Tuesday, April 26, 2011

MVP

I joined the only women’s soccer team here in Hongcheon. I have been practicing with them now for 2 weeks. It’s really fun to play again on a regular basis. The team seems to be really excited that I’m playing with them. After the first practice with them they took me out for chicken wings and beer. It was great, Haha. The team is pretty awesome; we even have a coach. No one on the team speaks English so it’s hard to communicate but I’ve gotten good at charades and using the English/Korean translation app on my phone. I’ve been slowly teaching them words in English and they try to teach me words in Korean but I forget them all the time. Most of the team is older. I am definitely the youngest one. The oldest person is 44 years old; coach is 35. This weekend we had a tournament in Cheorwon-do. I had no idea going into the weekend that it was a tournament. I just knew we had a game and didn’t know what else to expect. We had two games on Saturday and two on Sunday. We left Hongcheon (where I live) at 6am on Saturday morning. At the tournament there were 4 different girls teams I believe. Our first game, I scored our only goal in regulation and then again in a shootout. We lost in the shootout, which is always a bummer. For lunch we went to a restaurant and had rice and green vegetables with roasted tofu (at least that’s what they got for me). It was really good. Most of the team ate a spicy dish. Koreans love their spice! 
 Lunch!


Our second game I scored 2 goals and had one assist. The second game was so easy, by the end both teams were practically walking up and down the field. I was trying to set up goals for all of my teammates the second half. We ended up winning the game 3-0. In between and after all our games we went to different fields to watch the Hongcheon men’s teams play. There were two different Hongcheon men’s teams at the tournament; one was an older team (60 years old) and one was a middle age-younger team (30-40 years old). Our coach played in one of the games on Sunday. It was fun to watch him play. When we were driving back to the place where we slept, coach got us lost. It was pretty dark out and this place was in a pretty remote spot. We had to drive up and down this extremely hilly off the road path. One of the hills was too steep that we actually all had to climb out of the car and push the van up the hill. Haha. It was very entertaining; the team kept telling me “rollercoaster”. Dinner that night was in a dinning hall setting and it was a buffet. The place we were at was like a little village for people to stay the night in. When you walked into our room there was a tiny kitchenette in a big living room with a TV. There was one bathroom with a shower and then a sleeping room that slept 4. Koreans typically sleep on the floor and that’s what we did. There were blankets to set on the floor (which provided no padding I might add) and then a comforter. I slept in the small room and 4 other girls slept in the living room. There were 11 girls total on the trip so we had two different “hotel” rooms to sleep in. Before bed the girls ordered chicken wings and beer. I don’t know if they really like chicken wings or if they think I really do so that’s what they order all the time. Either way sounds good to me! By the time we got to bed it was close to midnight. 

The place we stayed at, the teal building to the right is the dining hall

Sunday morning we had to get up at 6am… I was so tired all weekend. Whenever I had a chance I went to the van to try to take a nap if someone else was going. Our first game Sunday was at 9am. I believe I scored the only 2 goals that game. Coach had me at forward for all the games and I’m pretty sure told the team to pass to me whenever they got the ball. I don’t speak Korean so I don’t know exactly what he was saying but that’s what it seemed like. We played with 10 players on the field for our games on Saturday (short one player and no subs). I think it was about 30 minute halves. Sunday one more player showed up but she only played for the first game and then had to leave. So the championship game we were down one player which sucked. The weather was pretty good for most of our games except the final championship game. It turned extremely overcast, the sun had gone away and it started to rain. I was freezing. The game was hard, the team we played was super physical and the weather was terrible. They had one girl marking me the whole time, number 13. She was so mean and not too pretty I might add. When we shook hands at the end she crushed my hand… I don’t think she liked me. Woops. The game went into overtime with no score so we had to settle on a shootout. During overtime, I stole the ball away from a player and she kicked my right foot extremely hard. It still hurts right now (3 days later). The ref didn’t call any foul and I was so frustrated I couldn’t yell back to the ref. Our team ended up winning in the shootout! Everyone was so happy. I don’t think Hongchoen has seen a championship trophy in a while. The men’s Hongcheon team played after our game and lost, they still came home with a second place trophy though! During the award ceremony right after, they named me MVP of the tournament (I think of all the womens players but I’m not sure). And no Keith, that was no mistake. Throughout the tournament there were a ton of strangers coming up to me saying “Julie the best” and “Julie number 1” holding up one finger. It was pretty crazy. 

The view of the stadium field




The view of the stadium from outside

The team after our game!

"Fighting" is our team saying

I just got my Trophy

The weather was terrible. It was down pouring, lightning and thunder storming but the boys still played through it. The rules here in Korea are a lot different from the states.

Coach got the "best coach" award 

My MVP Trophy

My new cleats I bought here - I fit into Juniors... So crazy! 

