The Crew of IBC English Town celebrating another week of work in the books.
Since Halloween and the Templestay, there have been a lot of changes, traveling and more of the best sport in the world.
First things first, it has been back-to-back road trips for the Daegu Devils the past two weekends. November 15 and 16 was the Ulsan Cup in the beautiful city of Ulsan, which brought me back to the traveling tournament days with Ballistic United in the great Northwest. We did manage to take 2nd place after falling 1-0 in the final, but the highlight would have to be the tournament setting. The tournament was the first time these two turf fields were used and they were a new kind of turf that plays more like grass (no matter how hard they try, they will never come close to replicating grass), so that was an event in itself. The fields were placed marvelously along the Taehwa River with the hills rising along the other side. Ulsan is located on the mouth of this river and is a major port city.
The tournament began in righteous fashion for the dude after finishing on my first touch of the first game after coming on as a substitute. It was a deft touch from the left shinguard after whiffing with the right from a perfect cross from the right. That was enough to buy me 12th man considerations for the rest of the tournament and I came on in the next 3 games as the spark plug in the center of the midfield. From the outset, the tournament was marked by confusion and frustration from the organizing staff. The only team from Ulsan was an hour late for the first game, which totally destroyed the schedule. The substitution rules were ridiculous and unaccomodating at best. There were no rolling substitutions which means that once you come off the field, you can't go back on. This is a ridiculous rule when you are playing 3 games a day with few subs. Next, for each substitution you had to go to the tournament HQ table (not on the sideline, but in-between fields) and fill out a little form expressing who you will be going in for, your number, etc. After that you were to give the form to the sideline referee who would usually reject it and send you back to the main table who would then in turn tell you to go back to the field and sub in. Our team can get a little fiery and I think we took all this the worst. Two players received yellow cards for leaving the field after being prompted to substitute by the head ref. This resulted in half-full beer cans being thrown on the field by our manager and fans and exorbitant cursing at the Korean referees (who got a free English lesson that day). Eventually things smoothed over a little and we finished Saturday with two wins. After that we headed back to the hotel for a $2.50 buffet which made more than a few of us sick in the morning. Our Michael Bolton look-alike (also known as Jesus) would complain of food poisoning the next morning after devouring several plates of eel at the buffet. He also pissed off our lead goal-scorer with his snoring after sharing a room with him for the night. Reid and I shared a room and we all got 50% discounts being with tournament. The next day was back to business with two more wins and Jesus being sent off with a red card after running into the goalie in the semifinal and standing chest to chest with him after the play. We faced our biggest rivals in the final - Busan United - and there's not too much to say about it, really. I didn't get into the game and they scored one on a defensive mistake. So after that we had the award ceremony - we received a nice trophy and $250 for our efforts. The entire thing was put on by the city of Ulsan, so we didn't pay anything to play in the tournament. It was another great Korean deal.
I'll give you a soccer break right here and discuss the new changes at school. Reid and Joyce arrived three weeks ago and have melded into the rotation like the Sonics in Oklahoma City. I have finished my stint as tornado engineer in the classroom and am now the gym teacher. I work with Joyce in the gym to teach the kids how to play Twister (most have played before). We begin with a short warm up and stretch (we had a pulled muscle in the first class) and then we go over the rules and body parts. After that we split the class into two or three groups and have each play. The first and second place finishers from each group then compete in the championship round in which the winner receives a mini tootsie roll pop. So the stakes are high here and the competition gets fierce at times. Reid is in the video shop with Cathleen where they act as video store employees as the kids come in and pretend to rent a video. It is interesting to find out what movies the kids know about here. For new movies, Mamma Mia, 007 and Harry Potter are big. Most also know I Am Legend, Titanic, and Scream is the well-known horror flick. Of course there are a slew of Korean and Japanese movies that we have never heard of. Many say that Death Note is there favorite movie (this is not a movie but a Japanese series and almost no one has actually seen it). The other current stations are the Doctor's Office (for which I fill in as doctor a few times a week) and the Flower Shop - which switches to the Pet Shop next week.
This past weekend (22nd and 23rd) three North Kitsap graduates - Reid, Thomas and I took the bullet train down to Busan to meet up with our Korean friend from the Nevada Conservation Corps. Busan is the second largest city in Korea (it is huge) and the largest port city. Many of the cargo ships coming into the Port of Seattle come from Busan. We met her getting off work on Saturday night and tried a new Korean dish for dinner down by the beach. Then we met up with two of her nicest friends, Rachel and Min Jae, and went to the Long Life Bar. We had a good time catching up with her and getting to know her friends. They met in Kendo class, which is a Japanese sword fighting martial art. We were more than a little surprised to learn that our short Korean girl friend knew Kendo. We discussed Obama, they showed off their knowledge of the show "Friends" and we learned some interesting Korean games. After that we played some pocket pool (Korean billiards has no pockets, we do not entirely understand the rules) on the 9th floor of a building overlooking the bay and then retired to our hostel.
The next day we met up with our Korean friends for breakfast and a tour of Haeundae - the most popular beach in Busan. There is a small peninsula there where a magnificent conference center was built for the 2005 APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting. We saw the conference room and pictures of George Bushy wearing a the traditional Korean robe. Hilarious! I had my soccer game on the outskirts of Busan, which Min Jae was very nice to drive me to. I told him that I owed him one, but he said that this was not the case as it was only his second time ever meeting with foreigners and he was thankful towards me because my laugh made him feel comfortable with us. I was more than a little surprised at this and laughed at everything for him on the half-hour ride to the game.
World Leaders in Korean dress. Bushy is back center.
Korean Breakfast with Min Jae and Hannah.
I met up with the Devils in Hwamyeong at what might be the only grass fields in Korea. What a special treat it was to be playing on grass! My game prospered as I scored one of my best goals of all time on a half-volley from outside the penalty box to beat the keeper far post side netting to go up 3-2 early in the second half. To be honest, I didn't even watch it go in I was so thrilled, I turned and celebrated with the lads. After that I had several runs down the right wing that should have been assists but for poor finishing. Finally, we got the insurance goal on one of these and I added an assist to my account. We had a little celebration outside the convenience store for our last road trip of the season and drove the 90 minutes back to Daegu. There are two more games left in the season, both home games against Daegu FC and our rival Busan United. To win the league, we have to win both and Busan United have to drop points in their game next weekend. Everyone hates Busan United, they are the overly organized and motivated team that doesn't party with the other teams and practices a lot. They also thrash teams instead of letting up after going ahead a few goals. This last weekend they beat FC Daegu 12-1. So everyone is hoping that we can beat them, though unless they drop points in their other match, they will destroy us in the goal differential tie-breaker.
Alright, so that is the scoop. Hope the soccer language wasn't too difficult for you. It is getting colder out here as Thanksgiving arrives. Not surprisingly, though disappointingly, we have no break for Thanksgiving.
I bid you all a Happy Thanksgiving, be thankful for your family!!
Me, Hannah, Reid and Thomas in front of the big Busan suspension bridge.
