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Earlier this week my roommate and I decided we would go check out one of the local tourist attractions, the large palace in downtown Seoul. I had never been to any of the palaces, I figured when I was here before that I would save a couple things to come back and do later, and this was one of them.

The palace is set right next to a high rise part of town with lots of commerce and news media buildings. Also several of the embassies including the American embassy is right by there.

Gyeongbokgung royal palace was constructed in the late 14th century, but it suffered severe damage a couple different times from Japanese invasions. They are still working to restore it, but only about 40% of the palace is still standing or been restored. For being only 40% the size of it was still quite impressive. I’ve been to the Forbidden City in Beijing and this had some similar construction. It was much smaller, but really didn’t seem to be a whole lot smaller.

The football team is getting ready for our next game. We play on Sunday at 10:30 in the morning, which means I need to be at the school at 6:30 am. We’ll be playing a very tough team, but we’ve got some great guys on our team so I think it will be a good match.

I kind of got sick yesterday (Friday) so today I was trying hard to take it easy. I was supposed to go to a baseball game with a friend but the game was canceled due to rain. So instead I went to the bath house to try and get a good sweat and freshen up.

I came upon an interesting addition to the bath house, cupping therapy. This has always interested me, those ceramic cups where they use fire to blow inside them and then stick them on your body. I’ve heard of this and have seen it in movies. I thought that would be a good thing to do, they say it’s supposed to help detoxify your body and force the bad things out. The practice has been used for over a couple thousand years and the claims of what it can do vary anywhere from nothing, to curing cancer. The idea is the suction can affect the skin 4 inches deep, bringing up toxins to the surface and allowing fresh blood to repair the deeper tissue. It invigorates blood flow, opens up your veins and capillaries. So anyway, why not give it a shot?

Now I have never done this before so I didn’t know what to expect. One thing I didn’t expect was for it to be extremely painful. It felt like a small alligator was clamping onto your skin. Just out of instinct I wanted to reach around my back and yank them off because they hurt! But sometimes good things hurt, a good massage can hurt, so I just went with it. She left them on for a long time and after a while the pain would go away. She would come over and take the cups off and it felt so good, but then she’d add a couple more and I really didn’t want her to, but I was pretty sure I was going to be paying the same whether I told her to stop or not. So I get home to look this therapy up on Wikipedia and here’s an interesting passage:

Usually treatments are not painful, but treatment should be discontinued if the person receiving it experiences more than minor discomfort.

I wouldn’t even call it discomfort, it was way beyond that. Great.

As for another thing I did not know, I did not know I would leave looking like an animal. This is great because I know tomorrow after the football game I’m going to be showering and changing and I look like an alien with all these purple circles on my back and stomach. And they do hurt, they feel like bruises. So this is go for tomorrow morning’s game.

But I wanted to try it, it’s something they do here. So when in Rome. I was looking it up online and found some interesting pictures from the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Apparently several swimmers use this therapy (maybe more athletes, but with swimmers it is more revealing).

So that makes me feel a little bit better. Yes I’m that much of a serious athlete I need cupping therapy. I highly doubt I would ever do this again though, unless I feel some benefit tomorrow. For now though its just painful and I look funny.

This is a long post since it’s been almost a week and it’s the first one.

I left Korea in July of 2009, it is now May 2011 and I am back to visit for a few weeks. First impressions upon coming back were interesting. I can’t really place what my expectations were of coming back, but adjusting to being back was a bit more difficult than I thought. I’m not sure what it is that makes the adjustment difficult. The jet lag doesn’t help, being that its a 16 hour time difference. My first couple days were frustrating, I was tired, a bit unsure of what to do, I began to wonder why I even came. But then the adjustment started happening and I started to really enjoy myself. I think it was probably the football game on Saturday that did it for me. I’ll get into that in a moment.

I came back to Korea because I wanted to see my friends and I wanted to do some soul searching (in Seoul). I’ve considered going back to school to do a masters in Korea studies and work in government, but I’ve also thought about doing other thing. So I thought this would be good for me. I made several Korean friends during my time here as an exchange student. I remember one night going out with one of my friends for the last time. We were at a bar having a few drinks and I told him I wanted to come back and visit a year later. He told me that I say that now, but I most likely will not. He himself was an exchange student in California, and always thought he’d go back and see his friends but he never did. He says that’s always the case. Exchange students come and go. I understood what he meant, and I wanted to try very hard to keep my promise of coming back. Coming back and reuniting with my Korean friends I hope will show that I care about the friendship and it is something I would like to hold onto for a long time.

