The World is Waiting

If I’ve learned one thing about life in Korea from my time here, it’s that as a Westerner, it’s virtually impossible to get in trouble for anything.  This was never more evident than during the IAAF Track and Field World Championships here in Daegu last month, where we got to see some of the best athletes in the world at the peak of their careers, and it was awe-inspiring.  I saw Usain Bolt’s false-start live, then took in the Jamaican 4X100 Relay victory along with so many other amazing events, most of which either crushing or fulfilling lifelong dreams for athletes that had worked every day for their entire lives in pursuit of the glory that was right at their fingertips.  That kind of emotion, adrenaline, and energy is so powerful you can feel it.  Maybe it’s just me, but anything involving intense high-level competition like that always makes me reflect on my days playing sports growing up and in college, and wonder why I never tried that much harder to push myself to really be at the top level that I know I could have attained if I’d put in the extra hours and focus. At least no one can ever take away the glory of an intramural championship form me, right?  After the races, we snuck down onto the track and raced our own 100m in front of the entire press section as they cheered and clapped us on.  I took Usain Bolt’s just-false-started-in lane and set myself up perfectly for the victory, crossing the line at the other end to a chorus of cheers from on-lookers who either thought we were crazy or hilarious, or both.  We then walked up into the press section and met Maurice Green, former World and Olympic champion US sprinter, along with some people working for Eurosport and other companies.  We still weren’t ready to leave, so we started wandering around the athletes’ conference and locker rooms, the press boxes, and the private suites, until we found the icing on top of this glorious night, the press conference for the 100m final that had just wrapped up a little bit earlier.  Without a press pass or any indication that we were supposed to be there, we stepped through the door just as the conference got going, accidentally blocked the international interpreters and were told to move, then even pondered getting the mic and asking questions ourselves but couldn’t agree on the best question (mine = what music do you listen to before your race and during your training; Dan = what kind of Korean food have you tried since being here).  We got to watch the entire press conference only feet away from the athletes with people from some of the biggest publications around the world, and not a single person ever asked us who we were or why we were there, the entire night.  A little confidence goes a long way, I love this place for that.

One thing I’d highly recommend for anyone in Korea – take a trip to Seoraksan in the NE part of the country close to the North Korean border, take a trip up there and let it take you over.  The trip up there will be one of the best you take while you’re here without a doubt.  Dan and I headed up there for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) for a long weekend and had an absolutely incredible time.  I’ve been in love with the outdoors my whole life, so putting me in a beautiful mountain range with topography that looks like something out of Jurassic Park might as well be heaven for me.  We trekked through the park, climbed up massive rock cliffs, spent some time reflecting in a makeshift Buddhist temple in a cave high above the valley below, snuck down and swam in a pool at the bottom of a waterfall while all the Koreans watched on in horror/excitement with their video cameras rolling, and met a few amazing people along the way.  We spent the next day in Sokcho, a coastal town only 15 minutes away, laying out on the beach and relaxing all day before heading back to Daegu.  Beach and sick mountain range 15 minutes apart?  Yes please.

The last week here has been perfect.  I’ve spent all my time with the people I wanted to see – the guys on our soccer team which finished top 3 in all of Korea this past weekend at a big tournament in Ulsan, all my co-workers and friends who I’ve known since the beginning of my time here, and all the Korean families and kids I’ve gotten to know so well over the past year outside of work.  I said goodbye to all the kids at school, which was admittedly a lot harder than I thought it would be – it surprised me how much I realized I’d actually really miss teaching them and watching them develop every day, especially the ones in my highest-level classes who I’ve had in class for the entire year.  The last few days of work were awesome – I got tons of hilarious goodbye letters from the kids and teachers, an entire cardboard box full of snacks, a pizza party, a choreographed and practiced dance by three 5-year-olds to music from their mom’s cell phone, two cakes, tea sets, a nice new wallet, and one kid even went out and got me a badass Cincinnati Reds hat since we always talked baseball and he knew they were my team.  I want to post some of the best goodbye letters on here, but unfortunately I don’t have time as I’m leaving tonight, so I’ll put them up once I get home to the States.  But as for now I gotta get back to packing.