When we got home the president of the club had all the teams who played out for Korean BBQ. It was kind of like a banquet type dinner. He got up and spoke and showed each of the teams trophies and then they had me up to make a speech. There was one man who could barely speak English translate it for me. I said a few words then they had me drink out of the trophy. Haha. It was quite amusing. They love me in Hongcheon. Everyone kept asking when I was leaving and kept telling me to stay forever. The room was set up so there were 4 people at one table. I sat in the corner of the room and different people kept coming to my table wanting to drink and chat with me. Don’t worry Keith, even in Korea I’m advertising for Hopkins. They all know that I play for Hopkins Club in Minnesota. The next night the team took me out again for dinner. The team is awesome. They all are very friendly and are always making sure I am having a good time and are feeling ok. They really like to making fun of me and a lot of them are super animated. They try to text me now in english which is super funny to read. Meekang, our goalie, really wants to learn English and tries to talk to me all the time through our trusty cell phones. She’s taking me out to dinner on Wednesday. Apparently I have an interview on Wednesday for the Hongcheon newspaper. Yoma (our captain) has a 16 year old daughter who speaks English fairly well so she’s going to come and translate for me. Once I find the article I will try to post it for everyone to see!

Julie

Friday, April 22, 2011

cherry blossoms

Lately I’ve been super busy so I haven’t blogged at all, sorry Dad. Last week I was planning on going to visit my best friend Kalie from home. She called me at 6am in the morning on Saturday while I was getting ready and she told me she’d been throwing up since 9pm Friday night… needless to say, I didn’t go see her. I instead went down to the bus station cancelled my ticket to Daegu and got a ticket to Seoul instead. I then woke up my friend Hadley at 7am telling her I was coming to Seoul and hoped she’d want to hang out with me!! Haha. Saturday was fun, we went to a park where the cherry blossoms trees were. These trees only bloom for a very short period of time, I think maybe 2 weeks they’re out in bloom. So I was very excited to see them because I’m going to miss lilac’s at home… We had a little picnic in the park and sat around eating and playing with a soccer ball Hadley bought. 
Where we had our picnic in the park

Bugs... 
 Hadley eating a bug! (and yes, I tried one too. It tasted like the earth)

A little park area by the river

Later that afternoon we headed to a FC Seoul soccer game! It was awesome. I love that Korean’s are obsessed with soccer here. 


 Free face painting
 They love taking pictures with Americans here...




After the game my friend I met on the plane ride over here Jinwoo, wanted to meet up with Hadley and I for dinner. It was really fun and good to talk to a Korean who actually speaks English. Jinwoo was just in San Diego going to school for international business. He says he misses the US and wants to go back. His parents are now living in LA with a family business and he’s here living with his grandparents here now and has a curfew of 11pm! 


The next day Hads took me to Itaewon where we met her friend Addie from Chicago and Jinwoo. We walked around a bit. Ate some food and ice cream then hopped in a cab that took us to a park to walk around. The park we ended up going to was amazing. It was called the family park which had a huge museum in the middle of it. When we walked up to the park there was live music playing on the stage by the museum. I really enjoyed the park, it reminded me a lot of the sculpture garden at home with more open areas to play and sit around. I’m definitely going back there for a picnic with a soccer ball or Frisbee as soon as I get a chance. We went in the museum also, it was huge and the best part is that it was free! A lot of museums here are free which is spectacular. The weekends here are the best part of my week. 

 Behind this gazebo thing is the museum (tan building)




 Huge bench!



Inside the museum


More to come soon,
Julie


Wednesday, April 13, 2011

volunteering

This weekend I went to Seoul once again. I got to see Hadley and my Korean friend Claire that worked at Disney with me. She is awesome. When I got to Seoul Hadley and I went to a restaurant called butterfinger pancakes. We were both starving and it was so delicious. The servings were huge… it was like eating a tremendous twelve at perkins! Hadley and I both ordered our own meals then we looked over at a table of 7 Koreans and noticed they were splitting 3 meals between all of them. Woops! That meal was the most filling meal I’ve had in a long time. I had to start doing some of my breathing exercises after because I ate too much. Haha. 

After our meal we decided it was a good idea to walk a bit so we went to some markets in town. Koreans love their markets, and so do I! It was really fun just to walk around and look at all the things people were selling. We watched how the Koreans make their special cookie… it consists of honey and flour wrapped around nuts. It’s actually really good. I clearly had to buy some of those. 



I also ended up buying a couple things at the H&M of all places. Hadley wanted to go look at Tom’s shoes and guess who ended up buying yet another pair of shoes… yep that was me. My Toms are so comfy and easy to slip on. They also go to a good cause so I felt a lot better about my purchase. We found soft serve on the street where we were too! So delicious! 

Hadley couldn't wait to put on her Tom's!


After the shopping we headed over to see a play, the vagina monologues. Hadley, her friend Elizabeth, Claire, and I went to see it. Half of the play was in Korean and half in English. It was interesting but really good. I enjoyed it. We had Korean BBQ for dinner after. It was my first time and I loved it. It’s one of my favorite meals here now. You get lettuce and rice and some other side dishes with meat cooking in the center. Then you just enjoy the meal family style and make little lettuce wraps; well at least that’s what I did… 


The next day we went to the three o’clock showing of the vagina monologues where Claire, Hadley and I volunteered in order to go free the night before. It was fun just to hang out together and be at the play. The volunteer coordinator made the mistake of telling me to help myself to the snack table, I ended up going back there at least 5 times, Woops! There was a cute little girl hanging out with us at the play in this picture below.