Unwitnessed Dedication

I’ve mentioned before that Korean football is not well attended. There is another example.

Suwon City is currently playing in the Seoul World cup stadium while their own older stadium is being renovated. Also known as Big Bird, it is the home off the much larger Suwon Samsung Bluewings. being an FC Seoul supporter I know this stadium mostly through my my visits on derby days when 20,000 people is considered low.

But when you visit to watch a second tier match you can't expect to get those numbers. I’d say 2,000 spectators would be a good day for Suwon City. It doesn't matter though. Players are used to this and still try their hardest, like a good sportsman should, to beat the team that are in front of them.

I hope to see them at their own stadium some day, because it is just not the same here when the Chickenwings aren't hosting FC Seoul.

Image taken with a Samsung Galaxy S4, edited with Snapseed.

Where Humens Do Their Things

Some Friday Afternoon Konglish for you.

In this case not really Konglish, just bad spelling, on a poster, in an area where most people who visit Seoul will walk at some point.

This was the poster for the exhibit at the Sejeong Art Center in Gwanghwamun. The Korean 사람 means Person or Human, so I'm quite confident that is what they were going for. Amazing how one letter can make a word look so odd.

No, if only I could get my own spelling to function properly.

Baby steps to courtesy

It doesn't always work, but they try.

This was a sign on the floor at a subway station in Seoul. It was pointing at a narrow escalator, and a similar sigh with a fit man was pointing to the wide stairs. I'm guessing they're trying to say that preference to use the escalator should be given to frail folk.

I've no idea if this works though. Most people in Seoul, indeed in Korea, are very much in their own bubbles where nothing exist that they don't want to pay immediate attention to. They will not notice you right next to them until they literally trip over our feet and they will certainly not notice a sign like this that is not physically shoved in their faces.

I've noticed that the subways are trying to teach people general courtesy though, so maybe this will eventually become common sense.

Even when you get of the train

Creative reuse of materials can be a beautiful thing.

Fine, maybe beautiful is a bit of a stretch, but this is still very cool. What we have here is something they did in the now renovated City Hall Station in Seoul, which, I must say, is much better to walk in than used to be.

I didn't see it at first, but then my friend pointed it out to me. The seat in the image is in the waiting area outside the public toilets. It's an old subway car seat. Nice, huh? They didn't recycle it in the break-it-down-and-make-something-new way, but basically kept it as is and just reused it.

It's nice when small things like this can bring pleasure or interest.

Out of place relaxation

Sometimes when you mix every day things in Korea you get odd sights.

This little bar/coffee shop is not exactly usual for Korea, but its shiny new look would fit right into many parts of Seoul, like Myeongdon, Gangnam, or most of the university areas. What makes it stand out here is that it is inside Namdaemun market.

Namdaemun Market, like most markets in Korea, does not strive to be pretty. It strives to be efficient at making money, cheaply and with hard work. It's filled with locals looking for something specific, tourist who get in the way as they stand, and stare and vendors watching people walk by, hoping for some patronage. It is not exactly a place where you expect to see something that looks like it belongs on a beach in, I don't know, Spain.

This idea is actually very interesting and space efficient. It would be interesting to see if it takes of.

The Sequence of Events

Today's post will have more than just one photo. More than two, even. Today's post has a series of photos that are not easy to separate.

Last weekend I went to Hwaseong City to watch Hwaseong FC play Seoul United. It was a very one sided game and the goal in this sequence, just 4 minutes in, was a sign of things to come.

With the initial back and forth that you find in almost all games, the ball eventually made its way towards the general are of the Seoul United goal.

The Seoul player either missed the ball, or decided to let it bounce before playing it. Either way, the ball passed him to start off a sequence of small events that would end in a goal for Hwaseong.

Seeing the ball pass his last defender, the Seoul keeper decided to come forward to collect the ball. Whether or not that was the correct decision is for you to decide.

Unfortunately for everyone Seoul Side, the Hwaseong player read the situation quicker than either the defender or keeper did and was fast on the reaction trigger.

He was around his defender before said defender knew what was happening, and put the softest of touches on the ball to knock it out of the path of the onrushing keeper.

All that was left to do was to keep his cool and send the ball rolling towards the wide open goal.

And roll it did. Slowly, but surely.

Rolling, with not a single player around to change the outcome.

Rolling, over the line.

Rolling, all the way into the back of the net to score the first goal of the match. The first of seven, in fact, six of which would go in for Hawseong.

All the world's this stage.

The as yet small 5th grade class taking their work outside to enjoy the lovely weather.

It's nice to see someone using the little stage out near the front of the school because until this I've never seen anyone on it. It’s the perfect size for a small group of students to do whatever needs to be done and there is just the right amount of seating for everyone to have a good view.

I wonder if we can create a decent activity that will require students to take the stage. Doing it in autumn would be great, just after the worst of the heat breaks, and before the nip in the air arrives. That should give me a good 2 day window to work with, I think.

