Time Flies

Wow I really hadn't realised it had been so long since I last blogged. Since the trips to Busan and Gangneung, what have I been up to? Let's see... not doing enough work on my dissertation... teaching an intensive summer course for a couple of weeks... plenty of FC Seoul matches... band practice and a couple of gigs... my kids' classes... 'other' classes... went to see Super8... river city... COEX for Jonathan's birthday... my first football riot... listening to Matt's K-League podcast... finally saw The King's Speech... got round to seeing The Fighter... broke AND fixed my camera... got shouted at by my lovely boss over something ridiculous in front of my co-workers... watched the British Grand Prix... started trying to get rid of my stuff and ready for China... had a birthday... aaaaaaand... lots of being rained upon. Well that's pretty much all I can think of right now! Isn't it all fascinating? This post is just to get me back into the habit. I'll fill in the blanks tomorrow - especially on the gigging and FC Seoul fronts! Hope you're well, don't be a stranger!

Oh! Final gig in Korea is this Saturday night. You can find the details here. Peace out!

Every Day Should Be A Holiday

Since I last posted, I have been taking advantage of a bit of a lull in our summer teaching schedule by taking trips to Busan (midweek) and Gangneung (weekend) to take in FC Seoul's victories over Busan Kyotong and Gangwon FC. The midweek trip was probably a bit nuts because I was teaching on Tuesday and Thursday so didn't really have a lot of time to take in what was only a FA Cup last-16 encounter with a little-known team from the N-League. Still, I'm really glad I decided to head down, even if I was a teeny tiny bit late for my first kids' class on Thursday... Bad Brian!

I stayed in a pretty nice motel in Chinatown, right near the KTX station, knowing that I'd need to be up and out pretty promptly the next morning. It was only a few subway stops away

from Jagalchi fish market, so I decided to go for a nosey. The place is immense and it's great being able to see the process of catch, sort, sell and eat all within a feet of each other! I felt a bit funny about doing the old point-to-my-dinner routine, but I forced myself and was pretty happy with the result!

Busan Sport's Complex was only a few more stations along the same line, and I was sure to get there in plenty of time to catch the build-up. I wound up talking to a guy who works for the PR Department of the club, and I had a great chat with him about the team. He's really keen to get more foreigners coming along because he thinks that if we're popular with foreigners, the general public at large will follow. I'm not quite sure where he's got that from, but I enjoyed telling him some of the things we find different from football back home, and I think he got what I was saying. I'm really happy to have a good contact at the club who I can get team news from because, as I was telling him, a lot of the time you're pretty much in the dark unless you understand Korean well.

The match was a big disappointment. We started with a strong team, but Busan were lively, and we just couldn't get it together. They were denied what turned out to be a stone-wall penalty and, later in the first half, Djeparov curled home a great free-kick, which turned out to be the winner. The problem was that it should never have been a free in the first place. I was hoping that we would go on to maul them in the second half but, if anything, we were lucky not to concede. The players were pretty disgruntled after the match and didn't appear to have as much time for the fans as usual. When you consider the trek those 40-50 fans made, that's pretty unacceptable.

On Saturday, I headed east to Gangneung. We got in kind of late on Friday night (express bus from Express Bus Terminal took around 3 hours and cost W20,000), and took a taxi to Gyeongpodae beach, where we shacked up at a motel right on the beach for W40,000. Next day we had a bit of quality beach time, rented bikes to cycle round Gyeongpodea Lake, and got a taxi to Gangneung Sport's Complex in plenty of time for the 'big match'. There was a much bigger turn out of Seoul fans (maybe 300?), and Gangwon had a decent crowd as well. Seoul started with what I consider to be their strongest eleven with Kim Yong Dae - Lee Gyo Ro - Park Yong Ho - Adi - Hyun Young Min - Ko Yo Han - Ko Myung Jin - Ha Dae Sung - Djeparov - Molina - Dejan. We started out well (Molina probably should have scored after about 20 seconds) and deservedly went ahead through a wondrous Ha Dae Sung volley following a cleared corner. It really is one of the best goals I've ever seen, certainly live. Somehow we started making Gangwon look like a decent side after that, but Molina finished well on the stroke of half-time to put us 2-0 up, and the second half was a procession. That puts us up to ninth, and a win at home against Incheon this weekend could elevate us into the play-off positions!

