Schools over time for spring vacation!

So in Korea the students come back after their winter vacation for 1 more week of school in february and then the 6th graders have a graduation ceremony. On Wednesday we start our spring vacation which is about a 2 weeks long. Im going to Germany this Thursday to visit my parents. Im really excited. They live about 60km south of Frankfort. I think we are going to do some biking and hiking and maybe a road trip to switzerland. I rode this past weekend for about 4 hours on Sunday. I realized I hadn't ridden single track in about 2 months and the trails were nice and frozen with about half being frozen dirt, 30 percent being packed snow and 20 percent packed ice! It definitely made my usual trails a litte more difficult. I did a nice loop which had 4 of my favorite trails around Yongin the last of which was a 5km double track climb on mostly packed snow and ice and a down hill which was totally shaded and handn't been hiked much so it had 6 inches of snow on it still and basically no packed in line for 3km at 10-20%. Im glad I got in a nice ride I definitely want to be in better shape this spring than last spring. The first race is going to be april 10th at the Misryeong Hill climb. My team is racing teh 5 man team hill climb. I think they take the time of the 4th rider across the line or they average the times of the top 4 riders from each team. I did the race as an invidual last year and its a pretty tough climb so I definitely wanna be in good shape so I can help my team. Last weekend I also went hiking with allan and Melanie to cheong gae san in seoul which was really fun since we did a new course I had never hiked before. Other than that nothing too excitin happened but i have to keep studying, riding and get ready for germany this week! Its valentines day today too! So happy valentines day! Im sure I will have some good posts to write about germany!

Ahh I got sick!

Last monday when chris went back to America was also the start of me being sick for the week! I think I ate some bad food on monday but I couldn't really eat all week! Sunday I finally got better and now im able to eat pretty much normally again. This kind of sucked because it was Lunar new year so I had the whole week off work but I had to spend most of it recovering at my house! The weather was really good and I was able to bike and ski a little bit though. I guess I kind of started my training for spring which Im hoping includes racing the tour de korea. School starts for a week again tomorrow and then I am off to germany on Thursday next week! Which Im really excited about! This week im just gonna focused on staying recovered and starting to study for the gmat again!

Chris is going home!

Well chris is going back to the US today! We had a good time and are both exhausted now from the trip! The road trip to gangwon province was really fun. We skiied a lot, ate raw fish by the ocean and visited the DMZ. We got to look into north korea across the border but all we could see was mountains! After the trip we went skiing at the Yangji pine resort one day, had lunch with my co teacher and went out to Hongdae. Chris also got to experience Nore bang or singing room which was a lot of fun. This last weekend we went to Wolmi Island in Incheon one day and we ate grilled clams by the ocean. It was freezing cold so the last day we went to the Korean war memorial and shopped. Now that the trip is over its time for me to get refocused on studying for the gmat and get ready to go back to work at school in a week. I still have a week of vacation to relax and recover though! I think I will ski, do some hiking and if the weather is good get back out on my road bike.

Chris arrived

My friend chris made it out to Korea on Friday night. and to my surprise he is barely jetlagged. We had a pretty long and packed Saturday. We woke up and went into seoul to meet some of my friends that worked at the summer camp I did 3 years ago here. It was really fun and they got to practice their english a lot with chris. Then we met up with Yujin and one of her friends and allan and melanie and went to namsan tower at night. We were basically totally exhausted after this and headed home to sleep for about 10 hours. Its sunday morning now. The plan is to hike a small mountain before driving into seoul for the afternoon of sight seeing with Yujin and a few of my other friends. Monday we are heading out to Phoenix park for skiing!

English camp is over and Chris is coming!

Today 2 big things are happening! My 2 week english camp at school just finished and my old roommate from Purdue Chris Uberti is coming here to visit me and will be here in 4 hours!!! Im excited I think it will be really fun. This weekend we are gonna tour around seoul mostly and then Monday tuesday and wednesday we are going on a road trip to gangwon province to ski and tour the DMZ (border between north and south korea). thats as far ahead as I planned for certain but I think we are probably going to visit incheon and do a boat ride, as well as have dinner with my bike team one night. My english camp was actually really fun and easy this time around. The only part about it that is tiring is that it is 6 classes a day which is a long time to be teaching. I think ive become a much better teacher since coming here and thats a big part of why it is more fun and more easy. After Chris leaves it will be time to get back down to business as far as studying for the GMAT goes. Im going to give it one more go in April because I know I can improve my math score a lot if I study and practice a little bit more. But this week should be really relaxing and fun!

Test, Chi Ak San, Skiing

Well I took the gmat! I did pretty well but I think I can do better so Im gonna take it again on April. I think I can definitely improve my math by a few points and my verbal score was pretty good. After the test I got on a train to Wonju city. It was a beatiful but cold day. I met a really nice old guy on the train and we talked the whole way! Once I arrived I figured out where a jjimjilbang was that I could sleep at and bought some eisens for my boots. Eisens are like metal chains that fit onto the bottom of your hiking boots to give you more traction on snow and ice. They were well worth the 20 bucks I paid for them! There was about 2 feet of snow on top of Chi ak san and I hike for about 8 miles along a a snow covered ridge. I ate pizza for dinner with my friend Raymond and woke up at 7:30 to catch the bus for the hike. The view from the top was absolutely amazing!! I have some pictures on my facebook of it. It was a really tough hike but im glad I did it. It was really refreshing! I wanna get out and do some more epic winter hikes this year for sure! Last week my English camp at school started. Its basically just normal class that lasts for 2 weeks 6 classes a day. Its pretty fun actually. This friday my old roommate and panther teammate Chris is coming to visit me in Korea for 10 days!! Im really excited. We are gonna do a 3 day road trip to gangwon province for skiing and touring the DMZ! Its going to be really fun to show him around korea.

Test time!

Im taking the GMAT in 2 days! So ive been busy studying but also trying not to get stressed out about it. I got to meet Greg one more time before he went back to the US too. We went hiking at Bukhansan on Monday which is the biggest mountain in Seoul at 800 some meters. There was a lot of snow too which made the hike more challenging and fun too. I realized I haven't really been to any epic mountains lately so I decided that after the GMAT im going to go hike Chi Ak san which is a big mountain about 70 miles east of Yangji. Im going to take the train out after the test and then hike it all day Friday. Its about 400o feet of elevation so there should it should be a pretty good challenge and a great view! Not too much else exciting has happened here but it should be a good week!