Loose Ends

In my last post, many details of our upcoming Korean adventure were still up in the air, but it's all coming together now. We've had some important questions answered, flight are booked, loose ends here at home are being tied up and we're even starting some exciting new methods of 'saving' for travel.

At the time of my last post, our biggest concern with everything was that we weren't positive where we would end up, and there was no guarantee that we'd be in the same city within Chungnam province, as our applications had to proceed as individuals, as opposed to 'couple'. Chungnam is triple the size of Ottawa and somewhat rural, so it could have been a serious issue. What made it worse was that you find out exactly where you're placed on literally the very last day of orientation, only a few days before you start teaching! I emailed our EPIK coordinator to see if they could make an exception and let us know which city(ies) we were in so that we could plan. While he couldn't provide us this information he did let me know that we 'would be sharing accommodations'. That is absolutely plenty! We really don't care where we're placed within Chungnam, as long as we're together we're more than happy. He said that they are currently looking for a place for us, and that it may be small. That's fine, we're into the whole 'tiny house living' concept anyhow. Also, they have to spend a minimum of $400 per person on accommodation, so if they find a place for us that is less than $800 per month, we get the balance as a housing allowance. Can you say 'massive sigh of relief'?

Secondly, we booked our flights. We officially leave Canada on February 18th. Ottawa to Vancouver and Vancouver to Seoul. A total of nearly 19 hours of travel time. The flight from Vancouver to Seoul is eleven and a half hours and so we splurged and got the $120 upgrade for the extra leg room in economy. I was lucky enough to win an internal work competition that ended in December and my prize was a $1500 Air Canada travel voucher, so we used that, and after everything was said and done we paid $860 for everything. These are one-way tickets, keep in mind. Also, after the first month in Korea we get a $1300 bonus that is meant to cover the travel expense, so that will be nice, as we only spend $860 total and will get $2600 in return!

With regards to taking caring of loose ends here at home, we've made lots of headway there and (fingers crossed) we tie up a MASSIVE one today. We met with our financial adviser and took care of some banking / mortgage stuff, notified our internet service provider, hydro, gas etc of our departure and are starting to get many more prospective tenants wanting to see our place. A couple came yesterday to see it and we have three more showings today. It would be awesome if one of these materializes into a tenant and ideally a long term one, as we hope to not have to move back into this house on our return but rather keep it as an investment and purchase another, smaller home. It would also be nice if one of these viewings results in a tenant, as it would allow us to just focus on organizing everything in the house and not have to worry about keeping it 'show ready'. Either way, things are starting to come together and when people ask us if we're excited, we finally feel like we can maybe, possibly say yes.

What we are excited about is travel hacking. It's a concept I've been learning lots about through podcasts and blogs. It's a pretty massive sub-culture of sorts, where you use programs, promotions and offers from credit card and travel companies to your benefit, accumulating travel rewards points for free / cheap flights, hotel stays, car rentals and more. I've already put some of these practices to use and by the time we're ready for our first 'out of Korea' adventure (likely summer time) we'll have enough Aeroplan points to fly to New Zealand or Australia return, or anywhere within Asia (multiple times) FREE! With one month to go, everything is coming together and we're feeling more and more confident about this new adventure!

Raw Rainbow Noodles with Spicy Almond Sauce

This is a fresh take on the traditional pad Thai recipe. Made with a combination of colourful raw veggies and a deliciously addictive almond butter sauce.

(serves 2-3)

Noodles

• 2 medium zucchinis
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 medium beet
• 1 long red pepper, sliced in thin rings
• 3-4 green onions, thinly sliced
• handful fresh cilantro

Peel zucchinis and slice them into thirds, then spiralize them into thin noodles. Repeat with carrots. Peel beet and slice in half before spiralizing. Transfer zucchini, carrot and beet to a large serving bowl. Top with red pepper, green onion and cilantro. Set aside while you prepare the sauce.


