6.30.2006

World Cup

Like most Americans I have very little interest in soccer. If I weren't living in a soccer-rabid country I most likely would not know that the World Cup of soccer is taking place. For those who don't know (I didn't) the World Cup takes place every four years. This year it is being held in Germany and teams around the globe compete for the title.

Koreans are especially patriotic in regards to their soccer team. A lot of ths has to due with the fact that the previous World Cup in 2002 was held in Korea and Japan. In that contest the Korean team made the quarterfinals and there were huge celebrations all over the country. The videos of those celebrations are still regularly shown on Korean TV with massive crowds of red-clad Koreans cheering every move. So, I was excited to head down to city hall recently and watch Korea play Switzerland. Some friends took some photos.


Since the games are played in Germany the Korea game started at 4a.m. Korean time, yet the crowd was still huge.


Right before the game started the police came through and made everyone sit down and to my shock everyone did. You could never get people at home to do that.


These two guys rode around on Segways dressed in masks. We took some pictures with them and I begged them to let me ride the Segway to no avail.


Even us foreigners got into the act and dressed in red. I even wore some red horns as the Korean team is called the Red Devils.


Even the Korean police sat down to enjoy the game.


The sun started coming up. Not sure how many people were there, but I heard people saying millions.


More of the crowd. Unfortunatley, Korea lost to Switzerland 2-0 thus eliminating them from the World Cup. I was looking forward to more of these events.

6.12.2006

I'm back

I had basically abandonded this blog. Mostly due to laziness, lack of interest and nothing new to report. However, I've decided to continue to update it. Maybe not frequently, but I will.

The bad news is I am once again camera-less as my camera, along with my iPod and electronic dictionary were recently stole from my bag. This is the second time I've had an iPod stolen in Korea, both because I left my bag unattended. And seeing as I went right out and bought another, it is my fourth iPod to date.

I'd like to buy another camera soon, but not sure I can afford it just yet. Regardless, I'll keep things updated around here again.