Yo, in case you haven't heard, I'm on the road in Africa right now (Algeria to be exact), so internet is just a wee bit sketchy and time minimal so I won't be able to do any fun updates until at least December 1st, but trust me, I've got plenty to write about. Til then enjoy these pics of Dubai and Lagos, Nigeria....
Dubai desert traffic.... Um, mom, I've got something to tell you Sunset on the Arabian peninsula as my co-worker Travis looks on...
Not much was picture worthy in Lagos (in fact, nothing was), but thought this sign was interesting (reads: "slow down, bridge under investigation"). Hmmm....
Beefcakes, Saturday was game 5 of the Korea Series (i.e. the World Series, but they aren't that preposterous). Eight teams in the league, all sponsored by the chaebols (think LG, Daewoo, Hyundai, etc)....and who made it to the series? Samsung Lions, clearly. (and Hanhwa Eagles).
The Chairman's office gave us tickets (awesome), which by the way are first come, first sit - so you want pick your team's side and partake in the cheering festivities.
Here's a video of Hanhwa's fans.....see if you can pick up the "(some) (guy's) (name) HOME RUN!" cheer about 11 seconds in (you'll need sound, knuckleheads)....
Anyway, here's five things I learned about Korea's national pastime:
1. The count is reversed. Instead of a 3-2 count (3 balls, 2 strikes), it's 2-3 here. And the announcers say "two and three" not the Korean "DULL-HAAGO-SAAM". Goofy.
Here's a pic of Samsung's fans from the game Saturday - note the blown up Lions.
2. Two foreigners are allowed per team. The rest, obviously, are Korean. This makes cheering very convienient since all Koreans have three syllable names (Chan-Ho Park, Hee-Sop Choi, Kim Jong Il).
Samsung has two white dudes who are pitchers. Hanhwa has a black dude, named Davis - pronounced in Korean "DEH-EE-BEE-SA". The Samsung guys pull in US$300k per year - not too shabby.
I took this photo of the Samsung stand an hour before the game. Note the cheerleaders platform in the middle of the stands and sign for KFC which reads "OO-REE-JEE-NAWL CHEE-KEEN" - yes, "Koreanizing" English words is common here. What you can't see is that Samsung has it's own cheering speaker system, random fireworks, dried squid stands - and of course the half dozen beers yours truly put down. Ahhh, Cass - The Sound of Vitality!
(click on the pic for a blown up version - you can do that with any Blogger posted pic, by the way)
3. Normally after 12 innings the game is a tie. In the playoffs, it extends to 15 innings. And because they play small-ball style (bunting, tactical, rather than home runs), this happen more often than you think. Our game Saturday....a 15 inning 1-1 tie. Nuts. Samsung would have won the best of 7 series 4 games to 1 that day. (They did it the next day.)
Here's a video I shot from our stands. The song is the Pet Shop Boys "Go West" - a very common soccer cheer in Korea. Don't worry, later in the game, they busted out the Backstreet Boys "Backstreet's Back". Money.
4. "Double play" in Korean translates to “parallel killing”. Umm, yeah.
Here's an aerial shot of the stadium on the scoreboard (in the old Olympic grounds). It held about 30,000 folks, but is meant as a "neutral" site for the final three games of the series.
5. And the best of all....CHEERLEADERS! On a platform in the middle of the stands. Dallas Cowboys eat your heart out.
But seriously, they do add a lot to the game (the organized cheers are good times) other than rediculous eye candy. Generally you cheer after every out, when your team is batting, and between innings - in short, all the time! And no, there is no 7th inning stretch, but an end of 6th inning 15 minute break - who knew?
Yeah. So, I'm still unpackin'. Easy, nut smack - I'm workin' on it.
Anywho, been another busy week with dinners, Korean classes, and a little bit of prep for my upcoming month in Africa - awwww yeah, Lagos, here I come!
In between, I learned Jay Z knows less Korean than me, DJ Sasha brings out the entire expat community, and radioactive material was discovered in Seoul today. Awesome.
Heading to game 5 of the Korea Series (the baseball championship) Saturday with the Hanhwa Eagles versus, who else, the Samsung Lions. Should be money, Samsung is up 3 games to 1, so it could be the clincher. I'll be flippin' over the cars on the streets of Apgujeong afterwards cause lord knows that the KFC and a little Oriental Brewery at the game is gonna lead to a beautiful sight. SAMSUNG FIGHTING!
In the meantime, enjoy this video (an ad for an apartment building here). Korea may not have invented breakdancin' but they sure have perfected it - it's pretty huge here, kinda like this white bread's mad Korean skillz....
Yo monkies. Unfortunately, with my recent move in (yes, I finally moved in) I have little to no free time to create a quality post. Instead, I offer up this cinematic gem to tide you over until I get a chance to talk about my new diggs, Vietnam, and a number of other lil' nuggets. Ok, off to Jay Z tonight (yes, he's playing Seoul) before I hit DJ Sasha tomorrow night - all with a baby shower and mad unpackin' between. I'm audi, peeps....
