Soccer

So anyway I should probably fill you all in on what i've been up to this past few weeks. You won't be surprised to discover that I have found out how to bet on premierhip football in Korea. Technically, gambling is illegal in Korea, but you can particpate in the 'Soccer Lottery' whereby you select results instead of numbers and then choose your stake.

There is this one bar where I have a beer alone and watch sports after work to avoid going straight home and there are these three Korean students from the university who work there almost every night. So I go in there wearing my Arsenal shirt one night and one of them clocks it and comes running towards me grinning like we were long lost pals. I learnt early on that the name of a football team pretty much passes as a greeting out here so this guy is wagging his finger at my chest like van Persie on a hat trick and saing 'Arseenal' over and over. So these guys end up sitting at my table and we're all looking at the weekend fitures and after a while I realise they want me to tell them what to bet on. The problem is that everthing is written in Korean. It turns out that this was exactly the motivation that I needed to start learning Hangul (Korean alphabet). Anyway, the first words I could speak in Korean were 'annyong haseyo' which means hello. The first thing I learnt to write was 'Aston Villa'. Incidentally, 'Sunderland' must sound like the Korean for 'knobcheese' or something because every time I say it they crack right up.

Anyway, in a strange kind of way I think these three dudes are probably my best friends out here. Our conversations involve saying the names of teams to each other but I get free beers and snacks now so i'm happy.