LATENIGHT - KOREA

Saturday, June 29, 2002

Some days you eat the Turkey, some days the Turkey eats you...

This was one of the fastest and highest scoring games that Korea played... but sadly, Turkey scored more of the goals than Korea. The final score was 3-2 for Turkey and Korea will finish this World Cup in 4th place (having started from a remote 40th place). The real game started immediately-- with the fastest goal in World Cup history, Hakan Sukur scored at the 10 second mark. The ball had barely hit the grass and it was sent into Korea's net. Korea responded with a goal by Lee Eul Yong to even it out, but Turkey's Ilhan Mansiz scored two more to secure Turkey's lead.

Probably the most important goal for Korea was score by Song Chong Guk in the very last minute of the game. It wasn't enough to tie up the match but it did mean that Korea saved a bit of face by only losing by 1 point. While the Turkey vs. Japan match had not been as high scoring, that game was also decided for Turkey by one point (1-0). What I am trying to say is that against the same team Korea was beaten no worse than Japan was beaten which would have been fuel for embarrassment and ridicule on both sides of the East Sea, had they not narrowed the gap.

The championship match is tomorrow between Germany and Brazil in Yokohama. Hiddink has so far dodged the question but it sounds like he is pricing tickets back to the Netherlands. Since tomorrow's match doesn't involve the Korean team or take place on Korean soil, I have a feeling that World Cup is over insofar as this town is concerned. Still, the slogan "See You at K-League" was flashed around the stadium as a promise that even in regular season, Korean fans will not return to the days of apathy-- from now on they are committed to soccer. In lieu of the end of Korea's World Cup involvement, I am going to take down my web poll tonight. I had 60 votes in total. The South Korean team was the winner by far with 37 votes (62%). Second place went to the U.S.A. with 9 votes (15%) and third place to tomorrow's grail-seekers, Brazil, with 6 votes (%10).

In the near future, I am going to put up a new poll, possibly in relation to today's events in the Yellow Sea (the tenth incursion by North Korean's so far this year). I also updated to Blogger Pro and as I investigate the new selection of options, modifications and better operability may be in the cards. So far, I have only noticed that Blogger Pro and Blogger are as different as Day and Night-- when I upgraded to Blogger Pro, it switched all my date stamps from AM to PM and vice versa.

Naval battle south of the DMZ

There was an incident this morning involving North and South Korean naval vessels. There were 4 South Korean marines killed, 22 wounded, and 1 missing after North Korean ships moved south of the DMZ and engaged South Korean naval vessels sent to intercept them. The South Korean government said that the North Korean ships, when approached, had opened fire on marines standing along the deck of a South Korean ship, at which point a second South Korean ship returned fire. One South Korean ship caught fire and was sunk and it is believed that one of the North Korean vessels shared the same fate. Some reports claim that the South Korean navy had to tow one of the North Korean ships back to the demarcation line-- but that sounds a bit silly (surely they would have captured and interogated the crew). I am inclined to think they got away.

Going to the barbecue tomorrow, and sticking close to the Canadian Embassy in general, might not be a bad idea.

Right now, I'm watching the pre-game show on T.V. Korea's final match against Turkey will take place in a little over an hour. There's still an insane number of people turned out to watch the game, but the energy level is a bit down. To top it off, the performers are doing terribly. Lip-synching is the standard for performing songs in public by Korean performers, but after the first songs, they are turning off the music and letting the performers sing themselves-- which they can't do in the least. I take back what I said about Swi-T being able to sing-- they were just on and bombed majorly as soon as they shut off the CD behind them. The crowd barely responded until they had left the stage. They also did that same "I'll be there/Oh Swi-T you're so fine" medley that is really starting to get on my nerves. Meanwhile in Daegu, something seems off with the sound system and none of the singers at the stadium are "in synch" either. To top it off, even the MC at Sichung hasn't memorized her speech. I hope the game starts soon.

*UPDATE* The TV just mentioned that the number of wounded is now listed at 19 (still 4 dead though)... the engagement, which started at 10:25am, lasted 31 minutes. They just showed a video too-- the battle was between full-sized naval vessels-- as opposed to fishing ships like before. I caught one of the call numbers from the video and it looks like one ship was the Chung-Ju which visited Vancouver in November of 2000. It might have been stock footage though, thrown in to bolster the footage from the gunfight.

Another shot of Sungjusa

I thought that maybe I'd post another entry before going to bed. I sort of want to gripe a bit about national holidays. We have had the idea of a national holiday hanging over our heads for some time now, in conjunction with repaying the soccer fans for their national support. They've finally settled on Monday, July 1st as the holiday-- with the exception once again being my school. We worked on election day under the hollow justification that since we hold evening classes for children-- and none of that directly applies to the voting electorate who by and large vote in the daytime if they vote at all. (I've heard the "lack of participation" argument in Canada before too, regarding Remembrance Day. One of the newspaper owners I once worked for said that since nobody went to the service anyway, we might as well work through the holiday). Well now the owner of our hagwon has apparently said that we are going to be working on this would-be providencial impromptu holiday also. This time around, he is saying that since we cut classes early to watch the soccer games, we have to make up for the lost time (read money) and are therefore going to work July 1st.

So here is my WARNING for any prospective English teachers coming to Korea. Remember back to my vacation in Changwon-- which resulted in them moving a new English teacher into my apartment while I was gone. They preferred to keep all their overbooked classes running rather than fulfill my contract extension-- and basically brought the new guy in as soon as my feet left the country. When I confronted them about the month remaining in our agreement (they picked my departure and arrival dates by the way)-- all they did was call me a liar and say I was planning on leaving as soon as I got back. Any hagwon will do it to you. If you ever plan on coming to Korea to teach English-- remember that you will never see a day of vacation unless you are already on your way home and not planning on coming back. In order for you to get time off, a school would have to cancel classes-- which means lost money-- which means it will NEVER happen-- regardless of what it says in that swiss cheese, toilet paper contract that you both signed.

I really feel like I need a break lately, but none are in sight. Classes are picking up more and more students and summer schedule is fast approaching-- which is going to increase my workload by 5 more classes a week. I am the only foreign teacher at my school (regardless of what our advertisements say) ergo I have no one to take up the extra slack. Most schools do offer a vacation during summer session but while a week is standard, the rumour I hear is that ours will amount to two days. At least July 17th is still a holiday-- unless our school wants to overide Constitution Day too.

My last salvation would be to call in sick. My contract states that I have to give 24 hours advance warning-- but since our school runs seven days a week, it should be no problem to call in and get an answer at any time over the weekend if I happen to pick up a case of the "Asian Flu" for Monday.

Friday, June 28, 2002

LUVStory - Love Your Voice

I have some time now to post another belated entry-- in this case another CD commentary. Apparently middle school students are writing tests now so their classes at the �п� hagwon. Normal attendance at my 3:30 Friday class is late and limited at best so since they are half an hour late with no signs of showing up-- let me tell you about the last of the three music groups I tried out last week. LUV is one of the new bands from Sidus Entertainment. The girls in the band are labelled like traffic lights-- �� (Bin) is the Green Love Story, �޴� (Haitnim --Sun) is the Yellow Love Story, and �� (Eun Byeul -- Silver Star) is the Red Love Story. Strangely enough, their first single is called "Orange Girl"-- accompanied by a catchy video showing the girls in various skimpy, pastel outfits, including cowboy attire.

Now I don't speak Korean so it's hard for me to judge them by anything more than the tone of their voice-- and when these girls try to be cute, something inside me just feels icky. I can't explain it. It's similar to spiders running along your neck. I promised to compare them with Swi-T and I will. I think LUV has catchier songs and are a little bit more fun in general, but Jun's right, Swi-T are much better vocalists. While Swi-T didn't stick out in my mind as much as LUV, they didn't make me feel threatened in a passively unilingual way.

