Master Cleanse - Day 10

It's over! I did it, or WE did it, because Denise and I have become a single unit.

Impressions? Very cool. 10 days without solid food is not that hard. My biggest challenge was that I was bored of the lemonade by the seventh day. I didn't not like it, but I was just tired of doing the same thing everyday. I lost some weight and I feel more comfortable in my clothes, but nothing major. I feel like I have more energy overall. I feel focused. I had lots of time to catch up on reading and cleaning my apartment.

In the end, I consumed about 80 lemons, 1 and a half gallons of maple syrup, and gallons and gallons of water. The first 4 days were done without some of the necessary supplies, so when I do it again, it will interesting to see how things are different. I want to do another one before I leave Seoul, maybe in July. One of the best things about the cleanse is how little garbage I produced. Seoul has separate bins for food garbage, so it all goes into one bin, recycling goes into others and garbage into one more. The recycling is better than anything I've seen, so almost everything went there. The lemons went to the food garbage, as did the tea bags. The only garbage I produced the whole week was using q tips and kleenex, oh and toilet paper.

I've been in mega planning mode for the big trip in September. Its getting serious, like looking at flights, getting one to Vancouver booked, looking at accommodations, planning a route. Leesa is on board with Denise and I too, so the three of us will be traveling together again. In a way, I feel a little anxious because there is SO much stuff I want to do and see, and 3 months doesn't seem long enough. But I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles...traveling cannot last forever. In a book I read recently, the author described a friend who would be in an amazing place during a trip, and was saying "I can't wait to come back here". Carpe diem...I don't want to be that person, so there will be lots to absorb during each moment. I probably won't be back to visit some of these places ever again, so there's lots of pressure...from myself.

The Best Korean T-shirt

There is a guy that works at the school and he is in charge of books/maintenance/random tasks. His name is Gwangsay and he's pretty hot, youngish (my age maybe), doesn't speak any English and seems shy.

Yesterday he was wearing a shirt and on the back it said: "I saw your mama gobbling the goo."

Master Cleanse - Day 6

Day 6 is here and I'm more than half way through. Its been interesting. Yesterday was the first time that I actually thought about quitting. I really wanted Thai food, and I was pretty hungry. The mornings are the strangest. I drink a liter of salt water and then wait for it to flush everything out of my body. Then during the entire day, I drink a mixture of fresh squeezed lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. That's it, for 10 days. No solid food. I haven't eaten solid since Thursday night.

Last night I realized how much energy I had. I was focused on whatever I was doing and my mind wasn't wondering in thought like it normally does. Yesterday at school/work, I found that I was more focused when reading with the students. I absorbed every word that was said. I've been having really REALLY vivid dreams with an interesting cast of characters (Flea and Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, huh?). I think I've been getting much deeper sleeps also.

I wouldn't say that I've lost any weight, but I definitely feel less bloated and more healthy in general. It's important to stress that this is not a diet however, it is a cleanse. Although most people do lose weight while on the cleanse, it is usually because of the loss of water weight and "wastes" that the body has harbored over the years.

Its very interesting how much my life does revolve around food. Most social situations involve going for dinner, drinks or coffee. I love to cook and on the weekend I almost felt bored because of all the the extra time I had from not cooking. I have been reading a lot and doing research for my trip to Japan in July. Even traveling involves food to a great degree. Lonely Planet devotes sections to just food, or one can choose an itinerary based on the culinary specialties of a certain region. I had to skip over those parts entirely. I've been able to remove myself from situations that involve food for the most part which is one of the only ways that I could complete this.

Four days remaining, it will be no problem.

P-Diddy and H-Dawg's visit

Where are you?

Here I am!

Heather and Paul (aka H-dawg and P-diddy, mom and dad) were here for 2 weeks and left on Wednesday. GREAT time. It was the first time they have come to MY house. Its hard to explain, but I felt responsible for them, and I wanted to make sure that they would be ok in this strange city. And of course they were! They travel all the time. Although they've never been to Asia, this was a pretty easy city for them to orient themselves and get around in.

