Korean bike club visit to Yangji

So after freaking out about the snow it melted about as quickly as it arrived. By thursday the conditions were good enough that my bike team decided to have the Saturday Mountain bike ride right here in Yangji. I was the guide and about 15 riders came to yangji at 8:30am last saturday morning for what would turn into a pretty nice mudfest. Unfortunately the best trails were still snowed in because they were on the shady side of the mountains but 2 good loops were totally snow free. They thoroughly enjoyed my trails (especially because unlike other places in korea there are almost no hikers here in Yangji). I also got to see our sweet team van which has a 10 bike rack and seats for 10 people. This season should definitely be fun everyone on the team is really friendly and willing to help me improve my korean. I got a few lessons in politeness this ride. Age is really important in korea and there are several different ways of speaking to people based on age. I didn't know the most polite form of how to say "lets go" until this ride. Last weekend was a also fun because it was my good friend Allan's birthday party Saturday night. Sunday I went up to Seoul and went hiking with Peter and Danny. It was a pretty tiring weekend and I fell asleep at 9pm Sunday night! It looks like its gonna be a great week here. Yesterday after work I drove down to Chung Buk province to visit one of my best Korean friends Yeon Gee from the camp 2 years ago. He is leaving to go to America for 3 months on Wednesday! Up for the rest of the week is studying korean at my new korean language school and riding my bike on trails a lot!.

It snowed again!

It just snowed 5 inches here last night but unfortunately for me the ski resort is closed for the season!!! I guess march snow is pretty unusual here. I just got my mountain bike all fixed up and ready to ride too! I had to buy a new chain and cassette and do a bunch of fine tuning to get it working but now I think I am good to ride for a while. Buying bike parts here is a little more expensive than the US but the labor is free and they fix your bike immediately while you wait. I am officially in the Suwon Alpha Mtb club now too. I got a jersey and everything and I am looking forward to my first race with them in mid april. Its a mountain bike hill climb but I guess its primarily held on roads. Yesterday the club president and Vice president were at the shop and my friend Ik Son who is my age and also races bikes with the club(and sort of speaks english) and they said its a pretty fun race. I guess the week after that there is a race in Asan too which they said is one of the best XC mtb races in Korea. I don't really think I will be all that good at doing hill climbs (especially not as the first race of the year!!!) but it will be an interesting change of pace. I am already missing collegiate racing a lot after talking to Joey, Sarah and the other people from the Purdue team. I still don't even have a road bike( or the money to buy one for that matter). The team actually has a van(a 9 passenger van with racks a paint job and everything). and I guess we take it to all the team races which should be fun and a good way for me to learn a lot of korean. Another intersting difference between korean bike racing and american is that here my jersy size is XXL!!!!!! In america I was a small or medium!!! Anyway I am getting pretty excited to do some racing soon even though I haven't trained at all. It will be fun to do some completely no pressure racing.

Do Du Lam Mountain in Icheon County

Teaching action photos

Teaching action photos

Spring is here ski season is almost over.

After my parents left the weather totally changed here! It was like 50 (10 degrees C) every day for a week and almost melted all the snow at the ski resort. Fortunately I have been able to ski a few more times but the resort is closing on this Sunday. So it looks like its time for me to start riding my bike again I and getting in shape for what should be a fun season of racing mountain bikes. With that in mind I finally washed my bike and fixed it up a bit after not riding it for about 2 months! Next week after the resort is closed Im gonna start riding on the road after school. Nothing too exciting has happened since my parents left. I just tried to ski and get as much use out of my season pass as I could. I learned how to snowboard also and I think next year I will try to become really good at both skiing and snowboarding. English camp has finally finished and the new school year started this week. I enjoyed English camp but its definitely more fun to have all of the kids at school. I don't have any super big plans for anything coming up except starting Korean language class again next week and getting back on my bike and hopefully doing some riding with my club before racing starts up in late april.

parents visit to korea

Last week my parents visited me here in Korea! It was really fun we visited a lot of places, met lots of my friends and tried lots of new foods. We went to the DMZ and stepped in to North Korea and saw real north korean soldiers!!! We went to Seoul several times took a tour of a palace there and saw some famous markets. Sorry for the lack of pictures on the blog I did put some up on facebook though! Other than my parents visit nothing else too exciting has happened except the weather getting really warm (like 40-50s) which is melting all the snow at the ski resort pretty quickly it looks like ski season is almost over for me and it might be time to start riding my bike again. Once the mud is gone I can't wait to get back on the trails and hopefully get in some decent shape for some mountain bike races. I checked a schedule and it looks like there is almost no road racing here except the tour of korea which I can't do because its during school!

2 road trips and getting sick in between!

2 weeks ago I took a road trip with my friends SangMi and Kyung to Hwacheon County in northern South Korea. It was a blast we went to an ice fishing festival and ate a lot of raw fresh fish. Sang Mi and I didn't catch any fish but Kyung caught 2. After that we went and drove around the boarder with North Korea looking at historical stuff. It was really cool!! We went into a tunnel that put us just 300 meters from the north korean border.
Monday morning I woke up to my stomach being in pain. Basically I had some sort of stomach virus thing and ever time I ate I felt like my stomach was gonna explode. Other than that I was fine so I didnj't take any days off work but I didn't eat for 3 out of 5 days last week and the days I did eat I couldn't eat much. I went to a normal doctor and to a korean doctor where I got some acupunture and other traditional chinese/korean medicine stuff. That made my stomach feel a lot better and finally on friday night I was able to eat with out feeling horrible.
That was good news since Saturday morning was time for another road trip. This time to Andong and Uljin in the North Gyeongsan province. It was awesome Steve, SangMi, Liz, Seo Young and I drove there and went to a traditional korean village. We ate some famous foods and drank the famous drinks. Then we went shopping in the Andong City market. After that we decided since we appeared to be close to the east sea on the map we should go. We weren't as close as we thought actually but after 2 hours of crazy mountain road driving we arrived in Uljin and to a Min Bak(like a motel) with a beach ocean view that was 40 dollars a night! The next morning we got up walked and explored the beach! then Sangmi and I went swimming!!!!! It was really fun but really cold. Next up was the 4 hour drive home again over a crazy mountain road but this time in the daylight. There was amazing views everywhere and we kept stopping to climb around on rocks near creeks or take a look at the view. I definitely need to go back to Uljin this summer for some bike riding and better swimming weather. Up for this weekend! Korean Lunar new year which means a 4 day weekend and MY PARENTS ARE COMING ON SUNDAY FOR A WEEK!!! I am really excited and I'm busy planning everything we are going to do.