Pre-Vacation post

I'm thinking of goals.  Specifically my weight goal.  I chose a goal based on outdated BMI info, so I started looking into other ways of figuring out when I'll be 'done.'  By the waist-to-hips ratio, I'm fine.  Other measures do seem to be more accurate in that they take into account the body type.  I'm going to go ahead and say that I have an 'athletic' build - mostly because 'quarter horse' isn't recognized yet.  (Hehe, thanks for that one, Mom.)  Some of my friends and family have expressed concern that I may take things too far (what? who? ME?) so I wanted to share a pic to let you all know that I'm not at all looking emaciated or like a cadaver (Dad was worried about that one).  I still have my hips and butt, the hips have just shrunk by a foot (A FOOT - 12 inches GONE), and my waist is less than 1/2 my height, which is apparently also a thing.  Then again, I've usually had a smaller waist - I'm a big ol' pear as my friend T said once - most of my weight is in my hips, thighs and butt.

So when will I feel like I'm 'ready' to move from ADF to OMAD (maintenance).  I'm not sure.  There's a part of me that feels like after the next 10 lbs I can re-evaluate and decide if I want to go for the last 10 to my original goal.  That being said, I could just stop after I lose 100 lbs - it's a nice, round number.  Then again, who is to say that I can't stop at 95 and just round up?  See the dilemma?  I get so distracted by the numbers that I'm not sure when to say 'when.'  This may be TMI, but perhaps I could stop once certain deposits are gone.  I'm the only one who sees those, so I'd be the only one who knew when I was done.  

Anyway, those are just some thoughts.  Feel free to weigh in down in the comments section (see what I did there?).  In the meantime, it's officially vacation and my beer loves me.

So Sunday J and I went in to Seoul and got haircuts, then went to Vatos and then went shopping.  I got a rather nice shirt. 

Reminds me of Sandy at the end of Grease.  So we also got some chocolate after Vatos and before we came home.

 Post-haircut pic.

 Post-haircut beer :)  I was waiting for J to get done and so Jay gave me a beer.

 Then we went to a chocolate cafe and I had an iced mexican hot chocolate.  It was really nice. 

 J was happy with her chamomile tea. 

We also got a waffle.  It was SO GOOD!

So after this we came home, which was nice.  I am almost done with my book The Dante Club - it's really good!  I'll have another book to take down to Busan.  The train trip is about 5 hours, so I'm thinking of taking 2 books just to be sure I'll have enough.  I don't want to bring my kindle because I don't want to worry about charging it.  Then my friend D will meet me at the train station and then the shenanigans can begin!!

I hope all of you are doing OK and sending lots of love to all.  :* MUAH!

Countdown to vacation!

So as bummed as I am that Dad can't come see me (stupid Corona), I am looking forward to having some time off from work.  J and I have a wonderful day of haircuts, shopping, food, and shenanigans in Seoul planned.  Then I'm going to Busan to see D.  The thing is, everyone at work seems to be exhausted and ready to be on vacation already!  It's kind of funny.  We do have overtime to look forward to when we get back... so that should be interesting.  Ah well, such is life.

Here's a pic of our T-shirts for immersion... I gotta say, I miss the black from last year.  I'm thinking of teaching in sunglasses (or sunnies, as they will forever now be called) on the days we all have to wear them.

Gotta admit, we are at least cute.  The little character at the top is Vena and the one on the bottom is Cupie.

Our co-teacher, J(K) took S and I out for lunch the other day.  We got tteokbokki - it's spicy rice cakes with hot dogs.  Well, S is from NM so he figured he could handle the super spicy, but after some consideration we decided to have their 'original' which was one spicy down from super.  I'm glad we did - that stuff cleaned out my sinuses and had me crying some real tears.  It was delicious, though.  :)

The yellow stuff is pickled radishes, which helped to cut the spicy and the white is cheese.  It was good, and the sauce would be PERFECT on enchiladas. 

We also got lanyards for our masks yesterday, which make me laugh because I always figured I'd end up with reading glasses on a lanyard but no - my face mask is on one.  I had to take a pic to share so here you go - this is what I look like on a normal teaching day.

Necklace, name tag with pen, now mask lanyard, and earrings.  I have to say I'm not wearing all my earrings right now because it's a pain in the butt when they get hooked on the mask.  Half the time I don't wear my necklaces either.  It's amazing what changes we make when we have to consider things like face masks.  I'm not wearing my lipstick right now, I've got to really keep an eye on my mustache or I'll just let it go wild, and I do have mask-caused acne... but you can't see it!!!

My final thoughts - I've been watching Merlin and I love it.  They have done wonderful things to the characters and while it's familiar, it's not overly so.  That being said, I have one... bemusement.  Sir Percival wears a cut-off chain mail shirt!!!!  I mean, the man has some massive arms, so I get wanting to show them off, but REALLY!?!  Cut-off CHAIN MAIL?!?!  It just raises a lot of questions for me.  Also, I want about half of all the outfits that the women wear on that show, and the eye candy is top notch.  Hehe... so fun.

