So, it appears to be May already whch makes it five whole months I've been living over in this part of the globe. Obviously I feel more settled in then ever but I'm still constantly finding out more and more about this city (I now know where to go should I feel the urge to cook tagliatelle etc.) and the daily embarrassment of not speaking much Korean slowly becomes yet another mundane event in my existance in Seoul. Before, when I would get bashful at old ladies giving out to me in various situations, now I just smile, nod and get on with what I was doing.
I've been doing my best to try and find places in Seoul that I've never been to before and recently I came upon an area right beside downtown that's full of Hanok (Korean traditional housing). It was the most bizarre feeling, walking around these tiny streets with wooden traditional Korean homes, literally a few hundred meters from the busy hustle and bustle of downtown Seoul. The pictures here show what it looks like from both angles. It's really nice to find small little getaways from the busy city, within the busy city. I also recently went hiking up Mt. Bukhansan (836m) which is a mere 10 minutes on the subway and another 10 minutes on a bus from my apartment. Hiking up the mountain really makes you feel like you're so far away from the city.
The weather is getting really nice over here now, acrtually sometimes it's a little too nice. It was 25 degrees last Sunday and we had a game on a pitch larger than the one we're used to. Nedless to say it was tough work as the sweat poured and tempers flared but we managed to overcome all these antagonies to triumphantly win 0-0. The team are actually doing quite well, this nil all game actually put us second in the league, having been first as a result of a win the previous week to knock the title holders off their perch.
Last weekend I also decided to take advantage of the good weather and make my way to the west sea islands off Incheon. On Saturday we got to Muuido at about noon from the ferry at Incheon that takes literally about 5 minutes and booked into a beach hut for pretty cheap on Hanagae Beach. At this point let me make something known about the Korean people, they do everything together, all at once or not at all. Since it's not technically the vacation season yet we more or less had the entire beach to ourselves, apart from another small group of foreigners. There were a few Koreans around during the day and an older bucnch of them looked like they were getting two teams of soccer together. Dying for a bit of beach football we asked if we could join them.The next two hours was spent playing soccer-baseball and then running up and down the beach blindfolded, wearing hanbok (Korean traditional dresses) which is apparently a popular game with the Korean 40somethings. When they were leaving they gave us a case of beer and coffee as a parting gift. Just then we say some younger Koreans actually playing beach soccer so we challenged them to a game, foreigners vs. Koreans and won 37-3 or somewhere along the lines. I lost score at some point during the game, don't ask me why. Later, after some seafood we joined the other foreigners to mooch off their camp-fire, share some drinks and sing songs until late into the night. A great weekend altogether.
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