105 Diaper-Free Days left, Reflections of Baba

I thought the title would look inventive. Actually, it's true Mi Sung is expecting our baby #1 in February 2008. I'll be 35.1 years old when the baby's born, and I can already imagine the diaperama, and I have been browsing the ailes in the supermarkets to check on prices, about $25-30 CDN a pack in South Korea. Maybe we should use the old towel wrap that my Romanian Baba (grandmother) used on me back in the early 70's when all the diapers ran out? By the way, Baba just celebrated her 98th birthday in Windsor, 82 years since she left a small town in Romania coming to Canada without a single relative. She the "Rock" or "Corner Stone" of my family in Canada, always without fail setting the best example for all of us to follow (if we choose to). Baba is my personal Hero, the one person in my life that took care of me as a baby, always shared her unconditional love, was unbiased, undistracted by her own priorities, and survived a lot of tremendous obstacles including poverty, destitution, and being an endentured servant upon arrival to Canada on a remote farm in Saskatoon. Later in life, she met my grandfather (Stoijon, Stephen in English), he had been born in 1887-1889 in Bosnia. In his early teens, he traveled to Germany and later Italy to find work. He eventually landed in Detroit, and laid brick "cobble stones" when the roads were crossed by horses, and only a few cars. He had many friends living across the Detroit River in Windsor. He crossed the border since he wasn't a citizen of either country, and settled in Windsor. In the 1920's, he worked for the Ford Motor Company, in fact, his employee # is in the hundreds, he worked in the Foundary and later became a supervisor. Ford's required all management at the time to purchase a new car every year. So the last healthy-working year for my grandfather was in 1935. He purchased his last Ford, a 1935 Ford V-8 Deluxe with spoked wheels and straight-8, aluminum block engine, no heater, no air conditioning, two bench seats (first model to have a back seat after the earlier coupes. If the engine didn't start by battery, there's a hand-crank in the front grill, turn it to start the engine. The Great Depression wiped out a lot of my grandfather's legacy in Windsor. After years working in the foundry, he developed many respiratory illnesses (Black Lung Disease in short), and was continually in/out of the hospital while my father was only an elementary school student. My father learned to drive at 12 years of age in order to drive my grandfather to the hospital or run errands for my grandmother. My dad said that many of the streets in Windsor were either dirt, pavement or brick "cobble stone" in some areas. My father drove this 1935 Ford after the Depression into the late 60's (1967 to be exact) when he graduated from St. Clair College as a general accountant. He worked for the Toronto Dominion Bank on the corner of Ouelette Ave and Riverside Drive (Chrysler Building today) and then moved to become an accountant and business manager at the Windsor Star newspaper. He devoted the next 18 years to the Windsor Star and recruited my sisters and I work in the mailing department. Together my family worked for the Windsor Star for 43 years combined, but the Windsor Star downsized my father two-years before he would be eligible for his Retirement Pension. After 18 years of dedicated service, working many Saturdays for free, the newspaper betrayed his loyalty and the memory still haunts me till this day. Back to the past, my father and his sister had tremendous responsibilties to support their family in Windsor. As a result of my grandfather's departure from Fords for his health problems, and the financial liquidation that took place during the Great Depression, they had limited means. Baba left Romania at 16, she had little formal education and left school to work at a young age (perhaps grade 3 education), but her practical knowledge to survive in this world took her around the world without English. In Canada, Baba was always a hard worker because her life depended upon it. To this day, she cannot read/write in English, she never had time to learn and the people she worked for in Canada, used her for cheap labor, which made literacy an impossible task. Today, Baba will still talk-your-ear-off because she learned to speak English so well. She used to live with my family in Windsor, there were 8 of us living together in one small house. She used to cook fresh donuts at home and give me the four/five to tuck under my shirt, before my sisters and cousin came to get theirs. She always treated me with respect, she taught me about life through stories of the sometimes terrible and funny experiences she had been through in her life. I have learned so much from my grandmother, it would not be possible to express it here. She has set the best examples of honesty, integrity, morality, compassion for others, and unconditional love that I seek out everyday in this world. I want to live to be like her, it will take a lot of patience and understanding to succeed as she has in her lifetime. She used to love watching wrestling WWF (Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, etc.) and eat KFC in the paper buckets, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes (sometimes by hand) and hanging everything out back on the clothesline. She loved spending winters in Daytona, Florida in her early 70's and 80's watching the party-animals, the Bikers, the College Partyers tearing down the hotels nearby her. She's my grandmother, and I love her. In total, my family has overcome many difficulties in our history in Canada, it's never been easy... ^^++

