movember

i don't know where it started, or when it started, or even when i heard about it, but movember is something the rugby guys (the survivors, anywho) "celebrate"...these are all the guys who participated this year...sorry about the bad photo...
to explain, november is recognized as prostate cancer month...i don't know where, but that's beside the point...to promote awareness, men all over have turned it into movember...that is, they grow mustaches during the month of november...men do this with their colleagues, family, friends, etc...for men who don't normally have facial hair, this can be a good thing, or a very bad thing...some guys can grow facial hair, and some, well, let's just say it doesn't look good...of course, it means that significant others have to deal with it for a month, but everyone is a good sport, since it's a good cause...
each year, the survivors have a contest of sorts...they get pledges from their friends/family to raise money for a couple charities they support, and grow mustaches all month...at the end of the month, they raise even more money by having a shave-off auction...all the boys, their significant others, and other assorted friends and rugby hangers on show up...there are prizes for who has grown the best of various types of mustaches...the best dictator 'stache, the best bum fluff (someone who just can't grow thick facial hair) 'stache, and the best chopperee (the best side chops)...pretty funny to see who gets called up as a nominee for each prize...hee hee...anywho, after the awards, the auction starts...most of the starting bids were 10,000, going up from there...people bid for the "honour" of shaving off said person's mustache...this time, the bids were amusing...people started bidding money to keep the mustache, or to change it to another colour, or to shave it and see the person dance/sing...
by the time the monies from the auction were added to the pledges from the month, the boys raised over 4 million won...pretty good, eh?

chuncheon (춘천)

even though i had been out of town with rugby just the weekend before, heather, kim and i decided to go to chuncheon (춘천) this weekend...it's not far from seoul, only 1.5 hours by bus...kim and i took a bus together, the bus arrived faster than expected...woo hoo...
amazingly, there weren't the normal love motels around the bus station...everywhere else i've been in korea you can always see lots of love motels around bus and train stations...anywho...heather had been to chuncheon before, so she knew where we should go...since she was coming from jochiwon her bus was a little later in arriving, but oh well...there happened to be a huge emart attached to the bus station so we wandered around there for a little while, and found food there...i should say that it has gotten COLD in korea, so wandering around in the dark, looking for food isn't the greatest...heather arrived, found us at emart, and we figured out a plan...we took a taxi to an area in town where she knew we could find a love motel, we checked in and relaxed for the evening...it was a room with a double bed, so i got a yeo (basically a thick duvet that goes on the floor, and a blanket to sleep under) and a pillow...kim had some interesting stories to tell from work...i had another bad asthma attack, but it calmed down soon enough...i'm getting a whole lot more use out of my inhaler these days, i haven't used it this much since i was a competitive swimmer! (it's not a good thing i don't think)...

the next morning we woke up slowly...and all spent some time waking up, going back to sleep, waking up, going back to sleep, etc...around 1100 we started taking showers and such, and by 1215 we were out the door...i had thought it was sunny, but i was wrong...lol...sometime during the night it had snowed!!! it was pretty, unexpected, and cold...i really need to find my scarves...i hope i brought a couple with me to seoul, but if not, i need to buy one soonest...i know i have mittens in my flat, i need to get those out...unfortunately, i didn't have my mittens with me in chuncheon...anywho, we started walking, and soon found a dunkin donuts...(none of us are that picky when it comes to a quick breakfast)...we also talked to local foreigners who told us how to get to a particular island heather wanted to see...

before going to that island, we decided to walk down to the river...which took longer than i thought it would...not that it really mattered...anywho, once we got to the river we decided not to go to nami-do, simply because it would take an hour to get there, and it was already 1300 or so...we decided to walk along the river for a little while, and see if we could find a ferry to another little island...because of the weather, there weren't many people out...it really felt like we had the river to ourselves...that's a feeling you almost never have in korea...there are just too many people...

while walking along the river we found the ferry port to another island, in the middle of the river...according to lonely planet, we could find dolmens and such on that island...so we opted for the ferry, and decided to forego nami-do for another trip...this ferry held 6 cars, and the round trip only cost us each 3000won...yay!! it wasn't a long ride, but we still enjoyed it...

as we got off the ferry on the island, we saw an archeology dig happening...i'm guessing the diggers weren't too thrilled with the weather...heather's dad is an archeologist, so she was particularly interested...we could see a couple pots and such that had been exposed already...the area marked off for the dig was actually pretty big, even though they weren't actually digging in all of it at that point...

