firey works.

oooooh.ahhhhh.

Last night was another adventure in Busan.  The International Fireworks Festival was on this weekend, so we had planned to go to Gwangali Beach to watch the show.  We headed out around 6pm because we had heard that it was VERY crowded and we needed to get there early.  

The bus was the first taste of the crowd, wall to wall, no wiggle room.  Tim and I were talking loudly in English, saying things we probably wouldn't if we thought anyone could understand us, and then a Korean girl about our age and she said " Hello! How are you?". HA! We ended up becoming friends with her and exchanged some info when we parted ways on the subway. Min!

We were meant to meet  Christine at Suyeong subway station and were met with walls of people when we got off the train... so we were a bit late, but found her eventually.

We walked to Gwangali, stopping at a Family Mart for a drink on the way, where we met a Korean couple who have a son studying at York University in Toronto.

We didn't really know where we were going, but we just followed the giant crowds and eventually found our way to the beach, picking up a few pogos on the way, of course. All the best foods....

At the beach, were more people than I've probably ever seen in any place at one time.  I have no idea how to count people, but I want to say 100-200 thousand people.

We staked a spot on the road, and just sat like the Koreans who were having little picnics on their little mats. 

The fireworks started  - with a bang! - at 8, and went for about 50 minutes.  It was AMAZING.  I have never seen fireworks like that before. Just, non-stop amazingness.

From where we were we couldn't get the full effect, but seeing them from the beach with the bridge in the background must have been unreal.

Following the fireworks, we went to a bar called Thursday Party and ended up seeing a few of the teachers from our school. I also finally ran into Liz, a friend from Montreal who was the person who hooked me up with her recruiter for Corem.   

Funniest part of the night:  

I dared Christine to jump into the back of a pick-up truck that was driving by at about 10km/hour. She bolted out into the street, barrel-rolled into the bed of the truck, then threw up over the side of the truck. With about 100 people watching. 

Finally the driver noticed , stopped, and she got out.  She actually didn't throw up, but just spit out her drink because she was laughing, but a throw-up makes the story ten times funnier. 

Good work Cage.

After staying at Thursday Party for a while, and teaching some freeze dancing, I escorted Tim down the street to find a cab.  As we were waiting for one, a car pulled up, and let us in.  Tim told him where we live and he said he'd take us there ( in some Korean way ). I thought it was a little strange that he stopped for us but chalked it up to Korean hospitality ( warning #1).  As we started driving, I looked at the guy driving and noticed that he was wearing a grocery bag on his head (warning #2).  As I turned to Tim and told him I thought we should maybe not be in this guy's car, the driver, swerved around a corner and almost drove into a group of people crossing the street (warning #3).  I told the driver to stop and we made a swift exit from the death-mobile. Thank GOD!

Lesson of the night: don't take rides from men with bags on their heads.

We finally made it home in two pieces,  after about an hour of cab hailing.

rilakkuma

what.

this guy is my new life. 

I have seen him around before but now I finally know who he is... RILAKKUMA.

He is Japanese, and he is also known as 'relax bear'.

Mostly i like how his limbs just flop all over the place and his face is either eating, or neutrally frowning ( kind of like me).

From his bio:

"Rilakkuma, true to his name, enjoys relaxing so much to the point that he despises standing up and is often seen lying down while sleeping, watching television, or eating his favorite foods (which include dumplings, pancakes, and pudding). "

International Race Day.

little garden.

Wellp.
This weekend flew by as usual ( but so do the weeks).  
On Friday, our school (Corem) had a PD day with all of the Corem schools in the area. This meant we didn't have school in the morning and went to our friend, Christine's school in the early afternoon, located in PNU, one of the University districts. 
We all had to create a mock lesson and 'demo' it for a small group for about ten minutes. 
Not that fun, but it was cool to meet some new people and get new ideas for teaching. 
Overall I am pretty impressed with our school and its professionalism.  

