The Last Week and Half

What you see everywhere.
My sexy spandex!
New friend who hit tree with his face.
On top of a big, big hill or mountain.
The ocean.
Just a few of the many bikes.
Food.  American food!!
For my headache!
Maybe I'm doing better at updating this...maybe not.  So the last 10 days have been filled with work and some exploring.  Part of me would like to use this space to do some venting about work, but you never know who is going to read this...?  So I'll spare you from my venting.  

About 10 days ago, my school and our sister school had a staff retreat.  We headed down to the SW part of Korea to an area called Gwangju.  Gwangju sits in the midst of the mountains and just a few miles from the ocean.  I chose to use this time to hang out with my friend from KC who worked at the other school...I received a lot of flack from co-workers about this...oh well.  I also did some hiking and went to the beach, and swam in the ocean.  Supposedly there are only certain times that are considered "suitable" to swim in the ocean, but those restrictive times don't apply to me...I'm a foreigner...I don't know better =)

This past weekend I met up with a guy that I'd been emailing since before I arrived in Korea.  This guy is a mountain biker, so am I...or at least I used to be!  So he picked me up at the subway station and we drove, made some wrong turns, drove some more and ended up at a great spot for riding.  We met up with about 16 other people for a day filled with bombing down the mountain, getting pick up in a truck and taken back to the top to do it all again.  It was a great time!  I was surrounded by expats, all of which speak English and are from the states, Canada or Australia.  This group provided me with a warm welcome, great riding, and then a feast of food from the US like real hotdogs, Doritos, Lays, and Sam Adams (Summer Ale).  Needless to say, I stuffed myself!!

Last night, a co-worker and I went motorcycle/moped shopping.  We never found the shop we were looking for =(  Better luck next time!  And there will be a next time!  We did end up eating at a Thai restaurant.  I loved it!  It kind of stinks though...the food I enjoy most is not the Korean food therefore I'm paying 2 to 3 times more for than I would normally pay for a meal.  Oh well...it was good!

This upcoming weekend is the Korean holiday Chusak.  I don't know much about it other than I get 3 days off of school plus the weekend.  Wonderful holiday!!  Friday morning I'm leaving for Japan for 3 nights.  I have no idea what I'll be doing there, but I'm ready to go.  You'll see pictures afterwards.

Oh, I finally got a cellphone.  Going 5 weeks without a phone to call locals is difficult.  Try it sometime!

Here/there are some pictures from the last 10 days.