All I can say is that I took both CDs out of my player and picked up something safer to listen to over the summer-- Crying Nut, a harder edge, male band (I hesitate to say Boy Band because they're not really pop-- which is by the way, why I usually pick up girl band CDs... most male Korean bands are Backstreet Boys clones. I don't mind it when girls try to be cute but I can hardly justify spending 10,000 Won on a bunch of dancing guys who are trying to do the same). I am seeking something rougher and more down to Earth these days. I really wish I could find a Korean industrial band. I haven't listened to Crying Nut yet but when I do, I'll blog a short post. Someone post a suggestion. What's your favourite Korean death metal band, punk, industrial... ?

Sungjusa Temple (��ֻ�), near Changwon, Kyungsangnam-Do

Okay... okay... I'll post. I've been pretty lethargic lately-- avoiding many of my own hobbies even. The only difference was that I picked up my guitar the other night which I hadn't done for a while. Mostly I've been downloading and watching Babylon 5. I'm almost at the end of the second season, having been able to find all the episodes except one or two.

Any interesting anecdotes from the week? There's quite a funny commercial on TV for Pepsi. They've run a series of them with grey-robed monks as the main characters. In the current commercial, an aspiring monk enters the gates of the monastery, seeking to join the order. When he enters, all of the monks inside stare at him. He lacks the mark. All of the monks display an identical circular pattern impressed into their foreheads. The aspirant examines the mark. Looking down on the ground, he notices a can of Pepsi. He violently crushes the can into his forehead. When it is removed-- his forehead betrays the mark of the rim and tab. The monks cheer and welcome him into their fold. So why am I telling you this? One of my students brought up the commercial the other day in class when he say my sunburn. Remember the taegooki emblazoned by the sun onto my forehead? Unfortunately, the Pepsi logo looks the same as the Korean flag.

School has been alright this week but I am starting to get fed up with kids rollerblading in the hallways and checking their cell phones in class-- I also would prefer them to stop bringing BB guns to class too. All in all, Korean children have a number of dangerous hobbies that the school seems to permit. I think I can at least put a check to them at the door of my class. Maybe I'm just crabby but a student, on Wednesday, dropped a water balloon out one of our fifth storey windows. It apparently hit someone who rushed up in a fury to our school. Thankfully there was no lawsuit-- but I decided to add words like "velocity", "impact", and "gravity" to some students' vocabulary-- not to mention "lawsuit".

Lastly, we are in the process of scoring some cool tickets. On Sunday, there is a Canada Day barbecue at the UN compund that we are trying to get to. I have to go to the bank shortly and transfer the money for the tickets. Also, we did get tickets (at 66,000 Won each) to next month's Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Seoul. Woo hoo!

Tuesday, June 25, 2002

Scheisse...
The streets sound pretty quiet tonight after the game. I am not looking forward to the mood tomorrow. Michael Ballack scored for Germany in the 75th minute. That was it. The game was played hard and relatively cleanly. Both teams were remarkable and spectactular. Now all that's left is for the denoument to sink in. Korea still has a game left to play so we shall have to see how far this game affects their spirits. They will now play for third place, probably against Turkey-- while Brazil, most likely, will square off against tonight's winner-- Germany.

Download the World Cup 2002 theme by Vangelis

Most of the photos from Saturday are back. I picked about a dozen to post to the blog. These were all taken while watching the Korea-Spain game with the crowds at ��û, (Sichung-- Seoul City Hall). Over a million people showed up for the event. Lots of you have seen the aerial shots of the crowds but here are a few views from the ground. The above picture is of the mural on the Foreign Exchange Office(?) which is the building outside of which we we stationed, next to one of many large T.V. screens broadcasting the games. I also suspect that FIFA itself was temporarily housed here as there was a lot of signage with FIFA logos on this one particular building. This mural, FYI, is at least 80 feet wide. I just barely managed to fit it into frame.

Looking back as we finally got out of the subway station and on our way to find a seat close to the big screens.

This shot was taken around 1pm, at the halfway point of our wait. We had arrived at 11:30 and they were already blocking off subway exits. By 2:00, most of the crowd had already assembled, making moving through the crowds an exercise in dexterity.

The crowds as they began filling the spaces. By the time this picture was taken, flags were being waved frantically and horns being honked incessantly. Cheers were erupting all over.

From the steps of the Exchange Office building. You'll never see us, but we are sitting almost directly under the righthand leg of the white arch, just to the right of centre.

Here I am. I picked up this hat for some reason that I still can't figure out. It was good that I had something a bit more robust to keep the sun off though. The topside, which is hard to see, is red with foam spikes. Looking at it from below, it's not hard to see why one Korean child, passing me by on the way home, looked up at his parents and pointed out the �� (haejuk or "pirate"). You can see part of the taegooki decal on my forehead. After blogging the last post, I washed it off... unfortunately for me, it wasn't translucent and I woke up with the snow white silhouette of the Korean flag emblazoned against my beet-red, sunburnt forehead. I really hope it fades soon.

Glancing back over our shoulder we could just barely see the balloons and hordes of red that marked the main stage area. That's where the musicians were performing. We got to see them when they were transmitted onto the big screen in front of us. From time to time, they relayed images of our crowd, but most of the airtime went to where the celebrities were. Even the singer/actor Psy was in the audience. He's the guy with the famous fanclub- Psy Co. (Ha Ha... I'm serious).

Police were out but I didn't see any in riot gear. Most wore the simple blue uniforms (a handful had orange jumpsuits). Mostly they just stood by as human traffic cones. I tried to get a closeup picture-- but they weren't as congenial to photography as the other Koreans I met.

Here is So Gyung and Si Eun who were with us in the crowd. Korea Team Fighting!

Yeji and So Gyung getting ready for the game-- still trying hopelessly to phone friends elsewhere in the crowd. So Gyung made that hat herself, with two hands on top, sticking out four fingers each-- to represent Sa Gang(�簭) or "4 Teams"-- Korea's desire to be in the quarter finals.

Again, a peek at the crowd from the steps of the office building next to us. This by the way is where I was mobbed by the three camera wielding agashis earlier in the day (yesterday's photo).

So Gyung and Si Eun, arms raised in comradery and victory, as the crowd behind them quickly dissipates to tear down the roads in search of the nearest bar or photo op.

[BONUS PHOTO] Also on this roll were shots from J.P. and Hyo Min's wedding. If you scroll down to the posting for June 16th, you'll be able to see a newly added shot of the happy couple as they stand in front of the altar, and under the disco balls. I'll repost the photo of Sungjusa on a future blogging.

Sunday, June 23, 2002

Boy... did I get hosed.

If this post is incoherent-- please excuse me as I think I am suffering from a combination of heat stroke and rabbit-owner fatigue.

For those of you who like happy endings-- Korea won the game.
For those of you who like long stories (or an explanation to the above photo)-- read on...

My day actually began last night at 4am when I tried to go to sleep. It was the first night trying out one of those bamboo bedspreads that are designed to disspate heat while giving you splinters. That lasted until about 7am when I finally had not caught a wink. After sleeping in a conventional bedspread for about an hour, I woke and began the long trek downtown. Now, we did go to Sincheon for dinner but our actual destination was Sichung. You can see how I got those mixed up. It was only today that I learned Sichung is actually the Seoul City Hall district. Remember those photos of a million teeming masses of red-shirt wearing Korean soccer fans, all turning out to watch large screen TV broadcasting of the game in the centre of town? That's where I was. We got there around 11:30. The game began exactly 4 hours later and it was the slowest 4 hours of my life thanks to oppressive heat and a lack of sunscreen. Apparently Koreans don't wear sunscreen. I mentionned picking some up on the way to downtown, but the opportunity never arose. (Turns out my friend already had a bottle but didn't think it was important)

I was impressed with the organization of the whole thing. Garbage bags were distributed everywhere, there were portable toilets (although no one seemed to use them, choosing instead to use the ones in nearby office buildings which, belive it or not, was also done in a mind-bogglingly orderly fashion), people sold lots of red soccer items, water was on sale everywhere you went, and people even sold kimbap to snack on-- but nobody sold sunscreen. Furthermore, nobody jacked up prices. Bottled water, which we drank lots of, was 500 Won (about 50 cents CAD) the same as it is just about everywhere in Korea). One lane of traffic remained open for ambulances and such, I suspect, but I never heard a siren. It was crowded, especially in the subway station, but that was to be expected. Police were locking arms in some of the subway exits in an effort to control the flow of traffic. The pictures you see of hundreds of thousands of fans are impressive enough, but more impressive is that nobody seemed to get hurt, cause trouble, or do anything but be the greatest sportsfans on the planet. They started bawling when Korea won, which was annoying-- but that was the worst of it.