It's Saturday & Sunday, I ride on every weekend in Korea

Funky mountain bike ride on Sunday in South Korea.

Halloween just wasn't at our hagwon (Academy)

Can you believe the Spirits of the Jack-o-Lantern, inventive costumes, games and fun could be absent in an after-school academy in South Korea. Anything is possible, or impossible here, and Halloween was no exception! ^^++ Boohoo! We did have the grace to hand out some candy to our students which was nice, but one sneaky class told my owner that I threw candy at them, after clarification everything was alright. Hmmmm. I wish we had a pumpkin with a candle burning all night, and here there's no children visiting door-to-door. Well, that's a tradition we shouldn't take for granted in the West, and definitely celebrate to the fullest each year. ^^++ Remember us "Kids" deserve it! The countdown continues...T-minus 14 days

My teaching contract ends November 28th, 2007!

I'm in the final stretch of a 12-month teaching odyssey in South Korea. It's finally been almost one entire year that I've been living/working in Korea. Of course, there is no summer holiday familiar with teaching in Canada. This is a 12-month teaching contract, and you work 12 months of the year. I evaluated 80 students progress this month, and created 80 examinations for all of them. Could there be more work, the answer is clearly NO. I am looking forward to moving into a new teaching position, new students, new environment, new city around Seoul. It's been an incredible year because the challenges are daily, and just routine isn't. Korean elementary and middle school students keep me on my toes almost 7 hours per day, and that is an incredible level of teaching. ^^++ Ready to roll onto the next job, new students, new apartment, new city!

Jinny's Wedding in South Korea

I received my first wedding invitation in South Korea, I was so excited to attend Jinny's wedding today! ^^++ She looked fabulous in her long, white wedding dress and her new husband is handsome. Getting ready for the wedding took some work. I decided to give Jinny a photograph on Mt. Tohamsan with the following words written on it, "Blessings on your wedding day, May the road rise to meet you and the winds be at your back, May all your dreams come true and may God bless you together." The wedding went really smooth, it was a beautiful place, and yes...the food was delicious! Jinny gave me a cute invitation card last week...and gave directions written in English across from the Junggang Station, also written in Korean Hangeul. Unfortunately, the subway station has a city built around it, so I started out on the wrong side of the tracks and went to another wedding hall. I was redirected by the BANG BANG shop seller to the other side of the train station. Funny thing, I was in a shirt/tie and dress slacks tucked into my socks, while toting a paper bag with my framed print and wearing a backpack, of course I'm riding my almost famous MTB. ^^++ I pulled up to another wedding hall, went inside and showed my invitation, they directed me down the street to another wedding hall. I realize now how the movie "Wedding Crashers" got it's start, finally at the third wedding hall I found the Noblesse Room and lovely Jinny and her husband-to-be were on the alter getting ready to exchange their vows. The ceremony was wonderful and the music in the reception area was played with a classical flute and two violins, very relaxing!!! I took my wedding photos and by this point, was happy to finally talk to the bride. We never took a photo together, I completely forgot about it when I gave Jinny her gift. ^^++

Autumn rules in South Korea!

