Hello everyone!

So this is the beginning...finally. I have experienced quite a lot in these past few weeks...so it feels good to write some of it down. It's been about two and half weeks since I arrived in Seoul. Now, for the most part, time has been flying by. When I first arrived, I had 4 or 5 days just to relax and settle in before my training, which was nice, as it seemed jet lag was more or an issue this time around. Arriving in Bundang, I was definitely pleasently surprised. Where I live, Sunae, is always humming with people. Because it's a new community, it's set up to be more pedestrian friendly, meaning it's quite easy to walk around, with most everything being at your fingertips. My apartment directly faces a Lotte department store, one or many all over Seoul.

Bundang is very similar to Seoul as most of the people living here moved out of the city to live here because housing is slightly cheaper and obviously newer here. The one phenomenon that became increasingly obvious to me is that Sunae is kind of a drinking town!When I come home later at night everyone is outside restaurants (especially bbq places) and convience stores drinking and smoking. Hyejung was saying that because a lot of the apartments in Sunae are officetels (which are single room apartments), this 'town' is made up of a lot of single people which inevitably leads to more partying. Sometimes it feels a little strange to see people just drinking outside of convience stores but I am getting used to the novelty of being able to buy liquor 24 hrs a day. I'll have to post some photos later of my immediate neighbourhood. However, I can post some photos of my new apartment.

My apartment is really just one room, but it's spacious and newish. I was just so happy to see both a TV and a stereo! In all honesty, those things are just so important...haha. Even better now is the fact that I have cable, for pretty cheap too! Internet and cable together comes to around 20 bucks, which is significantly cheaper than Canada for sure. My guilty pleasure in my spare time has been watching hours of Discovery channel! I can't tell you just how intrigued I've been learning about Julius Caesar, the Titanic, and so much more!

My other obsession lately has been watching the World Cup. During the group stages, the games always started at 10 pm, 1 am and 4 am. It's just so simply awesome to be able to watch such top quality soccer all the time! I have been definitely impressed with the quality of the games so far, so many jaw-dropping goals! So much drama! I love it all...I know I am going to miss it when it disappears soon.

I know I mentioned earlier how crazy Korea was in regards to the World Cup. Well, I'm sure most of you know that Korea failed to qualify for the quarter final stage, but it was certainly not without a good share of drama. In the last game against Switzerland, there appeared to be two missed handballs in the box, as well as the bizarre call by the referee on Switzerland's second goal. It seems most Koreans feel completely ripped off, and I can't blame them. I mean, the handballs weren't incredibly obvious, but in the games I've seen, the referees are calling any handball, especially in the box. And the offside call is just plain stupid. I can't believe the referee totally disregarded his linesman. How often does that happen?

Anyway, Korea's loss was a huge disappointment for everyone. People here really believed in this team, especially after the tie with France. I think I became one of those people as well, Korea was a fighter - no doubt about it. The following Saturday morning, it was just obvious that everyone was depressed. I couldn't help but feel a little sad too...I guess there's always next World Cup. Here's some photos before of HJ and I before the Korea/Togo match. Notice the shirts - everyone had them!

Well, I think that's enough for now. I will surely post more later.

Cheers!