Baseball

   Ok, so as I had mentioned before there are a ton of White Sox and Cleveland Indians hats for some reason or another over here.  I don't know if it's the logo or what, but one day in class four of my boys out of 8 had o Indians hats and they were all different styles.  Anyways, I'm getting tired of staring at these, but this last week there's been some developments that made me smile.  For starters, our store that's right next to work now carries Astros hats along with all of the other random teams Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, etc.  So that made me smile.  Then there's this new chicken place that opened up next to work (which created a problem I'll discuss later) and the cook there is a nice old lady there that is sweet as can be and always hooks me up and gives me extra, but usually I end up with the younger lady that works there and I don't get as hooked up.  You've got two choices there, waiting at the walk up window, or going inside.  I used to wait at the walk up window, but I also noticed that I get cut in front of very quickly when I'm waiting outside, because I don't care to wait in line pressed up against the person in front of me.  So I go inside and the cook, a larger Korean gentleman (which is unusual in itself, but then again he does cook in a fried chicken place :-)) is wearing an old school blue and gold Astros hat.  Made my day.  So now I always go inside, I get my chicken quicker and I get to see the Astros hat.  Then on my travels to Busan for the race I was waiting at the bus depot and there was a group of guys that were fixing to board a bus headed for Seoul and one of them had on an even older school orange star with the blue "H" Cooperstown Astros hat.  Then on the metro in Busan, there was a hipster kid, I thought he was an ugly girl, but turns out he's a he, and he had on a really awesome looking blue and gold Astros hat with the Astrodome logo in gold on the underside of the bill.  Then during the race there were two different runners wearing Astros hats during the race and both of them were orange stars and blue "H" Cooperstown hats.
The next oddity that happened was my cab ride a little over two weeks ago (hard to believe that I've been horrible about updating since then).  It was a Saturday and I wanted to get to work earlier so I flagged a cab down and hopped in to be greeted by this cabbie that was super-delighted to have a white guy in his cab.  I thought I had hopped into a cab driven by little Patrick as this guy went on and on about Derek Jeter and the Yankees.  I just kept nodding my head and acting really excited everytime he had an emotional mood swing and would start talking really fast.  When we got to my spot it was the coolest thing I handed him the money and he was like "No, no, no, nothing for a Yankees brother".  I was thinking "What in the world?"  I definitely didn't argue as it was both the strangest and one of the coolest things that had gone on over here and I dropped a dollar in the front seat and thanked him as I got out.

Acupuncture Update

           Before my race I wanted to be a little looser and a little more relaxed so I increased my acupuncture visits to twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Last week was full of all sorts of adventures there.  First on Tuesday all the staff members were coming in to talk with me now, I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying but oh well, and I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I trimmed by beard almost all the way down (Grandma and Mom are probably thanking St. Anthony on that one) and I’ve now come to realize that there’s been two different Korean experiences.  One with the beard and one without, but that’s mainly for another blog post.  Anyways, they went on and on and finally one of the older ladies (not super old, just older comparatively asked “God, you believe?”  I kinda chuckled to myself for a brief moment because this seemed a fairly random question to ask a patient, but I nodded my head and answered yes, in Korean.  Then on Thursday they were being super nice again and the appointment was taking forever, luckily I went in with plenty of time before work and I had already done most of my prep work, as it was probably a 2 and a half hour appointment.  There was also a sub doctor that week as the primary one was on Jeju Island giving medical services to the poor, I was told. 

           Then on Thursday it was a long session again when towards the end of it they brought another guy that was getting acupuncture onto the other bed that’s in the stall (for lack of a better word).  They had just found out that he used to teach English in the elementary schools (now he teaches PE).  He introduced himself, and he spoke English beautifully, probably moreso than me sometimes, anyways he asked me how I long I had been here, but was quickly cut off by the staff as they had a plethora of questions to ask him to ask me.  The first was “How old are you?” Followed by “Are you married?”  “How long have you been in Korea?”  Then just went on and on.  Apparently to them I look like someone from a tv show, although I have no earthly idea who it’d be.  Also funny was them asking the gentleman to ask me to guess how old they were.  I took some honest guesses but was off by at least 7 years too young in most of their cases.  That really wasn’t the case of trying to flatter them, but honest attempts.  They finally had him ask me why I had stopped getting treatment in my knee.  I told him that I felt relief in my back, but my knee I wasn’t really feeling the benefits.  He explained that he comes for his hands and that for joints it seems to take much longer.