Internet search for “short play ideas” activated…

We will eat you out.

"Bank with us. We are more than just cunning linguists."

A poster on the subway was advertising a bank, I think. I honestly didn't have enough time to see everything because it was my stop and I had to get off or get trampled. The photo was taken in the seconds I had before people started moving, hence the blur.

The poster had 4 or 5 girls, I don’t remember, sitting on each other’s necks. I’m guessing it’s some sort of K-Pop group, because marketing here seems almost incapable of functioning without the use of a celebrity, major or minor. The girl at the bottom is making what I guess is one of her normal “cute” poses. Unfortunately that cure pose just does not have the non-meaning to everyone on the train.

Interesting how an innocent gesture can mean something completely different to someone else.

Conformity is for the weak!

Being in a larger city area I naturally have access to better public training facilities. Being public, everyone else had access to the same facilities.

Gunpo’s public sports stadium had a nice artificial turf pitch and a small all seater stand. I’m not sure of the details, but I think you can rent it for your own football games. When I went to watch my school’s girls play dodgeball about a week ago I took a moment to photograph this casual game in progress.

The shirts were probably the best part. There seemed to be no standard. You could have your name in Roman or Hangeul. You didn't even have to use your real name. And if the names were not flexible enough, you seemed you were allowed basically any number you wanted. My favourite was the less than full number 0.9, closely followed by the giant number 109.

I might have to rethink my number for Touch Rugby. Maybe change from 42 to 3.14.




     

Korea 0 - 1 Tunisia

A couple of weeks back I was invited to the Korea vs. Tunisia match. The seats weren't great, but they were free and it was the first time I'd sat in that area.

First things that struck me what that the Tunisian players were all white. Yes, I know Tunisians are white, but even as a white African I always forget that North Africa is not actually populated by Negroids. I've been to Tunisia. Why is this still new to me?

The match itself was rather uneventful and if this game, along with the other World Cup warm up games are anything to go by, then Korea will be lucky to get even a single win in Brazil. Of Korea’s 5 games just before the world cup, they lost for and somehow managed to beat Greece. Oh well.

There are still many weeks left before FC Seoul will have a home game, so it will be a while before I get to return here.

Hwaseong Sports Complex

Hwaseong FC was playing Seoul United in Korea’s Challengers League and that seemed like a perfect opportunity to go see Hwaseong Sports Complex, the new very high tech looking structure in Hwaseong City.

The complex is a large, expensive looks business with the football pitch and athletics track taking centre stage. As I've mentioned recently, this 35,000 seated stadium is very rarely used and you have to wonder why it was even built. I can see a city of about 550,000 people filling it easily, IF they had a serious team and an interest in football that surpasses even Seoul or Suwon.

I’m glad to say that they only football team that plays in the complex does not play in that massive stadium, but on the practice pitch with artificial turf. The 3000 odd seater stand next to that pitch is perfect for small crowds, like the 300 or so people that might turn up for a Saturday match.

This photo is real, but the way. I took it with my phone from the 15th floor of an apartment building just across the road. The structure itself and Snapseed created the computer graphics effect.

Ghosts in the Stadiums

Korea has many stadium and the list of those that I've visited is slowly growing.

The first image is of Anyang stadium, last Friday, where I saw one of the most remarkable goals I will ever see live at a game. A player lobbed the ball over the out of position keeper, all the way from inside his own half. The stadium can hold just over 17,000 and because of it’s size it means that Anyang has the highest percentage average attendance in it’s league (Almost everyone was sitting on the stand where I took the photo from). Stadiums of 20,000 or lower make sense in Korea.

The second image is if Icheon City Stadium, located in the middle of nowhere with only an amateur team in residence. The most they are likely to get to enter their 25,000 seater stadium is 200 comatose fans. This for a city with only 200,000 people. And they are not alone. Gangneung, a city on the East coast, has about the same population and a stadium for 35,000 people. Hwaseong Stadium is a hyper modern 35,000 seater with only an amature team to keep it company.

Currently only 4 teams in the whole country has an average of more than 10,000 people per game, and only one goes over 20,000, so you have to wonder what they were thinking when they built on these ghost stadiums. (Sometimes they get to hold internationals, but that is once in a blue moon. )

Man Toilets

This is a Man Toilet! Aaaaaaaarg!

No boys allowed. Certainly no girls allowed! Only real men come in here. Men with beards, carrying pints of beer, while eating flame grilled sausage. And they don’t wash their hands when they come out. Only girls and girly boys wash their hands after handling their large...urinary devices. Aaaaaarg!

This is the sign inside the Compact Smarty City [Centre] in Sondo, Incheon. If you’re ever in the area, suggest giving that particular building a miss. The 5D film, as the stupid name would suggest, is very unimpressive. At least there is an information centre right next door.

