The beard is growing, the belly is shrinking, and I went skiing in South Korea.
Last weekend, the first weekend of February, Joel and I took to the slopes with three of our Korean teachers and a couple of their friends. We went to a place called Muju, where there are hills everywhere, and every single one is brown; except the spots where you can ski. It was all artificial snow and it was only in the runs and five feet on either side past the fences that mark the edges of the course.
We took a bus to get there, leaving at 4:25am; neither of us bothered going to sleep before then, we just stayed out at the bars. I bought snow pants and gloves the day before and Joel was just going to try his luck at the slope. He wound up finding XXL pants that fit snugly when the button was undone, and he never found gloves, so he used my backup cotton ones; they didn't last the trip. Boots were also an adventure, thankfully they had my size with room to spare. But even with the biggest boot size they had (315 mm; I was 300) Joel's foot fit only well enough to get by with significant pain.
There are two hills at Muju, Solcheon and Mansan. On the Solcheon side, my favorite side, at the very top is an area that can be best described as Black Diamond heaven. None of the runs compared to 7th Heaven, the steep mogully face that goes back down to the chairlift, but at least they had the right idea at Muju. There was one high lift and one lower lift (at the top of Solcheon), both bringing you to the same place. There were seven runs from the top; 2 Double Diamonds, 4 Black Diamonds, and one Blue Square. I spent half of the last day riding down the diamonds to the almost always empty upper lift, and then skiing the diamonds again. It was awesome. Joel, who's skiing abilities were put to the test opted to enjoy himself and spent his day riding skid row, the blue square. We didn't explore Mansan for the simple reason that that is where everyone goes to learn how to ski/board. Where we were there were significantly less people. Joel had to fight his way through crowds on skid row, but I rarely had to compete with anyone for space--the diamonds rarely had people on them.
Two of the Korean teachers were learning how to ski and snowboard, respectively. The third Korean teacher, who has skied for 10 years, was stuck as a teacher; it was her boss trying to learn. I tried to help too, but my itch to go ski bigger things was too strong not to scratch.
This was probably the best weekend I've had so far. Although it may be surpassed by this upcoming 4-day weekend for the Lunar New Year. Abbie's and Joel's birthdays are during the weekend, so we are hitting the 4 corners of Busan for 4 wild and crazy, drunken nights. We're going to start in Haeundae, then move to Kyungsung, spend the third in Seomeyon, and I have no idea what the fourth night is; maybe Gwangon. Technically speaking, the weekend is half over, last night was KYU, but I'll write about it later.
One Awesome thing: Cell phone coverage. I've only lost reception once, and that was on the bus back from Muju. I have service in elevators, underground parking lots, on mountains, everywhere. It is understandable since everything is a lot closer together here, but it puts all of the USA company's networks to shame.
One Hanus thing: Creepy old Korean businessmen that want to learn English. Just because I am an English teacher, doesn't mean I want to teach you. Every teacher in Korea has experienced this, unless they are new or actually want to teach creepy old Korean businessmen.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
3
A little late this week, but I did wait until I did the dishes this time.
Last weekend was pretty epic, busy, and neverending:
Friday:
There is a place in Busan (Kyungsung) where they have all you can drink beer from 2000-000 for only 10,000 W. Between about six to eight of us, my memory became fuzzier and fuzzier as the night progressed, we had at least 8 pitchers and a mixed drink each. Normally pitchers cost 20,000 Won, and based on how much I drank, it was a hell of a deal. The place is called LZone, but the L stands for language, not love. Foreigners and Koreans go there to exchange language and play board games. It's a very cool place. After that we went to the wonderful Ghetto, which lives up to its name. I hit about an 8 out 10 on the drunken scale; 10 is black out and puking, 9 is black out, 8 is pure insanity. I was a dancing maniac for hours until 3 am when we decided it was time to head home--it was an early night, and the best way to celebrate the end of intensives. I am now back on my 1500-2200 work days which has all but killed my sleep schedule in two days.
Saturday:
After sitting alone for most of the day I left my apartment for the first time around 2000. I played some darts, shot some pool, and had a few beers before meeting up with an Irish birthday party for a girl I only met once. We hit up several places finally coming to a place called the Vinyl Underground where I just got goofy. It was funk night and I was feeling the music so Aideen (a cute Irish lass) and I danced on the sticky dance floor for hours. It was great fun. I made it home at the crack of 630 in the morning and didn't fall asleep until 700.
Sunday:
I had at least two and a half hours of sleep before Derek called me to wake me up for the Polar Bear swim. My friends that knew of the LZone, Chris and Allison, had recruited us to join them for the swim. Unfortunately it was very early, but there'll be plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead--plus I don't have to wake up until 1400 the next day. The water was freezing to the point that it was very hard to breath and all of limbs eventually went numb, which made the water feel a little bit warmer. I didn't stay in for too long, maybe like ten minutes. A friend was supposed to meet us there, but instead of going home and going to sleep he decided he was stay up the rest of the night in the casino. I never saw him, he said the table was too hot to leave.
