IT feels like it has been a long time since I was able to write about a truely 'cultural experience' enjoyed in Korea, and although this weekend wasn't exactly what you might call 'eye opening' or 'soul searching' it was one of the more fun weekends I have experience whilst being in Korea over the last 10 weeks.Since mashing my foot a couple of weeks ago and putting myself out of action, and the Premiership season finishing back in May, for a 'football addict' like myself, I have been quite starved of my favourite sport. Even though I think I have managed to cope admirably with not being able to do any kind of sporting activity, my first 'real' injured has shown me how much I rely on physical activity for entertainment on a day to day basis.
This weekend I was able to get my 'fix' however as after the comedy of spending an evening in true Korean style, our friend Hans decided that we hadn't scared him off adequetly and offered us the oppertunity of hanging out again, this time spending a saturday going to watch the Suwon Bluewings, our 'local' football team in action at the 'Big Bird World Cup Stadium' which is about a 20 minute ride from our house.
I have to be honest and say that it is something which I have been wanting to do for a long time and had I not been on crutches I probably would have attended a game sooner and I know Charlie and Kevin wanted to go and watch a game at some point.
We met up with Hans, Alex and Ian at Baskin' Robbins at about 4pm and hopped on a bus to Suwon station for a pre-match meal. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before on my blog but we were all throughly disappointed recently when one of our weekly haunts shut down and turned into a 'Nature Republic' and since that point all three of us have not eaten, but have been craving, dak-galbi.
Hans told us last week that he knew a restaurant to take us to, and rather comically it turned out to be the one which we used to visit which had closed! Luckily for us though he knew another place just down the street and it was as delicious as ever with me, Kevin and Charlie particularily excited to be able to experience the delightful taste once again!
After a brief stop at KFC to pick up a half time snack we hopped in two taxis and headed off towards the stadium. I've been past the World Cup Stadium before but only Alex out of us 'foreigners' had been inside. I'm pretty sure England played a World Cup game there in 2002 and it was no less impressive than it had seemed on TV. With a capacity of around 44,000 people, it's about the same size as Anfield or Elland Road.
Soaking in the atmosphere I took some pictures while Charlie went a step further than us all and brought a scarf from the club shop. Merchandise was a little beyond me this time but perhaps in the future if we repeat the experience I will be doing exactly the same thing!
We went inside the stadium and were behind the goal with all the Suwon fans in what is know as the 'supporter area'. Considering that the tickets to the game cost us the unbelievable price of 8,000 won (about £4) the seats were amazing and we had a perfect view of the action! Luckily for us that got going early as Suwon netted within the first ten minutes to take a decisive 1-0 win.
For me to be at a game in a foreign country is not a new thing and as I have been to quite a few games in England I probably shouldn't have been as excited as I was to be seeing the action in front of me. Although the game wasn't of the highest quality and it was by no means the Champions League or Premiership I really enjoyed being in the stadium and being a part of a fantastic and atmospheric experience.
The game eventually finish 1-0 to Suwon although Seongnam were robbed when they had a goal in the last minute, in my humble opinion, wrongly ruled out for offside! I wasn't complaining though as just like when I went to watch Djurgarden in Sweden I had seen the team that I paid money to watch win!
After the game we took a taxi back to Hwaseo-dong and had a few drinks in 'Munchen Ice Beer Pub'. Alex and Ian departed at Saturday turned into Sunday and we decided after much discussion about where we live that it would only be proper for Hans to experience how westerners manage to cramb their life and luggage into one small Korean room. He seemed very entertained by the fact that all three of us have many pictures of our home life around the room and the fact that we spend some much time using the computer and keeping in contact with people who are thousands of miles away.
I can't say enough how much I enjoyed the say and of course how much I appreciated Hans' willingness to take the five of us to a game. I feel like he goes above and beyond the call of duty to take care of us like we are his brothers! The whole day he spent carrying a massive bag around with food and drinks etc.. to keep us going and it was obvious that he had merticulously planned out every step of what we were going to be doing throughout the day!
I hope to be able to get the oppertunity to not only spend time with him but experience another K-League game with the Bluewings as I think they have definately earned themselves another five supporters after yesterday!
After the enjoyment of yesterday, today I took rather easier spending most of my time relaxing and recovering as well as watching the Wimbledon Final, playing on my Wii and speaking to my mum on Skype.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 11th week in Korea. The last few weeks have absolutely flown by and I'm not even sure what happened to the month of June because it disappeared so fact into the distance!
Only another three weeks until we have a 'Talkster vacaction' another thing which I am very much looking forward to, and in the mean time I am hoping that we spend more time doing what we did yesterday and less time doing what I did today!
There's plenty of pictures that I took yesterday posted up on my 'Shutterfly' photo gallery and also at some point I'm going to get the ones of Alex and Kevin as I know I am probably in very few of my own. Hopefully you'll get the chance to take a look and see how much I enjoyed myself!
Until next time...take care x
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