home.

You know, thinking about it - whenever people ask me what a perfect day would be like, it would sound similar to the past two days, although different in one major way: I would never have been able to imagine the wonderful intricacies and outstanding people that this weekend was full of. I'm really at a loss for words to describe how happy I am, how happy this weekend has made me. I know the beginning parts are often the most exciting, but I also know that I now have a team for support and comraderie, and I believe that our initial chemistry will only be developed as time goes by through hard work and great attitudes.

For now, I should start studying some Korean so I can use some new phrases on Wednesday at our next track workout!

Weekend of Triathlon Amazingness

It's Saturday. I'm scheduled to meet Coach at 8:30am for a ride and then a swim. But I am exhausted, because last night I ended up hanging out with a friend who got really sick and was up all night staying with him to make sure he was ok, and I ended up sleeping a total of no more than 90 minutes. ... Yea. And it's my first two-a-day! I was kind of nervous, I won't lie. So I have a cup of coffee (maybe two I can't remember) and take my bike to where I am supposed to meet Coach.



Soon his car pulls up with two bikes on the top. I'm pumped. He drives up, and S (the one I ran with at the track the other day) and another girl are in the car. The girl's name is Keri - she is an English teacher at a University in Busan (I forget which one...), and has been training with them for a bit (I'm not sure how long...maybe a few months, maybe a year or so..) I found out later that day that she met them because she was on a ride one day and Seungyeon came up to her on his bike and said hello, and from then and there she started riding with them. :) Anyway, Kerri is very very nice, and it just felt so great to be out with these three awesome people about to do some triathloning.



We drove down to Songjeong beach, which is close to Haeundae, the most popular beach in Busan (Songjeong beach is below - although this is not a picure I took - I forgot to bring my camera, so I stole this from the web.

Although Coach definitely took some pictures which hopefully he will send me soon and I can post those later :) ). Once we got there, we took the bikes out, took a few pictures (Coach takes lots of pictures - it is so awesome :) ), and were off. The bike - it was awesome. At one point we were on the highway...I don't think I would do that myself but I was following them and they ride here all the time so I didn't question it at all - plus highway time was insignificant compared to the rest.


Anyone who knows me in a triathlon sense will know that I never draft - I will not go on group rides sometimes because I feel like drafting is cheating, and will not help me become a better triathlete (I started to abandon this method of thinking a few months ago, however, when Pan started to tell me about drafting and how it can make you a better triathlete when done occassionally - but that is besides the point - the point is that I haven't yet gone on a ride where we have done paceline or drafting most of the way). However, today I broke all the rules. I love how I needed to come to South Korea to learn how to draft. Although, to be fair, I would have been dropped and would have gotten lost perhaps forever if I didn't draft - they are fast! Kerri is an extremely good rider, and so are the other two. I think we averaged around 19pmh - which isn't super fast, but we did 60km (about 37 miles) in about 2 hours, with a decent wind. And I hadn't ridden my bike for 2.5 weeks. Seriously. Because it has been in my box since I left for Korea since I was moving around so much and couldn't put it back together. So it was definitely a challenge for me. But it was amazing. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it (make it at that pace at least - I know they wouldn't drop me - but I don't want to have to drop pace obviously), but I did. And it was great.


Towards the end Kerri broke off because she had somewhere to be, so Coach and S and I went back to the car, put our bikes away, went for a little walk, got some pomtiki (spelling could be horrendously wrong), which are like American rice cakes, but better, and just chillaxed for a bit. Then we drove to Haeundae and got some lunch - 1,500 won for a bowl of delicious noodle soup with LOTS of noodles - the thin, long kind. 1,500 won. Like $1.50. Delicious.


Coach had told us yesterday that we were biking and swimming today, so I'm all excited to swim. After lunch, Seungyeon went to get some coffee for us (the flavored kind, kind of like starbucks cold sugary drinks in the bottles), and I'm thinking that we are going swimming almost immediately, so I drink it in the car. Yea...bad move. Apparently we were going to a ridiculously beautiful part of Haeundae, where there is a boardwalk type-thing that takes you around the rocky, hilly, beautiful coast (this is not a beach area, more like hills and bridges and walkways overlooking water with a rocky coast). Once we get there they break out the coffee. I'm already done. Oops (it was no big deal though, thankfully). We spent probably an hour and a half or more walking around this place. It is very close to Coach's place, and he tells us that he takes his son here very often to walk and sometimes run. It is soo beautiful! Hopefully I can find my way back there sometime and take some pictures to post - so pretty! There was this awesome thing there called "Cave Experience" which was basically a small hole in a rock that you could go in - they were telling me to go in so of course I did - Coach was laughing - I mean, I was laughing too because it was really dark and he seemed to be a little scared even though it was me going in there - his laugh is so infectious, it's like a prolonged giggle - he is like a little kid, so full of life, and really enjoys himself. It is so refreshing.