My roommate Yu Tian cooking up some meat on the grill at a nearby restaurant.

In sort of a funny coincidence I am staying with the roommate I had while I was in Korea before. He is from the Netherlands and came back to Korea this year to take more schooling. So again we find ourselves rooming together and it was a great time to come in that I get to see him at the same time as so many other friends here.

I had arrived Tuesday night and Wednesday we had football practice. I showed up for practice with the team and was delighted to see several of my friends I had played with before. There are several new guys as well, and they are all very nice and were very welcoming. The practice was in the evening, but it was about 4am my time back home. I struggled to keep up and my head was cloudy. When we were counting off our stretches (1,2,3… 10) It came to my turn to count off the stretch and I began counting in Korean, I got lost halfway through and I repeated some numbers and left a number out, so it went kind of like 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,7,10. They all laughed and cheered me on after the attempt. I met the coach for the first time and after practice he took me into one of the tents on campus. There was a festival this past week at the school, so there was a lot of tents you could sit under and order drinks and food. We shared a bottle of makgori and chatted it up. He is Korean but grew up in the states and studies comparative literature so his English is better than mine and his Korean is just as good too. I enjoyed his company because his attitude is American so it was fun to have that in common. We then went out to eat with the team and to my surprise I was served a bowl of soup that was just pig ears and blood sausage. Wasn’t the tastiest thing I’ve ever had, but it also wasn’t the worst. We then went back to campus for the festival and we all sat under a tent and played drinking games. The guys helped me play the games since I wasn’t keeping up very well.

Thursday I was sore beyond belief. I had bruises all up and down my arms, my neck, hip and legs were incredibly sore. I was able to go to the pharmacy and get some Ibuprofen though and that helped. I have a Korean tutor I meet with back home in Seattle and I met up with a friend of hers who kindly took me out to eat for dinner, then we met up with her sister and sister’s boyfriend and went to a bar.

Friday I had football practice again but this time it was easier since we had a game the next morning. I went out that evening for a farewell party to a friend of ours who was headed back to the states for the summer. We went out to a club, and strangely the club was full of swastikas. And no I didn’t mistake it for the reverse religious symbol, it was the same as ones paraded in the days of WWII. I felt strange being there, I didn’t get it. But the going away party was fun, I had only one drink so I could be good for the game.

I had to wake up at 6 am to join the team and we took a bus ride to the location of our game. It takes about an hour to get there. Upon arriving at the field and suiting up I was informed I was starting on special teams, the front line on kick return. I was surprised they gave me a starting spot, a little confused why I was on the front line, those are usually big guys, but I didn’t care. I was also 2nd string backup for split end and corner back. It was a very close game, the other team started out strong and drove in a touchdown in the first few minutes. But then our defense picked up and it was a scoreless game for a while as both defenses were keeping the offenses still. We ended up pulling it out though 25-24.

After the game we headed back to the school to drop our stuff off. The team went out to celebrate but I was meeting my friend as she was taking me to a Korean baseball game. I had never been to one before but I know crowd participation was a big deal. She is a big fan and has a season pass. We went to the game and she bought me a jersey, the jersey came blank with no name and number. She told me by the end of the game I should decide who to put on there. The game was a blast, our team was down 5-1 but they came back to tie it up in the 9th and ended up winning the 11th inning, I had decided that if a player won the game for us, I would get their name and number on the jersey and that is what I did. Most of the time we were on our feet, singing songs and moving to the cheer motions. For people who think baseball is boring, you should really go to a Korean game, there is no down time in the cheering and songs. I learned the Korean baseball terms for home run, strikeout and some others. I also practiced some Korean by creating some things to shout out. I yelled one players name on the opposing team and said “jeep eh ka!” which means “go home!” Several people around me laughed, I’m sure I had a terrible foreign accent. It was fun. There was a guy sitting infront of us who was for the other team, strangely sitting in our teams section. He cheered out in Korean “home run!” to which I replied in Korean with a cheer “strikeout!” he then said “home run!” again and I followed it up again with another “strikeout!” cheer. People around laughed again. It was a great experience and I know I’ll be going to another game soon with my jersey.

You can see the little island of Cheju off the south cost of the Korean peninsula.

