yesterday

Yesterday I woke up with one of the worst migraines I've had in a very long time. Ugly. It also meant that I wasn't able to head over to Yeosu to climb, which was sad.

So once the drugs kicked in and I was able to do something other than wish I was dead or that someone would come and kill me to put me out of my misery, I went for dinner with friends, then came home instead of going out in the big city.

This morning was cool and overcast, and I went out for a run. I'm horribly under prepared for the 10k I have in two weeks, but got 9km in this morning, then went and played Ultimate for a few hours. I'm beat but good at this point, but had an excellent time. It was the first time I have played since I lived in New Orleans, and while I still catch like someone without thumbs, I'm SUCH a much stronger runner now! Yeowsa.

And I'm exhausted and will be sore tomorrow, but in a really nice way.

Jeju continued

(Note: I was just going to continue on, but life delayed my blogging again. Anyway.)

Day 2: Continued
After a gray day with too much time in the van, we were all a bit... edgy. When we passed a sign for ATVs and someone said, "we should try that tomorrow..." we decided to go for it right then.
Sloane getting geared up (also, proof that we were wearing safety stuff).


It scared the crap out of me, and I never really felt like I was in as much control as I would have liked to be, but at least I tried it. And the parts that weren't so rocky I thought I was going to tunk over were fun.

day 3: The beach part 1

We woke up to partly cloudy, which actually was an improvement. Living in hope, we brought bathing suits on our way to do something cultural I never got around to, while a couple of folks took off on their motorbikes. The sun came out, we saw the beach, and spent the day jumping in waves and soaking up the sun. As one of the palest people on the planet, I ended up with an incredibly attractive sunburn everywhere I missed with the sunscreen.
Sand and beach and islands, as the tide was going out.


I spent the entire day at the beach, and it was awesome.

Day 4: Climbing

On Chuseok day, my friend Dan headed out with his friend Danielle, Stu, me and Ty to climb in a riverbed. The day was exactly what I needed, and it was really great to be able to hang out with such a positive, supportive group of people. Also, I learned how to belay with a gri-gri (that means nothing to almost everyone, but still, cool to know how to do.)


Day 5: Beach and boat home
While a bunch of folks left on the early ferry back to Mokpo, a handful of us were on the late boat, so after I made banana pancakes (!!!! ME! AND I didn't burn them! WOO!! Also, resident chef JP was on the early boat. Anyway.) we had another day at the beach.


After which we took the ferry back to Mokpo. No fancy bunks, but there was the sunset to make up for it.



An excellent trip, indeed. More photos on Flickr, if you are interested.

Jeju

This week was Chuseok in Korea. Chuseok is the major family holiday in Korea - imagine the family importance of both Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one. So we had a 5 day weekend, and I went to Jeju-do with a big group of friends. What easily could have been the longest 4 days any group of people has ever spent together actually turned out to be an incredibly amazing vacation, and I was really sort of sad to leave the island.


The ferry over was great. For some reason, when my co-teacher helped me make reservations, she said there was only economy (in the depths of the ship, can be kind of smelly and bad) or second class bunks. I went with the bunks, and it was awesome, if a bit more expensive then I would have liked.


Though I have to admit, I spent most of the time out on the deck. It was nicer than being inside.

Once we got there, we checked into our cabin/pension, and walked down to the beach.


And sent people off for food. Monique and Stu and I held down the fort and made sure that the soju was fit for consumption.

Then the boys cooked - YAY!

And the girls offered positive reinforcement in order to perpetuate this behavior. For the most part, it worked.


Day 2
It rained. And rained. We went to Loveland, the sex museum and sex sculpture park. This is the only picture I can post:


And we saw a waterfall and the ocean being dark and dramatic.


(TBC - need to logoff...)

Climbing - Mokpo folks

This is mostly for the kids who are in Mokpo, and have mentioned being interested in climbing,

After talking to friends last weekend, I will be going to Ironpalms, and my plan for right now is to head in the Thursday after Chuseok. A bunch of folks have mentioned being interested in learning to climb, and I think this will be the best choice for me, and probably for most folks who are at the beginner level, too.

It isn't cheap - the first month is 80,000\, but includes instruction, After that, it is 50,000/month. It is in Hadang, and if you would rather do drop-in, it is 7,000\/day, but I don't know if that includes training. I think you can rent shoes there, but no clue about the quality/available sizes. I know that you can buy gear in Mokpo, and can find out where (Ricky?), but I'm not sure what the guys will be able to find. I know that you can order stuff on-line in Korea, but unless your Korean is a lot stronger than mine, you will probably need assistance to do so, as it is mostly in Korean.