we kept walking for a while, just because it was nice...since the leaves have fallen, there isn't a lot of colour to be found...but we did find this small area of red berries, which were pretty...i wonder why they were only in this one spot...toward the end of our walk, we went into a garden/play area of sorts...i suppose it was a historical area, as they had this dolmen and a couple others displayed...if we understood the sign correctly (and one never knows with kanglish) the dolmen had all been on the island, but had been moved so that they were all together for this park...does anyone know what the purpose of these are?

after taking the ferry back, we cut up to the main street (as opposed to the river walk where we had been walking earlier) and saw the end of this war memorial...judging by the flags, it's probably related to what americans know as the korean war, fought from 1950-1953...

we were lucky enough to catch a taxi almost immediately back into town...(we could've walked back to where we started, but didn't feel like it)...the taxi dropped us off at dalkgalbi street...apparently dalkgalbi was invented in chuncheon, there is an entire street with restaurants specially devoted to dalkgalbi...i had planned to sit on the bench in the photo, but there was mud and water on it...lol...

dinner was great...yummy food which really hit the spot since we'd been walking for a while...spicy, and the restaurant was warm...(except for when some dumbhead propped open the door and everyone froze)...and after dinner, we were mostly interested in staying warm...there is always a point in a chilly day when warmth becomes more important than anything else...especially when the sun is down...we found an underground shopping area which was quite warm...it was extensive, and had we been so inclined, could've shopped for hours...as it was, we wandered through relatively quickly, mostly scanning what was available...(a whole store devoted just to children's shoes!)...heather and kim had fun in daiso, which is kindof like the dollar store...lots of random stuff, most of it useful in some way or another...from underground shopping, we went to coldstone...given what i just said about staying warm, realize this makes no sense, but heather and i were in the mood, and kim certainly didn't say no...hee hee hee...the guy in the store tried to tell me i couldn't substitute ice cream flavours, but he backed down when i told him i've been able to do it at every store i've tried in seoul...across the street from coldstone was a north face store, and kim wanted to shop there...she just came from a couple years in new mexico, which isn't known for cold winters, so she wanted to peruse and think about buying a real winter jacket...she didn't buy, but did come away with ideas...

from there we went back to the bus station, got on buses, and came home...traffic going into seoul on saturday evening seemed nonexistent, so we got home fast...woo hoo!!!

we're definitely hoping to go back to chuncheon in the spring:)

hong kong rugby style

the hong kong tour is one that all the rugby girls who have gone rave about...everyone loves it...and now, after having the experience myself, i totally agree...what a fantastic weekend...
friday evening immediately after school i hopped on a bus to the airport, which takes an hour and a half...at the checkin counter i met up with several other girls, so we all ended up sitting together on the plane...security and emigration doesn't take very long at the airport in incheon, it's a really efficient airport...no body scanners or patdowns, i reckon those will get here eventually...the checkin line was long, but it didn't take long to go through and get our boarding passes...the plane took off on time, i think, woo hoo...
we landed in hong kong around 2245 local time, and ended up waiting in the airport for a while for colin, our manager...we knew he was supposed to arrive around the same time, and we were supposed to meet up with him so he could get us all to the hostel, but for whateva reason no one thought to make a specific meeting point...anywho, after we finally found him, it didn't take long to get to the hostel...there is a train from the airport that gets you into the city in 24 minutes...brilliant...from there it was a quick cab ride (cabs in hong kong are all red) to the hostel...we'd all thought we'd be in rooms of 2,3 or 4 people, but 10 of us ended up in an apartment, which was actually awesome...(except that there was only one bathroom)...AND, every one of us got a key, so no one had to worry about making sure someone was 'home' or finding someone with a key...yay!! (with a group like ours, that's actually a pretty big deal)...