Having sampled Gangneung's night-life (Warehouse - token foreign bar full of pissed up waegooks) and watched the sun rise over Gyeongpodea, we took the bus 40 minutes out of town to Unification Park, on Sunday. This place is NOT designed for visitors who don't have their own transport! When we finally got there, it was pretty impressive. There's a huge South Korean decommissioned warship, which was used in World War Two and up to as recently as 1999. You could go on deck and wander around the rooms inside. They also had some military displays, including one of the recent North Korean shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. It's easy to forget how current the threat really is. They also had a simple wooden boat on display that was built and used by 11 North Korean defectors only last year. Last but not least was a captured North Korean submarine. Apparently, 26 North Korean spies tried to infiltrate the country just off the coast from where the park now stands. We were able to walk through, and how they managed to get 26 people in there, I'll never know. It's a well put together (although very one-sided) display, and worth a look if you find yourself on the beautiful east coast of Korea!

I'm going to stick around Seoul this weekend. Saturday will (or should) involve some dissertation writing, FC Seoul V Incheon United, and probably a night out with the boys. The rest of the week will be pretty busy because we are teaching an intensive DDE course, but I much prefer teaching during the day than at night, so you won't hear me complaining for once!

I was catching up with Gary Pot last night and realised it has been a while since I spoke to some of my best old buddy old pals. If that's you, drop me a line! I booked my flight to Barcelona on August 5th and to Dublin on the 10th. I'm hoping to catch a Derry match that weekend and will be in Sligo for Roisin's wedding on Saturday, 13th. I don't fly to Nanjing until the 19th, so fingers crossed I'll get to see most of you. Hope everyone is doing well!

Round Round Get Around

The summer is here! Light teaching schedule (aside from eight crazy days, but that's not now, so I'm not going to think about it), warm weather, events left, right and centre, and something like a puny seven weeks left of my life in Korea. I actually had my medical for my Chinese working visa yesterday and I wasn't nearly as much of a baby about giving blood (or having blood taken!) as I usually am. Perhaps I might even be considered a 'man' by my 29th birthday, although I wouldn't count on it. Anyway, the Chinese authorities are pretty nuts with the old health requirements. I had to be tested for AIDS, syphilis and something else I hadn't even heard of. Fair enough, I guess. However, there's also a questionnaire where I have to own up if I've had such extreme disorders as 'mental confusion' (who hasn't?), 'plague' or 'leprosy'. The doctor then has to sign off that I haven't shown any signs of 'yellow fever', 'cholera' or 'polio'. Ah no lads, you're safe enough on those fronts. I think I need to tell them that I'm going there to teach, not live out the final few weeks of my rapidly diminishing life! Results back on Friday. Fingers crossed I'm all clear and that I can get on with the rest of the laborious visa process.

I'm trying to make the most of my remaining time on the ROK. I wouldn't bet much money on getting another gig on the go. Jeff is out of the country for the rest of the month and that would only give us a few weeks to train up a new drummer and get the show back on the road, only for me to up sticks in early-August anyhow. More likely is that I'll front a couple of shows as a Muse cover with Cheon's Korean band. I'd love the buzz of a show at FF one more time, but with so many other things to fit in before I hit the road, I'm not going to push it or lose much sleep over the issue either way.

This weekend I'm going to go over to Gangneung to enjoy the weather (not TOO hot... yet...), get a bit of beach time in, and (you've guessed it), watch Gangwon FC entertain the not-so-mighty-these-days FC Seoul. We earned a valuable point at home last weekend against high-flying Pohang Steelers, but appear to have lost the head of steam that came with the arrival of caretaker boss, Choi Young Soo. It was a very entertaining match with a HUGE attendance (the sponsors put on some sort of feeble promotion and the families lapped it up), but we have lost the air of invincibility we once had at home. We're still just four-points off the play-off positions, but it's getting pretty congested in there and we need to get a bit of a run together soon. Thank the good-but-non-existent lord for Dejan and Adi, who really do look out of place at times, such is the performance gap between them on their good days, and some of their team-mates on their bad days.

