Bad Day

Monday, October 27, 2008

Friday was a bad day....

First - I figured out we lost our camera tripod and we have no idea when
Second - I forgot my socks for my shoes at work
Third - I lost our cell phone. Well... It fell out of my bag in the cab and the battery is dead so I can't call it to get it back. We have to get a new phone.
Fourth - I got a cold
Fifth - I found out I don't have as many vacation days as I thought because they took them for the Hakwon closure back in July... grrr. I asked them if they were doing that and they said no.... they lied to me.

All in all, it was a bad day. But the weekend we just had was amazing and I will write about that tomorrow morning. I just need to finish editing some photos. A short preview: we had our prov reunion, saw some good friends, house warming party, TGI Fridays, a new church and the Seoul Zoo.

Pictures from Sokcho

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The three of us in front of the condo... can't wait to get home. On our way to the bus terminal.











Bathroom at the bus station in Sokcho... interesting...









Used soap in a hotel anyone???










Kyle, looking a bit tired, on the shore of the East Sea/Sea of Japan










A shot down the barbed wire the lines the wall of the beach. Kyle saw it and told me to take the picture. It's a cool shot. Once again, reminds you where you are... a country at war.














A nice wide angle of Kyle's face on the shores of the East Sea/Sea of Japan







The coast... reminded me of home.










This is the lighthouse the guys climbed up. They are up there somewhere. I definitely could not do all those steps.

NHL

Kyle was kinda worried about being able to watch our Avs play this year, so we decided to buy (well I had to make the final decision because Kyle, of course, was a yes) to buy the new NHL Game Centre Live on nhl.com. He is very excited, but sad that we bought it just in time to see our team lose another one point game today.

Yay!! We won't have to miss any games!!! And we got the early bird price!

Sokcho (it was a while ago)

Since I last spoke with you are Seoraksan, and said I would update you on the next day, it has been quite a while. We, as you may have seen, had a friend pass away and we have just been really drained/lazy at the end of the day. I know I have used that excuse before, but we really have been. We are feeling the 6 month mark and we have been fairly homesick this week since we didn't get to have Thanksgiving Dinner. Also, when we went to Costco to get groceries it was full of Christmas decorations and that made us think about being home as well. I also really miss our cats... alot.

Anyways... so since I waiting so long to update you, I think this will be shorter than I first anticpated the Sokcho entry to be.

We finished hiking down the mountain the same day that we hiked up and then we were off to some hotel that we didn't know where it was or what the name was or even the person who booked it for us. We also were trying to travel on a strict budget, but $30 for one night is definietly more than $5. So, we threw that out the window. We got to the hotel with a few glitches with passing the phone back and forth between us and the cabbie so we could figure it all out. When we got through the door the woman knew who we were and gave us our keys right away. We gladly took them and made our very sore and tired bodies get us up the stairs. The room was what I was expecting, which is sad to say; dirty, small, smelly and hot. We didn't see the air-con on the wall, so we cooked all night. I was happy to see a bathtub though since we do not have one in our apartment. Well, I was excited till I saw I had to clean it before getting into it. There was no way my legs were going to let me pass up that opportunity. So, I cleaned the couple hairs out of it and scrubbed some scum off the side (sorry I know that is gross, but I think it is much better than the love foam and everything in the last hotel) and I made Kyle clean it a second time, then I filled it with hot water to let it sit, drained it and then ran it again to take my bath.

Sadly.... there was only used soap in the room and I was not going to use that... so I shaved off the top layer all around the soap, scrubbed it under the water in the sink for a while and then used it (I really had no choice, we were dirty and we didn't have soap). So, feeling just as dirty after the bath as I did before, but a little less stiff we tried to order pizza. The woman at the front ordered us a seafood pizza, which I couldn't eat because it had parts of the tails on the shrimp (or I imagined it because I am scared to react again) and I ended up trying to make Ramen while the guys tried to eat the pizza. Disappointing. It was expensive too. Then we crashed. We woke up around 9:30am and were so sore we could barely move. We left the hotel and went to explore Sokcho for a while. I wasn't feeling well, so I wanted to keep it short and then go home, but we didn't and ended up staying the night.

