Day 1: A new way of eating

It has been awhile since my last post, while I have been busy, I haven't found the motivation to write about any of those experiences.

Recently, I have been doing a lot of reading on the Paleo diet. Back in June, I started going to CrossFit in Bundang. For years now, my workout friends back home have been raving about CrossFit and the Paleo diet. So after starting CrossFit and immediately becoming addicted, I decided I needed to look into my eating habits.

Now, anyone who knows me at all can tell you I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I have researched and read about eating healthy for years now, but despite all of my knowledge, I continued to indulge in my daily Diet Coke and sugar cravings. When initially reading about the Paleo diet, I was worried about getting enough carbs. As an endurance runner and cyclist, I have always had a pre-workout meal involving lots of carbs to give me energy. But after a few months of hard training and not noticing any differences in my body. I decided it is time to step it up and go cold turkey.

Cue in the Whole30 plan. http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/

I stumbled upon this website on a friends facebook page and have been reading into it for a week now. As with any change in your diet, there are conflicting opinions on whether it is "healthy" or not. I am not claiming it is the healthiest way of eating, but for me it seems to be an option I should consider.

So today is my day 1 of the whole30. After looking through the forums on their site, I have read that my first 15 days will be the hardest. My body has become accustom to the daily doses of sugar. Today I have begun only eating natural foods. Basically I can eat meat, seafood, veggies, fruit and most nuts/seeds. It is not far off from how I usually eat, however I will be cutting out a few favorites, mainly hummus and yogurt.

I am hoping this change will help me in more ways than just dropping a few extra pounds. From research, I have found that many people who completed the diet noticed a major change in their sleeping habits. I have not been sleeping well for the past year or so and I am hoping that this will help that.

So my overall goals for this 30 days are :
-gain more energy
-regulate sleeping patterns
-drink more water
-consciously monitor what I am eating
-feel better overall
-have my clothes fit better


I will try to document my 30 days to the best of my ability so that others who may be interested can have an idea of how it may affect them.

How I'm feeling today: Well it is midday, about 3pm and while I am slightly hungry, I think this has more to do with boredom and habit rather than actual hunger, I am feeling pretty good. I had beef and mushrooms with a peach for breakfast. For lunch I had lettuce wraps with beef and sprouts, a handful of walnuts and some pineapple. I am about to eat an apple for snack and I'll have chicken and veggies for dinner. The only thing that was weird was waking up this morning and not having my daily protein smoothie, instead I had green tea. I will head to CrossFit after work tonight so hopefully my energy levels stay up for that!

A day of epic proportions

The Great Wall Marathon. I have been looking forward to setting foot on the Great Wall for years now. Finally this year I had the opportunity to sign up for the marathon with some friends from the Seoul Flyers. Since January I have been been anticipating the weekend of May 18th. My boss was kind enough to give me the afternoon off work so I could make the flight to Beijing.

Friday morning arrived and I could barely contain my excitement. I had to make it through two classes and lunch time and then I was free. I hopped on the airport bus from Sunae and throughout the hour it took to get to Incheon Airport, I sat with excitement and anticipation. And a little fear. I was about to run a half marathon on one of the toughest courses around. Was I ready? Could I handle it? I may not be in top physical form but I am competitive and don't like to give up, so I figured no matter how hard it was, I would push on anyway.

We arrived at our hotel in Beijing at around 9:30pm Friday night. We had to be up and on a bus at 3:30 am to head to the race site. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep that night. So bright and early we boarded the bus with our "breakfast boxes" and were on our way. Now, theses so called breakfast boxes contained a bottle of water, a "sandwich" -white bread with one slice of ham, and a snack size kit kat bar. Not the fantastic breakfast I was hoping for. I had nothing else with me so I had no choice but to eat all of it, I would need it for the race.

After drifting off to sleep for an hour or so, we finally arrived in the village of Tianjin. Everyone on the bus was bustling with excitement. We got off the bus and set off to find our race packages. Turns out there was a mix up because of our late arrival to the hotel and our packages were back in Beijing. However, they got us all new numbers and we were set to go. We said goodbye to the few from our group attempting the full marathon, they were off!