Some have used the word 'obsessive' to describe my relationship with the 'Soul of Seoul - FC Seoul' of late, and I guess I'm not helping my cause by planning to travel the 330km to Busan tomorrow to watch a last-16 FA Cup encounter with Busan Kyotang of the Korean National League. The way I see it is that I only have kids' classes this week (Tuesday and Thursday), that the weather is lovely, that it's something completely different, and that Adi promised to give me his shirt!! I'm going to go down by KTX early in the morning, check out the fish markets, bring a book to the beach for a few hours, take in the match, celebrate a thumping victory (tempting fate there...), love motel it up like the classy gent I am, and catch an early train back for my Thursday kids' class. Hopefully it all goes smoothly and I'll have a nice blog to write up about it all on Friday.

Random snippet from the match last Saturday: my ex-girlfriend's best friend was there totally unexpectedly doing interviews for Reuters about the recent match-fixing scandal in Korean football. Obviously it was nice giving an interview, but it was a really weird feeling too. Personally, you never know what the friends of your ex now think of you, right? Way more importantly, it's an issue that at least one player has chosen to take his own life over, and who knows how big or far-reaching it'll turn out to be? As I said in the interview, it's sad that people around the world may now only associate the K-League with cheating, as opposed to the standard of football and the quality of players that it has exported. For example, Jung Jo Gook and Park Ju Young were both at Sangam last weekend, paying tribute to their former employers and admirers during the Ligue 1 closed-season. As a fan of Korea and Korean football, I hope the authorities deal with the issue thoroughly and professionally and put measures in place to prevent a repeat.

I hope you're getting on well, whoever you are, wherever you are, and in whatever it is that you're doing.

What's Going On?

Well it has been a while since I posted so here goes with a bit of a digest of the last few weeks. Jim has hit the road. His last gig at RMT got the turn-out he deserves (err, it was big, just to clarify...) and we had a Sunday down in Seongnam watching FC Seoul lose 2-0 before meeting Adi in Itaewon later in the night. Not a bad send-off! It might turn out to have been my last gig in Korea too, because finding a suitable drummer or getting the Muse cover band up and running is going to be tough to do before I leave at the start of August. Less than two months left in Korea... I can hardly get my head around that.

I was horribly ill Monday and Tuesday, which set me up nicely for my exam on Wednesday. I was so out of it that I sat the whole thing with my t-shirt inside-out, so I have no idea what kind of result to expect. It was a bit of a strange exam in that it really was about my overall progress with the dissertation. The question was about how my literature review had influenced my research questions, and how my methodology was going to go about addressing the research objectives. In a way, there's no tricking a question like that; either you know what you're talking about, or you don't. I guess I'll find out which category I fall under when the results come. It's nice to have it out of the way. I have to submit my 20,000 word dissertation at the end of August, and that could well spell the end of my formal schooling!

A few of us headed to Muuido last weekend because we had the Monday off for Memorial Day, so it seemed like a good idea to take advantage! Muuido was pleasantly surprising. It was much more beautiful than I had expected, it wasn't too busy, we got a nice simple little pension to sleep in, and it was generally a really good laugh. It was also a hell of a lot more sensible than previous weekends, which I REALLY needed. The tide there goes out by what must be a mile and you can walk right out in the clouds, which come rolling in towards evening. The ferry ride over is really, really short but it's something I always enjoy. Reminds me of childhood holidays in Co. Down way back in the day.

Talking of family holidays, it turns out that Dad can't get the time off work so we won't all be meeting in Barcelona in August, as had been hoped. I think I'm going to go over anyway because Rachel will be there and it's somewhere I've always wanted to visit. My summer schedule at work is pretty light (lots of four-day weekends), so I'm planning loads of trips, including to Jeju-do, which I have somehow never made it to in my time here. Mudfest? Maybe. Jisan? Yes! Looking forward to seeing The Music and The Arctic Monkeys especially. I think it was around this time last year that I popped my knee and saw all my summer plans fly out the window. I'm back playing football again (as badly as ever), so cross your fingers I don't experience a repeat!

My sister, Charlene, has had a bit of an epic time recently. She was out in Bucharest recently doing her first film role and she came back and straight into huge auditions with the National Theatre and The Abbey. Hopefully things are falling into place for her. Thomas and I did drama together as teenagers and we were talking about it a lot on Muuido, about those who chose to pursue it further in life and how they're all doing. You have to take your hat off to them because it's a life of uncertainty for most and a tough, tough job in so many ways. I think I'm glad I'm a teacher, but obviously it'd be nice to have those real rushes in life that performing brings from time to time. Ok, I'm rambling so going to sign of and go prep my kids' classes. Hope you're all doing well.