I’ll be signing off here for the next couple months, going off the grid for the next 69 days trekking through the beaches of the Philippines, the jungles and mountains of Borneo, the streets of Singapore for Halloween, Malaysia, the Full Moon Party and crazy beautiful beaches of Thailand, elephant, monkey, and tiger preserves, tubing down the rivers of Laos, checking out the Vietnamese culture, countryside, and beaches, and standing in one of the most incredible ancient civilizations in Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

69 days.  Off the Grid.  We’ll be documenting our trip together on a yet-to-be-decided blog site that I will post on here soon, so be on the lookout for some ridiculous stories and incredible pictures as LJ, Jon, Caitlin, Alex and I explore SE Asia on a shoestring.

11 Months Down

ONLY 3 WEEKS LEFT IN KOREA.  Insane.  Feels like an eternity that I’ve been here and only a few days at the same time.  I feel like that always happens when you experience something that you dive into completely and never really come up for air.  All of a sudden you turn around and there’s the sun setting and you look back on all the people you’ve met, places you’ve seen, experiences you’ve had, and wonder what could possibly come next that could top it all.  I’ll save the sappy reminiscent speech and the “here’s what I learned from all this!” cliché comments, not really my style.  I’d much rather whole-heartedly remember everything about this place, the moments I won’t forget and what it has meant to me personally without trying to justify it with words that won’t really convey the feeling to you as well as being here and experiencing it for yourself could.  So, cutting straight to what I’ve been up to the last couple months, as well as the trip of a lifetime I’ve got coming right around the corner, let’s do it.

Friendly Faces

June – August in Korea were on par with some of the best times of my life.  I spent the summer hiking, climbing mountains and volcanoes, visiting islands and beaches, exploring caves and temples, bungee jumping and white water rafting, and seeing and meeting some of the best athletes in the world at the peak of their careers.  Yeah, all in 3 months.

In one of my first entries to this blog I posted about my family and how lucky I am to come from a place with people that will always care about me and whom I will always be close with no matter what.  The kind of people you can be away from for years and pick back up like you’ve never been gone.  If you know me, you also know that I care about my relationships with people more than anything else in my life, and I’ll always be thankful to have inherited that from my family because it has made my life so much more fulfilling than it would have been otherwise.

My mom made her way over to Korea in June/July, and it was so much fun having her here to experience Asia with me.  My buddy Dano was gracious enough to offer up his extra apartment for her to stay in, and it worked out perfectly seeing as sharing my tiny apartment with my mom for almost 2 weeks would have been a pretty trying experience.  His gift in return?  A pristine Landon Donovan USA soccer jersey, which I assume still hasn’t seen the light of day given his strictly Irish and Manchester United loyalties.

While she was here, I had an amazing time showing her around.  Luckily my friend Kristin’s mom happened to be here on the exact same days, and that was a lifesaver while we were at work and they could explore on their own.  My mom got to see the best that Korea has to offer – the crazy markets and shopping downtown; the sheer magnitude of Seoul and the DMZ separating North and South Korea; the temples, museums, and parks of Gyeongju in the countryside; the giant Buddha and traditional village by Palgongsan; the Korean style food and BBQ restaurants; the beaches and lava cliffs of Jeju Island (despite the constant rain for most of the trip)… all while luckily not being killed by motorbikes in the jungles that are the sidewalks here.  Despite all the awesome things we did, I think her most memorable parts of the trip will be the dozen times she almost died trying to walk down the sidewalk or cross the street.  I thought it was hilarious, and I’m sure she will too eventually.  For me, I loved being able to see her experience all of these things for the first time, as well as getting to go out to the bars and meet all of the friends I’ve made over here.  I think that really gave her a feel for what life is like here and how close you can get to people when you are put in extreme circumstances, like living together in a country so far from home.

After a quick 3-week break I was graced with the presence of another visitor from the States, and despite her primal fear of the unknown and of getting lost on her 24-hour journey here on planes, subways, and trains from Chicago to Seoul to Daegu, she finally made it safe and sound into the train station in Daegu.  The first time seeing someone in over 9 months is an inexplicably amazing feeling, but a little (very) nerve-racking at the same time not knowing how it will go.  I can’t tell you how much it means to me though, for someone to travel across the world to see me and experience this side of the world with me.  We definitely made the most of it.

