joshua tree: July 2010

last saturday, the shouts of reds became the cries of reds as korea got knocked out of the world cup. had the us and korea both won on saturday, they would've played each other in the next round. this possibility left many of us torn over who we'd cheer for. not me though, cause i was cheering for north korea and north korea only! i thought they were gonna shock the world for sure! and they did, but maybe in the wrong way. 0-8 against portugal.. i only saw the first half when they were only down 0-1, so i have no idea what the heck went wrong in the second. oh well, next time..

in 2002, when korean soccer first jumped onto the world stage, this happened in seoul plaza:

so 8 years later, on opening day (against greece), that's where i would go. the rain came too..

the shouts of reds!

the only other time i cared this badly for a country to win some

world event was in the '08 olympics with the redeem team.

the girls painted their nails red and blue for korea (or for the US you could argue..)

the number of nails you get done represents how korean you are.

or how ballsy or confident you are in your masculinity...

we beat greece 2-0!

Jinju Outer-City High School Teacher's Volleyball Tournament:

yes, there are 9 players on the court

yes, that is a 4-man block

yes, we did win

9-man volleyball is non-sensical. we never rotate. so by playing the center position, i get to both pass and attack. all day. it's just not fair.

prize money: 100,000w ($80)

cost of the dinner for all the players and supporters: over 250,000w

cost of the P.E. teacher (aka setter) saying to me, "This is the first time our school has ever won this tournament. And it will also be our last...": priceless.

next year, foreigners won't be allowed to participate lol.

we also challenged the athletic high school, the winner of the inner-city tournament, but were turned down. word on the street was that they were scared of what losing to a bunch of science teachers might do to their reputation...

almost got run over by this little beast

what i did at school pretty much all year. since morning here is night back home and since

i almost never teach in the morning, mornings in the office have meant nba time =]

speaking of the nba, how awesome were the finals? unfortunately for me, i wasn't able to catch game 7 live. so i devised a plan where i would avoid facebook (since people are always ruining everything with their status updates) and then watch it later. that way i'd get to enjoy it properly. well, i guess i should've stayed away from email too. my mom writes to me, "the lakers did it again!" i didn't even have to open the email to have my great plan spoiled. thanks a lot mom.

later that night, ashley pinney, or an ashley pinney impostor, would also ruin this for me in a text message. korean phones have this silly, non-sensical, capability that allows you to text from a number other than your own. how is this a good idea at all? i still think it was ashley though, no matter how many times she swears it wasn't her...

ashley was definitely responsible for this one though. sprained my

right ankle for the second time in 3 months. out for like 2 weeks.

since i keep getting injured/since i'm getting older, i'm not gonna be able to jump over people for much longer. i have therefore been trying to pick up a new physical talent - handstands. my goal is to be able to walk away from korea with this ability (among no other things).