Lads On Tour

I'm writing this, as I should be finishing up the research methods section of the old dissertation. The power of procrastination has pushed me to clean my bathroom, download this and that on my computer (whoever heard of cloud files? What an idea...), upload photos, start getting stuff sorted for my Chinese 'foreign expert' visa, check flights for my epic Seoul > Barcelona > Ireland > Nanjing August foray, and write up set-lists for the couple of drummers who are interested in jumping into Jimbo's seat when he hits the road at the end of the month. In spite of the fact that I have only a week-and-a-half left until my final exam, there's no sign of the fear. I kind of need it at this stage.

Still, there's always time for a bit of 'lads on tour' action. Tomorrow, a half-dozen of us are heading down to Daejeon for a bit of craic before Jim's last weekend. The last time the six of us went out together... well... I can't really say what happened. It's not that I'm holding back, I just honestly can't really say. My personal rule for this trip is a self-imposed ban on soju (for me: the lads can do whatever they want!), so hopefully that'll keep things under control to some extent at least.

I'm not 100% happy about missing FC Seoul V Daejeon at Seoul World Cup Stadium tomorrow night, but I'll be watching it on the box. Wednesday past was another good night for the boys. Despite fielding an under-strength side, we hammered National League side, Yongin City, 4-0. Caretaker boss Choi Young Soo seems fairly adept at rotating the squad during a very busy May for the club. Dejan came off the bench to fire home a couple, Adi scored a bit of a jammy dodger, and the other was from a debutant, Choi something-or-other. A win against lowly Daegu could put us into the top-six (play-off positions). Surely they'll give Choi Young Soo the nod to carry on - at least until the end of the season... Since taking over from the shambolic Hwangbo Kwan, it has been six matches, five victories, and just the one draw (away from home in the Champion's League, falling victim to a last-minute equaliser). With Derry City defying the odds and pushing Shamrock Rovers at the top of the league, and Man Utd stuttering their way to a record 19th top flight league crown, my football supporter star is on the rise again.

There were a couple of other things I was going to mention but a few of the girls from the office at work just walked in to the coffee shop, so I should probably look busy and get back to my chapter. Have a good weekend!

Calm Down

It's been a bit busy recently with probably going out and doing too much, keeping up with work and my dissertation, but not really enough being sensible at all. We finished another DDE session on Tuesday night so I have a fairly quiet rest of the week - time to get plenty of that dissertation done before the research methods exam on June 1st. Confusingly, it's worth 60% of my final dissertation mark, so I'm sure 'the fear' will kick in soon.

Doing lots of reminiscing recently because Jim, another of my best friends in Korea (as well as our drummer), is leaving at the end of the month. We had our final FF gig together last Saturday, a venue that really means a lot to us (mainly as U R Seoul) over the years. I was there on my very first night out in Korea in December 2006 with Rob - yet another ROK hopper! I remember thinking how much I'd love to rock that stage, and we're really lucky in that we've been fortunate enough to have done so many times over the years. I hope I get another chance, but obviously it'll never be quite the same.

Other blasts from the past these days: great emails from Gallagher and Risky; a wedding invitation from Roisin (August 13th - Ill be there!); coming across loads of cards from Ji I had almost forgotten about; lunch with my old Korean teacher; and a Korean FA Cup match tonight against Yongin reminding me of being there this time last year (or longer?) scraping a win over 'a little town called Mokpo' with Rob. Will be in China before I know it. Better prepare myself!

Off to World Cup Stadium for Seoul V Yongin (FA Cup 3rd round), so this is short n' sweet today. Great win for the boys at the weekend over Gyeongnam (Dejan, Ko Yo Han(2)) putting us up to 7th in the K-League and continuing Choi Young Soo's undefeated reign as caretaker manager so far. Get in!

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!

It's Always Sunny When You Study

Think about it: whenever you cast your mind back to writing essays/getting ready for exams, how's the weather outside? I don't care if you're from Ireland, Canada, Korea, or wherever, I'll bet it was sunny - in your mind at least. I've been trawling through the research methods chapter of my dissertation today and, you've guessed it, the weather is beautiful outside. Children are playing in the river six floors down, people are texting me telling me to come join them for outdoor beers/cinco de mayo/whatever fun they're engaged in, having a life whilst I'm cooped up wrestling with this monster! So here I am, giving myself a bit of a break, thinking back to better times not that long ago.

