Wild Nights and Sad Losses

These pictures should have been up much earlier, but my camera has been under repair. Last Saturday was Korea's World Cup game against Switzerland. If they win, they go on, if they lose, they're out. The game started at 4am, so everyone was primed for one of those legendary Korean nights out. We went to a large, outdoor Soju tent to begin the night. These places are usually packed and you drink a lot of Soju, the mysterious liquor, and end up getting wild very fast. A group of about 20 foreigners went to the World Cup Stadium (so named because 4 years ago Korea hosted the World Cup and games were played in this stadium). We got there about an hour before the game and the only seats left were in the highest, nose bleed section. Thankfully, we are foreigners and as such, no rules apply to us. We were ushered into the front row where we decided, because of the hospitality, it was our responsibility to act a fool and give all the Koreans behind us a good show. Really, they were happy to sit us in front because this is a free opportunity to stare. The stadium packed in about 30-40,000 and they were all going nuts when we entered. We went down 1-0 in the first half and ended up losing 2-0. There really wasn't much for anybody to cheer for. The Koreans in attendance were yawning and visibly dejected whereas the foreigners kept on drinking and nearly forgot what was at stake. The interesting part was that, by the end of the game, it was completely light out yet I don't remember when this change started to take place. I just remember dark, then light. After the game, we walked amongst the somber Koreans and, because so many were going home at the same time, there was no transportation. We walked 2 hours and got home at 8am, losing one friend along the way. I later received a call from his phone when, as I found out later, he had fallen somewhere, bloodied up his knee and was taken to the police station. All this excitement and we lost the game. I can only imagine the craziness had we won.

Please root for Korea

WORLD CUP CRAZE

Holy S%^T!

Metallica and Tool are playing South Korea on April 15th. The tickets are 120$ but that doesn't matter, no one good ever comes to S Korea. Learn to Swim Hangooks!

Swaton decided the teachers were in need of something extra. True enough, we've all been dragging lately. The current teaching load is more than it's ever been and team morale is down. For me, it's OK because I'm US-bound in a month but there are others who are obviously not enjoying work these days. THis is why they took us to a mountain last Friday night for a bonding evening. We stayed in cabins way up in the mountain. Swaton paid for the food, drinks, everything. This being Korea, we drank and ate heavily and played some games where we sit in a circle and speak Korean very quickly. Something about chasing a mouse or......i don't know. And we watched the start of the World Cup. We slept for a few hours and got up, heads pounding and hiked the mountain. I played basketball for about 3 solid hours. It was a nice trip, being in the mountains is always refreshing. Still, come Monday, I'm sure we'll be tired and overworked but it's nice to know management is aware of our exhaustion.