after my brother, who only blogged 3 times before quitting. I’ve at least lasted longer than that although the frequency of my writing is become less and less. I’m a busy chick… and I’m a bit of a runner now! I just ran a half marathon on the lovely little island south of Korea – Jeju - which I finished in 2h40m. Not a record-breaking time but good enough
.
I was also recently promoted to Training Manager of my company Direct English. This is great because I get to train the new teachers before they go to their branches, as well as still teach my students! All of my favourite things rolled up into one groovy job. I also moved to the early shift, which means I finish work at 4 or 5pm unless I am training new teachers. So I have evenings free to do fun things like have dinner with friends, go to the gym/yoga/screen golf or take a ride to the river. Or just laze about at home, enjoying the balmy summer evenings and thinking about honour and its place in the World Cup after some seriously questionable displays of sportsmanship all in the name of winning. You know, topics like that which require a bottle or 2 of red wine and some good friends to truly get to the bottom of!
Watching the World Cup being held in my home country from another, far away (7hours ahead) country has really made me realise a few things. Firstly~~ I am proudly South African! I was super excited to tell everyone and anyone within conversational distance (which, with my voice, is quite far!) that I was South African! Secondly, I was so proud of Bafana Bafana! I will be honest and say upfront that I didn’t hold out much hope for them being the least experienced and least qualified side in the tournament. But… the first game against Mexico was so exciting and thrilling and they played out of their socks!! I realised our boys had taken that big step towards Big Match Temperament! Due to the dastardly effect of time difference, their game against Ur-a-cheater was at 3.30am so I missed it, and luckily I did because when I opened news24.com the next morning to a picture of Itumeleng Khune crying after being red carded, I first cried a little and then I turned my death-glare onto the “you-know-who’s” from South America and nothing could be said to persuade me otherwise!
The game against France was monumental. I went to my new local, and when we won I was cheered as if I myself had just sent the Blues home. Short of being hoisted onto shoulders, I enjoyed the attention that comes with not only winning but beating one of the highest ranked sides in the tournament AND holding (I quote) one of the most thrilling world cups ever! (According to my colleague-in-the-know of all things football Jason) So what if we are the first host team not to go to the final 16. Screw the final 16~~ WE BEAT FRANCE! Plus… we hosted/are hosting a top drawer sporting event that has made ALL my Korean friends and students want to come and visit. WELL DONE SOUTH AFRICA!!!
Anyway… back to me (it is my blog, afterall). Around all this promotion/half marathon running time I decided to do my Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language! Yip… from next March I am hoping to enroll into the MA programme at a renown university here and complete my masters part-time. Wowzers trousers… its all hapening hey! This means I will be running short on that valuable commodity time, and it also means I will probably be staying in Korea until June 2012… but I am already planning a visit home next Aug or Sept… sounds faraway, but time really does fly. I mean.. its already July for crying out loud!!!
Other than that… not much. North Korea is not as much of a real threat as the UK and US reporters would have you all believe. I appreciate all the messages about my safety~~ but we’re all good here. I’m more worried about their soccer team ~ instead of braodcasting the game against Brazil which they narrowly lost 2-1, they showed the game against “the most expensive non-performer in the world cup, with Rooney and Messi” and his team Portugal annihilate North Korea 7-0. This is a big worry, as reports from 1966 say that that World Cup team, who sent Italy packing back then, lost to Portugal after a night of alleged drunk and disorderly behaviour and as a result they were invited to spend 10 years in a luxury HARD LABOUR CAMP! So… lets hope these chaps are better off!
ok peeps… my bike is calling… love and light, and apologies for being the Ronaldo of bloggers!
Oh wait, I didn’t have a kid to take the attention off what a disaster I am. Ok… the Messi of bloggers then. xoxoxoxoxoxo