So Sad!!

So in one night, the two teams we were rooting for in the World Cup got eliminated! We watched the Korean vs. Uruguay game at a bar with some friends...it was shown at 11pm! The energy accross the city was high, people are cheering and chanting all day up until the game. They ended up losing 2-1 and was a very good game, with Korea outplaying Uruguay most of the game. Too bad they lost, though, cuz I thought they deserved it, but that's just how it goes.

The US game was set to start at 330am here, and we wanted to watch it. I ended up watching about 5 minutes before falling asleep. Jared watched most of it, and I heard the tragic news when I woke up..both my teams were finishie!!

Well, my brother lives in Germany now, so I guess I'm rooting for them. We are going to watch the game in a few minutes with some friends...hopefully a good one...although I was born in England and we are going with an English guy, so who knows...maybe I'll root for them. :)

Jeju Island

Last weekend, Jared and I took a much needed vacation from the city. We left school on Friday and took a bus to the airport to take an hour-long flight to Jeju-do, an island off of southern coast of Korea. This island is known to be the "Hawaii of Korea," with lots of Korean honeymooners going there. We arrived at 10 pm, and set out to find some food and snacks for the next day. We ended up getting some snacks and hanging out in the hotel, watching the US soccer game.

The next morning, we got up early and took a bus to Hallasan National Park, which has the tallet point in all of Korea (1950 meters). We hiked to the top in about 3 hours, had some lunch, then came down...it was super foggy, but once we got above the clouds, it was really beautiful and quite hot. After our hike, we went back into Jeju City to look for a scooter to rent and take around the island, but apparently you need a Korean liscense...too bad. Instead, we took a bus to a nearby beach town, got a hotel, and went out for a western dinner of burgers...I even treated myself to a tequila sunrise after a tough hike!

The next morning, we took the bus to a cool lava tunnel, then to a place called "Sunrise Peak," which supposedly has really great views, but it was too foggy to see anything. It was there that we loaded up on chocolate. Jeju makes their own chocolate, filled with different flavors like orange, pineapple, ginsing, green tea, cactus, and many more...even kimchi! Their pretty good, so we got a bunch to take back home when we leave. The next place we set off for was another beach town on the south coast of the island. We walked along the beach, collecting some fun shells, then decided to go back to the main city for a late dinner, and to watch more soccer. We found a good little Mexican place, and watched a game before getting a hotel. We had a 630am flight, getting back into Busan to take an hour long bus, getting us home with about a half an hour to spare before school started.

It was a great weekend, but I wish we would have been able to see more...less fog would have been nice. But it was still beautiful!

Dae-Han-Ming-Guk!

The last two weeks have been really fun here with the World Cup going on. Koreans are VERY proud of their country! They sell red, Korea shirts everywhere, and devil horns, stickers, and tatoos are now worn daily here. The first game was played at 830pm two Saturdays ago. We had a couple friends running in a half marathon starting at 4pm and we went to watch them start and finish, in a big park downtown...after they finished, we picked up dinner, then everyone set up blankets in the big field and they showed the game (vs. Greece) on a bunch of big screens...the energy was awesome, and we ended up winning 2-0. Good start for Korea!

The second game was last Thursday at 830p. Jared and I were wandering around looking for a bar to watch it in, but everywhere was full and turning people away. We finally found a place that had a few spots at a table in the back. We walked in, wearing our red shirts and accessories, and everyone started applauding. They were all impressed we were supporting Korea. We had some other foreign friends meet us up there, and we had a fun, exciting evening...although we ended up losing to Argentina 4-1...the energy was still pretty high.

The third game was this past Wednesday at 330am. We set our alarm and watched the second half of the game. Almost everyone of of my elementry kids also watched the game...their parents woke them up...some even took them to the World Cup Stadium here (from 2002 World Cup I think), where they were playing it on the big screen. I was amazed that so many kids woke up in the middle of the night for a soccer game. They ended up tying to Nigeria, which put them through to the next round. When Jared and I turned off our TV to go back to sleep at 530 in the morning, you could hear tons of people cheering and chanting throughout the city...

So we are down to 16. We play Uraguay tomorrow night, and if we beat them, we may play USA, depending on US beating Ghana...pretty exciting stuff here!