THREE of the teachers at our school got the award for best presentation in their group (8 groups), great job to Brett, Corina, and Tracy!  But, unfortunately they missed out on the delicious dinner that we got to eat following the meeting. 
It was called Shabu Shabu (?) and consisted of a giant pot of broth divided in half, into which we threw thin slices of beef and vegetables, and on the other half, we put seafood, including octopus.....:) 
The owner of Corem ended up at the same restaurant and paid for all of our meals, then our lovely director, Michelle, saved us an hour subway ride and drove us home.

On Saturday morning, after a mini pre-race-day workout at the gym, we ventured to Nopodong on the subway, to the bus station where we easily caught a bus to Gyeongju, for the very affordable price of.... 4.50!


Bus was amazingly comfortable and I kind of wished to stay on it longer. We had assigned seats, and leg rests, and it was way more comfortable than any plane I've been on. 


We arrived at Gyeongju around 1pm, and discovered that our hotel was about 20 minutes outside of town.  Based on this we decided to stick around town, and check out the race course and some sites.


We first went to the track, where the race started, and then visited Cheomseongdae, East Asia's oldest astrological observatory, and Anapji pond, a waterway constructed in 674, where a bunch of artefacts fell in when the temple near it burned.  Now it is filled with Koi (?) fish.... which I find terrifying, but it was a beautiful area. 

really old.

As we were sitting outside afterwards, a Korean man gave us something that looked like chestnuts and tasted like an apple.  We took it an ate it without thinking twice. Such is Korea.


We then continued on to a park full of giant tombs, called Tumuli park.  This was another beautiful place where lots of Korean families were out having picnics. One mother with her two kids gave us some oranges.  Gamsa hamnida!

Tumuli park.

At this point we were pretty beat, so we finally took a cab back to our hotel, 'The Hotel Commodore', which was located on Bomun lake, a resort area outside Gyeongju.
Although the hotel was advertised as a posh, high class resort hotel, it was more like ' The Shining'.  The room service menu said there were 5 different restaurants, which we found to be all deserted.  After a search, we decided on the 24$ buffet at the hotel, which served us well but was a little creepy as we were the only ones there. 


Sunday morning, we grabbed a cab to the race site.  I was pretty excited and nervous, hoping to place in the top 5, because top 5 in each gender get a prize.  It was an awesome atmosphere, once again. Lots of people around, not as many foreigners as the Busan race, but still many people.  The races started at 9:00, marathon followed by the half , then the 10km and 5 km. 


I started out nice and relaxed, and resisted the urge to surge ahead when I saw other girls passing me.  I ran a really good race and felt relaxed and strong.  At the turn around, I saw only 5 girls ahead of me, and was so close to the 5th that I knew I would pass her eventually.  At around the 7km mark, the 10km course converged with the 5km course, which was full of walkers, going 5 abreast on a path that was about 8 feet wide. 
This was SUPER frustrating, and I kind of lost my focus because I was too busy telling people to get out of the way.  When I got to the track for the final few hundred metres, I was only seconds behind the girl in 5th. I saw her getting approached by the race organizers ( probably telling her when the awards were!!) 


On the upside, I ran a PB, 41:52 by my watch, which is 40 seconds faster than my last pb, and a minute faster than my race 2 weeks ago. 


I am a little disappointed that I didn't beat the girls that I should have, but I finished strong and didn't find the race that hard, managing to run a time that I have been trying to attain for the past 2 years. 


Tim had a frustrating race, due to poor signage, though he should have/would have run his best 5km ever and probably won, he got caught up in the 10km course and didn't end up finishing with his race. Not a fun thing to have happen!


Following the race, we went back to the hotel and spent the afternoon biking around Bomun lake.  It was an absolutely gorgeous fall day, and even though the tourist season is obviously over, there were lots of people out and about. 


We left around 3pm, and made it home safe and sound. A lovely weekend spent on our first vacation within Korea!

new boyfriend.