I was lucky enough to get a couple days off of work while she was here, so we spent her birthday riding bikes around Gyeongju and exploring the museum, park, and a huge, amazing bamboo forest.  And by huge and amazing I mean small and filled with thousands of mosquitoes that ravaged us… but still cool.  The rest of the week at work flew by, and we went out to dinner with everyone, took down tons of Korean BBQ, got her to try bundaegi (silk worm larvae – mmmm), soju, and a bunch more Korean delicacies.  My biggest goals were to eat live octopus and pufferfish (bok-uh), which is really poisonous if cooked incorrectly (as in kill-you-on-the-spot poisonous), but I decided that her mom would probably be a little angry if I killed her, so we held off.  I’m still planning on trying it before I leave, just for the adventure.

For summer break from school, we took a day and bused it up to an incredible temple called Haeinsa way up in the mountains, and it was one of my favorite times of her trip here.  I’d been to the temple compound before but forgot how cool it really was until I saw it again.  We walked the Buddhist prayer walk, sat in silence in the temple before the golden Buddhas, and took in the amazing scenery around the compound.  The next day we took off for Jeju Island with the rest of the crew and holed up in a great hostel called Hani’s Guesthouse right near a couple of the best beaches on the island.

After an excruciatingly long day of travelling to get there (cab to bus station in Daegu, bus to Gwangju, another bus to Mokpo, cab to the ferry, 4-hour ferry ride to Jeju, taxi to hostel = 13 hours of travel) we finally rolled in and got ready for an awesome trip.  We took the first day to get the hardest part of the trip out of the way – hiking the tallest mountain in Korea, a now-inactive volcano named Hallasan.  We met up with my buddy Jon, and the rest of the faithful crew trekked it for 6 hours over volcanic rock to the summit.  We saw amazing views of the island, crater lakes, and the caldera filled with perfect blue water at the top.  It’s incredible to stand there and think that a million years ago there was lava exploding out and forming the same ground I was standing on.  Pretty amazing.  We made it back down without any injuries and got back to the hostel just in time for a Korean BBQ dinner cooked by the staff, then followed it with some serious drinking in the “bar” that occupied the bottom floor of the hostel – basically a glorified blacked-out basement with a bar and strobe lights that the owners turned into a hot spot for everyone in the area.  I use the term “hot spot” very loosely here, as there were about 10 people (8 of us and 2 others) and we had better basements in college, but nonetheless we had a good time.  The highlight was an invigorating dance-off between Alissa and Damo, and as close as it was, I’d have to say Damo’s gyrating circus moves may have beaten out Alissa’s ass-shaking, hair-whipping, octopus-arm flailing moves, but just barely.  I didn’t even know people could move their bodies like that, but I’m pretty sure if I tried that I’d get punched in the face.

We took it easy and relaxed the next couple days, went to explore some caves formed by lava flowing from the volcano and chilled on the beautiful beaches by our hostel.  White sand, black lava rocks, clear blue water, what else can you ask for?  We hit the main town on the island for dinner a couple times, talking travel plans and eating incredible Indian food, then took off back to the mainland.  It was tough to leave the free breakfasts and the friendly people at the hostel, but only having one air conditioning remote for an entire hostel doesn’t work well when you come home at 2am and someone has taken it, meaning you have no AC in high-80’s heat for two people that love sleeping in the freezing cold.  But as we found out, wash cloths and towels stuck in the freezer for a few hours work just as well.  Almost.

I couldn’t have asked for a better time with her here, and for my mom’s visit as well.  Amazing people, crazy adventures, and perfect memories I’ll never forget.  And this is only the beginning.  As I wind down my time here, I’m starting to focus almost exclusively on the immense SE Asia trip I’ve got coming up – 2 months trekking through the Philippines, Borneo, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia before heading home for the holidays.  More details on that to come.  Can’t wait.

 

Jeju Island - the only picture I have before my camera died for 2 months, luckily it's a good one

Into the Mystic

I’ve inevitably fallen pretty far behind on updating this, so I’m going to give everyone a photographic trip down the last couple months with some stories mixed in to entice you to keep reading this even though I’ve been slacking.

