Chubby Chick Running

Christmas is one of my favourite holidays. Apart from the religious meaning it holds, I also get to give and receive presents. Presents make me happy. Unfortunately for me, Christmas only comes once a year. Luckily for me, Korea has G-market .

I like chicken. I like it in stews and on bread and in pasta. I especially like it fried, with chips and some sauce to dip it in. For the first 18 months of my time in Geoje I had to be satisfied with spicy fried chicken in sticky sweet sauce. No chips or side dishes. You could call it typical Korean fried chicken. If I wanted "western style" fried chicken, I had to travel to Busan (up until 5 months ago, 3 hours away by bus) for the nearest KFC and then the chicken (even the plain chicken) would be a little bit spicy. At least we'd have chips.

The view from my apartment building's entrance. What do you see when you walk out of your front door? Houses? A nice garden perhaps? Maybe a concrete wall? When I climb down two flights of stairs and I walk through the glass doors of Dream Ville Apartments, I see a 7-eleven convenience store. This in itself is not a strange thing, but when I turn left, walk the rest of the block, turn left 2 more times, I find a GS Mart right on the corner. Still not strange? Should I walk straight down that same street, for two more blocks, I'll find a Family Mart. How convenient...

The last time I cruised around the island, I was on the back of a big, black, bad-ass motorcycle. A REAL bike. Holding on to a cute boy at 5 am in the morning, chasing an elusive sunrise. Every high school girl's dream. There is, however, something very uninspiring about going up a hill at 20km/hour on a maroon scooter, half clutching the gas, half walking it out, while guys on bicycles pedal past you, smiling as if the uphill road takes no effort at all. Tonight's trip around Geoje island would have been a waste if it hadn't been for the inspiration that went along with my sudden realization that I have only 40 days left in Korea.

"Impossible is Nothing." The bright yellow letters screamed at me from the shiny black jacket of the girl in front of me.I was 15 minutes into my first ever 5km race and I still hadn't seen the 1km marker. I wanted to cry. Usually I'm well past 1km after 10 minutes of running on the treadmill. I knew outside running would be different from treadmill running, but this was ridiculous!