It's been over a year since I posted anything here it seems.  It must be because I've been so busy thinking about, and planning for, what we're calling 'Bike Back Home' - a 15,000km cycle from South Korea to Ireland.  We're going home after four years of living in Korea, and we leave tomorrow!

It's going to take us somewhere between 7 and 9 months to do, all going well, so it will probably be another year before I post anything else here again! In the meantime, we (Nick and I) will be posting on our biking blog at Bike Back Home as often as we can for anyone that's interested in our journey home the long way!

A little bit of Friluftsliv of a Monday!

After watching ‘Wild’ last night, a movie that shows Reece Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed, walking 1600miles solo along the Pacific Crest Trail, and a really great run this morning, I am reminded of an article I read on an in-flight magazine a little over three weeks ago.

I was flying from Ireland to South Korea, after an amazing nine weeks at home with family and friends, during which time I got married.  It was a very teary goodbye on my behalf.  I can be a bit of an emotional eejit at times and this was the longest time I’d spent with my family since I graduated college almost 6 years ago.  When I said goodbye I was facing into the longest stint away yet without a visit home - it will be close to 21 months before I’m home again.  But with each passing day, home is one day closer and I’ve a whole lot of adventuring to do in the mean time.  The goodbyes were hard, they always are, but with them said and behind me, I am firmly looking to the future.

Everyone needs some Kefir in their life!

If you’re not sure what I’m on about, kefir is a fermented milk drink made with kefir grains, which are a bacteria-yeast symbiosis that looks a little like slimey cauliflower! It digests the sugars in milk to form a sour tasting, thin, yogurt-like drink rich in probiotics.

Milk Kefir Grains

We’ve had kefir grains for a while now and they take some looking after, much like any living thing really! We call ours Kevin! Kevin the Kefir and ‘he’ is as much a pet as we’re ever going to have while living in South Korea.

Hokkaido by Bike

The last time I posted anything was at the end of June, just as we'd boxed up our touring bikes and we were about to head off to Hokkaido, Japan for 3 weeks.  It all seems like a distant memory at this stage, I suppose it is really!

It was hands down, one of the best trips I've ever been on.  It was exhausting and exhilarating but so enjoyable and I'm egging to do it all again.  We covered just over 1250km in 20 days, and according to my speedometer we offset 189kg of CO2 doing it.

Re-assembled, loaded up and ready to go!

It took us a bit longer than expected to leave the hostel the first morning, checking and double checking that we'd re-assembled the bikes properly and that we had everything, and were actually ready to get going on our Hokkaido adventure!  We finally hit the road a little before 1:30 but we'd only planned a short first day of about 40km to get to Atsuta campsite on the west coast so we weren't under any real pressure.  Once we left the city, we also left city conveniences behind us and had our eyes peeled for a petrol station to get fuel for our stove and hopefully something to cook for dinner.  The kilometres stretched on and we didn't actualy arrive to the campsite until almost 5:30 at which stage we'd done just under 60km and not the 40km expected.  That in itself wasn't too bad, but we hadnt managed to get fuel so we had a very hearty dinner, and breakfast the next morning, of bananas and bread!  As starts go, it could've gone better, but I'm not sure either of us noticed, or even cared.  We were delighted with ourselves! The campsite was free,  the toilets were spotlessly clean and had an ample supply of toilet paper, and best of all, we had it entirely to ourselves! We scoffed down our banana sandwiches, popped the tent up, and snuggeld up in our amazngly cosy new sleeping bags and got an early night!

We're all..

JAPAN HERE WE COME!!

There are a few last minute things to sort out still (like how we're going to carry the boxes to the airport bus!) but otherwise it's time for a celebratory glass of wine to get the holiday started!

Here's a rough outline of our planned route.  It's a total of about 1700km, starting and ending in Sapporo. The excitement is too much!

We are now officially cycle tourists!

We’ve recently bought ourselves brand new touring bikes and we’re absolutely delighted with ourselves!  Why did we need new bikes when we already have two each I hear you say? Well, strictly speaking, we probably didn’t but I suppose it could be traced back to the summer of 2012.  We were living in Daejeon (South Korea) and we only had one week to take for our summer holidays.  Not wanting to lose too much of that time spent in airports etc. we decided we’d stay in Korea and that we’d go to Jeju Island with our bikes.

The bikes we had at the time were far from touring bikes.  We got them free when we signed up to a smart phone contract when we first arrived in Korea,  but we weren’t put off! We didn’t have panniers or anything like that and to be honest, I’m not sure if they even crossed our minds.  We just put what we thought we’d need into our rucksacks and off we went!

Our free bikes, plus 5kg of rice and 30 toilet rolls! What else would you expect when signing a new phone contract!!

