Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North

Things at school have been going pretty well recently.  The H1N1 flu has scared the entire country and tons of people have been getting it.  There has been over 108,000 "confirmed" cases here in South Korea, with 104 deaths. Needless to say many kids have been gone from school.  Students can take "breaks" whenever they feel like, I believe they still have to pay the tuition so their spot doesn't get filled by a new student. I have had classes where a handful of students have been gone this entire month.  In one class, there are 6 students but in November only 1 girl has come to class each time.  I feel really bad for her because she must be bored out of her mind to be the only one in class.  I guess one positive for her is that we usually get all the work done in class so she does not have homework that often!  A few weeks ago our director said that a kindergarten class would be shut down for 1 week if any of the students in that class had the flu.  At the beginning of the week one of the classes were closed for the entire week.  Later that week our director made the decision to close all kindergarten classes on that Friday and following Monday, giving the kids 4 days to get better.  I know of at least 2-3 kids in my class who got the flu so my class was closed from the Thursday-Monday.  It was really nice only having to teach 1 kindergarten class on the Thursday (I teach reading/library to another class).  Then, on that Friday and next Monday we didn't have to come to school until 2 p.m.  It was awesome to be able to sleep in 4 days in a row! My director had also brought to our attention that if the government shut down all the schools in Korea for 1 week that our winter vacation from December 25-Jan. 4 would be moved to the week when our school closes.  Thankfully by closing down the kindergarten for those few days we got around that situation and our winter vacation will remain the same.  I was worried for a few days because we had just booked our plane tickets to Thailand for winter break only a couple days earlier.  Other than the flu scare at school, things have been the same.  We had another birthday party on Friday celebrating the kindergarten students who had B-days in November.  Sometime in December we are having an open class for 1 period of kindergarten classes.  This is where the parents can come and watch us teach!  From what I have heard it's kind of stressful since the parents just sit there and stare at you.  I'm curious to see how well my class behaves, since they want to impress their parents.  I can only hope they are all perfect angels! (which happens very rarely).

This weekend I went to the DMZ with Emily and 8 of her co-workers.  It was an awesome experience.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists/Koreans visit the DMZ each year.  We went with a company called Adventure Korea.  This group hosts a ton of weekend adventures through out Korea, such as skiing, DMZ, hiking, weekend trips to Jeju (the korean hawaii), ice fishing trips, etc.  We started off the morning by driving to a town named Imjingak.  This is the furthest point that civilians can go.  Our passports/ARC cards were collected by the tour guides and they had to ask permission to allow us to continue closer to the actual DMZ. In Imjingak there were a few statues and a peace bell.  People come here often and say prayers that peace will eventually come between the 2 countries.  All around the fences of this area people have put peace ribbons up.  Many of them say things on them, written both in English and Korean.

A few ladies had little shops set up next to the fence selling DMZ souvenirs and ribbons which cost 1,000 won (about $.80).  The shops had a lot of cool traditional Korean goods.  I ended up buying a plaque that has a small piece of barbed wire taken off a fence at the DMZ on the 50th anniversary of the Korean War.  The city of Paju guarantees that the wire is legit.  I also bought some commemorative Korean stamps. Those 2 items were the first souvenirs I've bought since being here.  Next, we found a train that had been traveling between North and South Korea and was attacked by the North.  The train has over 200 bullet holes and a couple of major holes, probably from an explosion.

 A little Korean soldier

Next, we walked to Freedom Bridge.  This bridge had been the site of the recovery of over 12,000 Koreans after the war had ended.  It is not open right now, and many more ribbons, and clothes offering prayers cover the entrance to it.

The bridge from a distance

Entrance to the bridge with Emily

After receiving permission for our tour group to go further we went to a very tiny town named Paju.  Here we ate a traditional Korean meal.  Our group had over 100 people and we took every single spot in the restaurant.  Traditional Korean restaurants have the tables very close to the ground, so you sit on the ground. Also, shoes are not allowed inside.  You have to take them off in the entrance and set them in a little room.  I have been to a few restaurants so far where you sit on the ground.  It's really tough on the legs especially if your tall like I am.  The meal consisted of rice (who would have guessed), kimchi, porridge that had no taste (first time trying that), seaweed squares, a soup with tofu that had clams and noodles (also first time trying clams), a spicy tofu, some nut gelatin thing, and fish cakes.  The food was very good.  Here are a few pictures of the food and all the people eating.

