Flash Cards and Football

Now that we've completed a full week of class, we've pretty much fallen into a normal daily routine. Not that being off work for a full 3 months wasn't nice, but both of us really prefer to have a purpose to our days. Our schedule is still pretty relaxed since I have haven't started working in the evenings yet. I have a feeling once all of that starts up, it'll be a lot more hectic and I may find myself missing my 3 months of laziness.

But right now, our schedule of going to class from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., stopping for a quick lunch, and heading back home to these lovelies is working out pretty well.

Yeah, our lives right now are pretty much consumed by flash cards. We're memorizing about 25 to 50 new words a day, so we're flying through these guys. Good thing there's a school supply shop right around the corner.

Actually, the classes haven't been too bad so far... but a lot of what we're doing has been review. We actually just started the actual Chapter 1 on Friday -- before that we spent 5 days on the "getting ready" chapters and a review day. And can I say that review days (at least the one we had so far) are a blast? At our last review day, we played charades, telephone, and more. Sounds cheesy, but it was a great way to make sure we really knew all the vocabulary and concepts. We're going to have one after every 2 chapters -- so every 5th day -- so those'll definitely be days to look forward to.

Since our schedule is still not that tough, last Wednesday we went back to visit the kids at Poly. It's crazy how much we've both found ourselves missing them! I was a little bit nervous that they wouldn't remember me, but I think my friend Kerry did a good job getting them excited for our arrival because they were absolutely adorable.

They were so funny when they found our we're learning Korean... they started shouting out Korean words and asking us if we knew what they meant. And more than anything, they LOVED that at our Korean school, one of our rules is... "Don't speak English."

Mark's students seemed pretty pumped that their human jungle gym had returned. There was literally a mob of kiddos climbing on him in the library.

Finally, World Cup mania has struck Korea. I never really watched it before, but last night we went to a bar with some friends to watch Korea versus Greece and the excitement was infectious.

Here I am in my Korean jersey...

Here are Mark and me... Mark got a jersey also, but claimed it was too small at the last minute. Booo... I'll have to get a picture of him wearing it at the next game...

Finally, here's the group with our tequila shots to celebrate the second goal...

I know I'm a bandwagon soccer fan, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next month of World Cup games and celebrations! Shouting Korea!

Manchester United vs FC Seoul

A couple of weeks ago, Manchester United traveled to Seoul to take on Korea's very own FC Seoul club for a friendly match. The game was at 8:00 PM on the Friday night before Kim and I headed off to China. Poly was nice enough to let us leave a little early so that we could try and make kick off but unfortunately we were a little late.

I have never claimed to be a soccer enthusiast but watching a proffesional game live for the first time was amazing. MU is extremely popular in Korea because Ji-Sung Park, who is from Korea, plays for them. The match is an annual event but I do not know how long it has been going on.

FC Seoul actually took an early lead about 15 minutes into the game and they did it once again in the 2nd half after MU had tied it. MU would eventually score two more goals and win the game 3-2.

It was very exciting and both Kim and I would love to see a game in Europe if we ever have the chance. Below are some photos of the game.

I took this pic during a Korean free kick.

I was trying to get a sweet action shot of a corner kick but I got trigger happy. The ball was only about half way to its destination when I took the picture. Either way I think it came out alright.

To the dissapointment of his Korean fanbase, Ji-Sung Park did not start the game. He was subsitituted in during the 2nd half. The crowd went ecstatic. He had a few touches but nothing too spectactular.

This was a common sight throughout the game. Even though the final score was 3-2, MU thoroughly outplayed FC Seoul. They were always on the attack and had several close calls. Keep in mind though, this opinion is coming from a guy who has not played soccer in over 15 years so what do I know.

This was the view from our seats. The tickets are about $40 each which I thought was fairly reasonable. We were not all the way at the top but we were pretty close. The game was sold out.