     

Banging drums through the fog

      

Into the mystic

    

Since we were off of school on Buddha’s actual birthday, I decided to make the most of it and got together with a couple friends in the pouring rain to take a bus to one of the best hiking spots in Korea – a mountain called Palgongsan.  There is a section off of this mountain called Gatbawi which is known for an incredible Buddhist temple at the summit and a sculpted Buddha with a huge, flat rock resting on its head.  I’d heard it was pretty cool but I had no idea how amazing it would be.

I’m sure the torrential downpours dissuaded a lot of people from making the trip to one of the most famous Buddhist spots around Korea on such a holy day, but we marched on and ended up being the only foreigners around all day.  The pictures don’t do it justice; this was one of the best hikes of my life.  We started up the trail just as the rain let up and the fog rolled in, which brought with it a completely eerie and surreal feeling that we were completely alone in the world while climbing up.  The trail was essentially a huge progression of steep stone steps that curled around and up the mountain to the top, maybe a 1-hour trip to the summit.  Since it had just rained, the rainwater from the storms was rolling down the stone steps and roaring like a waterfall for almost the entire trek, and combined with the fog and traditional Buddhist music being played by devout followers we passed along the way, the total package was truly something that I doubt I will ever be lucky enough to experience again.  Once we reached the summit, the music was cutting through the fog and we were greeted by hundreds of people kneeling in front of the stone Buddha, and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see more than 10 feet in any direction.  Even after seeing pictures from some friends of the valleys and city laid out below on a clear day, I still wouldn’t trade our experience there for anything.  I’ll never forget it, and it has absolutely been one of the defining experiences of my time here.

     

Buddha's Birthday

Into the mystic

the trail

close to the top

Dan at the trail marker near the summit

prayers at the summit temple

     

     

(White Tip) TIGER Sharks

     

teeth

       

So technically White-Tip Tiger sharks don’t count as real Tiger sharks because they don’t really attack anything, but no one needs to know that when I tell them that I swam with Tiger sharks do they?  They look intimidating enough, like they sure as shit want to taste what you’re serving up for dinner, but luckily for us they are pretty docile and not very likely to see if you taste like the bloody fish they are used to eating.  And who cares that I’d never been scuba-diving before?  I live life on the edge, damnit.

As displeased as my mom was when I told her I was scuba diving with sharks without a cage in an open shark tank, she has always been good about understanding my need to experience new things that get my adrenaline going, and I basically live for stuff like this.  Skydiving, white-water rafting, kayaking, skiing, hiking; anything outdoors with at least a little element of danger and I’m all over it.  Luckily, she knows it.  And to be honest, the shark-diving wasn’t even as terrifying as most people would think it sounds.  We got a couple hours of instruction on the equipment and how to act while in the tank (DON’T pet the sharks…) and dropped to the bottom.  We had about half an hour in the tank before our O2 started running low and we had to call it a day, but it was definitely a really cool experience.  Being 2 feet from massive sharks in open water and making eye contact with them as they swim by you and check you out is incredibly humbling.  And as a huge fan of Planet Earth and Shark Week on Discovery, especially the insane footage of the Great Whites jumping out of the water attacking the seals (which blows my mind and which I would kill to see in person), I have a massive amount of respect for all those guys who get in the water with them in the real world outside of an aquarium.  Maybe that should be my next adventure?  Sorry mom.

success

do NOT pet the sharks

in the tank

sea turtles

more teeth

     

     

Stream-Trekking = Flooded Raging River Trekking

     

Stream-trekking sounds innocent enough, like you’re going for a stroll along a creek in the woods with the soothing sound of water trickling by as the sun shines down through the trees.  Well, imagine the opposite of that, and that’s what Korean stream-trekking consisted of for us.  Our stream-trekking adventure started out as a way for all of us to head out of Daegu for a weekend and explore a new part of the country along the Eastern coast with a group of foreigners, led by a middle-age Korean man named Charles who organizes weekly excursions for foreigners.  Brief side-bar: Charles is the man.  I got his info from my friend from OSU, Katie, who lived here in Busan until this past year.  Charles absolutely loves the outdoors and enjoys nothing more than to share this love with anyone who is willing to join him, and he does it all for free with a smile on his face.  I love the guy.

