The Football Crowd
The World Cup was a huge event in Korea, as it is in any participating country. Koreans being, well, Korean, thew in 200% percent of their passion and enthusiasm into it. In every city, there was a big screen so that a big crowd could gather to watch the game together. In Seoul, there was a huge screen at City Hall, where millions of people flocked everytime there was a Korea game. Even if the game started at 3am local time, the streets surrounding City Hall would be jammed with supporters by 4pm. Since I didn't finish work until at least 6pm, it made it impossible for me to a) ride the subway train into central Seoul b) see the big screen even if I got there. Hence Songsu and I went to watch the foot ball on a smaller screen at the local university. There around 700 people there, all proudly wearing their glow-in-the-dark red devil horns, and so the atmosphere was fantastic.
Two games later, Songsu and I went to the baseball stadium. The stadium was huge; the capacity must have been at least 10,ooo, and almost every seat was filled. The doors opened at 11pm and the game started at 3am. The atmosphere was electric-the biggest crowd I have ever been in. That was the day that Korea lost and thus was out of the World Cup. The mood on the subway trains going back home at 6am was that of deep disappointment.
posted by Louise @ 9:29 pm
