3 day vacation and a bike race!

I ended up getting a 3 day vacation last week because of a school trip! I didn't want to let it go to waste so I took a trip to Songnisan national park with my friend Ji Won who is working at the summer camp I worked for here 2 years ago. It was awesome! A really beatiful park! We did a hike up to a huge rock on top of the mountain on Thursday afternoon then camped out at the park Thursday night. Friday we hiked a little bit more and then headed back to Jiwon's place (which is about 1 hour from my house by car). I did pre race warm up ride around his around his house(which had awesome roads for road riding!) and then headed home to get some sleep. Saturday I did a 100km road race in Hwaseong city which is about 1 hour from my place to the west. It was a completely flat 5km oval used for testing cars. we did 20 laps. It was sunny and now very windy. It was also my first race with my new road racing team. My friend Andre loaned me a really nice Stork to ride in the race. It was a pretty aggressive race with lots of attacks. At one point midway through the race me and my teammate scott got in a break of about 10 guys that I thought would stick(we had a big gap and were off for about 5 or 6 laps but we got brought back with 4 laps to go. Scott attacked again with 2 to go and managed to get a way with one other guy and take the win! They only paid the top 3 guys and I tried to sprint but ended up finishing 8th. The race was fun but I guess if I wanna win money road racing here I better start training more than twice a week since every race seems to only pay the top 3 guys rather than top 10 or 20 like races in the US. It was my first race with my new team but it looks like there aren't anymore road races for at least a month! I have a mountain bike race in the north part of Gyeonggi do in 2 weeks though. I gotta try to ride more this week so I can be more competitive. Sunday I went to a play too. I went with one of my friends to a place called Daehagno. (it means college street). we went to a korean play called liar it was a good test of my korean ability I was actually able to understand about 70 % or so of the play. I was happy but I still have a long way to go in improving my korean abilities. After that I ate my first hamburger in like 6 months! The was extremely nice last week too (low 70s every day and sunny). Ill try to post some pictures later on this week of the race and the national park.

wow long time!

Sorry for the lack of updates. No bike races or road trips recently to write about! I have actually been pretty busy at work preparing for an open class. Last Thursday a bunch of teachers from other schools came to watch me teach a class! This was the most important day at work of the year basically for me. So I spent a lot of time preparing with my co teacher to make sure we had the most amazing 40 minute class ever planned. We used one of my 5th grade classes and it was a big success! The vice principal came and watched and said we both did an excellent job. This means I can stay at my school for another year which I'm going to do! In other news I have a bike race this saturday. Im borrowing a really sweet Stork road bike from my friend Andre. Its a 5km oval used for testing cars and the race is 100km. Im definitely not going to make the same mistake as last time and I plan on getting at least a top 3 this time! Last weekend I went to a concert at Kyung Hee university where I studied Korean. They had Lee Hyori who is a famous Korean popstar. Saturday I went to Caribbean bay which is a big water park here in Yongin where I live. Wish me luck on the race this weekend!

bike race, soccer game, and Yuna Kim's autograph

I had a bike race last wednesday it was sort of a criterium on mountain bikes. Long story short there was a break of 2 riders with 2 laps to go and the field wasn't chasing so I attacked and passed them and went into the last lap solo with 1 to go. I got caught right at the last 2 corners and got 7th which wasn't good since there were only prizes for the top 3! I should have held back and just sprinted! It was still a fun race though my team had over 20 people racing in the different categories we had a big tent and a bunch of food for after the race. I have another race in about 2 weeks. Its a 100km road race ona race car track. Im training a bit more now too since teh weather has been great. Last saturday I went to a Suwon FC pro soccer game. Olympic gold medal figure skater Yuna Kim was there. At halftime she signed a few soccer balls and then kicked them into the stands and I caught one! Its a pretty big deal since she is probably the most popular athlete in korea. That was the first time I've every gotten anything that was thrown into the stands at a sports event. Sunday I went hiking with some friends at gwangyo san in suwon again. it was amazing weather and great views. I also did really nice mountain bike rides saturday sunday and today. I keep finding new trails here and its great. I could make a 5 hour mountain bike loop right around my house now if i wanted. I will post some pictures from the race sometime too. My team is great about taking lots of pics and putting them up on the team website.