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...

Opportunities

Really upbeat today. Did an interview this morning, really just for the sake of it, which turned out really well. It was with Dipont Education for an international school in China, which I had already all but written off in my mind behind the option of going to Cairo (which I have, in theory at least, accepted). As a result, I wasn't at all nervous and was really frank in explaining the incredible irregularity of my qualifications and teaching experience. Teenagers in England > elementary school kids in Korea > adults in Buenos Aires > adults in Korea > Uni students and kids in Korea. It doesn't exactly look as though it has been rationally thought through by someone who has a clear view of the desired trajectory of his career. So I just explained that I felt too young to settle down to a teaching career at 23 and wanted to work in different teaching environments whilst studying towards my MA, which is the truth! That conversation led to me telling her that, eventually, I want to be a Social Studies/History teacher, which in turn led to her lining me up for an A-Level History & ESL position at Nanjing Foreign Language School. It's by no means a done deal (both sides have things to look into) but it looks a great option if it comes through. A path back into the kind of teaching I really want to be doing, a lot earlier than I had anticipated.

So I'm in good form today because my mood is almost 100% influenced by events that happen to me rather than by my own self-control. Blue skies and snow out my window. Lots of work to get through with my students in our last two classes tonight and tomorrow because I was only about 50% all there the first week of the course this time around. Big, big, big celebrations in store for St. Patrick's Day (otherwise known as St. Patrick's Weekend over here). Will dash out of work on Friday to headline the Friday night at FF's 'Go Green' party and, if I pace myself, we'll be hosting the St. Patrick's Day party at Rocky Mountain Tavern on Saturday night. That's a big 'if'...

Everyday Ecstasy and Agony

Someone posted on facebook that Korea's hills mean ups and downs, ups and downs. In truth, this was no doubt a reference to the whole North Korea carry on. In fairness, I'm not going to talk about that anymore (for now). Don't I have remarkable enough ups and downs in my own daily life? Well, of course I do. Take today, for example. Zee and Jimbo both post the amazing news that Iron Maiden will be coming to Korea on March 10th and TICKETS ARE ON SALE!! Cue sudden excitement, searching of websites, frenetic calling of Ji and Jim, booking of tickets and.... ecstasy!!! Soon after though, the seeping disappointment of reality. March 10th. Thursday night. I'll be teaching. All hopes dashed in a moment. Even worse, as I teach that night, thinking of everyone witnessing one of the few real 'must see' rock (let's not argue over the genre) bands still plugging away at it, I know I'm going to be a grumpy old sod knowing I could be in a much better place. With that and Placebo's recent cancellation here, I'm due a bit of luck on the live music front.

Speaking of which, Ji is at the first round of the Rocky Mountain Tavern Battle of the Bands tonight. I, on the other hand, am being boring. I haven't exactly had a hard day. Studied for a few hours (draft Literature Review deadline looming), had my language exchange (NaRa showing the patience of a saint as I stumble through the same rubbish I've been stumbling over for the past couple of months) and had very easy classes tonight. Lee Hyori is at the Uni tonight hosting some kind of student Pop Idol-type thing so most of the students didn't appear to class. And why would they? As a result, I spent the first class yapping and the second class playing card games with them. Stressful stuff. Still, watching the battle didn't seem so tempting.
A. I have to get some study done in the morning before rehearsal.
B. I'm not a big fan of watching other live bands in Seoul. Nor can I do so without comparing them to us and thinking about it all WAY too much.
C. I'm not a judge. I'd have loved to have been a judge...

Here I am, so, sat in blogging on a Friday night, listening to Mayo and Kermode's strangely entertaining pretentiousness, going over lyrics a few more times before tomorrow, secretly hoping someone suggests a few beers in Suyu...