nat, our unofficial team captain found us at checkin, showed us the apartment (it wasn't in the same building as the checkin desk) and got us going to go out that night...fortunately, very few people needed showers...we just used makeup to cleanup...nat had arrived the night before with three others, none of them had to work on friday...(jealousy is my middle name)...they'd spent friday shopping and relaxing after going out hard thursday night...our first stop of the night was a place called devil's advocate...it's in the wan chai area of hong kong, which is an area full of bars, and plenty of expats...i think a lot of hong kong rugby people spend a lot of time in the advocate, but it was pretty tame while we were there...after a couple drinks we made our way to a place called dusk till dawn...whoa...crazy busy...the bouncers outside were counting the people going in and out, they were right at the limit allowed...i didn't go in, i hung out outside with a few of the girls and just chatted...there were people coming out every now and again, but from what we could tell, it was going to be really really crowded/busy in there, so we never went in...the girls who did had a good time i think, but they all mentioned that there was a constant flow of people bumping into them...i went to those bars in uni, and while i was living in garmisch, but i don't like them much now...anywho, i went home "early" around 0300, with one of the other girls...there is a 24hr supermarket near our hostel, and she and i were hungry, so we took the opportunity to wander around...the staff were stocking the shelves so there were boxes everywhere, but oh well...anna and i were amazed at the variety available...there definitely is NOT that variety in korea...sure, there are big groceries in korea, but not with the variety of international brands...she and i must've spent over 30 minutes just wandering around...(probably with our mouths hanging open from shock)...when i laid my head down that night it was spinning, as if i'd been drinking!!! crazy...i haven't had alcohol in nearly 7 years, and there is no smoking in hong kong bars, (sure wish it was that way in seoul!) so who knows how i ended up with that feeling...oh well...i didn't hear everyone else come home, but everyone made it safely...

morning came fast...too fast...we're all used to getting up for work, and hong kong is an hour behind, so all of us woke up naturally a whole lot earlier than we expected, or wanted...oh well...not that we got moving very fast, but the point is that we were awake...

since hearing the night before from nat that there was a new lululemon store in hong kong, that was my only goal for the day...i hadn't planned to shop at all, buuuut, i've been drooling over lululemon online for the past couple months, and i couldn't pass up this opportunity...YAY!!! nat was staying in another room from me, but colette was in my room (the big apartment) and she had visited the lululemon store the day before...(according to nat, they'd all spent a LOT of money there)...colette was still sleeping so i waited until 1100 to wake her up to ask where to find lululemon...she ended up coming with us, and spending more money:)...i had an asthma attack while trying on pants, it was soooooo embarassing...i've been really sick lately, and coughing a lot...for whateva reason some of these coughing fits have been so bad that i end up gagging, which has been causing asthma attacks...ugh...after calming down, drinking some water and using my inhaler, i still had a red face but wasn't coughing so badly...i bought two pairs of pants...(thank you to mom for the birthday money:)...after that, anna and i returned to the supermarket, bought sandwiches (they were huge) for lunch, and went back to the flat in the hostel...some of the girls had shopped a bit, the only sightseeing anyone did was to go up to victoria peak...when the weather is clear there is a great view of the hong kong skyline...when it's hazy/polluted, not so much...

eventually everyone gathered on the street, though of course some people were later than others...we got in a taxi line, (on a side note, taxis in hong kong are red) and made it all the way to the front, only to find out that we had been in the wrong taxi line, and that we needed to go somewhere else to find taxis that would take us over to the kowloon side...(hong kong isn't just one island, it's an island, and a little bit of the mainland)...of course, that made the group arrival at the rugby pitch later than anticipated...(not much of a surprise, as moving bigger groups around never happens on schedule)...quick changes for everyone, very little time to warm up...as this was the first 15s game for 75% of the people playing, we had a lot of learning to do...we'd done some scrum stuff in practice, but never against another team...part of the pregame stuff included building the scrum with both sides, so that everyone knew what they were doing...the ref made sure everyone was binding the way they were supposed to, and she told us how she would call it, so we would know the correct pace...(i know that probably doesn't make any sense if you don't know rugby, sorry)...

then we played...we got our asses kicked, but we did get better as the game went on...to be fair, as i mentioned earlier this was the first 15s game for most of us, and the hong kong girls are the best team in hong kong...(there are 7 women's teams in hong kong)...rugby is part of the culture in hong kong, everyone (even those who don't play) have at least a vague notion of the game, unlike in korea where most people don't have a clue...the longest running asian rugby tournament takes place in hong kong every year, a massive party called the hong kong 7s...
i ended up with another asthma attack during the game and had to come out...which pissed me off, cause i really wanted to play...i just couldn't stop wheezing...maria was hurt during the first half, but i think she was the only injury...anywho, after the game we took the normal picture with both teams...that seems to be just as much a part of rugby as the game itself...tradition, i guess...both teams mix themselves and smile for the camera...this time no one actually had a camera for a minute, whoops...after the game a couple of the hong kong girls (one of whom used to be a seoul sister!) showed us to the subway, so we skipped the taxis on the way home...somehow half the team went down the wrong escalator, including our coach...he realized it though and hopped the rail...lol...