The photo above was taken long before the game started, while I was waiting to meet up with some Korean friends. Being a foreigner, all alone in Korea, can open the door to a number of awkward situations. In this case, three young nymphs, carrying a sign that said, "3000 Won," came up to me while I was waiting. Sometimes I get a little shy around girls (not often but when three cute girls come up to you shouting at the top of their lungs and drawing attention to the lone foreigner within sight...) So I decided to buy what they were selling. I figured it was the stick on Korean taegooki tatoos that everyone was sporting. I was partly right. They slapped one on my forehead right away. It turns out however, they were selling pictures. Specifically targeting foreigners and charging 1000 Won a girl to have your picture taken with them as a way to impress your buddies back home. I fell for it. I'm a sucker.

The worst part was that immediately after they departed, two more cute Korean girls arrived with a camera. I held out the polaroid and said, "ee-soh-uo," (I have one) to which they embarassingly revealed that they just wanted their picture taken with me because I was a foreigner. No money transaction-- and the photo was for them. This was the first time of at least 30 incidents today that Koreans stopped me (sometimes in groups as large as 10) to have their picture taken with the token foreign fan of the Korean team. If I had been smart, I could have learned a lesson from the first entrepreneurial nymphettes-- and charged a 1000 Won myself. I would have pocketed enough money to pay for dinner.

The minutes crept by while the sun left us blistering below. I almost correctly guessed that it would disappear behind a skyscraper by gametime-- but that was already after 4 hours of baking which I am paying for now. People in bright costumes with drums had everyone practicing cheers but I just felt like an omelette.

Finally... the game began-- and it went on... and on.... and on....
The Korea-Portugal match was a battle between the two most evenly matched teams you could ever see. With every tense moment, the fans started jumping and I am not exaggerating when I say the concrete beneath us SHAKED. The game lasted the two regular halves, and continued into extended time. When that ran out, they had a kick off. Each team was given five shots on goal by different players, the team who scored the most was the winner. Drawing it out even further, both teams made their first three kicks. Then, by far the most consistant player on the Korean team, Lee Woon Jae (who has only allowed two goals against Korea since the World Cup began, up until this kickoff), forcefully made a save. The followup kick by Korea went in, guaranteeing that Spain could not catch up on its last shot. The Red Devils won-- by the skin of their teeth. It's off to face Germany to decide whether they will go to Yokohama and compete against either Turkey or Brazil for the World Cup. There are only two more games and it will be over for four more years.

With the game over, fans, began cleaning up. Within about twenty minutes, the whole area around us was swept and empty of garbage. Fans were dancing and long procession began their way down the streets honking, cheering, shouting, banging, and loving the moment. We caught a bus to Sincheon, I was pulled over for more pictures, and then we had dinner. After that, I said farewell to my soon to be intoxicated companions and dragged my sunburnt body back to a subway station and home-- with the Taegooki tattoo still on my forehead.

President Kim Dae Jung had announced before that game that should Korea win, Tuesday's match with Germany would be a national holiday. I guess it's NO SCHOOL for me on Tuesday! What a day. More photos soon.

Lee Woon Jae saves the day by making a save.

Thursday, June 20, 2002

The street in front of Freyatown

It's a pretty quiet night out there. Maybe everyone is saving up their energy for the weekend, but the whole day has been a bit weird. I was taken aback by the heat today. It just didn't seem like it would be a hot day. Still, standing in the stairwells at work felt like you were in a hallway next to a swimming pool, the humidity was so thick. The day wasn't so bright but the temperature has gone back to it's normal summer elevation-- yet nonetheless I managed to pick up bananas from the fruit vendor for the first time in over a month. It's almost as if a second spring is in the air and certainly a sense of calmness and tranquility that hasn't been around in weeks. I passed some couples publicly showing affection (a rarity in Korea... heck, its an almost fatal taboo). It was also one of those days where I felt I could speak Korean. Everyone who spoke to me used words I understood and I was able to communicate back clearly also, albeit briefly. The delivery restaurants are all closed now, in the arbitrary way they do,... I hesitate to say this... things just feel a bit empty. I think this is the calm before the storm. Yesterday it looked as if it would rain heavily. It didn't, but we are only days away from the predicted start of the chang ma (rainy season). Some people said Monday was the due date but I noticed yesterday that Yahoo! Weather was listing "unknown" as the weather for every day of their five day forecast-- including 'today's weather' itself. I'm sure that it was just a lack of information as opposed to an inability to predict. But I expect World Cup may be in danger of becoming a little bit wet.

The U.S. soccer team was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight. Korea is usually half a day ahead of the West with time zones, but programming on AFKN is a day behind. Four members of the team were asked about World Cup and Korea in general. I don't remember which players exactly (I only remembered Mathis who was there sporting the new mohawk). One was a player in England during the regular season and Jay asked him about the food in Korea vs. England. Koreans should be happy to note that he picked Korean food as being much better than English cuisine. All in all, the guys looked a bit tired. They did well in their game against Mexico so you have to hand it to them. There was a bit of nose thumbing over the fact they lost to Poland and only progressed to the next round due to Korea's win. Beating Mexico gave them the credentials they needed though and proved that they deserve their place in the semi finals. I am not going to imagine what will happen when they face Germany though, tomorrow night. Suffice to say I will be racing home to watch.

Americans get a rough ride in Korea-- some of it deserved and some not. Certainly Korea has a hate on for American sportsters after the Olympics... but in general, nationalism can get intimidating for all foreigners here. I see what the Americans in Korea have to deal with and I am doubly thankful that Canada didn't make it here... I enjoy supporting the Korean team but there are times I think that if I was from one of the countries in competition against them, I wouldn't make it home alive. In the case of soccer however, I am glad to see our southern cousins do well. A strong showing by the U.S. team will have great implications back stateside for them and the sport, with a trickledown effect on Canada. Maybe it'll be Canada in 2006.

I don't want to bash Korean fans either. I heard the other day that after the game, the half-million fans who turned out downtown at city hall to watch the game, all left the scene orderly, without accident, and picking up garbage off the streets as they went. That's something even more amazing than the size of the turnout itself.

Addendum : The Late Show with David Letterman is on now. For anyone who watched it and became confused during the High School Bird Calling competition-- I just want to clarify that British Columbia is indeed in North America... although I hear they have a powerful separatist movement, I don't think it will ever escalate to a point where they will choose to leave the continent. Mind you, most of the folks that I ask from BC reply with, "What continent?!"

Wednesday, June 19, 2002

The fallout from last night's game has begun. The Korea Times reports that the players on Korea's soccer team are no longer obligated to perform their two years of military service. Coach Hiddink, on the other hand, is rumoured to be getting a statue-- or at least considered for one. In the Korea Times, a survey found that 60.2% of Koreans want him to stay on as coach after the World Cup. What more does the guy have to do to win over the other 40%?! Be Korean, I guess. Another story states that Hiddink is elligible for citizenship in Korea under the "invaluable service to Korea" clause.

Now this opens up a kettle of worms. Hiddink has never said that he wanted Korean citizenship-- or that he would give up his Dutch citizenship. Since he isn't planning on applying, the same newspaper story states that the Korean government might give an him honourary ctizenship anyway. Koreans can NOT hold dual citizenship. Do you see what's going to happen? In the middle of the night, his Dutch passport is going to disappear and be replaced with a resident card and a note saying, "Congratulations and Welcome to Korea." I tell you, it's Hendrik Hamel all over again.