A short word on the recently neglected FC Seoul. Jeonbuk edged out Asian Champions Seongnam 1-0 to take the fourth and final Asian Champion's League spot for Korea and book a play-off semi-final fixture away to long-term league-leaders Jeju United (let's not forget that FC Seoul were top when it counted). The winner of that fixture this weekend will face a two-legged Championship decider against the mighty Seoul. Annoyingly, my 'volunteer' TOEIC study supervision is December 1st at 7pm - probably the kick-off for the first leg. I say 'volunteer' because we don't actually 'volunteer' to do it. We have to. I might try to UNvolunteer myself, but I doubt very much that that will be entertained. In reality, I'll probably be watching it on my phone and hoping they just work away and don't interrupt the tension. C'mon FC Seoul! It turns out that we're losing three players to military service very soon, two of which will be Kim Chi Woo and (my personal favourite) Choi Hyo Jin. We do have one or two returning, but it's a blow nonetheless. All the more reason to cap off a brilliant season by securing the Championship. Roll on December 5th...

Tomorrow night we'll be heading to a new microbrewery near Haebangchon for Julia's leaving party and then hopefully dragging people over to Woodstock (willing or otherwise) for our two-hour set at Woodstock, Itaewon. It's not everyone's cup of tea but I love gigging at Woodstock. Woo loves us, we love Woo. It works. There's a fair chance that the equipment will feck up at some point and I can GUARANTEE that my mic will shock me at least a couple of dozen times, but there'll more than likely be a good, music-loving crowd, nicely intoxicated and up for a bit of rock n' roll. Bring it on.

Really enjoyed catching up with Gary (Pot) on skype earlier for a bit, living out his dream in Melbourne and all the very best of luck to him. I'm going to stick 'contact [insert name here]' to my daily 'to do' list from Monday. I've barely spoken to Rob, Kev or John since they left Korea and I have fallen ridiculously badly out of touch with friends back home, in England, in Argentina... One call a day starting next week. It's time to start appearing offline people!

Job Done!

There was tension, trepidation - perhaps even a bit of fear - but our gig at RMT on Saturday night went better than we hoped or expected. Our rehearsal earlier went really well, but I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing at the time. It definitely left me feeling a bit more confident. There was a good crowd when we got there and the first half went with relatively few hitches - my collapsing mic stand and a bit of a hash of the intro to 'Jailbreak' excepted. We got through 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' unscathed and the positive feedback at the interval ensured we were all a lot more relaxed for the big rocky second set. It definitely feels as though we're up and running now. With the luxury of only playing 10 songs or so at FF next week, we're looking forward to rocking out and having a good time in front of a big crowd. If you're in Seoul, come along and lend your support.

Rounding off a top weekend was FC Seoul beating Daejeon 2-1 at Sangam World Cup Stadium. With a win guaranteeing top spot and a place in the play-off final on December 1st and 5th, it should have been a lot easier than it was against the K-League's third-from-bottom club. In reality, the visitors came at us and will probably feel as though they deserved a point. Kim Chi Woo came off the bench to score the winner on 87 minutes, adding to Jung Jo Gook's very early strike. The celebrations were understandably rapturous. Jeju only managed a draw at home against Incheon United, so we have actually wound up three-points clear. An unbelievable season of stunning home form, attacking displays all over the park, a much-improved defence... we were honestly a bit emotional at the final whistle. We have to make sure not to slip up now and take our first league title in 10-years, our first as FC Seoul.

OK, it's late on a Monday so I'm going to wrap this up here. For the Korean learners among you, I found this helpful (and free) site through another blog on Friday night. Let me know if you are aware of any other good sites. I hope your week has started off well.

Tick Tick Tick Tick

Somehow, we only have two days left until our Saturday night show at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon. We had rehearsal last night, but Cheon (our bassist) didn't make it. He had one of those horrible work dinners that Koreans are often obliged to attend (and get wasted at, whether they like it or not) and just couldn't make it on time. It's hardly ideal, but it happens. I have been known to miss entire rehearsals myself or show up unbelievably late so I certainly can't go casting any stones. The three of us managed to get through quite a lot of material and Cheon tends to know what he's doing anyhow, so it's not a disaster. We have two hours to go over things one more time on Saturday but then it's crunch time. Honestly, I think we're still a week or two away from being 100% ready (if such a state can ever be attained), but we should be tight enough to get by. We needed this date as a deadline to motivate ourselves. We did the same with U R Seoul. Things always seemed to come together. If they don't, we still have to make sure it's a fun night for us and everyone in attendance. I'm a bit nervous and apprehensive, but I really can't wait!