We ate lunch that day at E-Mart food court and had some nice deep fried chicken and we narrowly avoided a rainstorm.

We walked on the beach (really only in one small spot and then turned around and went to the lookout area) and got sand in my shoes. The boys were feeling adventurous again after this, so we caught a cab and headed over to the lighthouse. As soon as I saw the stairs I wasn't going up there considering I was barely able to bend my knees, but Kyle mustered up the strength and the will to bend his knees and went up with Matt. We went for coffee at "Cafe Rich" and then went to the condo after a bit of a debate.

The condo/resort we stayed in was nothing special, like a budget hotel from home, but it was really nice compared to the other places we stayed in (my boss' husband arranged it for us and have us his membership card to get it). We had some good food from the market downstairs and slowly made our way around to see the place and since we were so sore, we sat inside, watched batman and went to bed.

Next day, very sore again. Was glad we explored Sokcho because of the pictures we got and it was nice to smell the East Sea/Sea of Japan, but was anxious to get home. Matt said some really true in his blog, so I am going to quote it here since I am too lazy to write my own blurb and my eyes and fingers are getting sore, "... you can never quite forget that this is a country at war, between the barbed wire, snipers nests, jets/apache helicopters overhead everyday, and ever present military bases and soldiers you always have small reminders." We still hear helicopters everyday and see apaches and cargo planes and today air sirens were going crazy and people in megaphones and everything. Just practicing, but still, it's always there and when you don't understand the language you just have to look around and see if anyone else is panicking and follow their lead. There is also barbed wire everywhere and army bases around every corner it feels like and lookouts on the hills and the beaches with holes for sniper rifles and so on and so on.

Okay, I am ending there and going to add some photos. Enjoy!!

PS: on a different note, Kyle and I have booked our days off for our vacation here in Korea, we are off from Jan 24-Feb 8, so if anyone wants to come and visit that would be the time. We are going to go down the coast and make our way to Jeju Island (the tropical/resort island in Korea) and then come home again. We would come back to Canada for that time, but we are trying to take a vacation (short) right after we finish our contracts and are going to save money for that. If anyone is feeling generous, in the means of $2000, we will come home and see you!!! No pressure. We will be home 3 months after that, so its all good.

PPS: Kyle is doing well at his school. A couple hard days here and there, but I can see he is starting to feel a bit more upbeat again. He is really busy and still getting a lot of extra work put on him, but hanging in there. I help him out by doing his curriculum planning for him when I get home early every night and I help him plan on the weekends. Lightens his load so we can get out and spend more time together and he is less stressed. Terri, his coworker, is finished next week and going back to Australia and they have a new teacher from the UK coming and then Ryan, another coworker, is done 3 weeks after that and they don't have a replacement for him yet. Things are stressful in that sense at his work and they are getting nervous about what will happen if they don't find a replacement!! We will let you know how that goes. Kyle is really scared Princeton will either close or they will be working a lot of overtime and Kyle's won't be able to do it mentally or physically.

Okay... I am going.... I think there was more I wanted to update on, but blogger just posted my blog on its own and I had to come back into it and edit it to add this, so I think it is trying to tell me something.

Good night. We love you and miss you all.

Eleni.... we really miss you a lot. ((((((((((((((((((((((((ELENI)))))))))))))))))))))) (thats a hug for you from us)

The Loss of a Friend

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Yesterday morning we received some difficult news. A friend of ours tragically took his own life. We heard shortly after the news was broken at home and can't even begin to imagine how difficult things are at home.

Brad will be someone we will miss. We may not have been the closest to him, but I know that I shared many funny memories with him and had many long talks with him in the student centre. He always knew how to make you smile and had a smile that lit up the entire room.

One memory that stands out for me is when my friends were throwing me a lingerie party at school and in one of my dares I had to get someone to kiss my neck. I was nervous about this, but Brad gladly volunteered. He sucked on my neck pretty hard in the 3 seconds I gave him. He laughed and said he was trying to give me a hicky for Kyle to see. Then he walked up to Kyle and said "Sorry I hoovered your wife..." It was really funny.