After a few minutes, it was our turn to start. I was filled with nerves but pumped to get out there! The course started through the village and began going up a windy road for about 5km before we got to the entrance to the wall. We lucked out and met up with the girls from our group in the corral before us so we were able to enjoy the wall together. Because we were back in the 3rd corral, we had to wait a lot on the wall.

There were parts of the wall that were single track with only one side so you had to go single file and it forced a bunch of people to wait. 

After the portion on the wall the course continued down through the village. We were on the wall together as a group but once we got off we kind of separated. Once off the wall I saw a sign saying we had only gone 8k so far! At this point we were over 2 hours in! I was tired but not as much as I had thought. Since we had to wait a lot the wall didn't seem as hard as it could have been. I tried my best to run the rest of the race without taking and breaks. It was insanely hot, I was sweating profusely. There were plenty of water stations but not a lot of sustenance other than that. A few stations had bananas as well. I was dumb and each time I passed one thought, oh you're okay, you don't need one. Big mistake on my part! The course went all through the dirt roads of the village, once I got to about 15km I was dead. Tired and could barely keep my feet moving. 

I walked a few portions and then kept up jogging. Through the village there were lots of locals standing on the side watching and cheering us on. There were tons of little kids screaming hello and giving high fives! It was really amazing to see all of them being supportive!

I kept pushing on and finally made it to the finish with a time of 3:55. It was a tough, long day, but incredibly worth it!! I am in awe of the people who did the full distance. I can't imagine having to go back up that wall again in the heat. It was a struggle to do it the first time, twice would have killed me! 

I am so glad I was able to get the opportunity to go to this race. It was amazing to be able to even step foot on the Great Wall, let alone run a half marathon on it. And while it was amazing and filled with views I will not soon forget, I actually enjoyed running through the village more. It was awesome to be able to see how these people live and to be, if only for a small second, part of their community. It's always an eye-opening experience to be a part of another culture, and for me it really hits home every time I do. It forces you to see the world through someone else's eyes and makes you incredibly thankful for the things you have and are able to experience. Running through the village and seeing the faces on those children was one of those times, I am a lucky girl to have the opportunity to experience these things. 

Another goal checked off the list!! Now what to tackle next?! 

Just another Friday night in Korea

May 4, 2012- The day had finally arrived. I had been awaiting this day for a few weeks now and was anticipating the events of the evening. For awhile now I had been wanting a tattoo, but I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted and where I wanted it. A couple of weeks ago I finally figured out that I wanted to have "run" tattooed on my wrist. Why you ask? Well, being slightly neurotic and a tad on the emotional side, running has been one of the only releases that I have been able to use. Every time I run, I bring myself back to reality. If I am having a bad day at work, a run makes it all better. If I am feeling down about myself, a run perks me up. If men troubles are making me sad, a run empowers me. So I played around with some fonts and finally found one that I liked. I like the fact that it will be on my wrist so I can use it as motivation when I am feeling lazy.

I went to Tattoo Korea with a few a month ago and had them look at it and give me a price. I had to wait to get paid so I put down the deposit and made my appointment, no going back now.

So Friday night finally had arrived and I met up with my friend Kat who was coming along for moral support. I was excited and nervous. I am not the best when it comes to needles. I normally have to get them to allow me to lay down just to have a blood test, so I was very nervous. Not only that, but many people had told me that the inner wrist is a very painful spot to have a tattoo.

Despite their warnings and my fears, I was in the tattoo parlour on Friday night ready to go, albeit, very very nervous. I lay down on the table and he asked me if I was ready. I guess so. The first bit of pain wasn't too bad. Kat was entertaining by my various faces and the amount of swearing I was doing.

I didn't want to look at it while he was doing it so I wouldn't know how much was left. At times it was really painful, and felt like someone was burning a hole through my arm. At other points, it barely tickled.

After about a half hour, it was done. Not too bad! I had managed to conquer yet another fear and didn't pass out(I was really worried about this!)