Jim, Darragh and I headed to Shamrock n' Roll to watch as much of FC Seoul's visit to Seongnam as we could before we had to tear ourselves away for band practice. It was a good, strong line-up, which showed that players must have been rested last weekend against Busan with this encounter in mind. Lee Seung Ryeol put us 1-0 early on with a fairly fortuitous but well-worked goal. Unfortunately, the lead didn't last long as Seongnam leveled things before the 20-minute mark. Up step Jeong Jo Gook to stroke home what turned out to be the winner, after excellent link-up play with Choi Tae Wook, who has been sensational for us since his mid-season arrival from Jeonbuk for his second spell with the club (previously from 2000-2003 when we were Anyang LG Cheetahs). Jeong has been stepping up recently and, if we can overcome Daejeon on Sunday at home and clinch top spot, it will be largely down to him and his recent match-winning performances. The match highlights are here (although I'm not sure they're working right now). Huge game on Sunday to book our place in the play-off final on December 1st and 5th. 3pm - Sangam World Cup Stadium.

I have my language-exchange in 5-minutes so no time to chat about the Stoics, Socrates, Seneca and global citizenship, which I was reading about this morning for my MA dissertation. I'll bet you're devastated! I will leave you with my 'fact of the day'. In ancient Greece, small genitals were a plus, being a symbol of manly self-control. Large genitals, on the other hand (!?), were symbolic of weakness and a lack of self-restraint. So, there you go.

More Than You Can Chew

I've just been going over songs for Saturday night and, holy crap, some of them are pretty tough. I might just be aiming a bit higher than I can attain in terms of the vocals, at least. It didn't seem so bad in rehearsal so I'm hoping it's just a bit of an off-day... Otherwise, I should get in touch with RMT and make sure they reinforce the windows upstairs! I just sent out invites for the gig on facebook here. The best gigs are always the ones with the biggest crowds, so please get yourself out and support us if you're in the area. I don't usually get nervous before a show, but I definitely will be on Saturday. I can't even think about it for too long... 20 new songs all on the same night... eugh...

We were chatting about 'good and bad things about your country' in class last night, and again this morning. I'm probably not as brave as I should be in covering potentially controversial issues. The students have a tendency to go a bit strong on the positives and turn a bit quiet when we get to the negatives. They usually just need a bit of prodding, but I have to be careful not to be openly criticising the place. For example, one student reckoned she had nothing bad to say about Korea. A few prompts later and she was going on about the binge-drinking, the pushing on the subway, the hierarchical power structures, the concrete jungle, etc. Basically, Koreans dislike the same things that foreigners do, they are just much less vocal about them. It's ok! Talking about the aspects of life in your country that you're not crazy about is not a sign of weakness! Ireland can be a narrow-minded, racist, corrupt, rain-drenched hole, at times. It can also be a great place to grow up, breathtakingly beautiful and full of warm and hospitable people.

One definite positive about Korea at the moment is the weather. Ok, it's a bit chilly but autumn colours are beautiful and it's hasn't yet gotten to the point where you can't go outside without wrapping yourself in the equivalent of a duvet. Predictably, 'Korea's four-seasons' came up as a positive with my pupils last night. Inevitably, it was followed by, "Do you have four seasons in Ireland?" I suspect that if those two sentences don't exist close-by then there's some sort of prison sentence or you lose your Korean passport or something. Yes, there are four seasons in Ireland. They are:

1. Spring
2. Summer
3. Autumn
4. Winter

There are also four seasons in Korea:

1. "Ah the temperature is PERFECT and I better enjoy it because I'm going to be sweating my ass off in about a fortnight"
2. "Wake up, shower, go out, feel exhausted, shower, eat, shower, sleep (if you can get the right balance between air conditioning and sweltering humidity)"
3. "Wow Korea is beautiful, look at all this colour, get out and do as much as you possibly can because we have about a month before de facto hibernation"
4. "Wake up, remind yourself to buy more bedding, freeze, slip on your backside about a dozen times, repeat until April"

Ok I'm not being totally serious but I would LOVE to know where this 'four season' obsession came from. Disclaimer: I love Korea and living here. There's no harm in pointing out a few obvious cons from time to time, though... In order to assuage my guilt at being semi-critical, let me leave you with a photo featuring some 100% Korean autumnal natural beauty - and a snazzy FC Seoul cap!