we got back to our hostels, showered, and put on the costumes nicole and others had bought earlier...roman-ish i guess...i'm not big on fancy dress, so it didn't matter to me whether we had them or not...amazingly, people seemed to mostly be ready on time...tanya (the former seoul sister) met us at 2100, and walked us to a place called ruggers...it was just recently opened up, and is owned by four girls who all play for different teams in hong kong...how awesome is that? there was a bar (obviously, this is rugby after all) and they had a food menu as well...the place isn't big, but that didn't matter...anywho, it was a relaxing time for people to catch up, hang out, etc...after an hour or longer, someone called a court session...they gave out the normal awards (mvp for both teams and other assorted awards) as well as fines for various ladies...details of that stuff stays in the court session, of course...i drank my water and hung out, i was sad to have to turn down the glass of sangria everyone else got...:(...i went home not too long after that, around 0100...that was when everyone was leaving ruggers, and the hong kong girls were going to take us to other bars in the wan chai area...since i was sick, i opted for going to sleep...a couple girls stayed out till 0600:)

the next morning rachel woke all of us up at 0730...we thought we had to be out the door at 0830, so it was probably a good idea to wake us all up so we could move as slowly as we needed but still make it out the door on time...we ended up having an extra hour, so amy and i went for a walk to times square...i hadn't been in that area before, and since it was so close to where we were staying, i figured i should get a few photos while i had the chance...amy hadn't drunk much or stayed out late the night before either, so both of us were able to get going quickly...there was a display of some sort so we had fun posing...hee hee...i can't help it, i like photos of myself:)...while we were out walking amy showed me a photo she had taken from the window of her room...(she was staying in another room of the hostel)...it was a view down the street, which normally wouldn't be anything fantastic, but they were on the 10th floor, so she could see boats and water...of course, i had to take the same photo for myself:)

the team had chartered a bus to take us to a junk boat we had hired for the day...the junk boat is the part of the tour that everyone talks about afterward...and now i know why...it was AMAZING...just after we started cruising, they started bringing out drinks and appetizers...i had cranberry juice, but other people had sea breezes or beer...appetizers included chicken satay, lamb something or another, and chips and salsa...everything looked and tasted good...woo hoo...after an hour of cruising (i don't really know how long it was, i'm just guessing) we dropped the anchor in between two beaches...after some debate as to which beach we wanted to swim to, we chose, and jumped off the boat...i was pretty proud of myself for jumping off the top of the boat, i'm not big on jumping off heights of any kind...i can stand up high no problem, but i don't really enjoy jumping...(except that i do want to go skydiving someday, which totally doesn't fit into that at all, i know)...it wasn't warm water...it wasn't freezing exactly, but it was chilly...on the beach we threw a rugby ball around a little, but soon we drifted off a bit...at some point we decided it would be fun to take a picture of all of us laying down at the water line...fun, but cold when the waves came up...lol...not long after that, i climbed on some of the nifty rocks just because it looked like fun...nicole and jana came up afterward, the three of us had a great conversation...

after a little while, the boat people told us we should come back to the boat for lunch...YUM...steak, chicken, salmon, salad, potatoes, veggies, bread, and moussaka...all of it really good...if i recall correctly, everyone had a full plate...after lunch several of us laid out on the front of the boat...the sun felt nice, though i think all of us wouldn't have minded a few more degrees of heat...but we worshipped the sun for a while anywho...awesome...after a little while, several of the girls told me i was getting red, and i could feel it in a couple places...so i put on a shirt and wandered around the boat...then they brought out brownies...yum...i could've eaten more than the two small ones i did...hee hee...at some point, nearly everyone came down to the ground floor deck, just chatting, drinking, relaxing...they brought out pizza, yahoo!! after a couple slices of that i went down under that deck and took a cold shower...i wasn't keen on the cold, but i wanted to get all the salt off me...i found sand everywhere...i guess it had all stayed there from when we laid in the sand for the photo...whoops...it felt good to get rid of the salt...

back at the dock, the bus took us back to our hostel...most of us picked up our luggage, and took taxis to hong kong station...there is an airport checkin there, it was really nice to drop off luggage and not have to think about it again until landing in seoul...in that same station, i found a bookstore, and bought the postcards i always try to buy when traveling...then i went with some of the girls to temple street night market...janine and jess miller were definitely ready to shop, i just went along for the ride...we bought matching bracelets, i bought a frog thing for my sister (it'll probably be a while before i get around to posting it) and then the girls bought a whole bunch more...hee hee...it was a typical market, with all sorts of random stuff available...

we took the subway back to hong kong station, took the train to the airport, flew back to seoul, and took buses home...i walked into my flat at 0700, tried to sleep for 2 hours, then got ready for work...monday was a veeeeerrrrrrry long day...