They Like Baseball Here

Hey look at that, it's two sports related blog posts in a row. Don't like sports? So sue me. I made it to a baseball game three weeks ago actually, I'm playing catch up with old pictures and material.

Baseball is very popular in Korea. Actually, last year Korea competed in the World Baseball Classic and got second place. They lost to Japan, but beat the U.S.A. In Korea there are 8 baseball teams in a country of a little over 40 million people. I guess we can compare that to the US which has 30 baseball teams in a country of over 300 million people. Actually one team is in Canada, but whatever.

They baseball game I saw took place in Seoul, at a stadium located on a subway stop called "Seoul Sports Complex." I think that a few teams use the stadium, so there aren't really any markings of affiliation on the stadium that show which team plays there.

The game we saw featured the Doosan Bears vs. the Samsung Lions. It was technically a home game for the Bears, but it seemed like there were about the same number of fans for both teams.

Below is what the stadium looked like, a baseball diamond in Korea looks pretty similar to what they do in America:

There is one (very) important difference at Korean baseball games. At these stadiums, people are allowed to bring in any food or beverage. Yes, beer can be brought into the game and enjoyed instead of paying $7 for one in the States. Amazing! I forgot to mention before, but I went with a few people from my city. In the picture below is Steven, Jackie, then Michael and Jake are enjoying the chicken. My friends Kayla, Crystal, Brian, and Renzo are there as well but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of them.

The game was fun to watch, but it's surely a different experience from an American baseball game. It feels a lot faster in Korea. In the US it's a leisurely pace, each player is announced and slowly walks up to the batter's box. In Korea I couldn't really keep track of each player going up because there wasn't any announcer.

So it definitely felt faster here, but the game we saw was ridiculous. They couldn't get anybody out. The first inning ended at like 4 to 4 and lasted about 45 minutes. It was kind of like watching batting practice, or a little league game. After the first inning they started getting people out more quickly, but they game still lasted a long time. We had to leave early in order to catch the bus, so I can't tell you the final score.

One great thing about Korea baseball, though, is that the crowd is so enthusiastic about the game. There are cheers going on pretty much all the time, and people have those stupid thundersticks, too, so it gets pretty loud. There are cheerleaders, as well, so that's definitely nice.

Here's a banner I like that was talking about voting day or something, but it covered up and blocked the view of an entire section of people:

Well, I definitely had a blast and hope to go to a game again soon.

They Like Soccer Here

So the FIFA 2010 World Cup is here, and people around the world are coming together to root for their home nation. Maybe not as much in the states. Well, I don't really know how it is in the US since I don't live there.

Anyway, the games are an exciting national event here in Korea. It doesn't matter that the games are played in South Africa, because they are broadcast on giant screens around the country. Koreans act exactly as if they were going to the match; putting on face paint and red shirts, buying thundersticks, and then watching the game in a group on a giant screen. They root and cheer at the screen as if the players can hear them.

In Seosan, the biggest event is at city hall, where they project the game onto an approximately 20' screen in front of a giant open field. Everybody gathers, and there are even vendors selling food, beer, thundersticks, and these little devil horns that are so popular with the kids. I went to city hall this past Thursday night to watch the Korea vs. Argentina match along with most of the other foreign English teachers. Here is what it looked like:

All of the little red lights are the devil horns. The game was pretty exciting, but if Korea scored a goal things went completely bonkers. They would turn off the screen, flash lights, and spray this confetti all over the place while everybody screams. The picture below is what it looked like, but can't come even close to capture the excitement of the moment.

Half time was a spectacle, too. They had a few dance troups of 'ah jee mas' perform onstage to keep the excitement of the game going through half time. The term 'ah jee ma' is popular to refer to middle aged Korean women who wear giant visors over their faces during the day and are terrible drivers from what I hear.

My favorite part was when two of my friends, Adrian and Collins, headed to the stage during halftime to lead the crowd in chanting 'Dae han min guk'. I think the native Korean people were happy to see some foreigners chanting the official name of the Repulic of Korea. This picture is terrible but I put it in anyway.

Probably the most amazing thing about the night was the amount of trash. EVERYBODY there had wrappers, beer cans, broken thundersticks, etc., and not a SINGLE garbage can was located on the premises. Seriously. They did have a crack garbage removal team who ascended upon the field as soon as the game was over and had the place cleaned within a few hours.

So the game was a great time and its fun to feel the spirit of the people coming together for an event like that. The whole next day I was singing this cheer of 'Dae Han Min Guk, Korea' to the tune of a Beethoven song (the ninth I think?) to my students. I think they hated it.

Happy Birthday to Me

And now.....finally....the awesome birthday post.

As some know, my 26th birthday was last Friday night (crap 26 is old!). A birthday is exciting enough, but for this day our band also booked a concert/open mic night at the local bar. It ended up being a decent night, so I'll break into the pictures and details:

Here's the band playing anyway, the only new song we learned for the night was 'Summer of 69,' which rocked the house. I think the picture below is while playing Toto 'Africa' because I'm next to the keyboard.

Here's another picture, where I think we're playing 'Sweet Child of Mine', because Adrian has to sit down in a chair to play the solo.

So this night we actually got some people to come up and sing some open mic songs. We had a song from Adrian and then a few songs sung by a girl named Melissa with Adrian playing guitar. She learned some Lady Gaga songs which sounded pretty good. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this, though. There were also songs sung by Crystal and Sade. Crystal sang a 4 Non Blondes song and Sade sang 'Tik Tok' with me playing keyboard.

