March 28th-April 5th

Well hello everyone!! I am back writing again and that is because I have some good experiences and some good pictures to go with the experiences. This weekend, Daniel Tate, Jillian, Mahvish and I went to Hongdae (Seoul) Friday night and it was club night. The last Friday of each month is club night which means for a cheap price, we get a bracelet that allows you into all of the clubs. It was a very LONG and wild night but definitely a great time. On Saturday night, Daniel and I met up with a group of people for Troy and Joanne's birthday get together. We had not met many of the people we were with, so it was awesome being able to meet other teachers that live in the area. We went to dinner and then to a bar where we had drinks for the night. Our weekends have consisted of a lot of partying but that will come to an end soon because we will be doing more traveling and things like that. That night we were out with Joanne and Troy, we were watching the Korean national soccer game against Iraq and they told us that game was being played in Suwon which is about 15 minutes from where we live. We could not believe something so big was being played so close and they proceeded to tell us that the Korean national team had a game Wednesday night in Seoul against North Korea and it was a World Cup Qualifier. Instantly, Daniel and I said we had to go to it. That is exactly what we did.

Tate, Jillian, Dave, Daniel and I all got off work on Wednesday at 5 to catch the bus to Seoul and then 2 Subway lines to the Stadium. The 2002 FIFA World Cup was held here in South Korea, so the stadium was incredible. North Korea and South Korea's matches are usually very good and I believe the last three matches have resulted in a tie. But not this time, The American and Canadians brought the South Korean team a little luck. South Korea scored the only goal of the game in the 88th minute. Luckily for me, I filmed the lone goal on my camera and will post it to the blog. It was such an incredible experience being able to see Korean pride and especially South Korean pride against a country in which the world hates. I also have some good pictures of the stadium and the fans. It was an experience that I will never forget. I mean honestly, how many people can say they went to a soccer match where South Korea played against North Korea? I don’t think many. That night, the subways were ridiculous. I have never been so close to so many people just being shoved onto the subway and pushed everywhere. It was mind blowing how many people were on each cart. I am definitely not complaining. That is the type of stuff that makes the experience so amazing and so much fun. It was a long day seeing we left for work around 830 and did not get home until close to 1 AM. It was worth every bit of how tired I was the next day at work. South Korea has a couple more games in Seoul that we will probably check out. Baseball is starting soon here and since I wont be able to see my idol back in Seattle (Griffey), I will have to make due with the Korean professional teams who are actually very good! I also will have you know that I won’t be missing the first month of the Mariners baseball season. I have to give a shout out to my amazing friend Jeff Doty who bought me a month long pass to MLBTV.com so that I could see not only the Mariners do amazing and lead the way to the World Series, but also can see my idol's first real at-bat in a Mariners uniform since 1999. To say the least, I am stoked about this! That game is coming up on Monday for most of you and early Tuesday morning for me. I will watch the game before work and be wearing my Mariners jersey to work.

This latest weekend, I decided I needed a more relaxing weekend without the partying and that is exactly what we did. I was not alone with that idea seeing that we do everything together and needed a break. Friday night, Tate, Jillian, Daniel and I hung out, played our favorite card game, SCOPA and also charades. On Saturday, we woke up and went to Seoul for the day to do some touristy things and get some cool pictures. We went to Namsan Mountain (which to us is more of a big hill) which leads to the Seoul Tower which looks really neat as long as it is not a hazy day. Of course, with our luck, we had a VERY hazy day and the pictures looking high over Seoul did not turn out too well. The pictures show how dirty Seoul is because I am pretty sure it was not fog. It was still a very fun hike with some good scenery. We did not walk all the way to the Seoul Tower because of the smog and are going to wait and do it again another day. After walking down the mountain, we got back down in the main city areas and walked around, did some shopping and ate dinner. It was an awesome day and I am starting to love Seoul. It is an amazing city to just walk around. There are so many different nationalities every where. There is such a wild variety on styles for clothing and especially with food. Before dinner, we ate at this little Turkish vendor and had wraps full of Lamb and I think I would take the bus back just for a couple of the wraps. After dinner we headed home and we began planning what we are going to do for our 10 day break in July. We are most likely leaving South Korea to go somewhere with a beach and nice weather but I will keep you updated with our destination when we completely figure it out. We should know sometime this week. The weather here is starting to get warmer and today (Sunday) was amazing! It was about 65 degrees and blue skies. Tate, Daniel and I went to the Central Park and played our usual 3 on 3 basketball with the local Dongtonians and it was a lot of fun. We rode our bikes around and just enjoyed ourselves. This whole next week is supposed to be low to mid 60's and I am stoked. But now it is time to get back into the grind of another work week. Hopefully there will be some other experiences coming up really soon that I can update you on. Enjoy the Mariners and go North Carolina in the National Championship (I got 50,000 Korean Won riding on that)!! Miss you all and I hope you enjoy the pictures!!