I guess the first time I realized we might be in trouble was about halfway through our 3-hour bus ride up the coast, while it was absolutely pouring rain and had been for the better part of the past 24 hours.  When we got to the “stream” we were meant to walk across with ankle-high water, we were met with a seriously raging river that had flooded from the rain and looked almost impassable.  Regardless, we came that far and obviously weren’t giving up without a fight, so a group of guys anchored the bravest one of us as he hooked a carabiner into his lifejacket and tied the rope around his waist.  As a group of 40 looked on, he struggled across in about 15 minutes and almost got swept away a couple times in the process.  At that point, there were probably 10-15 Koreans standing on the road watching our every move, and Charles was taking an earful from one of them who said he would call the police if we tried to cross because we would all be killed.  Uplifting guy.

After a 15 minute delay while we calculated that it would take literally 10 hours to get everyone across at this pace, we decided to call it off and get our friend back to safety.  By now the water had actually risen from about knee-high to almost waist-high, and we could tell immediately that he wasn’t going to make it back across.  Sure enough, about 10 steps into the water and he was knocked off his feet and swept downstream, with myself and 4 other guys holding onto the rope for dear life while he got pulled under the water and scraped against the rocks.  Luckily a couple people were able to get out to him and help him back to shore, a little shaken and scraped up pretty badly but at least with a cool story to tell.  That ended our attempt at stream trekking for the weekend.

Our next move was a winner, as we decided to head to our pension (like a hotel with rooms for 6-8 people to sleep on the floor with floor mats) and to the beach to relax for the rest of the day and night.  And luckily, as soon as we hit the beach town of Yeongdeok, the rain let up and the sun came out in perfect time to catch an incredible sunset on the beach.  We spent the night drinking Korean rice wine, beer, and soju (Korean version of cheap vodka) on the beach, trying to light off fireworks, enjoying the company of a bunch of new friends and living in the moment.  My favorite highlight, which occurred well into the night, involves me trying to throw a rock as far as I could and hit a little wooden rowboat about 50-60 yards off the beach, which no one thought I could even come close to hitting.

     

First throw, warm-up: find a beautifully shaped rock with just the right grip, give a full baseball hop, launch it with absolute perfect distance, and splash it 6 feet left of the boat.  People get a little nervous.

     

Damien (in a slightly slurred, thick Northern Irish accent): “There is no (bleep)ing way you can hit that boat!”

Me:  “Yeah I can, this throw right here.”

Damien: “OK, one shot, that’s it.  I guarantee you will never hit it.”

Me: “Alright, if I hit it on this throw, everyone here has to get naked and run in the water.”

Damien: “Deal.”  (To his girlfriend: “It doesn’t matter, he’s not gonna hit it”)

     

Second throw: find another perfect rock, line up another big crow-hop, and launch it into the night.

…….dead silence……

                      …….dead silence……

                                         (Me: “That’s got it.”)

                                                                           …….CRACK!!!

      

A collective “NO F*ING WAY!” and a lot of yelling and running around later, Damo rips off his clothes and takes off for the ocean with not a single person following him.  One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, especially when I close my eyes and imagine the looks on the Koreans’ faces that were walking along the pier right next to Damo’s inaugural skinny dip.  I love this place.

     

The next morning was a rough one, as I didn’t go to bed until about 4:30am and got up at 7:30 to run in the 5K race along the beach that I signed up for.  After trying and failing to wake everyone else up, I took off solo to the start and was probably the last one in the whole race to get there, but luckily I found a couple other people from our group.  Inexplicably one of the Koreans working the race grabbed me as I walked up to the start, along with the others I was with, and pulled us up to the very front of the crowd so we could start in the front of the race.  After a bunch of photographers finished taking pictures of us and the crowd behind, my buddy Ben and I made a pact to sprint the first 200m so we could tell everyone we were winning, and it worked brilliantly.  Charles got an awesome picture of it below.  I was the only one running the 5K (they were all better men and women than me and doing the 10K), so I turned around at the halfway mark and cruised my way back toward the finish.  With about 1K left, I realized I hadn’t really been paying attention to anything and suddenly became fully aware that I was definitely still feeling the effects of the night before, which somehow had allowed me to run really fast without even knowing it.  As I looked up with a couple hundred meters left, I also realized that I hadn’t seen anyone else running in front of me and no one had passed me since the halfway mark, but there was no way I was actually winning.  I figured I must have done something stupid and cheated somehow, I had no idea.  But with about a hundred meters left a couple guys stretched out the tape across the finish line, I guessed in anticipation of me coming, but apparently they must have thought I cheated too because they pulled it down about 10 seconds before I crossed the line and stole my glory.  Haha actually I have no idea what happened or how, but I swear I was the first one across the line, turned around at the right spot, and started with everyone else, so who knows.  I guess I’ll have to save all the glory for the next one.  The best (worst?) part of all of this: the free beer cart right across the finish line.  Just what I need after being up til 4:30, sleeping for 3 hours, waking up and practically sprinting 5km: a lukewarm Hite to wash it all down.  Delicious.  What a weekend.

