3-1 Korea!

We last saw our antagonistic protagonist on his way to see the South Korea, Australia game at the megalithic World Cup Stadium here in Seoul. 20 subway steps and 1 subway transfer and I found one of my college friends Abby waiting for me at the humbling exit from the underground-- which was shaped like a huge amphitheater and was filled with soccer fans all scrambling the 75 feet of steps or the few escalators up to the top where the vastness of the stadium awaited. Abby called David, my other college friend, who had been looking for me because I guess he didn't expect me to be able to follow 40,000 people in the right direction of a 60,000 person stadium... maybe I did something really stupid where he doesn't expect much of me?

I guess this is a good point to add that David chipped his front tooth, now fixed, on some metal chopsticks while eating. Okay, I think we're even now.

So as we made our way towards the stadium David and Abby, who had been riding bikes around the Han River and this area, pointed out the free beer samples. The line was long so we headed to the stadium where they took the caps of our bottles but not the actual bottles. Which was weird because when I ordered beers at the game they gave me entire cans of beer, so it wasn't trying to avoid fans using the bottles as projectiles I'm sure-- and yes, I know how to say beer in Korean, its one of the few words I can say. Though I still have no idea what the word for bathroom is-- one might think the learning of the first word would lead to the learning of the other...

--Pause, right now a truck is driving around my neighborhood with a megaphone advertising fresh fruit, thought you should know---

Once inside David, his newly minted smile, and Abby informed me that our tickets had only been W10,000 or about $8.50 and they were right behind the Korean goal. It was amazing to be in a sea of red (team nickname is the Red Devils-- shown by all the gear with angry looking devils and cute devil horns on all the women) and we were even covered by the largest South Korean flag ever during the national anthem.

The match was won by Korea of course, much to the dismay of the sizable number of Australia fans in attendance-- inflatable kangaroos not discounted. We were ecstatic, but mostly because we made it to the subway before the majority of the fans did. We made our way to their town of Anyang, which we're not sure if it means "hello," and hung out for a while downtown, avoiding wandering groups of wegugin (foreigners), in this case dumb Americans and Canadians, before I crashed on their couch which is 5 times more comfortable than my bed.

Apart from soccer this week has been relatively uneventful, apart from a "motivational" email from my boss directed at all of the foreign teachers. I like teaching more and more which is good. Two of my brighter 9 year olds got in a fight on the floor of my classroom as I was walking in yesterday. I directed them to the nearest Korean teacher and they got chewed out by no less than three Korean teachers in what I can only describe as something that I NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER want to happen to me. Even the mild mannered, unassuming man who picked me up from the bus got nastier than I think I could have ever been to them.

Other things of interest, because all of this other stuff was really, really boring, is that if you look on any map or any temple there will be a swastika or 10 to let you know its a temple. I had learned that it was a Buddhist thing a while ago but you have to see it to believe it. Yesterday I was trying to teach the word "to pray" and I giddily drew a cross next to a swastika and my kids didn't bat an eyelash but instead understood exactly what I wanted them to! Ha! I don't know about ya'll but that was fun for me.

At this time I say Anyang gi ha seo. I should head to work and prep for my day.

Adios