After the Polar Bear swim, I took a shower to warm up for my soccer game. We played until the sun went down, which was around 1730. After which I needed food, and by the time I had finished eating dinner at a restuarant it was time for the weekly movie. We watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance; it was my pick and I really enjoyed. It was the biggest turnout yet for our weekly movie night; there were eleven moviegoers. I think only seven liked the movie, two were disgusted, and the other two hadn't made up their minds. It was an artfully made violent Korean film.
After the movie was the Arsenal vs. Manchester United game. K-pop, Derek and myself stayed to watch that as well. The first half was great, but there was no way any of us could stay awake for the second, so we called it a night ending one of the longest weekends I've had in Korea.
On Monday we were back to our regular schedule, which was nice, but I miss being done early. Afterwards I was playing drunken hackey sack in my room with Joel and K-pop and managed to cut open my heel and leave a nice dent in my bed frame at the same time. It bled alot and all over the floor. Truthfully though, I didn't feel it until the next day. The lesson learned is that hackey sack should be played outside.
One Good Thing About Korea:
There are convenience stores at the bottom of almost every building. It makes it so much easier to do my shopping to be able to travel to the bottom floor of my building, walk 200 feet, buy what I need, and go right back up. It may not be the most economic way to go shopping, but I'm a multi-millionaire now and can afford to pay for my convenience.
One Bad Thing About Korea:
Drying racks. Most apartments including mine don't have a drying machine. I understand that drying machines are the least efficient appliance, but I miss that fresh out of the dryer feel, and I dislike having to wait one day for my clothes to dry on their own. Laundry is no longer a short order chore. In fact the washing machines here take as long as both the washer and dryer back in the states.
Last weekend was pretty epic, busy, and neverending:
Friday:
There is a place in Busan (Kyungsung) where they have all you can drink beer from 2000-000 for only 10,000 W. Between about six to eight of us, my memory became fuzzier and fuzzier as the night progressed, we had at least 8 pitchers and a mixed drink each. Normally pitchers cost 20,000 Won, and based on how much I drank, it was a hell of a deal. The place is called LZone, but the L stands for language, not love. Foreigners and Koreans go there to exchange language and play board games. It's a very cool place. After that we went to the wonderful Ghetto, which lives up to its name. I hit about an 8 out 10 on the drunken scale; 10 is black out and puking, 9 is black out, 8 is pure insanity. I was a dancing maniac for hours until 3 am when we decided it was time to head home--it was an early night, and the best way to celebrate the end of intensives. I am now back on my 1500-2200 work days which has all but killed my sleep schedule in two days.
Saturday:
After sitting alone for most of the day I left my apartment for the first time around 2000. I played some darts, shot some pool, and had a few beers before meeting up with an Irish birthday party for a girl I only met once. We hit up several places finally coming to a place called the Vinyl Underground where I just got goofy. It was funk night and I was feeling the music so Aideen (a cute Irish lass) and I danced on the sticky dance floor for hours. It was great fun. I made it home at the crack of 630 in the morning and didn't fall asleep until 700.
Sunday:
I had at least two and a half hours of sleep before Derek called me to wake me up for the Polar Bear swim. My friends that knew of the LZone, Chris and Allison, had recruited us to join them for the swim. Unfortunately it was very early, but there'll be plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead--plus I don't have to wake up until 1400 the next day. The water was freezing to the point that it was very hard to breath and all of limbs eventually went numb, which made the water feel a little bit warmer. I didn't stay in for too long, maybe like ten minutes. A friend was supposed to meet us there, but instead of going home and going to sleep he decided he was stay up the rest of the night in the casino. I never saw him, he said the table was too hot to leave.
After the Polar Bear swim, I took a shower to warm up for my soccer game. We played until the sun went down, which was around 1730. After which I needed food, and by the time I had finished eating dinner at a restuarant it was time for the weekly movie. We watched Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance; it was my pick and I really enjoyed. It was the biggest turnout yet for our weekly movie night; there were eleven moviegoers. I think only seven liked the movie, two were disgusted, and the other two hadn't made up their minds. It was an artfully made violent Korean film.
After the movie was the Arsenal vs. Manchester United game. K-pop, Derek and myself stayed to watch that as well. The first half was great, but there was no way any of us could stay awake for the second, so we called it a night ending one of the longest weekends I've had in Korea.
On Monday we were back to our regular schedule, which was nice, but I miss being done early. Afterwards I was playing drunken hackey sack in my room with Joel and K-pop and managed to cut open my heel and leave a nice dent in my bed frame at the same time. It bled alot and all over the floor. Truthfully though, I didn't feel it until the next day. The lesson learned is that hackey sack should be played outside.
One Good Thing About Korea:
There are convenience stores at the bottom of almost every building. It makes it so much easier to do my shopping to be able to travel to the bottom floor of my building, walk 200 feet, buy what I need, and go right back up. It may not be the most economic way to go shopping, but I'm a multi-millionaire now and can afford to pay for my convenience.
One Bad Thing About Korea:
Drying racks. Most apartments including mine don't have a drying machine. I understand that drying machines are the least efficient appliance, but I miss that fresh out of the dryer feel, and I dislike having to wait one day for my clothes to dry on their own. Laundry is no longer a short order chore. In fact the washing machines here take as long as both the washer and dryer back in the states.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)