What a difference a day makes..

...ok a few days. Still. What a difference. Went to the hospital yesterday expecting to have more fluid drained (NOT a pleasurable sensation) and facing up to being told that I'd need surgery. As it turned out, he reckons it's healing (although I need to rest it more) and gave me a new brace with a little more room for movement (setting me back another W230,000...). No huge needles were stuck into my knee. Always a bonus. Next appointment is August 30th by which time I should be able to flex my knee up to 90 degrees (I just noticed there's no 'degrees' symbol on my keyboard...) and been strengthening my quad again gradually. He was showing me some exercises and I was pretty horrified to realise that I can't raise my leg in the air when I'm laying down anymore. Whatever little muscle I had has just shriveled up. Lovely thought.

After the hospital Ji and I headed to Dobong Station which is actually where I lived in my first year in Korea (from December 2006-December 2007). In a place like Seoul, it's amazing how much an area can change in less than three years. In Cooley (where I grew up) I can see a few new houses or different road signs and so on each time I go back. In Dobong, however, the entire feel of the place has changed. There are coffee shops, nicer-looking restaurants, everything looks cleaner and more modern. I guess it would have been a more comfortable place to live like that but I'm glad my first year in a totally different culture was slightly difficult. I wouldn't change it.

I'm looking forward to a nice weekend of hanging out with friends and having a few beers. We got great news this week when Ji got five free tickets for the K-League All-Star match against FC Barcelona next week. We had already bought tickets but she can cancel them for a small fee and our new seats are MUCH better. It's fairly common in Korea to receive little freebies through someone you know and I'm always grateful when it happens. I've had a fair few in my time here. It never seemed to happen in Ireland/England. Not to me anyhow. So that's a few quid saved and probably the best seats I've ever had at Sangam World Cup Stadium. Let's hope Barcelona bring a few decent players and that Dejan gets the nod for the K-League team.

He was on form again last Wednesday night in the 4-2 win (aet) against Suwon in the semi-final of the Posco Cup. It wasn't always a great performance but Dejan took his goals really well and was unlucky not to bag his hat-trick when his beautiful curling shot with the outside of his boot just hit the post. The game was tilted in Seoul's favour by two substitutes; Lee Seung Ryul and new-signing Server Djeparov. Lee scored two instinctive goals and looks to be the next young star that will move on to bigger and better things, following in the footsteps of Park Ju Young, Ki Seung Young and Lee Chung Young. Djeparov, making his debut, looked bright and inventive even though he didn't contribute anything concrete on this occasion. He is captain of Uzbekistan and was AFC Player of the Year in 2008. He's only on loan from Budonkyor but, if he can build on this performance, could be a key player in our push for the championship. On Saturday we have a top-of-the-table clash with leaders Jeju United, who will be keen to get revenge for their 5-1 drubbing in the Posco Cup last June. I'll be there so you'll hear about it early next week. You can watch highlights of the cup win over Suwon here.

I think I may have got on the bad side of my boss yesterday because I missed a program development meeting when I was at the hospital. Unfortunately, there was no way around it and I made sure to get copies of anything I missed, etc. I think that, in Korea, there's a big culture of doing things simply because they are expected of you, not because they actually need to be done. In general I'm hard-working and well-prepared so I'll be back in the good books soon enough I'm sure. I only have one class each morning these days so I have plenty of time to prepare for the next semester, which will be more of a challenge than the first half of the year, I'd imagine. I'm quite looking forward to it.

My advice to you this weekend is to go out, meet up with good friends and to talk and laugh as much as you can. I'm sure it sounds blindingly obvious but the benefits of just relaxing and spending quality time with good people shouldn't be under-estimated. Have a good one everyone!