FYI, this is from "For Y'ur Height Only", a 1979 Filipino film, starring the ever cuddly Weng Weng as Agent OO. Awwww, yeah! Pure genius.
In light of the "Dear Leader's" actions this week up north, this installment is 90% videos - 4 North Korea propaganda videos plus a little love at the end (my apologies to those who are having problems accessing these videos, but they're too good to pass up). Life is pretty much normal here - a few smaller protests, but definitely the US media is far more interested in this that the South Koreans are - seems to be a bit of a sense of denial here, but it was a bit eerie on Monday when the news broke during lunch. First check out these nuggets taken from the Wikipedia entry for Senor Kim:
"Kim Jong-il's official biography also holds that his birth at MountPaektu was foretold by a swallow, and that his birth was heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountain and a new star in the heavens."
"It has been reported that Kim is an avid fan of the Friday The 13th series and Rambo among others. In 1978, on the orders of Kim, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry. In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production". Still, Kim himself has said he rarely watches movies. He reportedly enjoys following National Basketball Association games. Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by Michael Jordan."
Love the horse....
Put out by pro-North Koreans living in South Korea - damn catchy.... The "Olympic Medal" is the 2002 spreadskating scandal (Apolo Anton Ohno ain't so popular here).
[Greetings kids. This installment will be 90% video since time is running short due to a week long trip to 'Nam for vacation Saturday. Yes, I deserve vacation after only 2 weeks of work. Ok, so maybe I don't, but it's Chuseok (Chew-SAWK), the festival of the harvest moon, aka Korean Thanksgiving.]
Hangook! Woooooooehoooooo! Hangoooooook! Wooooehooooehoooo! (Hangook means "Korea" in well, Korean. Woooo has no meaning, you knucklehead). Today's entry is all about Korea's national soccer team, aka the Red Devils (see the jerseys).
Prior to the 2002 World Cup (hosted jointly by Korea and Japan), South Korea had played in 5 World Cups and never made it out of the first round. In 2002, they made the final four, losing to Germany 1-0 - but Korea's been football mad even since. One of their players, Ji-Sung Park, plays on Manchester United.
The fans.... Outside City Hall - about 1 block from my office..... In 2002, Korea had a Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink who instantly became a mega star in Korea..... In fact he was so popular that he was offered Korean citizenship....... In fact, Hiddink is still popular enough, 4 years later (he was Australia's national coach in the 2006 World Cup), that he is the lead endorser of Papa John's here in Korea.....10 minutes of Red Devils highlights from the 2002 World Cup. Notre Dame, Green Bay Packers, European soccer – don’t stand a chance against Korean fans when it comes to the World Cup. Must be something about the conformity thing here. Pretty amazing. Oh, and dig the overly dramatic Korean film style. Good times.
South Korea scores against Italy in the 2002 World Cup – the city goes bonkers (yes, bonkers – my English is regressing since I’ve been here). [2:30 seconds]
In case you're curious, in the 2006 World Cup, they beat Togo, tied eventual runner up France, but then lost to Switzerland (hugely controversial refereeing) - never making it out of the opening round.
Oh, and just to make you feel better, I installed a counter on this page (thanks for reading!).....and as a result of this I can see (to some degree) who is viewing this page. Thanks Jack - glad to see you're working hard (note the Honeywell domain)....
10. Samsung Orientation. 7 am wake up, then a bit of Korean breakfast. Mmmm. Off to the Samsung’s security (who knew?) training center, rolling up in a bus while we pass a group of security guards practicing taekwando on the soccer pitch Uruguay practiced on for the 2002 World Cup. Step into a gym for some stretching…..and boom, out comes this instructor and some techno. That’s right kids, bust out the legwarmers, we did Jane Fonda proud. Very ugly. Only slightly less ugly were the quotes yelled out by one of our Korean staff members during a team climbing activity – “Step on me! Step on my face!”, followed closely by “I wish I could touch people in the office”. Too funny. This sign was seen on the walk between the climbing wall and the center. That about sums it up.
9. Digital Pet. Oh yeah, that’s right. My snazzy little cell phone comes with a digital pet feature. Of course I adopted a cocker spaniel. Of course I named it Ginger (my parent’s dog). And of course it’s obedience level is awful and won’t sit on command. It’s always cool when you’re in an elevator and your pocket barks. Very professional.
8. Korea + Drinking = Match Made in Heaven. You may have heard that Koreans like to drink. You have no idea. Company dinners never ever end sober cause inevitably everyone toasts each other and people yell out “one shot” (which basically means bottoms up – not so cool with a full glass of red wine!). But outside of Samsung, it’s pervasive too – Soju (Korean vodka) is dirt cheap and bars are everywhere. It’s very common to see hammered, and I mean hammered, people walking around at night. For example, we tried to grab a cab a few weeks back outside our hotel. Right next to us was a guy, in his 40s, in a business suit, passed out against a street lamp on a six lane road, basically drooling on himself. And this was only midnight! Trust me, it’s pervasive. Here’s a pic of the beloved “bomb shot” – a shot of whisky dropped in a beer. It’s dropped by shaking up a beer, aiming it at the first shot and opening carefully so the shots drop like dominos. Guaranteed to have you hugging a toilet by the night’s end.
