Ski Trip

Early Wednesday morning we set out for the Seoul Station train terminal. We left the house for the bus stop a little after 5:30 am with bags in tow. It was a brisk cold morning but we were adequately bundled. Our bus, the 5500-1, arrived and we boarded. We lugged ourselves and our luggage on and plopped down in the first available seats. We settled in and arrived about 45 minutes later at Seoul Station, well, sort of. We arrived at the bus stop near Seoul Station. We could see Seoul Station but it was across the street, a major street mind you. So we did what you normally do when you want to get across a major street downtown, we dropped into the subway and walked under (across) the street. We popped out right in front of where we needed to be and proceeded into the station. As we were walking in the door we spotted some people who were headed up to ski as well. They had already picked up everyone's tickets and we were all set. Nice!

Once everyone was accounted for there were quick runs for coffee (Dunkin Doughnuts) and a breakfast sandwiches (McDonalds). When the time arrived we made our way to the platform and boarded our train bound for High1 Ski Resort. Once aboard we settled in for our 5 hour ride. A cribbage board was broken out and games ensued.

Upon arrival we were picked up by a hotel shuttle and whisked away to the mountain-side condo where we would be spending the next couple days. We settled in to our 2 bedroom condo which we were sharing with two other 5th grade teachers. The other 5th grade teacher named Ben and I decided to hit the slopes for some night skiing. We boarded from 5 until about 9. Of course I stacked on the first run and banged up my elbow. I could feel that it was not right but decided to not look at it until we got back to the room. When we arrived at the room hours later I unveiled my injury and to my chagrin found a nice egg shaped bubble on my elbow. I iced it a bit and the swelling went down. By the next morning it was almost undetectable. It's still a bit swollen but doesn't seem to be too worse for the wear.

The next morning Julia hit the slopes in the am and I went out the for the afternoon. The next morning the weather turned and it was snowing and foggy. We spent the morning getting ready to go and I hit the slopes solo in the afternoon. Visibility was about 15 feet with high winds which in turn discouraged most to stay off the steeper runs. This meant that I had them almost to myself. I skied for a couple hours almost completely alone. It was sweet.

We could not have lucked out and spent our vacation with anyone more cool than the people we were with. One couple have two boys who were super cool with Q. They spent an amazing amount of time just hanging out with him and making him feel part of the crew. Here is a pic of them on the train.



Of course no trip wold be complete without some drama. The short version is that on departure half of us ended up at the wrong train station. Here is that half, at the wrong station.


I'm sure you would be happy to know that we all ended on the right train after all was said and done. We all celebrated a good week of skiing with brews and cards on the way home. Here is a pic of us upon arrival.

I have no idea who that Korean guy is on the far right but I do know that I would give him a high five for totally jumping in a random picture.

Snow Day

This morning we awoke to more snow on the ground. This snow was a bit more significant than any snow we have gotten this year. We had some breakfast and Q and I headed down to play around a bit. Here are some pics from our adventures:







Today we are just lounging around taking advantage of the time to work on getting the house in order. We don't have much planned for the next few days. Yesterday was down in the teens, brutally cold with a nice wind to really let you know whose boss.

We leave for our ski trip on Wednesday morning bright and early. We catch a 7:30 train at Seoul Station downtown so we will probably leave our house about 5:30am. I'm excited to get out of the city for a bit and see the countryside even though it will be covered in snow.

We have been enjoying our Wii more than I would like to admit. We have had friends over to play various games. Julia is actually playing Guitar Hero right now. She destroys me every time we play. Some other really fun games are tennis and darts. The whole concept behind the Wii a really cool. If you've never played it I recommend doing so.

Adios,

Electronics Wonderland

This weekend we hopped in the car and headed to an area called Yongsan to visit the famed Yongsan electronics market. On our way we swung buy and picked up our friend Ben who would be our trusty navigator. After Ben joined us we steered our trusty Hyundai onto the toll-road and pointed her north. We made it a couple kilometers before we hit traffic which slowed us to a crawl. We spent the next almost two hours creeping northward before being freed from the grips of traffic.

Once we approached the Han river we exited national road 1 and headed west on national road 88, or Olympic Expressway. (Seoul hosted the 88 Olympics) We kept missing bridge exits. One exit would be on the left side of the highway and then the next bridge exit would be on the right side of the highway. In then end it worked out for the best as we found a bridge that dropped us right where we wanted to be.

We found a parking garage, parked and started to explore the area. Our friend Ben took us to his “Game Guy” so we could look at a gaming consol. We looked around and decided to on a Nintendo Wii. After this we went over the main electronics mall to look around. It was insane!! Floor after floor, shop after shop of everything electronic. It was all super clean and well organized. Many camera shops had the added bonus of selling used stuff as well. Most of the time you couldn’t tell what was new and what was used because it was in such good condition.

All this shopping made us hungry so we found a nice Italian restaurant to have some dinner. It was very tasty and the bill was only 20 bucks for all four of us. The picture of J, Ben and Q is at said Italian joint.

 

After dinner we snooped around a bit more before heading home. Upon returning home we immediately hooked up the Wii and played games for a couple hours. I have to say, (and am a bit ashamed) the Wii is really fun. The games are quite interactive, short, and fun. It’s a very social instrument.

I can’t speak for J, but I will definitely be heading back to the electronics market.

1979 KZ650D

Some pics of my new motorycle

 

 

 

 

Back in Seoul

I am sitting at school killing time before I walk down to the subway to meet some friends for an evening of informal Korean language class. I could wait for the 5:20 staff bus to take me to the subway station, but I want to get a little fresh air so I'll walk. A fellow teacher usually walks home to his apartment from school which also happens to be very near to the subway stop I am meeting friends at so I will probably stroll down with him. It usually takes only about 15 minutes or so depending if you catch the light or not.

Korean class basically is a couple teachers going to a fellow teachers house and trying to speak some Korean. One teacher in attendance is an American born Korean who helps us try to expand our Korean vocabulary. As you can imagine she has an amazing amount of patients when it comes to helping us. She helps us try to pronounce things correctly and answers all of our questions no matter how irrelevant or silly they may be.

Gotta boogie. I'll leave you with a picture taken from the front porch of a buddies ranch.