Four matches and a World Cup

So I left you all just after the first weekend of the World Cup. Then an unbelievable transformation occurred- I TURNED INTO A FOOTIE?SOCCER FAN!!!

Yes, this is true and not a single hint of sarcasm in that. So June 2nd I went to Gwangju and watched the Slovenia vs. Spain match and bugger me if I didn't find myself on board a bus the following weekend on my way to Daegu to go and see South Africa vs. Slovenia. Again the stadium was shiny new but it was very different to be there for an afternoon match. I had gone up with a group of people and none of us had tickets- we managed to get these off a Slovenian tour guide outside of the stadium. Because we went straight from the bus station to the stadium we all had our overnight bags with us. These were searched of course and then a lady came and ran the magic beam over me personally. And the alarm went off near my pocket. She asked me to empty the pocket (using hand signals as she hadn't a drop of English) I was reluctant but put the contents into her hand. She picked up the small item I had given her and examined it. I was a bit embarrassed and was desperately trying to think of the Korean word for what she had in her hand. The final straw was when she held it up to show her colleague several feet away- I covered her hands with my hands and muttered 'tampon' at her at which point she understood and hastily gave it back and waved me through. And we were in another stadium.

Choosing to completely ignore the seating arrangements we headed straight for the Slovenian fans and a few reunions with some that we had met the week before. Slovenia lost but we had a lot of fun standing on the seats and yelling Slovenian chants ('If you are not jumping you are not Slovenian' and 'I am Slovenian'). The fans around us were so sweet and kept asking us why we were supporting their little country. They were so flattered and told us that they were really happy and touched by our support. It didn't help however and South Africa left as the victors. We had seen the team on the way to the stadium when we were on the shuttle bus. Not realizing who they were we waved our Slovenian flags at them and only sussed their identities when they stopped waving back and started scowling- oops!

That night we partied large and hard with the Slovenians before all disappearing in opposite directions with various people that we had met. We, eventually, found each other the next day and went back to Mokpo and the usual working week. But not that usual as something really odd was happening- Korea were doing well. It seemed to be taking the World by surprise and the Koreans more than most I think. It worked in the teachers' favour as we didn't have to work during any of the Korea games. And lessons became an exchange of soccer chants and World Cup word searches. The foreign teachers all bought 'Be the Reds' t-shirts to wear on match days and the kids seem to be getting into too. But more was to come.

Ireland had also made it out of the first round and would be playing in Suwon the weekend after Daegu. We had gathered in our Irish friends' house to watch the match and the moment that the final whistle blew they were at the PC bang buying tickets. Being English and a new fan to the game I didn't want to pay the price so didn't buy a ticket myself. But on Saturday morning I found myself once more upon a bus on the way to one of the host cities. We spent Saturday in Seoul and I was reunited with the guy that I had met in Daegu the weekend before. Saturday was all about drinking and shopping and watching the excellent England match (by the way, don't ever believe someone who tells you that 40 minutes into a game is a good time to go to the toilet! I missed our third goal). Sunday we went to Suwon and found a quiet bar to watch the 3.30 match in. By now all of us girls were big into the footie and able to intelligently join in conversations about the tournament. I had even written all the games up on my calendar(!) So we watched the match and painted our faces and headed to the stadium for the game. Those of us without tickets were lucky enough to buy some outside at a reduced price (I love Korean ticket touts and their refusal to sell tickets at anything other than the face value!).

Those of you that watched the game will know what happened and I am not trying to bring back bad memories for you but I must tell the others. Me and Jon (guy from Daegu) were sitting with the Korean fans but not too far from some Irish fans. The game was nail-bitingly tense and I couldn't believe it when it went to extra time. Then to rub salt into the wound it went to penalties- something that I find unbearable at the best of times- which are just excruciating to watch live. Ireland lost. The toilets were full of girls weeping so much that the green and gold was streaming down their faces. And one of our teams were out of the Cup.

But not all of them- as an English girl living in Korea I still two more chances at victory for my teams. And an English victory was beginning to look believable. But it was Korea's turn to play next and I got up on Tuesday morning and went to Daejon with Jon to watch Korea vs. Italy. The stadium was a sea of red and it was the first time that I had been glad to be amongst the Koreans in the stadium. Mind you it would have been difficult to be with any other kind of fan- I saw a lone Italian flag here and there fluttering forlornly in the breeze generated by 38,000 Korean fans yelling 'Daehan Minguk' (The Republic of Korea') and 'Pilsung Korea' ('Victory Korea') and other assorted flag waving and drum beating activities.