Now it is about 4pm, and I have no idea what is going on for time, but I really couldn't care less, because I am having such a great day. Apparently the next stop of our adventure was Coach's apartment, where I met his wife and his son. What an amazing family - they are all so incredibly nice, genuine people. His son introduced himself to me when I got there (in English). This is what he said: "Hi! My name is (Coach's son - trying not to use names for privacy). I am 11 years old. I want to be a triathlon athlete." !!!!! My heart melted. He is sooo adorable!


His wife makes us some delicious nutrition drink made with jujubes, which is a Chinese fruit that looks like a hard, walnut-sized dried cherry. It was awesome. She also put out some health cookies/cakes, and about 20-30 minutes later she made us some more drinks, this time it was a yogurt-shake type of thing. I couldn't believe what was going on. This is like too good to be true.


So after about an hour, we leave for swimming - me, S, Coach, and his son. We have practice at the Haeundae Grand Hotel Swimming Pool - which is decently expensive to get in, but it was definitely worth it. I go in, change, meet them in the hot tub. Soon, the rest of the team shows up (or other teammates - not all of them) - mostly athletes from his youth team (there was one other athlete who was more towards our age who showed up later). So it is Coach and S2, the other man I met the first night who studies with Coach at the University, are out of the water, purely coaching. (Note: although the pool was very very busy, Coach had a designated lane at 6p so we kicked everyone out of that lane and it was probably the 20 of us in the 50m lane) S and I are in the lane with the other kids, and soon the other triathlete our age, H, comes in. Apparently he and S are also coaches for the youth team - oh man it is such a great atmosphere - they are so great with the kids and the kids love them and Coach and they are just great, everyone.

We all do a warm up - me and S did 600m, I'm not sure what the kids did - and then we did a few drills. After that was the main set: 10 x 50 meter sprints. This is my first speed workout ever (two triathlon-training firsts today! First the drafting, now swim speed workouts!), but since we do 50m sprint and then get out of the pool and walk back to get our heart rate down, I'm thinking it won't be too bad. Wrong. It was hard...! My triceps started to give out around number 5. S was feeling it too, so I didn't feel so bad. Haha. He made a comment, holding his arms: "these - they are not mine" - I thought that was great - haha - that is such a better way to say it than "my arms are sore" - sometimes language barriers can be amazing. The other athlete our age joined us at the 3rd or 4th 50m and finished out the workout with us. At the end, we stretched, and Coach introduced me to the youth team. It was great.


After swimming (I am exhausted by this point, especially since I had so little sleep the night before), Coach asked me if I would have dinner with his family. So San d I went back to his apartment and Coach's wife made me the best meal I have had yet in Korea, one of the best meals I have ever had. It was Samgyeopsal - pig - cooked on a grill with sides of garlic, kimchi (of course, but she actually grilled it too which I haven't had yet), sweet potatoes, although they were white, lots of other vegetables...so she is cooking this on the grill (portable grill - by the way we are all sitting on the floor - their table is very low to the ground and you just sit Indian style - this is somewhat common in Korea at restaurants, but I think it depends on what type restaurant you go to, because a lot of restaurants here have chairs - but I think most meat-focused restaurants, like ones where you cook pig and other meat at the table with a grill built in - I think those are always sit-on-the-floor restaurants). Anyway, she is cooking on the grill, and we have rice and lemon Cass (Korean beer - tastes like Corona actually, it's really good) and a huge bowl of greens on the table. The greens are lettuce...and another type of leaf that looks like lettuce but tastes...a bit...I can't put my finger on it...maybe I'll describe it later. But you are supposed to take a leaf (or two, or three apparently..), put some meat in it, take whatever sides you want, maybe some rice, put it all in the leaves, and roll it up and stick it in your mouth. It is SO GOOD. Oh man. So good. I literally had twice as much as S. Granted I was very hungry...haha they made comments like "you are so strong" because I ate so much...but still, it was just plain amazing.


After dinner, S and I head for the subway so we can get some rest for the next day's workout (he is so cool - I love hanging out with him. I can't believe how lucky I am! This is all kind of surreal). I left my bike there so Coach wouldn't have to drive me home so late. I got home, ate some chocolate...pretty much a perfect day. Not even a perfect I could have predicted, because it just had so much more amazingness than I thought there could even be.


Next morning! I'm tired. Only 8 hours of sleep, didn't get to catch up on the night before's dearth, but I had some more coffee so it was cool. I jumped on the bus to the subway and made my way to the Yachting Club where I was to meet Coach and the team. (Crap - I think this entry is too long - I'm getting an error - so I will just publish this now and continue onto another post).