I'm really happy with how it looks! Glad I sucked up my fears and did it! 

Stay tuned for my next goal: Great Wall Marathon in China in two weeks!! 

Fitness, fitness, fitness

Well, well. It seems it has been a long time since my last post. It is now 2012, obviously, and things are going great in my little neighborhood of Sunae-dong.

Today is a gorgeous day, 21C and sunny! This morning I ventured out bright and early with my friend Leann to run in the Bundang Gumpu Marathon.  I had signed up for this weeks ago and had planned on training and being in proper race form. However, I have kind of slacked off and haven’t even run in the past few weeks. So needless to say, I was nervous as all hell. 21km is really, really far!!! I didn’t know if I could do it or if my legs would keep going. But I committed and finished a half marathon is a goal on my list, so I had to try. For motivation I wrote “keep going” on my for arm so if I was feeling like stopping I could just look down and see it. My goal for this race was just to finish. Ideally I was hoping for around 2 hr 30 mins, but ultimately if I finished I would be pleased.

When the race began I was feeling good, I kept telling myself that if I needed to walk I could do so at the 10km mark. When the 10km mark came, I was feeling some pain in my IT band(I have been having a lot of problems with it lately) and I needed to pee, so I made a quick stop at the washroom and continued on my way.  No walking, I kept telling myself. I will finish this race and run the whole way. It was tough, sometimes I felt like I was going at a snail’s pace. But no matter what, I kept running. Soon came the 15km mark and I realized, “oh my god, I can actually finish this! 6km left, that’s nothing!” Not wanting to use up all my energy, I kept my slow pace going. At 18km, both my legs were in a lot of pain, but I had only 3kms left to go!! I was going to make it!!!  Once I saw the 20km sign a giant smile came across my face! Here I was, 1km left from finishing my first half marathon!  I stepped up the pace and suddenly felt like I had a second wind. As I sprinted into the finish line, my friends were there cheering me on and I looked at the time, 2:20!!! I had made it! And beat my goal time by 10 mins! Its hours later now and I still can’t wipe the smile off my face! I ran the entire race and finished with an acceptable time for a first timer! I can only think, about how much better I could be if I really pushed myself into training!  This feeling, the runner’s high, is why I run, why I push myself to do things I don’t think I can. It’s a feeling I can’t get anywhere else.

I have been in a bit of a funk lately. A lot of my good friends have recently left Korea for new adventures and I spent the last week getting over some nasty food poisoning. Today was just the thing I needed to propel myself out of this hole and back into life! 

Last weekend, I hit the pavement on my bike with my friend and fellow cyclist, Jared. We headed up to Gangchon for the weekend for our friends, Suzie and Ski’s, going away weekend. It was my first weekend on the bike this year and I had a blast. Jared is known for taking the most mountaineous routes he can find while cycling, so I knew I was in for a hard ride. Saturday the weather was great and we tackled a handful of climbs. I was spent!! But being back on the bike felt awesome! Once in Gangchon we met up with the rest of our friends and had some delicious dak galbi dinner(or so I thought, more on this later) Jared and I retired early since we had another big day of riding the next day, while the rest of the crew drank and partied the night away.

Sunday morning came quickly and soon we were on the road. Our route for the day was supposed to be much easier than Saturdays so I was not too worried. Boy were we wrong. Sunday brought on some crazy strong head winds. For the better part of the day, we were cycling into 35km/hr winds. The winds were exhausting and no matter where we turned we couldn’t get away from them. Sunday was a grueling day, there were times when I didn’t think I could go on, but what was I supposed to do? Walk home? So I peddled on and we finally made it all the way home. Back at my place I was pleased I had finally finished a two day ride in the mountains! I was feeling great, until about 9pm.

