Chunnam Dragons Fans

Dragons Stadium

Last weekend we ventured out of Yeosu for only the second time since arriving in Korea. This time we took a short trip via train and bus over to 광양 Gwangyang. It is a small town of about 120,000 people, spread out kind of like Yeosu, but most importantly it hosts the Chunnam Dragons of the K-League (top flight Korean soccer). We made the trip with Ed and Jen. We met up with some friends of theirs who were from Gwangyang. It was a fun time overall, though the soccer was sub-par. The Dragons played Jeju United, who is also near the bottom in league stadiums, to a 0-0 draw... We got to "tailgate" outside of the stadium, which more accurately means drink $2.50 Hite beers at the temporary Korean style restaurants set up outside of the stadium. It was also interesting to see the not-so-typical snacks. I had dried squid jerky, and the standard Ramen noodles, during the game... There was also silk worm larva available... So much for peanuts and cracker jack! The game was a lot of fun... Maybe about 7000 people were there. People were excited as usual to see foreigners, so we were glad to be a service. We also managed to get 4 tickets for 10000 won, which normally would've been 28000, so that was a good deal too! It was the final game of the season, but the 2009 season starts in March, so if you are visiting in spring you know where we'll be going!



Earlier in the day we went shopping in Gwangyang and found a gem. A knock-off 1987 Twins World Championship sweatshirt!! It was yellow, of course. Megan HAD to purchase the sweat shirt, especially because the Dragons home uniform is yellow. Gwangyang was a beautiful city, you can tell the local companies put a lot of money back into the community. The leaves are changing right now, much like Upper Midwest October, so we decided to walk back to the bus stop from the game. It was beautiful being surrounded by magnificent reds, yellows, and greens on the trees and mountain-side.

My new Korean friend and my new Korean outfit purchased from the sidewalk market...

Saturday HG, Jeff and the girls came over for a lunch. We had our first meat from the Head of some animal at the restaurant at the corner of our block. The food was pretty good. The restaurant was quite new and it was reflected in the slow service!!

Friday night we made our second trip of the year to the Cinus theater down the street in Yeochon. We caught the new James Bond sequel. It is always nice to check out the theater... There were even some other foreigners attending! Going to the movie showed me how much my ability to communicate (simple things) in Korean has grown. Last time we saw a movie was the first night we learned to read Hangul, the Korean alphabet. This time around I was able to quickly read and figure out movie titles, successfully purchase 2 tickets for the 11PM show though 9PM tickets were still available, and also order a unique item at the concession stand. It was kind of rewarding to know that the studying has paid off a little bit, though I have a LONG way to go before I can began to understand the SIMPLEST thing out of context... Or anything not involving shopping or buying for that matter!

Well, hope everyone is having a good time. I know the Weather is starting to turn cold back home. Here is is upper 50s or 60s during the day and I absolutely love it. It is the perfect temperature for someone from Upper Midwest. The Koreans think it is COLD! They don't even know what cold means! Hope to hear from you all soon, I appreciate the emails and blog comments from the past week! It is ALWAYS great, even a one liner.


As always, here are the pictures from the post!