Went to the Seoul-Suwon soccer match last week in Suwon. Final score: Suwon 3, Seoul 1. Impressions: The Suwon fans are better than the Seoul fans. I prefer Seoul’s stadium, but only slightly. The big minus for Suwon: it is a bitch to get to the stadium. Plus the tickets cost W10,000. Leaning towards Seoul.

Students at the high school took their mid-term exams last week. Made for an easy week for me. I proctored exams in the morning and was done for the day by noon. On Thursday we had our “teachers sports day” in the afternoon. It was nice to be able to get to know some names to put to the faces of many teachers I see walking about. The activities were badminton (I signed up but didn’t play…damn these Koreans are good at badminton!) , dodgeball (for the women), group rope jumping (not for me), a balloon relay race (not going to bother explaining it…didn’t take part), and…basketball. The teachers were divided into two teams - blue and white. I was on the blue team. We defeated the white team in a high scoring affair, 7-5 (counting baskets as single points). I humbly submit that I was our team’s star, as I scored four of our baskets. Thank you. Thank you very much. When the sports were finished, there was a raffle where we received prizes of various household items (top prize was a humongous bag of rice). I won bottles of shampoo and conditioner, which should prove quite useful for my shaved head. Afterwards, the entire staff went out for fried pork (삼겹살). There were over fifty of us. We took up the entire restaurant. Beer and soju flowed. Good times.

Last Saturday night I paid another visit to the Lucky Seven casino. Once again it turned into a profitable night for me. I came out about W200,000 ahead, but it was the way I won it that made it fun. My friend and I were there for about six hours. I was doing very well the first three hours or so. I was up about W300,000. But then I hit a cold streak over the next couple of hours and dropped down to around W80,000 ahead. That’s when this attractive woman in her late-20s or early-30s sat down next to me. She started out fairly subdued - just playing her hand and not making conversation. She was also playing the casino’s “side bet”. The side bet pays 11 to 1 odds if you are dealt two of the same cards (for example, two “sixes”). There is a circle in front of everyone’s regular blackjack betting location where you can place money for a side bet. After awhile, the woman started placing side bets of W10,000 in front of all the players at the table…and winning it quite frequently. Whenever she won a side bet that came from one of the other players’ cards, she gave that player W20,000 or W30,000 of her winnings of W110,000. She won three times from my cards. Nice little chunk of change that I received. Plus, I ended up getting hot again, so the money was rolling in. I would have come out way ahead except that - caught up in the euphoria (and having downed about eight to ten rum and cokes) - I started placing side bets all over the place as well. Still, it was a great time. AAAANNND…as my friend and I were leaving the table, the woman asked me for my phone number. Hoo-ah!