I Am an Obsolete Child

Thirty-five short years ago

This is the first year in more years than I can even remember that I've been home on my birthday, and aside from a few minor details such as the fact that my mom now bakes with oddly named flours and strangely textured sugars, if she uses sugar at all, and the fact that the obligatory cake-holding pictures no longer have the long striped brown and tan curtains in the background, things were pretty much just as I remember, though I'm no longer the youngest one around. 

That said, I still feel remarkably juvenile for having been alive for half of seventy years, if quite forgetful, absent-minded, and generally crotchety. People are usually quite willing to forgive the aged these offenses, but being in your mid-thirties doesn't seem to garner the same sympathy as one twice your age when it comes such traits, which in my case happen to run in the family.

My dad, who for a week now has now been alive for the whole of seventy years, has been losing things, forgetting things, and grousing about things for years. As far as I know, he has been in a perpetual state of looking for his keys/phone/wallet/dark glasses, of entering a room and looking mildly surprised to find himself there, of leaving the house only to promptly return to retrieve a forgotten item (see above), or of stalking around while muttering incomprehensibly about some injustice or another since the mid-eighties. Already being dangerously skilled in this particular routine myself, one can only guess what my state will be in another thirty-five years.

A very considerate birthday gift to my dad helpfully pointed out that You're Only Old Once! and concluded with the parting thought 'you're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.' If I can be in half as good of shape at seventy as my dad is, then I don't mind getting older. To another thirty-five years!

Dwight Schuh, Irondad and how I failed to become a runner

Harvest Classic, c. 1992

I've participated in a quite a few fun runs and race walks in my time. As a sophomore in high school, I even joined my sister on the cross country team for part of a season. It was, however, an ill-fated stint, and I was compelled to rid myself of that evil before it caused permanent damage. Suffice it to say that I was not an asset to the team.

Christmas run, 2009

Beijing Marathon, 2009

My most recent events have been the 2009 Beijing Marathon 4.2k 'mini marathon', and a 2009 Boise Christmas fun run in which I walked with my nephew and pushed my niece in a stroller. It was just a whole ball of fun.

Since then, I have been very content to leave the running to my husband and family and put my efforts into the part of sport I enjoy: spectating.

This summer, I had the opportunity to ultra-spectate at Bighorn, and then for the first time I got to Iron-spectate for my dad at Coeur d'Alene Ironman.

It was not dad's first Ironman, but I had previously only spectated at one of his sprint triathlons, and this was a completely different animal. Honestly, the sprint tri seemed almost pathetic when compared with the vast scale and difficulty of Ironman (I say this knowing that I myself could not complete a sprint tri). It was overwhelming just to be there, let alone compete.

As it turns out, we almost weren't there. Dad had been in 'let's wait and see' mode for more than six months and had only just made the decision. On Tuesday he was ready to scrap the whole thing and take the loss. On Wednesday he went to chemo and came away feeling great. On Friday morning we were driving to Coeur d'Alene.

There are so many stories at an Ironman--stories of extreme weight loss, triumph, perseverance--my dad himself has a story. It's impossible not to feel inspired by these everyday people who show up to take on the infamous swim, bike, run. But it comes down to this: Are you tough enough? Can you dig deep enough? Are you an Ironman? My dad is a grumpy, stubborn old dude who didn't want to waste his money and who wanted a finisher shirt, but evidently he was also tough enough, and he finished that race like the Ironman that he is. With twenty minutes to spare.

GO!!!!! 

Panic attack 

One lap down, one to go

Nose to the grindstone

Around mile 70 

Only 13 more miles!

'From Nampa, Idaho, 67 years old, Dwight Schuh, you are an Ironman!'

Shortly after Ironman, dad's middle brother and family came to visit. I hadn't seen them in years, so it was great that I happened to be around. We celebrated several birthdays and the 4th of July. 

Dad and his brother. 'Why didn't you tell
me to smooth out my shirt?' Dad said.

My Aunt's awesome apple pie

Cousins!

It's not summer in the US without the Corvair

I finished my time in the US with a camping trip in McCall with my sister and the kiddos. Of course it wasn't just camping. Things with my family aren't ever just one thing. It was camping 'and by the way, we're manning an aid station for the McCall Trail Running Classic'. But never mind, I picked up a cowbell and did my part for ultra running. We also sneaked in a hike and a canoe ride on the reservoir.