My Dead End Friends Again...

I'm subbing in Ji's school today ('teaching' history and media) but it has been a pretty straight-forward day so far. I love having the chance to do the odd day here and there and it gives me an insight into what my job will be like when I land an International School job (note the positivity). There is a volleyball tournament here today with a lot of the other International Schools visiting. It's interesting how ethnically Asian-based this school is in comparison to others. The boys were complaining about not having a nice range of girls to drool over. I had the same problem when I was at school, boys! It's also interesting to see how the ethnic-Korean majority interact with the minority students. I can't say they do so very well, from what I can see...

I'm hopefully going to have a chance to talk over some of my preliminary research questions with the head teacher here after school. Interestingly, the sample questionnaire I have for her touches on issues of multi-culturalism, diversity, and learning to live together. At this early stage, I'm only interested in getting feedback about the nature of the questions to aid my methodology, rather than being too concerned by her actual responses. I have my first assignment due on Sunday and preparation is going quite well so far. At this early stage, I'm interested in the topic and so it doesn't seem like a drag studying. I'm sure that won't last too long.

Straight after I finish here I'm going to have to go buy some more snacks and decorations for our Halloween Party in class tonight. The girls are going to set up a ghoulish casino and get the room looking suitably spooky. The girls in the office are going to go round taking pictures and I think the best classes will win some money, so they're pretty well-motivated for it! It a should be a fun night anyhow and I'm glad I don't have to teach having been here all day already. I still haven't gotten round to sorting out my own Halloween costume so it'll be pretty lame tonight. There's a big Halloween warehouse in Sadang so I'll go there and sort something out tomorrow. Prepared well in advance, as ever. I was tempted to just wear my priest costume for the fourth time or whatever it is at this stage.

Before I wind this up for the day, a quick plug for our new band and a request. We're working hard to have a good set together for Rocky Mountain Tavern, Itaewon, on November 6th. I just set up a facebook page for us today so please check it out here, click 'like' or whatever is, and we'll be able to keep in touch with everyone about upcoming shows and the like. If you could suggest the page to friends, that'd be even better. Have a fun Halloween everyone!

Not Quite Top Gear

Our experience of the first ever F1 Korean Grand Prix was a story of ups and downs, much like the race itself. First off, our free tickets did materialise in the end and we even managed to swindle one for Ji, even though she's not actually a 'foreigner'. We got seats in the E-c stand that were actually worth way more than I would have ever considered paying. Great seats, cracking atmosphere, no major hitches with the bus or 4-hour+ journey south (having stayed up all night for fear of not being able to wake up on time...), so everything was looking good. As it turned out, a slight drizzle put a spanner in the works. The track looked a bit wet from when we got there at around midday but it was a 20-minute burst from about 2.30pm that led to the race being started under the safety car. That lasted only for three laps before the cars returned to the grid for a 45-minute delay. Despite the disappointment, it had been an amazing buzz witnessing the speed and sound of F1 cars in person. I have watched the sport for a long time, but I never imagined how exhilarating it would be live. Even the 'slower' drivers at the back of the grid are achieving incredible speeds and appear to be driving to an incredibly high level, considering the challenges they probably face in their less-advanced cars.

The race finally got going as the track dried out and we saw Webber losing it and colliding with the wall before collecting Rosberg and dealing his own title hopes a severe blow. By that stage, we were wondering if the time we had been told to be back at the bus was still valid, as there had been so many delays. Infuriatingly, we did have to still go back at 5pm and missed the vast majority of the actual racing. Catherine, Ji and I still had an amazing time and it certainly whetted our appetite for future F1 action. If I'm still in Korea next year, I think the best option would be to just stay in Mokpo and make a proper weekend of it. There's no real need for me to go into the race in detail here - you can check out the report on the bbc here. Matt (of burnblog and The Outside View fame) will have been heartened, no doubt, by Suwon beating Busan to lift the FA Cup and secure a spot in the Champion's League next season. We had the closing stages of the match live on the bus as we edged through the post-race traffic.