FIFA has now updated their 8 team quarter-final pairings. Click here for the new match ups.

Portugal's, Joao Pinto has been suspended indefinitely for punching the referee in last Friday's Korea-Portugal match. I told you they were dirty.

Another weird soccer story, that transpired before the Portugal game, slipped under my radar. I just found this story of the wannabe burning Korean ghost player.

As usual, we cancelled classes last night so that students could watch the game. I finished teaching at 7:35pm and then headed home to watch it there. Today, everyone is going to be in an excited mood-- especially because the classes I have on Mondays and Wednesdays are some of the more advanced classes who love to talk and talk and talk regardless *grin*. I was told in no uncertain terms last night that I am not watching the game on T.V. next Saturday. We are heading down to Shincheon to watch it on the big screen. Shincheon is one of the busiest areas in downtown Seoul and altogether, more than a half million people should be gathered together to watch. That has sped up my plans to buy a new camera before the weekend. So far, almost all these pictures you see on this blog were taken with disposeable cameras (except of course for the soccer pictures which I lifted from various news services). I've been trying for a while to decide between going digital and sticking to 35mm. I think old fashioned will win out.

In Blog news, the Kyungnam to Kyunggi Journal hit 10,000 visitors sometime just before I logged on today. And note, I am still hoping to get feedback on my discussion board re: blogging criticisms pro and con. Please leave a note if you can spare a couple minutes.

Tuesday, June 18, 2002

Click Image for CNN/Sports Illustrated story

Ahn Jung Hwan saves the day again...

Ciao, baby...
I should have gambled on this one. One of my students asked me to guess the score and I said, "Korea 2, Italy 1". Maybe I could have won enough money from him to buy a can of pop.

I don't think I have the fortitude to write much about this game after watching it. Korea's World Cup showing is turning into a fairy tale, complete with good guys, bad guys, jedi masters (coach Hiddink)... you name it. All they need is a sick kid in the hospital that calls out in the night for a World Cup victory as his dying wish... drama? Certainly. Tonight's game was... unbelievable.

Follow this link for a minute by minute recap of the game.

From the beginning, this game was different. Korea was severely outgunned. Italy, ranked #6 behind Portugal, calmly played Korea for all they were worth. It was obvious that they were just kicking the ball around, letting Korea chase it for a while, to tire them out. But even with relative control of the game, and an 18 minute goal by Christian Vieri, they gleefully and villainously resorted to grabbing and shoving, sometimes knocking Korean players to the ground just for the sake of something to do. While running with, and then jumping with, one of the Korean players for the ball (holding onto the Korean's shirt all the time) Damiano Tomassi crashed down onto his teammate Francesco Coco and sent him off the field with a bloody head... oops. That settled the Italians down for a while but by the second half, they switched tactics and started outright kicking players (not tripping... kicking). Korea sort of caught on. Though not entirely innocent, they played a much more noble game-- mind you Lee (the cute, innocent seeming guy that looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid) got a nice kick in that sent one Italian player hurtling into another like a scene from Star Wars.

The score was 1-0 for Italy. It stayed that way and didn't appear likely to change, but South Korea rallied. At the 88th minute of the second half... no time to spare... Seol Ki Hyeon sent the ball into Italy's net. The score was 1-1 and went into an excrutiating extra time that last 27 minutes and finally included a red card for the dirty, swindling Italians-- then Ahn Jung Hwan, the Lord of the Ring, and the hero of the USA-Korea game... scored.

My favourite moment isn't even going to be the goal. It was the long awaited red card. When the referree laid it down, the camera switched to the Italian bench, to the Italian coach who was in a furious fit, while behind him, like a ghost through unbreakable glass, the Portuguese coach stood smirking and grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Italians in general are boiling mad.

So far, in four games and two rounds, Korea has only allowed two goals. The west noticed Japan's rise through the ranks but ignored Korea. Now Japan has fallen to #22 Turkey and Korea is on its way to the championship. #8 team Spain is next, but Korea has already taken down #'s 5 and 6. The only team of a higher ranking left to face is #2 Brazil and they still have to get through England. That game is Friday. Next up for Korea is the game against Spain in Kwangju on Saturday. Koreans work on Saturdays so this will be the first time a game is played on a night other than a work night. The party is already gearing up. This weekend, the turnout for the game will be monstrous. Only 8 games left until a winner.

Seol Ki Hyeon after his 88th minute, game-saving goal.

A scene from Pusan

I am pushing the clock on this post as I type but I had to add in a quick reminder. Tonight is the BIG game (well, the current big game). Korea will be facing Italy tonight at 8:30. Will they prevail? All hopes are with the Korean team to make it to the next round. Tensions are high around the world over World Cup, as in this case.

S.E.S.- 5th CD - Choose My Life - U

When I first came to Korea, the fans for female artists were battling between S.E.S. and Fin.K.L. With the boy bands where loyalties used to be divided between G.O.D. and H.O.T. The band J.T.L. formed when H.O.T. broke up, Moon Hee Jun and Kang Ta went on to solo careers. Loyalties were divided further. Most of my students feel G.O.D. is about to break up too. Shinhwa appears to be the band that's going to inherit the bulk of fans but there's still lots of division in the ranks. The only clear winner in the Korean pop music scene is S.E.S. Nobody I ask denies that they are by far the best female group in Korea. If anyone in the West wants an introduction to Korean pop music-- start here. It's not just a throw money at them popularity kick either-- they are genuinely talented, smooth, R&B stars with fantastic voices.

This is actually S.E.S.'s 6th album if you count "Secret" which is the other one I have. The lead single on the streets is "Just A Feeling" but the other single, "U" is the one that's catchy as heck. I've been humming it for two months leading up to buying this CD. I don't want to give a full run down on all the songs on this CD but suffice to say they are all top notch. No criticism this time. Every song is groovy, relaxing, and well-produced. It's great evening listening.

Official Site

S.E.S. - [L-R] Sea, Eugene, Shoo

Swi T : [L-R] Mi Hyun, Nai Young, and Eun Ju

I think I will do a separate post for each of these CDs. I expect this one to be the shortest of the three as I have already jetisonned it in favour of S.E.S. The single from Swi-T is called "Let Me Be The One" and for the last two weeks, a taped, lip-synched "performance" of it has been on the music stations every morning. It's somewhat catchy on T.V. but then again it's interspersed in a medley other people's songs as a friend of mine is quick to point out. The other single, "I'll Be There", occurs twice on the album and also appears in the medley on television. What can I say? These girls (from left to right in the collage below are Mi Hyun, Nai Young, and Eun Ju) are trying to push the sexy/freak quotient slightly-- but can definitely not be considered original. Even the Korea Herald mentionned that they are ripping off T.L.C., "down to the fake African hairstyle and the sprinkling of Konglish lyrics". Of note, I guess, is a cover of Hotel California-- for those of you who happen to enjoy Eagles songs done by artists who didn't bother to read the liner notes to get the words right.

Swi-T (self-titled - YG Entertainment)

Shopping was successful today. I picked out three CDs that I wanted to listen to and by the time I came home from work tonight, I had those exact three CDs in my bag. I decided that it was finally time to pick up the new S.E.S. 5th CD. Also, I thought that in the spirit of summer, I would test out a couple of the new groups that are being paraded around TV every day in an effort to get them noticed. Both Swi-T and LUV have catchy singles so I figured I'd start my summer 2002 collection with them.

Swi-T was easy to find. I got both it and the S.E.S. CD at Hanshin Core Department Store. When I asked for LUV, the guy at the desk looked at me funny. I paid for the two CDs and headed to school. J

ust before class, one of my coworkers told me that indeed there is a record store in the building next door to ours. (I thought it was funny that none were nearby since you are seldom more than a block away from any kind of store whether it's an optometrist, PCBang, or Hof). I headed over and after explaining to the ajumah at the counter that I was looking for the "new LUVstory CD"... "Sidus Entertainment", she figured it out and found a copy for me behind the desk. LUV isn't as popular as Swi-T yet-- simply due to marketing budget I assume.