We're having some of the best weather of the entire year right now! Sunshine. Blue skies. Warm days with cool breezes. Very cool nights. It's exceptional weather. I went to Dongsan Church to see the guest speaker David Wakefield, a Missionary who spent 20 years working in Papua New Guinea in Bible translations. He gave a very detailed sermon about his life's work, and experiences living in native communities. Next Sunday, it's Professor Phil Galley, another gifted speaker who has a wealth of experiences abroad, considering he's lived outside of the US for more than 40 years! Our church is one of the largest in South Korea, take a look, and navigate through the Korean if your browser supports East Asian languages, you'll need an XP cd to see Korean Hangeul. Ansan Dongsan Church After the worship service (very touching, exceptional music too), I joined a few friends for noodles in the express cafeteria serving warm noodles on the first floor to hundreds of devotees. It's a wonderful experience being apart of this Christian organization, ^^++ After worship and the warm noodles, I needed to redesign this blog, eliminating the Slide Shows, they took too much CPU for most of us. So, it's just a simple/positive blog, the way bloggin' should be. ^^++ Late afternoon, I rode through Ansan and crossed paved service roads which pass countless rice fields, some harvested, others being harvested today. The weather was glorious and I rode all the way to Suwon, and took the subway back to Ansan for 1400 Korean Won, $1.50 ^^++ Simple pleasures, especially with the bike... Blessings to my friends and family from South Korea. Happy Birthday Nan & my grandmother Baba, and nephew Rian! Sanna Chukka Ham-Ni-Da! Only five more weeks to go till i start my new job teaching, new city, new students, new experience, looking forward to all of it!

Sokcho to Gyeungju to Busan Bike Trip (FINAL)

I'm back home from the bike trip! It was awesome, F-R-E-E-D-O-M for 4 straight days, no teaching, no classrooms, no students, just time to explore South Korea. During the trip I bicycled across many coastal mountains, passed seashores, forests, and met many kind and friendly Korean people of all ages.

In Gangneung, I stayed at a Jim-Jil-Bang and repaired my Ipod at a local PC Bong. I met a helpful guy named Sanghwan Lee "Mr.Lee" who gave detailed directions to find my Jim-Jil-Bang (sauna/sleeping house) for the night. Sanghwan sent word after my trip, Thanks Mr. Lee! ^^++ After I repaired the mp3 player, I soaked in hot tubs and saunas for a few hours and relieved all the stress from my muscles. The sleeping rooms are spacious, but people are moving around for most of the night, if you want to sleep eight hours, better take a motel room ^^++. The bike ride was already paying off, I had seen so much beautiful scenery already from Sokcho down to Gangneung, a 6 hour bicycle ride for the first day.

The next day, from Gangneung, I rode through drizzle and occasional pouring rain (cats and dogs!) and finally stopped at a cozy restaurant in Samcheok. The meal was delicious and I was sleepy, everything I was wearing was completely wet, everything else in my clothing selection was also soaked. I spent an hour and a half reflecting on the rain outside, while watching a wooden waterfall paddle-wheel rolling in the front yard. When I paid the bill, I explained that I was traveling to Gyeongju, the mother/owner and her two sons urged me to take a bus, they suggested it might be 350km's to Gyeongju...and it was still raining. I agreed with them, and the truck/bus/car traffic was noisy along the highway with the wet pavement. In a way, I "wimped out" and rode to the Samcheok Express Bus Terminal.

In about 30 minutes, a bus was arriving bound for Pohang in Gyeongsanbuk-do province. It would slice 3.5 hours off my entire bike trip, but considering my circumstances and the weather, I chose a warm, dry, and comfortable bus ride to Pohang. Since, I shortened the trip by an actual 20 hours (my average speed on those mountains was a mere 10km/h...and 50km/h on steep descents). Only 3.5 hours to travel an actual 200km on the deluxe express bus, unbelievable!

