Hello Friends and Family,
It's been several weeks since I've updated my blog here. No excuses, but I guess the novelty is wearing off to some degree and routine is engulfing me. Nonetheless I'll try to make some amends.
This weekend I'm laying low. The air quality is terrible today (3 miles visibility. "Usual bad" is 6 miles.) That makes it uninspiring to go out for a ride or exploring even if I don't have enough work and Netflix to keep me busy in my room. I've explored most of the nearby places here now so I have to go further afield to find something new, which takes lots of time which I find I don't have for the usual teacherly reasons. Even if my schedule is tremendously lighter than it has been in years past it still requires attention outside of school hours. And although I'm able to keep up with a lot of the workload during official work hours, the official work hours are longer. I start school at about a half hour later than I used to and of course my commute is much shorter. As a result whereas I used to have set my alarm for about 5:30 a.m. each day I now set it for 6:30 a.m. On the other hand, we officially work until at least 4:00 each day and on Tue, Thur I officially work until 5:00 (Division - middle school - meetings happen on Tuesdays from 4 -5 and department - science - meetings happen on Thursdays during the same time slot). When you add in optional semi-voluntary Korean class on Mondays from 4 - 5 I'm "at work" from 8 - 5 most days. Dinner is from 5-6 so I'm usually home by 6 and ready to relax. That's when I'm seeing the real benefit of the schedule change as I'm often able to have a work-free evening during the week which I could never do before.
Nonetheless I still have to do some work most weekends. And there have been some other random duties coming up in the last couple weeks. For instance I "volunteered" to help with the Halloween party supervision which kept me busy after school until about 9:00 that night and then we had "Library Night" which kept me until 8:30 on a Thursday the week before last and then yesterday we did the Science Fair which kept me engaged until about 6:00 on a Friday when we're usually off by 3:00 (early dismissal on Fridays).
Long story short it's less stressful than I'm used to but still requires some extra-curricular effort, especially in this first year of my two new preps. I have to create lesson plans and quizzes for the first time. Should be easier next year when I have a lot of that done already.
So for those reasons, and also having a terrible head cold last weekend, I haven't been getting out much in recent weeks. In fact, this is Saturday evening and I haven't left my room today and I may not (probably won't) tomorrow. That would make at least the second weekend in a row I haven't left my room for over 48 hours but there's really nowhere to go (that I haven't already been easily).
So let's go back in time to a weekend at least two weeks ago when I finally made it to the summit of the major hill between me and Seoul (several km east of here). I rode my bike back to the trailhead at the summit of the highway between this side of the range of hills and the other side where I've explored a few times accidentally (on my first major bike ride trying to get to the Han river) and on purpose (the day I rode my bike on a tour of some museums in the area).
As I mentioned, I had previously scouted out the summit of the roadway, where it goes through a tunnel, and where I could lock my bike and climb on foot. So that's what I did. The summit is at an elevation of about 400 m. (approx. 1200 ft). It was a warm day with, characteristically, poor visibility. I was sweating by the time I reached the top where I found lots of locals having picnics and enjoying the (diminished) views.
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| My destination |
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| Looking east from the summit area |
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| This is the area I was riding through, on the far side of the mountain from my local area, when I was visiting museums and wrassling with navigation issues from a few posts back. Down there is where I first found the sign with the map which alerted me to all the trails in this area. |
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| This is looking pretty much straight south, toward Song-do (the supposedly super-modern city). My area (a prototype for the super-modern city) is on the right, where I came from, and to the left (east) is everything between me and Seoul proper. |
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| Here's a cool bug I found on my way back. |
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| I rewarded myself with a bite at a restaurant in Simgok, my favorite hangout as I explained in my last post. I haven't been back there since but will be going back there again on Thanksgiving day because that's where St. Mary's hospital is where I need to go to get Typhoid vaccine and malaria pills for my upcoming trip (over winter break) to Thailand to see Max, Owen, Darcy, and Eddie, which I'm greatly looking forward to. |
Okay, so now I realize that was all three weeks ago. As I said, last weekend I didn't do anything except lay around and blow my nose and nap and drink water and watch Netflix since I had a head cold all weekend. The weekend before that (2 weeks ago) I had gone out on Friday evening with Eric (he needed a haircut) then we wet Ben for dinner and had a couple drinks at a local bar for westerners which was closing ("The Bridge", RIP). but after that I didn't go out the rest of the weekend.
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| Here's Eric getting his hair cut. |
Wait, maybe I'm missing a weekend. There was one week in there where we had a middle-school teacher's outing to Seoul to hike up a mountain in the middle of the city there which also has a tower on top. I guess my timeline was off by a week. I guess it's been a month since I did the climb I was describing above? Is that possible? Time is a slippery eel.
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| Middle School Outing to Namsam park in downtown Seoul. Principle Shim is on the right. |
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| View on the way up Mt. Namsam. I think this was a nice clear day. Beautiful weather, as I recall. It was a Friday after work. One distinctive feature of Seoul is how it's a major urban center in the midst of some quasi-mountains. |
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| Still climbing toward the tower/tourist area at the top of Mt. Namsam. |
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| Looking northeast. |
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| View to the southwest, across the Han river. Google made this panorama from my photos without my consent. Kinda pisses me off. They're starting to come between me and my pictures as it's becoming increasingly difficult to download, manage, and store my own photos without their interference. |
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| To the southwest, from the top of Mt. Namsam. |
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| The base of the tower at the top of the mountain. |
After this hike we took a bus to Itaewon, a section of the city near a US military base which has a lot of foreigners. I'd been there once before the night we went to Linus' BBQ and the comedy club (did I write about that?). On this occasion we went to a Mexican place called Vatos' Tacos. It was okay, but not as good as what you can get in Denver for a fraction of the price. Luckily it was a school event and I wasn't buying. I am becoming increasingly nostalgic for Denver grub though!
I'll leave you with this pic of a store nearby where Eric was getting his hair cut. It was hot and stuffy in there so I wandered out to get some fresh air and explore a bit while I waited for him (I had gotten my haircut for the second time since my arrival at the same place about 2 weeks earlier just before parent-teacher conferences so didn't need it that time). I'm not sure what it means exactly but it must be some sort sort of commentary on local culture. They sell chairs. And only chairs. And though I didn't go in it looked to me from the outside like a car dealership. I'm sorry now I didn't check out the prices. Maybe I'll do that next time I get to town. I imagine they (the chairs) give you a massage, which you would certainly need after trying to get one of these up the stairs to your apartment!
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| Do you like these? |
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| Or maybe these? Anyone want to guess what they cost? I'll take guesses and let you know the answer when I find out. |
I get Thursday and Friday off this week. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! -- Chris
