Hey all, I just want to begin with what a weekend! The weather was phenomenal, pretty much perfect playing conditions, an extremely well put together tournament and a great weekend getaway as well. The first picture is of my teamate, Jinyeong, and myself. The second picture is of the stadium where the tournament was held. The stadium previously served as the practice fields for Spain and Turkey during the 2002 World Cup. As most of you can guess, the fields were very well kept, definitely some of the best fields I've ever played on. So, Friday afternoon I got to leave school early so I could catch the airport bus from Suwon to Gimpo. I got a little nervous when we got caught in some rush-hour Crosstown Traffic, but I arrived at the airport with a little time to spare. The efficiency of Korean airports is incredible. I went through check-in and security in under 10 minutes. I landed in Jeju-do a little before 9 pm and endured the hour-long bus ride to the tournament hotel. There was a nice mingling session for all the tournament participants at the hotel, which went on for a while before everyone headed off to their rooms to grab some shut-eye. There were teams from Guam, Japan, Taiwan, and a few players from the Philippines. The Madison contingency was also pretty well represented and the team from Guam included the woman who christened the women's team (Belladonna) at Wisconsin. Our team was made up of last minute signees, so other than Dave, I didn't know anyone else beforehand, but that didn't seem to matter. We had a South African guy who worked in Taiwan on our team, but other than him, the rest of us were based out of South Korea. I can't remember being on a team that had never played together before and performing so well at a tournament. Thankfully, we lucked out on Saturday and got to sleep in until 8 am, due to a bye (our first game wasn't until 10 am). In the first game we were just trying to figure out what everyone's skill sets were and what positions people were comfortable playing. That being said, our team came out strong and won the first game handedly, despite some miscommunications. Our other two games on Saturday were closer, but we came out on top of our pool and set ourselves up for an early morning crossover game to play into the A bracket (the top teams at the tournament). After the games were done on Saturday, there was a special event scheduled, which turned out to be the first Ultimate Frisbee wedding I've ever witnessed. No joke, two of the players from Seoul exchanged vows in front of their friends and a lot of strangers. After the ceremony, we went back to the hotel and then onto dinner and the tournament party. The food for dinner was great! We were served chicken filets, seafood risotto, mushroom risotto, mashed potatoes and some more goodies. Basically everything you could want to fill that glycogen window after a hard day's work out on the field. The party was a lot of fun as well and it was another good opportunity to meet some new people. Eventually, everyone made their way back to the hotel to get some rest in for Sunday.We had an early morning wake up for our crossover game and it took a few points for us to shake off the rust, but we put together another solid game and moved up to the A pool. Unfortunately, playing on a team that hasn't really trained for a tournament meant that halfway through our second game on Sunday, most of us were losing our legs and feeling the effects of two hard days of work. We finished the tournament 4-2, taking 8th place, which was a pretty good result given our unfamiliarity with each other at the start. After we finished on Sunday, a few of us headed to the jjimjibang to loosen up and clean off, which was excellent, I wish I could've done this after every tournament in college. I realized that since I had my camera with me I should probably take some pictures of Jeju, although it was a little bit overcast on Sunday. The fields were situated in a pretty unique area. From the top of the bleachers, you could look up the hill and see Hallasan, the famous mountain and volcano on Jeju-do. If you looked down, you could see the World Cup Stadium and the ocean far off below. Anyways, here are some of the photos I took. If you look closely, you can kinda make out Hallasan in the background of the second picture.
Yes, I did stumble across a baseball game and was milliseconds late on capturing an outfield collision in left-center field. My flight back was just fine as well and the last two days of school have been fine. Tomorrow is Children's Day here, so no school for me or the students. Today, the students received gifts from all their teachers, including me (I just gave them candy). The response was incredible, I don't think I've heard so many students tell their teachers that they love them ever. That's all from my end, I'm looking forward to the DJ Festival that I'm going to this Saturday, should be a great time and the weather looks like it'll continue to be great.
This month, I'll be giving everyone a little sample of the awesome new music that is coming out right now. This week's choices are the new Broken Social Scene album Forgiveness Rock Record and the new Hold Steady album Heaven is Whenever.
Enjoy:
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