Random stuff

Chile lost. :( very sad.

Went to Caribbean Bay today -- it's part of the Everland theme parks. This one is a water park. I showed the woman my expired Chilean ID card and Ronald gave her his driver's licence to get us in with a student discount, so it was 25,000 won instead of 45,000. The lines were long even today and it's just some random day of the week!! It was sorta hot but got cold when the gray clouds came and started sprinkling. We only went on like 4 rides and I scraped my knees and some of my foot on the bottom of the pool of water when our tube tumped over at the end. Tomorrow is another work day, so I've been finishing report cards and grading essays -- bo-ring. This weekend is the Canada Day/4th of July BBQ cruise thing hosted by the Canadian Embassy...I'm pretty excited about that!

World Cup, Korea vs. Nigeria

For this game, we went to the Olympic Park. I made tuna sandwiches, bought some wine, and put it all in my backpack. We walked from Cheonho to the park and a nice guard guided us to where they were showing the game. We got there around 1:30 I think (the game started at 3:30 am -- Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). It was pretty incredible to be walking through an absolutely silent park for about 15 minutes because when we finally got to the screening area, there were a ton of people.

First we decided to try and enter. They had set up a large screen with four sections of fenced-off grass. We tried to just walk in but the guard indicated to us that we needed a wristband, so we waited in a short line and walked up to the woman. She said something to me and proceeded to chuckle in an embarrassed way and give me a wristband after my grunt and giggle saying something like "I don't know". We walked up to the front section and sat down and waited basically. We found out later that the people in the back two sections had blue wristbands, so we don't really know what was going on there because it was free. Whatever.

So we ate sandwiches, poured the wine, and waited. They started a pre-game pep-up show basically around 2 am. The people went crazy and everybody was cheering and singing their little anthem. They were also dancing. Or was it cheerleading? I'm not sure what to call it, but they had pretty effeminate dance moves to go along with their song. They literally played this on repeat and people continued for about 15 minutes.

When the game finally started...excuse me, when they finally showed the TV station showing the game, people started cheering and when they showed the players waiting to go out onto the field it sounded as if they had just won the game. After the singing and the kickoff, the moment one of the Korean players got the ball, the crowd absolutely exploded with cheers. They were so excited about everything -- it was hysterical. Literally one time they showed the goalie in the goal yelling at one of his teammates and screams erupted from the crowd.

We left at halftime to go home...I had to work today!

I think the most interesting thing, besides the way they cheer, is the way they watch the game. We were in a park, an open field, and EVERYBODY was sitting down, watching the game. I think if I'd seen it in the states, we'd be standing up.

Anyways, I'm tired, so I'm off, chao!

World Cup

We went to a bar in Itaewon to watch the first world cup game of Korea vs. Greece and it was crazy. The Koreans go absolutely nuts when anything happens. They scored a goal and the people celebrated as if they'd won the game. Pretty great. So when they did win the game, it was even more insane!

Monday we watched the Chile vs. Honduras game and the people in the bar asked who we were rooting for and then joined us in cheering on the Chilean team. Near the end of the game, a couple of Koreans wanted to share a table with us and a drink, so they joined us at our table and we talked (sort of) for about 10 minutes. They left just before the game ended, and when we were leaving we went up to pay, and they told us that the two guys had already paid for us...pretty amazing! We didn't even know them and they picked up a decent sized tab for us!

I have the 29th off, so I'm looking forward to that. Other than that, it's been the same ol same ol....It's really really hot here and our fan is on constantly and it's super humid. Pretty gross.

Off to class!

This weekend

On Saturday we had a picnic at Seoul Grand Park with Minsoo and a Venezuelan, Arturo. Then we checked out the zoo a bit and headed home...it was really nice to just hang out and the weather was nice. Hot, but nice.

On Sunday we took a tour with RAS to a cave a little bit south of the city and it was super lame! Haha...well, from my point of view it was because at Sewanee we could actually explore the caves, but here it was just like Rock City...there was a metal pathway you had to follow. Big cave, pretty cool, but super annoying and stupid to just be on that one pathway. After that we took a little boat ride and got to see some pretty scenery. Then we headed to a traditional village where we saw traditional houses and we got to walk up to their lookout place (I'm assuming this is what it was, but everything was written in Korean, so....) with a really spectacular 360 view. After that we headed home and Ronald and I went to see the movie Dragons. We liked it! I thought it was good.

June

We have new classes! I keep my oldest class and my youngest class. Tom had to quit! I'm so sad. His mom was angry because he never wanted to do his homework. Sad. And Peter is gone now to his new school.

This past weekend we went to Namdaemun market. Pretty neat. And Saturday we made another Costco trip, this time taking along my suitcase. Bought more Dr. Pepper and some cheddar cheese! I made fajitas last night and it's just not the same without guacamole/avocado *sigh.

July 28-August 1 is a holiday for me, so I don't have work. Ronald and I are gonna go to Tokyo! I'm excited for that. It'll be nice to have a real break and not just a weekend. On the 29th we're gonna see Zed, a Cirque du Soleil show. Sorta pricey flight-wise, but it's high season.

Other than that, it's been sorta busy with report cards and essays -- I just finished today. It's been sorta hectic getting the new classes ready, but once we settle in, it'll be fine. Can't wait for the weekend though! Today we have to work when nobody else does -- it's a national holiday, Election Day. The kids don't even go to school. Grr.