And Korea romped home with the victory again. Again the game went to extra time and I just shut my eyes and whispered 'Please no penalties' over and over. I can't even begin to tell you about the atmosphere that night. We left the stadium after the game and watched it again at the train station. Arriving back at my flat at 5.30am we watched the game again. And again when I got up the next day to go to work. I was the coolest teacher in the whole hagwon once the kids found out and I showed them my ticket and photos. Cue another day of talking about soccer with the kids. Korea were now through to the quarter finals along with England.

England played on Friday afternoon and I had to teach during the game but Tim was very good and kept me up to date with text messages throughout what would turn out to be our last game in the 2002 World Cup. I had a running score on the corner of my board. After England had failed to score beyond the first Owen goal that had sent my hopes soaring (we had beaten Argentina after all, it was not impossible that we could beat Brazil) I went back to the teachers' room. Three of my kids came with me, one stroked my hair, another patted my shoulder and the third held my hand as they tried to make me feel better. The little sweeties had been following England's progress to share with their teacher and they were almost as upset as I was at their defeat. Even renaming my hermit crabs Beckham and Owen during half time hadn't managed to bring on an England victory.

The end was getting close now. That weekend took us to Gwangju where the first of the quarter finals were held. We went to the stadium and some of us had tickets and went in. The rest of us watched them go in and then went to try and find somewhere to watch the game. Sam had heard that there was a big screen beside a church so we headed that way- our back up plan was to join the people up on the roof of a nearby apartment block and see as much as we could of the stadium from there. Turns out that it wasn't beside the church but INSIDE it. So we watched the game with a very large crowd inside the church. I am sure that more prayers were said during that game than in the rest of that church's history. During half time we were given water and football shaped candy. And KOREA WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We walked back to the city to celebrate. It took about forty minutes and just as we were getting close a pickup truck pulled up with merrymakers on board and we climbed on and were driven all over Gwangju yelling 'Daehan Minguk' and 'Korea FIGHTING!!' to everyone. It was a lot of fun but slightly disappointing when we were finally dropped off nearly an hour later BACK AT THE STADIUM!! A taxi ride later we were back in town and on the batter. We were filmed by a local TV crew and just ran around the streets yelling 'FIGHTING' everywhere to everyone. It was a fantastic night and Gwangju was still hard at it when we left at 6am to go back to Mokpo.
We watched Korea's match in a local bar. We were all wearing our 'Be the Reds' t-shirts and various Korean flag paraphernalia- in my case I had a bandana with the flag on it and a large flag tied around my waist to complement my t-shirt but some of the girls had temporary tattoos and everything. But it wasn't enough and Korea were knocked out by Germany. They played again at the weekend for third place but conceded to Turkey. Brazil won on Sunday and finally the World Cup was over.

Now we don’t know what to do with our time!
I will get back to you soon with less soccer related news but to be honest for the last month it has been only soccer!
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More World Cup stuff- sorry!

Dear All,

Maybe I was a little hasty to declare the weekend over at the end of my last mail. It in fact still hasn't finished and is due to go down in History books as the longest weekend ever (now totally nearly three weeks- you do understand that I don't mean this literally- the weekend in Korea is the standard Saturday/Sunday combo that is the norm the world over- rather the spirit of the weekend lives on). Monday was early to bed for all of us that had stayed late in Gwangju but we made up for in on Tuesday by going Slovenian hunting that night and arriving home in the wee early hours accompanied by another Slovenian t-shirt and a hat. Not bad. Wednesday night was party night as today (Thursday) is a National Holiday (something to do with soldiers dying as far as I can make out from what my students tell me).

But before the Slovenian hunting we also watched the fantastic Korea v Poland game. The local department store had laid on a big screen outside and, bless their little cotton socks, free beer!!! (time to note a big difference between the Koreans and back home- everyone left before the free beer ran out! Now imagine that back home) It was a good match and if you try and imagine the euphoria as Korea won then multiply it by ten you are just about there. One of our Canadian friends got interview by the local TV network as he was wearing a Korea shirt. The Koreans are such a fantastic bunch of people that we were more than happy to share this moment with them. More so because I should have been in class I guess. Not that I was skiving- I had actually been about to walk into the classroom when Tim told me that there was a big TV in the end room to watch the match on. My students really didn't believe me when I told them that there was no class and they could watch the match instead!! The little darlings' faces just lit up and off they scampered. I went down to the room with them to make sure that they were all settled (what a little mother hen I am!) and one of them turned to me:

'Teacher, where are you going?' 'I'm to the bar, of course, Kevin!' mumbled under my breath
and off I went to watch the footie with my mates. So it was a great time from start to finish really.

