Korea - The first music gig

Hello everyone!

I haven't updated this in a while. I'm easily distracted by the World Cup. World Cup fever has become pretty intense, and I love it! Next week I am doing my lesson on the World Cup, which means I have spent quite a lot of time planning it. We have also been drumming up our enthusiasm to boiling point by watching many warm-up matches. Staying up until 3.30am to watch Spain beat Korea was an eye-opener as to how tired we will be in school for the next month. Totally worth it though.

On Saturday we had another big BBQ to do our World Cup sweepstakes draw. Each of the 16 people put in 10,000W and get two teams - one seeded and one unseeded. I am now cheering on Slovakia and Portugal in South Africa. 아싸! But of course Korea will still be my numero uno. I do live here after all.

Speaking of football, I played with some of the teachers last week. We played in searing heat on the Thursday after school. They seemed to appreciate the fact that I base my style of play on Robbie Savage - I run around a lot like a headless chicken. I scored a goal as well. The opposition keeper scuffed his kick from the edge of the box, and I simply launched it back over him first-time into the net. Getting called 'Beckham' for the next five minutes by the other teachers probably wasn't warranted. They are now trying to set up some matches against other schools, which would be great fun.

The real fun of this week came on Friday. Mike, the one other Westerner who lives in my apartment block, plays in a two-man band, and had his first gig in Hongdae that night. You may have got the impression from these blogs that Hongdae is just for crazy, mental drinking nights - it is, but there is so much more to it than that, and the music scene is a big part of it. He was playing at 11, so we all ventured into Seoul a little after 8pm. I was out with group of people I hadn't been on a big night out with before, so was pretty excited.

We saw some strange incidents involving dogs before the gig. When waiting for the first bus, Mike spotted a dog on the back of a pick-up truck. It looked like an ornament whilst the car was stationary at the lights, but all of a sudden it started to move around just as the truck started to move. How did he stay on the truck? His leash was tied to the back of the main part which housed the driver. Why the driver didn't have him inside I don't know. In Hongdae itself, we saw a dog who had been shaved, apart from the ends of his limbs and his mane. This is Emma stroking it - they're not kissing, even though it does look that way.

The ultimate destination was a place called Freebird, so after chilling in a bar nearby we headed in. Small, compact place that reminded me of the top floor in Welsh Club where we saw Get.Cape.Wear.Cape.Fly a while ago. At around 11.30, they began. Smoke began to plume from the front to build the atmosphere, and away we go. For about 20 seconds, before the other guy in the band, Matt (there are SO MANY Matt's out here!!), cut the music. There was a problem.

There was a problem for a long time. They kept trying and failing. Matt explained later it was something to do with the syncing. Eventually they used a different song, and got going. They were really good, especially as it was their first time. Sounded a bit like White Lies. Afterwards we did the usual of drinking much and getting back to Siheung at a preposterously early/late hour. Great fun, and good to see some live music.

My lesson this week has been on occupations. Pretty simple lesson which didn't involve too much planning, thus letting me prep for my World Cup masterpiece. Ahem. One of the pictures was of a police officer - the deal was that they would shout out the occupation - but one group spotted something strange about this particular cop. 'Teacher! Kim Jong-Il!!' There are elements of the Dear Leader prevalent in the picture, I have to agree. The next picture was of a surgeon. I joked that this was also Kim Jong-Il, which they found funny.

An event more concerning than this occurred in my private lesson, when one of the students explained to me - in English - how to make a petrol bomb. He may be one for the authorities to watch in the future. Still, he did do it in English, so I had to give him (small) kudos for that. On that BOMBshell - see what I did there - I'll wrap this up. Next one is the World Cup match - that is an epic tale.

Love you all

Matt