Australia/Ireland RWC in Daegu. 시끄럽다.

On Saturday afternoon I headed down to travellers (a foreigner sports bar in Daegu) to watch Ireland/Australia in the Rugby World Cup. I'm not exactly an avid rugby fan, but I did get in to it a bit when I lived in Australia in 2003-2004 and I find it much more enjoyable than American football (of which it is often compared). I was with Barry, Drew and several of their friends (all Irish or Irish supporters). Geoff also showed up but found the smoke a bit intense and left for a while (it was a struggle for me too, but I endured to watch the game). Australia were favourites but Ireland outplayed them at every turn and won 15-6. I bought Barry a pint as I had lost our wager (I took Australia, just cause it's not much of a bet if you both pick the same team, and I supported Aus in the 2003 WC in Australia). The World Cup itself is being played in New Zealand but the crowd were largely Irish supporters (I'm sure more than a few were kiwi's who wanted anyone but Australia) but even still, I was surprised at the lack of Aussie supporters in New Zealand. I was also surprised by the lack of Aussie supporters in the bar. There were more South Africans left over from the earlier South Africa/Fiji game (which may also have accounted for the excess smoke in the bar :) ).

I had never been to Travellers before (although I thought I had). I liked the food and really liked their layout but on that night it was just WAY too noisy and smokey. I usually avoid western bars in Korea anyway as they're usually full of screaming 23 year old newbies and devoid of any locals, but I was hoping a sports bar might be a better venue for adults. Alas is was not to be on this particular night and we ended up moving to The New Yorker (the bar mentioned last week) for the above mentioned pint. All that being said, on a sane night it is worlds better than the dungeon that is communes or the kids playground that is MF Bar of the GI hole that is Thursday Party or Who's Bob (these being the other foreigner bars downtown) and I'd love to go back just to relax and watch a ballgame one night.

Before the game I had also met up with my friend Hae Mi. She was looking for a new English book (we do Korean/English classes together but her old English books are not that good, so we got a better one). We then went down to Starbucks for a coffee and chatted. She taught me a very useful word (among many other words), 시끄럽다 - Which means noisy. We also decided to make a regular meeting time, we can assign homework and make sure to keep on top of it. When I did regular classes with Ji Won that worked really well for me so I'm hoping it will work here too. I also really like Hae Mi, as she doesn't have that shy Korean attitude. She says what she thinks and is very funny. I think our classes will be good.