 The restaurant had 3 long tables from one end to the other.  I sat at the end of the middle table with our group.

After leaving this small town we went to the 3rd tunnel.  So far, 4 tunnels have been discovered.  They range from the far west to the eat side of North Korea.  There are speculations that 10 more tunnels exist.  Everyone had the chance to go into part of the 3rd tunnel.  We had to wear hardhats and could not bring cameras down with us.  Since I couldnt take my camera I found this picture from Wikipedia.

The tunnel is only 6.5 ft high and 6.5 ft wide.  It is 1 mile long.  The walk down to where the tunnel begins was a very steep walk.  The entrance to the tunnel is 240 ft. below ground.  The entire time we walked through the tunnel I was forced to crouch because there were many poles, and only a few points was it actually about 6 ft. high.  At the end of the tunnel, well as far as we were allowed there was a door with barbed wire on it.  You could actually see into the next room.  More of the tunnel for about 50 ft. and then there was another door that looked exactly the same and had a hole in the middle so someone, whoever it may be can look through it.  That part was rather creepy.  After finally getting back to ground level a few of us bought North Korean beer from the gift shop.  The beer was pretty good, it tasted like the Canadian beer Molson.

Emily and I in front of the DMZ sign

People of North and South Korea attempting to push the 2 countries back together.  On one side South Korea is raised up and on the other side North Korea is raised up off of the sphere.

After leaving the 3rd tunnel we went to Dora Observatory.  This is the spot where you can actually look into North Korea.  The front of the viewing area had binoculars that you could use.  If you wanted to take pictures  you could only do so in a certain area.  There was an official photo line painted on the ground that you couldn't pass with your camera.  The place was full of Korean soldiers.  It kind of stunk because it was pretty foggy so we couldn't really see much.  The only thing I was able to see was the North Korean and South Korean flags on huge poles.

Looking into the abyss a.k.a. North Korea

Finally, we went to Dorasan Train Station.  This train station is the the very last train stop in South Korea.  I really liked this part of the tour.  The train station was absolutely immaculate looking.  Very few people actually take a train to this station so everything is very clean there.  It's also kind of weird being in the station because everything has been set up and it appears that it's a normal train station, which is not the case.  In order to ride this far north in South Korea you must apply for a train ticket.  Starting in 2007, one time per day every weekday, a train from this station goes into North Korea with materials and takes them to an industrial park.  The train then returns later that day with finished goods. We had the chance to buy a train ticket and have it officially stamped.  We were allowed to go outside to the train tracks where some soldiers were standing.  While outside and train came from the second to last stop in South Korea and maybe 10 people got off.  It was weird to see a train actually come.  On February 20, 2007 (my birthday) President Bush and the Korean President at the time had a peace meeting here and they both signed their names on a big piece of concrete which is displayed inside the station.  The motto of the train station is, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North."

When/if this station ever opens into North Korea, the plan is to connect this line with the rest of Asia and Europe.

We have our boarding passes for the first train into North Korea!!

Waiting for the first train....I might be there awhile.

This Korean Soldier took pictures with many of us.  When I stood next to him he stood on his tippy toes in order to be a little closer in height to me haha.

Entrance to the train station.  A little empty?  Perhaps

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can!

My school had its Halloween party last Friday.  After classes Thursday all the teachers stayed after work for a bit to get their rooms ready for the party the next day.  For as little time as we had to prepare our rooms they all looked pretty cool.  Friday, all the kindergarteners got to dress up in their costumes.  As you might assume just about every girl dressed up as a princess and alot of the boys were ninjas.  I decided to dress up as Spiderman.  It was quite the costume.  I got it at a halloween shop (only a few stores) in Seoul.  All of the kids absolutely loved my costume.  There was a number of activities going on during the day.  We started off the day by carving a pumpkin.  It was the first time I have carved a pumpking in a long time.  I managed to only break one knife!  In my defense the knives were quite dull! Next, we made spiders using styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes.  The kids liked making these since they were able to "customize" their spider after they put it together.  During the activities a few of the classes would go around to the other classrooms and Trick or Treat.  The teachers as well as the students handed out candy to the class that came to Trick or Treat.  I believe that I ended up with more candy than I started out with because whenever I gave a kid 1 piece of candy I seemed to get 2 or 3 in return.  Toward the end of the kindergarten classes the kids got to watch the movie Monsters Inc. 