Aside from Grand Prix, we also had a short gig in Itaewon on Friday night. Much like the F1, it was a case of the good and the bad that left a clear set of mixed emotions. I never usually get very nervous before shows, but this being somewhat new led to a few jitters among us all. Starting off the first song with barely audible vocals didn't help... Things picked up, it was fairly tight, people liked it, a few songs were particularly good, but... it's not going to be the way it was for a long, long time. It's definitely a case of re-setting our expectations and enjoying the process of getting back to the level of performance and energy we had in the past. We got straight back to work with a rehearsal on Saturday and took another big step. We need to keep it up because we'll only have two more sessions together before our firs show at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon on November 6th. We'll be nervous, but I'm determined to enjoy it.

Alright, Monday going ok here and hope it is for you too. I'm starting a new session with two new classes tonight so cross your fingers that I get off on the right foot with them both. I also have a work meeting so let's hope it'll be productive and not unearth any unwelcome surprises...

Dead End Friends, Ulsan, Week Off & Korean F1 Grand Prix

Last Friday night we got together for another band practice to help edge us that little bit closer to being ready for our first 'big gig'. We had to settle for a bit of a dodgy rehearsal room which had a pretty bad echo and the mics kept cutting out so it wasn't easy to work on anything especially detailed, but it was another step. Afterward, we sorted out a few dates for gigs, rehearsals and even a few band name suggestions. We're going to be playing at Woodstock, Itaewon, this Friday night (October 22nd) at 11pm. If you're in the area, come support us and we'll love you forever. We're that easy. It'll just be an hour set but the idea is to limber us up for our first full gig at Rocky Mountain Tavern, Itaewon, on November 6th. I'll get a facebook group set up to start pestering you all to attend once we have decided on a name. At the moment I'm favoring 'Dead End Friends' but we're not sure yet as a whole. Time is running out for your brilliant suggestions...

On Saturday, Jimbo and I did the 4-hour trek by train to Ulsan. Unfortunately, there's no KTX route from Seoul to Ulsan until next month, so we took a KTX to Daegu then a slow train East to Ulsan. We made a night of it on Saturday. Some of it was probably a bit too odd to mention here but I would recommend Ulsan as a fun night out. I even managed to get Jim, who has been very sensible of late, on the soju. Successful night all round. Weird, but successful.

I wasn't feeling the freshest on Sunday morning but we got ourselves out for the game nonetheless. As we were standing along the road waiting for a taxi in our FC Seoul shirts, some Ulsan fans picked us up to give us a lift to the stadium! Just like home, eh? Pretty damn friendly of them. Especially as we then went on to win 2-1, which was a MASSIVE result. There were probably around 300 FC Seoul fans at the game, which is pretty impressive. They were in fine voice for the full 90 minutes, even though a fair portion appeared to be missing the action in doing so... The goals came from Ha Dae Sung and Choi Tae Wook as part of a battling performance all round. Ulsan looked pretty good, but we had two goals ruled out for very marginal looking offside decisions and were good value for the win overall. With Jeju only drawing at Jeonbuk and us having a game in hand, our away match against them next week is now absolutely huge in deciding who finishes top and goes straight into the play-off final. It looks as though we'll be without Adi (fractured cheekbone), while Lee Seung Ryeol and Kim Chi Woo were also absent on Sunday, but we have to be quietly confident of our chances at this stage.

-2010 RANKING TEAM POINTS W D L F A GD 1 JEJU 54 16 6 3 50 24 26 2 SEOUL 52 17 1 6 50 22 28 3 SEONGNAM 43 12 7 5 38 20 18 4 GYEONGNAM 43 12 7 5 36 25 11 5 JEONBUK 42 12 6 6 45 33 12 6 ULSAN 41 12 5 8 37 29 8 7 SUWON 34 10 4 10 34 38 -4 8 BUSAN 30 7 9 9 34 33 1 9 INCHEON 29 8 5 11 39 43 -4 10 POHANG 27 6 9 9 35 44 -9 11 CHUNNAM 26 6 8 10 36 42 -6 12 GANGWON 21 5 6 14 30 49 -19 13 DAEJEON 21 5 6 13 25 45 -20 14 DAEGU 19 5 4 15 27 46 -19 15 GWANGJU 18 3 9 12 14 37 -23

After the match we were again having problems finding a taxi (the stadium was pretty much in the middle of nowhere) and kind of cheekily asked a couple in a car for 'directions' in the hope that they'd just offer us a lift. They took the bait... They turned out to be really nice and Jimbo and I had a further chance to practice our Korean. It's nice having Jim along for that because his Korean is so much better than mine so I pick up a fair bit from him. The couple spoke some English too. Apparently the man is planning to, "make a baby this year". How romantic.