Only a couple of weeks ago I was on holiday in Singapore and Malaysia with a girl from work called Christine. It was a really good trip especially because it was full of 'firsts'; my first time snorkeling, my first night safari, my first time riding a scooter, first time having my ears candled, first time having a tour of a Mosque, first time visiting a rubber plantation, and my first time being robbed on holiday... I'm not going to bore you with the details of everything we saw/did, but it was a great trip and I would recommend Malaysia to anyone. It's not the cheapest destination in the vicinity, but we met so many nice people, spent time on a beautiful beach which we had pretty much all to ourselves, experienced the beauty of Melaka, and the humdrum of Kuala Lumpur. Singapore was... just ok. I think you have to go just for the experience (and to hear the fusion of English, Malay and Cantonese), but it's a very plastic place with so many tourist traps and gimmicks; none more than the 'night safari' offered at the Singapore Zoo. We had a good time, but we made the right decision in only staying for three days.

A huge part of travelling is who you travel with, and I've certainly had my problems in that respect in the past. Considering the amount of times people have pissed me off on holiday, the safe bet is that it's me who's just bad at travelling with people. Funnily enough, even though I have only been working with Christine since March and we are very different people, we actually bounced off each other really well. She is very similar to me in that she wants to keep active and see plenty without going overboard and turning the trip into... a job! We did have a few drinks pretty much every day that we were away, but it was all pretty civilized - most of the time! I still haven't uploaded my pictures (which are pretty much all of Christine, as hers are pretty much all of me!) but, with this dissertation hanging over my head, I'm sure to use it as a delaying tactic sooner or later.

It looks as though my next holiday will be with the family in Barcelona in August. I had been hoping to get over there anyhow because Kev and Jo are working there at the moment and my sister, Rachel, will be there too; so this is just perfect. It'll be our first family trip together since... I actually can't even remember! Speaking of family, my sister Charlene is now officially a movie star! Ok, not quite, but she has got her first film role since graduating from LAMDA last year. It has taken a bit longer than she would have hoped, but it's a start, and no-one has a better temperament to handle what could be a bumpy road ahead than Charlene. Emma and Rachel are both nearing the end of exam periods at the moment and I am, as always, extremely proud of the lot of them.

Time to get back to the grindstone. I hope you're all having a good day be it enjoying the sunshine in Korea, voting for AV in the UK (don't tell me you can't understand it...), reacquainting yourself with our staple diet of rain in Ireland, or eating Skippy in Oz. You know who you are...

Back On Track - Or Getting There

Just a brief one because it's late and I have a full day of dissertation writing tomorrow that I want to be fresh for. Children's Day will be taking over Korea in the morning, so we have the day off as all the kids in the country will be out somewhere being spoiled rotten. Most teachers here are out tonight and plenty will be around and about enjoying the freedom tomorrow; I've heard wake-boarding, museum hopping, hiking, etc. For my sins, I'll be sat at home trying to write a draft chapter three and getting myself in better shape for my exam on June 1st. I was just thinking earlier of all the little things I have had to give up over the four years I have been chipping away at this MA. Most irritating of all (not just for me) was not being able to have a few beers on an idyllic little island off the coast of Venezuela with Annie a few years ago because I had an essay to write the next day. I guess I should knuckle down over the coming weeks and months to actually ensure that it all ends up counting for something.

I actually had a great day today. The weather has been lovely so I went for a bit of a cycle along the wee nearby river, and the knee has been feeling fine. We had a pretty funny meeting at work that served to remind me how lucky I am to be moving onwards and (hopefully) upwards in August. I faxed through a pile of documents to Nanjing Foreign Language High School earlier, and should be receiving my full, signed contract, from DHL next week. Exciting times! My DDE classes at night have been going well, and I rushed upstairs straight after to watch FC Seoul V Al Ain in the AFC Champion's League.

Time for a little context: caretaker coach, Choi Young Soo, led Seoul to a 2-1 win against last year's runners-up, Jeju United, last Saturday evening. Having gone behind, we showed real strength of character to restore some hope, with Park Yong Ho and Ko Myung Jin scoring two decent goals. It was a nervy enough performance, but a win is a win, and the 37-year-old former assistant manager took some brave decisions. The major downside was that Kim Yong Dae, Korea's No. 2 goalkeeper these days, took a nasty blow to the face and had to be replaced by the untested Yoo Sang Hoon. The youngster looked a bit erratic, but also showed some good reactions to keep us ahead as the match wore on.

