CAR!!!!!!!!!!

So I went and bought a car this week! Big thanks to my friend Chi Ha for helping me out and being a great translator between me and the dealership! I got a Musso made by Ssangyong which is a big Korean SUV. Its really awesome it cost me about $4000 plus about $1100 dollars for 1 year of insurance! I guess that will go down once I turn 25 in 3 years!!! The car is great lots of space for bikes and skis inside, it has leather seats, a radio, cassette player, tinted windows and AC! Its diesel too and seems to be getting pretty good gas mileage so far! which is really important when gas is $5-6 per gallon! The best thing about the car is it is my the first car that I actually bought with my own money that I earned! I feel so grown up! No more 1 hour bus rides to Korean class now its just a 30 minute drive!

Its getting cold!

It finally started getting cold in Korea. Today is the first day they have been making snow at the Yangji Pine Ski Resort! I bought my season pass last week and now I just need skis, snow pants, gloves and a car to drive up to the resort! I am working on that last one. Tonight I am going to check out a Musso (SUV sort of the korean version of a Ford Explorer) with my friend Chi Ha. Getting a car should make life a lot easier for me in terms of doing my hobbies and traveling to see people. For example there is a bike shop in my town but they don't have any of the tools to fix my bike or any parts in stock! The bike shop of the club I joined is only 12 miles away but I can' t get there very easily unless I ride on the weekends and now its really cold and I still have to ride a bus home even if I go there to get the bike fixed! Anyway I am really excited to get a car!
Last weekend was fun too. I hung out with friends every day and even got a nice hike in near Yangji! I explored a new mountain range that I just found the trail entrance to last week. The trails hadn't been used in a while and were covered in leaves but it was a nice one none the less. I hung out at Kyung Hee University on Friday and Saturday night too. It was a lot of fun. We went to a Singing room and hung out. Sunday I went to Seoul to have lunch and hang out with som friends. Not sure whats up for this weekend but if I get the car it will definitely involve driving somewhere that the bus doesn't go!

Teachers trip, Seoul and A bike race!

I had a pretty eventful weekend. It started Friday afternoon with a teachers trip to Incheon. All of the teachers from my school got on a bus at 1pm and went to Incheon which is on the Western seaboard. We took a boat ride and ate a lot of RAW seafood! I ate raw fish and live octopus! It was very fun and I got to know some of the teachers at my school really well! Many koreans are very reserved but this trip was good for everyone to loosen up and for me to practice my korean skills.
Saturday I went to Seoul and visited some friends. it was fun! Sunday I had my first Korean bike race. I went with my riding buddy Chang Jo. The race was only about 20km from my house so it was a short drive. It had rained the entire night and it rained throughout the entire race! So it was gonna be muddy but I was still excited. I was in the Elite group so I knew I better step up! The race start was a bit messed up and all of the elite guys ended up behind the 400 other racers! but there was 12km of road before the climbing started but we still didn't manage to get to the front by the climbing so I had absolutely no idea what place I was in the whole time! I had a lot of fun though! It was one big loop no single track and the downhills were mostly paved while the climbs were dirt which was kind of backwards of how we would do it in America but still good. I met some of the other racers from the Suwon Alpha team and there is a guy my age who speaks pretty ok english unfortunatly he crashed on the downhill and had to go to the hospital to get bandaged up after the race! The race was super well run except teh start with lots of police and army people marshalling every corner and intersection. Also every entrant got a free multi tool and free buffet lunch all for $30! This was the best value race I have ever entered to say the least! After the race I relaxed and cleaned my apartment and then went to the Public Sauna/bathhouse with my friend scott. Overall a pretty good weekend and I am definitely ready for some more race action here although the elite korean guys can really climb well! I better train some more this winter if I wanna keep up this spring!

My korean skills are improving!