That's it until the weekend.  I'll be sure to report back on J and I's trip to Seoul and then my own trip to Busan.  Yes, I'm taking a train, no I don't expect zombies.  :D  Much love to all, MUAH :*

Adventure in Pyeongchang

Another fun post for everyone!  It was a great weekend.  We started at 7am and went to the bus, which took us to the metro, which took us to another bus.  We left early (the bus was supposed to pick us up at 8:40) because I don't trust the public trans.  We were at our pick-up an hour early.  However, it wasn't only us.  We met someone there who was also waiting, so we talked to him a bit and I got coffee from the GS25 store that was recently built outside the metro stop.

 I just love that this was on a vending machine in the metro - Job's Tears Tea - which I read as 'jobs tears tea.'

 The convenience store that we were waiting at.

 First stop was the caving.  Here's the view.

 And me - we were in group 2.  Now, unfortunately I don't have any pix of us in the cave because we were not allowed to bring ANYTHING into the cave with us.  We also had to suit up in a red jumpsuit and wear rubber boots, gloves, and helmets with flashlights on top.  That's right - there were no lights in the cave.

 Here's our tour guide explaining the process.  You go in, and they give you your jumpsuit (you can see the mannequin in the back), you take off your shoes and put them in a locker.  You take the key from the locker and go into the locker room to change into your jumpsuit.  You then lock EVERYTHING in the locker.  The key goes in a special pocket in the suit.  Then you come out and get your boots, gloves, and helmet.  You walk down to a boat that takes you down to close to the cave entrance.

In case you are wondering - yes, we had to wear our masks all thru the cave.  When we got to the entrance our guide told us that the cave used to be used by the villagers as a place to cool off in summer and get warm in winter.  One day in 1976 a villager realized that a bat was flying behind him, so there must be more to the cave.  He told the gov, they came in to do research and the cave was not available to the public for 30 years.  In 2005 they opened it back up.  Apparently it's a national treasure so not a lot of people are allowed to go in it.  We had places where we had to crawl, we stomped through water, and at the end we all shut off our lamps and spent 3 mins in total blackness and silence.  It. Was. Awesome.  

I just got these from the people who could bring their cameras.

After the caving, we went straight to the river for some rafting.  Since I didn't have anywhere to put my camera (even tho it's waterproof) I didn't get any pix, but one of the guys on the tour did and he was nice enough to share.  So these are from the guy from Glasgow that I met

 As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

 Yes, I remembered my sunscreen.

 The water was a bit chilly

So basically we rafted down to the village we were staying at. 

 Here's my view from the back porch of our pension.  I stayed with 3 other lovely ladies, two from GA and one from AZ.

 The FLOWERS - so stunning.

 I love, love, love this one!

 Dinner was Korean BBQ - I don't know what the stuff at the top of my plate is, but is really tasty.  Otherwise, it's rice, pickles, bean sprouts, and the other green stuff is stems of garlic that's been marinated.  The lettuce and pork belly are all standard Korean BBQ stuffs.

 Some people from our boat - the one drinking was our captain.  He brought some Korean rice wine (makkoli - phonetically spelled) and wanted each person from his boat to pour him a shot.  So of course we did.

Pic from our guide.  After dinner we had karaoke set up, and a fire with marshmallows, and booze.  Lots and lots of booze.  The party was shut down at 11 and then I stayed at the after party until 2 am.  Went home, slept, got up at 6:30, took my thyroid pill, went back to bed, got up around 7:45 to go have breakfast and determine if I would be hiking.  I decided to give it a go.  I should have gone back to bed, quite frankly.  It was (of course) all uphill and I swear I was sweating beer, soju, vodka, and tequila from every pore.  

 However, I will say that the view was worth it.

 I thought this was a good pic on the way back - which was much nicer and didn't have me sounding like an asthmatic.

I liked this little area, too.  So then I had a chance to wander and take some more pix.

 Tourist map and the only way I knew how to spell Pyeongchang.

 I like this pic a lot.

 Pretty little river.

 Fun bridge

 Me on the bridge

 The little platform you see is where the zipline started.  I chose not to zipline that day because frankly the best place for the zip line would have been at THE TOP OF THE FRIGGIN' HIKE.

 It did look like fun, tho.

 My cohorts chilling out - the one laying down is the guy from Glasgow.

 This was advertised as bungee jumping - it was repelling.  No bouncy-bounce.  I am not sad I didn't do this one.

 And this pic is just for Ana because she loves pinwheels and for some reason they had them all along the roads and bridges in this are.

All in all, a good weekend away.  Don't ask me to pick a favorite from last weekend to this weekend because quite frankly they were both awesome.  I love Adventure Korea as a touring company and I plan on creeping on their website all the time to see what is new and any other trips I want to take.  M(C) also had a good time.  

Speaking of M(C) - it is nice to travel with a fellow introvert.  We both knew we could go off on our own and didn't have to worry about hurting the other's feelings.  We also were both done with people at the same time.  I'm going to miss him when he goes back home.  

So now it's my last week of work until my break.  I'm planning on possibly seeing my Army friend this weekend and then J and I have haircuts and a day in Seoul together planned.  Then I'm going to see D in Busan!!