7. Cell phone purchasing. So Korea is what is known in the cell phone industry as an "open" market – the carriers don’t subsidize the phones, so you have to pay the full price - $300-700! Ouch. On the upside, when you buy the phone you’re told to ask for a “special gift” which turned out to be…..body deodorant! What tha? Cause when you’re buying a cell phone, no promotion works better than deodorant! The choices are mind blowing – GPS phones with navigation, banking on your phone, broadcast digital TV, Korean to English dictionaries built in (very useful for this gringo), and sliders, sliders, everywhere. Although this isn’t my phone (mine’s the SPH-V9850, such a snazzy name!), I thought I’d share this nonetheless. You should recognize this girl from last week’s post:
6. Norae bang. Literally “Singing Room”, the Korean karaoke. See nuggest #8 for motivation. Yours truly has torn up about a dozen songs in the two times I’ve been, and somehow ended up with toilet paper rapped around his head like a mummy while singing “O Bla Di” that last time. Classy and professional. For an idea of what this turns into see below - courteousy of a co-worker of mine who is a pretty quiet spoken guy…..normally.
5. North Korean Protests. This city loves a good protest. In fact, it’s so common to see police in riot gear around city hall on the weekends, you don’t even notice it after awhile. What are they protesting? How the hell should I know, I only know 200 words in Korean! No, usually it’s anti-American, anti-Japanese, anti-government, and of course the biggest of all, anti-North Korean. A few weeks back, on quiet Sunday morning, we took a 10 minutes cab ride to the city hall area to go cell phone shopping. Stuck in some minor traffic outside city hall, a 10 lane road, this protestor runs out within 10 feet of our cab, and lights a North Korean flag on fire. So hot I could feel the flames with the window closed! Now that’s not something you see everyday. Unforutunately some photographer jumped in front of me to block my camera phone attempt at capturing this moment of glory. Just outside my hotel is the Japanese embassy, home to a protest every Wednesday since they left August 15, 1945!
4. Kimchi. Kimchi, Korean’s national obsession of a dish is everywhere. Fermented, pickled, spicy. It takes some serious getting used to. They are so obsessed with kimchi that in about 2/3 of the apartments I see, there's a special luxury in them – kimchi fridges! 3. Random people. The old lady that wanders the aisle of the subway yelling something while toting an icebox full of cucumbers and a knive, with 5 slices of cucumber on her face. Awesome. And then there’s the guy riding down the sidewalk by city hall with his bicycle trailer selling sets of kitchen knives. What businessman is looking for a set of knives in the middle of the work day? This one!
2. Pissayo. The Korean word for expensive. And damn this city is ‘spensive. Like $17 for a cocktail in some clubs, $19 for an imported beer like a Hoegarden, and $8-9 for a local beer. You can find plenty of “reasonable” $4-5 beers, but damn there’s some pricy places. And then there’s fruit – like $18 for a watermelon. $8 for grapes. $3 for an apple – in the megamart grocery store! On the upside are the hundreds of 20 year old girls in knee high socks hocking their company’s food. They didn’t teach us that gimmick at Kellogg. Of course there are some bargins in this city – taxis, subway, ice cream ($0.50-$1.00), and of course, soju!
1. Hines Ward. Who knew? Hines Ward, last year’s Super Bowl MVP, is half Korean and half African American. Lived in Korea until he was two, then moved to Georgia with his father. His mother, who doesn’t speak English, moved to the US, worked three jobs, eventually won custody of him and raised him. He never learned Korean so they couldn’t communicate growing up. Now that he won the super bowl, of course, Koreans have adopted him as their own, and he’s in ads all over the city. Random. Here he is with his mom this summer in Korea:
That's hot.
Outside City Hall - about 1 block from my office.....
In 2002, Korea had a Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink who instantly became a mega star in Korea.....
In fact he was so popular that he was offered Korean citizenship.......
10 minutes of Red Devils highlights from the 2002 World Cup. Notre Dame, Green Bay Packers, European soccer – don’t stand a chance against Korean fans when it comes to the World Cup. Must be something about the conformity thing here. Pretty amazing. Oh, and dig the overly dramatic Korean film style. Good times.
3. Random people. The old lady that wanders the aisle of the subway yelling something while toting an icebox full of cucumbers and a knive, with 5 slices of cucumber on her face. Awesome. And then there’s the guy riding down the sidewalk by city hall with his bicycle trailer selling sets of kitchen knives. What businessman is looking for a set of knives in the middle of the work day? This one!