Excuse me. I must get back to doing man stuff.

Impromptu Masks

Our school had a fire demonstration.

I'm not sure if this is normal for elementary schools, but this is our second fired drill in less than two years. Will we be having one of those ever year? This was not the norm at my middle school. If this will become the standard then Korea has come a long way. Of course, it might be part of the backlash of the recent ferry disaster in which the general blase attitude towards safety in this country was exposed in the worse possible way.

In this image we see the Kindergartners holding their hands over their noses. I suppose it was in response to a bit of smoke from the demo fire blowing their way. I'm also guessing the teacher is trying to teach them to cover their inhalation holes to keep out the dirty stuff. It is a great start, but later they will have taught that holding their hands there will not actually do anything, and that they will need to get wet cloths to filter out the smoke. If they are not taught that then they will grow up thinking this is good enough, and then teach this to the next generation of little humans.

At least fun was had and the children actually learned something.

Pancoat

A few of my students are walking around wearing t-shits with really cute characters on them, but until a few days ago I had no idea where they bought them.

Turns out they buy them from a shop called Pancoat. It seems to be a Korean company originating in Busan. The currency is in USD, but most of the models on the site look very Korean and apparently it became famous here because a few celebrities wore some of their stuff. I saw one girl wear this the other day. I don't know she thought she was wearing, but let's hope no celebrity gets caught with it on.

Korea and it's obsession with celebrities... Walking down the street you'll notice that almost every brand uses an actor or singer on their posters to promote their product. It's so prevalent that I believe it when people tell me that advertising is what earns K-Pop entertainers most of their income. You can see why companies use them though. It's estimated that a product will sell as much as 40% better when it's associated with a celebrity.

Anyway, don't you just love the way these shirts here are packed, without a celebrity next to it?

Dreary Sunshine

The seasons come and go, dragging the cycles of blooming flowers along with it.

Most flowers in Korea seem to be really short lived. Cherry blossoms for example, start sprouting slowly. Then, as if by some sort of magical agreement, all the trees burst forth together, blooming for all they’re worth. Before a week is out though, they start fading, almost as fast as an Olympic pace setter.

These little rays of sunshine recently bloomed next to the train tracks. In the thickest strip next to Gwanak Station, I captured this patch. I’d planned to take photos from the station platform with my larger camera, but the view was just not what I had hoped for. The phone, however, did a decent job of capturing the bit of beauty on an otherwise dreary commute into Seoul.

Too bad they will have vanished in a week or two.

The New: Rice Burgers

There is a newish kind of food in town and it's called a rice burger.

According to the posters and menu images it's supposed to be two nice disks formed with rice with your selected filling inside. It's a burger in which rice replaces bread. Easy peasy.

In practice the, thing, you receive resembles the item on the menu in the same way McDonalds burgers resemble the images on McDonalds menus. It basically just ends up being something like a warmed up triangle kimbab, but with the seaweed wrap removed.

It is not horrible, but not worth the money. (I still have to try other restaurants, though.)

Ansan Station Market

After a disappointing outing to a non-existent racing event, I decided on a late lunch at Ansan Station Market. I had to go past there to get home, so why not use the opportunity, right?

I'm not sure what the rest of Ansan is like, but the market area at the station is a hub for peoples from all around the Eastern part of the Asian continent. It is known for vendors who sell food and wares from the home countries of the various people milling about, as well as a large collection of non-Korean restaurants that cater largely to the nationals from these same countries.


I ended up having a meal at what I think was a Vietnamese restaurant, tasty, before making my way slowly through the market back towards the station.

Something that strikes me every time I’m in a place like this is the meat on display. It's never at safe temperatures, and it's always displayed in ways that would make many a Westerner shiver in disgust.


Any idea why they thought it a good idea to display the pic’s head like this? That is indeed the tongue, if you were wondering.


The next image is of dog meat. I have no moral qualms about eating dog meat. I understand that many people see dogs only as a pets, but for a few hundred million people the very idea of eating beef is disgusting and immoral. Strange that we somehow rationalise that as something of no concern. What does bother me is how they animals are killed. People who eat the meat tend to be older folk, and they are often of the more superstitions, uninformed types out there. They still believe that by beating the animal before you kill it, you improve the taste. Apparently it has something to do with the adrenalin. This is, of course, a rubbish theory.

There are markets in Korea that sell dog meat. I have never been to one, but I have heard stories. Carcasses on top of the cages of live animals. The smell of burnt off hair that hangs in the air. And the cries of dogs being tortured before they are killed.


I have never actually seen dog meat being sold in a market though. Not in Korea, or any of the other Asian countries that are known to eat it. And I can assure you that I have been into many markets to see what they look like.

Not everything at Ansan Station Market was disgusting though. Most of the food and wares were rather normal to my eyes, although I can’t say anything about the taste :)