All of the teachers (North American and Korean)

Korean teachers with Spiderman!

During lunch time that day a bunch of the teachers went to get lunch and walked around our area for a little bit.  To my surprise, not as many people gave us stares or weird looks as I would have imagined.  You would think that if Spiderman, a cowboy, a panda, someone in a suit wearing a Disney World style Mickey Mouse head, and a bee would cause nearly everyone to stop in their tracks and stare.  It was funny for the people who did stare at us.  Their eyes got really big as we walked by and looked confused!  A few people stopped us to take pictures with them.  It would have been fun if the rest of our day consisted of walking around Seoul trying to amuse people.  During the afternoon classes we taught a few classes and also gave the kids candy and played some games such as Halloween bingo and pin the nose on the pumpkin.  Not as many kids dressed up in the afternoon, since the Halloween party is mostly geared toward the kindergarten kids. 

Another picture of the infamous Andy.  He was a Korean drama character from TV.  His twin brother was the exact same character!

The Hummingbirds all dressed up!

Spiderman and Spiderman Jr.

A few weeks ago I went to Bukhansan National Park to "climb" a the mountain with Emily, Ray, and Matt (co-workers of Emily).  This park was just outside of Seoul and took about an hour to get there on the subway.  The mountain is the 2nd tallest in the Seoul area (I believe) at 2,744 ft. above sea level.  If you know me then you know how afraid I am of heights.  We began to hike up the mountain which was a very good workout.  At one point the hiking got very intense as the path got steeper and steeper.  Needless to say I did not make it up to the peak!  I made it about 3/4 the way up before the heights got to me and I didn't want to try and go farther.  Word on the street (Emily) is that the hike only got harder and scarier.  She said right before the peak you literally had to hold onto either a rope or pole to hold yourself from flying over the edge and dying?  The hike itself didn't scare me since it was very wooded, but at one point there was a wide open shot of Seoul which started to freighten me.  By the way, Seoul had so much smog that you could barely see the city.  So instead of trying to climb higher I hung out the trail for awhile with Ray, he didn't want to leave there all alone.  Thanks ray!  Walking up a mountain, hill, or anywhere in Korea is always a challenge since Koreans don't have a consistent walking pattern.  They walk EVERY direction possible.  You're always dodging people as you walk anywhere.  One thing I liked about the hiking was the funny outfits Koreans wear when they hike.  They all get completely decked out.  The huge backpacks, sun visors, sunglasses, hiking shoes, ski pole looking walking sticks.  They take hiking very seriously here!  I'm surprised I didn't see any women hiking in high heels because it seems like women do everything in high heels.  Just like how men at the gym I belong to wear their golf shoes when they "lift weights". 

Stream while hiking up the mountain

Up at the top is the peak.  This is a very popular spot for rock climbing. 

Peak from a farther distance.  No way you could ever get me to go up there!

Outskirts of Seoul?  I know, I can barely see it too

Random picture of the Korean hiking attire

On another note, Emily, Cindy (Emily's co-worker), and myself just booked a trip to Thailand for winter break.  We are set to leave Christmas Day and get back on Jan 2nd or 3rd.  We don't have much planned as of yet but we plan on staying in Bangkok for a few days to see/do some of the stuff there, then head down to Phuket which is where the beach is.  I'm really excited for this trip since it will be awesome to get of the the cold weather for a week!  After going from around 65-70 degrees Saturday to 30 degrees Monday, I definately can't wait for warm weather. 

The past few weekends I have been able to not only listen to the audio but actually watch the Iowa Hawkeye games live through various websites that stream sporting events, movies, tv shows, etc.  I have no idea how they were able to pull that game out on Saturday.  I got back from celebrating Halloween Sunday morning and I found the game and they were losing by 14  I think.  On top of that I watched Stanzi throw 2 more of his 5 interceptions!  But I still stayed up and watched the rest of the game.  I can't believe they came back to win.  It was very exciting to watch!! Lets hope these last 3 games go in their favor.  It would be awesome to see Iowa in a BCS bowl game.  It's always weird watching a college football game at 1-4 a.m. here when its only the early afternoon back at home.  As long as they keep winning I won't complain! 

