Exhausted!

What a long, long Sunday!

Saturday night Nate and I, along with Joseph, planned on going to see the new James Bond movie. I had 'DYB song' rehearsal in Gunja earlier in the day and returned to Junggye around six in the evening at which point we called Joseph to see if he was ready to go. Apparently he had just laid down for a nap after a long day of cheering on DYB high school students at a big test in Gimp. He agreed to go in two hours and we managed to whittle away the time on Nate's relatively newly aqcuired sofa.

Two and a half hours later, after watching another Bond movie on tv, Die Another Day, we again phoned Joseph to see if he was ready. Apparently I again woke him at this point but he agreed to go in half-n-hour. A little after 10pm we had met up and were on our way to Lotte Cinema, yes, that Lotte, in Nowon.

Up on the tenth floor of the Lotte Department store, Joseph 'took a number' and waited for his turn to purchase tickets. We got three tickets (7,000won a piece) for the 11:15pm showing. Lucky for us as there were only 18 seats left that I'm sure were picked up soon after we grabbed ours. The reason I know this is that seats, for popular movies, are assigned. . .and we got three in the font row. Apparently Bond is incredibly popular in Korea, especially late on a Saturday night.

While watching a movie from the front row in Korea is just as awkward as watching a movie from the front row in America, there was one added bonus. In front our seats were small rocking ottomans to help front row viewers pretend like they are comfortable when they are in fact far from being so!

Opening with a roaring car chase, Quantum Solace was certainly action packed, though rather un-Bondish in the lack of gadgets, gizmos and globe threatening bad guys. While I enjoyed watching, my accompaniments decided that it wasn't nearly as good as the last, and Daniel Craig's first, Bond movie. Oh well, guess I missed that one!

After the movie we swung by a well known Nowon hangout No Block where we unintentionally met up with Bryne who had just returned from a hot date and was trying his luck on a young Korean woman who claimed to be Japanese. . . interesting. Eating my fill of snack mix, as No Block's is the best in all of Korea, I figured it was approaching bed time seeing as how I had a Sunday field trip in front of me with the Spitfires.

This week's match was not only against Daejeon but unfortunately, in Daejeon. This small (population 1.4 million people) city is located even further south than Cheongju making it my most distant travel within the country of Korea to date.

I pulled myself out of bed at 9:30am and whacked my head on the ceiling for the second day in a row. Having recently moved upstairs into my loft following the acquisition of a new couch, (more to come on the 'new' room hopefully by midweek) I'm still not quite used to crouching while getting out of bed! As for the stairs down. . .while, I take those very, very slowly for the meantime!

After loading up my soccer gear and a couple of old magazines I shot across the street to grab a gimbap to go for breakfast. Huddled over myself trying to stay warm while waiting for the bus, I saw a familiar face coming towards me: Julia! Apparently she was 'at work' and just ran out to get breakfast. While I have no idea why a teacher would be at work on a Sunday morning I didn't press the issue, noticing an approaching bus. Still part asleep and impatient to get out of the cold, I said good bye to Julia and hopped on.

The bus was surprisingly empty and I was able for once to actually grab one of the dozen or so seats. I quickly learned why. Pulling up to the first stoplight, which I am accustomed to turning right at, the bus moved over into the left hand turn lane! Doh! I got off at the next stop only to realize that I had boarded the 1142 and not the 1224. I mean. . .the numbers are really similar. . .oops!

On top of that, once off the bus, I realized I had forgotten to swipe my T-Money card on the way out meaning that I wouldn't get free entrance to the subway but would have to pay another 900 won (which at this point is worth about a dozen nickels or less). Oh well! I decided that it was simply to early to be muddling with buses and grabbed myself a 2,000 won taxi to Hagye. As Homer Simpson puts it, "public transportation is for losers" anyways!

I did eventually make it on to Line 7 and down to the Express Bus Terminal, where, armed with detailed directions, I was able to quickly find the gates for Daejeon. . .where no one was waiting! Realizing that one must buy a ticket before actually getting on the bus, I figured the ticket booth would be my next best shot. This turned out to be an intelligent thought.