We have our red, devil horns, tatoos, bandanas, and good spirits ready to cheer on the Koreans in tomorrow night's game! Dae-Han-Ming-Guk!! (KOREA!!)

My Crayons Talk

Here are my babies (3-4 yr. olds) doing My Crayons Talk! They're so cute, although the back table isn't preforming very well! Hope this works for ya'll.

Kates birthday and more!

Last week, we had Wednesday off school because of National Voting Day, which happened to fall on a wonderful day because we could celebrate my birthday the night before. We told our climbing group, all the the teachers at our school, and the few foreign friends we have, but we didn't know what kind of turn-out to expect. We reserved the back room at a Korean meat restaurant, where you sit on the floor around a long table that has multiple grills throughout it.

It turned out that almost everyone we invited ended up coming. We had over 30 people, and we were definitely the minority with less than 10 of us white...it was such a fun time! Inevitably, when you have that many people, it is a good time, right? I even had 3 birthday cakes!!

This past weekend, we ran an English camp for our climbing groups' children. There were 17 kids signed up (ages ranging from 5-15), and 4 of us "white people" running it. On Saturday, the guys picked up us at 230 and we headed out into the mountains to a beautiful valley that was just amazing....rivers, paragliders, tons of trees, gardens everywhere.... We had a large campgroup to ourselves, and the parents camped a few campgrounds away from us.

Going into the day on Saturday, we had it all planned out...games, times, meals..but it turned out to go very differently than expected. I guess we didn't account for the wide range of ages, but every time we tried to do an activity, it was quickly over, as many kids got bored or tired easily. We ate dinner (mac n cheese from scratch...a new one for the kids)earlier than we had plan, then scrabbled for more things to do. When it started getting dark, we made s'mores, which they loved as none of them had tried it before. They were all in their tents at 930 when their dads came over with beer, soju, and makalie...haha, I guess they know how stressful it can be to take care of children. Also, throughout the day we had 22 kids and just thought more kids came along...but apparently we picked up kids from neighboring campgrounds...haha, and we had no idea!

The next morning, we were planning on the kids sleeping in til around 8. They had stayed up chatting until around midnight...but no, they all woke us up at 620AM!!! We were not very happy, as we had also stayed up late hanging out with their parents.

When we got up at 620, I decided to take them on a run. On my training schedule, I had only a 15 minute run scheduled for that day, so I figured I'd punish the kids and make them run too...haha! It went pretty well, and we stopped for stretches, and other exercises to make it longer. When we got back, Jared and I made them breakfast (eggs n toast), then we took them on a LONG walk...it was so beautiful...there weren't many people living around there, but the ones who did had huge gardens, rice patties, and greenhouses. We sung songs and talked about different things. It was really fun. When we got back, it was already 10am, and was hot, hot hot! There was a small river behind out campsite, and for the next 2.5 hours until the parents came with pizza, the kids played there, as well as painted with Jared (they loved that!)..A nice, relaxing day compared to the day before.

Like I said, the parents came around 1230, we had pizza and cake, then we played joke-goo, the soccer-volleyball game that I love so much. We were in the sun for the rest of the day, and running around...so tiring. After playing, we had dinner and drinks, compliments of the parents, and they gave us gifts for taking their children for the past 24 hours. They gave us a really nice swiss army knife, and a woven model of a traditional rice planting tool, now used for goof luck. It was very sweet of them.

When we started the English Camp, we were a bit nervous. We did have some incidents with a few boys, but nothing too big. Afterwards, I was really happy we did it. It was a great way to support such a great group of guys who have been really helpful and wonderful to us for the past few months.

We are now well on a way through another week, with tomorrow being Friday again. (wohoo!) On Saturday, we are going to a Korean baseball game, then finding a bar to watch the first World Cup soccer game for us here, Korea vs. Greece!

Good luck, USA in the World Cup!!! It should be an exciting next couple weeks.

We started a karate class this week and are going three times a week for a little over an hour each time...it's been awseom for our bodies so far...very hard, but great exercise, and good for the mind (I think). We will let you know how that comes along.

