from Matt Groening

Just for a laugh

World Cup Soccer

On Friday night I went to the World Cup stadium in Seoul to cheer on Korea when they played Switzerland. If you have been following the World cup you'll know that Korea lost the game 2-0. Despite the loss I had a great night. We arrived about 10pm and entertained ourselves and were at 2am entertained by different singers. Kick off was at 4am! It was so much fun cheering the team on and doing the Mexican wave amongst 65,000 other red shirt clad supporters. Ours bags didn't get checked when we went in and although we had alcohol I didn't see anyone causing trouble or drunken louts who always appear at rugby games at home. I felt a lot of respect for the Koreans and their well behaved manner and excellent cheering skills. The tickets were free but people queued up for hours to get hold of one. My friend's friend gave us some so no queuing for us! But I realized that I had been lucky as foreigners were very scarce.

A lone Swiss supporter.

태한민둑 !!!!!

Watching the game as the sun comes up!

Woogi in his cow outfit! A foreigner and a cow must not be common sights as we were photographed a bit and Woogi and I had a T.V interview. We haven't seen any results from it though.

Me in my supporter gear!

Note:I often get asked if I'm taking painting classes or doing any artwork so I have set up a new blog with the painting I'm doing on it. The link is in the side bar.

Decked out in our supporter gear! Fightin' Korea!!!

Supporters getting on the subway after the Korea vs Togo game. Korea won 2-1.

Lunch with some of my adult students. It was yummy!

There was a water birds display at Childrens park. They didn't seem to quite know how to paint NZ. I know that I've been away but surely things haven't changed this much!!!

It looked fun so I joined in.

Poem for Woogi

You have my heart

I want to look after yours

I will think of you first

I'll try not to be selfish

I'll give you all I can

I'll trust you

Cos you have given me no reason

Not to

I will stand by you

Whatever happens

I will love you

With all that I am

Happy Birthday!!!

June 11th

It was a wet and stormy weekend. It thundered and lighteninged nearly all of Saturday. I like stormy weather but got a bit tired of being inside for 2 days. Woogi and I met some of his friends on Saturday night.

Crazy man!

It's Woogi's birthday on Tuesday. When word got out, the people in the surrounding tables gave him somthing to eat or drink. Quite interesting. Here he is polishing off some rice wine - it's not a good translation but I'm not sure really what to call it.

Memorial Day -June 6th

We were lucky to get another holiday this week. The weather was good so Woogi and I went to a park that is in the middle of the Han river. This is my least favourite looking seafood. I don't know what it tastes like and I have no desire to find out!



A trip to the park would never be complete without taking pix of some flowers. Actually I took quite a lot but I won't put them all on. Lotus are amazing plants. I don't know how it can grow from the mud and become so pretty.

Picnicking Seoulites. I took this photo from the bridge looking down. Kiwi's never picnic so close together but then we have more space and less people. I like how each square is like a different story .

Cos play! There were quite a few people walking around dressed up. I look so out of place in this photo. These girls looked pretty neat.

June 4th

Wednesday was local election day and a public holiday. Woogi being the good citizen he is used it like many others to go away somewhere instead of voting. We went to a small island about 3 hours away.

There was a temple there with some excellent paintings under the eaves.

We wanted to go to the beach too but the bus driver didn't stop and we thought we could just get a ride there on the return trip. He wanted uys to give him another fare for it so we decided not to. There were some nice rural scenes to look at anyway.

On Sunday we met with some friends and I got to my first baseball game. The atmosphere is not quite as good as watching the Hawks in Fukuoka but we had fun anyway.

I got my hair straightened again ready for rainy season which is due to start in a few weeks. It was quite fun going to the hairdresser. They were a bit nervous I think. So was I. I didn't want my hair falling out but it seems to be staying attached to my head!

Flower collection

Why take a photo of a peice of wood?

Cos it's a hermit caterpillar!

Though a bit photo shy.

Phil and Yuki were over from Japan for the weekend. It was really nice to catch up with them and have dinner.

I finally made it to the walk behind my house. There are soooo many little paths going off in all directions. I lost my bearings a bit but made it back in one peice. I should have gone earlier - it is a nice area to walk.

It was a partly cloudy day but we had rain last night and it cleared up the sky. Perfect for being able to get pictures of the surrounding area.

Colourful fungi

While I was walking I came across a couple of families taking a photo of the kids on a rock. Unfortunetly for them, when I appeared on the scene the kids lost interest in looking at the camera and all stared at me. One of the fathers offered to take a picture of me with his daughter. I said thank you very much and here we are!

Maple

This owl and sometimes another one have been sitting outside in the trees outside my balcony this week. It is quite amazing to have owls in a city of millions.

There was a festival this week at work. Here some girls are practising for a dance. Korean dance I think.

It was Lizzie's, my friend and office mate's birthday on Saturday. She looks quite dangerous here but she is really a sweetie.

Some new friends. The girl second to right is a co worker and the girl with long hair studied with her at uni in Australia. Neither of them knew the other was in Seoul now so there were some screams of delight when they saw each other, unexpectedly for the first time in a couple of years.

Me with a co worker.

Yuk, that's all, yuk!!!