Living For The Weekend

Oh yes that was a great couple of days! Friday was a fun Hongdae night that ended up with a bit of wee hours noraebang action, with Thomas hilariously just stopping any song he didn't like the sound of. A few hours later and it was off to Children's Grand Park to enjoy the beautiful spring weather and be hit in the face by about a dozen out-of-control balloons that people seemed intent on terrorising me with. A bit of an unpredictable turn of events led to us getting the KTX to Daegu for the night, before heading over to Sangju by bus in the morning.

Sangju was exactly what I had hoped it would be: really small, really friendly, a totally different vibe from any other Korean city I've been to. People were really keen to stop us on the street and, somewhat bizarrely, thank us for coming to Sangju. A bunch of teenagers were also convinced that I was FC Seoul's very own Dejan, and I was in no rush to set them straight. Fame, by any means, please.

We had a bit of time before the match so we went to the stadium to get our tickets just as the FC Seoul team bus was arriving. I, predictably, got pretty excited and was absolutely over the moon when Adi recognised me and came over to shake my hand! Great stuff. In the hour or so before kick-off we strolled around witnessing the cities idiosyncrasies, including a huge band-stand full of dancing, singing, God-fearing worshippers giving it all they had. Pretty random, but I guess there isn't much to do in those parts! With the surrounding countryside, the clear water of the river running through it, and the relative calm and slow pace of life, Sangju struck me as a pretty nice place to grow up.

The match was simply brilliant - for the neutral! Three times FC Seoul led, and three times a very technical and incisive Sangju side pinned us back. Dejan has rediscovered his scoring touch and claimed a hat-trick, even though his third was more-or-less an own-goal that he can't have got more than a toe-nail to. Still, Choi Young Soo is showing signs of some top-class managerial judgement, and when substitute Hyun Young Min curled home a right-footed free-kick with only minutes to go to put us 4-3 ahead, he went absolutely berserk with the players on the touchline. That's the kind of passion fans love to see, and long may it continue. Winning 4-3 away to Sangju we are now back within touching distance of the top six in the league, inflicting the army side's first defeat of the season in impressive style. We are still very porous at the back, and certainly lack the composure we'll need to close matches out against more physical sides, but things have definitely taken a giant leap in the right direction.

My aims for this week: steady progress on the dissertation; keeping on top of things at work; getting enough sleep, food, exercise; and readying myself for another big weekend. On Friday night we're heading out to Bucheon to play what could be our last ever show at The Park. On Saturday night we have a similar situation with a show at Club FF with Sticky Fingers. If I'm still standing, we'll be heading to Seoul World Cup Stadium on Sunday for the visit of Gyeongnam, who have shown some form so far this season. Lots going on. Just realised my last weekend in Korea coincides with Jisan Valley Rock Festival at the end of July. After that I'll be flying to Barcelona for a family holiday in August, before heading out to China to start my new job later in the month. The dissertation is due at the end of all that somewhere. Somehow, everything always ends up getting done.

Congratulations to a few of my friends who have received numerous pieces of good news over the past week or so. It seemed for a while there that everyone was just breaking up with girlfriends/boyfriends, so it's nice that things have become a bit more positive for my extended family and group of friends. I hope the week is going really well so far!