SeorakSan

Last Saturday night at 1030pm, our climbing club picked us up in a big bus...it was all decked out with party lights, frillies, and a water/coffee table. Our destination was Seorak Mountain and half of us would climb, and the other half would hike to the top (different peaks). I was still undecided but leaning towards climbing at that point. Jared was defintiely climbing.

After they picked us up, there was one more stop before we were on our way. Afetr that, there were announcements and introductions, and more announcements, all in Korean, mind you. Jared and I watch them and nod like we understand, but they know we have no idea. Around 1230, announcements were finished and they tunred the lights off. We rested for a few minutes before they stopped the bus for a bathroom break, around 1am. When we got back on the bus, I was tired. We fell asleep until 3am, when the bus stopped again. I got off to the go the bathroom, then was planning on getting back on and sleeping for a couple more hours. When I got back to the bus, everyone had got off and were huddled together. Apparently it was breakfast time, and there's no better breakfast at 3am than rice, soup, and kimchi! We were told that we would drive about 30 minutes and then the hikers would start...then the climbers would be drivie another 30 minutes and they would start. Wow...2 hours of sleep was all we were going to get! We were also told that it was going to rain.

So when we got back on the bus, I had to figure out what to do. The climbing was going to be 10 pitches...very long, but not too hard. But it was going to rain, and be very windy. Hiking was 16km up to the tallest peak in the park, and all I had were my knock off NB tennis shoes, which I thought might give me blisters....

Well, in the end I chose to hike. I talked to a few other people and they said it was pretty scary to climb, even though you're obviously strapped in the whole time. With that, and it predicting to be rainy and windy, I figured I would be more comfortable hiking.

So we started out hiking at 430am, and went up, up, up til 830, when we reached the peak. It was a tough hike, but I was going at a slower pace, staying with one of the 9 yr. olds, that it wasn't too bad at all...it was also beautiful...starting below the clouds, and rising up above them, with moutain tops peaking out. The side that we climbed up was rolling hills. Once we got to the top and went over to the other side to go down, it was a valley full of jagged mountains, which is what SeorakSan is famous for. It was so nice! So when we got to the peak at 830, we had to wait for all the hikers to get there, about 20 of them. I bundled up in all my clothes and layed down in the sun, out of the wind. I was so exhausted, and just fell right asleep for about half an hour, a much needed nap. Around 9a, I was summoned to take pictues, then go down about 6oo meters to a hut for breakfast. It was here I understood why two of the guys had huge, heavy packs, while the rest of us had little day packs. They pulled out mulitple beer cans and started passing them around. So yes, at 9am, I had a beer! We hung around there for awhile, then at 10, started hiking again, just a couple more kms down to another hut for lunch at 1130. I took abother nap since I wasn't too hungry, and then left to hike down at 1230. It only took 2 hours for the last 6 km..and was one of the most amazing hikes I have ever been on....and it never rained! It ended up being a beautiful day, with lots of sun and perfect cool hiking weather. On the way down, it was waterfall after waterfall with a 360 degree view of jagged mounatins all around..I had my camera out the whole time and took tons of pictures, but still managed to get down the mountain wihtin the first few people. Here, we met up with the climbers who had been finished for about an hour and were at a makalie resturant (rice wine). We joined them for a few more hours until everyone was off the mountain. After getting us good and buzzed, we got back on the bus, promptly fell asleep, then were restled awake again about 45 minutes later to get off the bus and have dinner and more makalie..they made cooked rice, had some pig, kimchi, and greens. Around 6, we were able to get back on the bus to head home. It only took us 4 hours to drive to SeorakSan, so we thought we would get home about 10p, a reasonable time. I guess there was a lot of traffic, and we ended up getting home at 1230am..and after eating (we were both startving), didn't get to sleep until around 130a, with school the next morning at 930a...ahh! At least we slept a bunch on the bus.

Jared had a fun time climbing. There were 8 of them total, and he said it wasn't too cold or windy. He also got some great pictures. Even though it didn't rain, I didn't regret hiking at all. I got to see so much more of the park, and was very impressed the whole day!

The next day, we were tired, but not too bad. My calves (I think from waering tennis shoes instead of hiking boots) were ridiculously sore and stayed that way for 4 days. All in all, great trip!

Next blog: Kate's birthday party, which happened a few days after SeorakSan.