A kicker of a weekend

This week, as I'm sure you can imagine, Oliver and I were both incredibly homesick. With the kick off of the Soccer World Cup we really wished we could be back in SA watching our country shine!!


Instead...we made every effort to ensure that we got into the soccer fever. I made a couple of attempts on facebook to find other South African teachers who would hopefully be watching the opening ceremony but nothing came of that. So Oliver and I decided to go off to a local sports bar.

Alas, we were the only two souls in the entire place!!! Bummer!! So dressed to the nines in our South African gear we headed across Wonju to the sports grounds...but again..no soccer fever!!! URG! Then we went to a bar which we had heard was popular with foreigners but it was closed. By now we were both getting upset and weren't too sure where to go.


It was in this moment of despair that we stumbled upon a group of foreigners (more commonly refered to as waygooks) chilling outside a GS Mart (similar to a Seven Eleven). A crowd had gathered on the pavement to watch the opening ceremony on GS Mart's big screen TV. So naturally we aquianted ourselves with the waygooks and the night got better and better from there.


We were the only South Africans in the crowd but we stood proud and sang our national anthem on a pavement in Wonju....it was a great moment!


Then we all headed to a local sports bar....suprise suprise...it was the one we were at earlier on in the evening....and there were more waygooks....the atmosphere was definately picking up!


Oh...I almost forgot..Tshabalala you are amazing...you made history...you got the first goal of our world cup!! And it was a beauty!!! Boys...you played so so well!!



Oliver watches the game with sheer determination....

Oh and did I mention we got drunk...very very drunk! Check out the clip below where we try our best to sing the World Cup's official song.

On Saturday it was out of our gold and into red. Despite our monumental hangovers we made our way to Seoul to watch South Korea against Greece. What a cracker! We were surrounded by thousands of people at City Hall in Seoul... the vibe was electric!

It was raining but that didn't dampen the spirits of the locals!!!!

Korean chant

Another korean chant

lead up to the winning moment!

And you know what the best part is...there are three more weeks of soccer madness ahead of us!!!

Post by Claudia

VIVA 2010

VIVA 2010!!!!

This past weekend we got a chance to celebrate the fact that South Africa will be hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup! At the South African braai in Seoul everyone was kitted out with South African memorabilia...everything from South African flags to vuvuzelas and face paint.

There were South Africans everywhere and most of us were barefoot, you have no idea how good that felt! And yes, there was meat...lots of meat!!!Mmmmmm

It felt like home!

On our way to the braai we saw things that made us realise that the rest of the world is also excited about the upcomming world cup!!! The excitement....yeah...on Saturday we got a glimpse of what I imagine South Africa must be like at the moment! Crazy soccer fever!

First up...Zakumi!

Then we saw on of the Hyundai balls....covered with signatures

And then we wrote down our wishes and dreams for the World Cup

We love you South Africa and we wish you the best of luck for the massive festival heading your way. For all of you back home...I hope you enjoy every minute of it!!!

This is South Africa's turn to shine....although we can't be there is person, we are there in spirit!

GOOD LUCK...we will be watching!!!! MAKE US PROUD!!! Whooohooooo

Post by Claudia

Our Seoul experience!

As I mentioned in my previous entry, our weeks have become pretty standardised but as for our weekends ... who knows!!!

Well this past weekend we headed off to Seoul for the Lotus Lantern Light Festival which is held every year a week before Buddha's birthday. What an experience!

Seoul is massive, but I mean MASSIVE. There are high rise buildings everywhere and it has a vibrancy about it that I expect you would find in any big city.

We decided to use the subway to get to where we were going. Looking like real tourists I had my Lonely Planet Book at hand and we were trying to figure out how the subway system worked. After a while of looking a little confused a man approached us and offered to help. What a nice guy. But then he whipped out a book about how to be saved or something .... we soon realised that every foreigner was being targeted. Heehe!

Eventually we figured out where we where heading. Once there we realised just how big this festival really was. People were everywhere. We walked around for the next hour or so trying to find accommodation. After being turned away a couple of times we landed with our bread in the butter. We got a clean room with a double bed and bathroom for close to nothing!!! whooop whooop.

After such an eventful morning we were hungry ... super hungry. After Chrissie and Rob joined us we went for some grub! YUM! The pic below is what was left once we were done. You have to love all the side dishes





We then headed off to Changdeokgung Palace which was amazing!


I set up my gorilla pod in an attempt to get a photo of all of us jumping in front of the palace but it went off too soon and instead we all just ended up looking constipated.

While walking we stumbled across this!!! Hell yeah!!! This kind of stuff really makes me miss home! Bring on the world cup! Whoop whoop!

We tried our hand at some arts and crafts. These flowers are Lotus flowers, hence, the Lotus Lantern Festival.

Oliver has all the amazing pics of the event!!! I just have the cute pics of us ... so here are some of them!

Oli has like a gazillion phots to work through ... once he is done I am sure he will post photos which will blow your mind.

I tried my hand at filming .. heehe. I used my little camera to film so that I could give you just a small taste of what the atmosphere was like when the main lantern parade started. It was really festive. Enjoy!

Post by Claudia