(I am back from Korea now, but I am behind on a few posts, so I will try and punch those out now)

It was June 18th I had been back from Hong Kong for only three days, just long enough to take my last two finals. My friend Mike and I were heading to Cheju-do (Cheju island). Before leaving though we both had to pack up our dorm rooms to move out. Dorm room check out was June 21st and we would be gone over that weekend. I packed up all my stuff and we took our things to Mike’s grandmother’s apartment down south of Seoul. We dropped off our things and hustled to the airport. The ride was just under an hour to Cheju-do. We landed in Cheju city on the north side of the island and then took a bus to the south side to our inn.

We paid 20,000 won a night for our room which is about $17. Divided by two that’s just barely over $8 a person. We had our own bathroom with shower, didn’t share with anyone else and cable t.v. However we didn’t have actual beds. Instead the floor was somewhat soft and we each had pads and blankets. It was fine though.

The next day we got up and went to rent scooters to have for the weekend. The lady asked us for our international drivers licenses, but we didn’t have one. Mike said we ride bike’s back home so it wouldn’t be a problem (this ofcourse wasn’t true for me or him). She agreed and we got our bikes. They were 125cc which means they are good for the highway. I was able to get mine up to 110kmph or about 70mph.

Click pictures to enlarge

The weekend was great, we checked out some really nice beaches, waterfalls and all kinds of sightseeing. We also climed the big mountain in the center of the island called Hallasan. It is the highest mountain in South Korea at 6,398 feet. The trek was 10 kilometers to the top from our starting location. It was very steep and rocky.

The weekend was a lot of fun and beautiful. Mike and I had a great time.

Last week I was in Hong Kong for a trip. I left on Thursday morning the 11th and came back home to Seoul on Monday the 15th. It is a short flight from Seoul, about 3 hours. I arrived in Hong Kong (traveling alone) and checked into my hotel. I walked out into the city and walked around for a while. The following day I did some more walking around the city and took a ferry over to the Kowloon side and checked out the view of the city harbor. I also walked along the Avenue of Stars and got to see the star and hand prints of some of my favorite actors. The main attraction for me there was the big bronze Bruce Lee statue that had been put up a few years ago. I took several pictures of it and sat and watched as several people would be coming buy and posing for pictures in front of Bruce Lee.

I looked through the hotel pamphlets at some of the tours offered around the city. I didn’t really like them too much. Some tours included things I didn’t want to do and some of the things I wanted to do were scattered among different tours. Instead I decided I would look into getting my own tour guide. I went on Hong Kong’s craigslist and found a couple ads for tour guides. I contacted a couple and heard back from one guy. He is a certified tour guide for Hong Kong and does it on the side for fun and a little bit of money. Saturday he met me at the hotel and took me to a restaurant well known in Hong Kong for serving the best milke tea around. They have their own secret way of doing it, which includes straining it through a pair of pantyhose.

We then headed to the south part of the island and checked out the beaches. Then went to the Aberdeen fishing village and took a little ride in the water over to the Jumbo seafood restaurant, it was in a James Bond movie. After that he took me to a restaurant where I could eat some goose. I heard it was really good, and it was. You get a combination of light and dark meat, and the fat tastes so sweet and its incredibly soft.  He then took me to a popular bar area in Hong Kong and we had a couple Tsingtao beers.

Sunday we met up and ate at a good dim sum restaurant. The food there was incredible. Every item we ordered was just incredibly good. Except… the jelly fish. I wasn’t a fan of the jelly fish. It was just the white jelly fish chopped up. Some parts of it were soft and chewy while other parts were crunchy. I didn’t like it much. But everything else was just incredible. Then we headed off to go see a couple temples. One was a Buddhist temple and the other was a Taoist temple. I enjoyed seeing both of them. We then headed into the center of Kowloon shopping area. Here they have basically everything in the world. It was incredibly crowded too, reminded me of Seoul.

Later we headed up to Victoria’s peak. The one place that everyone who has been to Hong Kong has told me to see. Even my tour guide told me this is the best place of all. You go up a tram that takes you up the hill at a 45 degree angle. You get to see all of Hong Kong harbor and Kowloon. It is an incredible view.

The trip was great. I got to see so much stuff in a short time thanks to my tour guide. I felt like I was visiting Hong Kong Anthony Bourdain style. I got to see the great sites and eat great food, thanks to a local with a lot of Hong Kong knowledge, experience and culinary taste. Thanks to Chiho Leung for showing me around.

Here’s a quick little video of some of the video footage I had taken.

