Summer in SK

These summer days are hot. Like next level hot. A hot day in Canada can get quite hot, but this heat is unrelenting. The humidity is through the roof and there is no reprieve whatsoever. This is rainy season. It's apparently a dry rainy season. And even when it does rain, it's still insanely hot. It's hot even at night and early morning. It's always hot. We have air conditioning in our apartment, and for the most part at school also, so I can't complain with regards to that, but the heat that hits you when you leave is something else. We're still managing to get out on walks and do some exercise (we mostly exercise in our apartment now because the gym has yet to use AC so we cancelled our memberships) but it's certainly not comfortable!

We've also been planning our upcoming trip to Japan! From the 5th to the 16th of August we'll be visiting Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Okunoshima and Hiroshima! We have a pretty full-on itinerary and we're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather! We've heard though, that the heat is just as intense, if not more so, in Japan.

Below are some random photos from the past couple weeks, none of which I will explain. Enjoy!

A weekend on Muuido

We spent this past weekend on an island called Muuido with some great friends that we met at EPIK orientation back in February. Muuido is just off the backside of Incheon airport, which itself is on an island. Just getting to this island, and the beach where we were staying, was an adventure in and of itself. We woke up a bit early to catch the earliest bus to Incheon. It left Buyeo at 7:10 and took 2.5 hours to get to Incheon. We (I) assumed that it was going to Incheon airport. I don't know why. I guess I don't think of Incheon as being a legit city, just the place where the airport is. Boy was I wrong. We got to Incheon's main bus terminal and were still a ways from the airport. We managed to find an information desk in the terminal and asked how to get to the airport. We got so some information and knew where to go and which bus to get on, but quickly decided that it would take way too long to get out there. Our friends (Nick and Lanie) took a cab and we decided to also. The cab itself took around 40 minutes (and was ~$70) but took us right to the ferry, which was another bus ride from the airport. We then bought our $3 return ticket to take the ferry to the promised land. Once on the island, we caught a $1.50 bus ride across the island to our final destination, Hanagae Beach. In a word (or 4), it was worth it. The beach was great, not too busy, nice sand and the weather was absolutely perfect. Hot enough to make a day at the beach the ideal thing to do, but not too hot that we could enjoy ourselves.

We were met by Nick and Lanie as we arrived and we quickly and easily rented our hut. It's 30,000 WON ($35 CAD) per night. It's super basic, but had linens and pillows which I wasn't expecting. We dropped off our stuff and went for a walk before finding food. As the tide was out, (WAY OUT) we could walk pretty far and find some cool sea life along the way. Mostly crabs and sea slugs of some kind, but also jellyfish. Lunch was Pajeon. The rest of the day involved good conversation, playing in the water and a quick down the zip line. As it was the 4th of July, there were plenty of foreigners there to party, and did they ever. Lots of drinking, singing and fireworks. ALL NIGHT. It was a bit annoying as none of us could sleep all that well, but we managed. On Sunday morning we killed time until the convenience store opened at 8AM and we grabbed some snacks and drinks, while we waited for the bibimbap restaurant to open at 11AM. It was a long wait (and they opened late) but it was soooo worth it While waiting we went for a walk up the beach and Lanie found exactly 28,000 WON randomly in the sand. Lunch was exactly 28,000 WON and that is no coincidence, that is fate. While up at the far end of the beach, we found a huge pool of soft, slippery mud and Nick couldn't help but go for a full dip, and so I naturally HAD to follow suit. We were absolutely filthy but it felt incredible and was pretty darn hilarious. We cleaned up and headed for our free lunch. After lunch we hung out for a bit and then made our way out to make the reverse trek home. It was the same, but in reverse and this time we could split the cab fare with Nick and Lanie. We got to the bus terminal and their express bus home to Andong left in about 45 minutes, while ours left in 3 hours. Luckily the bus terminal was attached to a huge department store that had an absolutely incredible food court. To kill time, we ate and did groceries at EMart. We hopped on the bus at 6:00PM and immediately fell asleep for nearly two hours, only waking up when the bus stopped in Gongju and all but 4 of us got off.