Next: Borneo, possibly? I think it's about time.

June Milestones, plus a little May and July

June is a month of weddings. My grandparents, parents, and sister all got married in June. I, of course, had to be different and got married in May.  

My grandparents were married 63 years ago on June 13, 1948. They are still just as cute as they were on their wedding day.

30th Birthday

-30th Birthday Album Link

Nothing says 'Happy Birthday America' like the golden arches

May 25th, 26th Birthday

My 26th birthday was an all day event that started with my morning kinder. The moms went in together and got me a cake and a big basket of roses, and I got several other little gifts as well (including earrings which they've figured out I love). I had the obligatory picture with the party hat and table of treats and had my picture taken with each one of my students individually as well as with each one of Liz's students who had all been forced to make me cards. My 3:40 class brought snacks and several little gifts (including earrings which they've figured out I love), and a kid in my 5:05 class brought another cake. After work, Marc gave me his present--a huge bag of the puffed snacks they serve at restaurants and bars. You can tell in the picture who found it humorous and who didn't. Then after Liz, Marc, Bryce and I worked out, they all took me out for dinner. We picked a restaurant we'd never been to, and we still haven't been able to figure out what we ate. my 3:40 class

my 5:05 class
(except for the kid in red and white who is the brother of the the kid in green and white who is the kid who brought the cake)

and you can't even see the whole bag

the picture of me dying subsequent to my asking Bryce 'Is this going to kill me?' concerning a certain piece of vegetable

Lotus Lantern Festival, April 29-30

The last weekend of April marked Buddha's birthday and brought the Lotus Lantern Festival to Seoul. April and I thought it would be fun to head west to check out the festivities. We arrived Saturday evening, and after negotiating the subway and the streets of Insadong, we finally got set up in our room at the Emerald Hotel. We caught up with some fellow Gangneung-ians and grabbed some dinner, then checked out the big temple in Insadong before calling it a night.

April and I hit the streets the next morning around 11:30. We did a little shopping, had a little brunch, and texted our friends to see when/where we might meet. Our messages were met with resounding silence, and when we finally did get a response from Marc, he told us that he hadn't gone to bed until 10:00am, would we please leave him alone. No problem, we said, we're doing fine on our own.




One of the main streets of Insadong had been blocked off and was filled with tents and booths of all varieties--alot of them with a Buddhist theme, of course. There were also alot of hands-on crafts--I did some ink painting, April and I both made lotus flower headbands with a monk, and many people made lotus lanterns. We checked out clothes and jewelry, watched old men do beautiful calligraphy, and saw some fascinating stage performances. In the later afternoon, we met our friends who were up and moving, and another friend of April's from the Seoul area came down. Being exhausted, we moved from the busy street to a cafe for a slight repose before the parade.




The Lotus Lantern Parade was pretty much just that--a lantern parade. We saw monks carrying lanterns, old men and women carrying lanterns, handicapped people carrying lanterns, children carrying lanterns, young men and women carrying lanterns...there were a few floats in there too, but mostly ALOT of lanterns. I chatted with April's friend Barkley and snapped random shots of lanterns. Several hours later, I tired of the lanterns and found myself being drawn by an unseen magnetic force into the nearby Subway restaurant. I experienced ten minutes of heaven while I consumed real western food.

By that time it was getting pretty late, so I headed back the the express bus terminal sans April, who was staying a couple more days. On arriving, I was greeted with the unpleasant news that the last bus to Gangneung was sold out. I called Taylor, Gene, and Tania (who was going to Yang Yang, forty-five minutes north of Gangneung) to see if they had got tickets, and they hadn't--they were still a few minutes away from the terminal. A cab driver looking for a fare quoted me 40,000 won for the three hour ride. I told him I had two other friends, could he wait, and would it really be 40,000 for three people to Gangneung? He said yes. I called Taylor with that information, and in the meantime purchased a ticket to Yang Yang for Tania just in case that bus sold out too. When the guys showed up, the taxi driver hustled us off to the car. He ignored us when we kept trying to confirm the price which made us a little suspicious. Gene pushed the issue until he finally got the guy to tell us that it was 40,000 EACH. We said no thanks, and made a split decision to buy tickets for the Yang Yang bus that was about ready to pull out. As we raced back to the ticket window, Tania yelled that we could stay with her. It was 3:00am by the time we got to her place. She gave us each a pillow and a sheet and turned up the floor heat. I snagged a spot of floor and crashed. At 8:00am, we caught the teacher bus with Tania to the university she works at in Gangneung. From there we got taxis home, and since I don't have to work until 1:00pm on Mondays, I was able to catch two and a half more hours of sleep before I had to drag myself around the corner. Whew! After two weekends in a row of bus mishaps, I think I might avoid the buses for awhile.