Few Highlights from Hong Kong from Josh Dill on Vimeo.

Only a little bit longer to go here in Seoul. I just finished my Korean language class. It was sad to say good bye to all of my classmates. We’ve had Korean language every day M-F 4 hours each day. It was a small class of 14 and we often went out on the weekends for class outings. I will miss all those people and hope to see them again sometime in the future.

Thursday morning I am flying to Hong Kong. I am going by myself since everyone is busy with finals and final projects. I finished my projects and only have two more tests left next week. I will be in Hong Kong for 5 days, returning Monday to take two finals on Tuesday.

Then the following Thursday I am going with my good friend Mike Conner to Jeju Island. Jeju Island is an island off the south coast of the Korean peninsula. It is a very popular tourist place full of beaches, waterfalls and great scenery. We return Monday. The next few days will be my last in Seoul and Korea.

Then that following Thursday I fly out to Beijing to meet up with my brother Micah. I will be there for one week and return to Seattle on the 2nd for 1 day. The 3rd I fly out with my girlfriend Sovon for New York. We will spend almost a week in New York returning to Seattle on the 8th for good. I just realized in the next 3 1/2 weeks I will be on 10 planes. Crazy.

I’ll try getting a post up while I’m in Hong Kong. If not, I’ll get one up as soon as I get back.

I haven’t updated you on the football tournament recently but since you’ve read the title you know already. Two weeks ago we played in the semi-finals and we beat that team 66-6. The score was actually 48-0 at half time. It was kind of a fun game in some ways, but frustrating in others. We kept swapping people around at different positions. I was starting on kickoff team as usual and also playing wide receiver and corner back. I got pretty tired because since they were not scoring hardly at all they never kicked the ball (the only team I wasn’t playing on was the kick return team). But it was a fun game.

Last Sunday was the final game. It was a tough game, the team was pretty hard and the refs were giving our team a hard time about anything they possibly could. We ended up winning the game in the last few minutes as our defense held the other team (Seoul University) tightly against their own goal line. They snapped for a punt, it went over the kickers head and he scrambled to get the ball and went down in the endzone and we got a safety. We won the game 2-0. We won the tournament, Yonsei’s first time in 10 years. We got the trophy and celebrated thoroughly. It was great that my Dad was able to be there at our game. He had watched us at a couple of our practices and even came out to our celebration party after. It was a lot of fun.

Click the photos to enlarge.

Picture of the game

Eddie and I sharing some complaints about the refs.

Team photo

The trophy!

Everyone out to a nice dinner. Plenty of beer and soju to go around.

The champagne!

Few of the guys at the bar after dinner

Participating in a relay race 4 on 4.

This had to be one of the most random things that has happened to me in Seoul so far. It was last Tuesday and I was walking on campus going passed the international dorm house where I live headed for class. A Korean guy walked up to me and stopped me to ask me a few questions. He asked me questions about Eminem,  if I knew that Eminem’s new album had just been released in Korea that day. He asked me if I liked Eminem and I said “sure I do.” He then told me that he works for Universal Music, the company that is head of the record labels that Eminem is under (as well as The Killers, Lady Gaga, and several more). I was surprised. He said that they were putting on a promotion at COEX mall (the largest underground mall in Asia that is in Seoul). And they were looking for someone to be Eminem at their promotion and that they would pay me 100,000 KRW (about $85) for the three hours of the promotion. I asked what I would have to do and he said I would just be hanging out and people would be taking pictures with me and such, and just act like Eminem. I told him I don’t want to do any rapping because of course then people would know “Wow… he’s not Eminem.” He said I wouldn’t have to do any of that.

I thought about it and figured I’m here to do different things and this sounds pretty different and fun so I said yes. He was thrilled and took a few photos of me to take to his boss.

It’s odd really. I do like Eminem, I’m not like his biggest fan but I do listen to his music. Several years ago back when I was doing computer work I was spending a lot of time working at Harley Davidson Seattle and I had dyed my hair blond. I had only been working at Harley for a few days so not all the guys knew my name yet, so they ended up just calling me Eminem and that nickname stuck at Harley for the next couple years.

I also do enjoy doing an Eminem song at the noray bang (Karaoke) from time to time.