All of a sudden I was running to the bathroom and vomiting my guts out. This was the beginning of one of the worst nights of my life. I spent the night running back and forth between the bathroom and my bed. I was burning up and spewing from everywhere. I couldn’t believe how sick and miserable I was. When morning came I immediately called my boss and told her I couldn’t come in. I was dehydrated and barely able to move. I couldn’t even keep down water. After awhile, I found out from Jared that he was sick as well. Food poisoning he said. So we figured it must have been something we both ate. Through out the day we found out a few others from the group were sick as well and concluded it must have been the dak galbi we had all eaten.  So what was an awesome weekend of riding was capped off by the worst night I have ever had. Oh well, I am thankful it didn’t happen while we were still on the road, that would have been terrible.

This has been and eventful few months in my life and I am sure the next few will be even more so. On the schedule for next month is another goal from my list, The Great Wall Marathon in China. I am very, very, VERY excited about this one! Not only is it an adventure marathon, but I get to do it on the Great Wall!! How awesome is that?! After that I’ll have about 4 months left here in Korea before I head home to Canada to yet another new city. I will be calling Ottawa my home in October and will hopefully be attending university there in the fall of 2013. 

Until next time, run on! 

Winter Blues

It's that time of year again. Ahhh, the holidays! They are always an interesting time of year. The lead up to Christmas is always an exciting one. This year I hosted a Christmas Eve Dinner at my house for any of my friends who decided not to go away travelling during the holidays. So 10 or so of my friends squeezed into my apartment for some delicious food and drink. The night was great and we finished it off at the local foreigner pub, Traveler's.

After that lovely evening, Christmas day was upon us. And as anyone who is away from home for the holidays can tell you, it was a bit sad. It was not my first year away so I was prepared for the sadness, luckily I had my good friend Beth to hang with. The worst was actually Boxing Day morning. I woke up early to Skype with my family back in Canada, where for them it was still Christmas night. Both my brothers and their girlfriends were visiting my parents so I was lucky to be able to talk to everyone at once. It's funny how when you grow up you really start to realize the importance of your family and  being away from them makes it even that more obvious. It was all I could do to not break down and cry on camera. I was feeling very alone, and wanted nothing more than to be chillin on the couch with my dad watching TV.

So needless to say, the next few days were a bit rough. The winter blues seem to have come on full throttle. I find myself examining my life, my friends, and the person I have become. I have realized that I need to cut some friends loose because the person I am around them is not the person I want to be. Cutting friends is a hard thing to do. I feel the need to be nice and friendly to everyone and find it hard to just tell someone I can no longer hang around them. I guess I need to man up and just say it because the alternative, just ignoring them, is not a fun one. I happen to be on the opposite end of that right now with a good friend from home and I can tell you, I would just prefer her to say she does not want to continue our friendship, rather than her constantly ignoring my attempts to get a hold of her.

Aww first world problems. It's hard sometimes to see your life in the big picture. To take the problems that seem so huge and realize that in the actual realm of things, they are tiny insignificant problems. It's hard to not dwell on everything when you are feeling blue. I know I live a great life. I have wonderful friends and a family who does everything they can to support me in any way possible. I have a job I absolutely love and a roof over my head. I am not starving, nor am I freezing to death. Yet I am constantly  uneasy with my life. Am I making the right decisions? What if things don't work out? What will I do next? Striving for happiness that always seems just out of reach.

I suppose I could go on and on forever. My Mom always says, "This too, shall pass," so I'll do what needs to be done, go to sleep, wake up, head out for a run and be optimistic for what the next day holds. One day at a time. 2012 is upon us, my goal for the year is to do things for me. Health and fitness are what make me happy, so its time to stop pleasing others and work on things that please me.