I'm off work this week so I SHOULD be working on my dissertation and learning song lyrics for Friday night. However, so far I've just been getting up kind of late and doing a lot of reading and generally time has just been flying by. I did go cycling by the Han with Stephanie last night, which was fun and looked beautiful. The Han River at night always reminds you what a nice city we actually live in. I'm having dinner with Ji and her parents tonight. They're in the country for a family wedding and the fact that I 'can't' go has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. However, I do understand it to an extent and will just have to pretend I don't mind, which I seem to be doing a lot of recently.

This weekend, Korea will host it's first F1 Grand Prix. It has always been an ambition of mine to go see one (if that can be called an ambition) and this seems like as good an opportunity as I'll get for a while. There's some facebook group that I, apparently, have a free ticket through but I remain skeptical. It looks as though there's a bus going down on Sunday morning and back after the race so that'd be perfect. The 'free tickets' are only for foreigners (controversial) so I'd just go 50-50 with Ji if that were the case. There are a few people who seem interested in going but I'm not sure how many of those are 100%. Anyway, if you're thinking of going and you want to book a place on a bus from Seoul to Yeongam (site of the Grand Prix) and back on Sunday, let me know and I'll give you the relevant email address. That's me over and out for today.

It's a Skill...

....mastered by me. Really, it takes a special kind of person to stay in on a Friday night, few quiet beers, bit of footy streaming live online... and still manage to not make it to bed (a mere 6 feet away) until nigh-on 8am. It might say something about our screen-obsessed internet-based generation, but I actually had a pretty nice night sat in on my lonesome. The couple of hours between the end of class and midnight flew as they always do before Stephen and I messaged frantically trying to find a good stream of Armenia V Ireland.

We struck gold about twenty-minutes into the game (myp2p.eu is the way to go) and witnessed the rest of the first half, largely dominated by Ireland but with no cutting edge. We were both starting to get a bit panicky before Keith Fahey (whose arrival at the expense of Duffers I roundly criticised...) finished a decent move to put us ahead. That was the signal for us to start pressing the self-destruct button and, towards the end of the match, we looked as though we had confused Armenia with Brazil. Still, we held on. 1-0 away from home against an awkward opponent is a good start. Perhaps we could have done it in more style, but that may be me getting above my station. Bring on Andorra tonight at the Aviva - I'll be setting the alarm clock for 3.30am, let's see how successful that'll be...

After the Ireland game was Wales away to Montenegro, who opted NOT to select (my hero) Dejan, who played for FC Seoul the next night. Still, they managed a 1-0 home win to put pressure on Toshack's position as manager. I wonder how much longer the little fledgling nation-state will be under-estimated? Then, it was Scotland struggling to a draw away against Lithuania and Northern Ireland grabbing an unlikely win in Slovenia, who were at the World Cup this summer! That led to England's hammering Bulgaria 4-0, and the inane criticisms in the British media, which drove me to email bbc radio 5live more than once during the night! How you can win 4-0 against decent opposition and still continue to be ripped apart by the very same media that tipped you for World Cup honors mere months ago, is beyond me.

Needless to say, I didn't have the early start and productive Saturday that I had anticipated when I struggled to fight the temptation to join Thomas in Itaewon the night before. In fact, I just about had enough time to get ready and eat before I had to leave for Sangam World Cup Stadium for FC Seoul V Gwangju. We had a bit of a scare on the way when it seemed that the game may have kicked off at 7pm, rather than 8pm, which we thought. Helpfully, one of the information lines said 7pm, while the other said 8... Turned out 8 was the way to go. I met Ji, Jim and Stephen at the stadium. FC Seoul were a bit shaky at times but ran out 3-0 winners with a simple free-kick from Kim Jin-Gyu, a decent finish from Dejan and a beautiful and instinctive lob over the keeper from Choi Hyo Jin, who is fast becoming my favourite FC Seoul player. Don't tell Dejan... After the match we headed to Itaewon, then Hongdae... I think I might just be too old to enjoy nights out the way I used to. It was fine, but very chilled. Maybe it's just a phase...