I got ready for the part on Saturday, I had a Nike set of matching sweat pants and hooded zip up sweat top. I also had a black Nike ball cap. I went to the event that they had set up and people were already gathering. They had a big poster that had several squares on it, each square had a number and prizes labeled in the squares. People would draw a square from a box hat had a piece of the album cover art on it and they would past it to the corresponding number and win a prize if there was a prize on that square. In the end the picture would be the new album cover.

Hundreds and hundreds of people came. They never thought there’d be so many people. I remember turning around once and there had to have been about 70 people surrounding the event area in a horshoe shaped crowd about 4 people deep all taking pictures. I just remember being surrounded by tons of people and cameras. They all had their cell phone cameras out and cameras taking pictures. It was crazy. Several people were coming forward and asking to get a picture with me. Girls, guys and I even took pictures with little kids.

After the event the Universal crew took me out to dinner and paid me. Later I met up with one of the guys and we had some drinks together. He gave me Eminem’s new album as well as a few other Universal label band CD’s. He told me that everything worked perfect. He said that so many people had actually thought I was Eminem. Even though they didn’t tell people I was Eminem, he said that some groups of friends were arguing over whether or not I was really Eminem, and that a lot of people had just assumed.

In fact I had found a blog post online, it was written in Korean and I showed it to a friend of mine and he started laughing and then translated it for me. This is what it said:

I saw eminem at coex today
I think the record shop invited him -_-;;
There were lots of people gather together so I just went
.. and Eminem was there
He gave Free Hugs, took pictures, and gave signatures
He looked just like the way he looked in the movie 8 mile
I personally really like him
and it felt really weird having seen him in Korea.
I took several pictures and i had to leave with my girlfriend because of the movie time… ^^;
I wanted to take a picture with him but;;;;

I didn’t do any signatures though, they probably would have been in legal trouble for that. But yeah, apparently I can pull of Eminem. They had to pull me away from the crowd and people were begging for “One more picture! One more!” and people were moaning as they took me away. It was so funny. It was very hard to not be smiling during the event. You  know you look at all of Eminem’s pictures, he doesn’t smile. So I tried to play the part. It was hard because it was a good time, it was really funny and generally I just smile a lot. But I felt like a celebrity for one day, it was pretty insane. All the attention and pictures.

Universal is supposed to be sending me some pictures they took during the event. They took several. I will post them when they come in. Here’s one I found on the internet, it’s not very good I think it was right before the event actually started. Here is a girl holding a poster of the album cover. The album is titled RELAPSE.

Click to enlarge photos.

Sunday I woke up at 6:30 am to get ready to head to the locker room to meet the football team. We were headed out to play a very important game. This game would be the first of the tournament and our first opponent would be our toughest. They won the tournament last year, and both years before that. Yonsei hasn’t won this tournament in 10 years. We had been practicing a lot, and training hard. Many of us had gave up drinking for a while just to have that extra edge of health.

It had been raining for two days up till Sunday. The dirt field had become a few inches deep of mud. After the first quarter of the game you couldn’t make out the numbers on the players uniforms. The game was hard fought. It was the fourth quarter and neither team had scored yet. The other team seemed to be tired. We powered a drive down the field and were able to run in a touchdown. There wasn’t a whole lot of time left on the clock when we kicked off. When we got possession of the ball back there was just over a minute left on the clock, we took our knees and ran the clock out and won the game.

We had a big celebration after the game. We ate dinner, drank a lot, went to a bar, drank some more, then went to another bar and drank some more. It was a very important victory for the team.

Our next game will be this coming Sunday, with a final game the Sunday following granted we win this one. Pictures were taken at the game, when I get them I will be sure to post.

Tuesday was Children’s Day in Korea. The schools were closed so we had no classes. Monday night my friend Mike and I discussed what we wanted to do for Tuesday, we didn’t want to stay in Shinchon (the area where we live in Seoul). We decided since the weather was going to be nice that we’d head into Incheon and go to the beach. But for Monday night we decided we’d make a visit to Doctor Fish. Doctor Fish is a cafe where you go and soak your feet in water that has fish in it that eat at your feet. Supposed to be good for your feet. Mike and I headed out there and met up with Samuel and we went together.

It was ok, but I felt like I had more dead skin left on my feet when I got out of the water than when I went in. I think just from being in the water for quite a while. It feels so strange. It definitely tickles, and at first you want to pull your feet out immediately because it’s unbearable, but you just leave them in there and get used to the light pinchy feeling allover your feet.

