I hope you're enjoying the pictures so far. I'm adding a few more now.
Over the long Ch'usok weekend, we made it to two SK Wyverns baseball games. They lost the first one but won the second in a 12-inning game. It was a lot of fun. Tickets were only $3 and beer was only $2.50 per can.
Some of our Canadian friends took advantage of the one white guy in center field on the other team and heckled him without mercy. It was a great show, especially when the guy turned around and threw a ball at them. Don't worry, it missed.
To answer Pauline's questions, the food at the game is similar in some regards and VERY different in others. Of course there's beer and other soft drinks, as well as Gatorade (the only flavor in Korea is lemon) and slushies. They also have chicken sandwiches and potato chips.
The different foods range from things like noodle bowls to various weird vegetables that I didn't even ask about. They also have some nut and candy mixes as well as a sweet waffle with whipped cream and honey smothered on it.
The stadiums was fairly empty on Saturday and a little more full on Sunday. Dan said he's seen it packed, which is probably true. The fans are rowdy like English soccer fans. The only thing is, if they're not in the middle of a song or chant, you can hear a pin drop. That's when we liked to yell.
Also, while the level of play is decent, their is almost NO hustle play. If a guy thinks he'll be out at first, he jogs down the line. And you almost NEVER see a player dive. We were fortunate to see the SK shortstop make a great diving catch, but things like that are rare.
Last night, when we got back from the game and were hanging outside, a guy approached Dan, Mike and I. The guy, an American, offered to sell a scooter to us for $50. I was skeptical, of course.
He said his wife doesn't want him to drive it anymore, and stressed that he can sell it so cheaply because he makes so much money. Regardless, Mike and Dan pitched in and bought it.
It's kind of beat up but is a real motor scooter with a lot of pickup to it. It really moves when you crank it. I guess anything can happen here. It's almost surreal sometimes. Mike kept saying, "I can't believe I just bought a scooter."
He's a little afraid to drive it back to our neighborhood from Dan's, however. Even though it would only take about 10 minutes, drivers here are totally insane. Not to be toyed with for sure.
On Monday we started the International Wiffleball Championship between the USA and Canada. Four Americans took on three Canadians in the first game of a seven-game series. Needless to say, it was a morale-crushing 7-4 victory for the Americans.
It was 7-0 going into their last at bat, and they got a couple runs while our pitcher fatigued a bit. He didn't care about the score at that point, and just was throwing heat for strikeouts. Keep waving those flags for us back home. Three more games to go for the championship.
Back to Pauline's questions -- No Koreans have really talked about the stuff involving Kim Jong-il thus far. Of course, maybe they're just not telling anything to the western teachers. A few of us have talked about it briefly, but no one is concerned right now about any governmental power struggle. The climate, I think, is always a little shaky, but people don't seem concerned in any way about any of it right now.
All the Americans and Canadians in the pictures I'm taking are teachers at the various private academies in Incheon. Five of them actually live in the same building in Dan's neighborhood. Three Americans, including me, live in my neighborhood. Two of us live in my building, and one is across the street.
Mike and I were chatting about it today, and about how it feels a little bit like an extension of college. The western teachers all know each other in one way or another. We all make decent money and have a lot of free time to really explore the area. It's not uncommon to go out during the week to see each, like it might be back home if we were just in whatever profession we entered after college.
Best of all is that we all do the same thing at different schools, so we can all talk about our work experiences. It's a nice support system and its own little community over here in South Korea. The veteran teachers are always willing to impart their knowledge on the constantly revolving new teachers.
As far as the address of the school goes, I don't know the exact way to write it yet. Also, if you'd like to send me a letter, you should write the Korean and English address on the label. It will leave the US for sure if it's in English, but once it gets here, it might not be readable by some typical mail sorter. I'm still working on figuring it all out. If you want to send a test letter, feel free. I wouldn't send anything valuable yet, though. We wouldn't some Korean mailman to go home with something extra from your letters to me.
I posted some more pics of my apartment, pics of Dan's neighborhood, wiffleball pics and some pics from the second Wyverns game. Enjoy!
Wyverns
Apartment
Dan's neighborhood of Yeonsu-gu
Wiffleball Championships
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