Still, there's nothing I hate more than walking into a record store to ask for a new release that nobody knows about. It's the same old story. If the counter-guy hasn't heard about it then it can't exist-- and the foreigner asking for it must be crazy. I get the same looks when I ask for the group Sugar which I have yet to track down in a CD store but I know they exist somewhere. They were on TV. I saw them. They sounded good to me. When I finally get the CD, I will keep it on the shelf next to the Milk, for when guests come over for Tea.

Monday, June 17, 2002

Jungno, Seoul

I'm up early today. Why? I dont know. I've been trying to go to bed earlier. Last night I managed to sleep by 3:30am but I woke up around 8 o'clock. I suppose it was for the best. Around 8:30am I got another call from "Mr. Kim". Let me say right off that I DO NOT know this man, nor are we friends, nor have we ever met. I don't even know his first name which, since he is one of those guys that insists on using only "Mr.Kim", narrows him down to about one of 6,000,000 Koreans. (25% of the population shares the family name Kim and about 52% of the population is male, last I checked the demographics.)

Apparently, the teacher I replaced must have given his phone number to some Korean ajashi one night at a bar. Now the phone number is mine and have inherited his calls which come at all hours of the day in a perceived effort to practice his English. I am sure he sits around with a bunch of his banker buddies (he's an investment broker or something) and shows off his Anglo-vocabulary. This guy is rude-- Yeji will back me up on this as she has spoken to him too. I made the mistake of letting him know that I knew who Descartes and John Locke were. He now insists on a brief commentary on the weather, the chirping of the birds, and the blooming of the flowers, followed by discussion of philosophies I care little about-- at all hours of the day.

Furthermore, like many Korean Christians, he wants to invite me to his church. If he was Buddhist, I might take him up on it (I studied Hinduism in university but never really took a bite out of Buddha). He's not Buddhist though. He's Christian-- and sounds like the type who would love nothing better than to save the soul of a Westerner who obviously couldn't understand a religion like Christianity. All this missionary work is like some sick, twisted, ironic revenge for what we did to the Indians. It was the Portuguese, you know. They started Christianity in Asia. I'm glad they lost the soccer game Friday night.

Damn; I'm grumpy again. Time to think happy thoughts.

...So I started watching TV to pass the morning. There wasn't much on. I saw a documentary on Brad Pitt and switched through to find only Sesame Street playing in English. I flipped past and settled on a Korean music video channel. I have been pretty lax in my consumption of K-Pop lately and with the summer coming, there are lots of new releases and new bands waiting to be checked out. I have my eye on a few CDs that I want to pick up but believe it or not, there are no record stores around my school. With the extra time that waking up early has afforded me, and with the scent of summer in the air (it's going to be another hot day in Seoul), I think I will head over to the nearby department store before work and browse.

For now however, I am listening to JuJuClub's Fun Fun album. I bought it a while ago and just never got around to listening to it. The CD came out in 2000 sometime, probably just before I came to Korea later that year. Since it was already vintage fare when I bought it, I was in no rush to crack it open, I guess. I picked it up simply because any album that mentions the word "Fun" in the title more than once, must be at least a little bit fun, eh? It sounds like Cyndi Lauper played backwards. Contrasting with the techno pop on the market today, Fun Fun is a little bit rock with a sprinkling of reprocessed New Wave. The band is made up of brothers, Ju Seung Hwan and Ju Seung Hyung, together with lead vocalist, the somewhat peppy and sometimes brassy, Ju Da In (real name: Kim Soo Min). For some reason, all the webpage links I can find to them are in Japanese.

New Acquisition -- Old Release
JuJuclub - Fun Fun

Sunday, June 16, 2002

Do you take this man...
Yesterday beheld a special and solemn matrimonial occasion. Anybody from the old Halifax downtown days will be interested to note that J.P., former resident of the Mokka and various other downtown venues of ill-repute, is now a married man! I was present as he and his lovely bride walked down the aisle, Korean style, through a hail of bubbles and disco lights in the Chrystal Buffet Wedding Hall, Incheon. She was lovely. He was handsome. When they went to cut the cake, it arrived smoking from the dry ice packed underneath. All in all it was a unique and fantastic event. Congratulations guys!

Gate outside Chang Duk Gung palace.

The weekend so far: Friday's soccer match took up all the news for the day, and most of the bandwidth so far. Still, other things have happened. For instance, I got a haircut and had my beard trimmed on Friday during my break between classes. It was the best one I have ever gotten since coming to Korea. Honestly, my problem is that I have both a beard and a pony tail. Nobody quite knows how to take me here. I guess it's the same as in small town Canada. If you have a pony tail, you're an easy target to be considered girly in a conservative place. But when you have a beard, in a place where about only 1% of the population can grow one-- you come across distinctively masculine. I usually try to disarm people here by rolling my ponytail into a ball, placing it on top of my head and pretending to be a Confucianist.

Now I grew the beard in Korea but I have had long hair since I was in Canada, so I picked up the habit of going to hair salons instead of barber shops. You get a lot less attitude from younger, trendier stylists. Here in Korea, the men either have a brush cut or the kind of wave that I wore in highschool. That's it. Nothing else. Maybe they dye their hair blonde, but the style is the same. And as for the beard... Women stylists usually giggle and find it interesting, saying something to the effect of, "this is the first time I have ever trimmed a beard". For some reason, the effeminate male hair stylists seem pretty stand-offish. I never like going to the hair salon in Korea but with my beard becoming bushy and sailorish, it was time to go.

I had an hour between classes so I went to the usual place and it was closed (as in empty of furnishings). I never liked it much anyway and I guess I wasn't the only one, but I had no idea if there was another hair salon in the area. I walked for a short distance. I saw one of the traditional barber shop poles lit and rotating outside another sanga building. As fate chanced, two of my coworkers passed me by and I asked them if indeed that was a barber shop. They smiled and asked me if I had ever gone to one before. I said yes, and that I wanted to go to today. I told them about my regular shop being closed. I thanked them for the confirmation and headed up to the second floor where the shop was located.

Well... it wasn't a salon. It was a real man's man's barber shop. I opened the door and was immediately hit by red light. It was full of tiny little rooms and I thought for a minute that I was in a noraebang. I sheepishly asked the ajashi at the desk about getting a haircut, mumbling words like "mori-couro" which means hair, and gesturing a scissors motion with my hands. He zealously implied that this was the place. He seemed to ask me if I wanted it all cut off to which I said 'no' and then he sweezed my upper arm to ask if I wanted a massage. Yep. It wasn't a regular barbershop at all. He took me in and gave me a great haircut, quickly, efficiently, for a good price, and with zero attitude other than friendliness. Sure, women in skirts with slits to their abdomens walked by behind me-- but for what I was there for, I got a good deal. So much for my predjudice of barbers vs. stylists.

Love it or Hate it?
So I noticed that as many people who loved the blog, seem to be hating the blog-- according to Bloghop. As soon as I mentionned being #1, I've now got about 7 "Hate You" votes to knock me back to page 4. Likely, it's just one person who comes back once a day around the same time to read, then select the "hate" button since it's edging up like clockwork-- still, it opens up the self-grandizing possiblility that my blog spurs thought. (Told you I have been doing my best to swallow happy pills lately).

My reason? Since virtually no one merely dislikes the blog (it's either love or hate it seems)-- there must be some strong feelings out there waiting to be vented. I took the liberty of setting up a new thread on my discussion board. If you haven't already been there, I ask you to drop on by, and post a note. You'll get one pop up ad while using it, and maybe one more when you close. I'm sorry, but I don't have enough regular contributors to justify anything more than the free board. This is also a request to give me your opinion on covering Korea in general. Remember, I am not doing this as a journalist per se, but also as entertainment, and a light information source on a country that nobody in the West ever really talks about.

