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This page was last updated on
08/02/07.
June 2002
June 04, 2002:
Well I must say I am sadly disappointed in my first typhoon. Warnings
 and
huge hype then all it does is rain. Not even hard rain. No thunder,
little to no lightning. Weak. And yet somehow, 2 people still died to
it...Makes no sense to me. |
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June 08, 2002: World
Cup - Daegu. Slovenia vs. South Africa.
We (Daven, Sam, John, and myself) went to Daegu this weekend to catch a first
round game. We took a train ride down and were met by a friend of John's that
was gracious enough to let us crash at her place. We had a pretty
decent time the night before the game...anytime Sam goes knee deep in sewage it
can't be all bad ;p. Daegu is a nice city for the expat it appears and
their community seems pretty tight unlike Seoul. Of course Daegu is only 2
million or so people so you get that small town feel (heh).
The game itself was so lame.
The 2 teams competed for the who sucks more prize. We had decided to cheer for
Slovenia, so of course the won the prize. It was a sleeper 1-0 game. I
almost felt bad about dragging the group out to it. Well not really, but I did
regret buying the tickets the legit way via FIFA. Never believe the hype,
I learned that yet again. Scalping would have been a much cheaper and better
option. I have a bunch of pictures to scan from this game...so you'll
likely never see them.
June 14, 2002:
World Cup - Taejon USA vs. Poland
Took off after school solo to catch this game. After a short 2 hour train trip I
hop the shuttle to the stadium. I didn't have a ticket, I was going to meet a
friend that was working for FIFA but wasn't sure if I had a ticket that way, so
I looked for a scalper. I picked up a 150,000 seat for 40,000 won.
It was a great spot-about 25 rows up even with the penalty kick spot.
The US lost 1-3 but the game was much closer than that. The game was
very exciting, plus with a loss we could have been eliminated from the
tourney...unless Korea could beat Portugal. About halfway through the 2nd
half hand phones start ringing, about 20 seconds later the stadium is going
nuts. Korea scored in their game and was beating Portugal. It got so loud
the players started looking around trying to figure out what was going on (it
was a pretty dull moment in our game). It took about 5 minutes for the small
American contingent to figure out that Korea was about to save our ass.
They did. Both the US and Korea moved into
 the
Round of 16. That night the city was insane. I walked around until 2AM or
so ( I went to a Korean nightclub with my friend after they got off work at 2 or
so. I'll have to describe Korean nightclubs and discos sometime. Interesting to
say the least) But back to the post game. The whole city was alive and chanting
"Dae han min guk" (Republic of Korea basically) non stop. It was near riot
level, but it was happy rioting. I saw one car turned over, but otherwise they
were really just having fun and feeling some pride in their country like never
before. They were even happy to see the white guys there.
High fives and cheers for America and wild cheers when I'd say they helped us
get there. It was a great night and I'm very happy I went.
June 18, 2002:
World Cup - Korea vs. Italy
What a night! We got out of school early, which was good as the kids were going
insane. No one expected Korea to make the 16, and coming up against Italy,
even fewer expected them to win. But win they did. Of course the wins are
starting to build some controversy. Korea has been getting some really
questionable calls but at the same time, teams that should manhandle Korea
aren't stepping up and playing through the crap.
All that aside, Korea wins again and that little happyfest in Taejon looks like
a picnic. Seoul was so alive. People of all ages were out singing and
chanting in the streets. It was estimated that 75% of the population
watched the game, and I'd guess 1/3 was out that night.
I met up with some Korean friends and rode around the city until 4 AM or so.
Pretty rough getting up for work a few hours later but I'm a trooper.
Every party area and college was just nuts. I got surprised looks and then
cheers and hugs when I was noticed in the car. It was pretty cool.
June 21, 2002: World
Cup USA vs. Germany
Well I did my part to end the US's run to the finals. We (the Daewon white
guys and friends) met up in Itaewon (curse #1) to watch the game. Before I
went to the pub I bought a USA soccer jersey (huge curse #2). The final
straw was we actually had a chance to win and thought we could. Underdog
USA did well, have a chance USA tanked. It was still a fun night overall.
June 22, 2002: Korea
vs. Spain
Yet another game that Korea should not have won but because of that did.
Overtime and a shootout, that pretty huge. The city went nuts, but I went
home. I had a little stair mishap and smashed my face, hand, knees...I was
all messed up. (a month later I'm still not 100% recovered) That's all I'm
gonna say about that.
June 25, 2002: Korea
versus Germany at City Hall.
Didn't go to the game itself, but did something almost as neat, maybe more so.
Sam, So Yon, and myself headed out to The City Hall area to watch the game.
Each game more and more people have gathered to watch the games on the huge
monitors on the sides of the large buildings there. Well over a million were
there that night and we were in the middle of them. Pretty wild being in the
middle of the OKC metro's population all in a few block radius.
Korea started believing the hype. They also scheduled a national holiday for the
day after the final game (counting chickens before they hatch). It was a good
game, but Germany got the win and Korea was done at the round of 4. They got to
play a 3rd/4th place game, but no one seemed to care.
The post game, well the game too, was odd. Like I said we were in the
middle of a million people...that's a million people sitting in mostly organized
lines on papers in the streets. It was quite odd. In the US it would
be mayhem, but here it was organized and orderly. Then the kicker
happened. The game ended, Korea lost, and the masses cleaned up all their
trash. Even confetti was picked up and bagged. I was in awe.
The walk to a useable subway was surreal as well. We walked 10-20 blocks,
I really couldn't tall ya how far. The whole way was a mass exodus of people
moving along with us, but all bathed in an odd yellow street light and with
roman candles popping off along the way. Add in the smoke from the
thousands of fireworks and it was a strange experience.
All in all I'm glad I took part in the World Cup festivities. I'm also very
glad it is over. Well, it's still on TV here and will be forever I think.
"Be The Reds" shirts are still everywhere, it's still on TV on at least one
channel all the time, and the remnants of the merchandise is still for sale all
over....so it'll be a long while till it's gone. I think I need to put up
my editorial section...Just doesn't feel right going off on the Cup here (at
least not today;)
| July 10, 2002:
Went to see the Real Body exhibit today at the Seoul Science Museum. I had
heard about it about a year ago via the net, one of those wacky sites of the
day deals. So when it found out it was here I couldn't miss it.
The little deformed fetus' were pretty bad but otherwise it was a pretty
cool exhibit. It was way too small though. A few more
details and some pictures
here |
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