But I have to write a bit about watching a World Cup match now as I didn't really get much beyond my mate and the bug in his ear in the last mail. It was really really exciting to be walking into the stadium and they let off balloons and stuff which was cool. I think that there was dancing too but I was in the toilet at the time (story of my life!). The stadium was shiny shiny new and everything was sparkly and clean. All of us were completely taken with the whole thing. We joined in rousing choruses of 'ola ola ola etc' and energetically participated in many Mexican Waves (I DID THE MEXICAN WAVE IN A WORLD CUP STADIUM DURING A WORLD CUP MATCH- I THINK THAT MIGHT JUST BE THE COOLEST THING EVER!!!). Then the game started and it all seemed just like a bunch of boys running around on a pitch (which I guess it is when you think about it!) but it seemed so different from watching it on the TV. Then I worked out why it felt so odd- there was no commentary. Even though we only get the Korean commentary over here there is always a stream of talking over the top of the game- not when it was live. Once I realised what was wrong I was able to settle back and enjoy the game. It was the business!

So much so that I am off to Daegu at the weekend to watch another one- this time Slovenia v South Africa. And not because we were completely taken with the Slovenian fans- they were lovely and told us to come to Slovenia and gave us t-shirts, flags, hats, beer etc. No, not because of that, as if I would go to all that trouble just because the Slovenian fans are a little on the hot side and there are only 5 eligible bachelors in Mokpo, no not at all..... I hear that the South African fans are a bit cute too!!!!

Love Footie mad Helen
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World Cup and Mokpo Madness

Where to start this episode? That is the problem. I am going to try and do it chronologically in the hope that I won't lose you on the way. It is now 4 o'clock on Monday afternoon- those of you in the UK will be enjoying the first of two days off for the Golden Jubilee celebrations- let me know what you get up to! However, things are quite different over here in Asia. Of course England has been very much on my mind since their match against Sweden only took place yesterday. Yes, Korea and its many English teachers are firmly in the grip of World Cup fever. And damn proud of it!

Thursday night was the usual bowling night. I had had a good day at school (the kids were very funny and we had a really good final lesson and even the one that usually only speaks to me in Korean had actually responded for the day) so I decided not to take a chance of ruining it by actually taking part in the bowling (two weeks ago I scored an underwhelmingly massive 25!!) so my role in the sport was purely ocular. But I was more than willing to head to the late night chicken shop for some beers later. We stayed until the owner woke up and threw us out around 3.30am. Then bed and school the next day where the kids remained in disturbingly good humour. I went straight from school to the pizza shop (sometimes a girl just has to have pizza) and from the pizza shop to the pub. No soju this night as we just sneakily bought soju from the late night shop (I lurve being able to buy alcohol 24 hours a day- heaven!) and sat outside the pub to drink it. After we had finished at the first pub it was onto the cocktail bar and many June Bugs (not sure what is in them but they are green!) and the food van with the best toasties in Mokpo. Finally made it home around 6. Another night of seeing the sun come up before my head went down on the pillow.

Saturday saw the resumption of Korean lessons. We have a new teacher now and the lessons are conducted at a friend's house in Hadang. The new teacher was very good and coped well with the usual combination of hangovers and bad Korean. Rebecca shone as the star pupil. She is a whizz with languages and, jealous though I am, this was to prove to be very handy later in the day. The weather is glorious here in Mokpo at the moment. The sun is out and we haven't yet entered the period of unbearable humidity that everyone has promised me. It was time to go out into the sun.

Mokpo this week has welcomed the tall ships from New Zealand, Holland, Russia, Japan and its very own Korean ones. They are docked at the Maritime Museum and were certainly worth checking out. They were beautiful- all tall masts and rigging. We walked down to where they were docked only to discover some kind of security stopping us getting within smelling distance of all those lovely sailors. The Russian ship was enormous and we were gazing at it admiringly when Rebecca remembered that she is fluent in Russian. She called out to a man on board for an invite. But no luck. Then we noticed a guy coming over to see us from the other side of the security rope. He introduced himself as Vladimir and invited us over- through Rebecca of course since he was speaking Russian. We went up to the security checkpoint where the Korean guards stopped us. Rebecca told them that we had been invited over by the sailors and through we went. Vladimir took us on board and showed us all over the ship- control room, big wooden steering wheel thing in true pirate style. We saw the TV room ( where a bunch of Russian sailors were watching 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' in Russian!), the table tennis room, the dining area and the cabins. Rebecca was chatting away very happily in Russian, only confusing Vladimir a few times by answering in Korean- the woes of the multi-lingual are many! Me and Nerissa followed behind giggling like a couple of school girls and occasionally asking 'what is he saying? What are you saying?'

The tour of the ship was very cool. But eventually we had to leave all those blue eyed, dark haired, female company deprived Russian boys behind. Shame. Little did we know that there was a festival going on outside Mokpo station and we arrived just in time to watch a Taekwondo display and scab a free 'Be the Reds' t-shirt (Korean football team t-shirt. Not sure what it means exactly- I think that it should say 'Go the Reds' but if 40 million Koreans say otherwise then who I am to argue?) It was a very cool display as they leapt all over the stage occasionally stopping to break things with their heads. Then onto a birthday party which lasted well into daylight hours and home.

