Go Bluewings!

Well, I've just about recovered from the St Patrick's day weekend. It wasn't particularly Irish but I had good fun with it. On Saturday John and I went to meet a guy we had originally met at the Muse gig. He took us to see his local team, Suwon, play football. It was rather impressive as the team plays in the Suwon World Cup Stadium, one of many built for the 2002 tournament. Korea still seems to be beaming about the event, and I see quite a lot of merchandise both on sale and being worn and carried about.

The game was quite good, with Suwon having the lion's share of shots at the goal and finally winning with a late goal. The stadium was nowhere near full but it was busy. At one end a sea of blue supporters banged drums and chanted throughout the entire match. Really, they didn't stop, it was pretty impressive. Suwon beat a team from the other end of the country (5 hours away by train) called Busan I-Park. The poor team had only managed a dozen supporters in one stand, but they had drums too and tried to give the blue army a run for their money... they failed.

It's a bit weird here because quite a lot of the premiership (or K-League as it's called) teams are sponsored by corporations and include them in their title. Busan I-Park, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i, and Suwon Samsung Bluewings all use corporate names to keep afloat. I think they need to though, as despite football's popularity Korean's seem more interested in European club football than domestic. I'm hoping to go and see Korea play Uruguay in a friendly next weekend, so maybe more supporters will come to that.

I've decided I like Korean stadiums though. You're allowed to bring in any food and drink you like, and they sell beer inside at not too much of an unreasonable price (about 1 pound 30 for a smallish can). Also, rather than the British tradition of greasy food at half time we were offered a pot of noodles (they do that very well here, none of that Pot Noodle nonsense) or a roll of sushi. The sushi was fab, but sitting in a football stadium eating it with chopsticks was somewhat surreal. Not a burger in sight!

So the football was good fun and, after getting a little lost coming out of the stadium, we managed to go out to some bars in Seoul to celebrate the Irish way. Unfortunately a pint of Guinness here costs 6 pounds, so I didn't feel Irish enough to shell out on one.

Recently we were in Seoul and I saw an idea I'd heard about but never seen put into practice. One of the city's cathedrals was having building work and the front was covered in scaffolding (sound familiar?). Over the scaffolding they had erected a massive photo of the front of the building to cover up the ugly construction work. It didn't hide it completely, but it was quite fun to see.

After a fun weekend it's back to school, which is alright but I am a little ill. Violent coughing fits come in bursts, but as long as I keep drinking water they pass quickly. I must be getting though 4 litres a day! It's not too bad, except when I'm right in the middle of showing some flashcards and eliciting words, "Good! Table! Now, what's thi- klhmph klhmph klhmph klhphm klhmph..." Hopefully I'll be ok in a day or two...

P.S. Kid update - the wee ones are beginning to understand their new names, or at least they understand who I'm talking to. However saying them is taking time. Philip is putting in a lot of effort but keeps saying "Pilip". The letter F has no comparable letter in the Korean language so when they start learning English all F's are P's. 'Sopa', 'Pootball', 'Pinished teacher!' R's also manifest themselves as L's for the same reason. Thus 'frog' becomes 'plog'. Really, it's not just a stereotype used in films for a cheap laugh. Oh well, they learn the proper pronunciations eventually, and I've learnt to understand them in the meantime.