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P4A 2013: Liberty in North Korea

Official) B2ST - Beautiful Night ( Practice Ver.)

This video will be the death of me!  Totally AWESOME!

Korean Baseball is not your ordinary baseball!

I have so much to say.  But I'm going to make this mighty short.

KOREAN BASEBALL RULES!!!

 

My son and I both went to our first ever Korean baseball last night.  My husband didn't want to go because baseball is BORING!  Haven't we all heard that before, especially in the States.  Why has America's sport become the #3 sport in the States?  Because it's BORING.

Who hasn't sat in the stands and just sat?  The lucky ones who got excitement were those who actually had a homerun or foul ball hit at you.  Oh, yes!  The smell of good, old American hotdogs and popcorn and cracker jack and a nice, cold brew is refreshing sitting in the heat.  But where is the fun?

The fun is in Korean Baseball, people!  Korean B-A-S-E-B-A-L-L!  You can't beat the intensity of the Korean baseball fans.  The singing!  The dancing!  OMG!  They have these air sticks that when you beat them are loud!  Every fan has one.  EVERY fan!  During the team changeovers, the scantily dressed cheerleaders come out and lead the ecstatic fans into a frenzy.  They are a perverted man's dream.  During the entire, ENTIRE, game.....a male cheerleader lead's all the fan's into song.  Korean drums beat in time.  The speakers are blaring with music that only the fans know the words to.  The entire stadium is a chorus of people yelling "HOMERUN"!  

The male cheerleader for the Doosan Bears.  Where are the fans?  The game hasn't even started yet.  We still had an hour till the game!!  What energy drink is he drinking?  Because I want some.......

This is not just the home team doing all the cheer.  The visiting team has their own section of the baseball field and both sides (home and visiting) are deafening.

Sorry to say you won't find cracker jack, hot dogs and soda at a Korean Baseball game.  They serve ice cold HITE beer from insulated back packs on a guy half the size of the average American (LOL!  True!) as he walks up and down aisles ready to refill your cup for 2000 won.  The ahjummas carry many Korean snacks (like shrimp chips, dried octopus and/or squid and even RAMEN!) with ice cold cans of beer (if you don't prefer the guy carrying the drafts on his back) for only 2500 won.  Eric and I had Vitamin Water, Powerade, and a bag of Ojingeo (It's squid and peanuts in one.  I know, I know.  You're all saying gross but it's not.  I thought the same until I took a bite and was rolled over by it's salty goodness.)

Luckily, Korean teams are just as good as American teams.  No wonder you'll find many Asians (Koreans especially) mixed into the American MLB fray.

Boredom is not a Korean word especially in baseball.  The fans are included into everything!  Nobody is left to fall victim of that bad word.  A complete 3-hours of fun...nonstop fun.  Be aware that Korean Baseball is hazardous to your throat (you can't help but yell and scream and sing) and ears (I've already mentioned how loud it will get.)

If you visit Seoul and it's baseball season, don't walk but run to Jamsil Stadium (located in Olympic Park) and prepare yourself for an insanely fun experience.

By the way, we saw the Doosan Bears and Samsung Lions play.  Doosan lost.  Boooooooo!

Peace out!

The Day Started with Puke...........

April 16th, 2011~

Alarm sounds.  I drag myself out of bed.  Start the coffee.  Turn on the computer.  Talk on Facebook for an hour.  Wake the kids.  Wake the husband.  I pack necessities for today's planned trip.  We are going to a Buddhist Temple and a Korean king's grave today.

Everyone is dragging. Yes, it's a Saturday. One should not have to be up at 6:00am on a weekend, but we had to be at Osan Air Force Base by 8:30am or we'd miss our bus. The husband decides to urk me at the last minute and makes a side trip to his office to check something or get something or God knows what else. Then as we are heading out the USAG Humphrey's Main Gate, and on our way, my husband decides to drive like Grandma Moses.

And why is every freakin' Korean up on a Saturday morning? There was traffic everywhere. Then it hits me....duh!...Korean kids still have school...on a Saturday. So every middle and high school kid is waiting at bus stops for there ride.

So the faster I wanted to get to Osan, the slower it became. Of course, Murphey's Law kicked in and we hit every damn red light on our way there.....when every other time we've ever driven to Osan, the lights always stayed green. Ugh!

We arrive but ended up parking farther than expected because, as our life always has unexplained happenings, Osan had construction and blocked off the street we needed to take. Grr!

We head to the bus that is awaiting us. Of course, we are one of the last to arrive. Lauren and I got front row seats that were reserved for the guides, but since I had a 5 year old, they were kind to keep us seated together. My husband and two other children had to sit wherever there was available seating. We are off.....

I buckle Lauren and myself in. Dig out my iPod and put those on. Sit back...relax...and.....

All of sudden there is a commotion. Not even 5 minutes out of the Osan gate towards our destination....than none other than a tide of bile runs toward the front of the bus. What?!! "Oh, God! Don't tell me Lauren threw up," I thought. I'm still plugged into my iPod and can't hear what is being said but hands are flailing, mouths are covered, and the tour guide is yelling at the driver. We pull over.

