Suwon Bluewings 3 Jeju Utd 0

We had the great idea that as the K-League (Korean football league) season has started, we should go watch a game. The closest team to us is Suwon who are one of the better teams. Mike and I went down there today. There were meant to be nine of us, but as always happens in Korea, when you organise something, people always pull out.
The tickets cost only 10,000 won (£6) and were unassigned seating so we could go anywhere. The stadium was about a third full with maybe 10,000 fans. It was brilliant weather today which made things even better so we had a few beers and sat there listening to the crazy Korean chanting. The drinking made us peckish. Only in Korea can you buy noodles at a football match!!
Suwon won 3-0. Jeju were useless and did nothing the whole match. Halftime entertainment was provided by Korean belly dancer. It seems to be a popular activity here, funny considering no Korean girls have bellies!

Suwon World Cup Stadium

Halftime entertainment

Sheep and strawberries

What do people from Seoul do at the weekend? Apparently we go on tour buses to the countryside. We got to the meeting place at 7am and slept on the bus for three hours until we got to a sheep farm. This was only the second time in her life for meeting a sheep for Hyun Young. I was less enthused. We had lunch in Pyeongchang, which is one of the favourites to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. Korea should be thankful that I'm not on the IOC as the town doesn't look like it could host an egg and spoon race, let alone one of the world's biggest sporting events!! After lunch we went to a mountain spring which had the worst tasting water of my life. It was full of iron which is the excuse given for the taste.
We then drove to a strawberry farm where we picked strawberries and ate a ton of them ourselves. These strawberries are being used for tomorrows 'rum strawberry smoothy and Blackadder marathon' with Mike and Tisha.
I was the only foreigner on the tour and definitely got given some funny looks by everyone else. Although I redeemed myself by reading a whole passage of Korean in front of a group of them! We also got hassled by the two (cute) college student tour guides all day trying to take photos of us and getting me to set my friends up with them! Oh yea and the highlight has to be getting called handsome by a 50 year old ajumma!

Is this my future home?

Someone is excited about feeding the sheep.....

.....Someone else is not so excited!

Just like the woods at home (apart from the Koreans)

mmmm strawberries

Do we look like Indians?

Two more reasons why I'm half Korean:
19) I have a pink t-shirt
20) I ate kimchi for breakfast yesterday

A weekend in Chuncheon

Hyun Young was given a whole weekend off so we decided to skip football and go away. We went to the city of Chuncheon which is about 2 hours aways and is famous for its chicken galbi.
We got there and got on the world's most dangerous bus to take us to a lake. He definitely went around mountain corners way too fast! The journey continued as we crossed the lake on a boat and then proceeded to hike halfway up a mountain. After coming back down, we had the chicken galbi, which was great and then decided to watch Bend It Like Beckham in our hotel room. Today consisted of getting up at 1pm and heading back to Seoul where we proceeded to eat way too much pizza/pasta/yoghurt!!!

Our new friend

Apparently we like to walk up mountains armed with a coffee cup!

Yay Buddha!!

It's either my pirate pose or I'm disgusted we have no yoghurt left!

It's Cherry Blossom Season!

Apparently every spring in Korea it's a big deal just because the trees go pink/white.
I decided it was time I was 'sick' from work, although this time I didn't get diagnosed with anything more than the squits. I also got to meet Hyun Young's parents which may have been the most scary things in my life, especially as I was cooking their home! I made them pizza and a chocolate brownie/cream/strawberry cake. They seemed to like it!
Then we went with Hyun Youn's friends to Yeoido (spelling?) to walk along the cherry blossom trees. We took badminton rackets and I managed to maintain my status as Korea's number one badminton player! After that was all done we went to a yoghurt shop to have yoghurt and play jenga. Not quite as good a combination as alchohol and jenga though!


Factoid: Man Utd beat Roma 7-1. Portsmouth beat Man Utd 2-1. Watford beat Portsmouth 4-2. Does that mean Watford are better than Man Utd and Roma?

Reasons why I'm half Korean

1) I think Korean food is the best in the world
2) I don't go to bed before 1am
3) I don't notice the 'smell' of Seoul
4) I think a one hour subway ride is short
5) I drink makeolli whilst playing football
6) I can pronounce Hyundai properly
7) I like K-pop
8) I don't care about anyone else when I'm walking along
9) I would rather use chopsticks than a knife and fork
10) I automicatically curse in Korean
11) I know about 10 different variations of honey/sweetie/darling in Korean
12) I think all Western girls are fat and ugly
13) I eat rice for breakfast
14) I eat rice for lunch
15) I eat rice for dinner
16) I ignore the air raid drills
17) I look in a mirror every chance I get
18) I think Guus Hiddink is a legend