92 yard touchdown!

Time Flies By

For having such long work days (9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.) the weeks seem to go by very fast.  I have been here for 5 weeks now and time hasn't slowed down yet!  Weekends here are very relaxing, although it seems most people do anything but relax.  It's a nice time to go out and explore more parts of Seoul and to find new things.  Not a lot happend last week besides work.  This week however, I did a little more.  Emily's dad is on a business trip throughout Asia.  He was in Seoul for most of the week before leaving to go to China and Japan.  On Thursday, Emily, myself and a few of her co-workers took Steve (emily's dad) out to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  It was my first time having Thai food and I thought it was very delicious.  I had a chicken dish with some veggies top with a ginger sauce, and of course, rice.  The food was very good but I felt the portion was a little small.  Definately a place I will return to in the future. 
Saturday was Steve's last full day in Seoul so Emily took him around to some cool things in the city.  I met up with them in the afternoon and we went to the Korean War Memorial.  It was an awesome place to go.  Outside of the memorial, there were airplanes, tanks, trucks, huge machine guns, and helicopters that were used in war.  A few of them you could actually go inside of.  This picture below is of a tanker that can be used on land as well as in the water.  The back door was open were soldiers would come out of.  I went inside and attempted to get into either the driver or gunner seat.  It was a very very tight squeeze but I managed to get in. 

Another cool part thing outside was a monument/statue of two korean soldiers hugging each other.  The bigger man with the gun on his back was a South Korean soldier, while the the smaller man was a North Korean soldier. The cool thing about it is that these men are brothers.  The statue shows the willingness for these two men to forgive each other for the violence, tradegy, and problems that have gone on.  There is also a split up the side of the monument between the men showing the division that still exists between South and North Korea. 

Peace clock tower.  There was another clock on the ground behind where I was standing that will be turned on at the time when peace is ever restored between N and S Korea.  If this happens, that clock will be added to the peace clock tower. 

A monument right when you enter the main gate.  Apparently many people stand underneath this hand and get their picture taken. 

View of the War Memorial from the front.  For the picture on the left I sat my camera down on the stone near the edge of the water.  It turned out much better than the same picture I took holding my camera.  Once inside the museum/memorial there was a ton of stuff to see.  We started off by going to the "war experience" room.  Everyone went in this room that was made out to look like a battle during the Korean War.  All the lights turned off and it took us through a 5 minute experience of what a battle might have looked like and sounded like during this war using nearly life-size men as soldiers.  Next, we went through a few room that showed what life was like during the war.  There were little villages, schools, and towns set up.  It was kind of creepy because the people looked very real. 

Creepy girl that was part of the korean life exhibit during the war

Another room we went to was an exhibit of each country that either sent medical/food support or that fought in the Korean War.  Each country had a life like soldier/nurse along with information about how long they served, number of people that came over, number of deaths and injuries.  There was also medals, weapons, and other gear that each country used.  Below is the American soldier and some medals that soldiers could have gotten.

My favorite part of this room was an exhibit called "The Drop".  It consisted of 1300 dog tags in the shape of a tear.  It represented those who served and died in the war.  The bottom was sand that had a ripple effect in it, as if the tear dropped. 

We also went through an exhibit that depicted each war Korea has been involved in.  There were weapons, many pictures, information of the war and the result.  There was also a section of the terrorist attacks North Korea has been involved in with Koreans, Americans, and others.  Finally, with just a few minutes left before the museum closed we walked around to see some other planes, tanks, and cars that were used in the war that were inside.  I liked this museum a lot because there was a major focus on the Korean War, but there was also information from every war in Korean history.  Ancient and modern wars were all represented inside the museum.  There were some big fighter planes and tanks outside that we did not see because they were closing.  I would like to return to the memorial again sometime.  It would be very easy to spend 4-5 hours there and not get the least bit bored. 