We had a pretty good band practice on Sunday but it was mainly just spent going over things we had done in the past, as it had been so long since we had been able to get together. We got our heads together to fix a date for our first full gig at the start of October in Rocky Mountain Tavern, Itaewon. Now we have something to aim for, and a bit of pressure to get the 20+ songs we'll need altogether. We'll need a name by then too... this is really starting to get ridiculous.... Suggestions, please!

Monday was a long, tough day. It's going to be so every week. The General English classes on campus are a challenge because I only see the students once a week so it's tough to build up any kind of a rapport or get a substantial amount of work done. I'd say I was only at 75% for the first half of the day. One of the hardest things about teaching is that you do really have to be on it all the time, or standards start slipping, and you do/say things you wouldn't do if you were at your best. Thankfully, I squeezed in a bit of a nap before my evening classes and was back on form. My TOEIC class are one of the best groups of students I have ever taught, in terms of attitude and application. I really hope I can keep them on that track.

I had a bit of a scare just before my classes last night. During my nap, I was having some fitful nightmare that something was wrong with my Dad. He was trying to wake me up to say 'goodbye' and it was all pretty unpleasant, to be honest, even after I had been awake for a while. By sheer coincidence, my Mum called me to around 6pm. Now, she NEVER calls me mid-week and she KNOWS I teach late classes. Understandably, I answered the phone fearing the worst, only to find out that she was just calling for a chat... All ok in the end, but another reminder of the precarious nature of life in Korea, where one call from home could change everything in a heartbeat. In fact, I guess it's the nature of all our lives, wherever we are.

But let's not end on too grave a note! I just recently found out that we'll be welcoming two old friends to Seoul over the next few weeks. My ex-girlfriend, Annie, should be visiting in early-October, and our ex-bassist, John, will be here for Chuseok a week from Friday. It'll be great to see them both. We might try to play a gig with John, if Jeff is free. It looks as though Annie might be here for our first gig, which would be weird, because she would be the only person there (I think) who was also at the first U R Seoul gig in 2007, other than Jim and I, of course.

Well, that's more than enough for today. I have physiotherapy in an hour and I'll be back tomorrow with a report of Ireland's glorious victory against the might of Andorra tomorrow.

Back to Life

Nice to see a few people around campus this morning for their graduation. The Uni is a living, breathing organism (a word I embarrassingly misspelled throughout my first-year Science exam...) but it has been quiet all summer long. With the students coming back in a little over a week, things are returning to normal. Personally, I'll go from having vast swathes of free time to being really pretty busy. That's fine.

I just had my Korean language exchange, which was pretty tough today. I think because I've been studying quite a lot I got a bit ahead of myself. In reality, my level is still extremely basic and, as I'm constantly at pains to explain to my own students, learning a language requires a sustained effort over a prolonged period of time. Na Ra (my excellent Korean teacher) is off on holidays for four weeks but I'm still hoping to fit in a couple of lessons. I've decided that I'm going to keep them up even after my MA restarts. There's no point making progress over the summer only to let things drop again, as I have done before.

Anyway, I'm off to Itaewon now to meet Rob for dinner and then run over a few songs with Kevin, Zee and Patricia (whom I barely know) before the show tonight. I'm fairly hopeful there'll be a good number of people there and I think it's going to be a really enjoyable night. I had been feeling really guilty about pulling out of the Chillis gig tomorrow night and letting Cheon down so I text him earlier to cave in. Thankfully, he has found someone else but they're still pretty disappointed. I'm hoping I can meet them again and play a show somewhere else sometime. It might even be a good idea for the two bands (Cheon's band plus Jim, Jeff, Cheon and I) playing shows together until we can get a full set together. Ok I'm just thinking out loud here so I'm going to sign off. Have a great weekend everyone and if you're in Seoul tonight come along to Rocky Mountain Tavern for Kevin's big acoustic night.

