World Cup, Korea vs. Nigeria

For this game, we went to the Olympic Park. I made tuna sandwiches, bought some wine, and put it all in my backpack. We walked from Cheonho to the park and a nice guard guided us to where they were showing the game. We got there around 1:30 I think (the game started at 3:30 am -- Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). It was pretty incredible to be walking through an absolutely silent park for about 15 minutes because when we finally got to the screening area, there were a ton of people.

First we decided to try and enter. They had set up a large screen with four sections of fenced-off grass. We tried to just walk in but the guard indicated to us that we needed a wristband, so we waited in a short line and walked up to the woman. She said something to me and proceeded to chuckle in an embarrassed way and give me a wristband after my grunt and giggle saying something like "I don't know". We walked up to the front section and sat down and waited basically. We found out later that the people in the back two sections had blue wristbands, so we don't really know what was going on there because it was free. Whatever.

So we ate sandwiches, poured the wine, and waited. They started a pre-game pep-up show basically around 2 am. The people went crazy and everybody was cheering and singing their little anthem. They were also dancing. Or was it cheerleading? I'm not sure what to call it, but they had pretty effeminate dance moves to go along with their song. They literally played this on repeat and people continued for about 15 minutes.

When the game finally started...excuse me, when they finally showed the TV station showing the game, people started cheering and when they showed the players waiting to go out onto the field it sounded as if they had just won the game. After the singing and the kickoff, the moment one of the Korean players got the ball, the crowd absolutely exploded with cheers. They were so excited about everything -- it was hysterical. Literally one time they showed the goalie in the goal yelling at one of his teammates and screams erupted from the crowd.

We left at halftime to go home...I had to work today!

I think the most interesting thing, besides the way they cheer, is the way they watch the game. We were in a park, an open field, and EVERYBODY was sitting down, watching the game. I think if I'd seen it in the states, we'd be standing up.

Anyways, I'm tired, so I'm off, chao!