Finally getting home around 8:45PM, completely exhausted but completely satisfied with a fun weekend.


The zipline was pretty short, but well worth the $16 or so we paid. 

 
 

 The mud was awesome, but absolutely filthy. Took a while to clean up after our dip!

These little pieces of sushi were something like 75 cents each. They were fantastic and were the perfect food for the long bus ride home.I got these at EMart. The selection was pretty awesome.

 Julia's dinner at the bus terminal. A baked squash, stuffed with a rice, bean mixture.

My dinner was a couple of these delicious Korean traditional dumplings. Stuffed with some meat, rice and veggies.

Our Story

I wrote this blog post for a friend who owns a company called Unsung Hero Apparel. I thought it would also be a good idea to share on our own blog as a means of introducing ourselves to anyone that doesn't know us and our story.

Julia and I met in 2005 while studying Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. With a common passion for health and fitness we easily became great friends, which in no time whatsoever turned into the greatest relationship either of us could have imagined. Shortly after we started dating, Julia introduced me to the world of endurance sports. She was an avid runner, and while I was massively into fitness, running wasn’t exactly something I ever did for ‘fun’. Nevertheless I obliged in joining her on some runs around beautiful downtown Ottawa and after a couple weeks of a brand new type of soreness I had never before experienced, I actually started to enjoy it. So much so that I decided to do my honours thesis on ‘The Motivation of Ultra Endurance Athletes’. While I enjoyed running around our neighbourhood, I couldn’t quite understand why people would want to run a marathon, ultramarathon or even an Ironman Triathlon. As part of my research, I interviewed a number of local ultra-endurance athletes and heard their stories. I learned what motivated them to get started in ultra-endurance, to train day in and day out, to start an event that they know won’t be finished for many hours and to keep going when their body is screaming at them to stop. My conclusions were that these were highly motivated, ‘type A’ people who are driven to set lofty goals and do whatever it takes to achieve those goals. My interest in this sub-culture of ultra-endurance became somewhat of an obsession and within a couple years I had run my first 10k, then half marathon (21.1km), then full marathon (42.2k) as well as my first sprint triathlon (500m swim, 20km bike and 5km run) and right up to full Ironman distance triathlon (3.8km swim, 180km bike and full 42.2km marathon run) at Ironman Canada (Penticton BC) in 2008. What made this race even more meaningful was that I was able to raise over $6500 for the Canadian Diabetes association in the process. At the same time, Julia was doing running races of 5 and 10k as well as duathlons (run-bike-run) and keeping up with overall fitness.

Aside from health and fitness, we also share a passion for travel. We are fully aware that we only get one shot at life and want a life of experience rather than a life of things. In the fall of 2008 we decided that we’d move to Australia for a year. I applied for Teachers College in Wollongong, New South Wales (about an hour south of Sydney) and was accepted, and Julia went on a working holiday visa. That year affirmed that travelling the world was a necessity in our lives and that ‘settling down’ would have to wait. In Australia, Julia ran her first marathon and I did my second Ironman Triathlon. Upon returning to Canada in early 2010, we got ‘settled’ back in to life in Ottawa and we were back to work in no time (although not teaching) and back to dreaming of a new adventure. For Julia’s birthday that year I bought her an adventure travel book that featured variety of adventures from different countries over the globe. With no real special skills (kayaking, rock climbing, etc.) we settled on what was probably the craziest adventure in the entire book. We decided, with absolutely zero prior experience, that we would hike the 4,200km length of the Pacific Crest Trail, which spans from the US-Mexican border in California, to the US-Canadian border in Washington. This was a 4.5 month commitment and we had about 6 months to prepare. We also decided that it’d make for a great honeymoon, and so we decided that we’d go against the grain one more time and have a tiny wedding (immediate family only) and a BIG honeymoon.

