American Style Brunch

This morning/afternoon John invited us over for a bit of an American style brunch cooked from his super sweet new griddle. I guess I still haven't figured out what Koreans eat for breakfast, but I do KNOW it doesn't involve bacon, eggs, and hash browns. I think they eat something like rice and kimchi! Seriously! Anyway, it was a wonderful brunch and I hope John has us over again! I have to apologize for the morning photo look, but he did such a great job cooking that I had to include the picture.

Weekend Exploring

Last weekend, I went out exploring up the riverbeds with Darren and Elliott for new climbing areas. It was the first time I've left the city in a couple of months, so it was nice to go out for a bit of a ride. When you're riding on the back roads at a slow speed, its really not too cold to drive. This place is really only about a 20 minute drive from my apartment, but it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

Here we are in the middle of nowhere



I don't know what you'd call that thing in the background, a sluice? irrigation canal? Anyway, it was kinda old and cool looking. Maybe 60+ years old?



Here's the NZ boys Darren and Elliott checking out the rocks



Here's Elliott playing his recorder for the horses

COLTS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew it would happen! I'm out of the country and the Colts get to the Superbowl for the first time since I've been able to watch! Its been awesome to be able to watch some games over here on the Internet though. What a game!

Botulism

I was making one of my favorite foods today, Spaghetti and Garlic, when I thought my garlic was kinda looking a little funny. You see I've been storing my garlic in olive oil since my dad suggested it to me. The garlic really wasn't looking that funny, but I thought I'd check the trusty internet to see if this really was an accepted thing.

Uh-oh....

It turns out that putting it in oil is a popular way to store garlic, except the first webpage I came across said:

First a word of caution: NEVER allow garlic in oil to sit at room temperature. It is a hotbed for botulism. Keep it refrigerated or frozen at all times.

Oh crap! I've been storing mine in the pantry! I guess I'm writing this as my last will. I will probably die of botulism this week. If you don't see any more posts from me, you now know the reason why. Seriously though, it kinda did worry me a lot, and I think this might be the source of the mysterious food poisoning I've gotten a couple of times in the last month.

Dreaming...

It's okay to dream, right?

I've been spending much of my time lately dreaming of Thailand...climbing on the beach, sun, food, warm weather! The temp in Krabi is 81F/27C!!! Woohoo!! Darren has helped me find some cool photos on the internet and videos that show what it'll be like there!

In addition to just climbing on the beach, I hear that there's some excellent deep water soloing..bouldering over the sea!! I hear that you can hire a boat to take you out for the day INCLUDING lunch and beer for $15!!! Here's a link to see what that's like!
http://www.railay.com/railay/climbing/climbing_deepwater.shtml

You can also see a video of guys doing some deep water soloing in Spain at this link:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-111621986589078309

Don't worry Mama, I won't climb that high!

Baduk

One of the things I've really wanted to do in Korea is to learn how to play Baduk, or more commonly known in America as "Go" (Japanese name). I've been pretty slack on trying to learn due to lack of people who know how to play AND can speak English. Many people know how to play, and just as parents send their kids to these English academies, they also are sent to Baduk Academies. Baduk has interested me for a while, but the trouble is that the game is very difficult. Some say it's even harder than chess to master. I have known that there is another foreigner named Dan who knows how to play, so I called him up finally and we played this weekend at the Blue Agave bar. He's a super cool guy, great teacher, and loves to play.

I also have been playing Baduk with my friend Tom from home over the internet. We are able to talk the whole time over the microphones through Google Talk, and play at the same time. It's super fun to catch up on the goings on at home and also get a nice game in. The other day I even got to talk to Kevin Quealy! Good to hear from ya!

On a side note: We posed for this picture like we're super concentrated on playing, but in fact the game is over and we're just counting up territory to see who won!

Thailand!!!