There is a climbing gym in Old Mokpo (Mokpo Climbing Club) but they are not as beginner-friendly. Also, it was suggested that if there is a group interested, it might be a good idea to head to the same place, and I've heard good things about the guy who owns Ironpalms.

For general information about climbing in Korea (and a good way to connect with other foreign climbers here), Korea on the Rocks is a great place to start. I plan to climb as much as I can before it gets too cold, and would love to have folks to travel with.

If you are not on Facebook and want my phone number, send me an email.

Typhoon

This weekend, Typhoon Nari was aimed at South Korea. I, in my brilliance, decided that I would hold the course and head up to Ganhyeon, a climbing area pretty darn close to as far away from Mokpo as you can get.

It was great! Well, really, it was wet - it had been raining the night and a chunk of the morning before we got there - but wasn't actually raining until about noon on Sunday, so while the rock was wet, we got in at least a little climbing and I got to hang out with some awesome people I hadn't seen in a while.

Of course, today is sunny and stunningly beautiful and I am stuck inside. But don't worry, the weather is supposed to go to crap again in time for next weekend.

On the bus, I had time to talk with some other women who climb and live here in Mokpo. My "get better at climbing" course of action for right now is to join the climbing gym in Hadang (for Mokpo folks, Ironpalms) after Chuseok for at least a month in order to build a stronger technical climbing base. After the first month, I'll then decided if I'll switch to Mokpo Climbing Club (which is closer to my house but less welcoming to beginners from what I have heard) or if I'll stay there over the winter.

So between race entrance fees and memberships at the climbing gym and the regular gym, the bulk of my monthly spending will be in fitness-related areas. I'm okay with that, but it still seems so bizarre to be at this point, given where I started. Not bad, just strange.

Time flies

Time is going by so quickly! It seems like last weekend was just here, and now I'm back at Friday again!

This weekend will involve me getting up at a time when I should be GOING to sleep to catch one of three buses that will deliver me to the site for this week's climbing meet and greet. I don't think I've ever regretted a climbing trip, even the time I had to sit on the floor of the bus from Gwangyang to Deagu and back, so even though I'll be traveling almost as far as one possibly can within Korea, I'm thinking it will be worth it. Fingers crossed.

I won't be heading to Beijing for Chuseok, as the only tickets still available were out of my price range. Instead, a fairly large group of us will be heading to Jeju-do, an island just south of Korea, and where I did my first 10k run this summer. It should be amazing, and I'm psyched that I'll be going with an awesome group of friends.

An interesting note - with being around all the plague-carrying children (and my resulting plague-ridden respiratory system) and adjusting to the... interesting... air quality of Korea, my asthma attacks have been getting worse and I needed a new fast-acting inhaler. After a chest x-ray and pulmonary functioning test (the most through medical treatment I've had in Korea) I have been diagnosed with severe persistent asthma. My take is that it is severe is frequency, but NOT severe in terms of the effect of the attack itself. And while the doctor prescribed a pretty hefty new treatment inhaler, he neglected to give me the emergency fast-acting one - the main reason I went to the doctor in the first place. Which with this lovely cold is somewhat... interesting. And by interesting I mean sucky. Anyway, thought my folks would like to know that.

Busy, but not all that exciting

As it has been pointed out to me by several sources, I have been lax on the blogging. I guess in part it is that while things are busy, they often don't feel like they would be all that interesting to anyone other than me.

The new school is going well. I'm adjusting (somewhat) to teaching from the text, but it is weird to have a co-teacher that also teaches, and so I'm still trying to find the balance in this relationship, which will change in a couple weeks, anyway (she is getting moved to 1st grade for some reason that I'm sure makes sense to the administration but is beyond my understanding). My apartment is tiny tiny tiny but livable, and I'm getting settled into a life here. At the moment, I'm not balancing alone versus social time very well, but I think that will work itself out once I'm more used to having more people around.

Also, I'm getting a cold. I'm about as happy about this as you would expect.

Last weekend was revelry in Gwangju again, and an extremely good time was had by all. I'll be heading north this weekend to climb, and then Chuseok will be here. The plan right now is for a group of us to head to Jeju for a few days of beach, touristy-stuff, and for some, motorcycling. It sort of makes me sad that I sold the bike.

Please stop raining.

I swear, it seems like there has maybe been 5 minutes since I've been back that it hasn't been raining or about to rain.

Other than that, things are going well. I'm almost through my first week as an elementary school teacher, and all things considered, things are going well. It is so great to be in a place where it is easy to have a social life! Yay!