Jay's Birthday

It's all about the snack party!

Liz's Birthday Continued/My Foray into Korean Fashion

Since we didn't feel like doing anything on Thursday night (school night) in celebration of the birthday, we decided to do the official foreigner celebration on Saturday night. And because we always just see each other in our plain old jeans and t-shirts or whatever else we happened to wear to work that day, we thought it would be fun (some more than others) to dress up for dinner. And instead of simply pulling out one of the three sensible skirts from our wardrobes, why not go shopping?

Our friend April found a dress fairly easily, so that left me and Liz to fend for ourselves one night after work. We wanted actual dresses, but this posed a couple of problems. One, Korean women don't wear casual dresses very often. There are strange skirts and tops and expensive little boutique dresses aplenty, but we wanted something in the middle. Two, Liz and I are big American women, and even though there are some big Korean women, Korea just hasn't caught onto making big clothes. In fact, I know that there are many Korean women who have a hard time finding clothes in their own country. It's not as if they're fat, either. Anyway, just for fun, we did go into a couple of the little boutiques. In one, a woman convinced us to try on some items even though she only had small and medium in everything. "I can ORDER large..." she told us expectantly, trying to make a good impression, unlike some of the shop owners who all but sneered at the mention of 'large'. We didn't leave completely depressed, however--we considered the fact that I actually got one of the dresses zipped a victory. As we were about to give up, we ran across a store with lots of brightly colored, fun and funky clothes in the biggest variety of sizes we'd seen yet. And they had dresses. Liz found a nice 'free size' dress, and after trying on a couple of misses, I got a hit. Once we had our dresses picked out, I, of course, had to check out the jewelry and found a nice necklace and some earrings to match my dress.

Sidenote about dressing rooms: there's usually standing room only, so hopefully you don't have to do much bending over; there usually aren't mirrors in the 'rooms', so plan on modeling for everyone in front of the communal mirror; and don't be surprised by a scant door covering. This last dressing room in question was right next to all the clothes and had a curtain on a dowel that covered me from mid-ribcage to knees. Liz was kind enough to stand in front of it. I also once tried on a pair of jeans in a utility closet.

Saturday afternoon we had a nice girls only lunch after which I treated Liz to a fancy airbrush manicure, and April and I had 'foot care' which translates as nearly one hour of intense leg and foot massage. We plan to go back. After that, we put on our dresses, collected the rest of our party, and went for dinner at Liz's favorite samgyeopsal restaurant. I was able to catch some photos of us in our rare state of dress--we even got Bryce to wear a tie, though it didn't last very long around his neck.

Liz's Birthday

Liz's twenty-third birthday was on Thursday the 13th. She asked the kids not to spend money; rather, she asked them to make her cards or write special things to make her birthday memorable. On Thursday morning, however, in true Korean tradition, the kids showed up with armloads of elaborately wrapped gifts. She had three cakes over the course of the day and went home with no fewer than three grocery sacks of presents. Her last class of the day--the middle schoolers--set up a special party in the rec room with yet more treats, and Marc and I took our classes up to participate. Marc suggested that we sing, so we had an impromptu noraebang/karaoke session with teacher and student participation alike. Liz surprised us all by breaking out a passionate number from Caberet, Marc and I sang a duet from Moulin Rouge, and several of the girls played pop songs on their hand phones to accompany their numbers.

Fred's Birthday

Esther took my class this morning for the first hour. Julian thought it would be good for me to observe her to see how she gets control. I didn’t find it very helpful as her way of getting control is speaking Korean. I would have found it much more insightful had she spoken only English as I have to. But onward I march!



It was Fred’s birthday which provided a very welcome break from class. We had a photo session with an elaborate pile of meticulously arranged treats. I think they were all props just for the photo, because we only ate the cake and the fruit.