After leaving the memorial, we took Emily's dad to a Korean barbeque restaurant that she lives by.  She goes there so often that the manager gives her coupons once in awhile.  And we even got one last night too!  Korean barbeque is definately my favorited food here, I will have to take a picture of the setup sometime an put it on here.  Lastly, we went to a noribang.  At these places you rent out a room and get to sing karoke.  There are million songs to choose from.  It was really fun.  It would be easy to drop alot of money and spend hours in there.  That was another first for me since I have been in Korea!  I don't have any pictures of that on my camera, I will have to get those from Emily sometime and put them on here.  So things have been going very well here so far.  I can't believe its been over a month.  Time has gone by very quick!  Everything at school is going well too.  We have monthly testing this week, which is what teachers look forward too.  Watching kids take tests for hours.  Then, next week we have some Halloween things to do with the kindergarteners so I have to find a costume.  I'm not too sure how well that is going to work.  Halloween is not really celebrated here so only a few places even sell costumes, and I hear they are expensive and you HAVE to rent them, which makes it worse.  But who knows, I'll see what I can do! I saw the Hawks won again yesterday!  I listened to a little bit of it on my computer, but it started at 1 a.m. here so I was too tired to listen to it all.  Hopefully they will have a little jump up when the standings come out on Monday since 1 or 2 teams above them both lost this weekend.  7-0!!

Happy Chuseok!!

This past weekend was the holiday of Chuseok in Korea.  Chuseok is similar to our Thanksgiving.  Chuseok is a major harvest festival.  During this time Seoul looked almost like a ghost town.  Nearly everyone travels back to their hometowns to pay respect to those who have passed away.  On Chuseok morning, people go to the gravesites of their ancestors.  They clean up around the area and maybe put some flowers out.  Next, they offer food and drink to their ancestors.  A major food for this holiday is called songpyeon.  It is a rice cake filled with seseame seeds and sugar.    

The ever so tasy songpyeon!

This holiday is celebrated over a 3 day period with the actual Chuseok on the 2nd day.  It stunk this year because Chuseok was on a Saturday.  If it would have fallen on a Thursday we would have gotten Wednesday, Thursday,  and Friday off of classes.  But we only got a Friday off this year.  I guess you can't really complain about that.  On Thursday, the kindergarteners wore their traditional Korean outfit called a "Hanbok".  These outfits usually have many colors on them and are only worn a few times a year.  My school had a celebration for the kindergarten students.  I started off one class introducing Chuseok to the children although they obviously knew more than I will EVER know about it!  It was funny because all the teachers used Wikipedia to find information about it.  I then talked about Thanksgiving in America and how there were similarities and differences between the two holidays.  We played a few games that are normally played on Chuseok day.  One game was pretty much like hacky-sack, or however you spell it.  Another game was hopscotch.  During activity time we made songpyeon.  This was made using rice cakes that we already prepared.  We separated the rice cake mix into 5 pieces.  Then we flattened each one out and put seaseme seeds and sugar in the middle.  Next we folded it in half to somewhat resemble a cresent.  Each student brought some home to their family.  We were able to eat some songpyeon that was already made.  It was pretty good.  The only thing that made it good was the sugar though because rice cakes have no taste.  They just taste like rubber.  Very chewy. Thursday was fun in the morning with all the activities for the little kids.  But the afternoon classes were just normal, which really stunk. 

My class with their Hanbok outfits

Andrew and Daniel

Kenneth, Daniel, Andrew, Ben

Kenneth

Since nearly everyone in my area of Seoul was gone for the entire weekend it was really hard to find food.  I had to rely on the convinent store a few times for meals.  I was able to find some american restaraunts in another part of Seoul with a few of Emily's co-workers which was nice.  I figured since we had Friday off I should go explore Seoul a little bit.  I was looking through one of my travel books and I decided to go see the Olympic park.  Seoul held the summer olympics in 1988.  It was very easy to get to.  I only had to transfer one time on the subway.  When I got out of the subway the stairs literally took me to where the park started.  The park was massive.  I first started off by going to the olympic museum.  It was really neat.  There was a lot of memorbilia from korean athletes as long as detailed information about most of the olympic games.  I got to see the actual suit, swim cap, and goggles that Park Tae-hwan wore at the Beijing Olympics.  He is a very good swimmer from South Korea.  He won the gold medal in the 400 meter free and silver in the 200 meter free at the 2008 olympics.  After leaving the museum I walked around the outskirts of the park along a path that people usually walk, bike, or rollarblade on.  My one goal for coming to the olympic park was to swim at the pool that was used in the olympics.  Most of the olympic facilities were on the opposite side of the entrance to the park so it took awhile to get there.  After reaching the pool, I found that it was closed.  It's normally open to the public to swim for a couple of dollars.  But, it was Chuseok the next day so all the sporting facilities were closed.  Everything else in the park was open such as restaurants, coffee shop, gift shop.  It was a bummber that I didn't get to take pictures of the pool or swim in it but I will be back sometime in the near future.  The inside of the park was scattered with a ton of small/big parks that had stuff for families to do.  There were places to rest, play grounds for kids, some workout equipment, places to eat, etc.  Also the part was decorated with a lot of statues from various artists around the world.   It took about 1.5 hours to walk around the outside of the park.  It felt like I had spent the day at Disney World!  The olympic park was really cool and I will return soon to check out more of it when the athletic facilities are open. 