Tim was a hero today to these girls. Fixing a broken bike chain isn't easy.

Canadian Chuseok.

turkey lurkey. arrived on my desk via air mail, courtesy of the most thoughtful person i know.

I have now missed my first official 'holiday' at home.... not counting Labour Day, of course.
Obviously I have been away for a few Thanksgivings before, so this one should not be a BD (big deal), but there is something different about being in a different country for the holiday.
On one hand, you could easily forget that there even is a holiday, because no one here is talking about turkey..... but on the other hand, facebook has a way of not letting you miss anything that is happening. Anywhere.


My indirect point to this is that I can't help but wonder: if this is Thanksgiving, how is Christmas going to feel? I have never spent a December 24th, 25th or 26th with anyone that is not my family!!


For those of you who I spoke to before even deciding to come to Korea, one of my reasons for NOT coming was because I couldn't fathom missing a Christmas at home.  It made me want to throw up.  Somehow I let go of this and realised that, maybe I needed to grow up ( but I can still sleep with my blankie).


When December rolls around, I have a feeling that we won't have the luxury of being able to ignore the holiday all together.  I have heard that there are many Christmas decorations, and of course, lots of Christmas activities at school.  


This combined with ' Decorating the tree with the fam!' facebook statuses, and the like... means it is going to be a very challenging season.


To anyone who has known me since highschool, you may/probably know of my 'Santa Claus' status in my family - ie. I AM HIM.  Since I was 15, I have had the (awesome) task of doing all of the Christmas shopping for the family, and loved every minute of it. 


Dear family: I guess you are all getting coal this year. Maybe some gum and/or tape.
Love, Santa.


This is kind of a tangent-y post, I admit, but I'm a tangential girl.


I guess I have been thinking of going home a lot lately, not leaving early, but as in 'when' I go home. I got kind of caught up in things I miss from home, so I made myself try to think of things I love about here, in a 'be here now' kind of way. Or, to be very New Brunswickan: ' BE.... in this place'.


Here is my list (in progress) of things I'm sure I will miss about Korea:


- running to the ocean, daily.
-2 summers, one REALLY hot, and one medium
- no tipping and no tax, makes paying for things SO easy
- everything is always open ( except the gym during Chuseok)
- race kits are mailed to you before the race
- jimjjilbangs
- cheap ice cream
- 5 $ meals
-Kyungsung arcade karaoke

race kit for gyeongju (this weekend): program, asics gift certificate, duffel bag, chip, bib

pay day.

oh. hey.


A long-ish week has passed in the dong.  We have now been here 6 weeks, and have less than a year left in Korea.  


We finally got paid this week, which feels good, but a little bittersweet cause half of the funds go to paying back what I spent when I didn't have any income for the first month. Catching up is hard to do.


I found out my time for the 10km on Sunday, 42.53, which is about 30 seconds slower than my fastest time- not too shabby! Really I should be running under 40 minutes, but I have not made that happen yet.


After getting paid on Thursday, the first order of business was to hightail it to COSTCO. I was a little bit sickened with myself for wanting to go so badly, but I got over my ' let's try to eat authentically Korean 100% of the time'.


We busted in, bought a membership (35$) and ate some pizza, then grabbed a forklift to load up on 10kg sacks of crackers.  
Actually we did not end up getting many things... cheese was a must, and I found some frozen blueberries, vegetables, and... A PUMPKIN PIE!!!! 

yessa.

Things were a lot cheaper than I thought they would be, thankfully, because the bill was a pretty penny.


On Friday, we went on a field trip with the kindergarten kids to a sweet potato patch.  It was more of a photo op than anything else, but the kids were pretty cute digging for potato treasure.

Belle with her beast

I nervously made my way to Jangsan yesterday to get my hair done by 'Soo' at Soo Casa.  I was definitely apprehensive going in, but she spoke perfect english, and did a phenom. job on mes cheveux. Another not-so-cheap outing, but worth it for sure.

