LostSeouls:Diary  

When you're naturally disorganised it's difficult trying to remember important dates back home- I totally missed Father's Day until Dave Letterman made a joke about it on TV a few days later, which is no good to me since I've got to be a few days ahead of the game to send things by mail.
The next big dates on the calendar are the birthdays of my Sister's two eldest kids, and for the last few days/weeks I've been buying things here and there that I think they might like. Haven't seen them since February so I'm hoping Sophie still likes things that are pink and girly (she'll be 8) and Jamie is still into anything violent and action packed (he'll be 6)- if there have been any massive changes I suppose they can always switch presents.

As far as I know, the kids don't read this site, so I'll put up a sneak preview of what they're getting.

There are about a billion stickers, a pencil case that has loads of computer games built in, novelty pens, pencils, rubbers and highlighters plus a bracelet with her name on it in 'diamonds'

It was actually a lot easier buying for a girl than for boys, I expected to be swept away on a tidal wave of robots, lasers and guns, but perhaps the university area I live in isn't really geared up for that kind of stuff. I was actually getting a bit panicky until I found a hoard of plastic gun fun in the basement of the airport.

A cool helicopter, the blades actually turn round and it makes machine gun noises- this is the end of the box- it's big.

Ace spiderman wallet that I'm not 100% sure I'm sending (cos I want it)

Feel free to guess how much you think the postage is going to be, nothing's particularly heavy, but the helicopter alone is the size of a clown's shoe box. Good luck trying to fit that through the letter box postie!

Note to Korean types- you might have noticed that some of the blogs you normally look at aren't working. The K government has blocked blogspot.com and a few others because some people were showing footage of that Korean guy being beheaded- don't know when they'll be back.

Back to working full days. I don't understand the way these things work, there must be some discussion about it between those in the know, but the first thing I hear is when someone mentions it in passing as I'm packing up by bag to leave work.
I did manage to postpone going back to normal hours until after England's match against Portugal- which since it ended at 6:30 am Korean time was just as well. Some of the guys at the office know a lot about World football- I'm not sure exactly how much they knew (or cared) before the World Cup was held here, but now they can tell me in annoying detail what I'm doing wrong when I play, and why David Beckham should have scored both his recent penalties.
They're dead keen on using the word "Fighting" when talking about footy, but not in the hooligan- "Ah we've lost, better throw some plastic chairs through a shop window" kind of way. In Konglish it seems to mean strength of spirit, courage, determination- and since there's no "F" sound in Korean, they'll say stuff like "England- highting is very strong!", before every match our team gets in a circle and shouts "HIGHTING!"- I still can't do it with a straight face.

OK- no more football talk now.
Friday was Club Day, I met up with a load of people, drank some frozen soju cocktails (flavours include Yogurt, Mango and Aloe- i.e. the stuff they put in shampoo) and headed to Hodge Podge. This club has got the most hit and miss music policy you've ever heard. The dance remix of "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" was bad enough, but how can you follow up the classic "No Diggity" by Blackstreet with New Kids On The Block?! Downstairs at M2 was much more my sort of thing- loud repetitive dance music, you can't beat it. I thought I'd pulled at one point when this Korean girl started dancing up to me, but when I started talking to her, she made a point of introducing me to two of her male friends- both of whom were also with girls. It was all a bit weird, so I hid under a table 'till she'd gone.

Sunday was the big event though- Canada Day, booze, BBQ and a band all day. Practically everyone I know out here is from the land of Maple Syrup and funny hats, so it's quite an achievement that only one of them managed to get a ticket in time to go to the event, I ended up going with Stephen who's from Ireland which I suppose is a bit closer to Canada than me. The weather was bright squinty sunshine, the food pretty damn good, and the beer 2,000 won (1 pound) a bottle. Because the event was held inside the UN compound there was a security check at the door where you supposed to have a photo ID that matched the name on your ticket. I had Gray's ticket (he's sick- get well soon mate) and no ID, so had to go through a rigorous questioning process to prove I wasn't going to blow the place up- here's how it went

Burly guy with a moustache: "What country are you from?"
Me: "England"
Burly guy with a moustache and sunglasses: "OK- what's the capital of England?"
Me: "Umm, London"
Burly guy with a moustache, sunglasses and shorts: "That's fine, on you go."
Me: "!"

Afterwards we went to Gecko's in Itaewon to meet up with all the people who didn't get tickets in time, and also Gecko's Garden where we had to wait so long for our food that I complained and got two free bottles of wine. Whilst we do like to moan amongst ourselves, English people would never normally cause such a scene in a public place - maybe I'm turning Canadian eh?

 22 June

For some reason I can't work out, the people here at the airport have decided I don't need to work all day anymore, instead I come in just after lunch and leave a bit later than my normal time- as you'd expect this has happened during one of those spells where every day springs up a load of problems and/or difficult questions about how the software here works, so I've been really busy right throughout most of the short days so far. Still though, it gives me extra time to sleep in after staying up late to watch Euro2004 football matches, so in that way has come at the perfect time.
As if that feast of footy wasn't enough, I'm still playing on Friday nights with the guys from work. For months now I've been trying to explain that even though I'm from England I'm actually crap at football, and especially trying to actually score goals. When I'm allowed to play with mates back home they make me wear a collar that gives me an electric shock every time I cross the halfway line. It finally seems to be sinking in, since during Friday's match I played on the right of midfield instead of as the lone striker, although since I scored with the weakest 20 yard shot you'll ever see, I'll probably be back up front again next week.