           This week my usual doctor was back and Tuesday’s session was long again and my knee was done again as I was instructed to roll up my pant legs.  I think the ladies had told him I was still having pain there.  I then took out my cell phone and showed him the text that had my running time on it, as I thought this would be easier for him to understand than for me to explain that I run, a lot.  He read it and then nodded his head and in almost perfect English asked “where does it hurt?”  Wow I’d been coming here for a while but glad we’re finally getting to where it hurts in my knee.  I pointed to my patella and he pushed on it and I winced, no language barrier there.  Then he massaged it in a very aggressive manner and there was definitely more wincing.  He then looked up and goes “over worked”.  I got a kick out of that as it’s what I hear everytime.  Anyways so he began to throw pins in it and he put them in different spots now that he’s located the pain to being in my patella.  The other teacher was back towards the end of this session and we chatted a little bit.  He’s got two little girls which he’s got a big goofy smile whenever he talks about them and he’s been to the state’s a couple of times.

           Thursday’s session was a little different as I didn’t get a hot pack or a massage before the doctor saw me, I guess he was free, he popped the crap out of my spine though and it felt incredible.  Then I’m laying there feeling the relaxing bliss setting in and the back of my shorts was rolled down a little bit, maybe two inches (whatever that is in centimeters over here).  He then started at the base of my spine and put a pin in each vertebrate.  WOW.  I felt like a million bucks and it wasn’t long before I was drooling not even caring that these ladies that I had just gotten to know the other day were walking by with part of my bare hind quarters hanging out.  I WAS OUT.  Thank goodness they didn’t set a timer on that round like they sometimes do because that would’ve woken me up, but evidently as one of the ladies told me later they came by and were going to take them out but tapped me and I didn’t wake up so decided to give me another fifteen minutes of relaxation.  God Bless them because I went to class feeling like a rockstar.  I’ll definitely be requesting the vertebrate treatment every once and a while.  I don’t want to get stingy and get it every time as the other methods are effective too, but that one, oh buddy it works great.

I Love the Things My Students Say

Last night one of the readings that we had for my upper level class was about the pros and cons of lowering the voting age to 16.  It wasn't a well written article as the pros and cons were very vague and not the greatest, but that was neither here nor there as the students' responses when I asked them if they would like the voting age lowered was priceless.  I wish their response would be the mindset of the majority of voters, but alas we can only hope to take it where we get it.

Me : How many of y'all would like the voting age lowered to 16 so you'd be able to vote in a few years?

There was a definite lack of hands at this point, in fact no student raised their hand.

Me : Why?

Student A : We're too busy with school and academies.

Student B {cuts off Student A} : Yeah... We don't and wouldn't have time to study the candidates or the issues.

I was awestruck.  Imagine what are electoral process would be like if this was the mindset of Americans?  Just something I thought about after hearing their responses. 

A 10K in Korea

I experienced my first road race in Korea and it was a blast. I decided that my training was ready to start a new phase of racing and so I signed up for a 10K. It's really interesting the whole process of registering for a road race in Korea. For starters, you can't register the morning of such as in America. The other thing is you pay via Bank Account transfeer (a very popular means of paying for things over here. You can easily do it from any ATM). Another great part is that they mail you the race packet with you chip, bib number, and whatever one of the gimme's for that race might include. They're not big on the free tshirts like American road races. For my first 10K I got a manbag that I gave to a staffer. For the one that I'm going to do at the end of April I get a case of Korean Melons. Yum. Talking to other runners this seems to be very common at smaller towns as they are proud of their local harvests. The other cool thing is the small town this race is going to be at is the town where my boss's dad grew up.

Anyways, at the race I got a pretty decent night's sleep and decided to warm up a little so rather than taking the subway to the race (a three stop trip) I mixed it up with some jogging, stretching and walking. I had scoped out the starting area the night before and noticed there was a 24 hour Home Plus right near the start. I knew that Home Plus had lockers that you can get for just a dime (and you get your dime back) so I just brought a couple things [wallet, phone, hotel key] to keep in the locker while I just left my warmups and the locker key waiting safely for me tucked into the middle of a bush (very reminiscent of road races in the states). The course was beautiful, and there were a ton of people. I don't know how “big” this race would be considered, but the Capital10K or the Turkey Trot are probably relative sizes, much so rather than the Cupid's Chase or Jingle Jog in Georgetown.