We had a very small outdoor wedding on Julia’s parent’s property in the Muskoka area in April of 2012, and two weeks later we hit the trail and started walking north from Mexico towards Canada. This was our life for 4 months. With only a single night in a tent prior to starting this journey, there was a GREAT deal of uncertainty and a heck of a lot of learning to do. The ‘first 700 miles (~1100km) is in the Southern California desert (Mojave) and it’s hot, dry, and there isn’t much drinking water to be found. You’re constantly filthy, hungry, tired and generally irritable. A far cry from a typical honeymoon, but it was our choice and not once did we wish we were on a beach in the Caribbean. Tending to each other’s blisters, chaffing, mild giardia, mental meltdowns and every other challenge that was placed in front of us, only helped to prove what a great team we are. Every single day of that honeymoon epitomized ‘Rise and Grind’. We’d typically get up around 5:00AM, sore from the day before, and break camp and start walking within 30 minutes. We had to beat the heat and get in as many miles in the morning as possible before the heat of the day set in. After 700 miles of dealing with the heat, the lack of water, the rattle snakes and spiders, we finally reached the Sierra Nevada mountains and were soon consistently up above 10,000 feet of elevation. Finally we were treated to cooler temperatures, clean, natural spring water and hardened bodies that could deal with what the long days of hiking had put us through. We continued hiking through California and into Oregon. By this time it was August and some injuries (tendonitis in Julia’s foot) had kept us off trail for a week and put us behind schedule. The injuries lingered and we decided, after hiking more than 3000km that it was time to go home. We felt we had accomplished what we set out to do – which was to have the most incredible adventure we could imagine - and with a lifetime’s worth of memories, maybe now we could settle down, buy a home and start a family.

Returning to Ottawa in September of 2012 and finding an apartment to settle back into felt so familiar. ‘Getting settled’ has become quite routine for us. I’ve been incredibly fortunate through all of these adventures that my employer in Ottawa (Popeye’s Supplements) has always taken me back. I had worked in the stores, as a manager and headed up our event and expo team, and this time I was promoted to be a member of the head office staff as ‘Head of Business Development and IT’. It was shortly after taking on this role that I was introduced to Skyler and Pete and the Unsung Hero brand. After talking with them for the first time at a Starbucks in Ottawa, I fell in love with the brand. Its message and vision resonated with me immediately. The ‘Rise and Grind’, ‘No Quit All Hustle’ approach to life is something we’ve always aspired to and so I knew that these were the type of people I wanted to work with. I’ve only become more impressed with what these guys have grown this business into. Not only a retail clothing brand, but so much more. A brand whose vision includes serving the community and inspiring youth is one that I can certainly get behind. Since that day in 2012, it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with these guys for a number of joint projects (National expos, television commercials, charitable events, etc). Popeye’s Supplements has only benefitted from such a partnership.

In the fall of 2013, within a one week period, Julia and I moved into our new house (purchased in the Spring), signed up for a TESOL (Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages) course and ran 387km over 4 days in a relay style effort while raising $3700 for the Ottawa Mission. When we finally got ‘settled’ into our new home it felt great, but not quite right. The next year was absolutely incredible. We both continued to grow, learn and challenge ourselves in both our work and personal life. I raced three half Ironmans, as well as a number of other triathlons and running races, while Julia raced a number of 5k and 10k running races and placed at or near the top of her age / gender group each time out. Somewhere in the summer we decided that none of this was enough. We needed to see the world and we hadn’t yet done so. How do we see the world on our terms? The way we want to travel, not as tourists but as travelers? We took that TESOL course that we had signed up for nearly a year earlier and committed to moving to South Korea to teach English. But we were home owners. So, how would it work? The whole idea may have seemed way too complicated and daunting, but we had spent 4 months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as our honeymoon, so we knew that anything was possible. There’s always a way, and with a little ‘No Quit, All Hustle’ attitude, we knew we could get it all sorted out.

