The Weekend!

On Friday we had a lot of rain so we weren’t up for travelling anywhere. Roberta and I still managed to venture out and we are glad we did! The night began at the “WaBar” where we met Camille, Bridgette, Will, our Korean director and his friend from Seoul. From there we went for BBQ... which tastes even more delicious after too many drinks. Finally, we capped the night off by meeting Aaron (another foreigner) and going to “Norebong.”
“Norebong” is sooo much fun. It is a Karaoke type of place... only you rent a small private room for all of your friends. Inside there are couches, a table, and four tv’s that play Silly Korean music videos to hundreds of your favourite songs. There are two mics and two tambourines and everyone yells/sings terribly but you think you are an all star. Once you finish the song, the computer gives you a score out of 100. It was fun and truly “Korean”--- as this culture is obsessed with singing. Every time I turn on my T.V. someone (does not matter the age-- elderly to teeny boppers) is trying to belt out some tunes and there are ridiculous dancers in the background that head bop around and the best way to describe it is “jive” their hands.

Then on Saturday... I pretty much wasted a day doing a whole lot of nothing. But in the evening, Roberta and I had planned to meet Will and Ivan (another Canadian teacher at Brighton who rarely comes out) to go to Incheon for a soccer match. We all trudged along to the bus depot in Ansan but the bus had just left and the next one wouldn’t leave for another 40 minutes. (The game was supposed to start at 7 and by the time we made it to Incheon then rode the subway to the stadium we thought we would be cutting it close). So we decided to share a cab between the four of us. The almost hour ride cost only about $35.00. We got out at the stadium... and it was a GHOST town. Maybe the bus was a bad omen? For some reason the game was not going on that night... even though it had been posted on a website and a Korean teacher confirmed it! No matter, we are all flexible people and there was a baseball game going on right beside the soccer stadium so we went to watch the last half of the game.
It was super interesting. They had cheerleaders and everyone had the blow up noise maker “sticks.” The cheerleaders would make the crowd stand up and do a silly “hand jive” dance. Then at one point the crowd all pulled out sparklers (I do not know where they all got them). And lit them and sang a song! The baseball itself, was not bad, but not great either. Incheon won so the crowd was happy. One of the players went down (he got hit by the ball) and then was “piggy backed” off the field! No where could you buy a hot dog, peanuts, or popcorn... but you could by fried chicken, beer, and of course noodles! Then after the ninth inning the lights started to go off and we were confused as to what was going on. A player was being interviewed.... and it appeared the game was over.... the field was being cleaned... but no one was leaving! Will had just bought some noodles so we hung out too and waited for him to finish... then all of a sudden... bang bang... right over the outfield fireworks were being shot off. It actually was a great display and I don’t think I have ever seen fireworks so close. Thank goodness for Will’s noodles or we may have missed them!
After the cab ride back... we said good-bye to Ivan and Will, Roberta, and I went to a foreign guy’s apartment for a party. At the party, there ended up being at least 25 people... so it was a good night we met a lot of people and I realized that for the most part... the foreign teachers here have been around for on average about a month so there are a lot of newbies! I guess I just imagined everyone had been here awhile but I guess a year isn’t a long time so there are a lot of turnovers!

I think that is it for now... I’ll write another “Korea Korea” section in a couple of days!
Love/Miss you
Meira