One Picture

Walking around after Church we headed to the 1988 Olympic Sports Complex. We first passed the gymnasium, at which there were several posters and signs displaying pictures of gymnasts and rhythmic gymnasts with something written in Korean. As we walked around we noticed there were people setting things up, and came to realize this event, Invitational 2009, was occurring today. Timmy decide to pursue finding out how much tickets were. The men and women at the counter did not speak English, but after a few moments they were showing us the computer screen with the different prices of tickets; Timmy has gotten good at playing charades . 22,000w, we had 3 hours to decide.

Continuing on our adventure we came across, English speaking field hockey players, the beginnings of a baseball game, a little kid soccer game/practice, and of corse the Olympic stadiums. After traipsing around for an hour or so, we headed to the COEX mall, which was about a 15 minute walk away. The COEX mall has an aquarium, a movie theatre, and a lot of expensive stores. So, needless to say we ate and left.

Map of Olympic Sports Complex A statue near the COEX

The Practice area for soccer and track

Me in front of the 1988 Olympic Sports Complex

Walking back to the Olympic Sports Complex, Timmy decided to be a good husband and attend the Invitational 2009. All we knew is that there were pictures of gymnasts everywhere, how could that be bad?

Standing in line, a Korean girl asked us, in English, if we wanted to buy tickets. Her friends did not show up, and she wanted to get rid of 2 extra tickets. So, we paid 10,000w for BOTH tickets! We thought that was a steal, and didn't care what the show was like, we were willing to pay 44,000w and ended up paying 10,000w, can't beat that.

Anyways we went in and found our seats, well more like we chose our seats. It was not assigned seating in the balcony, so we got right up front, edge of the balcony. The bad part about all of this, our camera had run out of battery. Timmy turned the camera on, and immediately took a picture and it worked. When he tried to do it again, with me in the shot, it didn't work, of course! So, we only have one picture to show the Invitational 2009:

It was a great show! There were past Olympic gymnasts, Rhythmic gymnasts, and ex-Circ de Sole members, including : Courtney Kupetz, Raj Bhavsar, Ivan Ivankov, , Terrin Humphry (I went to camp with her, way back when), one of the Hamm twins, and a few more. They did routines with music and lights. Floor, beam, parallel bars, high bar, rings, and some awesome equipment from Circ de Sole. It was a 2 hour long exhibition. At one point a Korean gymnastics team of little kids (about 7-12 years-old) came out and tumbled, they began with forward rolls and moved all they way up to double backs- they were good! The show reminded me of my love of gymnastics and how much it has always been a part of my life.