a manly embrace to lock in the deal

he actually did it

crew on the beach

sunset on the beach

only 5K... weak

winning

         

Back again soon, lots more to update  Thanks to Philly, Kevin, Kristin, and Charles for some of these pictures!

Free as we’ll ever be

if you don’t like soccer or country music, you might as well keep on movin’.  just a few videos and songs i’ve been overplaying lately

 

but first, some of the cutest kids i’ve ever seen

this one asks me to hold her at least 8 times in 2 hours, so cute

pranksters

special glasses for finding vocab words haha

what a guy

this girl speaks English better than a lot of my middle school students, and she is 5.

little man is straight passed out

 

could watch this for days

 

And in the waitress’ eyes he sees the same old light shinin’
He thinks of Colorado
And the girl he left behind him

 

been on a zac brown kick lately – one of my favorites

 

some love for ohio from jason aldean

 

love the song, but for some reason i decided i’d hate luda’s part before i even heard it.  and now i realize it’s because subconsciously i knew he would say something like “kick it and enjoy the ride” at the end.  jaysus.

 

seen plenty of friends try to pull similar moves and fail way worse than this guy, hilarious

Buddha’s Birthday Bash

I started to really hit my stride here a couple months back, and the catalyst for that started the day before a weekend trip to Seoul.  First off, I’m about as big of an Ohio State fan as you’ll find – the shave a Mohawk and paint it scarlet and gray for the Michigan game and rush the field to take home a section of grass slung over your shoulder kind of fan – and I haven’t let being 7000 miles away dissuade me from showing it whenever possible.  As you’d imagine, there haven’t been many chances over here to don my Buckeyes jersey and have anyone even acknowledge its presence, but that changed on this day.  I’d been in the midst of a few down weeks where I’d been getting bored with everything and feeling pretty indifferent towards Korea, when I decided to get lost in some back alleys and explore for awhile before work just to change it up a bit.

I was strolling along next to a bunch of busy markets selling fruit, home-grown vegetables, and live seafood, listening to my iPod and taking everything in, when a kid in a red hat caught my eye.  An instinctive double-take later, and I was inexplicably staring at a big Block O sitting on top of this kid’s head.  I thought I was going mental; there was no way this little Korean kid was wearing an Ohio State hat in this random alley, especially after I hadn’t seen anything OSU in 7 months.  That quickly faded though as his entire family walked out of a restaurant wearing OSU shirts and hats, and I honestly thought they either just got off a plane from Columbus or mugged some poor dude from Ohio whose mom had just sent him a care package to remind him of home.

I walked up and introduced myself, and ended up having a 20 minute conversation with a family of 6 Koreans who I found out just got back to Korea after living in the US for 7 years – all 4 kids were even born there and had never been to Korea before.  The dad spent 3 years in Columbus getting his phD, went to a bunch of OSU football games, tailgated outside Ohio Stadium, and the kids all had perfect Midwestern accents.  What are the chances?  Definitely one of those “I’m in the right place in my life” moments.  And the next weekend proved it even further.

 

Buddha’s Birthday Bash

Two options: spend the weekend celebrating Buddha’s birthday, in a country with over 11 million Buddhists, by going to a DJ festival and getting hammered for 48 hours with thousands of other foreigners, or heading out with a small group of buddies to explore some palaces, secret gardens, a parade, and a massive festival in Buddha’s honor.  I chose the latter, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made since coming here.  That weekend will undoubtedly be one of the most defining adventures of my time in Korea.  We saw ancient palaces with insanely intricate architecture that used to house the royal family, a huge secret garden on the palace compound with temples, ponds, and tons of spiritual landmarks.  We stayed in a traditional Korean guest house on floor mats and were treated to a homemade breakfast at 7:30am.  We watched the biggest parade I’ve ever seen in my life for hours, complete with ridiculous acrobatics, huge floats, lots of fire, and hundreds of thousands of people marching in honor of their spiritual leader.  We saw the contrast between the centuries-old temples and the modern office buildings with busy intersections that surrounded them.  And that was all on the first day.