Playing from 7 till 10pm doesn't leave much energy left for drinking on Friday nights , and there was no way I was going to make it to a club. Instead I checked out a jazz bar in Hongdae where an amazing singer was running through India Arie and Norah Jones songs. She had an incredible voice, and the guy playing with her on guitar was fantastic too, I'll be going back there soon.

On Saturday Sam was celebrating getting the replacement Visa card for the one she lost a few weeks ago (banks in England don't charge for this the first 5 times or so, but Sam's lost hers so many times it costs her 30 quid each time) so we went out to a very fancy restaurant at the top of the Millenium Building. This is a 33 storey triangular block at the top of Jong-No (one of the main streets in Seoul) it has some of the best views of the city- or would have if it wasn't chucking down with rain when we were there.
The food was fantastic, and western style, in fact the only Korean thing about the menu was the fact that absolutely none of the dishes (except the puddings) were vegetarian. It was cool though, Sam just had three desserts.

After that we went to a cool little bar in Insa-dong and had so much lemon soju that I became convinced I'd lost my cell phone- we called it up several times, checked everwhere, and even ended up retracing our steps the following day to see if anyone had handed the thing in. It wasn't until Sunday night that I realised it had been in my jacket pocket the whole time, setting a new record for stupidity.

Staying up last night for the England vs Croatia game had to be done, but since it finished at 5.45 am I'm not convinced it was a great idea. There is however one guy out here who is so into the whole thing that he's watching every game in the tournament, which means not only coping with a sleep pattern explicitly banned by the Geneva convention, but also trying to make sense of watching two separate games on two separate TVs, each with Korean commentary.
Respect.

Stinking Korean TV mooks

The time difference between Korea and Portugal is 8 hours- a fact that the organisers of the Euro2004 tournament blatantly and selfishly ignored when scheduling the games.
The England vs Switzerland game was to be the only one that was on at something like a reasonable time- 1am. However, some kimchi chewing klutz at MBC decided that a late night talkshow featuring a load of bastards in suits spouting on about something or other for all eternity was more important than showing what everyone clearly wanted to see. Instead I listened to the BBC commentary of the game over the Internet, and cycled continously through the channels on my TV (there's a surprising amount of korean porn on at 1am on a Thursday night).
Helen over in Gangneung was a bit of a nightmare too- she'd managed to raise a bit of interest amongst her group of mates and was at a bar which had promised to let them watch the match- obviously this wasn't happening, so she was caught between wondering if coverage was about to start at any minute, or going home and listening online.

Eventually the rumour came through that MBC were going to start their coverage an hour late, showing the first half as the second was being played.
So what do you do? Turn the commentary off and patiently sit biting your nails for 30 minutes waiting for the visuals? Listen to the commentary, but then try and act surprised when the TV shows the same stuff? Go mental, smash all the mirrors in the room and use the shards to carve the words "MBC EXECUTIVES HAVE PUSHED ME TOO FAR" into the belly of a stray dog? I flipped a 3-sided coin and went for option number 2.

Aaaanyway, here are a load of pictures of the interminably dull things I see on my way to work- Incheon airport is actually built on three islands which are joined together with magic and glue, so a good part of the journey is spent on a huge bridge. Until the railway is finished (in the year 3045 by the look of things) the only way to get here is by road, so the airport authority rakes in the cash at a toll gate which everyone has to pass through. They then wisely spent that money on building a huge turtle shaped dome with what looks like a spaceship on the top.

Web lostseouls.com

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Since moving to Shanghai in 2006,I have kept a new blog called I Spy Shanghai.

Other Blogs

My mate Duncan's round the world trip Also featuring guest rants by an angry irishman.

Owen in New Zealand A mate of mine who, having grown tired of the old Zealand, sold up and moved to the new one.

Around The World On 80 Quid Helen travelled around the world then landed back in somewhere called "London".

Flying Waygooks One to watch- fresh for the 06- y'hear?.

Rory's What Not To Do In Australia, after leaving Korea, Rory is trying to integrate back into normal society. Well, Australia anyway.

Wyatt an American who understands Korean- but will he understand his new Korean wife?

My good buddy Rachel Lynn's site cute kids, boundless enthusiasm and more photos than me. YES!

Oregon farm boy turned Juicy Girl expert American Mark

Shawn's blog. Tragically Shawn is no longer with us, his memoirs of living in Korea are still a great way to see what living there is like though.
Shawn also wrote a book-

Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry British humour. [not based in Korea]

Proper blog celebrity Jason Mulgrew (Adult content warning- he swears more than Rory)

General Korea sites

The Yangpa- it's Korean for Onion...

A fine site for Koreans who want to study in Canada

Random good stuff

[i.e. Where I namecheck all my mates' sites.]

Fat Custard
It's amazing how much good stuff there is on the Internet, and not all of it is porn. Download the magazine you find here and you'll LOL or I'll give you your money back.
ProperTop
Quality Northern (English) Internet humour 'webzine'.
Citizen Erased
Great alternative music site with a busy message board
Beer In The Evening
Pubs, pubs, pubs, england's greatest asset catologued and reviewed.
Richard Massey
One of my best friends went missing from New York City, Christmas 2003. I miss you mate.