The 22nd of October was quite a while ago.  A very long time ago, especially in blogging terms.  I have no real excuse for the silence, a few reasons but no real excuse.  Sometimes it's hard to find the inspiration to write, especially when you think nothing all that noteworthy has happened.  Little things get in the way, and after a few weeks I seem to forget that I actually like writing and that updating my blog isn't a chore, it's something I enjoy doing.

Anyway since the last time I posted, here's what I've been up to in a nutshell:

On November 3rd Nick, four other friends and I, competed in a Spartan Race in Seoul.  An obstacle course not known for its ease, I was quite happy to complete the course, albeit with a penalty of 90 burpees due to three failed obstacles!  Apart from Nick who had to do none, we all had to do 90 which provided a nice amount of solidarity on the day!

Pre-race wanna be Spartans!

Inner Mongolia...in China!

Yup! Inner Mongolia is in China!  This had us somewhat confused as we walked along the Great Wall (which granted was just over three months ago now) only three hours outside Beijing and were told "China's on this side of the wall, and Mongolia's on the other".  How far had the bus just taken us? Were we really at the China-Mongolia border?  And if so, why the hell were we going back to Beijing after the wall-walk to get a bus from there to the Mongolian border??  Seeing the looks of confusion on our faces, the next sentence was "Not real Mongolian, China Mongolia".....Ah right, that clarifies it alright!  So there you have it, Inner Mongolia is in China!

Back to work, back to reality!

Or a reality of sorts anyway!  My timetable has changed slightly this semester, same number of hours but now I have Mondays off instead of Fridays and I've taken on a few extra hours on Saturday mornings as well to help with the savings.  Still though, a fairly nice reality to come back to after what was a great nine weeks off!

Summer time and the livin's easy..

...Or so the song goes anyway.  One of the first things I promised myself when I started this new job, teaching English to college students, last March was that I wouldn't fall into the trap that so many others seem to.  I would not complain.  I work a mere 14 hours a week and I have three day weekends every week.  I also get 20 weeks holidays a year.  The job is not stressful and complaining about it to other foreigners living in Korea who are not as fortunate job-wise as me, and who work much longer hours both daily and weekly,

A Few Days in Osaka

Japan, or at least the small part of it that I was in, was very different to what I was expecting.  I'd been told from a friend that used to live there that it'd all seem very similar to Korea, and maybe because of that, I was astonished at the differences, which to me seemed infinite and everywhere.

DMZ: Demilitarized Zone or Domestic Money (Making) Zoo

Hyejeon College turned 30 on the 30th April, a while ago now I admit, and we all got a day off to celebrate.  The college held a ceremony, the students drank soju and Nick and I went to the DMZ!

We'd been meaning to go for ages.  It's one of those places you feel you need to see while you're in Korea and an unexpected mid-week day off seemed as good an opportunity as any to go and check it out.

Coming of Age

The number of 'National Days' in Korea for this, that and the other never ceases to amuse me.  They seem to start with Valentine's Day, a 'holiday' we're all used to.  Although here, it's a day for the boys unlike at home where it's predominately a day for the girls.

Next, comes 'White Day' which is the same as Valentine's Day only it's one month later and it's a day for the boys to be spoilt by their other halves.  Same date, another month on, is 'Black Day' which is, from what I can gather, a bit of a depressing day for singletons when they are supposed to eat black noodles to highlight their single status!

A Week Off to Procrastinate?

Last week at work was review week. A nice handy week, spent going back over things I'd already covered, answering questions from panicked students about the content and difficulty of the impending mid-term exam and then breezing out the door at lunch time on Thursday, not having to be back in until next Thursday, when they'll be sitting my exam.  I was expecting to be bribed with a tonne of presents from my students, in exchange for the promise of a good grade, but presents were disappointingly lacking.  All I got was an orange!

101 Things in 1001 Days

Writing a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days has become a bit of a trend it would seem.  It's the newer, cooler version of writing a bucket list, from what I can tell anyway.  Bucket lists can be great, but I think the main problem with them seems to be the endless time frame, or at least the perceived endless time frame, in which to complete the tasks on the list.  The trending 101 things in 1001 days is more restricted time wise and as such aims to help focus your time and energy a bit better in the hope that you will actually complete the list instead of stumbling on it in years to come and glancing at it wondering if you ever actually did any of the things you'd wanted to!

Anyway, I've written one, of sorts, and posted it here for you to see.  I'm going to keep it as updated as possible and hope to complete all the items on it at the end of the time frame.  That's the plan anyway....

Sick and Tired of the News

The daily post is a blog that runs a weekly photo challange that I've been meaning to get involved in for some time.  Whether the fact that they're wordpress born and bred and I'm on blogger is an issue or not, remains to be seen!  Anyway, this week the theme of the photo challenge is 'Colour' only they spelt it 'Color' but I won't hold that against them!