And sleep. But not for long as we had to get out of bed and haul our lazy arses to Gwangju as we were all proud owners of tickets to the Spain Slovenia match. We bought these tickets ages ago and though I was a little excited I didn't really think that I would care. I don't usually get interested in sport at all. But the buzz in Gwangju was fantastic (once we got used to seeing so many other foreigners) and before I knew what was going on I was standing in the Adidas shop clutching my newly purchased England t-shirt. I think that I have told you before that I am the only English person that I see in Mokpo so I was very taken aback to meet so many in Gwangju. They were pretty easy to spot with their faces painted red and white (the blue in the Union Jack comes from the St Andrews Cross of bonny Scotland) and sporting rather fetching England shirts. We based ourselves in a bar only sometimes venturing out to try and lure boys back. I found that the Irish girls plus a handful of candy seemed to bring the most boys back to the bar and soon we had all nations there. The England game started but only 15 minutes in we had to leave to go to the stadium to watch a live match. I was sitting with Nerissa and Rebecca so we parted company with the others at the gate and wandered in saying repeatedly 'this is soooooo cool!!' In fact it was so exciting that I had to ring my little sister from the stadium to share it with her- unfortunately I picked the time that they were letting all the balloons off so all she really heard was delighted yells.

We were sitting near the Slovenian fans and I was proud that I wasn't wearing a Spain t-shirt- unlike my three friends (we had now been joined by Tom) who all made various excuses to changes shirts ('it is a bit cold here isn't it?' etc) within ten minutes. For the girls this was partly motivated by the cuteness of the Slovenian fans we kept bumping into though I am not sure what Tom was thinking (he claims that he was genuinely cold) though if he had known what was going to happen next then perhaps he wouldn't have bothered. And I don't mean Spain beating Slovenia 3-1.

Having got over the initial rush of it being the coolest thing ever to be doing the Mexican wave during a World Cup match, Nerissa and Tom got slightly distracted from the game by a wasp on the back of the man in front of them. They were peering at it when all of a sudden Tom leapt back yelling something about his head. He tipped his head on one side and starting hitting his right ear. The crowds were staring at him. Something had flown into his ear. We looked by could see nothing. But he said that he could hear its wings flapping. Nerissa calmly took charge and they disappeared off to the First Aid point together. A bit taken aback we still managed to stand up and boo the Spanish when they scored their first goal- spurred on by the Slovenian faces who had taken it upon themselves to direct the crowd with chants of 'SLO-VEN-NE-YA, SLO-VEN-NE-YA, SLO-VEN-NE-YA, etc'. We did start to worry when the others didn't come back for about quarter of an hour. Then Nerissa appeared and started grabbing her stuff saying that they were taking Tom to hospital in an ambulance to get the bug out of his ear and it was OK, she didn't mind going as she was going to other matches. Slightly bewildered we watched them go and promised to see them shortly.

By the end of the game they still hadn't come back. Then I got a phone call from Nerissa (god bless mobile phones) telling me that they were in the hospital, the bug was out of the ear and in a bottle and that Tom was Ok now. Great. One problem, the bill had come to W260,000 (about 140 quid) and they only had W60,000 between them and they weren't allowed to leave the hospital until the bill was paid. We were unable to help as we only had about W40,000 between us too. Eventually Nerissa managed to get hold of the others and Barry was duly dispatched to the hospital with his credit card in his hand!

So all that was left for me and Rebecca to do was get back to the pub to meet the others. Easy. Well, not so easy really. The free shuttle bus was a complete mystery, we saw buses pull up and then leave again empty, another bus turned up but no-one in the crowd of people eager to get away had any idea where it was going. We joined the queue for the taxi rank and waited and waited. Eventually we decided to walk. But we didn't know the way. We set off in the direction that we thought it should be but were stumped when we got to the first crossroad. So we asked a policeman. And he asked his mate. His mate enlisted the help of a few others and before we knew what was going on we had 7 policeman hailing us a cab! They proved to be more effective than we were and soon we were safely on our way to the pub. Where we met Tom and he showed us the moth that had been in his ear. They had had to call a specialist who had to get out a camera to see it before it could be removed. Tom said that it had been deafening when it was still alive and it had been very far into his ear. Nasty!

We celebrated the removal of the bug by drinking Korean beer with Slovenians in an Australian pub which is why I am sitting here wearing my new 'Slovenija- the green piece of Europe' t-shirt! We got the 5.30 am bus back to Mokpo this morning and I now declare the weekend officially over!

Can't wait for the next one!
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