The race was great to have so many people as it gave me an opportunity to start way in the back and just casually pass the others, keeping myself relaxed, motivated, and on pace. I was super happy with my performance as I started out super slow and kept a solid steady pace of increasing my pace. I ran a 42:11 which I felt incredible with for the first race of the season. I can't wait til the next one because with my training and getting more comfortable I'm sure that by the next one knocking 13 seconds off of each kilometer sounds pretty simplistic in order to break 40:00 the next race.

I got me a pair of happy running feet socks since I enjoyed them so much for normal wear.  They've got this compression area around the arch of the foot and they feet nice when running.  Although after 6 miles I doubt I've got enough feeling in my feet to notice a difference.  But, during the beginning it's nice to notice the difference.

This is the convention center that the race started and finished at.  It was massive and definitely a landmark in the city.

Out in front of the convention center you can see the line of flags.  I didn't quite count how many countries they had represented but it was quite a hefty number and I was quite impressed.  I always find it interesting which flags international hotels fly above the doorway.  For example there was a hotel that I was warming up beside that flew the Korean flag along with ones from the US, Thailand, Japan, China, and Australia.  Zero European countries were represented which I found intriguing.

I took pictures of both lines of flags because I found it so fascinating the sheer number of flags that they were choosing to fly and thus maintain.  That could be a hefty Eagle Scout project retiring each country's flag in the way that is proper for that individual country.  Just think of the amount of research.  

Some of the countries that I recognized that I enjoyed seeing flags for that often don't get represented were Ireland [first picture, the furthest flag on the left], Italy [first picture, third flag from the front on the right hand aisle], the Scandinavian countries [Norway, Sweden, Finland], etc.

Watching the flags and naming them in my head as I sat there on a bench relaxing after the race reminded of the afternoon I was on my laptop at Dee and Buc's house in Schertz.

Buc : What you looking at over there?

Me : Flags.

Buc : Naw, Seriously, What are you looking at?

Me : Seriously, flags. 

{Turning laptop to show him a webpage outlining the historical battle flags of the Texas Revolution}

Buc : I'll be damned.

We've laughed about that numerous times since then and every time I have a discussion with my students about flags or start thinking about flags whenever I see a hotel or a cluster of flags I think of that leisurely afternoon discussion.

Dressing Up , Dressing Down

 It was very pretty one day last week and I was sure that it was going to be the start of a string of pretty days to come. :-( It was bitterly cold the next day, but that's neither here nor there. Anyways, I decided that since it was a beautiful day I would break out my springtime khaki suit. You would've thought I had worn a tux around that day. There's something about Koreans and their suits. They treat you like a different person. I couldn't count on my fingers and toes how many times I was asked “Teacher, why you wearing a suit?” It made me laugh, but then again I kept thinking about how rarely in central Texas, or maybe more specifically Georgetown you see a suit. Nice dress could be a sportcoat, a dress pair of jeans and a tie. It will probably be a while before the next time I don a suit to go to school, but it won't be like I dress super down just not overdressed I guess.   

The Students and Stephanie

 I was talking with my older students and they were asking if I knew of any K-Pop bands before I came to Korea. I told them I had only briefly heard a couple songs, but that I had a cousin who I lived with for a while absolutely love K-Pop and Korean culture. They became super interested and started with lots of questions about Stephanie. Then they saw her picture in the family calendar and wanted me to bring her over so they could hang out. Haha. The best was when they were saying that there was a government sponsored concert (evidently on the cheap) coming up during the summer that was approximately a dozen K-Pop bands and the tickets were on $5. They were even offering to pay for her ticket, and I was explaining that the ticket wasn't the problem it was the getting her over across the pond that was the issue. They still had a laugh about it and told me to offer it and to think about it.

A Long Awaited Update

 Getting a much needed update done. Sorry about the long delay. Mainly this term has been going great. Getting into a routine of working, prepping, sleeping, running, cooking and occasionally drinks and dinner with the work folks. I enjoy it. It's comfortable. The weather has been super weird lately. Hot, cold, windy, and just a little bit of everything.

We've got a lot of new students coming in, which makes our manager a very happy man, which in turn keeps all of us happy. Then again we're easy to keep happy. That being said, anyone who's reading this blog and is interested in the small town life over here while teaching is welcomed to send me an email and I'll drop it in the right hands. We've already got one new person coming in May, but we lose two of our teachers at the end of May.

Figured out the best way to do my shirts. I was washing them and then line drying them before proceeding to put them on a hanger. Now with a tight clothesline I throw them on a hanger while still wet and then by the next morning and they're perfect. Definitely a good feeling to take care of that, and myself.