I arrived in Pohang around 6pm, and asked around for directions to the nearest Jim-Jil-Bang (sauna/sleep/family guesthouse). Everyone was helpful again...Koreans always want to help, I see this everywhere I have gone on this bike, truly sincere people, I love them! ^^++ The Jim-Jil-Bang in Pohang was clean, comfortable, and welcoming too! It was also so inexpensive, I stayed the entire night, soaked in jacuzzi tubs, saunas, and cold tubs, and ice rooms, and ate traditional Korean food, and had a 20-minute massage ($1.00 automated leather chairs) all for less than an entree at an Outback Steakhouse or something similar. I also met an amazingly friendly family whom I spent most of the time with. They took some pictures of our group together...I really hope they send them shortly, so I can post them on this blog ("POHANG FRIENDS" photo). The father worked for POSCO Steel 30+ years, and had three children, 2 daughters (Josette/Eun) and her sister(both attending universities in Seoul, and his son Matthew who was a middle school student. His English name is Matthew, and he and his cousin and another close friend followed me around the Jim-Jil-Bang...the restaurant...the cold rooms..the hot sauna rooms...and the family recreation/relaxtion area where I met their entire family! The boys told funny jokes and playfully made fun of each other. They also suggested names for my first baby, we're expecting this coming February. I really miss them and hope they send email soon to keep in touch!

The following day was rainy (what a surprise!) but I had laid out all my cycling clothes in the 40 degree Celcius sauna rooms (never do this in Korea!!!) and everything was dry. I geared up after grabbing hot shower and another 3 hard-baked sauna eggs at the Jim-Jil-Bang. I ate those eggs everyday of my trip! They are full of protein and easily digested on a light stomach...makes cycling a lot easier. I loaded my thrifty tupperwear travel case on my rack, and started off the next morning for Gyeongju. It was an easy ride for a single day, although it was still rainy, it was only a mist and this was certainly a blessing compared with the previous day's ride.

Well, I arrived in Gyeongju and it started to rain, so I just kept riding until I found the Train Terminal, and when I did it stopped raining completely, and then the sun came out, oh yeah! It was gorgeous, glorious, and I just couldn't believe I had finally arrived. At the information center, next to the train station, they gave me directions to the Seo-Cheon Guesthouse, which is the cheapest accomodation with rooms for two, I stayed alone in a private Korean-style room complete with TV,etc..for only $15 a night. Most guests were staying 2-4 per room, or $7.50...$2.50 per person. What a deal for a clean and comfortable accomodation...better than the HILTON! Ha! ^^++

Here's a complete list of Gyeongju accomodations for you to choose from - Use this link to the Seo-Cheon Backpackers & other inexpensive hotels/yeogwons. The Seo-cheon Guesthouse or Yeogwon in Korean is operated by Mr. Park. The yeogwon was basic, but the rooms were comfortable and clean, the owner is very friendly and helpful too! It's located two blocks from the Gyeongju Express Bus Terminal, easy to find from the train terminal downtown. First, I cycled through the shopping district downtown and had a few tasty cold ones before returning to the Guest House. There, I met a group of Economics majors from Shanghai and did a night tour of the Daereung-won Royal Tombs. Later I met a group of Super-Cool, Expat-American English teachers that invited me in for cards, and conversational English (heehee!) they were all warm and welcoming. I had coffee and Korean Song-Pyong with them in the morning and gave Jenn (NYC) my contact info before riding south to Seokguram Grotto and distant Busan. These Song-Pyong are similar to Mooncakes I ate before in China. Later the same day, I met Dirk from Belgium in the early afternoon nearby Bulguksa Buddhist temple and ate Bi-Bim-Bop under deep blue skies with white pillowy clouds rolling overhead. Gyeongju was miraculous, full of history, interesting places, and friendly people (Korean & foreign) from everywhere. I recommend reading Jenn's accounts of Korea, she's informative and entertaining in her reports. Link to: Jenn's Adventures of an Ex-PatI also met a couple who are teaching at the English Village in Paju, they really recommend that job for enjoyable ESL teaching/living conditions in Korea. You can find more information about Paju English Village by searching Google. Finally, it was farewell time for Gyeongju city, and time to ride 18km's southeast to Bulguksa Buddhist Temple, and Seokguram Grotto home to a well-hidden treasured stone Buddha. ^^++

