MIKA! MIKA! I WENT TO SEE MIKA! (and also World Cup ROK-Greece)

MIKA LIVE IN SEOUL. Yes, Virginia, this will be a photo dump.


Saturday woke up grey and rainy. Perfect weather for staying inside and having a Glee or Battlestar Galactica marathon, but I had other plans. You see, Saturday was The Day. The day I had been waiting for for several months - MIKA was playing a concert in Seoul. So a friend of mine grabbed our umbrellas and headed for Olympic Park, the centerpiece of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games and what I am sure is a lovely place to walk around when the weather's not quite so crappy.

You can see it was raining. A lot.

But that did not deter hoards of Mika fans from showing up and going crazy!

Except, of course for the people in my section, who seemed to have taken an entire bottle of Ambien EACH before the concert. Everyone else was up on their feet except for them. My friend and I were not just the only two foreigners in the section, but we were also the only two up on our feet for the entire show.

This is the giant cankle that rose from the crowd during the performance of Big Girls (You Are Beautiful).

And now some performance shots:





Final bows after the encore (Grace Kelly):



And now for the World Cup! Korea vs Greece - and Korea ran ALL OVER Greece. Great times.


Here we are, decked out in our Reds gear. We were one of only a handful of weigooks to stay for the game afterwords


A bit smaller crowd for the game, but it sounded about 10 times louder. ESPECIALLY when Park Jisung scored the goal to put Korea up 2-0. It was like the second coming


And here is a terrible shot of the jumbo screens we watched the game on. All in all, a great experience.

World Cup Update

Alright folks just wanted to post a quick update of my experience watching the World Cup in Korea. I'll have photos from the game (and the Mika concert yay!) tomorrow probably.

So last night was South Korea's first match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, against Greece, so the country basically stopped dead in its tracks to watch the game. And when I say stopped dead in its tracks, I mean there is not a single human being I have spoken to in this country who did not watch the match last night. And most watched with about seventy billion other Koreans, all dressed in red, cheering and going crazy during the game.

Me, I was at a concert beforehand in Olympic Park, so we decided to stay and watch the game there. As it began, the concert venue seemed oddly empty - probably because nearly every person in Seoul was at City Hall, from what I have been told. I was honestly a little disappointed...I was really hoping for one of those everyone-on-top of each other, massive crowd events, but pretty much everyone had a seat during the game.

My concerns were quickly allayed, however, when Korea scored its first goal unit (or whatever it's called). There were maybe 500-600 people there, but the roars that erupted from the crowd made it feel like ten times that. The atmosphere was electric, with cheers of "Daehan Minguk! clapclap clapclap clap" erupting every few seconds, and it was easy to fall into the game. And when the clock ran out, and Korea had won 2-0, it felt like they'd won the Super Bowl, or the World Series. But not the NBA Finals or the Stanley Cup, because who gives a crap about hockey and basketball?? Whatever.

So you can be sure that I will be wearing my red for the games against Argentina and Nigeria, who look to be the real tests for the Red Devils. But I cannot wait! Daehan Minguk!

Oh, also, I really REALLY want a vuvuzela. NEW LIFE GOAL.

PS Yes, Tom. I AM better at the internet than you. HOW DOES THAT FEEL, BIATCH!!

And now I'm oriented!

Part the First

Hello all my dear readers! I have so much to tell you about! First, though, let me apologize for the lack of recent updates. These things happen when you're busy. I know it must have been a very trying time for you all, attempting to suffer through your quotidian lives without my updates, but I am glad you were strong enough to soldier on.

So let's see...when we last spoke, my children were actively cleaning class and using some impressive teamwork to get things done. Since then, I really haven't been in class, so not much news there. OH! I did go into Seoul last weekend, and completely failed to take any pictures (I have come to the conclusion that my camera is just too crappy for words, and I will need to purchase a new one as soon as possible, probably after my next paycheck. Fortunately, I'm in the right country to do so). So here: make do with some of my various friends'.
Our first stop: Yongsan electronics mall. This is possibly the biggest geek haven in all the world. In just the I'Park mall alone, there are floors upon floors of electronic gadgets, from cell phones to cameras, to hardware and the Nintendo Wii. The most beautiful part of it is the top floor of this place, the "Electronic Sports Stadium". It's not an arcade, not really...it's in fact a stadium where people gather together to watch two guys playing Starcraft or whatever. So basically it's like being in Jacob and Joe's room in college, only with a huge audience and it's actually broadcast on the teevee. Awesomely dynamic.


After our little nerd break, we decided to continue the dork vibe, but with a slightly different tack. We headed downtown to the Sejong Performing Arts Center because I wanted to get some culture, and there was an exhibit of Steve McCurry photography on display. It featured, of course, the haunting and iconic Afghan Girl, a visually stunning photograph. I believe McCurry is at his best when he is taking portraits. There is no one else I've seen who can capture humanity on film like this man can...it's quite amazing. If you ever get a chance, I would absolutely recommend checking some of his work out. For those of you in South Korea who have not yet seen his work, the exhibit runs through the end of May, and is 8000W for adults.


We decided to take a little break and hang out in the warm (ish) sunshine in Gwanghwamun park near the Sejong PAC. Sorry for the awkward angle. (You will probably live, though)


And here we are standing at the statue of King Sejong himself, the man who not only set down the Hangul alphabet, but also apparently invented astronomy. The statue is a likeness of him personally bringing forth the science of astronomy from the heavens.

Following our little respite, we headed over to the very hip Hongdae area. It's the neighborhood around Hongik University, and is well known for being filled with the Korean equivalents of hipsters, trendsters, and scenesters. It was a pretty cool area, one I would like to explore when I am not quite so tired. Or trying to corral such a large group of 20-somethings (there were like 10 of us). We ate at a very pleasant Indian restaurant (following our Thai lunch, naturally) and then left to grab a beer or two before embarking on the long journey home.

You can see how excited I am to get on the metro for about an hour and a half (not catching an express train is really quite awful).

Yikes. This is turning into something rather longer than I had planned. Stay tuned for Part II, in which I spend three days out in the boonies learning how to teach...

Surprise Camping Trip!

Haha suckas! I found out yesterday that the fourth and fifth graders are going on a school camping trip to learn about nature or whatever. They will be gone Tuesday (today) and Wednesday (tomorrow), the positive upshot of which is my regular classes are all cancelled. Hooray! I still have to do my after school classes, though, so it's not all a free ride. But that's the thing about teaching public schools in Korea: nobody tells you when random things like this are happening, so it's always a surprise! In fact, one of my friends stayed up late last night and got up early this morning to hammer out some lesson plans, only to find out that she didn't have any classes today. SURPRISE! It's so dynamic!

Similarly, I'm going to be gone next week from Mon-Wed at an off-site GEPIK orientation/teaching seminar. So it'll be some time again before I have a full week of classes. Woot!

In other news, I'm hoping to go to Seoul this weekend to see the Steve McCurry exhibit that is showing there. If you aren't familiar with the name, Steve McCurry is a very prominent photojournalist who has focuses mainly on Asia. He rose to fame in the mid-80s with his chronicle of the Afghan War, first by being embedded amongst the actual fighters, and then through his documentation of the refugee situation. He is most famous for his iconic photograph, "Afghan Girl", which the National Geographic magazine ran as the cover to its June 1985 issue.

You can see why it's so famous. And hopefully why I am so excited to go see this guy's work. Out of anyone I've seen, he really has a serious knack for capturing some essential humanity in all of his subjects. Captivating.