The pictures above are from one of my favourite hang out times with him in the Student Centre with JP. We laughed for hours while skipping chapel and the following two classes so we could be the first ones in for perogie night in the caf.

Many people have been putting the most beautiful comments on his facebook wall, but I think this sums it up best, "I'm sure God is hugging you tightly right now. Have a good rest in God's arms" (as quoted from Timothy Lai) and "You were so much to so many... you always will be." (as quoted from Derek Loeppky). We will miss you.

Seoraksan Photos

Monday, October 6, 2008

The prayer stacks at the entrance of the park. These things go for at least a mile. There were people building new ones when we were there as well. Don't knock them over, supposedly it is one year of bad luck for each rock.











This is one section of the beautiful river along the trail. You can see how clear it is and how clean it is. Absolutely beautiful the whole way... until you start going up and lose sight of it.














You can see the beautiful colours of the Maple Leafs on the trail. I loved this photo because of the way the leaf was breaking....















Matt and I on the trail
















The temple near the top of the mountain. We hiked for another 2 hours or so after this.
















Here is a picture of the peak Kyle and I went to. So high!!! The dust was coming in, so its not the best picture... but you can still make out how high we were.











Wide angle shot of Kyle's face.









Here is Kyle on the way down.... so steep and our knees were killing us. There were only small sections of stairs and mostly loose rocks and shale.










This was the last mountain shelter we saw and the one we waited for Matt to catch up with us, Yongpok Shelter. It got dark shortly after this.













Here is a picture of the three of us on a rock along the trail. Giving the obligatory "peace" sign









Here's Kyle and I, this is near the beginning, but getting warmer and tired since we have our fleece shirts off.








Here we are again.... this is at the beginning of the hike, which is why we don't look as tired and I still have my fleece on.

Seoraksan National Park

I said I would update when we got back, I lied.... its been a couple days or so, but at least I am updating.... right???

Well... our morning started at 4:30am. The alarm went off and I swear my head had just hit the pillow I was that tired. Kyle was showing some severe signs of sleepiness as well, but we had to get up. We wandered around aimlessly trying to make our eyes adjust to the lights, but luckily we set our clothes out the night before and they were easy to find. We got dressed, Kyle packed the remaining articles into our backpack (food, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, etc) and I scrounged some fruit, juices and yogurt together to make a smoothie. I am not sure the neighbours appreciated me having the blender going at 4:45am. We had to eat something though. We grabbed the camera bag, a couple croissants each and ran out the door. Not expecting to catch a taxi so quickly we went outside about 45 minutes or so before we had to be at the bus terminal. We found a taxi driver right away who was busy playing with arcade games outside our 24 Daily Mart and he pointed us to another cab. We didn't see a driver in there, but the occupied driver came and knocked on the cabbie's window and woke him up. He rubbed his eyes, mumbled and then we were off running every red light we hit to get to the bus terminal. Matt was there already and was having a conversation with a man, about 50 years old or so, who had just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and was going to hike Seoraksan. I was surprised how much English he actually knew. Not many older people speak English here, so when one is able to hold up a conversation (for the most part) one is usually suprised.

We got on the bus, endured the 2 1/2 hours of skinny roads, bright lights and uncomfortable seating to reach our entrance to the park, Yongdaeri (I think I spelled it right). A couple who was going to hike the mountain was nice enough to tell us to follow them to the trail head/bus catching point. This couple seemed not so nice when the male looked at me and said "Daechongbong??", which is the highest peak, and I replied "Yes". He quickly replied with a "Ohh... hmmm....." and a shake of the head while looking me up and down. He was very unsupportive of the task that lay ahead. He just added to my motivation to make it up there. I had a lot of motivation and a lot of pepole to prove wrong about this, including myself, so he was added to the list.