My building from the front.  I'm on the 4th floor. 

Entrance to Olympic Park

Olympic torch

The drum that was played at the opening ceremonies

Entrance to the pool

Park Tae-Hwan's olympic get-up

How old Korean men/women work out

Take 2

On Saturday I went around Seoul again with two of Emily's co-workers.  First, we went to Gyeonbokgun which is a part of Seoul.  This area houses the US Embassy, a really cool looking art center, and some Korean palaces.  I found out quickly that you're not supposed to take pictures of the US Embassy! We were at a stop light across the street from it so I decided to take a picture.  I then heard a Korean soldier yell at me, in Korean of course across the street and give the "No" sign which is making an X with your arms.  I thought it was funny because what would an American do with a photo of the US embassy?  Who knows.  He gave me a death stare when we walked by them, it was rather funny.  We then went to the palaces.  They were awesome.  We only saw 1 that day.  You could see off in the distance there were a bunch more.  I'm not sure if the public can see those, I would like to find out and go back if you can.  If you've ever seen a movie that takes place in Asian history this is what the palace looked like.  We were able to walk up to the "front door" of it and take a look inside.  There was a big throne with some various artifacts scattered through out the room.  This was pretty cool, but I eventually want to make it out to the mountains/countryside of Korea and see more palaces.  I was told by one of the guys I went with that all of the palaces we saw had been burned down many times by the Japanese so they had all been rebuilt.  There is one somewhere in Seoul that is still the origional palace, but you cant even see it from the rode its blocked off very well. 

The entrance into the palace area

Throne

Another palace off in the distance

Cheonggyecheon Stream

Street in Insa-dong

After leaving the palace we went to another area in Seoul close to the palace called Insa-dong.  There was street in this area that sold authentic Korean goods.  So far going out you usually only see massive shopping malls that are 10 stories high that only sell "modern" things.  This street sold old school acient Korean artifacts.  It would be easy to go crazy and spend a lot of money because there is a lot of cool things to buy.  I know that I will be getting some stuff at this place to take home with me next year.  Next, we found a newly built stream that runs through parts of Seoul. It is named Cheonggyecheon Stream Each side of the stream is open to the public to walk, bike, run on which is cool because its very quiet down there.  The stream is probably 20-30 lower than the street so it takes away  alot of the city noise.  By the time we left that area of Seoul it was night time which made for some good pictures.  That night for dinner we went to a place called Lotteria.  It is the Korean version of McDondalds, Burger King, Etc.  The food was decent although the pictures on the menu were nearly twice as big as the food itself!  It is Lotteria's 20th anniversary this year so they have a special new "burger" out.  The burger is half beef half fish!  How delicious does that sound?  I hope you're thinking not delicious at all.  Sunday I didn't really do much.  The girl who lived in my apartment before me from my school left a bike.  I rode around my area a little bit seeing if anything was open for food.  I eventually met up with Emily when she got back.  She went to Disneyland Honk Kong this weekend with two of her co-workers which sounds pretty sweet! That's about all for now, working is definately going to be long this week.  And for a long time!  I dont think we get a day off again until winter break.  Yay i can't wait! Its fun to watch Korean baseball here because they are just starting their playoffs.  I can sleep easier at night knowing the Cubs are one day closer to the day their new owner takes charge and hopefully one day close to the end of Jim Hendry's horrible reign at the cubs GM.  But for now, keep it going Hawkeye football!  I purchased a subscription through hawkeysports.com and am now able to listen to the radio broadcast for each game.  I went to bed Saturday night after the end of the third quarter figuring they had it locked down.  Apparently not!  They almost lost.  Hopefully they can do well this weekend against Michigan.  If I get the chance I'll listen to it again!