Downtown Daegu

Something I have meant to do for ages is share photos of downtown Daegu.

Here are a few and when I get soe better once I'll put them up too.

My First Baseball Match

I never thought I would ever go to a baseball game, least of all in Korea, but they just love it here.

It was a blistering 32 degrees and I had already agreed to go and see the baseball with a Canadian friend. It turned out to be a pretty big game. Daegu's Samsung Lions versus LG Seoul.

My first impression was mild disappointment. Not only was the stadium pretty small for a guy used to a regular 60,000 attendance at his local football game, a mere 10,000 here, but also the size of the field was pathetic. Whenever I caught a glimpse of baseball on American or Korean TV I thought the field was huge, at least the length of a football pitch. Instead it looked like I could hit a 'Homer' given the right 'pitch'.

It was filled to the max however. The atmosphere was of festivity and it seemed like a mix between a family day out and a drinking competition. Now this I could enjoy. I stocked up on some nice cold beer and sat in the sun listening to the intricacies of baseball being explained to me by an avid fan. It was actually pretty interesting. So much so that I enjoyed watching it. It's a sport were you spend most of the time sitting, drinking and talking. Occasionally paying attention when the bases are 'loaded' or a star player is about to bat. Which for Daegu was a 39 year old playboy / fan favourite who seemed to just 'bunt' the ball and woddle off.

Between all of the 'innings', whatever they are!?! There were drinking, dancing and kissing competitions where people made a fool of themselves for a chance to be on the big screen. This is pretty unusual and you can't even bring a beer into a stadium back home never mind hosting a down-in-one competition sponsored by that teenagers' favourite boy band 'Big bang'.


I was asked about cricket and I did my best to explain the rules but politely stated that cricket was about as popular in Scotland as Thatcher. That didn't clear things up much.

Passing waygooks,

Foreigners in Korea are known as waygook in Korean. I see so much more white faces living in this area, Ji-san, compared to my first area Ansim. The weird thing is that when you see a foreigner in Korea who you don't know their is a whole expected ritual of introduction. I totally don't buy into it and I find the encounters erroneous and repetitive.

Let me give you the usual scenario. I am on my way to work and I stop at the traffic lights. To my right another foreigner looks at me and is quite obviously hoping i will say hi to them. I don't know them and probably would never converse with them if the crossing was in the UK, Australia or France. However out of mutual respect for professions and immigration I will dutifully nod my head, lift my eyebrows or say hi. What I wait for in return is either the reciprocal action or a barrage of question that I really don't want to get into. Usually it goes 'hi', and they jostle abut for a few minutes before asking 'Are you an English teacher?' , followed by 'Where you from?' When did you get here?''Where do you work?' 'Why Korea?'. Five minutes later hey seem to be running out of conversation and out of pity I'll throw in a few questions or opinions about Korea which usually go down well. Drawing close to my school I offer my good byes and try to scurry of before they ask for my phone number Which inevitably they always do. Lets meet again! Strangely the last question is often , as if forgotten, what's your name (again)? The whole process is so predictable it's frustrating.

Now don't get me wrong I completely understand the need for them. If I moved here to a school which had no other foreigners and I had no other waygook friends then I would pretty much latch on to the first friendly white face I seen. But that's what puts me off the whole thing. It's the whole latching onto someone for no other reason than you need them. I'm not embarrassed by the whole awkward introductions and familiar questions; actually I think I am quite good at it. It's just the whole 'let's be best friends' thing that makes me cringe.

For example, the mates I have now are a good mix f people I worked with, people who worked for the same company, guys I have met playing poker, and a few who I happened to meet in bars or friends of friends. Not one of the people I have met walking on the street have I encountered in a social setting and rarely have I met them again.

Maybe, I'm just in a cynical mood today- sorry.

Blog?? What kind of an arsehole blogs?

A little note on blogging.

I have avoided the whole blogging phenomenon up until now. My typical reaction would consist of a self righteous smirk at all those people hurling unprocessed brain mush into a text box, grasping for some kind of recognition in a vein hope that they will tot up a few more hits and miraculously be writing for the Evening Standard by the end of the week. Blogs? Who would want to sit and write about what's happening in their street or rant about environmentalism in what is basically the most anonymous and overcrowded stage the world has ever seen. It's basically a stadium filled to capacity with every single person shouting their loudest to be heard, along with a ferocious wind of adverts, pop-ups, spelling errors, and informative messages such as 'congratulations your our 1 millionth visitor', 'get f*****/meet girls tonight in Clydebank' and 'Cure your baldness now!'. Furthermore who would want to read what someone from the back end of nowhere has to say about the latest episode of Eastenders never mind the Obama Presidency?

I have overcome most of this cynicism. I'm taking the first (possibly only) attempt to start a blog. I have seen many well meaning and heroic blogs by young people protesting about their unfortunate positions. From Egypt to Burma. Not that my blog will ever include such horrific insights or defiance but it at least shows that blogs can be useful and informative.

I also noticed that bloggers tend to move in circles. It's probably quite easy to access like minded people and allow an open space to note, debate and read about new ideas.

More personally, I think a blog is a better method for keeping in touch and letting people know what I'm up too. It will stop me flooding inbox after inbox across Scotland with my 'Daegu Digest' and instead, if people are interested at all, they can just look up my new blog.

So here we go, I still retain a little bit of apprehension so any comments or replies will be appreciated. Happy reading and wish me luck.