Distinctly Average

Bit of a dangerous title for a blog entry but I'm referring not to myself or my wares, but to the first weekend of the English Premiership. I might be being a bit unfair but over the weekend none of the games really grabbed me and the more I have watched highlights and so on, the more underwhelmed I have become. I know there were some big wins (Blackpool catch the eye) but the games I was really looking forward to all ended as stalemates. I was hoping that Spurs could start off with a win against Man City (and they deserved to) because the constant splashing of the cash is becoming tiresome and I don't want to see that approach continually vindicated. I also can't understand what Shay Given has done to lose his place in the team, although I admit I'm biased towards my fellow Donegal native. And Joe Hart had a stormer, in fairness to him. On top of all that, my fantasy team were average and I'm already languishing in mid-table in most of my leagues. Obviously it's very, very early days, but it's never good to lose too much ground early on. I think I'll have to choose reason over gut and drop Rooney as my captain. It seems as though his World Cup form has carried over into the new season. Maybe my feeling that the weekend's football was average has as much to do with my own fantasy team and another home defeat for Derry City against Cork City Foras Co-op. Thankfully, Monaghan lost too, so we got away with it to an extent. Still, we need to get back to winning ways or risk squandering what was, at one stage, a 12-point lead at the top of the First Division. Oh please next weekend give me better news. A win for FC Seoul at home to Gangwon FC on Saturday would do the trick just nicely.

That'll be the last FC Seoul game I'll be at with my best mate, Robert (for the foreseeable future anyhow), as he leaves for England next week. I have mentioned before in the blog how people are always coming and going in Korea and that your friendship group is ever-changing. I have to say that this week will be different. It goes without saying that I have been close friends with Rob since we were about 13 (and known him since play-school) so it's going to be tough when he leaves. It's hard to put a value on having someone around in this environment who you know and trust completely and don't generally have to worry about how you are around them. I'm glad for him that he's moving onwards and upwards but of course I'll be sad to see him go. The very same week Jessica, a former co-worker, also leaves for England and she's someone I have also been very close to. The following week Kev (my long-time guitarist) and his girlfriend Joanna leave for Barcelona so it's shaping up to be a grim enough time. Thankfully I still have a lot of people here who I would consider to be friends, but the loss of those four is significant.

Saturday is shaping up to be such a busy night of goodbyes that I decided to pull out of the Red Hot Chili Peppers gig I was due to sing at. I feel really bad to let Cheon down at this late stage but there was no way I could miss any part of a night this important. I'm hoping I'll get the chance to do something some other time with Cheon's band. Jim (our drummer) gets back from England on Saturday so we'll hopefully be back rehearsing soon and might play a short show on Friday 27th somewhere. I'll write it here if we do. At the minute, my main focus is on the acoustic night at Rocky Mountain Tavern on Friday (20th). I'll be singing about ten songs with Kevin after sets by him, Zee (The Pines), and Patricia Chamless (Sour Mash). They are all really good singers so I hope I'm not shown up but we rehearsed last Saturday and it was sounding good so hopefully we can emulate that. I'm looking forward to singing at an acoustic gig because, fun and all as the 'rock' band thing is, this is much more complimentary to my voice. If you happen to be around Seoul on Friday night, try to make it along. I think it's going to be a nice chilled-out night with a lot of good music. I'm certainly looking forward to hearing Kev, Zee and Patricia again.

I can't really think what else I wanted to say today. This week I've been doing a fair bit of reading, studying Korean and trying to strengthen my quad in anticipation of maybe being able to walk properly again sometime soon. I've started doing a bit of preparation for my next semester again and I feel fairly sure of what I'll be doing for the first couple of weeks at least. Today, the girls in the office tried to give me money for the lessons that I taught them a while back. Basically, there were crossed-wires between my boss and her boss which led to me teaching the girls in the office as part of my summer schedule, only to find out I wouldn't be getting paid for it. The girls got the money together themselves but I definitely can't accept that because it wasn't their fault at all. The fact is that they probably get paid a little over half of what I do for a lot more work and much less vacation time so I think I can take the hit better than they can. In saying that, I'm going to be so skint next month I barely want to think about it (always the best way to handle your financial concerns...).