New Year New Goals!

Its New Years Eve and its been a pretty slow week at school because there are no classes. I have basically been studying for the GMAT and making a lesson plan for my English camp which starts in 2 weeks. I have also been thinking about what I want to accomplish next year. I definitely like making goals which probably comes from 10 years of making goals for bike racing.
Next season as far as riding goes I have a few pretty simple goals. 1. Win a stage of the Tour of Korea (which is the most important ameteur cycling competition in Korea) 2. Win as many other races as possible 3. Be a strong teammate and help my team be as successful if not more than we were last season.
As far as other goals go I want to get admitted to business school next fall. I also want to continue to be a good teacher to all of my students here at Yangji Elementary school. I'm really excited about next year. Im enjoying skiing at Yangji Pine resort but I will be ready to get back in good riding shape next March for sure.
This year will be a challenging and exciting one for sure. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas and Greg comes to Korea

Last week 3 big things happened it was Christmas. the last day of school was Wednesday and one of my best friends Greg Christian visited! He is in Korea with his parents visting his sister who is also and English teacher here. I took Thursday and Friday off work but got a call from Greg thursday morning saying that he was sick and couldn't come out! I didnt' want to waste my day off so I took my car down to Jobi San and hiked a big ridge line that I had seen from my bike but never hiked. I found a couple of new fire roads I want to try out on my bike too. After hiking I met Yujin for dinner in Seoul. Friday Greg was feeling better so he came out to Yangji. We hiked Do du Ram San which has a big crazy rock section at the top of it. It was fun but also super cold. After that we went to the sauna at Yangji Pine resort to get warmed up. It was christmas eve and I was supposed to have dinner with Yujin again so I said I would drive greg up to seoul. Turned out to be the worst traffic I have ever seen in my life up there. I went about 500m in 1 hour before finally parking my car and taking the subway! Its Christmas tradition in Korea to take your girlfriend on a date on Christmas eve and Christmas day so thats what I did. Saturday I met Yujin in Bundang and we went to a park with a lake and out for dinner. It was freezing cold the whole day. Sunday Yujin came out to Yangji and we went skiing! She was actually pretty good at skiing and said she learned when she was 5 years old! Overall it was a pretty good 4 day break from school. This week I have to make a lesson plan for my English camp and study for the GMAT! Im taking it Jan 6!

Snowboarding

I went snow boarding for the 4th time ever on Friday night. It was fun. I feel like I finally really got the hang of it and can go down with out thinking about my technique the whole time. Boarding is really popular here (it seems like 80% of the people at the ski resort are boarding) so I figured I had better at least become decent at it so I can go when my friends want to. It was really fun except that my friend had a bad spill at the end and sprained his ankle! I was lucky not to have any real hard falls. Saturday Yujin came to Yangji to hang out. We went to the art museum at Everland(a big amusement park near my house) and it was realy cool with lots of old Korean art. Sunday I went skiing with Alex and Brittany which was really fun! We skiied for about 6 hours the most I have done the whole year so far. This week is the last week of school. Wednesday is the last day of class for the kids. One of my best friends Greg is coming to Korea to visit his sister this week and we are gonna go hiking and biking Thursday and Friday. I think we are going to go out to Chi ak San National park on Thursday if we have time. I have never been there but always wanted to go. Friday we are gonna do an epic 70 mile bike ride from Yangji up to Yangpyeong. The rest of my vacation should be fun too!

Skiing and Studying

I've finally buckled down and started studying for the GMAT. Also I've been able to get out skiing about 3 days a week and the resort is now about half open. Unfortunately the weather in Korea has been on off between cold and warm meaning they havenj't been able to make snow very quickly. By Christmas time every course should be open though. I made a new friend in yangji a few weeks ago who also happens to be studying for the GMAT! What a small world! We have been studying together once a week and its been helping. He is good at math and I can help him with the reading questions. Last weekend was busy but fun. I skiied on Friday night with 2 friends who also have season passes. Saturday the Suwon Alpha club came to ride in Yangji and we rode a pretty nice course but there were a few patches of slippery ice that scared a few of the beginners in the club. Overall the ground was frozen pretty hard so it was good conditions for riding. After biking I was dead tired and I actually took a nap for 2 hours! Sunday was busy too! I met yujin in the morning and we biked along the Han river in the cold for an hour. Then I had lunch with a friend and she gave me some tips for taking the GMAT then finally I met John and Yeon Gi for dinner! This week I'm aiming to get some quality studying and skiing in. I'm skiing with a ski club called Yangji Family tonight that I met at the resort last year. They are all really good skiers so hopefully they can help me improve my technique a little bit.

what to do with no bike racing?!

Last week was the first official week of the off season. I still had a little bit of an itch to go biking though so I met up with 3 new friends who are in the Air Force and stationed about 40km south west of me in Songtan. We rode 100km on new roads I had never ridden before. I also went snow boarding with my friends Danny and Eunhye on friday night! It was my 3rd time snow boarding but its definitely fun. Im gonna practice more this year. I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly but I think I have potential to get up to a pretty decent level if I do it a few more times. After the bike ride Saturday and met up with Yujin in Jukjon. We went to this place that is supposed to look like a european village and ate spaghetti. Sunday was my Suwon Alpha bike clubs year end lunch party. We went to a huge buffet near the shop and the gave some speeches and gave away door prizes. They said they were very proud of me for being the first foreigner in their club. After that I met up with Yujin, Allan, Asami and some other friends at the Seoul world cup stadium park. we walked up and looked at the view from the top of the park then went to a korean barbeque buffet and to a singing room! It was really fun! This week im trying to take it easy and study for the GMAT more. it worked yesterday so hopefully I can stay motivated and study hard today!