Tuesday morning Mike and I met up and we headed out to Incheon. It took only 45 minutes on the subway, then we had to take a bus to go out to the island where the airport is and beaches. The bus ride seemed like a long time, it must have taken another 45 minutes. We noticed when we passed the airport that the bus went by the Hyatt Regency hotel and in the hotel was a casino. This would come into play later.

We got to the beach, but as we approached the beach on the bus it appeared very foggy out. When the bus stopped at the beach we got out and immediately felt the cold chill of the temperature. The beach was all foggy and cold. Everyone out at the beach was in jeans and hooded sweatshirts or jackets. The two of us are in flip flops, shorts and t-shirts. As if we didn’t look like foreigners already…

So the beach was too cold, we found a restaurant and had some seafood which was good. We noticed the convenience stores sold fireworks, so we each bought a firework, just because. We then decided since the beach was so cold we would go at least check out the casino. We got back on the bus and headed back toward the airport. As we were coming up to the hotel I told Mike that I had seen the hotel online and saw that they had an indoor swimming pool, so I said maybe we could go sneak in and go swimming.

We went inside and went up stairs to check out the swimming pool. It was fairly crowded but we found out it was open till 10, so we decided we’d go to the casino first then go swimming. We went into the casino and went to the blackjack table. We gambled for probably an hour and a half or two. I was down about $55 and Mike was up about $60 or so. We decided to take a break and go for a swim.

We went up to the swimming pool and noticed the entrance was through a fitness health club in the hotel. The club had a workout center, sauna rooms and sauna pools and then the main swimming pool. The club was for members or hotel guests only. Mike asked how much it was and they said “Oh it’s free for guests, are you a guest?” and Mike wisely replied “Yes.” The man then handed Mike a sheet of paper and said “We just need your room number and signature.” so Mike signed the paper, made up a room number and we got our locker keys. We went in changed and then worked out on the weights for about 30 minutes. We then went to the jacuzzi, soaked for a few and then swam some laps in the pool. After that we went back the locker room went to the sauna room and went in the sauna bath, then in the sauna rooms. We showered, used all the fancy amenities then headed out.

We thought we’d get some food first before going back into the casino. The restaurant in the hotel was doing a special that day for Children’s Day. They were having a buffet for $16 a person. The lady who seated us asked Mike if we had vouchers, I think vouchers were given to guests to use at the buffet. Mike said we didn’t have any vouchers. We were seated and later the waiter came to ask if we’d like any wine to drink. I asked him how much the wine was and he said $10, I then asked how much the buffet was and he said “Oh it’s free with your vouchers.” Because he said that, I decided I wouldn’t order any wine. Mike and I helped ourselves at the buffet. They had roast duck, pork, BBQ ribs and all kinds of great stuff. They had a desert buffet with several different kinds of cakes, fruit, gelato, pudding and everything. It was one of the nicest buffet’s I’ve ever had. We filled up, then went into the kids section where we wanted to get our faces painted. Mike wanted to get the ace of spades playing card on one cheek and ‘BLACK’ on the other cheek. I would then get the Jack of spades on my cheek and ‘JACK’ on the other cheek. We asked the lady to paint that on our face but she didn’t know how to or didn’t understand. She told us we could paint eachother’s faces so we did. Mike was definitely better at it than I was and it was his loss, but it looked alright.

They then gave us icecream cones and cotton candy. And the whole thing was free with the vouchers we didn’t have!

In high spirits and feeling lucky we went back into the casino with painted faces and sat down at the blackjack table. We must have been there for a few hours. I had won all my money back and Mike was up a total of about $200 for the day. We decided it was a good time to leave, it was 11:30 and we had class the next day.

I went to the concierge at the hotel and asked what was the best way to get to Seoul at this time and he laughed and said “there’s no transportation going there now.” I asked about the subway, bus, airport shuttle, anything and he said the only way was taxi, which would cost about $100. I asked how much a room was at the hotel and he said “$250 is the cheapest room”. I couldn’t believe it… we had been enjoying this hotel all day and in the end we might actually have to pay for a room. We thought for a while, we hunted around the hotel looking for a place to sleep and thought about all our options. We did find a big couch on the second floor we figured could be a serious option. I suggested we go to the airport and hitch hike a ride back to Seoul. Some people had to be going from the airport to Seoul. We decided we’d do that, we walked over to the airport and we were lucky to find that a bus headed for Seoul had not left yet and we were able to get on for $14 a person. We fell a sleep a bit on the bus ride back, got to Seoul, took a cab to our dorm. We got to the dorm and lit off a firework in celebration of a successful day. We had for a little bit really thought we would be stranded in Incheon till morning. But we got back.