By 11:25am, the scheduled meeting time, we had manged to round up a decent squad of 12; hey, one sub is better than no subs! Nikki purchased all our tickets for us and we paid him back a dollar over to chip in for the younger guys' tickets, whatever that means, though I think it might be a kind phrase for unemployed as I'm pretty sure I'm one of the youngest on the team!

A good two hour nap later we arrived in Daejeon where I remembered to scarf down the extra gimbap I had bought at the bus terminal. This is something I will certainly not do again as it tasted substantially worse, was much smaller, and cost more than the one I ate earlier from my local Gimbapchongook.

Nikki directed us in to taxis headed towards the pitch at Pai Chai University. David, from Grand Rapids, and I hopped in with the twins. Thus, I was treated to a healthy mix of German, English and Korean on the way to the field, 15 minutes or so away.

The taxi driver didn't exactly know where the field was but figured that the big brown rectangle on his navigation system had to be something. So, despite turning down a dead end, he ushered us out and in the direction that, he believed, the field was in. . .and what a field it was.

Yep, you guess it, dirt again! Not only was it dirt but it was much finer than my first dirt field experience. Consequently, taking a whack at the ball felt like playing beach soccer to a small degree. Furthermore, the field was huge! By far the largest field I've played on since highschool, if I ever played on a field this large in high school! It really gives you a better idea of just how great of shape professional players are in to keep running up and down this vast barren stretch of land!

While warming up we learned that the other team had cancelled the referee, unaware that we would have a full squad to play with. Apparently this was the result of Niki's brilliant scheme to tell the other team that we didn't have enough players to encourage them to go out drinking the night before, only to let them know a few hours before the game that we would be able to compete. Interesting, but talk about your all time backfires! Their team manager ended up playing ref and I'm pretty sure the whistle blew no more than a half dozen times despite quite a number of testy offsides and bloodied bodies!

As Niki barked out the starting line up, Martin seemed disappointed to not be starting, which, to be honest, is no big deal having only one sub your guaranteed to play at least 75 minutes or so anyways! However, as everyone turned around to warm up, someone noticed Martin trodding away from the field with his bag slung over his shoulder. Not sure whether or not he would return we all continued to warm up. He didn't! While this might be looked at as good in the sense of losing a weak link, as I said, one sub is better than no subs! Especially on a regulation sized pitch against the number one team in the league!

Starting at center attacking midfield (don't ask me how I have adopted this role as I'm sure Archer would flip seeing it) I really tried to conserve energy, only making offensive runs when they wielded attacking possibilities and primarily sticking to marking their two center midfielders, both of whom were incredible ball players! With our solid defense, and Niki in goal (our keeper, back up, and double-back up Amar all were out) we managed to keep Daejeon scoreless for the first 35 minutes or so.

Unfortunately, in a contestable battle inside the box, a Daejeon player was able to out muscle Niki in the air to tap home the first goal with his head. While a good number of our players spent a good amount of time complaining about the goal to the referee, who again is a member of the other team (oh, and on a side note, looks like a cross between an Australian explorer, California surf bum and Swedish adult film star) would have nothing to hear of it. Personally, I didn't think it mattered as Daejeon had subs a plenty while we were already struggling to stay upright!

An hour or so later the game was called and we Spitfires retired to the bench, disappointed, but not heart broken after a 3-0 loss. While it was a bummer to let one go after a six game winning streak, losing by three with no goalie, subs or energy is not really a bad loss. . .especially to the league's best team that beat us by two last time, on our own pitch, with a full squad and keeper!

We took off from the field together much less down hearted than after any other loss! At the first corner, six of the guys grabbed cabs towards the highspeed KTX train while I stayed with the twins and 'younger guys' to go back to the bus station. As the five of us couldn't fit into one taxi, I hoped in the first one with Jun Ho as his brother, Jun Suk, stayed behind with Sang Ho and and Hee Myung.