I don't want to say that I like to wear a typical color shirt, but I'll let you come to your own conclusion based on my laundry.

I've been watching what I've been eating and how it affects what I feel when I'm running and I've come to the conclusion that ultimately before long runs and race days I need to start going back to the old school train of thought from high school and carb load with a spaghetti dinner. :-) The good news is that spaghetti making supplies were on clearance at the store. Yay.

Wellness Socks : AKA Very Happy Byron Socks

Who knew that socks could really change the outlook of a day?  But these new socks that I picked up Tuesday totally have.  They feel amazing.  They're marketed as wellness socks (IDK why) but they're basically toe socks that look like dress or business socks, which is a cool idea considering all the other toe socks I've seen have been cotton and tie-dyed.  They just make my feet feel like they're walking on 7th heaven.  IDK how else to explain it or the reasoning behind it, but if they're "mental wellness" socks then they totally like up to their marketed expectations, because whenever I wear them I can't help but think about my toes and my feet and smile.  And isn't smiling one of those important contagious things that's amazing?  I think so.

My Headphones Bit the Farm Today

On my run today my behind the ear headphones that I use constantly for runs and on the way to work went out. I don't know if I was more upset that my headphones were broke or the fact that I had to run the second half of one of my long days without music.  :-(

I See This Statue Everyday On the Way To Work

This statue is just down the block from my waffle lady and I see it everyday.  Does it seem like a shoutout to the BSA to anyone else?  Either way it's very cool I think.  I finally had a day that wasn't snowy or overcast to take a picture of it.

Tater Tots, Tater Puffs, Tater Cakes, Tater Whatever

They're delicious

Did We Start Numbering Months Differently Now?

I know the Koreans consider the number 4 unlucky, but does it have to go to the extent of renumbering April?

I guess in some weird world it could pass as a 4, but is that really what you think when you look at it?

In Other News They Tore Down My Playscape

:-( I now don't have a Sunday hangout right outside my apartment to read.  I'm going to have to find a new spot I guess.

Building Updates

It's almost as if they're just throwing the buildings up behind me at work floor by floor.  It is quite impressive to see how they do it.  With these palette looking concrete molds for the walls and then reinforcing the interiors with rebar.  I'm quite impressed.  So they've got one finished, one still in the works and they're just starting on the third.

It Just Sounds Nasty

It was an amazing surprise to come home from an excellent day of teaching to the Discovery channel here was rerunning the Snake Farm episode of Dirty Jobs.  I loved when Mike Rowe is in one of the snake pits with one of the workers putting the rattlers in a bucket and the guy reminds Mike that there's only one ladder out of the pit and too much screwing around was going to get the worker climbing over Mike to get out of there.  Mike said "oh right" and then went back to work, but started screwing around a few seconds later (who does that sound like?).  He then quickly caught himself having a chuckle in a pit filled with venomous snakes and was like "this falls into that screwing around category eh?"

Tuna Salad Mixins

Got all my mixins ready for making tuna salad last night.  Celery, pickles, jalapenos, yellow onion, green onion, pickled radish, red and green peppers and bread crumbs.  Definitely a hearty tuna salad.

Feel Better Breakfast

What do you do whenever you wake up and you're not feeling tip top?  What do you do when you're having trouble breathing because you're congested?  Have an awesome breakfast that's what.

Oatmeal, orange juice, milk, toast, scrambled eggs and yogurt

Yummy Yummy Yummy

Now I'm feeling better.