I write this from our apartment in Buyeo, Chungnam Province, South Korea. We’re living in rural South Korea, where absolutely nobody (aside from ~8 other English teachers) speaks English. We’ve been here in Korea for nearly 4 months. We can read and write the language and can get by with very poor (but improving) Korean and mediocre acting. This is truly a master class in adapting to a new culture. The daily challenges we face here were exactly what we were looking for. In four short months we’ve learned more about ourselves, each other, Korea, teaching and in life than we could have imagined. We’re driven to constantly challenge ourselves and are 100% committed to being lifelong learners. We’re not exactly sure when we’ll return to Canada and ‘settle down’ (again) but likely not in the next few years. This weekend we were registered to race in the Spartan Beast Race Korea (20km running with 25 obstacles). Unfortunately it was cancelled due to the current MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak we having going on here. What eases the pain is that we’re anxiously awaiting a delivery from Ottawa that’s due to arrive this week that includes the newest UHA T-Shirts!

Julia's Buyeo Birthday

Yesterday was Julia's 29th birthday. We spent it right here in Buyeo. It seems like every few years she has a special birthday abroad. In 2009 we were in Australia and she turned 23, watching the sun rise over the ocean, hanging out on the beach and enjoying a special dinner that I made for her, inspired by Masterchef Australia. In 2012 we were in the High Sierras of California, hiking the PCT, the entire day was somewhat typical for that adventure,  but the beauty of our surroundings made it epic. What lacked in the area of dining was more than made up for with ambiance. This year, again three years later, she turned 29 here in South Korea.

First thing this morning I went and picked up Korean rice cakes. Julia's favourite dessert here. You can find them pretty much anywhere (market and grocery stores) and Julia's favourites are the big white ones. So rice cakes for breakfast it was! The forecast called for rain all day, but we made the best of it before it started. We went out for a bit of a workout on the mountain, running around and ding bodyweight exercises.

After a quick clean-up, we hit up the grocery store and picked up some essentials. Not exactly an exciting birthday excursion, but important nonetheless. After lunch we headed out for a walk and ended up at Gungnamji. It's a giant pond / maze that's jam packed with Lotus plants. They bloom in the summer and in about a months time there will be a big festival with many, many tourists coming to our little town. Today was also busy, and for good reason, it's absolutely beautiful! The plants have grown immensely and the flowers are starting to bloom. We wandered around and took photos, but it started to rain heavier so we had to run and find shelter. We decided that it was a good time to go eat dinner, as it was now 4:45 and we were both a bit peckish. There's a place right near the pond that specializes in Lotus Leaf Rice. They cook rice and wrap it in the lotus leaf and add some beans and a couple other vegetables. It's pretty delicious and one of Julia's favourites! The owner of the restaurant speaks almost fluent English, which was a bit of a shocker the first time we went there!



















After dinner we were standing out front of the restaurant and trying to get a taxi home ($3) as it was raining pretty hard and we didn't have an umbrella. We tried to hail a few, but with no luck. Eventually, one of the employees of the restaurant came out and handed us an umbrella! So generous. It was a tad small, but we were more than happy to accept and walk home with it. We still got a bit wet on the walk home, but were able to duck into the market and walk through under some cover... and also pick up some more rice cakes.

The rain continued for the rest of the evening, so we stayed in and milled around. I got myself ready for this morning's bike ride (90 - 100k) and Julia tidied some things up and Skyped with her mom. A great little finish to her 29th birthday.

Today we're planning to head to Boryeong and go zip lining. We'll catch the 11:25 express bus, which should get us there shortly after noon.

Here's a video tour of our town of Buyeo that I took the other day.

Showing:
Busosan Mountain
Downtown
Buyeo Boys Middle School
Gungnamji
Geumgang River Path
Buyeo Girls Middle School
Gangnam Fitness
Hwarang Mart
DC Mart

Most of May

As has been the overarching theme with this blog lately, I'm going to open with a comment on how terrible I've been at consistently adding content. It makes the task even more daunting as I can't fully recall everything we've done in the past three weeks!

My last post was after exploring Gurye and Jirisan. We then headed to Busan for a couple of days.

Here's what I'll do. I'll just make bullet points for everything I want to cover, that way I can stay sane while trying to get this thing caught up.