I had a great last week! I have been able to ride Monday, wednesday and friday after work and I keep finding more and more new trails! I go out on my mtb right after school gets out and hit the trails until it gets dark at 6. my korean class has been going well too! My korean is getting good enough that i can sort of have a conversation now! I went hiking with my friend Sunim from the camp I went to here 2 years ago and she barely speaks English at all! We spoke 95% korean for 6 hours! it was great. Saturday I had a great hike too. Saturday I went to Gwanaksan with a friend which is in the south part of Seoul and Sunday I went to Dobongsan in the north part of Seoul. I have been riding every Wednesday after school with my korean friend ChangJo. I show him the new trails I have found each week. This weekend we are doing a race in Ichon which is the next county east of Yongin where I live. Its a 35km mtb marathon style race and its about half road half dirt/fire roads. It has a few pretty descent climbs too. I have no idea how I am gonna do since I have never raced here but I am really looking forward to it! This friday will be really fun too. All of teachers from my school are going to Incheon for an ocean boat ride (from what I have heard teacher get togethers in Korea tend to get pretty crazy). It should be really fun and a good way to get to know the other teachers at my school. I am also planning to buy a car here in the next month. I am trying to decide between the Kia Sportage and the Musso (which is an SUV that is about the size of a ford explorer). They don't really have station wagons here so an SUV seems like a good idea since I plan to use it to ski, go to bike races and go camping more than anything else. Teaching and everything else is going pretty well too! Its getting colder now and it should be time to ski in about 1 month! I am pumped but sad that i won't really be able to ride outside during the week since it will be dark when I am not working! I definitely see how having a real job makes it hard to train!

getting better!

well i recovered from my cold and feel a lot better. I mostly focused on getting better but I did do some short hikes and bike rides. I found an extremely awesome trail yesterday! It is about 4-5km of gradual downhill with some short steep climbs you can grind up! its very nice! Fast flowy and best part is you can ride continuously without getting off for like 15 minutes! I also visited Wawoo temple last weekend (www.wawoootemple.org). It is just a 1 hour hike over a local mountain range away! Its a very famous Buddhist temple with some big Buddha statues. I was very impressed by them. In other news I found out there is another foreign teacher in Yangji at the middle school! And surprisingly enough his name is also Derek!!!!!! He is from England and we are gonna meet up sometime this week. It will be nice to have 2 other foreign friends in yangji. up this week! Its fall and the leaves are changing on the mountains! Its very beatiful around here! I will get some nice pictures from my bike and hiking. This weekend I have 2 good hikes planned too! I also plan to rest more so I don't get another cold!

how to get a cold!

So I had a really great week and weekend but I paid the price this week and got a major cold! Last Thursday after my Korean class I met up with a friend from Kyung-Hee University where i am taking my korean class and didn't get that much sleep that night. The next night I went back to Kyung-Hee for a big concert. They had a lot of the top korean pop stars and it was all free! I went with some other teachers from the area and it was a blast! After that took busses to Dokso to visit my friends from the summer camp. Again we didn't get very much sleep. Saturday we went tent shopping for me in Seoul and then we went to a wedding Saturday evening for the a girl from the summer camp. The wedding was pretty fun. It was like a condensed version of an American wedding. The whole ceremony was only about 30 minutes and it was followed by a buffet dinner. Also at Korean weddings you don't give presents you just give money. The wedding was also great because I got to see and catch up with everyone from the camp! I found out a few of them live near me too! After the wedding a few of us went out to a singing room which is like a personal Karoake room you rent for your friends by the hour. Sunday I took the bus home and went for a nice long hike in the mountains around Yangji! Then I went to the local public bathhouse with my new American friend Scott who is the only foreigner I have met in Yangji! The bathhouses here are awesome they have hot tubs, cold tubs, dry sauna's and steam rooms all for about 5 bucks! So yeah it was a very busy but fun weekend! It has also gotten a lot colder recently! So i got a cold but now it is almost gone! I am feeling a lot better after a few nights of good sleep! I have a new rule to prevent getting sick. I will spend at least one full day a week without leaving Yangji. That way I will hopefully go to sleep earlier!

Here are some random pictures from korea. if you wanna see more add me on facebook.com.