Go Red Devils!
So the World Cup is finally upon us...and Korea couldn't be happier; I believe they live for these global sporting events. I was unfortunate to witness the success of the Korean speed skaters in the last winter olympics. Reruns of yes, speed skating, have been on incessantly...quite frankly, we dread success and the repetition that will follow in word and television. Koreans are proud winners. When they lost to Japan in this year's World Baseball Championship, hearts were broken and we are not allowed to joke about their loss. The benefits of World Cup have been a) canceling classes to watch a game, b) free beer in this glorious occasion, and c) basically seeing, breathing and eating my favorite sport, soccer...fantastic. Potentially, the better Korea does the more classes I may get out of! Go Korea!
Last night was the first Korean game. The weeks leading up have been a blur of red: every salesperson in ever store, every child and adult has been sportingtheir red jerseys. My adult students even gave me my own. I found an amazing addition last night, see pic, that rocked my world. My hope was to watch the game in a passionate crowd of black and red....complete with songs, chants and of course, soju. Unfortunately the streets we passed were empty, but the bars full. You cannot walk 10 feet on a World Cup game night without passing a television tuned-in. Quite frankly, its fantastic nationalism. I cannot name one event in America that literally brings out every citizen, young, old, rich, poor, into like mind and love for 2 hours. We found a decent bar, with a big screen, beer and of course...Enthusiastic Koreans. The owners blessed us with noise makers and noise sticks. Every other second the crowd would break into the Korean chant "DAY HAN ME GUK" clap clap, clap clap, clap! And of course, us non-Koreans joined in more-than-enthusiastically.
Now the best Korean players don the names Ahn Jung-hwan and Lee Chung-soo...which don't really roll off my foreign tongue. We end up mauling the names and chants on our own, and yelling out any Asian-sounding words in the end...but hey, it's not what you say, it's how you say it! The game was nothing less than exciting with all the yelling and dancing and clapping that one could muster. I was so happy to watch Korea win, because we knew this one game was going to make it a very good or very bad week for everyone surrounding us, and thus us. The next game is at 4am on a Monday night, and I have big plans for a very tired Tuesday...but hey you're only in Korea once! Cheers to the World Cup and all the red I could ever ask for!