Bare all or go home

Life has been quite busy here in Sunae lately. I have started taking Korean lessons twice a week and last week began taking swimming lessons from another foreign teacher who is a triathlete coach. I was excited and nervous for my first lesson. I can swim, but not well and I have always had an aversion towards swimming without a nose plug. So as the lesson came closer, my anxiety grew. On Wednesday, the time had I arrived, I made the 40 min journey to my old stomping grounds in Suji. I met my coach at the YMCA and was ready for my first lesson. Now I have been in locker rooms in Korea before, so I was not surprised to see plenty of naked women walking around naked. If you remember, when I was taking hot yoga last year, I finally was forced to take a shower at the gym, however, those showers had stalls so it wasn't too bad. So here I was in the locker room of the Y, with my swimsuit on, ready to go. I asked a lady if she spoke English, and if I needed to take a shower before going onto the pool deck. She looked at me and said, "you have to take a shower BEFORE you put on your swimsuit". As the words came out of her mouth all I could think of was, shit I am going to have to prance around naked in this locker room. I had two options, peace out and leave Eric, my coach, wondering where the hell I was, or strip down and bare it all. So bare it all I did. The shower was of the open concept variety of course. Lucky me. But I did it, and even managed to get through the lesson eager for another! Here's to milestones!

Friday night I headed into Seoul to meet up with some of my bike friends for a special night race put on by the Seoul Flyers running club. It was an 11km run at 11:11pm on 11.11.11. Having been sick with a cold for the past few weeks, I hadn't had the opportunity to get out running at all beforehand so I was a bit nervous of what was to come. I was lucky to have my friend Suzie there to run along with me. We kept each other going through the whole thing and I managed to finish the 11km in 1 hour and 8 mins. Probably the fastest run I had done in awhile! I was quite pleased! We had a great time and then walked along the Han River with some beers to catch a cab home. Pretty great night!

This week brings more busyness! I have Korean class, swimming lessons and I just found a boxing club near my house I plan to check out this week as well! Life is good!

Here I am, yet again.

After having flown over the Pacific twice in the past two months, I have finally decided it is time to update the good old blog. So what have I, Caley, been up to? Well, since my last post, I travelled home to New Brunswick, Canada. While I was so excited to get home, the journey there was less than desirable. After three flights, two layovers and about 40 hours total, I was finally greeted at the airport by my mom and my best friend. Now after such a long haul to get back, upon my arrival, my mother burst into tears and my best friend was suffering from one of the worst hangovers I have seen in awhile, while the guy next to me had a giant entourage complete with a welcome home sign! Ha! Despite the condition of my two family members, I was finally home! That very evening, I met up with about twelve of my closest friends for dinner. It's weird, after spending a year abroad, how overwhelming it can be to be surrounded by great friends again. Just sitting there in the restaurant I found myself holding back tears. I had no idea why, I was happy and sad all at once! My time at home was short but sweet. I spent time with my family, some of whom I haven't seen in years and stayed with friends-who are now like family. After a few weeks, I started to get bored and was itching to get back to Korea, where life never seems to stop moving!

So after a crazy couple of days trying to get my passport and visa ready to go, I was finally back in the Fredericton airport, at 5am, saying good-bye to my parents and about to board a plan for Korea once again.  This time, I wasn't scared, wasn't nervous, I was ready to get back to my life. Ready to see what adventures lay ahead of me this time around. I had a new job, new city and new experiences awaiting me!

I have been back just over a month now and things are going great! My new school is quite different from my last, but better I think. My apartment is 100% better than the last and the area I live in is fantastic. Upon my arrival, I got right back into the swing of things and headed out onto a weekend bike trip to the mountains of Gangwon-do(the northern South Korean province-not to be confused with North Korea).

Making it to the top of our 8am 920m climb! My highest yet!

 I had been looking forward to this trip for months and I was not to be disappointed. The weather was fantastic, the views were amazing and the company was nothing short of spectacular. There is nothing like the feeling of excitement you get from spending an hour climbing a 10% incline up a mountain and knowing that once you reach the top, you get to glide down into a valley with the fresh mountain air in your face.

Gorgeous views into the valley we just climbed out of!

Struggling hard along the last 10km of climbing! 

My next adventure begins with swimming lessons. I just recently hired a swim coach, another foreign teacher, to help me learn to properly swim, in hopes of training for a triathlon next summer. I have been logging tons of kilometers on my bike and running, so the logical next step is to add swimming in to the mix. My ultimate goal will be to compete in an Ironman competition, but that is still a few years away yet. For now, I need to concentrate on actually learning to swim. I am also training for my first ever half marathon, that I will run right here in Bundang in the spring.