Busan:
- The day we got into town, we met up with our friend Lindsey that we met in orientation. She's from North Carolina / Chicago and we did our practice lesson at orientation with her. She's also in Chungnam province. We had Indian food, which was extremely nice as we don't have options other than Korean or Pizza here in Buyeo. We love most Korean food, but it was nice to have some more options!

- Later in the day we met up with another couple from Tennessee that we met in orientation also. They're in Andong. We get along great with them and really enjoy their company. We had Mexican food and then a great evening of drinks and good conversation.

- The next day we explored Busan.

- We walked along a boardwalk by Heundae Beach.

- We went to Busan tower and had a great view of the city.

- We went to Jagalchi Fish Market and were absolutely blown away by the size of it. Everything you could possibly want (seafood wise) is there.

- We went to the top of a massive department store (12 or 13 floors) and had a coffee in a nice park that is on the roof.

- We had more Indian food.

- The next morning we spent the morning at the beach, skyped with Mom and Dad Lafleur AT the beach and then headed for the Subway station to make our way to the express bus terminal and eventually home. We took the bus to Daejeon and then to Buyeo. It was about 6 hours of total travel time.

Friday the 15th:

In the evening we went up the mountain for a couple drinks at a pavilion and a view of our city at night. We came across a little performance and watched for a bit. It was a lady in traditional clothing singing some songs that everyone but us seemed to know and were singing along. We made our way up to the pavilion and enjoyed the view and then Skyped with Andrea, John and Sierra. It was very cool as we were able to Skype from the Pavilion on the mountain, and then walk down, through downtown and back to our place WHILE Skyping them! So they got a bit of a tour of our area.

Bike to Gunsan

Last Sunday (the 17th) we biked to Gunsan. Gunsan is on the coast and is about 60 - 65km to cycle to along the river. It was our first time out on the bikes together. It was a perfect day. The route is great because there is no traffic (except the odd car that finds it's way onto the path) and decent quality path with great views. Halfway along the trip, we were riding through a bit of a forested area when we passed by a make-shift restaurant set up with a tarp and some picnic tables and rudimentary camping cooking equipment. We were summoned over and decided to take them up on the offer of free Makgeolli. They were extremely kind and we had some great laughs even though there absolutely zero understanding of each other's languages. One other cyclist was there also and was from Gunsan. He had cycled to this spot and was heading back and asked if we could cycle together. Of course we obliged! As we cycled, we had a tiny bit of back and forth, basic conversation and he stopped us a couple times for photo ops. He eventually took us to the bus station in Gunsan where we waited for 3 hours to take a 2 hour bus ride home. We ate two meals as we were very hungry by that point, so the wait wasn't all that bad!

Day In Seoul

This past Saturday (the 23rd) we spent the day in Seoul with our friend Jane (English Name). She lives in Incheon and goes to University in Seoul. She was a student teacher at one of Julia's schools and they became friends. She showed us around Seoul for the day and it was a ton of fun. She showed us Insadong, which is an artsy area, a street with all traditional houses, a bit of Gangnam and Namsam mountain, which had great views of Seoul! Fun day!

Day in Nonsan

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to Nonsan. Before leaving though, we did our workouts. Julia went for a run in the mountains and Brian went for a 60k ride around the river area. It was hot. We wandered around Nonsan a bit, went to a cafe and then made our way to Home Plus, which was our planned destination for the day. Home Plus is a department store that has a lot of things that we can't find in Buyeo. We spent $300 and loaded up some groceries that are difficult to find in Buyeo, and some cheap clothes. :)

Happy Birthday Buddha

Today was another busy day! First we started with our workouts. Julia did a workout on the roof of our building and Brian went for a 17km run along the river.

We then walked to the Boys middle school and met a teacher (Mrs Yun) from Brian's main school, and her daughter. Her daughter is moving to Ottawa in August to attend high school. Her English is fantastic, as she spent last year in Arkansas. She will stay in Ottawa at least through the end of High School and possibly go to university there as well.

We went to a temple in Oesan (where Brian also teaches at a school). It was busy with people visiting as it is Buddha's birthday, and so a National Holiday. We walked around the temples and learned a lot. We were then treated to a delicious lunch of Bibimbap, Acorn Jelly and Panjeon. We also ran into a student of Brian's who was excited to see him.