The 2^nd day of our trip was like one huge grand finale of a 4^th of July fireworks show, just round after round of awesome experiences.  From the time we got up until the time I passed out on the train later that night on the way back to Daegu, I experienced more than I had in the past 7 months combined.  I felt like I went from being on the outside looking in on the true centuries-old Korean culture to being immersed in it and loving every second.  Rolling my renewed confidence and positivity from meeting the Ohio State family over into that weekend was absolutely perfect, and I took advantage of every aspect of the festival.  We saw traditional dancers perform ritual dances on stage, met and talked with Buddhist monks making sand-art paintings, played music with more monks while Brien banged out a badass beat on a giant drum with hundreds of people watching, bowed before three golden Buddhas in a temple surrounded by thousands of colorful hanging lanterns, and were treated to so many free tokens of Korean hospitality that I can’t even remember all of them.  If anyone ever makes their way to Seoul this time of year, make sure you get your mind right and be ready to take in everything the city has to offer when it’s celebrating one of the iconic symbols of the country.  You won’t regret it.

in the temple, thousands of these. so cool

royal palace

incredible tour guide

a monk taking pictures with an iphone of other monks doing ancient sand art. what a slacker

our korean guest house

lotus lanterns lighting up the city

giant dragon head in the parade, being carried by a hundred people

the 3 golden buddhas

lotus lanterns

spiritual pond in the secret garden of the royal palace in Seoul

my bodyguards

traditional gear of korean kings and queens

burliest chest hair of the day – mike bookmyer esque

korean and chinese calligraphy

snuck this one in with 2 texas fans and a giant creepy rabbit, i work magic

sri lankan dancers

perfect

gearing up for the weekend

Into Thin Air

My motto: try as hard as I can to take advantage of every situation and not waste any opportunities to experience new things and meet new people.  This has been the catalyst so far that’s allowed me to see and do so many incredible things that have shaped my life.  The last few weeks have been a perfect example of this, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

After a winter full of skiing, mountains, and a trip to Seoul to see Eric Clapton with my Ohio buddy Johno, spring came on fast.  Work has been great, I have new hilarious stories almost daily about the things the kids say and do, and having the ability to teach these kids literally anything I want is awesome.  I think it’s safe to say that every kid at my academy knows enough about Ohio State to have a conversation about it, knows a little Spanish, and has heard countless lectures on why each one of them should go skydiving and white water rafting and skiing instead of sitting at home on their computers playing games all day.  Just doing my part to change lives, you know.

So by now we’ve finally made it to the jeans/t-shirt/flip flops weather that I can’t get enough of and always puts me in a good mood.  Time to get out and explore.  After having to work a Saturday last month, we were given an extra day off during the week to make up for it, and a few of us decided to take advantage of this by hiking to the top of Apsan Mountain, the tallest mountain here that overlooks the whole city of Daegu.  After the inevitable few last-minute bailers (amateurs), Kristin and I met up and hopped in a cab to the park.  Not many things better than having a day off mid-week with perfect weather.  Here are the highlights:

After spending the first 10 minutes staring at a map in all Korean and finally deciding which way we should wander without really having any clue, we turn the corner to find a whole stockpile of English trail maps waiting for us.  We still managed to get lost once, almost get lost again, find the right way with a little help from a couple Korean ladies, and finally make it up to the top to take in the view of the entire city laid out in front of us.  I’d like to say that my two years of climbing mountains in Colorado have made me a seasoned veteran at mountaineering, but clearly this is not the case as my map-reading abilities have apparently gone way downhill since then.  Getting lost is way more fun anyway.

Daegu, South Korea

yes, you can bungee jump off of it

Kristin has never climbed a mountain before; it shows.

stole this picture

Hitting the mid-mountain outdoor gym to satisfy our G of GTL for the day.  Sun wasn’t out at this point so ‘sun’s out guns out’ couldn’t happen… yet.  Wait for it.