This week for me has been both colourful and colourless all in one go.  I've had a chest infection (green) and as a result I've had no voice for most of the week making my speech, and more noticeably my classes, colourless.  However, the frustration at not being about to communicate effectively has made my thoughts extremely colourful, in a way that was perhaps better left inside and unspoken, at least for the sake of my students!!

But, had I not been sick, and had I been able to be out and about, and if by some small miracle I'd been able to take photos of what I'd wanted, this week my entry to the Weekly Photo Challenge would've been of the vividly colourful, bolshy rhetoric being spouted by the man-of-the-moment up North, Mr Kim Jong-Un! 

Now that I think of it, that could be why I've been sick.  Sick of Kim Jong-Un and his bellicose nonsense but even more sick and tired of the world's media and their sensationalist portrayal of life on the Korea peninsula in a desperate attempt to sell more newspapers, with little or no regard for the truth.

Food Stamps for the Poor and a Pay Rise for the Queen

I have a read a couple of things over the course of the last week that have caused me a certain degree of alarm.  Alarm, and a sense of increasing uneasiness.

The first was an article by Suzanne Moore in The Guardian where she talked about how food has become the ultimate class definer and divider.  She talks about Britain being one of the richest nations in the world but that there are people all over the country 'who go to bed early with a bag of chips to keep warm.'  She goes on to say that television programmes such as Master Chef are seeing contestants whip up meals that are becoming more and more outlandish and alien to us, and often bear little resemblance to what people actually eat on a daily basis but they are increasingly a talking point, a driving force of culinary competition and neighbourly rivalry.  What you eat and where you source your food, has become another status symbol, another rung on that ladder to a place of social utopia where not only have you kept up with the Jones', you've surpassed them.

Eating lots of fresh, local produce, as is encouraged by the ever-increasing number of celebrity chefs, is to be applauded, certainly.  Its numerous benefits, from health to environmental to economic, can't be argued, but it all comes at a price, literally.  So to combat this and help disadvantaged people make ends meet and to eat better along the way, and this is where there alarm began to set in, the British government have announced the introduction of food stamps, claiming that it will aid in the move away from a welfare and entitlement culture.  From now on, local residents who apply to the council for emergency assistance, will be given a one-off food voucher, as opposed to the cash loan that was given previously.  It can be used to buy food and nappys but not alcohol or cigarettes.

The term 'food stamps' brings Junior Certificate history lessons to mind, and with it, images of 'The Emergency' in Ireland during WWII where petrol, butter and bananas were all rationed and regulated via food stamps.  Then and now seem hard to compare in the same light, and the idea that policies of old are back in use, seems even harder to comprehend.

The aim, I presume, in this fantastic time of austerity, is to save cash.  Why then, are the councils who are switching to providing food stamps rather than providing short-term loans, also 'preparing to give cash grants to food banks to enable them to take on full-time staff and increase opening hours' and therefore increasing their expenditure.  Putting money into people's hands, rather than vouchers which can only be redeemed against items approved by the government, increases spending power and therefore helps to stimulate the economy, or have I got that all wrong?? 

The second alarming piece of news came today, from the same newspaper.  It was this article, which states that the Queen is to get a £5 million pay rise from the taxpayer.  The article goes on to say that about £10 million of this is to be spent on staff wages, wages which have been frozen for a number of years and have not increased along side the Queen's substantial pay rise.  The total paid to the Queen this year, known as the sovereign grant, is set at £36.1 million and provides for the running costs of the Queen's household.  It does not however, cover the cost of security or police protection.

Food stamps for the poor and marginalised and a £5 million pay rise for the Queen.  After a week which saw 2.7million Facebook users changed their profile pictures to an equals sign in support of gay marriage, it would appear that the idea of equality for all hasn't quite reached the fat cats in Westminster.

Two more gifts and a postcard from home!

Today I got too more gifts from my students, an iced white coffee and a freshly baked baguette, which I've added to my 'A List' tab.  The coffee arrived just before class and just as I had been debating whether or not to go and get one to perk me up a little....no need!  The baguette came later, before the start of my second (and last) class of the day, and sat on my desk teasing me for the rest of the class.  As soon as the class was over and I was safely behind closed doors again, I devoured it!

This evening I went in search of some other waygooks in this little town.  I'd gotten wind of a book club that was due to meet tonight so I took myself off to that.  Everyone was very friendly, we made plans to meet once a month but the best part of the evening was this coffee....

Such a cute little bear!

Then, too top it all off, there was a postcard from home in my postbox when I got back, which means that I successfully translated my address from Korean into English!

Successfully received postcard, unsuccessfully uploaded and hence on its side!

All in all...not a bad Tuesday, and only three more classes to go until the weekend....I definitely have one of the world's best jobs!

