................Taking Flight...............: Soccer MT

I woke up early-just because. I figured I might as well try and watch some of the soccer matches. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get it to work-and all the live streaming had ads in the middle of the screen. Bummer.

I packed up and headed out to Hapjeong and met up with all the guys, including Jacob around 10. Coree Voyage (our friend Felix's French adoptee travel company) helped GOA'L sponsor our MT. They took their company van, John's friend drove a few people, Eirik also drove a few and Yoon Jung (the wife of a Korean guy that plays with us--he works with Felix at Coree Voyage). Jacob, Stefano (Italian adoptee) and I rode with Yoon Jung. I was glad to be in a small car and not the big van--better to not get carsick I think! In total we had 11 from our group; John plays with some Koreans from Uzbekistan/Kazakhstan/Russia and about 7 of them joined (and 2 brought girl friends). In total we had 23 people heading out for the MT.

We went out to Gapyeong, a city in Gyeongi-do (the province surrounding Seoul). Yoon Jung's uncle plays at/helps run and care for a soccer field out there. We rented a pension (rental place) near the fields. Once we arrived, everyone unloaded and unpacked. We settled for a little and then caravaned to the fields by the river. We played one game against the "Russians" as we called them. Jacob didn't have any regular outdoor cleats so he borrowed a pair of John's. They were bothering him a little bit at our half-time but he didn't think much of it. At half-time, we took a break and had pizza for lunch on the fields. It was pretty hot out. We started the second half and our team won. At the end of the game, Jacob took of his socks and shoes, complaining of a blister. Well...the blister was so bad--basically the whole bottom part of his pinky toe skin was gone. I could see the inside of his toe-just raw flesh. (Ew) I felt really bad because obviously it hurt a lot--and he just got back to playing only a few weeks ago after being out for 2 months.

Everyone packed up their gear and we headed back to the pension. A few people stayed a little bit to go down to the river to swim. At the pension, we cleaned up and hung out before starting a gigantic BBQ. John had bought meat and brats (Johnsonville Brats to be specific!!). It was a lot of fun eating and drinking with the group. We stayed up late, continuing to eat, drink and talk. Plans for the following day were to 1. wake up around 4 to start watching World Cup games and 2. play soccer against Yoon Jung's uncle's team at 8:30.

The best part about MT's are getting to hang out with your friends and eating a lot of food and having fun. The worst part about MT's is sleeping in a giant room with a lot of other people that may or may not make a lot of noise such as: 1. snoring 2. swearing in their sleep 3. talking in their sleep 4. making other strange noises
Lucky for us, 2 guys were able to knock off all 4 things in the short 3-5 hours of sleeping time we had at night.