We went to Busan the first weekend. We took the train down and stayed at the Westin. It was beautiful, we had an awesome view of the ocean and the food was great. Have you ever seen a picture of a beach with a billion yellow umbrellas on it, covering every square inch of the sand? That is Hyundae beach and its where the hotel was. But March is not so busy and we could see the sand. BUT the illness I caught just before they came manifested itself into bronchitis, or a lung infection, while we were there and I ended up sleeping for part of Saturday and all of Sunday. I had a fever and I was coughing up some ugly stuff. At least mom was there to take care of me! I'll be back in Busan soon enough to check out the city. Then dad caught my horrid illness and had to see my doc to get some meds. He felt like ass, which sucks when you are on vacation. The air here and the pre yellow dust season didn't help matters. Yellow dust is sand from the Gobi desert in China and pollutants that come over to Korea in the spring winds. Apparently its pretty gross. I might be buying one of those masks. I'm keeping my eye out for a Hello Kitty one.

H and P did the DMZ, a city bus tour, we shopped, hung out at their hotel (we all agreed that my 300 sq foot apartment was not good for the 3 of us), ate dinner, had cocktails. We went for an awesome dinner at the top of the Seoul Tower (an important landmark, I guess). I had steak and delicious wine and all sorts of other yummy food. The two weeks went by so fast though. I miss them now (I know you both are reading this, I miss you).

Now, I am doing a Master Cleanse. I am on day 2 and all I consume is lemonade. Its made form fresh lemon juice, water, maple syrop and cayenne pepper. I've always been curious about doing a cleanse and this seems to be the one for me. I read the book and it was fascinating. It goes for 10 days and gets rid of EVERYTHING. I'm not scared, I'm more curious to see what my body cleanses. The book mentions people that did hard drugs in the past and experienced a "high" while they were cleansing. Another guy had cancer and chemo, and when he cleansed years later, he said he was still burping up the chemo meds.

I haven't craved anything or been hungry. I've seen posters of food, or people eating, and it really didn't affect me. BUT it is only day 2 still. Denise is doing it with me. We have become a single unit. Everything is WE and US. "What are WE doing this weekend?" Sometimes we'll tell stories from the other person, because we know all the details, or will finish each other's sentences. WE decided that if we were a couple, it would be perfect because her mom already loves me despite having not met, and my parents already loved her before they met. Too bad...

I'm planning another trip to Japan. I have the last week of July off and I am going to take a ferry over to Fukuoka and then travel around the southern islands. Denise will be gone as her contracts ends shortly before that. But we'll meet up in Thailand in September anyway. So its me traveling alone so far, unless any faithful readers want to meet me. I LOVE Japan and I am so excited to go back.

Over and out, going to make more spicy lemonade!

New Semester

We started a new semester on Monday. I have a few less classes than I did last semester, which is nice. I spend an hour and a half in the research room on Tuesdays and Thursdays correcting the school's material and writing new workbooks. The stuff I have to teach is a lot harder. I have 3 TOEFL classes, which is the standardized test that non-native English speakers take. I have to study the book myself to understand how they want me to teach it. I also thought I needed a certificate to teach that stuff, but no.

On Friday, 2 Korean teachers quit, and one more got fired. We started the new week with 3 new people. Except today when we went to work, one of the new Korean teachers had already quit. I guess 2 days was enough. Also on Monday, the Director screamed at one of the other Korean teachers in front of some students. The best part of this semester is going to be the students. So far they all seem really sweet and I already have a good iron grip on them.

Heather and Paul arrive tomorrow! I'm pretty sure I am going to cry when I see them. We're going to a city on the south coast called Busan for the weekend.

Beckham in Seoul

The LA Galaxy and David Beckham played FC Seoul in a friendly match yesterday. It was my first professional soccer game and it was so exciting. The stadium holds about 65,000 people, but only about 20,000, maybe, we there. It was an exhibition game and the crowd was pretty tame for a soccer game. There were some English guys behind us in a few rows with painted faces and knew all the songs and all the cheers. I heard a lot of "wanker" the entire game. They were haggling Beckham but rooting for Seoul. Some of the Korean children around them looked mortified from some of the other language they heard.
David Beckham is a phenomenal player. And he's hot.