The cab ride gave Jun Ho and I some good bonding time in which I was faced with a number of inevitably unanswerable questions. How are you enjoying Korea? In lieu of "Well, I'm not really but to be honest the food is cheap and I don't mind not paying taxes," I settled with, "I'm getting more used to it, it's not Mexico but, hey, it'll do." This was followed by, a question about what I do, which was easy enough to answer, yet not with out sounding like a cog in some larger Konglish machine (which I certainly am). The tricky one, as it always gets me, is when I'm asked why it is that I came to Korea. While I'd love to answer, "Because I didn't do enough research on teaching abroad," I usually resort to one of the wholly unfulfilling answers that I used to convince myself to come in the first place. . .primarily, "It pays better than most other places." Then I'll follow that with a couple lines about traveling and being on the other side of the world which, is a joke, as I am allotted only ten days of 'vacation' and most likely will not have a great opportunity to 'travel' outside of Seoul's extended subway system.

We did eventually get around to taking about what it is that I want to do later as I did managed to confess that I do not plan on sticking around for any more than a year at the longest. This too is a tricky question, not in that I need to manufacture it but because I simply do not know! I suggested going back to school though I admited I did not know for what. I admitted music therapy sounds interesting but only if I could corner some boutique market in which I could sell my services to undeserving socialites in Manhattan for way more than I desereved.

I then mentioned politics yet asserted that I did not necessarily desire to be a politician. Which brought me to talking about policy research/formation and the possibility of lobbying at which point my rambling was met with a very awkward and confused look. I again repeated the term 'lobby' and its various forms until I got a reaction, which was anything but positive, or so it seemed. I aksed Jun Ho if he knew what I meant and he slowly responded, yes. I still couldn't figure out why he was acting so weird until he seemed to release all the tension in his face and sit back. "You know, I am a lobbyist," he said. Ha! So that was it. . .but wait, why such disdain at first? I asked him how he liked the job and he said he loved it! So, that's not what caused the awkwardness. . .hmmm, keep digging!

I told him that I have a super-cool-kick-butt lobbyist in the family and he asked about what she did. . .so, I informed him that she simply doles out favors to guarantee legislators' votes. . .at least, that what I would have said if I was younger, untactful, and hadn't been bashed by my own mother in the Detroit Free Press (love you mommy!) for saying exactly that. I asked him about what he does and apparently he works for some EU Chamber of Commerce, representing European business interests in Korea. Whoa. . .heavy stuff! We talked about it for a while and he seemed to get more and more excited about telling someone, who was interested, what exactly he does!

He assured me though that the term 'lobbyist' in Korean is not always viewed favorably. I reassured him that he needn't worry as I don't think it's viewed with the same reverence as 'doctor' anywhere in the world, especially not in America. Jun Ho told me that it's a little bit worse in Korea as the actual word for lobbyist, and the profession itself, is very closely associated with corruption. After talking for a bit longer he made me promise not tell anyone else what it is that he does, and especially not to mention the L word. . .this I can handle. . .at least I got my answer to why such a strange initial reaction. He was clearly trying to evaluate whether a) I was trying to get at something that I shouldn't know about and b) whether I was trustworthy enough to know exactly what he does. Looks like I passed!

Anyways, we ended up meeting the full squad back at the bus station as the KTX had sold out of all trains from Daejeon to Seoul. . .much to the dismay of many! We were able to get tickets on the deluxe bus (for a whoping 13,000) however which settled a few people's worries. I again went to sleep immediately as I have developed a passion for sleeping on any moving vehicle that is not an airplane. I was awoken two hours later to a good deal of grumbling as the bus pulled to a stop. Apparently we were only half way to Seoul due to traffic and had pulled over for a pit stop. . .which I readily took advantage of! Back on the bus I was unable to return to my stupor state and instead watched the never ended skyline of large block buildings, hideous high rise apartments and neon lights go flashing by as the bus rolled slowly towards Seoul.

We arrived at around 9:30pm, over three and a half hours after leaving Daejeon! While most of the guys were about ready to kill someone (or be killed by their waiting wives) I still had a half hour subway ride to go. . .which brings me here, back to Junggye, where I ate dinner at the same Gimbapchongook I had breakfast at a good 12 hours before.

That was quite a day, and now, I am going to sleep!