Cool Running!

I have been off the streets for about 6 weeks due to a slight knee injury. I won’t bore you with the details, but it has been very frustrating not being able to go running. This has been amplified by the timing – when I had to stop it was just starting to get a little cold. Having never run in sub-zero temperatures before, I was hoping for a gradual transition from one season to the next. Unfortunately I have skipped autumn, and now I am trying to get back into a routine in the middle of winter. This is not easy!

The photo is me returning from a run just the other morning where the temperature was -7 degrees, but with the wind chill it was actually -13 degrees Celsius. During the first 5 minutes of the run my eyeballs were aching, and my lips contracted so tightly that I thought they may actually rip away from the sides of my mouth! Getting ready to go running now is often harder work than the actual run. I have to wear shorts, track pants, 2 pairs of socks, t-shirt, windbreaker long sleeve shirt, wind proof jacket, gloves, and a beanie. Running in these conditions is more about mental fitness than physical – perhaps it’s more about just being mental.

Cruizin' the Burbs

We have been lucky enough over the past week to have had a car at our disposal. Don (my running buddy) and his wife have gone to Guam for the holiday break, so they said we could use their car while they were gone. Driving has been quite an experience, and we have actually seen some things first hand that we previously thought were only folklore.

The first thing that we discovered is that the traffic lights are only put in place because they look nice – no one really pays any attention to them. This is a little scary when you are used to thinking that on a green light you are safe to go. Another novelty is when you are in a line of traffic waiting at the lights to do a u-turn. Generally you would follow the line of traffic down to the lights and everyone would make the turn from the same place. Here however, as soon as the car at the front starts to make a turn, then all the cars in the line (often 15 or 20 cars) make their u-turn from wherever they are in the line. It is quite comical to watch, and I’m sure it would make a dazzling performance from an overhead view.

Parking is another facet of driving that has been given that special Korean touch. We had heard stories that people often park their cars behind other cars and just leave them out of gear, the assumption being that when the person who has been parked in wants to get out, they will simply push the other vehicle out of the way. I wasn’t sure how true this was, but sure enough, when I came out of the supermarket the other day there was a car parked right behind ours in a perpendicular position. Luckily, the guy parked beside us was also leaving and he had already started pushing the offending vehicle out of the way. Of course the only place to move the car was behind other cars that were parked beside us – needless to say, that one particular car would’ve been moved back and forth quite a few times during its driver’s little shopping trip. Just last night, when we came out of the restaurant, we were parked in again. The car directly behind us had left their mobile number on the windscreen, so we got a passerby to call them for us. Within 30 seconds the owner emerged from a nearby restaurant to allow us to get out. I’m not sure how this system would work in Australia – I could just imagine where your car would end up if you parked behind someone and left it out of gear.

The Koreans have only had major highways for about 20 years, up until about 10-15 years ago, a lot of people didn’t have cars. Nowadays everybody has a car, and they love to drive them. It’s like having 40 million adolescent drivers on the road at once. The highways have not kept up with the increase in traffic volume, and traffic jams are a regular occurrence. A couple of weeks ago I drove to COSTCO, a large wholesale supermarket. The trip there took 30 minutes, but the trip back took 2 hours. Nothing like driving 35 km at an average speed of 17km/hr. The driving experience has been good for us because it has convinced us that we don’t need a car, we’ll be sticking to public transport – at least for now.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Upon awakening this morning, I sat in front of the computer to catch up on the news and see what the day would bring weather wise. I noticed that my desktop weather widget was showing -2 degrees Celsius with light snow, so I drew back the blinds to see if any snow had fallen yet. What a wondrous surprise I was greeted with – everything outside was white! It must have been snowing all night, and the flakes continued to fall as we all quickly got dressed into our snow gear to head out and have a play. Hope you enjoy the happy snaps of our winter wonderland experience.The morning view from our apartment.

Our very first snowman!

Happy family snap.

Now that's what I call a snowball.

Funny how the snow falls when you shake the tree.

Afresco anyone?

My New Toys

One of my first missions, when we arrived back in August, was to buy a new guitar. It just so happened that my birthday fell on the same day as our first organised shopping trip to Songtan, a very westernised (US style) shopping district near the Osan military base. I had my heart set on an Epiphone Casino style guitar, and I found a few of these in the first guitar shop at fairly reasonable prices. Then I discovered that in Korea, they basically make the guitars and put whatever name they like on them. This would explain why a Korea made Ovation is only $400, compared to the US made version which sells for about $1000 in Australia. I continued my search and found a little shop (called Mr Potato Guitars) off the main street which had a good selection of accoustic guitars, and a few electrics. This is where I found the "Marvel" - a cheap nock off of an Epiphone Casino. The guy who owns and runs the shop, also makes the guitars, so the prices are very cheap and the qaulity is good. This particular guitar looks great, and sounds awesome. The tone is very rich and I have never heard a guitar bend a note like this one. I am very surprised at how good it sounds, as I never thought a cheap guitar would sound this good. The main reason for choosing a semi accoustic was so I could play it in our apartment without making too much noise, once I put it through my effects board and plug the headphones in that is. However, something was missing. Harper was not playing this guitar as much as he used to play my guitars at home. One day he said, "Dad, can we buy another guitar that isn't electric so I can play it. I miss playing the guitar." This was more than enough reason for me to head back to Mr Potato and pick up one of his original hand made accoustic guitars. I went for a classical (nylon string) accoustic cut away with pick up - which means I can plug it in and play through an amp. It is a lovely sounding guitar and Harper didn't leave it alone for the whole weekend. He actually came into our room early one morning and said, "Can I play the guitar now?" How can you refuse such enthusiasm? Even though it meant that we all had to get up then, the answer was yes. Notice the unique design of the headstock - Mr Potato's emblem is an eagle, so he tries to represent that in the carving. This is a unique guitar and one that will hopefully stay with us for some time, perhaps it could be Harper's one day - although I think he believes it's his already.

Is that really snow?

Well the winter weather has begun with a chilling vengeance. We are now experiencing highs of around 3 degrees, and overnight sub-zero lows. Luckily the days are still bright and sunny, so this gives the illusion of being a little warmer than it actually is. We had some snow flurries at school the other day, but it was wet snow, so it turned to water as soon as soon as it hit the ground. When we awoke on Saturday morning we were greeted by the nearby roofs and the surrounding mountains having a thin covering of white. The snow was very icy, but it was still a thrill for the kids to actually see it and touch it. The photos were taken on the roof of our building, and the hills are directly across the road from where we live. It appears that we could be in for quite a bit of snow this winter, who knows, we may even get a white Christmas!