Entry 18: I Miss American Football

난 너를 사랑해 박용택!!! 이 세상은 너 뿐이야 박용택!!!
소리쳐 부르지만 저 대답 없는 노을만 붉게 타는데  박용택!!!

These were the words that echoed in my head for the hour long subway back to 죽정, where the Suh family had a home. The sound of thunder-sticks, of drunken Americans trying to start the wave, and personalized songs and chants for each player replayed in my head as I dozed off. I had experienced a Korean Baseball game, the LG Twins vs 한화 Eagles. The baseball game was like the numerous other baseball games that I had been to in the past, but the most blatant and obvious difference was the way that crowd had behaved. For those of you who have never been to an American baseball game (I will exclude playoff baseball, I am referring more to summer baseball games) you will realize how the crowd usually is somewhat reserved, only cheering for base hits, strike-outs, and home-runs. Koreans do the same, but in a very different fashion. They have thundersticks and cheerleaders. Yes, thats right, they have cheerleaders for baseball games, who dance K-Pop dances during the time between the innings. The American's who were sitting next to us said to us "Korean's know how to watch baseball. I'm a die hard Giants fan, but even I get bored during some games. This is insane." 
Korean people even have perfected the wave. That's right, you just read that correctly, Koreans have perfected the wave, or at least have inovated it in a way that I personally have never seen before. The typhoon wave.
I think it is going to be a bit hard for me to explain to you what exactly a typhoon wave looks like, but image a really slow wave, but is the size of a baseball stadium. It was amazing and the dude who was coordinating it was going nuts. One of the American guys from our section tried to do the same, but due to the fact that he was both drunk and spoke no Korean only allowed him to create a small ripple in the huge crowd.


When the game ended, with the final score being 3-1, the winning or losing team not really mattering (LG twins, the side we were rooting for lost -_-), I left the stadium slightly wanting to go back to the 찜질방 that we had gone to the night before. There was something about going to a Korean sauna that just made me feel good. The sauna really lifted my spirits. This past weekend was no normal weekend, it was a vacation weekend, and amazingly all expenses paid vacation. It was nice to be taken care of, not having to worry about a single thing.


The one down side, I had no internet connection for most of my weekend, but I was glad to find that UT is looking ready to take the National Championship and Oklahoma lost (I was actually hoping the the Red River Shootout would be with two undefeated teams so that UT would look that much more amazing when WE would go on to win that game easily) . 


Another down side to this weekend, I didn't have my camera to take pictures of all the food (Suwon Galbi, Sushi and Sashimi, Shabu Shabu, and KFC at the baseball stadium) and the amazing people that I was with. Interestingly, the family that I spent the weekend with is friends with Sara Kim and her family. Crazy small world. 


I think it would be interesting to teach Korean people about football (which I would say has one of the most enthusiastic crowds for all of American sports, just go to a UT football game and you will see what I mean) and see how they cheer. They cheered for strikes, for hits, for cheerleaders at the baseball game. They were a very educated crowd in the sense that they knew when to cheer and when to keep quiet. It was a great experience, and next up is going to a Korean soccer game.


Anyways, I had fun this weekend. It was great being able to eat and eat and eat and eat, without having to worry about bills or the cost of food. Also, my dad is coming to Korea next Sunday, which will further decrease my stress. NICE.


난 너를 사랑해 COLT McCOY!!! 이 세상은 너 뿐이야 COLT McCOY!!!
소리쳐 부르지만 저 대답 없는 노을만 붉게 타는데  COLY McCOY!!!