G

dude you call that a workout? get serious you're on a mountain

After reaching the top, we find out that we aren’t ACTUALLY at the top, and there are rumors of a higher summit just across the ridge from us.  After deliberating for a minute on whether or not we want to go for it, we ultimately decide that we would never be able to live with ourselves if we didn’t push on.  Best decision of the day.  On our quest to find this mythical spot, we run into two Korean ladies who are also in search of the real summit, and we join in with them to try and reach it.  After telling one of the ladies I’m from Cincinnati her response is, “Oh, Cincinnatsy!”  Spot on.

Just met, trading an orange for an egg and ham sandwich. not bringing water was a terrible idea, my mouth was so dry

Korean Stoop Kid.  This guy made a tree fort at the top of the mountain and is apparently scared to leave the confines of the fort.  No idea how he gets supplies up there, but the helipad 100 yards away makes me think he actually might get them air-lifted in overnight.

The Fort

up close and personal, a fleeting glimpse of the mythical stoop kid

Although we can barely communicate with the two Korean ladies we’re hiking with, we make out that they want us to literally walk with them all the way back to one of their houses from the top of the mountain.  These ladies are serious.  Decked out in full gear, sandwiches packed, perfect climbing form.  Why not, we agree to tag along as Kristin and my conversation turns to “We should just go back and get drunk with these ladies all day…”

amazing people

After an hour of trekking down, we find out that the ladies seriously were planning on getting drunk with us, and they take us to a little local mart and buy us beer, Makali (Korean rice wine), ice cream, and snacks.  3pm, time to go into a random Korean lady’s house with her two teenage kids and drink.

The look on her 13 year old daughter’s face as her mom tells her that she brought two foreigners home from the mountain to hang out is priceless.  Like a combination of the face you make after taking a shot of whiskey and when you smell something you don’t ever want to smell again.  She doesn’t say a word, goes into her room and doesn’t come back out.  Seems like mom has done this before.

reuniting soon

All-around this was one of my favorite days here in Korea.  Such a cool feeling being so far away but feeling like I’m at home, climbing mountains and meeting great people.  Standing on top of the mountain looking out over the city really made me thankful for being here and being around all of the really cool people I’ve gotten to know in the past 7 months.  These ladies are a perfect example of almost every Korean that I’ve met – so nice, open, and willing to bypass the language barrier and still make you feel right at home.  Can’t wait to climb another mountain with them soon.

Live life like flowing water

The best part about this post is what I’m doing while I’m writing it: sitting here in my Ohio State shorts eating peanuts in the shell from the Cincinnati Reds opening day game, thanks to my fantastic mother.  I might as well be there.  Also, shout-outs to Jose, Ernesto, Dan, Chase, and Kevin whom I’ve worked with for the past 7 months and are all leaving Korea soon to get on with the rest of their lives.  Good luck boys.

In the last few months rolling winter over into spring, I’ve really had a lot of time to reflect on basically every aspect of my life and force myself to get past all the worries and doubts that have always bothered me.  I really believe that getting some time away from all the mundane distractions of your normal life and putting yourself into unfamiliar territory makes you understand things about yourself that you never knew were possible, and that’s what the last few months have given me.  Everyone had told me that the 4-6 month mark here was the most difficult time as the novelty begins to wear off and you start thinking about what lies ahead, continue to adapt to a new environment, and battle emotional ties back home.  They were right, especially when those times come at the middle/end of winter.  Regardless, just like anything else, it’s always over soon and you can always get yourself to a better place mentally and physically by really focusing hard on the positives of your life.  That’s where I’m at now: thankful for everything I have here, at home, and for all the ridiculously awesome stuff I’m going to continue to see while I’m over here, and completely ready to tackle anything that comes at me.  “Live life like flowing water” – let it all go and be confident in your ability to move forward undaunted in any situation.

Going to start doing some shorter posts to recap everything I’ve been up to recently.  The last few weeks have been incredible in so many ways, no doubt the best since I’ve gotten to Korea, and I can’t wait to keep this feeling rolling for the next 5 months here and while I travel all around Asia afterwards.  If all goes according to plan, I’ll have enough stories to last a lifetime; but I don’t like plans, so I might end up with enough to last two lifetimes.

Lotus Lantern Festival in Seoul for Buddha's Birthday