Ten months in!

Well I am  officially ten months in! It is crazy how quickly the time has gone by since I have been here! It's the end of June and the beginning of monsoon season! It has been raining steadily since Wednesday with no signs of stopping and a typhoon on it's way here tomorrow! So with my bike riding plans washed out, I have spent today cleaning and moving watching. In between I have been doing some thinking, as one cannot avoid on a day spent alone inside! As I approach my departure from Korea I am reflecting back on the year I have had here and it has been an incredible one! Taking the step to move here was a huge one, and along the way I have taken many more! I have learned a new culture, visited Vietnam, sang in karaoke rooms, tried new foods and loved them, ran two races, used a squatting toilet, been a sardine on the subway, been lost in Korea, acted out what I want to non-English speaking Korean, took my first ever bike touring trip, climbed a giant mountain, learned a new language, made lasting friendships, and much much more! Because of the nature of living as a foreigner in this country, to achieve all of this I was forced to throw myself out of my comfort zone and into the line of fire. And, for the most part, it all worked out. I got a few bumps and bruises along the way, but I am still kicking and am doing better than ever!

Just a regular day fooling around with my kiddies!

I am still amazed at the fact that I have been able to do all of this. It's honestly more than I thought I was capable of! And the more I think about how I have changed over the past year, the more I realize I have grown up. I realize the little things are not important and it's how you live your life and the things you do for yourself that make you happy! I am two years single, and I can honestly say that in those two years I have grown up and discovered that there is so much more to life than having a boyfriend. I find I am constantly finding new hobbies and activities that I enjoy doing. As you may have noticed, in the past two years I have been getting more and more into biking. After last weekends bike trip, I have confirmed my love for the sport and am planning a touring trip of Nova Scotia when I return to Canada in the fall. It's something I never would have even considered in the past but now I know, the things I think I can not do, are the things that will make me the happiest once I achieve them! And with that, I am off for yet another run in the rain! The upside to running in the rain here in Korea is that the Tancheon river trail, which is normally filled with people, becomes an empty haven for the solo runner!

Just a few of the friends I have made and who have been my family all year!

A bittersweet weekend

Hello again! This weekend was an epic one for the books! It began a bit somber, with Friday night drinks to say good-bye to my best bud Nate. He is off to Vietnam to teach for a year and I must say Suji just won't be the same without him. Since I have arrived here, Nate has been pretty much at my side. He has seen the best and worst and I am glad to call him a friend. I went out for dinner with some friends and then we had drinks to say farewell. The plan was to be home by 11pm as I had to be up at 6am to leave for a weekend bike trip. I ended up getting home around 2am after a crazy night!

Needless to say, Saturday morning was a bit tough. I woke up at 6am and left Suji at 7:30 to ride and meet up with the crew of bikers I was going away with. I met up with Jared(the trip organizer) and his girlfriend Katie. We then rode 30km into Seoul where we met up with about 12 other cyclists and departed for Seorak. We had a full day of biking ahead! It was a beautiful, hot sunny day! Since I was already dehydrated from my night out, I was sucking back as much water and gatorade as humanly possible. The beginning of the day was easy for the most part. We rode east on the Han River in Seoul and out into the country. We stopped for lunch in a small town and prepared to get ready for an afternoon of climbing. Now, I must state that Jared advertised this trip as a "beginner ride weekend", that being said, I am a frequent cycler, but knew I wasn't great at climbing. But, hey, he said it was for beginners so I figured I'd have no problems. I've done harder. Before we reached the mountain, we had a small climb(when heading into this "small" climb, I thought it was a HUGE climb, I am now aware that it was tiny!!)

Hot, sweaty and exhausted, we headed into the big climb of the weekend. A 640 meter mountain!!! I was unprepared for how hard this would be. It was a grueling hour and a half of climbing.

I didn't think I could make it but I did!! At the top we all waited together for everyone to arrive so we could all cruise down the valley to our pension(hotel). When I reached the top I was in pain. I realized that while I had made sure to consume lots of liquid, during the climb, I had neglected to eat anything. At that point, I was feeling pretty weak and kind of like I was going to throw up. But, I powered through, grabbed a soda and then cruised down the mountain with the rest of the crew. The ride down was amazing, probably the steepest descend I have done! I was getting some major speed! Once we arrived at the pension, we showered and went to find food. A girl a met on the trip, Rebecca and I came back and watched movies and passed out early. The rest of the gang had some drinks outside, my previous night of drinking held me back from drinking again!