Christine came to the dong for some Hite and fellowship before we made our way to KSU to bop around the scene there. We hit the arcade first, of course and played some DDR, before making our way into the Karaoke booth.  We met a new friend : Nam/Violet ( but he's not gay, he just really likes violets). We ran into Miss J Sheehan, and pretty much every person that we met at the race last weekend. 

violet wins at DDR. obvi.

The night ended at McDonalds ( hello Shanghai Spice!), as usual, and today looks like a lovely day for the beach!

Race number 2 in one week.... I'm looking forward to going to a different scene for the weekend!

yesssa.

nothing like it. 

Race one, down.
Three to go!

Awesome awesome awesome race experience today.
We met up with the group before the race ( around 7:30am ), put our stuff in Kylene and Ian's generously provided tent, and warmed up to the start line ( after 3 trips to the bathroom ).
It was the worst weather possible for pre-race, but the best for running:  drizzly and cloudy.

I managed to get up to the very front for the start and stayed with the second-ish pack for most of the race.
We can across the Gwanga bridge on the way out, took the ramp down, then ran back on the lower level of the bridge. At the turn around point I could see 3 women ahead of me, and hoped to catch them, but never managed to.

I felt awesome about my race... not sure what my exact time was ( apparently they MAIL your results to you, along with a picture ) but somewhere between 43 and 44 minutes. Not a PB or a 'great' time, but I am happy with it, because this was more of an experimental run than anything else.

Post race, there was free Makali, a Korean rice wine, which made me throw up in my mouth.

The top three in each race got flowers, and a nice box with a trophy... that will be me soon!!

There was a great vibe at the race, lots of people around, despite the rain, and really really well organized.
After, we turned in our race chips and got our medals and a bag of food and water in return - a great system.

Tim and I were interviewed by the Busan English radio station before the race and asked to talk about our motivation and advice for other runners, fun!

Our new friend Ian came second overall with a time in the high 34s..... amazing!

Can't wait for the next race in 2 weeks.....

it's saturday.

Bain, allo, bonjour, c'est samedi!
warning  to non-runners, this entry is about 99% running blabber, so you may choose to ignore it.


It's a beautiful day in Busan today.  The weather is so neutral it is amazing... sunny at room temperature = perfect. 


Tomorrow is the Gwanga bridge race and I am super pumped. From what I could understand of the Korean information I have, there are 10,000 people in the whole race ( half, 10km and 5km) and of those, 2,600 are female. I guess running is a man's game here - or racing is at least. I have no idea what the results were last year and I'm anxious to see what the competition is like here. 

I am now registered for three 10km races, and one half marathon:
October 3rd - Gwanga bridge 10km
October 17th - Gyeongju 10km
November 7th - Yangsan 10km
November 14th - Dadaepo half marathon


After that I am sure I will be due for a rest.... man, after two 10 kms I'll be ready for a rest. 
I am not really sure what I was/am thinking, I got carried away with registering and it doesn't hurt that these races all cost only 25$ to do. 


I also think it's a great way to meet people and to see new places. 
I recently came across a foreigner running group:
Waeguks Got Runs

which has just changed my life! Through it's creator, Kylene, I now know where there is a track, an asics outlet store, and about many many races (hence the registration frenzy).
I haven't met Kylene in person yet but plan to see her tomorrow morning before the race.


There are no friends like running friends, and I hope there are some to be found here in the SK.


I did an easy, short run this morning at the gym on the treadmill and a few strides ( not easy on the treadmill ).  I thought of my XC girls and listened to I Gotta Feeling, and I cannot wait for the gun tomorrow am.


I also met a new Korean lady friend at the gym,' Song-gu' (?).... she saw me writing in my workout notebook and asked me ( in a charade-y type of way) if I was a body-builder. 


ON that note... I am off. 
Results to follow soon!
-J