Back to tonight, I had a bit of a scare when the UAE station I found streaming online appeared to show the score as 1-0 to the visitors. However, when Dejan headed home smartly on 40 minutes, it changed to 2-0... so I realised they just posted the score in a way I wasn't accustomed to! Although we looked really shoddy at the back, and would have been punished by better sides, we did show a lot of promise going forward. Dejan slotted home a gorgeous through-ball from a returning Lee Gyu Ro on 73, and it was all but over as a contest. Interestingly, Han Il Goo was chosen between the sticks, and looked like a disaster waiting to happen, frankly speaking.

What I like about this manager is that he appears to be taking some brave decisions and is bringing back players who had been somewhat discarded by Hwangbo Kwan. I'm thinking of Park Yong Ho, Ko Myung Jin, Lee Gyu Ro, and, most notably, Lee Seung Ryeol (who was back in the first eleven tonight). I'm heading down to Sangju this weekend to watch the unbeaten army side containing two current FC Seoul players who we look to be really missing this season in Choi Hyo Jin and Kim Chi Woo. I'm looking forward to visiting a new area (I expect it to be a big change from regular Korean cities I've visited) and I'm hopeful that Choi Young Soo can keep his little winning streak going. Let's just hope it isn't just beginner's luck...

A final shout out to The Outside View podcast, because I still listen every week but have neglected to mention for a while. You could also do worse than 'like' the K-League page on facebook, which is regularly informative and helpful. Lot's of procrastinating to do tomorrow, so expect a post!

I'm Still Alive

Sorry about the internet-silence, but I was away on holidays from 15th-25th (blog to come later when I get a chance to upload pics and sit down to think it all through properly) and I have been tied up with other things since I got back. I have barely any teaching hours, but they have a habit of sucking up the rest of the day. That and facebook. I'm starting to kind of resent and despise facebook! What an eater of time it is... So anyways, today I just wanted to remind some people that I exist, and just generally talk about some of what has been going on of late. As Matt reminded me yesterday at work, everyone is the star of their own story...

The number one priority in my life these days SHOULD be my dissertation. I have an exam coming up on June 1st that is worth 60% of my dissertation grade, which in turn is worth a third of my final MA grade. So, it's pretty important! The problem is that I am the kind of student that has spurts of enthusiasm where I get way more done than I'm required to, followed by troughs of activity during which time I can't motivate myself to do much of worth at all. And go on, guess which one I'm in at the minute?? Either way, I've got to snap out of it as soon as possible or I'll be throwing away a few years worth of fairly consistent effort and sacrifices, as well as the thousands of pounds it has cost me... Money: the great motivator.

Work is fine these days but my mind has already switched to my new job in Nanjing, starting at the end of August. I will be extremely sad leaving Korea, the people I've met, students, the band, FC Seoul, the food, the lifestyle, etc., but I'm looking forward to what looks like a proper job that actually sets me up for what I really want to do with my life. Hopefully, I'm headed for a future of working in International Schools, being an effective teacher for teenagers in countries all over the world, really getting to know the country I'm living in, a couple of years here, a couple there, enough time off to visit home regularly and fit in plenty of travelling. Doesn't sound bad, does it? Cue Brian getting run over by a bus tomorrow!

What's coming up? Well, as you asked, we have rehearsal tomorrow in preparation for a Dead End Friends gig tomorrow night at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon with long-time friends of the band, Feed The Boats, who are coming up with a bunch of mates all the way from Gwangju. They're a great band, sporting a new drummer whom I remember seeing in a different band way back in 2007, and being mightily impressed with. If you're around Seoul this weekend and you want to hear some live rock, you know what to do.

Sandwiched between the music tomorrow will be our trip to Sangam World Cup Stadium to watch the visit of Jeju United to FC Seoul. Jeju were K-League runners-up last season, and have had a solid start again this term. Seoul have been simply horrific of late, to the extent that Hwangbo Kwon did the decent thing and stood down earlier this week. Former Seoul striker Choi Young Soo has been put in temporary charge, and hopefully things can only get better... If they get worse, I'm going to be pretty grumpy for the gig...