well, i'm back in Ulsan, feeling like i never left. some new faces here, some old faces missing, and lots of going away parties coming up! here i come back to ulsan to get some familiarity, and everyone's leaving :p well, not everyone. and alot of people are coming back. something about this city just pulls us in.

got my bike back, too. went for a nice drive yesterday out to yangsan for a soccer game (which we lost horribly against real busan). the highways here suck though, there's too much development so there's lights every 10 km or so. really annoying. ah well. the bike's running better now too, since it got a good long run like that. got the oil moving through it.

the new job's working out well. my students are great (with the odd brat), i have much fewer of them, the books are useful, the students speak English relatively well... all in all a good deal. my new apartment is smaller than the last one, but not in a bad way, and my roomate is cool. Julian's only got another 2 and a half months to go though, so we'll see what happens after that.

other than that, not much new going on. just getting settled in, puttering about on the computer to get the site going again (hope you like it!) and starting to work on my dad's site. it's supposed to be proffesional, so i'm using this one to fart around with the new programs to get used to them. so far so good!

well, back to work after the long weekend. never did find out what the holiday was... i should get on that. anyway, went back to gumbdo today, learnt some more swings of the sword. thought i'd write a little about it all. we go 5 days a week (unless there's a national holiday) for an hour in the evening (usually it's in the morning, but right now there's summer classes for the kids, so we go in the evening) monday, wednesday, and friday we play with the wooden sword, which is heavier and only used in one person routines. it's designed to cut. (you can get a metal sword after you have a black belt). on tuesdays and thursdays, we use the bamboo sword, which is much lighter and used for sparring. it's designed to hit, and makes a nice snappy noise.

so far, i'm learning the basic swings of the sword (swinging the damn thing around a couple hundred times a day) and my arms hurt. alot. awell, what can you do. it's kinda like the hot yoga at home, no air conditioning, and it's damn wamr outside. i could feel the sweat running sown my legs and back... kinda gross. but good for the belly :) i have high hopes for the next month of heat, although i'll have to buy better groceries if i want to make good on it :p i did nothing but eat greasy food and read books yesterday so i'm trying to make up for it today. good intentions and all...

anyway, i'm gonna do some work on the rest of the site, then head to bed.

Thought i'd put in a new entry before i have to change the month... anyway, i've been ignoring my site because i'm trying to get my dad's up and running. so far so good, but it's taking a while cause i'm alot pickier with his than with mine... it's for a business. anyway, gumdo is going really well, i want to bring my camera one of these days to take some pictures to show you. and i will fight with the picture pages this weekend... i'm going to try and swear off drinking for a month, see what it does for my waistline (and wallet...) we'll see if it happens or not :p

i'm also back to learning korean... didn't get into the course like i wanted (didn't get an email back from the university, and i don't really have the money anyway) so i'm using a teach yourself korean book, and i'll ask my coworkers for help when i need it. should help to start with. i just need to start hanging out with more koreans so i can practice :)

it's mandy's last night tonight, which leaves only sheeno and steve to leave in the next week... alot of people i knew are gone, or will be in a couple of months. here i came back to ulsan because i liked all the people, and they're running away :p some are coming back though, which is cool. and the new folks seem nice.

anyway, otherwise it's same old here in ulsan, so i'll work on the korean pages a little before i go out to say goodbye to mandy!

a crazy week this has started out as... the last time we saw sun was on friday afternoon. since then, it's been increasingly disgusting. typhoon nabi has thankfully slowed down since it came close to land, and is centering more on japan than us (jane, i hope you're ok!) it's still pretty rainy though. went to gumdo this morning anyways though (my master was pretty surprised to see me i think) and passed some small landslides at the top of my hill (used to be a nicely planted hillside, but all the mud and plants crashed through the chain link fence and are now lying across the smll road). had to cross a small river flowing down the street. i was soaked when i got there, but i got a good class in. i'm happy i did, too. i'd be stir crazy if i hadn't had a good sweat.

