Just arrived in Korea

Arrived in Korea last night, was a bit nippy, 4c outside, didnt feel much different from a typical Cape Town winters day. First thing i noticed as I was traveling from the airport to the hotel was all the smart black cars, they all look like mercs and limos with black tinted windows but they all Kias or Hyundais. We drove past the longest bridge I have ever seen, its 21km long and connects Incheon International Airport to Songdo International City. I hope I get the chance to travel on it. I stayed in a small town outside the airport. Its built very vertically and has shops and restaurants everywhere. There must be like 10 restaurants just in the small block where the hotel was. It reminded me of Hong Kong. The hotel itself was really nice. They upgraded my room, so I got a nice spa bath, one of those toilets that looks more like a robot. It had a heated seat and instead of toilet paper spays a heated stream of water from below. Its got a million other buttons that I have no idea about, wasn't going to test them out since I have been waiting to use a clean toilet since i left Cape Town. I watched a bit of TV, but they had so many channels and not much I could understand so I ended up watching the Games channel, some match-up of Starcraft being played, Terran vs Zerg. I might be a nerd in South Africa but here im just an average joe. I had a walk outside and despite all the restaurants and the great smell of grilled meats emanating from them, i settled on the hotel restaurant where the menu was in English, one thing is for sure though, im not going to starve in Korea. I had a nice long sleep and woke up in the morning, opened up the curtains and noticed everything was covered with a light coat of snow. It was still snowing outside so I went for my first walk in snow since I was a kid. I felt so excited, I suppose just like i did when I first saw snow as a kid.

Leaving Cape Town!

Tomorrow im off to a new world, leaving behind friends and family here in Cape Town. Spent the last few days getting my fix of South African food, had Nando's periperi chicken the other day, that was disappointing, dry as carpet, had 800g ribs at Brads, gonna find some biltong and droewors today and have sushi with the family tonight (not that sushi is very South African but hey, dont over think it). Been a great summer here in Cape Town, but all great things must come to an end, and it does seem to be the end of an era to be honest. This city has just become to small for an wide eyed coach adventurer like me. Time to put on my hiking boots and start walking. Suddenly my time in South Africa is starting to run out and im starting to count every minute, every second, still got a lot of packing to do, so see you on the flip side.

U2 @ Cape Town Stadium 18th Feb 2011

Take a more than 70 000 awesome Capetonians and send them off on a victory march through the streets of the Mother city towards the amazing spectacle of the Cape Town stadium and you have yourself a U2 concert. Perhaps by U2 standards this is small, it happens in every city they tour, they been doing it since the 70s but i tell you what, Cape Town has never seen a site like that before, streets filled with drunk hot U2 fans, everyone in the best mood of their lives, walking in anticipation towards the great mother ship, the claw (thats they giant rig that U2 use, which sits in the middle of the stadium giving people a 360 degree view, hence the name of the tour). Well the fan walk was open and totally packed. Every sidewalk cafe and bar was filled to the brim. We ended up finding a liquor store and buying some beers which we threw back in copious amounts outside on of the bars on the way,  cheap solution to the problem huh. At this point I better apologize for the quality of this post, serious hangover! My brain function is seriously low today, yes even lower than it normally is. I digress, back to U2. Great show, great seats, actually they were standing only, but right up on the stage, in the VIP area, i was 1 meter away from Bono, dont think he saw me though, although Allan Clayton did give me a huge smile. Gary Teighman, the former Springbok Rugby Captain was just behind us. Well U2 certainly put on an big show, that rig was incredible. The show was rather political but you know thats U2 for you. Viva Aung San Suu Kyi! Democracy for Burma now!

Rammstein in Cape Town 9th of February 2011

We'll I went with bunch of buddies of mine to see one of my favorite bands, Rammstein perform live at Grand West Arena in Cape Town. First thing people always say is "Who the **** is Rammstein?". This is usually followed by a thought bubble in my head filled with fire and brimstone. Well, if you don't know it a German Metal band, and happens to be totally awesome in every possible way! Now some of you might prefer to go to Roxette or to see Celine Dion live. Not me! I like to ROCK! Thats exactly what I did. The show was filled with pyrotechnics, lighting effects, and crazy shit the likes of which Cape Town has never seen before. Christian 'Flake' Lorenz, the keyboard player for Rammstein came crowd surfing over me in an inflatable boat, how cool is that! They set this poor gimp on fire during the show, lucky he was wearing protective clothing. They kept firing off those flame throwers, the heat of them hit our faces like walking into a furnace and when they started playing my favorite song 'Du reich so gut' I was going crazy, hopping around like a mad rabbit surrounded by an orgy of thousands, dark jumping mad rabbits. Man! these guys are hardcore! Some label them as Neo-Nazi Satanic Evil delinquents, and if you one of them I feel sorry for you because you will never get what Rammstein is really about, one of the most intellectual minded and thought provoking acts ever. It brought out all the dregs from the sewers of Cape Town, the lost generations, the dead, the ones you never see when you walk along the boardwalks of the Waterfront in the day time, and it made them feel alive again. All my best friends were present :) Thanks Rammstein for that wonderful show. 

Welcome to my first ever blog entry!

Here follows the prologue to what is about to be my great Korean adventure. In 2 weeks time I depart my beloved South Africa and I set off for Seoul, Korea for a stint of teaching, probably for about a year or so. Teaching, the act of imparting knowledge onto another being. Crazy right, me teaching? Realistically though I'm going there for my own purposes, a stint of learning, a little reeducation, just to peek though the keyhole into a place I know very little about, yea I'm a voyeur. I plan to document as many of the crazy things I experience there and use this blog as a base for bringing to light all those odd ball thoughts in my brain that I usually just keep to myself. I'm not here to change the world, I'm just coming along for the ride and I want to share that with you, whether you like it or not, yes you, my adoring readers (most probably just me anyway).