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.

Monday

Ok, so I went to Suseong Lake for the annual Duck boat race last Sunday. There are pictures in the slide show and click it to see them in full screen. I rode up to the lake with people from church. Ben was my partner, so we started to pedal, but our shoes were too big to turn it. So, we took our shoes off and were barefoot. We did a lap around the lake, fairly small lake, but fun no less. We came in third place. A good time was had by all. I met another guy from Australia and his wife and young kid, I love the Aussie accent. I went back to Ben’s flat and he cooked mashed potatoes with pork, mushrooms, cheese, butter, it was better than the potato bowl at KFC. We listened to the U.S. military radio station, which is fitting b/c Pete is stationed here, he tells us about his exercises and routines, interesting stuff. Then we played Halo and killed some aliens.

I had a pretty uneventful week at work, some classes are really quiet, others has some rowdy kids, I have one class with one student, one with two people. Saturday I went out with Ben, we had planned on getting some stuff at Costco. But, he forgot his card, so we decided to go anyway, so we got there and we ate at the food court. We had a hot dog and Bulgolgi and chicken bake. The Bulgogi is a seasoned beef, it tasted like a philly cheese steak. Then, we set off to find the video game store, but we took the wrong exit out of Deagu Station, there are tons of exits. So, we walked through the market, quite interesting, people selling all kinds of stuff. Then it was time to meet up with folks for dinner at a Japanese place to eat and then to CVG to watch Transformers. You have assigned seats at the theater, it probably holds several hundred people. And the Hollywood movies are all in Korean subtitles.

pictures

3rd week

I am trying to play billa bowl, it's a cross b/w pool and bowling, you use a pool stick and try to knock down bowling pins, it even has a gutter!

I got a pizza last week, and guess what ‘side’ it came with? How about pickles. I went downtown, which is about a 30 minute bus ride from my place. Downtown is a big shopping district with a lot of people walking about, but cars sometimes drive down the roads. It is not very pedistrian friendly here. I’m not sure if there are any traffic rules. Cars do u turns at any point on the road, in intersections, on sidewalks, or just in the middle of the road. A Korean student at church told me that the police are a little lax because when you finish high school everyone has to go in the military, the Korean form of the peace corp, or in the police. So, people chose the police because I suppose it’s easier.

After church Sunday, some folks ate at Popeye’s and then went to PC room to play Star Craft, a computer game. We had about 8 people playing together, which makes it fun. It cost 1,000 W per hour, which came to about $2 for 2 hours. Pretty cheap deal.

I got a haircut this week which involved a typical haircut, then he whipped the hair off my face with a block of foam, which was rather hard. Then, a woman took me over and washed my hair at the sink. Then, she dried my hair by using her knuckles and she pounded my head with her fists or something. And so she combed my hair and place and off I went.

Sunday

Sunday, Ben invited me to go to his church at the Domti subway stop, called Domshin Church. I asked some folks at a church a couple of buildings down from me. A girl told the bus driver to let me off at the subway. The bus driver told me when to get off, then I went down to the subway station. I asked a worker there which line to take to go to the church. I had a brochure with a little map on it, which made it easier for directions. I found the church, but I had arrived a tad bit early. The english service didn’t start til 2pm and I arrived at around 11am. So, walked around the neighborhood a bit. There was a Popeye’s chicken place and a Burger King. I wandered into an arcade, a bunch of teenage boys playing Tekken and the like.

I made my way back to the church and up 5 flights of stairs and people started asking me where I’m from and the even tougher question where do I live. I was satisfied that I made it there. I met a guy from Australian, girl from South Africa, and the usual American folks. Some of the teachers have been in Korea for 3 or 4 years. But, having thought ahead I took a picture of my bus stop so I could show people. It was in Korean no less. But when I told them how I came to church, they said I had to transfer subways lines to come. But I took the #2 bus and then went down to the subway and took the train to the stop. They could not understand how I made it without transferring lines. But, I will take it nonetheless.