After lunch we headed to Boryeong and met up with a group of people that Mrs Yun plays badminton with. They were spending the day hanging out in a park along a river. Extremely beautiful and peaceful. They were nice people and offered us some drinks. One of Julia's students was there as well as she is a member of this badminton club and apparently a very good player! We will have to get lessons.

Leaving there, we went to a sculpture park (also in Boryeong) and looked at some art, sculptures and animals. There were sheep, a deer, a couple pony's, ducks, rabbits and more! It was a very neat little place. Very busy though, because of the holiday.

Now

We just got home and I felt compelled to write this, so I did.

We are about to head back out see what there is to see, maybe make our way to a temple that is on the backside of Busosan Mountain. Apparently they light the lanterns in the evening and it's beautiful!

Jirisan National Park and Hwaeomsa Temple

I'm writing this while sitting on an express bus from Gurye to Busan. It's Sunday morning (May 3rd) and we've just don't two days in Jirisan National Park. We weren't really sure what to expect from this place, other than it's popular for hiking and is the biggest and oldest national park in Korea. It lived up to every expectation.

After researching our options for getting from Buyeo to Gurye, we decided to take a taxi. A very expensive taxi. It ended up being about 200,000 WON ($210 CAD) and was about 1:45 in duration. If we bussed or took a combination of buses and taxis, it would have easily taken 6 hours or so and would have been pretty pricey also. In hindsight we should have fired out how to rent a car. Our current commute is not too bad though. It was an $8 taxi ride to the bus terminal and then $16 each for the bus. 

As soon as we got to our motel (it's called a pension, but I don't quite understand it, so I'll just call it a motel) we dropped our stuff off and headed for the national park and the mountains. We were situated quite close, only about a 5 minute walk to get to the National Park, which had an entrance fee of 3500 won. We walked up along a River and past a resort and eventually hit the temple. It's a pretty big temple with many building and is actually quite touristy, but monks still live there and go about their business. After some time wandering around we found the trail that led up the mountain. We took this for about an hour. It's quite steep hiking and the trail is mostly made up of rocks and boulders that you scramble along. We eventually came across a random cafe and stopped for iced Americanos, as you do. Leaving the cafe, the trail gets quite steep and it's 5km to the top. We made it a little over half way and decided to turn back. It was just taking too long and we had started too late in the day to make it worthwhile. We hung out beside the River for a short snack break and to cool down and then started making our way down. We were in shorts and t-shirts and sweating like mad, while Korean hikers were ALL wearing long sleeved shirts and pants, so had gloves and some had warm hats. It just doesn't add up!!

We made our way back to the temple and then down and out of the park to some nearby restaurants. We had a meal at a restaurant and went back to our motel to clean up. We decided to head into Gurye and check it out. We caught a cab along the road while walking as we wouldn't be able to walk on some of the roads that take you into town. The kind taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of the town and refused to take our money! He called it 'service'. We wandered around the town, looking for another restaurant to eventually have dinner at. While walking, we saw a couple foreigners step out of a building and so we approached them. Turns out she lives in Gurye and was able to make some suggestions. We eventually found a good little place and had yet another bibimbap dinner (I also had kimbap). After dinner we caught a taxi back to our motel and passed out pretty easily!

Yesterday was a much more relaxing day. We got up and made our way back up to the national park and back to the cafe along the trail. Again we had Americanos and enjoyed the views. After this we wandered all along a dirt road back down (3.5k) to the temple where we hung out and watched the goings on. We eventually went to the resort that is in the national park and got some traditional Korean adult beverages that we enjoyed outside. While in the resort, we noticed some massage chairs. They looked good so we went back to test them out. $1 got us 10 minutes of glorious deep tissue massage, just what we needed to stay relaxed. The rest of the day was pretty laid back, another meal and then eventually back to our motel around 7:30 where we hung out outside until 9:00 or so and then off to bed...

And so now we are on our way to Busan and the second leg of this trip!