I take out my earphones. I ask Lauren if she threw up as I didn't see the incident occur. She tells me, "Uh-uh. The man did it." As there are more men than women on the bus, I have no clue who the culprit is. Everyone is moaning and groaning, some giggling, some gagging. I finally narrow in on the suspect. A grown black man sitting with his buddy. His buddy laughing hysterically while holding a video camera that took evidence of the "accident." Poor guy was embarrassed beyond belief.

The next 10 minutes of our temporary stop was of the poor Korean bus driver mopping up puke and sputtering Korean curses at the sick culprit. And the poor Korean tour guide trying to calm the bus driver down. Our day couldn't have started off more perfectly......

Again, we start off.  We made our way through Osan, Suwon, and Seoul.....and then Yangpyeong.

We finally arrive to Yongmunsa (or Yongmun Temple).

As all of us were Christian, none of us went inside the temples.  Not to offend anyone, most of us decided to take pictures from outside.

The day was quite perfect with the exception of the morning adventures. The air was cool and the sun was warm. Not a single cloud in the sky. And the mountains sparkled.....

This was our first trip to a temple. We've never seen one except in movies and dramas. I have to say it was quite serene with the exception of all the visitor traffic. Weekends are a tourist dead-end. Also, an unexpected thing occurred at the temples. I shouldn't say thing, per-se, but there is this wonderful smell that animates itself out of the prayer temples. Those wonderful sticks of wonderful scent. Incense! You will drown in the smells.

We finally make our way back down the mountain.  Now there is something that was weird that we didn't take pictures of....was the amusement park at the bottom.  I died laughing.  The pictures we have of Buddhist Temples in our heads does not include a water slide, rollercoaster, and/or ferris wheel.  But hey, they gotta make money some how, right?

Since we are a tour, our guides already had our restaurant chosen and how much we'd spend as a whole. 10,000 won for a bowl of bulgogi, banchan (side dishes), and soda. Easy enough. Except...I'm not big on bulgogi. Yeah, I'm a weird one. Most people who are not Korean love this stuff. I'm the exception to that rule. It was good as it was.....the side dishes were the ace for me.

The Yongmunsa tour finally came to an end.  Our next destination....King Sejong's Tomb.

Two Worlds Only a Mile Apart

We've moved into our new apartment.  For those out of the loop, we were notified a couple of weeks ago that we got government housing on post (USAG Humphreys).  We talked about the pros and cons.  I could only thinks of one con against us moving on post.  That "con" is that if we move on post, we are no longer surrounded by Korean culture.  Living on post is like living in a separate world.....or more like living in the States....but we are still in Korea.  We are surrounded by Americans.  We will live next to Americans.  See mostly Americans. 

Living off post, I would look outside.  And what I saw were Koreans living their everyday lives.  Their everyday lives are harder, busier, and sometimes harsher than the average American.  Koreans have many things that make their lives easier but rarely use it.  They don't use electricity unless they HAVE to.  They don't use transportation unless they HAVE to.  Americans take life for granted and living outside post has made me realize we (Americans) are a spoiled country.  Yeah, Koreans have KIA, Samsung, LG, Hyundai, etc.....but they (Koreans) would rather live a simple life than overuse what they already have.  Maybe living in the shadows of war have kept them from becoming a spoiled nation.

Anyway, I loved living outside the American gates and living in the culture of Korea.  I loved the smell of kimchi that permeates every air cell in Korea.  I loved watching the elderly walking to and fro from wherever they were coming and going from.  I loved "playing chicken" with the Korean drivers.  I loved seeing the bus every ten minutes.  I loved hearing the Kpop blaring from the loudspeakers as I walked down the main road while shopping.  I loved the people who were always so friendly.  I loved the children who would run up to the American and bow while saying "annyeong haseyo".  I loved seeing the little old lady sitting outside in her chair when we walked to base.  I loved seeing the red peppers lying on tarps outside in the sun every where we went.  I liked our real estate agent (Mr. Lee) who was always smiling and was so nice....even though we had a huge language barrier.  There was the money exchange lady (Mrs. Kim) who always opened her arms for hugs when she greeted us and was always giving Lauren candy when ever she saw us.  She happened to live in the apartment next to us and was always giving us something to eat if she saw us outside.  I'll miss "halmoni" across the street who always was watching out for the kids and who always made sure our neighborhood was safe.

I sound as if we are already leaving Korea.  But in a way, we are.  Like I said, living inside the gates of USAG Humphreys is like living in a whole new world. 

Our wonderful landlady (Mrs. Oh) and her granddaughter (who always translated for us) were wonderful to live under.  On our last day....the day of the move....Mrs. Oh bought us jjajangmyun for lunch and gave us about a month's worth of kimchi to eat (by Eric's standards, it'll be gone in a week). 

And here I am, inside the gates of Humphreys.  Now I must find more reasons to walk out the gates....even if it's just for no reason at all.