For example, Korea and Japan have both become the first Asian countries to reach the second round of the World Cup. They are also co-hosting the event itself. The only difference is that Japan began the event ranked at #32 and Korea began at #40-- yet yesterday's Globe & Mail carried not just one but two stories on the miracle that the Japanese team had effected by making it to the next round-- and not a single notice that Korea was anything more than a cohost. Japan's Miracle story is here, whilethere is more on it's amazing fans. Apparently one of their writers was in Seoul for the time of the Opening Cermonies, but he high-tailed it to Japan within 48 hours. In fact, go to the Globe's World Cup Page today and do a 'find'. The word "Japan" or one of its variants shows up 6 times, while the world "Korea" is missing entirely. So much for cohosting.

Friday, June 14, 2002

Portugal paid for this with this
Park Ji Sung's point of vengeance sends Korea to the next round and sends Portugal home.

So many more surprises tonight that my head hurts. Both games in Group D were played simultaneously tonight. On the television was the Korea-Portugal game while the score in the Poland-U.S.A. game flashed across the bottom right. Korea and the U.S.A. will advance to the next round, but not because the Americans won tonight. In fact Poland (who as yet had not scored a point at all) trounced them 3-1. No one saw that coming. Meanwhile, the battle for the fate of Dae Han Min Gook was being fought out in Incheon.

The game was tense. Nobody was scoring. Portugal, however, was obviously under stress and began resorting to dirty tricks such as trips that bordered on Figure-Four Leglocks (see above). Throughout the game, two Portuguese players were expelled from the match yet still-- frustratingly as in the U.S. match-- Korea kept sending the ball up to the opposing net, and then failing to deliver. I can't explain it. Korea's passing was fantastic. They have pinpoint accuracy when they move the ball up the field and even their tackling seems to have improved since their first match. But when they get up to the net, they stall, avoid the shot, and then pass the ball, defensively, halfway back to their own side or farther. The score could have been 10-0 if they had only managed to take the shots. Twice Korean players had breakaways right up to the Portuguese net, with no one around them for at least 20 feet-- and they ended up slamming into the goaltender and fumbling the ball both times without taking a shot.

But they only needed one point. Portugal was given only a handful of opportunities to shoot on the Korean net and Park Ji Sung became tonight's hero but firing one strong shot, on target, through the Portuguese goaltender's legs and in. That goal was made much sweeter, since early in the game, Park had been the recipient of one of a few brutal trips by the Portuguese.

It's hard to miss a bit of historical irony. The Portuguese were the first major European power in Asia but not in Korea. It was the Dutch who shipwrecked here and taught the Koreans to make and use muskets. Hiddink, the dutch coach may end up a modern incarnation. And like his countrymen before, once he has done so he may never be allowed to leave.

Now the TV is showing baby photos of the Korean team. They are the nations heroes again tonight. Outside I hear chanting of "Tae Han Min Gook" and "Oh! Pilseun Korea!" (Oh! Unfailing victory, Korea), sirens, and cheers; while inside my apartment, I swear someone is tapping out the rythm of the same cheer on my pipes.

See the next 8 match ups on FIFA's website. It's possible that Korea could play Japan for the championship; in which case I advise all citizens to leave Asia as fast as possible before the meltdown hits.

A street in Pusan, near Lotte World.

The elections are over. In all, 16 mayors and provincial governors, 232 chiefs of smaller administrative districts and 4,094 local councilors were decided. Within those contests, the Korea Herald reports 2036 cases of illegal campaigns between May 28th and this Tuesday, June 11. That figure mostly only includes bribes and vote buying, etc. and doesn't include the exaggerated promised or fraudulent guarantees that politicians were also accused of. Voter turn out was at an all time low-- 37.9% as of 3pm.

In Korean news relayed from home, South Korea has asked the Canadian government for permission to begin selling dog meat in Canada [National Post]. They were turned down but Canadian officials admit that under the W.T.O. there's no way to stop the sale. This story was also covered in the Calgary Sun and the National Post ran a couple replies in letterform.

Let me surprise you on this when I say that I would tentatively support dog meat for sale in Canada-- for two reasons. Firstly, the be all and end all of a successful dog-marketing campaign is based on consumer demand and I am enough of a capitalist to suport that. Realistically-- you are probably not going to see it in your corner store. I am sure the market would see it on sale but limited only to parts of Vancouver and maybe Korea Town in Toronto.

Secondly, the socialist and big government side of me has latched onto one of the reasons why South Korea is in fact not currently pursuing the matter. The change to reflect dog as a meat animal in Canadian legislation would be troublesome but out of their hands and inevitable should the W.T.O. declare that Canada had to open its markets. What is holding them back, I think, is the second reason-- the need to have Canadian inspectors involved in all levels of dog meat production and packaging. While the Korean ambassador was quick to regurgitate the usual falsehoods such as, "We don't torture dogs anymore," the idea of compulsory inspections of these mythological "non-torturing" facilities-- made him back away from the issue slowly and carefully.

Tomorrow is the next big day. Korea will meet Portugal in Incheon do decide who will reach the next round in the World Cup. It's pretty much a given to most people that the U.S. will beat Poland-- which means that they will advance-- but if Portugal wins tomorrow, Korea will be out of the running and forced to watch with indignation as their cohosts, Japan, move on up the ladder without them. If Korea wins, they will have achieved their goal and the nation will rejoice with video clips of their goals on TV for the next 4 years.

Lastly, a bit of transitory good news has come my way. I am currently the highest rated blog on Bloghop... although it's only with 16 votes *blush*. Good or bad, I hope more people will click the colour of their choice on my sidebar so I can get an accurate appraisal of what you readers think of this blog. Thanks for those who have so far voted.

Thursday, June 13, 2002

This picture, while given to me Monday, is remarkably true-to-life today.

Today's picture is part of a larger group done by my student Jenny, in my PS1 Class. The girls in that class have seen Molly's pictures on my website and have become ardent fans of my little blight. Unfortunately, PS must stand for prescience as this was basically the scene when I got home. Did I mention that Molly has become quite adept at opening her cage from the inside? Even when I lock it with a little keychain I have-- she has demonstrated an acute knowledge of mechanics, identifying the source of the door malfunction, and seizing at it with her teeth. Until this point, I had only used it to keep the door up when she is out and about. After today, I am afraid it will stay on in the closed position too. I came home to find the apartment a mess which took almost two hours to clean up. Thankfully she has outgrown her appetite for electircal chords. The only thing I noticed she had chewed, and therefore irrevocably damaged, was my old thermal blanket, which now has two gaping holes in it. I was already tired after losing sleep last night. Now I am absolutely exhausted.

In other news, some students corrected me that tomorrow is not actually the presidential election. It is only the election for municipal and provincial government members. The actual presidential race will be in December, between the two characters I blogged about last time.

AFKN is playing Patton right now. I hope this doesn't mean they are planning something big.

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

The usual view- looking left out the back of my apartment.

Why won't they shut up! I've had very little sleep. I tried going to bed early last night, which only served as a nap that kept me up the rest of the night. Molly, who has been out on the balcony most of the time, prevented from escaping by her old cage wedged in the door, has now grown to the point where she has no trouple jumping on top of it and over. I woke up several times to a rabbit trying to nibble on my nose. When morning came, the rain started. It was heavy rain-- with the thundershowers that they had predicted for monday. Even now, in the afternoon, thunder is still periodically crashing outside. Worse yet, tomorrow is election day. Not one, but two competing candidates have megaphones and mobile music trucks and are parked on the street below blasting out their message in Korea- simultaneously, in an effort to drown each other out. The police were there earlier, blaring their sirens-- but I think they have since given up. The two politicians have been there since 9am or before. I can hear the voices of one man and one woman. The man was there first which is how I know that he is the same guy who had "Mary Had a Little Lamb" election songs playing near my school yesterday. Today the music includes such electoral children's favourites, but also a parody version of Lee Jung Hyun's "Ban", and assorted bongjak music to please the old folks.