I officially got my tickets!!! I'm headed to Thailand for a week's vacation in the first week of February! I'm really, really, REALLY excited about it. My one and ONLY complaint about my job is the lack of vacation time, so I'm SO happy that right at the 6 month point, I'll get a good 7+ day vacation in Thailand. I'll spend the whole time hanging out on the beach, relaxing, climbing, and having a great time. I keep looking at pictures on the internet and hearing people's stories, so now I'm convinced that it's heaven on earth. I've been pretty bummed lately that I'm not able to ski at all this winter, but knowing that I'll be able to do some climbing on the beach in less than a month makes me VERY happy!

Antics at the Climbing Gym

Its been really cold out the last few days. It even snowed the other day! As a result, I really haven't been able to get outside much. Much of my time has been spent at home, school or the climbing gym. Its been fun taking photos at the climbing gym to get used to my new camera. Here's some photos of our antics over the weekend.

Pre-climbing warm-up with the guitars.



Elliott made up a crazy problem



Me on Elliott's problem

Darren got it!

Goals

I feel like I did the dorkiest thing today. I sat down and wrote out my short-term goals. I guess you could say it's my New Year's Resolution to try and finally find a little more direction in my life. My short-term primary focus is to improve my Korean language skills, climbing, and guitar playing. It seems like it's not a lot to ask, but in practice, it's more difficult than it seems! I always feel like I don't have enough time! This is the first time in my life since college where I feel like I don't have enough time to do the things I want to do. I also have to remember that progress is slow and requires hard work, but it DOES happen if you stick with it.

So what do you think of my goals? Leave a comment or send me an email if you think I'm crazy! Make sure I stick with it! These are my short-term goals to try to stick with until I leave (tentatively) for Thailand on 2/2/07.

Daniel's Short Term Goals: (one month)

1. Korean Language
-Finish Yellow Book (20 more chapters)
*Complete one chapter/day every DAY

2. Climbing
-Go to the Climbing Gym 4 days/week
*Climb for 2 hours (2 days endurance, 2 days power)

3. Guitar
-Play 30 mins. EVERY day
*2 weeks, get back into playing. Only play fun songs
*2nd 2 weeks, begin Berklee training 20 mins, then 20 mins fun playing.

4. Work
- Do your best at work EVERY day
*Allow 45 mins. prep for each 3 hr. class

5. Life
- Get 8 hours of sleep every night
*Go to Sleep at 1 am, wake up at 9 am

Indiana Basketball

Today, I was hanging out at home, studying a few flashcards and remembered that IU was playing Ohio State in their Big Ten opener. I flipped my browser to the ESPN GameCast, where the page refreshes every minute with the score and the play-by-play. That system is OK, but it gets quite annoying and is not nearly as fun as watching or listening to the game. So, I learned through the IU webpage, that you can listen to the radio broadcast of all the games through Yahoo Sports for $5.00 a month. I bit the bullet, payed my 5 bucks and had Don Fischer right in my room! It was pretty awesome even though we lost....

Happy New Year!!!

On New Years Eve, Ryan, Michelle and I climbed Halla Mountain. Michelle has never been to the top, so what better time than New Years Eve in the snow! At 20 km round trip (12 miles) it's not a particularly easy hike, but not impossible by any means. We had a little added fun with the snow. I'd say that there was probably 10 inches of snow average throughout the hike, but it was completely packed down on the trail. It seemed like everyone decided to hike that day! It was practically a line, all the way to the top. We also got these cool little crampon-like spikes to strap to our shoes to keep from sliding around on the snow.

After climbing the mountain, we went to Brad's for dinner. Apparently in Russia, where his wife is from, New Years Day is as big a deal as Christmas is to Americans, so they wanted to have a nice dinner. Michelle cooked some food and we ordered some sushi rolls, drank some beer, makali (rice wine), and vodka. It was a good time and a good way to celebrate the new year.

Here's some pictures from the mountain:

Here we are at the start of the trail. Notice how many people there are!



Michelle, putting on her mini-crampons



Snow!!!



The mandatory mid-mountain ramen break at the hut!



We made it!