English Camp is over. Yay. : ) I thought I would be a little more comfortable the second week, and that things would go smoother, but that wasn’t exactly the case. The second week didn’t go horribly, but – the mix of students was just a bit off and it caused the whole week to be quite taxing. But it was fun, and it was interesting. For now we have another small break (from teaching the kids, not from work) until the kids come back to school on February 6th, so that will give me some time to cool off a bit. And then just two more weeks until going to Jeju to train…so things are split up pretty well to aid in maintaining my sanity.
I just realized that I left my bathing suit at the pool. Growwwwlll.
Yesterday was my last visit to the doctor. I think…he didn’t tell me to come back, and the time before last when I asked when I should come in, he said once or twice more, so I think I can now clear my schedule of doctor’s visits – just in time for full time work to start again. Serves me right. But anyway, I think my range of motion is about 95% back to normal, and I really think I can get it almost 100% back to normal by continuing with the strengthening exercises. It has progressed much faster than I would have thought – and the doc gave me the ok to start doing pushups too…so I am PUMPED about that. : )
Korean is going well. But I’m tired. I think just English Camp combined with changing our meeting times all the time due to English Camp and seeing the doctor every few days and no practice this week because Coach is on a ski trip just all adds up to being really tired. But I also think the next 3 weeks will be really tiring for me because I have to work my butt off to get back into shape. It’s cool though. It will be worth it! And while some days I can’t understand Korean for the life of me because I am so tired, overall my ability is growing strongly and steadily. So I’m happy about that.
Oh yea, yesterday I got my heart rate up to 200 while running. I’m so excited about that!!! haha. Although yesterday I checked my resting heart rate in the morning and it was basically 65 (although I squeezed a 62 in there but I was holding my breath so I don’t think that counts, haha), which for me is horrible. The last time I checked it was 52 or 51 (although that was about 2 or 3 months ago before I got injured, but for some reason I was under the impression that one’s HR stays about the same for a while even if your level of exercise alters. Whatever. Also I think lately I have been a little stressed (I can tell just by resting in bed that there are so many things going through my head), and I am hoping that that too contributes to a higher heart rate, only for the sake of my insane increase in such a short time. So anyway I looked up online ways to lower resting heart rate and I read two very interesting things (one of which I pretty much already knew but just reading something that seems to be reputable helps to make a more persuasive argument in my mind): getting more, uninterrupted sleep (growwwwwllll to my noisy apartment building), and drinking enough water. The first I pretty much knew, but I was not aware that drinking enough water influenced the health of your heart. And, since I came to Korea, I have been drinking a sickeningly small amount of water – some days I might be lucky if I get in two glasses (and my face can attest to this as well, because my acne is worse than ever here). I’ve known this but I just haven’t done anything drastic about it, and I think it is time for me to get on that. It’s just a little difficult here, because a) there are basically no recycling cans around the city, so it is a pain in the *ss to buy water and carry about the empty bottles (that is probably the thing that deters me the most). Also, I’m not sure if Brita exists here…if it does I haven’t seen it. When at home I can boil water and drink that, but I have to wait for it to cool (if I try and put it in the freezer usually I forget about it and then have to wait more time for it to thaw out..haha), and if I want to buy water…I can do that, but that is annoying to have to buy so many bottles of water without having a car to transport – but also with the amount of water I should be drinking I would be using SO many plastic bottles. I wish it were just easier to fill up water bottles!!! But I will find a way : ).
And a few days ago I went for a ride in the middle of the day on a weekday, possibly the first every in Korea, and…it was….amazing. Let me tell you, riding your bike on the busy roads of Busan with prime-time traffic will improve your bike handling skills like nothing else. I only rode for about 70 minutes, but it was one of the most aggressive rides I’ve even done (but I was in complete control the entire time – I’m not going to sacrifice any more body parts to stupidity). I was dead tired (and ridiculously happy) after finishing that ride.
Also, on a completely different topic, I have noticed something quite interesting while walking to school the past few weeks. When I walk past what looks like a school bus for young children, there seems to be a little ritual that occurs when the bus stops to pick up a child. The child is waiting with one of his parents, and someone will get out of the van/bus, stand in front of the child, and give an exaggerated bow to the child, and the child is instructed to do the same to his teacher. I’m sure it’s something they do so that the kids get in the habit of bowing early, but it is just interesting to watch – and it is SO cute!
And this weekend – through Tuesday – we will be celebrating the New Year (Lunar New Year), which in Korean is much more important than the New Year celebrated on January 1. So we have Monday and Tuesday off from school, days which I will take to rest and study I believe. And do some quality training, but tomorrow I am going to do a 5-6 hour ride followed by a 1-2 hour run so I think I will be out of hard-core-training-commission for the next few days after that.
I’m so excited to be exhausted tomorrow after riding. This will be my first long workout day alone in Korea, and I am kind of excited. I hope to remember to bring my camera – get some quality picture-taking in.
Speaking of being exhausted - I am tired just thinking about being tired. So. Goodnight!
PS – I am so proud to be an American (in response to watching Obama’s inauguration speech yesterday).
Friday, January 23, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
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!
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!
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