In related election news, according to the Korea Herald not only are an estimated 75% of election promises fraudulent, in many cases they are downright illegal.

Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Buildings in Jungno, Seoul

This has been a long night of blogging. I'm going to post a quick note before catching some sleep. It's creeping up to 6am again-- mind you it's still so humid, even with the rain, I don't know if I can sleep. I wanted to include at least one of my own photos for June 10-- that and the table I did for the election post is a bit wonky and is creating a lot of white space that I don't want to see at the top of my page when I log on tomorrow. Sleep would be a good idea. We had another schedule change today in honour of the soccer match-- which nobody told me about *again* until I walked into the wrong class. I ended up working until 11pm which is illegal in Korea, by the way-- just in case the police are listening-- hello! Unfair labour conditions! HELLO! Give me my Thursday off (as per contract) and I'll forget about it. Jun from KMon.net found an animated .gif of Ahn's Ohno Dance at the game today-- check it out!. No K-Pop for me tonight though I'm afraid. I've been listening to April Wine for 7 hours straight. Time to sleep.

Lee
Hoi Chang

Grand National Party

Roh
Moo Hyun

Millennium Democratic Party

South Korea Election 2002

I guess I have been negligent in not mentionning too much about the elections yet-- but the whole country is guilty of that. World Cup has completely overshadowed the presidential elections this year which will see Kim Dae Jung give way to his successor. On account of the elections, Thursday is a national holiday. My director smiled, patted me on the back and said it wasn't a real holiday so that even in your contract, when it says you get national holidays off-- you don' t get this one. Well, actually he didn't say all that. Mostly he just smiled and patted-- enough that I desperately sought an out from the situation and didn't pursue it. Even though I can't vote in the election, I was still hoping for the time off. It turns out that Korean soccer matches that don't involve the Korean team, have an attendance of about 65% compared to 81% in Japan. While this is slightly troubling to the organizers of the World Cup in Korea-- it meant to me that I might still have a chance of catching a game such as the one in Seoul or in Suwon that day. Like most industrialized, democratic nations, Koreans are far too cynical and embittered by omnipresent corruption charges that they don't bother going to the polls anyway. I am told that usually they take the day to go fishing-- or this year, I assume they'll bring the kids out to a soccer game. File this under the chronic, English teacher problem of: "My boss doesn't want to lose money from the students, so he is booking classes on a national holiday in a blatant attempt to screw me out of part of my contract and deny me vacation". All foreign teachers in Korea have vacation days in their contract but good luck trying to use them. You can usually only take them at the end of your contract provided you are never coming back. Classes and time stops for no one.

So back to the election. Who are these guys? Truthfully I don't know too much. All I know is that one of them has been blasting election slogans from a travelling loudspeaker to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" over and over and over and over and over...

In short, Roh Moo Hyun is the slightly more youthful, high school grad from Pusan, which makes him a favourite of the working class as well as youth voters. He is also the party candidate successor to Kim Dae Jung (also MDP). While Roh enjoyed a huge lead at the beginning however, it's been dropping. If elected, his fanclub has promised to cut the circulation of Chosun Ilbo by 500,000 copies-- since the newspaper, it alleges, makes a habit of publishing unflattering stories about him. Roh backed their plans. Somehow I think this is a fascist infringement on the freedom of the press, but everyone I speak to is fine about this. Chosun Ilbo, in its history, was known to be a voicebox in support of the Japanese occupation-- so nobody likes it very much.

Lee Hoi Chang, on the other hand, is a graduate of Seoul National University (considered the most prestigious university in Korea). That's all I can say about him, really. Nobody I speak with seems to like him very much either.

To understand the candidates better I would suggest checking out their official pages (although only Roh Moo Hyun has a page in English as well as Korean-- a moot point considering you must be a Korean citizen to vote and Korean citizens must be fluent in Korean). For further English information, go see the profile page at the Korea Times. It even includes such important voting concerns as blood type and drinking capacity (although on the latter I wouldn't vote for either of these guys).

It was quite a game. As everyone knows by now, Korea and the U.S.A. tied 1-1. That leaves Korea ahead on total points given, but equal to the U.S.A. as far as games won/lost. Next stop is Portugal (ranked #5) on Thursday while the Americans face Poland. So long as either team so much as ties their new competitor, they will go on to the next round. Even though Portugal lost to the U.S., that's no guarantee that Korea can beat them.

Mind you, Korea is playing really well. In today's game, they gave up a point early on but after that, they kept good control of the ball until the end. The problem was that they just couldn't get it in the net. After more than a half-dozen amazing offensives, they choked at the net each time.

A Sea of Red

Like I said before, I had my brand new Korean team T-shirt on today and if you can judge by the above photo, I wasn't the only one. This shot shows Koreans gathered in downtown Seoul to watch the game via large screen outdoor TV. Police estimated 300,000 fans on the streets in Seoul alone, to watch the televised match.

Another Sea of Red

Hwang Sun Hong, a hero of the Korea-Poland game, butted heads full force with American, Frankie Hejduk, and ended up playing the remainder of the game with his head bandaged-- except for a tuft of hair at the top. (An anonymous Korean friend of mine commented that he looked like an onion).

Hwang's spill pretty much coincided with the first point of the game, made by Last of the Mohicans', Clint Mathis. In one of those traditional societies that spawns phrases such as 'the nail that sticks out gets hammered', you can imagine how popular this guy was. After his goal however, Korea sort of 'woke up' and began some serious offensives. At first, it was obvious that the Americans had studied the game Korea played against Poland. Korea had a sort of trickle-down style of playing the second half of that game, where as soon as one guy was in trouble, he had a back ups behind him in echelon, three-deep. This made for a lot of strong advances. In today's game, the Americans were able to dart inside the gaps and steal the ball. That opportunity would be short-lived however as Korea changed plays and, together with some genuine magic, basically kept the ball going in one direction only-- to the U.S. nets, where goalkeeper, Brad Friedel earn his salary and the next guy's. But something just didn't click until finally, on a kick from Lee Eul Yong, the ball went in, off a very fragile delfection from Ahn Jung Hwan's head. His head only changed the course of the ball by a few inches, but the ball narrowly evaded Friedal and went in-- by a few inches.

Ahn is known by Koreans as "The Lord of the Ring" due to his habit of kissing his wedding ring after each goal he makes, having been married just three months ago. Today however, he changed his celebratory standard to a parody dance of Ohno at the Olympics. From the sounds of it, most of the U.S. team didn't get the joke until they had it explained to them later. Even I thought it was just a regular victory dance until someone pointed out that he was pretending to be on ice. I told you Koreans still haven't forgotten the short track.

And that was it. Now Korea is a bit worried about Portugal but the team is playing superbly. They really seem to have it together. Korea was grumpy today over so many perfect opportunities that resulted in missed goals, but the main fact is that they got to the net to take the shots. Surely they can correct their aim by a couple feet, once the hard part of crossing the field has been made. Korea has a well-balanced team and even though the rank differential is high, they should fare respectably against Portugal when they meet Friday in Incheon.

*Most photos stolen from the BBC except the one of the crowds which came from the Joint Press Corps and appeared in the Korea Herald.

Monday, June 10, 2002

Here in Korea and Japan, World Cup security is up and people are safe-- back in Russia, however, it's not the same. After losing 1-0 to Japan, fans in Moscow rioted, one person was killed and 27 were injured. Among those it states were attacked were a group of Japanese music students, while Russians wrapped in tri-colours shouted things like "Forward Russia!" All I can say is welcome to NATO, you punks.

Getting read for a riot of our own however-- in about 45 minutes, Korea and the U.S.A. will square off in Daegu. I am just finishing my tea and then going in to watch the beginning of the game on TV. The weather in Seoul is rainy today but in Daegu, they are expecting it to be sunny with a high of 32-- it should be a tough match for both teams. I have my new "Be the Reds" T-shirt to cheer on the home team.

