Bundang FC and Dating

Well it's been awhile since I've written in this blog. In terms of the day to day life, things have become pretty much normal and routine. The greatest variable in my life has been teaching classes one month at a time, and having to learn new names of students every month.

At first it was incredibly difficult to learn about 20 new names a month, but as time has progressed it seems to be much easier to learn students names. In fact, it has now become much easier to learn the names of other westerners, because of the familiarity that comes along with knowing western names.

During the past five months, some of the things that I was missing the most were basically my family, my friends back home, and soccer. Of course, it's difficult to have friends and family come all the way across the world, but recently my cousin Britta and her boyfriend Jeff have come to Korea to teach English, and it has been fun hanging out with them for the past week and a half that they've been here. In regards to playing soccer, I've had very few opportunities to play, but it is something that I have been able to do more recently.

I looked online for soccer leagues in Seoul, and I found a soccer team composed of mostly English guys, with a few Americans, Koreans and Canadians also on the team. The team name is Bundang FC, and our mascot is a monkey :). I've played with the guys a few times now, and in our first game I was voted man of the match, and received a hefty 2000 won for my prize (less than $2). I was of course just really happy to be playing soccer again, and I will be continuing to play with these guys for most of the summer too.

On another note, recently I've gone on a couple of dates with a girl named Ji Won, who I met for the first time on a blind date set up by one of my coworkers. I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen, but she seems pretty nice, and she can speak English well, so most of the time the language barrier isn't a big issue.

It made me think a little bit though about what the possibilities for a foreigner to date a Korean, but especially a black foreigner. I've heard that there are a number of women that are only interested in dating Korean men, and I've heard that sometimes it's due to pressure from the parents of women that they shouldn't date foreigners. It's really interesting and quite different of course from the US where it's not as big of an issue.

However, many of the guys on my soccer team are dating Korean women, and a couple of them are on the marriage path, so it seems like it's not a big issue for at least some people in Korea. In fact, one of the guys that I play with is from Cote D'Ivoire, and he's also dating a Korean girl, so I guess it's reassuring. I think what it comes down to really is that I just have to meet someone who's okay with me for the way I am, and on the plus side Ji Won seems to think that I'm a good guy :).

Anyway, it's been awhile since I've written anything interesting, so I thought I'd write again. Someone should send me a package or something. So far I've only gotten a card from my church. Also, if there are any birthday present requests, I'd be interested in sending some packages from Korea as well. Thanks to those of you who have sent me emails and have kept me updated through Skype and email.

If anyone wants to call me, Skype is the best way to contact me (my Skype name is jesseaj1), and also if you call sometime on Thursday evenings in the US, that's probably when I'm the least busy. Otherwise email is good too.

I hope everyone is doing well.