Getting Back Into the Swing of Things, Etc.

This week I technically did not have class. But since a few kids from Allak wanted to come back and do some more English after English camp ended, I was asked to come in and teach (actually I thought lots of the kids would be there because they all expressed interest in coming back, but I’m sort of glad that they did not all come. It is kind of disturbing that twenty 10-12 year old kids would want to come to school when they don’t have to…). The VP said I could teach whatever I wanted, so technically I probably could have gotten away with not preparing much at all. But just the opposite happened – I ended up spending sometimes close to 4 hours the night before preparing for class the next day – which meant that Tuesday I wasn’t able to go to practice…arggg. Although…I did go to Korean lessons on Tuesday…I am very surprised at myself with that decision. I opted for Korean over running! My rationale was – my body can take a day or two off, even though I am training for Ironman (since I was injured I think all hopes of qualifying for Kona this year are off), especially since my weekly hours for exercising this week have increased dramatically after only one Sunday of exercising, ha – but if I miss a day of Korean, which I only have 5 days a week, then I am missing out on listening and speaking, most importantly listening. I get about 30 solid minutes of listening/speaking in Korean every day (if not more – because some of the time we do speak in English) – and if I do that everyday, my comprehension level will definitely go up, and fast (and it already has!) But I thought missing one day of listening and speaking would be more detrimental than missing one day of running. So thus lies the rationale of picking Korean over running…for one day at least : )

And now…like a classic normal weekend, Saturday morning has quickly turned into Sunday night, and I am getting ready for bed. Next week starts English Camp at Dong Sang. I am really excited because a) I really like Dong Sang, and b) we are going to be studying in the library there, which is really beautiful. I think I will stay late after class many days to study there. It’s so great!

Friday was really fun – C and I went out to dinner and drinks with my American friend L and her brother who was visiting from the States. It was really strange, because it was the first time that I have been around C with only English-speaking people (and actually only the second time being around English-speaking people in addition to other Koreans) so he got to see many sides of me that he has not seen before…especially since L’s brother is really outgoing and funny and both of them just bring out a really good side of me, a side that I haven’t accessed since I’ve been in the States. I laughed so hard that it hurt, many times, that night. And I’m glad I got to share that with C, although I feel kind of bad because I was talking at probably at least twice the speed that I usually speak with him, because…well…I’m a spaz sometimes. But I think he enjoyed it. He said it was very surprising to hear how fast we talk! And that it was great to be exposed to that, and to learn a bit about American culture. So we all went to a western-style restaurant and then went out for some makali (spelling? I’m in my bed and not connected to the internet and too lazy to look it up…sorry : ) ), which is Korean rice-wine…and quite potent. But delicious if you go to the right places (aka not bottled makali from supermarkets). So that was a great night.


Practice this weekend was great also. I did my first bike outside that wasn’t with the kids team since I fell, which is now probably about 7 weeks ago. Aikes! It was really fun – me and Coach – and it was a beautiful day – but even though we decided to go ‘slow’ it was still pretty painful (mostly mentally painful because I knew we were going at a slow pace and it didn’t feel so slow – but we both were having a hard time so it was nice to share the misery : ) ), although we were kind of booking it up the hills (I just wanted to get the over with asap…haha). But it was a great day – liked 30 min to practice and then we biked 3 hours together, the longest bike probably in 2 months. But if I hadn’t gotten hurt at this point in my training I should be doing around 6 hour bike rides…so this Saturday, when Coach is on a ski trip, I think I will try to 5-6 hours. I’ll be dead tired but hey that’s part of the fun!

After biking we ate some delicious cod and vegetable soup, and then we went to the Grand Hotel to swim. Wow, I was really tired. But it was a great feeling to get back into the swing of things. I had planned on going out that night with L and her brother again but I was way too tired. I was even too tired to study when I got home, so I rented a movie and chillaxed. I went to bed pretty early too because I had to wake up at 5:45a the next morning for biking with the team at Songjeong Beach…that was a killer to wake up for! But it was definitely worth it. We started out riding in raw but warm-ish weather (maybe low 40s) and that soon turned into some quality rain. It was very fun though! And after riding, the kids and their parents all went out to lunch together at a nice restaurant where we ate stone-pot rice – mmmm sooo good! We all went out to eat together to celebrate the end of the year, for the Lunar New Year starts next weekend. So after eating the mothers got together and they chose a new leader for the upcoming year – I believe it is like head-organizer type thing. Also, we said goodbye to K, one of the Coaches, because we may not see him again before he leaves for the military. So it was an eventful day.

After spending the past 3 hours or so doing Korean homework, I think it's about time to go to bed. I’m looking forward to an eventful week at Dong Sang!