woah, hey there

neglected my blogoing public for too long sorry. here's some news from the past few weeks.

- started drinking again and had a blast. i've discovered i'm a problem non-drinker. for some reason, i think i'm better than people whenever i don't drink, despite pining for a drink like a lost puppy. regardless, had a great friday night for Brian's birthday and saturday night at a brewery restaurant in Gangnam, Seoul.

- got severely addicted to facebook.

- visited the secret gardens in Seoul (unsure of actual name of the place, that's just the name Heidi used). very interesting. only allow tour groups in, if i have my facts straight, so we tailed around with a large group of english speakers getting very interesting info about the set-up of decorations, platform standards etc. photos:





- trying to think of anything interesting happening, but mostly just working and chilling out. some more stuff to talk about. might post this weekend.

watched two relatively big games of sport yesterday.

Brian and i went to Scrooge bar to watch the NZ v France rugby match along with 100 other kiwis. it was kinda cool to watch, although my ABs were a little rusty.

after the game, we shot off to the world cup stadium in north west Seoul to watch the Korea v Netherlands football match. this was incredible. the stadium was the biggest i've attended. our seats, up very high, had a great view of the entire field. we were directly behind one goal. the tickets were only 2manwon ($20). the crowd was great, very vocal without being abusive or nasty.

Brian went for Korea to win, so we put a chonon ($1) on the game (we put a chonon on most things competitive, eg. how many friends link to us on facebook). pity for him, cos the Netherlands scored a penalty in the 1st half and a great goal in the 2nd, right in front of us. i couldn't cheer too loud, as the stadium had 65000 Koreans in it (capacity is 75k). great times.

leaving afterwards, the crowds piling onto the subway trains were intense. it was a matter of keeping our feet moving as our body was shunted into the trains. laughed with a Malaysian guy my nose was pressed against that we'd have a tough time if we had to get off at the next station. as the train sped and slowed, the crowd moved as one, laughing together at the situation. i also realised that, with the carriage's sweltering heat, i was one of the few sweating like a . . um . . hot person of european descent. the interchange train we caught home was decidedly emptier and we even got a seat quite quickly.

at home, we ran into some people headed into a Noraebang (karaoke room) and had a great laugh. i felt a little sober for it, but had a great time anyway.

my thoughts on my first game of football i've ever seen at a stadium. it's great. the game doesn't have the stoppages of rugby (my 1st love) and the stadium itself was very close to the action. it was a fantastic event. stoppages in rugby really do ruin it for me (the France/NZ game had many) and stadiums in NZ double as cricket fields, so you sit far away. one thing, 90 minutes was a little long for me. a couple of goals, the games over. anyway, the next big match is Korea v Uzbekistan on the 24th! the big teams keep on coming . . .