went to work for a little bit, brought some dry clothes in a plastic bag to change into. found out (happily) that classes have been canceled. (i know of at least one other hagwon that's canceled today too) it would be a little ridiculous to try and teach kids that looked like drowned rats. met my new student today though, a high school student who wants to study to be a vet, hoping to study abroad. i'm pretty excited to teach her, i get her alone for an hour after my last class. all through the school, so I don't have to deal with any of the details, just teaching. definately a challenge that'll keep me occupied :) anyway, i'm home today. gonna try not to snack too much and get some work done on the websites.

sorry guys, haven't been around much lately. after the typhoon passed through, without any damage I'm glad to say, i got a little lazy. went on a trip for the long weekend a week ago, then i got sick. i'm over the nasty cold now though, and thought i'd write a little more here.

the trip was fun, drove up to pohang with my roomate Julian. stopped at a lighthouse museum on the way (thought of you, mom... they had a display of other lighthouses in the world, but i couldn't remember the name of the one we visited in the UK). stayed the night in pohang, went to see charlie and the chocolate factory to rest our weary backsides (it was a long day). good movie, i can see now why i had nightmares when i saw it as a kid!

Sunday we drove up to the temple in a light drizzle (bogyeongsa). i'm glad we stuck it out though, the hike up the valley was great in the coolness of the rain. it starts with a winding road up from the highway, through a couple of villages. we parked at a large parking lot thinking we were close to the temple (and it was starting to really rain and i wanted to buy an umbrella; hadn't planned for rain). bought myself a coffee and an umbrella, and we started to walk. about 15 minutes and a long walk through a tourist area, we came to the entrance to the temple. entrance cost us 2,000 won (very cheap being a tourist here) and we walked up through some relatively big trees to the small temple site. since it was still raining, we decided to keep going up the valley to see the famous waterfalls that line the rocky valley. it started out as a pleasant enough hike, but we got lost and wandered into the front yard of a gorgeous traditional home. after the woman of the house politely chased us out of said yard, we found our way back onto the proper path. we walked up through some beautiful mountain scenery, took lots of pictures (yes, i will try to get my pictures up finally!) and got really wet and sweaty. when we were almost to the big 6th waterfall, we came across a small temple so we followed a lady up to check it out. turned out to be the home of a monk who spoke great english. he fed us some hand picked tea and told us some stories. later, we continued up to the waterfall and relazed for a while. we weren't alone, even though it was the big holiday in korea (chuseok, their thanksgiving but more on a level with christmas). we were joined by some other groups, some of which offered us food (traditional rice cakes as well as fruit) which was welcome, since we hadn't planned well and didn't have anything but water with us. worked out though. got a bunch more pictures on the way out, then drove back to pohang to stay another night.

unfortunately, we got a little lost and it took us an hour to find our hotel. after a great shower, we went out for a nice dinner at TGIfridays, then home to an early bed. monday, we woke up early to drive home through gyeongju, got some mcdonalds for lunch, then relaxed at home for a bit. spent monday afternoon on a patio in front of a convenience store drinking beer with a bunch of friends, then watched some lord of the rings. it was supposed to be an all day marathon, but the dvd player kept messing up. had a good time anyway though.

in any case, tomorrow is my gumdo test (finally, it got postponed from last friday) so hopefully i do well and get my yellow belt :)

just wanted to put in a quick note about my gumdo test... passed with flying colours! i now have a yellow belt... i'm pretty excited. i was worried for nothing. i did forget the names of a few things, but my master was pretty forgiving. kory and caroline were doing their black belt tests at the same time, which went alright (i think? i'm only a yellow belt. what do i know?) but both of them failed the candle portion, so we'll do it again on friday. the candles are cool. you have to swing over your head straight at them, then stop your sword within inches of the flame. the power of your swing is what puts them out... i'll have to do one candle for my next test, but for the black belt, you have to put out 4... a little difficult to say the least:p anyway, i'm off to work. take care guys!