After visiting Mt. Tohamsan, I was back on my bike heading south along Route 7 to Ulsan. After passing Ulsan-si (city), it was getting late and the highway was not well-lit (completely dark actually, apart from headlights of the passing cars). I climbed a 3km grade over a mountain and stopped 50m from the top. My energy was totally consumed. I ran out of water and didn't have even a candy bar to nibble on. I dreamed of falling asleep standing up. Finally, I gave it one last push and reaching the Hyundai Oilbank station. There I met two more wonderful Koreans, Gwang Myeong Lee and Mr. Park and they welcomed me for Korean Thanksgiving with hot coffee and Korean Ddukk rice cakes. They were extremely welcoming and they took some photos of us together. They gave me a place to rest so I could finish the final 40kms into Busan. Thanks Guys! ^^++ Heaven!

The ride from Gyeongju city to Busan was very long for a single day. I was a little rushed to get back to Mi Sung, so I started at 10:30am and didn't quit until 9:30pm. I finally reached the Busan city limits and followed directions from people I passed along the way towards the Express Bus Terminal. It was impossible to miss, and my bus to Seoul was leaving in just 30 minutes, the timing was perfect...my return bus trip during the Chuseok Thanksgiving holiday, took 8.5 hours, traveling only 400kms, now that's a lot of traffic!

In just one day, I rode from Gyeongju city, to those shots of Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple on Mt. Tohamsan. Then, onto Ulsan, South Korea and finally Busan, South Korea. The trip took two parts, each segment took 20 hours. I completed the trip in 40 hours crossing over 450km of mountains, peaks and valleys, police, new friends, 4 holes in the rear tire, free coffee at every gas station we stopped along our route, and a return to the bike, my two-wheeled friend. I haven't ridden any distance like this since 1990-1991 when I rode to Grand Bend, Ontario with Ciro Viviano a couple times, those trips were 240km each way relatively flat terrain, it took us 10 hours each way (6am Windsor, 4pm Grand Bend, vice versa for the return). What I learned from all those hours of huffing and puffing over one mountain and the next, was that Korea is a really mountainous country!

The missing second half of this trip took 2 days and I completed the entire journey a few weeks ago. Samcheok, South Korea to Pohang, South Korea covered 200km. Since I missed this segment of the trip during the rainy Korean Chuseok (Thanksgiving), I returned to complete the entire distance on a bike.

From Ansan-city, Gyunggi-province, I took a subway to Seoul Express Bus Terminal, and traveled back to Samcheok to complete the northeast to southeast route. It was tough to pack 200kms in a weekend, so I rode 'like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes', and with Mr. Cho-In Gwang's help, we covered 140km in a day together. The weather was extraordinary (near perfect with lots of sunshine and only a few clouds in the sky) we hammered the pavement for hours and hours together. I started off from Samcheok, Kangwon-do province at 11:30am...while Mr. Cho started from Gangneung north of me at 10:00am. After my police escort to leave the Asian highway, then a miserable 4km mountain climb to the coast (photo of the red posted "danger" sign written in Korean Hangeul), I dropped into a small Korean town and had ice cream with Mr. Cho. He happened to be riding in the same direction that day, actually his destination was Daegu, South Korea. We didn't know each other previously, and had no idea we were heading in the same direction until that moment. So, we decided to team up and I shut off the mp3, I didn't need it anymore because I had someone to talk to. It was an amazing ride that lasted until 2am! We were both so beaten up from riding the distance we finally rode into a small town and Mr. Cho located a comfortable Yeogwon/Guesthouse. These accomodations have spacious single rooms, traditional Korean style, similar to the Seo-Cheon Yeogwon in Gyeongju. We slept like rocks in the bottom of the ocean that night, all for $20 split between the two of us. Korea bike travel is simply, inexpensive. ^^++

"Life is a highway, I want to ride it all night long!" Tom Cochrain.