Man U vs. FC Seoul

After years of watching via TV, I finally got my first taste of live world class soccer. Manchester United is hands down the most popular team in Korea because of one man, Park Ji Sung. The midfielder is not only the most famous athlete, but arguably the most well known Korean period. Tickets sold out in a matter of hours, with people hoping to catch a glimpse of Park playing in a Man U jersey for the first time (He was injured the last time they came to Korea). About a week ago, I tried my luck purchasing tickets. Luckily, I contacted a Korean student through facebook who needed to sell 4 extra tickets, and bought them at face value! The game turned out to be one of the greatest sporting events I've ever attended.

World Cup Stadium- Seoul

Warming up







박 지 성 didn't even start. That's how badass Man U is. The crowd erupted every time his face appeared on the big screen. He entered the game at 70 minutes. You can imagine the ovation he received. There's video at the bottom.

Final score: Man U 3: FC Seoul 2.
Rooney Scores (For Peter) Macheda Scores

Park Ji Sung

Busan Revisited

A few weekends ago, the residents of Yeonsu were informed by the city that we were going to have our water shut off for 48 hours due to construction. Instead of purchasing a couple gallons of water for bathing and such, me and a couple friends decided to take another trip down to Busan. Of the four of us that made the pact to head south, only Sammy and I did not suffer from alcohol poisoning that saturday morning, and made it to Busan that afternoon.

Haeundae Beach

I have no idea who this guy was, but he looked important enough for me to take a pic.

$10 bought us tickets to the Busan aquarium. I was pretty skeptical about the quality of wildlife we would see, having been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, but this place did not disappoint.

Jackass Penguins. I think the real jackass here is myself. I still can't figure out how to take pictures in the dark without them coming out blurry.



Upside down jellyfish.
I watched these little kids play this damn thing for 10 minutes. Every time they touched the ball it would shoot off in a different direction.

Cuttlefish. I've eaten quite a bit of these guys in Korea. They are usually dried and cut into strips. They look like jerky but aren't as tough and chewy.



This Korean woman couldn't understand why we wanted the huge teeth surrounding us to be in the picture. We kept telling her to move further and further away to get us inside the mouth. I guess she figured we just liked doing this pose for fun.

Hike #2

Still haven't found the temple on the mountain near my apartment, but I found some other cool sites. Here's another picture of new Songdo.

Two of my students; brothers Nick and Chris and their dad. As you can see they were super excited to see me.
The other side of the mountain.
The new bridge that will connect to the airport.

Songdo elementary school. I teach two classes twice a week here. It's the horizontal building in the middle of the picture.

A view of my school from the top.
Incheon Landing Memorial. It was a very important event during the Korean war. They are very fond of General MacArthur. There's a huge memorial to him in Incheon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Incheon

No babies? There are numerous signs in Korea that foreigners find extremely odd and hilarious. I will try to post more. This one apparently means "Don't be depressed."

CHEC English Festival

Last week was the inaugural CHEC English Festival. Every class was open to parents and other teachers who wanted to check out our English Center. Basically, we played a bunch of games that incorporated material from all of our lessons. These pictures are from the second day. The first day we had the Phonics and Beginner Classes. I wish I brought my camera that day, the little ones are unbelievably cute. Anyways, I present the Intermediate, Advanced 5th grade, and Advanced 6th grade classes.

We started off by playing a Silent Auction game. We show a sentence on the board and each team has to bet whether or not the sentence is grammatically correct. If they get the right answer, they win the amount of money they bet. If they get it wrong, they lose the money from their wager.

Advanced 5th Grade: Nana Banana and Amy.
Kenny, Peter, and Paulie. Believe it or not, Koreans do actually smile. I guess I just caught them at the wrong time. They are too focused on winning.
Congratulating Amy and Nana, who won first place for their speech about Ice Cream. Their video is at the bottom. My co-teachers from Left to Right: 청 복 신 "Jenny" (Korea), Me, Bronwyn (Canada), Padrica (Florida)

6th Grade: We played a Jeopardy game. There were three stations. The team that won the most money at the three stations won the game.

I had the sports station to the left.
Wayne lived in the Phillipines for a while and he is fluent in English. He's also a big smartass.
Jeopardy Amy and Nana "Ice Cream" (1st place)

Paulie, Kenny, and Peter "Cell Phone" (2nd Place)