Daehan Minguk!!

With the World Cup finally upon us, life has been even more crazy than usual. For the last month or so, every single shop, from our very own Jungsan right into downtown Seoul (and the rest of the country I presume), have been selling a variety of red shirts in support of Daehan Minguk and their World Cup campaign. If I were to walk down the street right now, I guarantee that everyone would be wearing a shirt bearing one of numerous bizarre slogans, including "Fighting Korea!", "Reds Go Toggether", "We Are Twelfth", and "Again Corea!". Seriously, even the old ladies that squat by the road selling what look like weeds, with wrinkles deep enough to park your bike in, are sure to be sporting at the very least a red bandana! And in twisted, surreal, surround sound, the day is filled with random chants of "Dae-han Min-guk", accompanied by cymbals and drumming. As I've previously mentioned, after the relative success in 2002, the whole country have embraced football in such a passionate, borderline psychotic manner, that you would swear that they invented the sport, and they are adamant they can repeat the same feat this time around.


The nucleus of this fervent fanaticism is definitely Seoul City Hall. Even for the pre-competition FRIENDLIES, against such low-profile teams as boring old Norway, 50,000 "Red Devils" turned up to lend their support, despite the less than convenient kick-off time of 4 am! The picture above shows a mere fraction of the 100,000 people estimated to have watched the recent Togo match at this one venue. Our plan is to join this madness for the penultimate group match against Switzerland, smashed at 4am, resplendent in our Korea shirts, bandanas, tacky face-paint (one Scotland flag, one Korean), and carting a stash of booze. It promises to be an unforgettable experience!






Here are a couple of pictures showing what City Hall usually looks like. It's always a beehive of activity, but with all the World Cup preparations it's been even more buzzing than usual. Look at those fountains! They are so powerful I keep expecting some toddler to be blasted off into the blue sky, or someone to receive a power shot up the leg of his shorts and fall to the ground sobbing. Actually, I'd love to be the fountain operator on the night of the match. Halftime colonic irrigation for those lucky enough to be seated in that spot! As you can see, Park Ji-Sung and his teammate are overseeing all the proceedings, and for the coming month his face promises to adorn at least half of the buildings making up downtown Seoul's towering concrete jungle.

Obviously, all of this excitement is never more evident than in the classroom, and any class with older students undoubtedly turns into a football discussion, and some major bashing of Korea's opponents. Togo came in for some particularly harsh treatment, as for many of the pupils it is the very first time they have seen a coloured man! They always ask me why Canada and Scotland aren't in the competition, and I explain that the former are absolute pish, while the latter are simply unlucky, and are actually as good as Brazil. I've also managed to drum up a lot of hatred for the England team, mostly by explaining that England are to us, what Japan is to them. This results in a classroom of scowls, and new found empathy for Scotland. I know I'm meant to be shaping the attitudes and minds of the younger generation, but surely a disliking of England is mandatory! It's all in jest of course. No, really it is!

Even the kindergarten classes arrive each morning wearing red outfits, sporting painted flags on their cheeks, and Korea transfers on each arm. We managed to grab a bunch of them at lunchtime, dragging them away from their delicious seaweed soup, for an impromptu photo session. By the way, the mischevious critter to my left is the new boy Jun. He is by far the worst behaved kid yet, and may have to be introduced to the smackdown quite soon. I tried confiscating his pencil case, and booking him a solo seat at the Stupid ("Babo") Table, but I still didn't break him. I need to consider a new strategy, possibly involving thumbscrews.


Look at the difference in them in this picture. This can only ever mean one thing, a Korean teacher has entered the room!


On the night of the Togo match, we had planned to watch it at Goyang stadium. However, when we left work, we found that our local park was swarming with people, a sea of flashing red horns in the darkness. Numerous food stalls had been set up, cartons of soju were readily available, and a mountain of beer kegs had been assembled. The centrepiece of this circus were three huge screens, and we decided we didn't need to travel anywhere else for a fantastic, vibrant atmosphere.

We do regret taking our own mammoth sized bottles of beer, however. Despite the darkness, and a crowd of around 3,000, many of our students identified us and brought over their parents to introduce them. It's hard to be inconspicuous when you are the only people in a 20 mile radius with blonde hair, or no hair! We were very discreet with the beer, and only brought it over as we had witnessed the very liberal drinking habits of Koreans for the last 3 months. The thing we often forget though, is that we are genuine TEACHERS here, and are expected to maintain a certain decorum within the vicinity of the school! So, come Monday afternoon, word had spread and all the pupils were huddled together, whispering excitedly, "Chris sonsaengnim, Lynne sonsaengnim, MAEKCHU oooooh!"

Suffice to say, it's the last time we will be drinking outside in Jungsan! As I'm sure you know, Korea trimphed 2-1 over Togo, despite being 1-0 down at half-time. The atmosphere in our little park was amazing, and the reaction to the two goals was absolutely electrifying. The passion and devotion on display was unlike anything I've ever seen before. Many of the fans genuinely believe that their positivity carries all the way to Germany and strengthens the players. A lot of this stems from the mistreatment of the country over hundreds of years, and the many hardships the people have had to endure. After a tumultuous history of invasions, occupations and war, Korea is only relatively recently regaining its strength and individual voice. My knowledge of its history is extremely patchy, but it does seem to be the case that this country has had a torrid time, and has genuine cause to feel proud of what it has now become following such obstacles. The success of the team in 2002 was seen as an important step back from the brink, and an international announcement that Korea was finished being trampled on. Hopefully I can rectify my ignorance when it comes to their history, as two of our forthcoming weekend excursions will be the 10,000 exhibit strong War Memorial Museum, and Seodaemun Prison, where the Japanese incarcerated and sadistically tortured many Koreans. So that will be fun!

Anyway, enough seriousness, here are some pictures from the Togo game. It's hardly City Hall, but it was certainly a fun warm-up.



In other news, I think I might have been abducted by aliens. On the day of the England match, it rained terribly, so we made the decision to start drinking around 3pm. Foolishly, I surveyed the large bottle of Soju in the fridge. We invited Denis and Anetta over, the only other "White Devils" in this corner of Ilsan, and proceeded to get smashed. Denis wisely swore off "The Soj" a long time ago, so I soldiered on all alone. After the game, at around midnight, I went around the corner to use the bathroom, and never returned. Lynne and our drinking companions then searched every bathroom, noraebang and hof in the area and there was no sign of me! Denis almost went to ask in the police station if I'd been picked up and chucked in the slammer. Eventually, I was found comatose outside my front door, a little bit muddy, and was helped to bed. Where the hell was I for three hours?! Apparently, and I don't remember this, before vanishing I was speaking to a bunch of Korean guys, lifting our shirts up and pressing our bellies together in some kind of contest. It seems I also had a spoonful of the guys Bondeggi. Remember, the disgusting silk worm larvae that I swore I would eat at some point! But I can't remember this, and there are no pictures, so it hardly counts! Well, those three hours are a mystery to us all. Having suffered some shocking wind ever since that night, I dread to think of the possibility of extraterristrial anal probes and other fiendish experiments, but it's probably just the Kimchi Jigae to blame for that. I hope.

Anyway, gotta go, I've figured out how to post videos so I plan to post several this week. Also, stay tuned for the post about our visit to the Kimchi Field Museum. How exciting does that sound, I bet you can't wait! I hope you try and get a chant of Daehan Minguk going for the games against France and the Swiss. Dayhan Meengook its pronounced. You know you want to.