Sauce

• juice of 1 lime
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 inch piece ginger, chopped
• 1 Thai chili pepper
• 2 Tbsp. maple syrup or agave
• 2 Tbsp. tamari
• 2 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 3/4 cup water   

In a blender or food processor, blend all sauce ingredients. Sauce will thicken if kept in refrigerator before serving, so add 2-4 Tbsp. water to thin if necessary before adding to noodles. When ready to serve, pour sauce over vegetables and toss to combine well. Serve and enjoy!

 

Redemption Run

Well today was the first race of 5 races in 5 weeks for Brian (and at least 2 in 5 weeks for Julia). The half marathon was at 8:00AM and Julia's 5k wasn't until 8:45AM, so we took separate cars. The race site isn't too far from our place, but parking was fairly limited, so we both left early just to be sure. I was up shortly after 5AM (the usual wake up time lately) and Julia was up just before 6AM.

My morning routine was pretty much as it normally is. I had my espresso and standard morning smoothie. This morning I also had 2 bananas and a serious mug of beet juice. Beet juice is a source of organic nitrates (not to be confused with those used as preservatives, which should be avoided). The theory (lots of evidence showing promise, but you know how these things go) is that it helps increase blood flow and oxygen delivery to muscle. Sure, why not. I like the earthiness taste of beet juice anyways, so no big deal. It's just alarming sometimes (especially when dehydrated also) when you're pee is a deep blood red. ANYWAYS. I had the beet juice and bananas and a little bit of cytomax. Got to the race site and parked with ~15 - 20 minutes of time to spare. Well, not really to 'spare' as we still needed to pick up our race kits, bib number, timing chip etc and affix to our person. Everything went off without a hitch and I got to the start with time to spare. Time to pretend I was warming up, or something.

There were only 25 or so people in this half marathon (more in the 11k and 5k, but still a small race) which was kind of neat! I got right up to the front and was actually the first person across the timing mats at the start, that was a first! Anyways, the first kilometer was pretty quick and there were 4 guys ahead of me. One of which I wasn't terribly worried about. He was actually out front, but I had a feeling he wasn't all that experienced and would gas (he did). After about 3k I was in 4th and right behind third. We stayed like that for about another 3k and then I passed him at an aid station and he hung on behind me. The course is two laps of 9k or so with a bit extra at the beginning and end to get it up to 21.1km. On the second lap, we started to catch and pass the back of the pack 11k runners. Nice to not be so lonely out there! At around 13k I realized that I was actually starting to distance myself from the guy behind me a bit and so just tried to hold that pace (~4:20 - 4:25/km). Around 15k it started to hurt and I had definitely slowed, but so did he. I looked back at around 17km and he was probably about a minute behind, so as much as it sucked, I just kept reminding myself of how much fast he'd have to run than me over the last 4, 3, 2 and then 1km. He never caught me. Right at the end there is a small out and back and I saw that I had 260m on him with about 1.5k to go. That was plenty. I took it easy and grinded up the final climb and congratulated some of the 11k folks coming towards the end of their race. I enjoyed the last 250m or so into the finish line. I actually REALLY enjoy these small races. Everyone gets their moment crossing the line, instead of just being another person in a procession. Julia was waiting for me at the finish and snapped some pics. Too bad we couldn't get any of her in action!

I finished in 1:34:16... good enough for 3rd overall and not awful considering all of the training I've done this week in my lead up to Tremblant 70.3. I actually ran a bit faster last Saturday on a 21.4k training run, but that was flat, cooler and I was able to get some calories in during.

Julia kicked butt too! 23:52 for her 5k and was 2nd female out of 36, 9th overall out of 72! Not bad on a hilly course. She'll easily go under 22 minutes this year. EASILY!


See Julia's Race Result on Sportstats

See Brian's Race Result on Sportstats

We got home and Julia left to go to her Greco Lean and Fit Workout! WHAT A MACHINE!