A Slightly New Layout

I've changed the layout of my blog just a little bit...adding a few tabs up the top, and taking away a few widgets that didn't seem to add much to the overall blog.  I've also merged my two blogs together, so now everything's all in one place, right here.

The 'Home' tab will take you to the most recent post on the blog.

The 'Who Am I?' tab is fairly self-explanatory I think.

The '91 Things' tab is a work in progress, and you'll just have to wait a while to learn more!

The tab called 'A List' is, surprisingly, a list!  It's going to be an on-going post, I hope, detailing the whacky gifts I receive from my students over the course of the semester.

And finally,  the Blogroll tab, although a work in progress, shows a list of other blogs I follow as well as other sites that I find interesting for multiple different reasons.

It's been a while!

August 12th, 2012??!  I knew it'd been a while since I last posted anything, but I didn't think it had been that long!

I suppose a brief synopsis of what's been going on since then is what's called for....

I did get Laser Eye Surgery. LASEK to be exact.  It was massively painful at the time but I can see perfectly now, and have been able to for months and I'm told my eyes are in excellent health.  Success.  Money very well spent.  Delighted.

The last shot of me wearing glasses! T minus 30mins to surgery!

Post surgery! Trying to put on a brave face and pretend it didn't hurt too much!

Next, winter came to Daejeon but not before Nick entered a Chinese Dragon Boat race on the local stretch of river and won, I went to Seoul for a Hen Party, and we both went to Busan for a wedding.  When it did come though, winter came in a suit, ready for business.  Temperatures plummeted and the lovely warm weather of Autumn quickly became a thing of the past BUT I can't say we minded too much because at this stage we, Nick and I, were on the count down to Christmas at home!

Nick, the rest of the team, and 1,000,000 won prize money!

Snowy walk to work

Outside our old apartment in Wolpyeong

Finished work on Friday evening and came outside to this!

The local park of an afternoon!

We headed off from Daejeon on the 22nd of December, clad in matching Christmas outfits (which blended in nicely in Korea, not so nicely in London or Dublin!), leaving our apartment and our jobs to two of our friends to take over.  This made the packing process somewhat easier, knowing that anything we wanted to leave behind would be safe in our now old, apartment, awaiting our return!  After something awful like 36hrs on the move, we landed in Dublin, where it was 30degrees warmer than it had been in Seoul!  From -15 to +15 just like that!

Incheon Airport wearing matching Christmas couple outfits, and under Steff Hotdog to boot!

There really is nowhere like home, and no more so than at Christmas time.  It absolutely flew by and now seems like a distant memory, dominated by oodles of rich food and washed down with plenty of festive gargle.  Great fun altogether but it really highlighted the badness of our diets back home.  Food that was too rich, too processed or too sugary when I first got home soon became normal again, not that it stopped me from wolfing it all down and having a grand ol time for myself!

The over-eating induced lull after Christmas Dinner!

 
I spent a total of 9 weeks at home, and nick was there for 10.  In that time, we went to a friend's wedding in Roscommon, we visited relations and friends in the west of Ireland, we acted as beaters on a woodcock shoot, we ate a very fancy dinner post-shoot in Markree Castle, and we caught up with as many friends and family as possible.  At the same time, I was on the look out for a job back in Korea, starting about the 1st of March, and Nick was furiously studying for the Oral Defence of his Ph.D.

Kathy & Kev's Wedding on New Years Eve in Roscommon

Family Fun in Kilmuckridge. All ten adults and 5 children worth of us!

Stunning, bleak, Connemara scenery

The woodcock shoot we were beaters on.  Gas day out! Unfortunately there wasn't enough tweed to go around!

 

Very fancy post-shoot dinner at Markree Castle

After much job hunting, and much study, we were both successful!  I got a job and Nick got his Ph.D! Delighted, the pair of us were!


Week three in my new job is almost drawing to a close now.  I'm teaching conversational English to college students in Hyejeon College, just outside of Hongseong in Chungcheongnam.  It's a small enough college about an hour outside of Daejeon, tucked away in a quiet little mountain town.  The college has provided me with a nice apartment just off the campus, as well as a huge office on campus, next to my classroom.  They did however mis-spell my name as 'Step' on the door of my office which means I'm probably going to be Step from here on in!  However, I only work a trying 14hours a week, and I have every Friday off.  Each of the two terms in the college year are 16 weeks long,  and the rest is holidays, paid holidays at that. 

Hard to make out but this is my office door and it says 'Step Ruth Russell'!

'Knock knock, open wide, let's see what's on the other side'!

The view over campus from my office window!

The last few weeks I've been wandering around, pinching myself, wondering how in god's name I ended up here, with this ridiculous job, where I have tonnes of free time, loads of holidays and all the while earning a salary decent enough that I can put some money away for a rainy day!

And that folks, in a nutshell, is it. The past 7 months, crammed into one little blog post!