Goodbye to a Maple Leaf

This week was interesting to say the least. I had the usual week I guess with some rowdy classes and having to exact “punishment.” But overall my classes are pretty tame. I am running out of material in some classes, we finished the book, so I am having to get material from other books so we can do something in class, instead of playing hangman or the word game. I went to Korean class on Saturday, which went well I suppose. I had planned on going to Daegu F.C. soccer game at World Cup stadium last Saturday, but I sorta took a nap and didn’t set my alarm. So, I want to go to some in August as there are 3 games on Saturdays.

Pastor Kim introduced the last 4 consonants, so now I just have to memorize them. Kim told us the story of a Korean missionary who went to a remote tribe in Africa. The tribe had a oral language, but not written. So, he taught them Korean writing, and the tribe wrote their language in Korean characters. Pretty amazing, huh? After class we went to birthday party at Outback for Karl, who incidentally is from New Zealand. I find that rather amusing, We went to a Australian restaurant for a guy from New Zealand.

Oh, I almost forgot, Tammy (a Canadian) who still says they do not say “aboot” in Canada, is leaving for the U.K. So, we had lunch at Italy and Italy on Sunday. After eating and socialing, some of us went downtown and played some arcades. After blasting aliens and undead people attacking us, we had some coffee. I have 3 days of work, then a 2 day school vacation Thursday and Friday. Not sure what I’m going to do, possibly amusement park or hiking to see some temples. I vote for the latter rather than the former. Because the latter is more amusing for picture taking than the former. And also, I don’t fare too well on rides at the former over the latter.

Soccer this weekend

Ok, a week or so ago, I don’t remember right off. I went to the local U.S. army base here to meet Pete, a guy I know from church. He took me to the barber shop and I got a army style hair cut. It’s not too short, it has a little length on top. But, the base had regular people from America doing their thing. After my cut the lady then started to give me a “massage.” Pete warned me about this, he said some people said it hurts a little. She leaned me forward and grabbed both my wrists and pulled back. I could feel my muscles tightening up. Then she started beating on my back with her fists, she started on my shoulders and then moved over my spine and settled in over a nerve. Quite uncomfortable if I may say so. Then Pete drove to a building that had some restaurants including Taco Bell, Subway, and there was a drive thru Burger King in the base also. Drive thrus are not very common here. And I forgot to mention that the barber shop and food court had ESPN playing, it brought a little rush of home sickness.

Then on Saturday I went to Korean class at 11:30 am, then Christi and Sam and I went downtown going in a few shops and then ate at Papa John’s for lunch. I was surprised we had free refills on our coke pitcher. We then made our way to Sam’s house for bulgogi, traditional Korean food. Sam is a Korean friend I met at church. We all sat on the floor around a table and ate using chopsticks.

First baseball Game in Korea

Ok, so people from church and other friends met at Daegu station and and then we walked over the Citizens Stadium (baseball). The first thing I noticed is that there are 4 mascots outside of the stadium. I bought my ticket which cost 6,000 W, which is under $6. There was a row of vendors all selling chicken, fried chicken, chicken wings. It was kinda creepy because the vendors were shouting at us to buy their food and they held out bottled water and a box of chicken as we passed by to go into the gate. There were about 10 or so in our group, and we saved some seats down the first base line. So, they played a half inning and then started the bottom of the first and then the rains came. After an hour, they called the game. So, Christi, Elise, and I walked to Daegu Station and ate at Subway at the subway, yeah corny I know. Deagu station is a huge building about 5 stories, it has department stores, eating places, movie theaters, subway station, and train station.



On, Sunday we had communion at church, we had a piece of cake for the bread. So, a few of us decided to go the baseball game today since we missed out on yesterday. I sprinkled a bit, but did not rain, thank goodness. The fans chanted and sang the whole game. They would sing a cheer for the batter or just chant “Samsung Lion” (Daegu’s team). It was great fun. Oh, and one thing I have not seen before is a beer drinking contest…with women…with straws. I did not get a good picture of it, they were on the third base dugout area, I was on the first base side. The team had cheerleaders who danced and sometimes led cheers. But, a guy in baseball uniform was next to the cheerleaders, and he was leading cheers. The people in front of us started a cheer “Samsung Lions,” I guess you can tell who the foreignors are.