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.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