I am very excited for the next few months and what 2012 has to offer me. Big lifestyle changes are on the horizon for me. The decision to commit myself to training means having to say no to nights out with friends, choosing fitness over fun and partying, something I have had a hard time doing in the past. For some reason though, this time, it seems like the obvious choice. I can only live in limbo for so long, sooner or later I need to choose a side, and I choose the side of living life! On my bike weekend, I realized the feeling of accomplishing feats you never thought you could, is much better than even the best night out with friends. So with that in mind, I will be pushing myself harder than ever before! Here's to fitness!!

Well, well, well, how quickly one year has passed

Here I am sitting in my almost empty apartment on my last night in Suji. It was just over one year ago that I stepped foot into this box they call an apartment. Nervous and terrified, I slowly settled into life here in Korea. It seems crazy to me that a year has passed so quickly.

My last day at work was bittersweet. I have had a great year there and have fallen in love with so many of my students. They are the greatest kids around! On the other hand, the job was long and I was/am burnt out, so it was a  nice relief to be finished!!!

My homeroom class on my last day! Going to miss these kids like crazy!

Tomorrow morning I head to the Incheon Airport to begin the 33 hour journey home to Fredericton! I am excited to see my friends and family but also sad to leave Suji. I have made a lot of great friends here over the past year and even though I am returning to Korea in a month, it won't be the same living somewhere else! 

With that said, I am off to bed, long days of travelling lie ahead! Until next time!!

The end of a chapter..

Well well well, it seems time just keeps flying by. Here I am, less than three weeks away from the end of my contract in Suji and I am a wreck of a million different emotions. This year has gone by like the blink of an eye and time just keeps slipping away. As the days go by, I realize more and more how much I am going to miss my kids. They are some of the happiest, most well behaved children I have ever worked with and I can't tell you how many rough days have turned into great ones because of their smiles and giggles.

A few of my favorite kiddos

It's funny, when I first embarked on this journey last year, I was sure that this experience would leave me more self aware and give me direction in my life. The jury is still out on that, but I can tell you a few things I have learned during this adventure. 

1. Kids will always make you smile, even if you don't feel like it.

2. Toilet paper is a luxury. 

3. Charades is not a game, it's a way of life.

4. It is possible to be lonely in a country of millions of people.

5. Koreans are some of the friendliest people on the planet. 

6. Adjummas do not watch where they are going, ever. 

7. Spicy food is delicious, but also spicy on the way out. Beware. 

8. Asians do not all look the same.

9. Good friends are the answer to any sad day. 

10. Soju is the devil. 

I am still learning new things everyday and I am sure I will have more for you next time around. For now I am off, with only a few weeks left, they will be filled with packing, job searching and spending time with friends before I jump on a plane bound for the Great White North!! 

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!!

서울

I woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday to head into Seoul for a day I assumed I would be spending on my own sightseeing, which ended up being a great day where I met some awesome new friends. I had planned on heading in to watch the Royal Procession, which is an event that is held annually to commemorate the past Royal members of Korea. On my way in, I texted a friend I had just met and who had mentioned she was going to this as well. I met up with her and a friend in Seoul and we headed to Jongmyo Shrine to check out the ceremonies.

Once into the shrine we hung around for about an hour and watched the ceremonies happening there. During the ceremonies they greet the spirits of the royal families, then entertain the spirits and then send off the spirits. It was a pretty cool experience to watch.

After we got tired of watching the same thing happen over and over(no disrespect intended) we heading out onto the street to watch the Royal Procession make its way to the shrine. There were about 500 hundred people involved in the procession. The crazy part about it was that in the other 4 lanes of traffic not affected by the procession, traffic and busy Korean life was just going on as always!

After taking in the procession, we decided to go to a near by area called Insadong, where we found a vegetarian restaurant for lunch! The food was excellent, I even had fake meat!