We did get a little bit worried though when we saw people will full 80L backpacks and sleeping bags, tents, pot sets, portable burners, emergency equipment, etc, etc, etc. We had our backpack, a change of clothes, two neck pillows, some food, and our camera and emergency first aid kit. A few other small survival things, but nothing like them!! We came to figure out that they really were overdoing the whole packing bit and we were about right.

We caught the bus taking us to the trail head and started our journey. I was expecting there to be a lot of people, since this is Korea, but was not expecting to basically be in a lineup the entire way up the mountain. I was encouraged by the fact that many older women, aged 50-65, we doing this hike as well, so I figured, if they can do it, I can do it too. I would normally not have doubted myself so much, but everyone was saying "I am worried about you" "Are you sure you can do it?" "It's really hard, I don't think you can do it", blah, blah, blah and it made me really worried and doubt myself.

The plan was to hike to the top, about 6-7hrs of hiking and then sleep in one of the shelters, which we were told we did not need a reservation for, descend the next day and spend the following night in a condo that my boss' husband booked for us with his membership. This did not work out.... more on that in a few.

The mountain was beautiful. The maple trees were changing colour and looked magnificent and I was tempted to pin one on myself so that when people asked where I was from, I could point at the leaf, but I didn't. We did not have many chances to stop for photos, even though the mountain was ridiculously photogenic, because of the massive hordes of people going up the mountain and in fear of being trampled and losing our place in the shelter, we just kept on going. It was hard. Thousands of stairs, parts where there were ropes to pull yourself up on, a beautiful river/stream to watch the whole way up and the water was so clean and clear you could actually drink it. It took us 6-6 1/2 hours (from 9am-3:00/3:30pm) to get to the top where were going to sleep. We asked about room in the shelter and there was.... NONE!!! All the shelters on the entire mountain were full since 10am that morning. Unbelievable. They said it was the busiest even they had ever seen it.

SIDE NOTE: If you can't tell already, I MADE IT!!! I did it and I was so proud of myself. Thanks to Kyle's constant encouragement and allowing me to take it at my own pace, I did it. And at a very good speed too I must add. I couldn't have done it without Kyle, but I did it!!! I proved all those doubters wrong.

After Matt had a few phone calls with my boss' husband and very few choices that really made any sense and that I would even consider doing, we decided to head down the mountain. Yes, it was another 7 hours ahead of us to head down the mountain, but we really had no other choice. So, down we went. As fast as possible to try and beat the fading light. Matt ran ahead of us to the very top of the mountain while Kyle and I headed down. We waited for him at the shelter called Yongpok, he was about 30-45minutes behind us. We left there, only to walk the last 3 hours in the pitch black. Luckily we had head lamps and we came across others who were not expecting the mountain shelters to be full and were heading back down as well. The way down was very steep and was so hard on our knees. We are still paying for it a couple days later. Brutal.

We reached the bottom around 9pm and hitchhiked a ride for the last 2.5km because right as we got out of the trail, there was an SUV dropping off some hikers to start, we took advantage of this. Felt bad for a few minutes when we passed tired old folks on the side of the road who wanted a ride, but I was so sore and tired myself. I pushed it out of my head, need to be selfish once in a while... right?? No, I am not trying to justify it.

Alright.... so I will post a few pictures tomorrow and then continue the story of our weekend with yet another experience with a sketchy motel in Korea (at least this time it was not a love motel as you probably remember our story from back in May) and our time in Sokcho.

I might add more that I forgot, but it is late and I am tired... thus the reason I may have forgotten some things. Well.... good night and I will write more for you in the morning....

Sorry...

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Sorry for the lack of posting in the like last two weeks or whatever it has been. We have been busy, tired, etc, etc. Also, it was premiere week for all my favourite shows, so I was doing that at night. But, again, this is not going to be a long entry... Kyle and I are going hiking tomorrow (with Matt) at Seorksan National Park. We will be back on Sunday afternoon. It is a long weekend here this weekend due to National Foundation Day (we have no idea what it is for and when I asked a Korean they were shocked there was a name for this holiday... weird).

Anyways, we will post new pictures and updates when we get back. We love you and miss you all.