Olympic Fever/Back to School

Hey all,

Back with the newest post, focusing on the Winter Olympics and the start of Spring semester here in Korea. The Winter Olympics were great to watch and it worked out perfectly that last week, when all the important things were on (hockey, Kim Yu-Na, etc...) I didn't have anything to do, so I could watch everything I wanted to.

First Olympics story:

After a pretty much unstoppable short program on Wednesday (in Korea), Kim Yu-Na was set up to go for gold in the long program on Friday afternoon (KST) against Asada from Japan, her main rival, and the gutsy Joannie Richette. It just so happened that the long program started just as all the teachers and principals were sitting down for lunch, so naturally we were all glued to the TV from the moment the skaters took to the ice. Eventually we got to the top six skaters, with Kim Yu-Na skating 4th. Her long program was outstanding, nearly flawless and it received a raucous round of applause from all the teachers and myself. While we waited out the last two skaters, we all knew that Kim Yu-Na had won gold and when it was awarded to her, the office went wild!

Second Olympics story:

Saturday afternoon, the Rocky Mountain Tavern, a Canadian bar in Itaewon, was showing both hockey semi-finals on tape delay. First up, USA vs. Finland in an interesting matchup that turned blowout very quickly. A 6-1 final score had the USA riding a wave of confidence into Sunday's final. Next up, Canada vs. Slovakia. Canada jumped out to an early lead but Slovakia came back in the 3rd period before Canada shut the door. 3-2 final score and an epic rematch for world hockey supremacy between Canada and the USA, or as I referred to it, BORDER BATTLE 2010!! We found out that the same bar would be showing the gold medal game live Monday morning at 5 am. Thankfully, Monday was also a national holiday here, which worked out perfectly because I had all of Monday to sleep after the game. Anyways, we joined the crowd for the game around 4 am. There's nothing quite like being amongst your countrymen halfway across the world watching a gold medal showdown. I'll spare you most of the details of the game because I'm positive everyone who's reading this watched most if not all of the game. My two cents on the game; it was an exciting game, basically what any hockey fan on either side could have asked for. Two very good teams, playing some of the best hockey I've seen live, and in the end, the Golden Boy Wonder came through with the game winning goal. Thoroughly enjoyable to watch and for a few hours, hockey was the most important sport on both sides of the border.

Tuesday meant the start of a new semester, but this week has been relatively easy because the students have a lot of first week activities going on and next Tuesday is a big national test so no teaching that day either. I'm looking forward to getting back in the rhythm of teaching. That's all from here for now, made a little Costco run this evening, only to be disappointed that they don't have any hummus or pita chips!

iPod A-Z song update: "The Way Young Lovers Do" by Van "The Man" Morrison