Waking up on day two, I was very nervous. Could I make it home? What if we had climbs today? How would I make it up them? We started the route with a climb(much smaller than the day before!) but that quickly turned into a road that was basically all down hill with a view ups and downs. It took us along the river almost the whole way! The views were amazing and the air was crisp and clean!

The rest of the day went by quickly. I was amazed at how much energy I had! Turns out when you are not hungover biking is much easier! We stopped for a quick snack and then it was back to Seoul! Overall I biked 240km this weekend!! Pretty pumped and proud of myself! Now I can keep climbing!!!

The whole crew made it back alive! I had an amazing weekend with some awesome people!!! Can't wait to get our riding with these people again!!

Another month gone by!

I am terrible at keeping up with this blogging thing regularly, please forgive my laziness! I have been quite busy over the past month and it looks like things will continue to be busy until I am ready to leave in September!

Since I last wrote, these are some of the things I have been up to:

I went to a lantern festival for Buddha's Birthday at the beginning of May. It was an incredible sight to see! So many lanterns flooding the streets!

The following day we went to the Buddhist street festival and got to try a lot of different things like making lanterns and Buddhist prayer beads. It was a great weekend!

The next weekend I went into Seoul for a haircut and found myself wandering around Seoul Olympic Park. It's a beautiful park in the Jamsil area of Seoul and the day was gorgeous so I was happy just meandering around the park alone.

Last weekend my friend Nate and I participated in a 6 hour endurance bike race along the Han River in Seoul. It was put on by a bike group called the Han River Riders. It was really fun! I went into it thinking I could probably ride about 60km in the 6 hours but ended up doing an impressive 148km!! I had no idea I could bike so far! We met a lot of great people at the race and I am going to be doing a touring weekend with a few of them in a couple of weeks!

This weekend was a long weekend, which was definitely needed. All of us at work were getting a bit tired and burnt out so a nice relaxing mini vacation was just what we needed! I began the weekend with some Korean BBQ for dinner on Friday night with some coworkers. Saturday I slept in and then made the trek into Seoul to run in the Nike Womens 7k Race. It was a really interesting race! The course itself was great, there were a few hills I was not expecting, but the course was mostly on a gravel path which was awesome! I finished the race in 45 mins, so I was pleased with that time. The whole concept of the race was pretty funny. It's a race that is set up to get women who don't normally run into running. They had celebrities on hand to make everyone crazy, and then at the end of the race you walked down a red carpet lined by dudes in white tuxedos, followed immediately by a photo shoot where you were forced to stand in front of a pink limo, next to a good looking Korean dude in a tux, while sweat is pouring down your face and you look atrocious. All things I do not expect nor want to endure during a race, but hey, this is Korea, you never know what you are going to get! I met two great girls at the race as well. Leah, the one I am pictured with, placed 1st!

On Sunday I got up and went for a bike ride into Seoul. Since I am going on a touring weekend soon I am trying to log as many kilometers as I can! Then I came back for lunch and heading into Seoul to meet up with my friend Cait. We spent the afternoon in Seoul Grand Park at the Seoul Zoo! It was a beautiful day out and we had an awesome time! The zoo was much nice than the one we saw in Everland. These animals had actual habitats and seemed relatively happy! I even got to see my favorite animal, giraffes, up close!!

Back to the grind tomorrow! Hard to believe I have less than 3 months left here in Korea! This next few weeks will be spent glued to my side kick Nate. Last week he found out he is leaving for a job in Vietnam on June 17th, so needless to say, it will be a sad time. Nate has been my go-to guy since I arrived here. He has laughed and cried with me, heard my deepest secrets and made fun of my quirks. It's hard to put into words the kind of bonds you can make when you are living alone in a foreign country, all I can say is this is one that I will have for a life time. Without the support that Nate has given me over the past 10 months, I don't think I would still be here, keeping on keeping on. Many a beer have been had on our buildings stoop and those are the times I will miss the most. Our chats and bitch fests have kept me sane in an increasingly chaotic world. While I am sad, and life here in Suji definitely will not be the same for the next few months, I am so happy for my friend. He is off to a new life in a new culture, which I am sure will be filled with awesome adventures!! I am already planning my next Vietnam vacation to visit him!!