The best thing about going to a Korean style restaurant is you sit on the floor and there are tons of cushions so you can get comfy after you have stuffed your face! Once we were good and full we decided to head out to another are to a park called Seoul Forest. It was huge and had all kinds of things, there was a pretty awesome play ground, and cool things to climb, which we obviously did! The Koreans were laughing at all the foreigners playing on everything!

Once we had had enough of the park and walking around outside, we heading to Gangnam area to a coffee shop that also has an area in it called Dr. Fish. Basically you go to the coffee shop, eat and drink and then you can pay 2000 won to have tiny fish eat the dead skin off your feet! It was an interesting experience! I have super ticklish feet so I was laughing and screaming and could barely keep my feet in! The come at you like little piranhas, all while you are sitting on a stage so all the Koreans can again, make fun of the foreigners! 

It was a day filled with crossing things off our Korean bucket lists! I had a great time, made new friends and hopefully will have more adventures to come!

At last I am finally ready for another post. It's been awhile since I have written anything, a lot has happened since then but I honestly had lost the desire to write about it. I've been going through a lot in my own head, as my friend Nate says, I am still figuring out who I am and who I want to be. And let me tell you, it's not a pleasant journey. It's a treacherous adventure, with a constant roller coaster of emotions. Over the past few months, I have been up and down and thinking a lot. Korea is a terribly lonely place sometimes. I mean there are so many people, but it's easy to get lost in all the hustle and  bustle. But since I am still figuring out myself out, we will leave that conversation for another day. 

Here's what I've been up to lately: I finally bought myself a new camera, after losing mine in Vietnam, so I have been able to document life again! 

A few weeks ago I went with a friend to check out a Korean baseball game. It was quite the afternoon. Koreans are very into baseball so the stadium was packed and filled with energy. They even have cheerleaders for each team! it was quite a sight to see!

It started to rain after the sixth inning so we decided to leave. Pretty sure the team we were rooting for lost horribly anyway! 

Another big adventure I had was to go to Everland, the largest theme park in Korea. It's about a 20 minute drive from where I live. It was a beautiful sunny day and there were tons of people there. Now, I am not much of an amusement park person, I don't really like rides, especially ones that win . But since I was there with a group of people I had to give in to peer pressure and ride at least one. Unfortunately the first ride I decided to ride was one that went back and forth and spun around. Haha needless to stay I didn't get on anything else after that one! 

The worst part of Everland was the zoo. I was pretty excited to go to it, but it was really actually sad. The animals were in pretty small areas with not a lot of vegetation and they all looked so sad. After walking through it we were all depressed and felt sick for those poor animals stuck in there. It was definitely not a good zoo experience! 

The day after I went to Everland, I ran my first 5k race in Korea! It was the Bundang Marathon. I finished it in 30 minutes, which is a tad slower than I have finished in the past, but I suppose it's okay due to my lack of fitness right now! 

I am now training to run a 7K race in June! And I'm going to aim for a half marathon in the fall! I bought a Nike run Sports band so I can now track my mileage and pace. 

Since I was talking about how Korea is such a roller coaster of emotions, I guess I should mention that two of my good friends left Korea a few weeks ago. My friend Sarah and her boyfriend went back to Canada and it was really a devastating time for everyone. They left suddenly and we were all shocked! In time it was all explained and everyone is fine, but I must say I was pretty upset. It's easy to depend on another person here because you are lacking your normal support systems. Sarah was my support system and it has been a bit hard without her around! But I love her to death and I have no doubt we will meet up sometime when I'm back in Canada! Our other friend Cecilia also left around the same time and went back to South Africa. She will be coming back soon to work at another school. 

The weather has been really nice here and spring is in full bloom! Last week I took my kids out to the park for gym class and it was really fun! They are just the cutest kids and I am falling in love with them more and more everyday! 

Well, that's about it here. I am going to spend today being lazy since it's raining outside. Read some books and watch some movies. I haven't had a down time weekend in awhile so I am pretty excited! Tomorrow I am going into Seoul to check out the Korean Royal Family Procession, so it will be a cool cultural experience, and I am sure I will have some thoughts to post about it! 

Until next time!!!!