New Term, Cockroaches& Sardines

This week marks WEEK 1 of the Spring term here at work and at during the first release of the schedule it didn't look like much if anything was going to change classwise for me for my upper levels.  It was then determined to make sure that the upper level students are exposed to more people and don't begin to get attached to one teacher's style that the other upper level teacher would take the listening classes that I had the students for reading for.  I was all for this as I get his middle level classes and I am super excited about them as I've done both ends of the spectrum, but I haven't gotten to explore in the middle yet.  I also don't like to be viewed as a one trick pony in regards to teaching so branching out like this really drives that point home.
My younger classes this term are the super young kids and then a group of older (younger) kids that advanced from where I had them last term.  I share the youngest of the kids with another teacher and they are absolutely adorable.  The first time I saw them in my classroom they were all chitter chattering and I stuck my head in and went "BOO!" and they all scattered like a bunch of cockroaches.  It made me laugh.  They laugh a lot at me and with me.  I'm going to say that it's mostly the latter, but then again who knows.  They're probably in 1st grade from what I can reckon and so their English skills aren't the best.  I ask them how their day was, *no response*.  I then go thumbs up or thumbs down for your day, *still no response*.  Finally it's smiley face, straight face or frowny face.  Then it's "oh, teacher thumbs up!".  Absolutely adorable.  Monday's lesson was Blue and Red, Wednesday's was Green and Yellow and Friday's is Pink, White, Orange and Yellow.  Definitely a change of pace from talking about the death penalty and the Vietnam War like with my upper levels.  There is also a silly, stupid song that is for each week that I'm going to try to remember to bring my tablet to work tomorrow and record it so I can post it here for your enjoyment.
My upper level classes are also putting a mega-smile on my face.  My Monday class is all repeat students except for one.  It was only two students this week, but that's because several came on Tuesday to make up for it but they'll be regularly attending Monday's class.  Tuesday's class with the makeup students was awesome.  First of all it was 15 people including myself in a room made for maybe 10 plus the teacher.  Luckily I had twelve desks.  I had one girl sit at my desk and then I ran and grabbed another desk and put it in the aisle and we just moved it for break times.  Excellent thing there wasn't a fire as this was probably more packed than sardines in a can because they don't have to deal with desks and chairs taking up space as well.  Not only was the class big, which made me happy, but they were all participating and we on point, and just awesome.  I couldn't have asked for more.  Then last night (Wednesday) I had my upper upper levels which was mostly new students and it was an even bigger class than this class the previous term.  The nice thing about it was I had had the students that had leveled up the previous term and so knew which ones participated and which ones didn't, or so I thought.  This new environment changed them and the higher stakes brought out better responses and better observations from everyone which was great.
The students also have a vocabulary quiz each week for words that they are provided to study that they will encounter in that week's listening passages or readings.  I, last term, would make up small flashcards for my classes that they could utilize and study with if they showed up early as I would leave them up at the front desk.  Nobody used them :-(.  Then I had a student ask if I'd make a set so she could take them home.  I started to think about how many students this would be, how much paper it would use, YIKES.  I resolved the problem by just making a PDF of the flashcards and making it where students could print them off and use them at home.  Now how to get the PDF to them.  Hmm.  Solution? A blog for each class.  A simple web address that I quickly snatched for each class where links to an online version of the PDF vocab cards is posted for each week and they can choose to download and use them or ignore them.  There were a couple students that were super excited about this and I was like "REALLY?!?! because frankly the same thing's been available to you but you've never taken advantage of it, but as soon as it involves being online and a computer you're all gung-ho about it?"  Shook it off and figured whatever helps them is a good thing regardless.

End of Term Dinner

A couple of the teachers and I took a group of the students to a buffet and then they all went to the movie, I wasn't really interested in the movie.  The buffet was nice although our time there was rushed, so we have plans to go back just the teachers (when you're there with almost 40 students you don't get to use your strategic buffet planning like usual).  I still showed the kids what it really means to get your money's worth at a buffet.  Although I don't know if they were more impressed with what I ate, how much I ate or that I used chopsticks to eat 90% of it.  They seemed to talk about all three.

This is one of my upper level girls on my left and her sister.  One of the other teachers was snapping their picture and I jumped in.

Running

I've been stepping up my training as I've got a 10K that is coming up this month and I don't want to look like a Pokey Joe during it nor do I want to feel like a cripple for a week after, not being able to walk.  I've been smart about it to this point so I'm trying not to change that.  Taking longer easier runs to extend my endurance, but also training shorter and harder in order to build the speed.  I'm getting my boss to finalize my signup for one other race this weekend.  It's kind of cool to not have to give credit card information online because the race signups are via bank transfer as well (that seems to be something that's really big over here.)
I'm working on breaking in my swanky new racing flats.  I love them so far.  I just have to tell myself though that running in my Asics on days where I'm going longer is the better idea as they have more padding.
I was joking around with one of the guys on a running forum I'm on that you definitely know you're getting older when you spend more time stretching and warming up on interval days than you do actually running.  This has definitely been the case for me a couple days lately.
I've been upping the intensity of using the workout machines on the trail.  I only use the two days a week, but it used to be more focused on the run and less focused on the individual workouts.  Now it's split time with both.  Incredible dashes from machine to machine plus pushing myself a little harder on the machines.  I hate running with water, but there aren't really fountains so I bought a bicycle lock for my backpack and I keep my jump rope (trying to work on getting my calves like they used to be) and a water in there and have it chained to a railing.  Who knows if someone would actually steal it, but now at least they've got to put a little effort into it.