I picked the Cat Steven's song 'Peace Train' which is a really good song, but I did it no justice. It was my birthday, though, so nobody could hold it against me really. I tried to salvage some dignity by playing a popular Korean song by CN Blue, which people liked. The bartender Hong ran to the stage to sing with me and it turned out pretty well:

So after some more songs from the band it was time to celebrate my birthday. Megan, who came to town for my birthday was nice enough to get me this awesome tiger cake. I pulled a pretty clumsy move and elbowed it off of the counter, almost ruining the poor thing, but some efforts were made to salvage it and it turned out OK:

So then they played a happy birthday song and I stood there:

The best part of celebrating a birthday in Korea is that the bars will put on a pyrotechnic show. So the bartenders did a dance throwing around beer bottles ala 'Cocktail', and then they waved around a stick with flames on the ends. There was also some fire breating where they spit out a mouthful of alcohol while lighting it on fire. Pretty over the top. Pretty ridiculous. Pretty awesome.

So they flipped some bottles around more and made me a happy birthday shot. It was actually a glass sized shot. They made Megan and I cross arms while chugging and then kiss afterwards which was pretty awkward since my face was covered some kind of pink mixture. Strange times. But really fun.

Well thats pretty much what a birthday party consists of in Korea, it's a special bonus we get being English teachers in this country. I got a gift the next day, too, from one of my Kindergarten students which was really sweet:

That's all for now, see you next time!

A Self Portrait

So I'm guessing some readers are expecting a post about my birthday...and it's coming. I'm just waiting for a few more pictures from that night to come in. It will be soon, don't worry.

To hold you over until that post comes, I have a painting to post that was recently finished. It's a self portrait, obviously, well hopefully it's obvious. It's me made of about a thousand tiny retangles. Then I used only six colors to make up my face and hair. It think it turned out well!

Happy 100th Post!

Hello, and welcome to the 'Brad's Korean Adventures 100th Post Extravaganza'! This is just something I put together to celebrate the fact that I have made 100 posts, which is really a ton of time sunk into this site. Lately has been a little slow because I wanted to make this 100th post thing, but I do have a bunch of posts I need to get out. It's like a garden hose when you pinch it and then it gets that giant bubble. Anyway, this post is unpinching so expect that mass evacuation of posts soon!

For this post I thought I would just look back at some of my favorite events I had posted about since I started. It's been almost a year now. A year filled with a lot of highs, a few lows, and a lot of craziness. Mostly craziness, actually. Without further ado, I present my top 5 favorite posts from the past year:

5. Everybody Was Pillow Fighting

This day of the pillow fight was easily one of the best days I've had in Korea. I was able to wail on an assortment of Expat English teachers with a pillow, and it was the introduction of my friend Megan, who is sure to appear many more times. I also appeared in a few youtube videos.

4. A Bug and a Bum

I wrote this post pretty soon after arriving in Korea, and one of my favorite new things was finding people passed out in a park with a 2 liter bottle of soju next to them. It's classic.

Actually, it turns out there's and entire blog devoted to this.

3. I've 'Made It'

This post was easily a favorite, when I found a message left to me by a student on the tip of a pencil. 'Brad Teacher Very Bad'. I think that the grammar used in this message helps to support it. I'm about 99% sure who did this.

2. Why Not, More Chusok Pictures

Being a kindergarten teacher in Korea will leave one with an abundance of pictures of adorable little kids. This was one of my favorties because they had to dress up in these traditional Korean costumes.

1. The Post in Which I Describe Eating Octopus

OK, I think this one is my favorite post just because eating live octopus is absolutely surreal. I command everyone who comes to Korea to try this!

I think it goes without saying that one of my favorite things about Korea is the amount of crazy mascots that are willing to sing, cook their friends, and sometimes cook themselves while singing just to lure customers into the restaurant. I've gone ahead and counted down my 5 favorite of those, too.

"I've studied hard so you can enjoy my large, delicous brain!"

"I am Korean Tom Hanks!"

"I'm drinking my own pee!"

"Oh, you know you cannot resist my sweet meat song! *wink*"

(Thanks Dave for the winning caption)

"I am two star general of sausage and pipe tobacco!"

Well, the items in the countdown have been my favorite items I've posted, but I'd like to hear what you, my readers, think. If anyone has favorite posts that I've left out, favorite mascots I forgot, or some additional mascot captions for these that you want to share, I would be delighted to read them in the comments section.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next 100 posts!!!!!!!!

Happy Election Day

It's an exciting time in Korea as elections are today. Actually I'm way too ignorant to know what offices these elections are for, but I do have today off since everyone is supposed to get out and vote. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

Working up to this day off hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows, though. The Korean political campaigning system is one of the most annoying things in the world. Each candidate has a truck with a podium set up in the back, and the truck also usually has an LCD screen and a really loud speaker system. These trucks were driving around for the last few weeks blaring the candidates campaign songs, sometimes starting at 8am, right outside my window. One song was to the tune of 'If you're happy and you know it,' and it kind of drove me to hate the song.

The picture above was taken at night and unfortunately I don't have anything better. I did, however, take this photo below while walking to the grocery store. This candidate had some volunteers, mostly middle aged women, stand on this street corner and wave these fans with his candidate number on it.

I definitely miss the USA where the political commericals are just on TV where they can't wake you up in the morning. Well, at least it's over now.