Hey, everyone!

Well, World Cup mania continues here in Seoul. Who in a million years would have thought that Korea would go so far? I read an article online that compared the Korean World Cup team to the "Miracle on Ice" Olympic hockey team of 1980. No discernable superstars, no expectations, playing at home and feeding off the crowd, an "us against the world" mentality, a good coach and a strong work ethic. Can Korea win it all? I suspect not (with Germany and Brazil in their way) but then again, I didn't think they'd make it this far either!

Last Tuesday was the Korea-Italy game. I have to be honest, a small part of me wanted Korea to lose. Korea is an extremely xenophobic country, almost racist at times. We went to a club one night last week and foreigners had to pay a $20 entrance fee, but Koreans did not. Imagine if a club in New York tried that! Yeah, right! But this is common. The night they beat Portugal, I saw a guy on the street holding an American flag upside-down, and he had painted "Fuck USA" on it. I was slightly less than impressed by that.

Anyway, Korea was losing 1-0 for most of the game and Italy looked content to just hold on and play defensively. Korea ended up tying it in the last moments of the game and in overtime, Italy again looked happy to play for the tie and go to the shootout. Italy were victims of some questionable officiating and Korea scored the winning goal in OT. We wan out into the streets (I had my camera with me this time!) and the celebrations were much more toned down than last time. This didn't stop us from running around and singing and high-fiving everyone, but it had the feeling of "didn't we just do this the other night"?

Friday night was the US-Germany game. I knew that if we watched the game in a bar in our neighborhood, all of the Koreans would be cheering for Germany as soon as they realized we were cheering for the US. It sounds paranoid and horrible but I guarantee it is 100% true. So all of the Americans in the group decided to go to the "tourist" neighborhood called Itaewon, which we knew would be at least somewhat pro-American. We found a pretty cool bar which was packed with Americans, Germans, Irish, Australians, and English folks left over from the earlier England-Brazil game (which I missed because I had to work!). As much as I am trying to be culturally sensitive, you have to realize that it has been three weeks since I spoke with anyone not (a) a coworker or (b) Korean. So it was a very welcome change.

Anyway, the US played really, really well (you all got up early to watch it, right???) and was unlucky to lose. I was sad but nothing large quantities of alcohol couldn't help take care of. So we had a very big night out and had a great time. I was very proud of how well the US had played over the past few weeks. I was afraid that we would be embarassed like we were four years ago, but this time we were great.

Sadly, I had to work the next morning and I think I was still drunk when I showed up at 9:00. The students could tell and they all thought it was pretty funny. We just played games for about three hours and then I sent them home a little bit early.

Afternoon classes were cancelled because of the Korea-Spain game. I desperately needed a nap so I slept a bit and then a few of us went to a local restaurant to watch the game. I was wearing my "Be the Reds" t-shirt (I have NO idea what that means but apparently it is the slogan of the Korean supporters) but on the inside I was hoping Spain would win. Is that horrible? I don't know. Once the US was out, I found no reason to cheer for other teams, certainly not one that has such obvious hatred towards us.

To make matters worse, I was with three girls who only watch soccer because "they are SO hot" and "they are in SUCH great shape" and "sports can be SO dramatic". Uhh... yeah. Whatever. I was still feeling like crap from the night before so you can imagine how much of a pissy mood I was in. Anyway, the officiating once again was in Korea's favor, no goals were scored, and Korea ended up winning the shootout. As the people in the restaurant were going wild and shouting the now-incredibly-irritating chants of "Daehan Minguk!" ("Republic of Korea!") and "Pilsung Korea!" ("Korea will surely win!"), I made my exit.

Since it was still daytime, I was able to take better pictures of the crowd running through the streets. Surprisingly, the celebrations were much more subdued than even those following the previous victory. And since I wasn't wearing red or cheering, people pretty much ignored me.

Apparently in other parts of the city, there were crazy celebrations and people rioting, and I suspect that if they beat Germany and actually make it to the final, it will get really out of hand. In fact, rumor has it that Tuesday (the day of the semi-final) will be a national holiday! So we'll have to see what happens.

Anyway, school continues and the first term ends next weekend! Woo hoo! And we get paid on Monday! My first paycheck in almost a year! I guess I have returned to the working class now...

Chris