Rocky Horror Picture Show

Had a fabulous time at Rocky Horror in Itaewon last night. My costume was not as epic as when I went with Hannay but still real good I think;)

Ended up in Hongdai (?). Was dancing till 5 am. Instead of heading to the jimjubong, I just waited for the trains to start up again at 530 am. Exhausted today. Headache to boot.

Had such a grande time at Rocky! So much so that I reminisced in my dreams about Rocky at home. Woke up thinking I was back in Canada. But I'm not. Two and a half months down and weekends to enjoy ...

Halloween

Basically everyone lives in an apartment in Korea. Trick or treating seems to only occur at school, and only just recently. Our North American holidays are gaining popularity over here though.

The foreign teachers spent Saturday after school to create a truly terrfying haunted house. Not sure why it had to be scary as our kids are Korean age 5-7 (minus a year for North American ages). Heck, I was even scared when they turned out the lights!

I just hope my little ones don't cry!

haircut

Had my hair did today. Overall turned out nicely. One side the layers are too short just like in my last crappy haircut back home. They styled it nicely though. Cut was cheap too! Not sure if it's because it was my first time and/or I'm a foreigner... But it was only 18$!

Minus me looking very tired after Halloween-ing last night I look good.

Nakasan Beach

Stayed in a beach town near Seoraksan after the hike. The can driver was crazy. He drove us in circles to make more money. We refused to pay for the circle driving. He ran into our hotel and yelled at the hotel clerk. Ridonk!

Grabbed decent food. Hung out at the beach a bit. Hiked up to the big Buddha statue an temple area. Had some great company.

Seoraksan

Took another trip with WinK. LOVE this group! Cannot say enough good things about these people. Took a hike at Seoraksan. It ended up taking Nicole and I 15.5 hours to complete. We barely breaked, though we were cautious in some areas so as not to fall. But hot sweet Jesus that was a long ass hike! 

We had to use ropes at times to scale both up and down some of the ridges. There was even some snow at the top.

We commences the hike at 3:24 am up to Osek. Crazy busy. Had legit traffic jams. Was very neat to turn back and see all the headlamps making their way up the mountain side.

Made it to the highest peak, an elevation difference of over 3,000 feet! It was very misty/foggy which took away from the view. A little disappointing.

Hiked along Dinosaur Ridge - the biggest, most ridiculous part of the hike. It was constantly either up or down. Decent views.

Lost the trail and three Korean men said "follow us," so we did. A few hours with them later, we were told we were in the hardest, rockiest, downward decent. There was 15 minutes until it turns pitch black and we needed to motor down.

I had an out of body experience for the last three hours. I barely noticed te pain my legs and knees were in. Thank god! Nicole was dying. And she is usually the one running ahead. Must be that I have slow twitch muscle fibres ;) 

Oh the kinesiology in me will never die!:)

I am barely stuff from the hike even two days later! Nicole, still dying.

I can now say I did it. Any Korean will be hella impressed too. It's quite a feat. But never will I do that again! Haha

Spartan Training

Yesterday marks the commencement for my training regime for the November 3 Spartan Race Korea. 

I was so not in the mood to waking up at 6:45 am to train. But I did it. All up on y room top. Some Korean guy came and yelled I was too loud though. Will move my exercising to the canal trail tomorrow.

Stuck it out for three days of training. I'm impressing myself, though I am not pushing myself to my limits ...

Have ceased training - temporarily - as I have a long ass hike coming up over the weekend.

Will continue with my tough mudder work outs afterwards.

t-giving

I am oblivious to the timing of my Canadian holidays :( as I don't have the time off here. I miss them. I miss being at home to be apart of them. Miss my family and my friends who are an extension of my family.

One of the Korean friends went to Costco and picked us Canadians up a HUGE pumpkin pie. By god it was delicious!

chilly

Even though it is only fall here, I can see my breath at night on my way home from work/yoga.

Am not enjoying the rainy, Vancouver type weather we have been having off and on either.

So happy to have found a fall coat!

Green Tea Fields - Boseong

Wow! This place took FOREVER to get to. Way long than I was told as well (8 hrs there). So long so that we had to spend the night there. Ugh! But in the end way worth it. Beautiful scenery. 

Sorakseon Hike

Enjoying another hike. Was not as scenic and enjoyable as the others but good none the less.

Mr. Hazard Man

Totally forgot! When I went for the hike at Dolbogksan we were pull aside by a tv crew. I was weighed with my backpack on and again without it on. My back was at a dangerously heavy weight Mr. Hazard Man said. My water bottle (2L) was removed and "dipshit" (a jerk teacher I work with) was told "you are a man. You carry it"

Too funny!

Note: my backpack was not actually dangerously heavy. This was just a random tv spoof that happened to me on the mountain I hiked. Nobody needs to panic for me :)

Booster Shot

When I was planing and getting ready to leave Canada for Korea, me being me, left my shots till last minute. Now, in Korea I need to have a booster shot for the Japanese enchepalitis. No big deal. 

I only had to wait a month (!) for my "supervisor" to find me a place to go to and for my ARC to come in. It's actually been a ridonkulous process.

I am currently sitting in the waiting room for this shot; on my lunch break of course! I have 45 mins left till lunch is over and I need to teach. Time crunch or what!

I am hoping my supervisor translated what I need well enough and that mayhaps the needle administer knows a bit of English.

Man! Talk about putting your life in someone else's hands eh!

Vacation Time

I have booked my Christmas vacation! I am off to Kuta, Indonesia! It is an hour from Bali! Thank goodness I have time to plan out the things I wish to do ahead of time! The place were are staying looks amazing too! I anticipate it to be a very good trip! Fingers crossed that I am not wrong.

I  going with Cheryl. I feel we will either be a good balance or that we won't mind doing things separately but meeting up for the evening ya know.

A great website to use for cheap flights is www.cheapoair.com

I can't stop smiling from the inside out when I think of it!

I really enjoy my weekends! But as soon as it's later on Sunday I dread the work week SO terribly much :(

I came here with the impress I would have time to be with my thoughts and explore myself as who I am. I feel nothing but exhausted most days as I work so late and have such little free time that it is go, go, go; always. 

It's almost been two months since I arrived and I am already so tired. My time off is what is getting me through and the biggest part that I am enjoying.

Have started taking a yoga class three days a week FULL of older Korean ladies. They are very cute!

It is getting colder. Winter is coming.

Decaffinated

Prior to leaving Canada, I decaffinated myself. I wasn't sure how readily available coffee would be here, I mildly thought of the health benefits, plus I'm cheap and want to save money. Mayhaps this adds to my exhaustion? 

I am not letting it get the best of me though. I have barely caved to a daily coffee for an extended period of time. I try to have at least a day between my coffee days. I do honestly love the taste and the warmth though. 

I have taken up drinking water with iodine in it once a day to combat potential seafood radiation, loads of water and teas however.

And here I can drink the coffee black at times - it's sweeter here. It also does not help that there are coffee shops everywhere  you turn in Korea; which I am told is new. Bizarre though.

I forsee in my immediate future, that tomorrow will be a highly caffeinated day.

Seoul - festival

Attended a drum festival in Seoul a few days back. The drumming was so powerful. An overwhelming feeling of being grounded and feeling of home. There were some amazing performers for sure! 

Kara, Cheryl and I also explored around a LITTLE bit.

Seoul tower

I also returned this weekend for the continue festivities with Krystal and her boys. We saw the Colour Dance (similar concept to colour me rad - sort of; PS I  SO TRYING TO DO COLOUR ME RAD IN KOREA NEXT YEAR!),  and explored around.

I ate intestines! Dad would be so proud ;)