Sunday, December 2, 2012

More Speaking Tests, Tabata, and Naju

Now that speaking tests have (almost) wrapped up, I can have more entries in my blog! Yay!

Thursday-Friday
  • Just more speaking tests.  They went much quicker as I finally got my system down.  It was all a bit stressful but I managed it well enough.  My co-teacher said none of the other ETAs have every done all of them in one week.  I can see why!  But they are almost done so it's fine.  This upcoming week, I am going to do a review lesson for their upcoming exam (which I have a few questions that I am responsible for creating).  Shouldn't be a problem. :)
  • On Friday, I went to CrossFit after school as I usually do and I saw that we had a free day on the board!  Free day means we get to pick one or more of the workouts offered on the board and customize our own workout.  Well this particular free day was focused largely on weight training, something that is definitely not my speciality and I actually prefer more active, cardio workouts out.  5 of the 8 were weights so I looked at the other three. One was 5 rounds of 20 pushups, 15 situps, 10 squats, and 5 burpees.  That was out because I knew I was not going to do a single squat that day since the day before I did 160 of them in addition to running a mile. The next non-weight option was 7 rounds of 20 double unders and 10 situps.  Not bad, but I knew that I could only do maybe a few rounds of the double unders as I am not very coordinated with them (they are when you do the jump rope and the rope goes under you twice rather than the traditional one time).
  • That left me with the last workout, Tabata.  This is the most notorious workout at CrossFit.  It's basically six 4 minute rounds of intensity.  You pick a thing to do, pushups for example, and go really hard for 20 seconds, then rest 10 seconds, and repeat 8x.  Then rest for one song (~3 minutes) and do it again with another thing (situps, box jumps, etc.)  I did this with pushups, situps, box jumps, jump ropes, medicine ball throws, and toes-to-bar.  It was pretty horrendous.  I'm still sore in some parts and it's been two days.  But yeah, that is Tabata.  
Saturday
  • I slept in (of course!) and then I moseyed around the house for bit.  Later in the afternoon, I finally decided to be productive and I went shopping for ingridents for dinner later that night.  I ended up cooking a lovely mushroom and beef macaroni that ended up being too salty.  It was still tasty though and it was good to give my hard-working host mother a break.  
  • I also went to my favorite local coffee shop, The Liz, the work out the schedule for the Winter Camp.  It looks great and I am realllllly excited about it!  It's going to be a great time.  
  • My host parents also took me to a table tennis place where my host mother slaughtered me in ping pong.  It was fun to watch her and my host father duke it out over the table.  It was intense!  Apparently, they both took some lessons a few years ago.  If I was better and not already doing a lot of things, I would totally take the lessons.  Alas, I don't think it was meant to be.
Sunday
  • I got up nice and early to go on a trip to the famous Naju to visit some friends.  I took the train up there.  I love taking the trains.  It's a great way to see the countryside of Korea and to just relax a bit.  It can take longer sometimes, but I think it's worth it.  I just got to sit down and read my book for a bit and I really enjoyed my ride.  
  • So yes, I got to Naju and met up with my pals, Jason, May, Courtney, and Hana.  They were all hanging out in their favorite coffee shop doing some work.  I was there to serve as a wonderful distraction to all of them and I would say I was quite successful.  We ended up getting some lunch (an amazing beef soup who's name escapes me right now) and then back to the coffeeshop to "work" some more.  Well, everyone but me worked haha.  It was so nice to see them!  I absolutely love Suncheon and my school is great, but I am very jealous of the fact that they all have each other so closeby.  Sometimes they get to see each other multiple times a week!  I am usually able to see another Fulbrighter a few times a month.  Oh well.  I suppose no one can have the perfect placement!  Naju is a great place for a little day trip, but I'm very happy to be back in Suncheon.  Naju is just a bit too rural for my liking, after I have been spoiled by the urban living of Suncheon.  Every placement has its pros and cons.
Okay, now I have to find my review activity for tomorrow!  Hope things are good in the States.  Happy December!

1 comment:

  1. I'm surprised you have time to teach considering how busy you are. Cross fit sounds more like fit-o-pain. Wow.
    So are you actually drinking coffee at all of these coffee shops or tea? Table tennis is big over in the far east. I wouldn't even try it when I went to China. China is also big into basketball and when they play, it is for keeps - you would think they were playing for the NBA championship or something... so I was the honorary ref who threw the ball up in the air and got out of the way asap. When I threw it up, of course it didn't go straight. Oh well - you inherited my coordination, but probably got some from you Mom's side at least.
    I drove ur car to Zehner's yesterday. Asking them to look at your brakes. We'll get them fixed in tip top shape by the time you get back :) Ren has got another room assignment. Theresa is coming to Ohio tonight. Adam is probably still glowing from his visit w Laura.
    Debating on getting a fake tree this year or not... Love, Dad

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