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I have started training in Haidong Gumdo again.
I started last Thursday and I am enjoying it.
But my body is paying the price.
It is very sore.

Today I had to call KT’s internet help centre b/c I forgot my password.

HOW: Dial 100, choose option 8 for Foreigners Help.

Note this is in Korean, so just listening won’t help much
Once there they were very helpful.
After checking ID by asking for my user ID and Foreigner ID number the operator gave me my password. She didn’t reset it. She just read it off the screen.
Whilst I trust them, I don’t think this is good security practise b/c any operator has access to my internet ID and password.
In Australia they can only see my ID, not my password (I think) . When you forget the password they reset it, tell you the new password and tell you to change it straight away.

After that long, ever so long Winter vacation, I imagined that there would not be many vacatons for quite some time.
So image my suprise after a mere 7 days at school I am told it is time for Spring Vacation.

Lets see I come back to school on Feb 9, a thursday for a short two day week.
Then have a normal week on the 13th, come back on the 20th and see my students cleaning my classroom at 11 am in the morning. Something was strange.
Not the fact that the students were cleaning. That is how things are done in Korea, no professional cleaners coming in after school, it is the students job with teachers supervising.
At my school this happens at 3:30 pm and they leave school around 4 pm
So I asked one of the teachers why they are cleaning so early and I was told about Spring Vacation.

After a long Winter break (Dec 29 – Feb 9) classes have begun again at Yaeumdong Middle School. Fortunately for the first day I have only one class.

2006-02-06 Snow falling on Yaeumdong

Today it snowed in Ulsan and about time!
It snowed once before, but it was a pretty weak effort.
This time I took my mountain bike and went riding up in the hills, slipping and sliding all the way – a lot of fun!

My school also looked very pretty

Click here for larger picture

Just saw Syriana today. It is the latest George Clooney / Matt Damon film. I loved it.
The acting was wonderful, the script was excellent and the good guys came in shades of gray.

The movie is about the oil business and the corruption / real politics associated with it.

Favourite quotes from the movie:

The Americian CIA approach to people threatening expensive oil

Bob Barnes: I want you to take him from his hotel, drug him, put him in the front of a car, and run a truck into it at 50 mph.

On the western view of the arab world

Bryan Woodman: You want to know what the business world thinks of you? We think a hundred years ago you were living out here in tents in the desert chopping each others heads off, and that’s exactly where you’re gonna be in another hundred. So yes, on behalf of my firm, I accept your money.

On contracts with those same oil rich arabs

Bryan Woodman: Do you understand what that means, it’s like someone put a giant ATM on our front lawn.

Since arriving in Korea I have lived in three different apartments or “villas”. A Villa is usually a three to five story apartment building as distinct from the ten stories plus apartment blocks you see all around Korea.

In a “my” villa there were six apartments per floor. In the photo below you can see the stairwell and the open door to my apartment.

Below is the front door to my apartment. At the back you can see the door to the toilet / shower.

You can see the bathroom door at the far left and on the far right is the glass door to the balcony / laundry.
In front of the laundry you can see my bed poking out of the corner

Here you can see the “bedroom”

In the background you can see the kitchen and the front door to the left of it. in the middle of the picture is my bed. In the foreground is the glass door to the laundry where this shot is taken and the blue / greenish chair / table is in the bottom right of the picture.

View from the “bedroom” of the TV/ DVD and kitchen.

A self portrait of myself in the bathroom / toilet which is very small.

2006-02-05 Kanweyeol Mountain Ride 08

Today is my sister Karen’s birthday.

Age: Classified

Today, I joined the Samamtb club for a ride to Kanweyeol Mountain near Eonyang.

The mountain is is 1,100 meters high! I didn’t know this when I turned up for the ride.
So with a sense of foreboding we started up with myself bravely guarding the rear (b/c I was too knacked too keep up). Fortunally various club members stayed behind to encourage me.

Once we got to the top it was all worth it

Quick break (well for me, not for them) for a snack, take in the view

Then down a rocky gravel forest access road until we met the main road.
Then we hit a small uphill section. I didn’t know how far the section was and my legs were spent from the climb so it was agony. But it was only a small section and to my delight we were then at the top of another mountain on the main road with 10 minutes of switchbacks ahead of us … yeee .. haaa ….

After that it was a mainly flat section back to the carpark. Halfway back we came upon the making of a giant bonfire. I would have loved to have seen this go up.

When I got back to Ulsan, I went to my health club and had a spa which was ever so relaxing. Then back home. An hour later I had a snooze on my bed and work up at 5am Monday !