Our day didn’t turnout like we imagined, relaxing on a sunny beach, drinking beer, reading and listening to music. Instead the beach failed and when we were discouraged we turned the day around and turned it into a good story. Not only did we get to enjoy the hotel hospitality for free, we got more money out of them from the casino and came home with more money than we had left with.

April 30th was my 26th birthday… mid twenties right? Not late twenties. In Korea my age is 27. My age was actually 27 even before my birthday. In Korea you are born at age 1, then you go up a year after the Chinese New Year.

My birthday was celebrated quite thoroughly. Wednesday night we had football practice and we went out to dinner as a team. The coach called me over to his table and there we chatted and drank several shots of soju (customary thing, It would be rather awkward to say ‘no’ maybe even offensive). The coach talked to me about how he feels the team is important to me as an exchange student because I’m part of something in Korea, and I’ve made lots of friends on the team. He told me to mak sure I stay connected with the friends I’ve made on the team and also to stay connected with the team. He encouraged me to come back and visit the team in the future, even if the team is all new students he said I should come visit them as I am always part of the team.

After drinking several shots of soju a group of the team wanted to go to a bar and continue drinking. At this time it was about 11:30 and one of my friends told the guys it was my birthday in 30 minutes. When they heard this, suddenly partying was a must. We went to a bar and one of the teammates came back with an ice cream cake. I got to pick the beer that I wanted and we all ate cake and drank beer. Then they started making me do things, like drinking beers in one shot. Then my good pal Mike turned on me and did something horrible. He took a little pitcher and poured a whole beer in it, then he took a soju bottle and poured 3/4 of the bottle of soju in the pitcher. Then I had to drink it all in one shot. The whole team does the team call which is sort of a chant while I drink the entire thing. It was fun spending the evening with my Korean friends and teammates as they were happy to celebrate my birthday. I was very appreciative. My night soon ended shortly after that and I missed my classes the next day.

Since it was somewhat of a surprise birthday party I didn’t have my camera. Only my cell phone. You can see a couple guys in the photo. The main guy there in white is Yongsan. He’s pretty hilarious. Good guy.

Thursday evening the day of my birthday a group of friends and I all went out for mexican food. We then stopped by a bar to pick up another friend and when I walked in several people from the international dorm house were there and began singing happy birthday when I walked in. They had a cake there with candles. We had a little celebration there and then headed to the movie theater to go see Wolverine.

The following day (Friday) it was my friend David’s birthday. He wanted to do a double party so he sended out a Facebook invite to all of the international students. We were all at our common bar in the area. This time I didn’t drink at all. I was working on being healthy for the football game coming up on Sunday.

Sunday we had our first football game. We were playing Korea University. Korea University is the rival school of Yonsei University. This game was just an exhibition, it doesn’t count toward the national tournament we are playing in beginning the 17th. For this game we hadn’t done a whole lot of good position practice, mostly conditioning, so we relied heavily on our veteran players. I was placed as a starter on special teams on the kickoff team. We won the coin toss and kicked off first, so I played in the first play of the game. We later scored and had another kickoff where I went out again, this time I played the killer position on the right side. As killer your job is to tackle the guy with the ball (as if it isn’t anyone elses job). Unfortunately the kick went to the left and the returner took it up the left side.

Our next game I hope to play more. Right now I’m currently second string on free safety and corner back. So if our free safety or corner back player’s get tired or injured I go in for them. They wanted to put me second string on wide receiver for this game also, but I said I hadn’t practiced enough with the offensive team to know all the plays. We have two weeks to prepare for our next game. I hope to get time playing more corner back and wide receiver positions to be ready and hopefully get a starting position at one of those places.

Since the game was just a scrimmage/exhibition we didn’t use a real football field. We didn’t have goal posts, so there was no field goal game. The game ended in a tie 6 to 6. A tie since it wasn’t a real game, they didn’t want to do a sudden victory.

I will soon have more photos from the game, including team photos. But this is all I got so far.

That’s me #63. Jersey’s were given out at random. Numbers don’t matter to positions in Korea. It seems strange playing a defensive back with a number like that. But… doesn’t matter here.

#56 is Jeremy, #63 is me, #83 is Mike, #42 is Eddie

The Yonsei Eagles are in blue. Korea University is in Red.