Saturday, June 08, 2002

More heat. I was wrong about the temperature the other day which was really 32 degrees plus humidity. Again, I didn't plan much for today other than hovering a few feet away from my fan. Tonight might be a good opportunity to go out for supper, once the cooler evening air floats in.

Further to my last post, class yesterday was typical. At around five past 4, my 3:30 class started showing up. This time there were four students (irregular regulars) and none of them bothered to bring the attendance sheet. Between that class and my other two Friday classes, I popped out for sushi down the street.

Today I spent modifying the blog a bit more and changing my URL forwarding so that www.fareasterner.ca will direct you to here, without the advertisements. I also designed a new link button, this time animated. Check it out.

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Who is this man?

Today's picture betrays a shameful lack of information. You see, it was getting late in the day and I was being rushed on my way through Gwangjang Park in Jungno, when I snapped a picture of this guy on top of a pedestal. "Who was he?" I asked. My travelling partner simply answered, "I'll tell you later-- just hurry up!" Well it's later and now my requests for this man's identity are answered with, "I have no idea who he is. Why didn't you read the sign?" I believe that he was a figure from Korea's labour history but I really have no idea. If you know the identity of this man-- please contact that proper authorities in your area or just leave me a comment at the bottom of this post.

It was another hot day but my class load was light. For the second time this week, I took the opportunity to walk home. I finished off another roll of film on the way so I hope that I will have some new shots by next week. I am also planning a couple of exursions over the weekend so more pictures should be on the way.

Thursday, June 06, 2002

Sunburst over a gate at Chang Duk Gung

I am sure that today has been the hottest day yet. The blind was pulled down all day to keep the apartment from heating up too much but nevertheless, it was quite uncomfortable. The weather report just said that we hit 30 degrees today-- plus humidity. I have prepared for summer by filling up the ice cube trays, refridgerating copious amounts of bottled water, and stocking up on popsicles. My favourite is the Jaws Ice Bar, manufactured by Lotte. Something I learned while shopping was that in Korea, when you buy packages of 6 popsicles, they don't come in boxes like they do in Canada. They are actually packaged in silver insulated pouches. It's definitely a great idea that should catch on in North America. Not only can you take popsicles to the beach or on a picnic more easily but you can also wait half an hour for a cab home from the supermarket-- without worrying that your frozen goodies are going to melt.

For supper, we tried to beat the heat by ordering a variety of food. Some was a bit spicy, like dduk bokki (tube-shaped rice cakes in red pepper paste) while we also ordered cooler, summer food like NaengMyun (thinner noodles and sliced vegetables served cold in water that actually comes with chunks of ice floating in it). With that had, I sat down with some tea, the fan, and Photoshop to design a new banner for the blog.

I also bit the bullet and paid to remove the ads. I'd really like to make a complete overhaul of this website but I have made so many little changes to it that I am scared of losing my mods. The www.fareasterner.ca domain name is also being underutilized. For anyone who has typed it into their browser, you know that it only redirects you to Blogspot with the added annoyance of pop-up ads from my Domain Registrar. If I feel expeditious later this week or next, I might call my regular hosting company- and transfer the whole blog over their servers. My only question is whether or not the URL www.fareasterner.blogspot.com will automatically redirect people to the site, continue on it's own as a mirror site, or shut down completely, making all the work I have done publicizing the blog (on search engines and such) to go to waste. Does anyone know the answer?

Memorial Day, 2002

It's still Wednesday night for me but the date marker on this post is going to read June 6th, which is Memorial Day in Korea. It is a national holiday to remember Korea's fallen soldiers during the Korean War and Vietnam. For some good historical information and links, check out Kimsoft's Korean History pages.

I will have no class today, giving me an opportunity to ease out of the week. All in all my week has been shortened immensely after we concluded class early last night on account of the soccer game, today's holiday, and my regular lax schedule on Friday. Next week it may or may not be back to normal depending on whether we take time off to watch the Korea vs. USA match on Monday (starting 3:30pm) and whether we get Thursday off for the election. It's supposed to be law that Election Day is a holiday however neither children or foreigners can vote in it-- meaning at least my classes will likely continue.

In soccer news, the American team bested Portugal today, 3-2, which is causing a bit of a nervous chill through my coworkers. I was told today that Portugal has the most expensive team in FIFA, including soccer's highest paid player (current Footballer of the Year, Luis Figo)-- everyone expected them to win. So far the plan was to try and win the game against the comparatively easier U.S. team next week which would guarantee a spot for Korea in the next round-- but after today's scores, the U.S. may not be such pushovers afterall. If anything seems to be going in Korea's favour-- World Cup 2002 is turning into the year of the underdog.

Wednesday, June 05, 2002

Korea Team Fighting! Hwang Sun Hong after Korea's first goal of World Cup 2002

I am living in one HAPPY country right now. Korea is overjoyed, jubilant, ecstatic, and triumphant. For the first time ever, thanks to goals by Hwang Sun Hong and Yoo Sang Chul, Korea has won a World Cup match. Tonight was the first game for Korea-- playing against Poland in Group D. The Red Devils played a strong game and kept Poland moving throughout-- eventually shutting them out and seizing the game 2-0.

At school, our last two classes were cancelled in favour of allowing the students to either go home early to watch the game, or choose to stay and watch it on a big screen projection TV set up in one of our classrooms. Students from the neighbouring hagwon also joined in. Several of our teachers, myself included, joined the director in his office where the game was playing. Two more sets carried the game in the lobby, in case anyone found themselves out of view while walking by on the way to another television. I left half way through the second half (having seen both goals) to finish watching the game at home.

Outside, there were more televisions. Fruit stands were lit by the glow of four-inchers while the TV outside the LG25 was crowded with spectators. Somewhere in the middle-sized range-- more TV sets greeted revellers in the soju and gogi tents. The roads, multilane highways included, were virtually bare as everyone had their eyes glued to the game playing out in Pusan. Taxi drivers listened via radio and when I checked my cell phone on the way home, I saw that the display was keeping up to date record of the score.

The game was spectacular. I've never seen so much emotion-- and not just from the fans. The first Korean player who managed but missed a promising shot on the Polish goalkeeper actually collapsed for a moment on the ground and shed tears. Korea needed this victory for national pride. The stadium was packed and EVERYONE was wearing a red shirt to support their team. The stands were full of nothing but scarlet. A huge banner to the Korean team's Dutch coach emotionally read, "Hiddink Make Our Dream Come True," and when the game ended to boisterous cheers, it was quickly spun around to reveal, "Korea's First Winning Made in Busan!"

Now' it's party time. Looking at the schedule, Korea's next game is against the U.S.A. on Monday, in Daegu ("The Fashion City"), and then they will play Portugal on Friday, June 14th, in nearby Incheon.

Dae Han Min Gook *clap* *clap*
Go Korea!

Tuesday, June 04, 2002

The army commander said that, if one decided to kill us, it had to be in a man to man fight, in which each of us had to fight against two Koreans, who were armed in the same way. He thought that to be more honorable, both for Koreans and Hollanders , then just killing a number of foreigners, who had entered the country against their will. All of this had been secretly told us, by sympathetic informers. Heavily alarmed we asked Weltevree if he could confirm this message. He didn't want to tell us more then, if we still would be alive after three days the danger would have passed. [The Journal of Hendrick Hamel, Hollander -- first written account of Korea -- 1667]

Sunday, June 02, 2002

Photo Gallery of Yeji's trip to Japan [English]

Yeji just finished scanning and uploading pictures from her MT trip to Japan last week. You can view her gallery online. Her trip was similar in theme to the trip I made with my coworkers to Kangwon-Do. It is an opportunity to get to know your coworkers via group sightseeing and barhopping. Since her company is based in Japan, she was able to take a wonderful trip to Osaka and up to the mountains around Nagano. You might even notice that some of the pictures are similar mine from last February when I went to Japan as Yeji also got to visit Namba in Osaka too.

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