All I see is red. All around me are Koreans wearing the color of their team. I joined them today as I donned fake tattoos bearing the Korean flag, and my own red t-shirt. Tomorrow morning at 4, the Korean national soccer team will play Switzerland for a deciding match which could send them into the next round of the 2006 World. It’s such an important event, that my scrooge of a boss actually cancelled my morning classes tomorrow. He won’t cancel classes for say, Christmas but for a football match, of course.
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement here. Everyone is so excited. I just can’t get over it. I think they are more excited than we would be if Edmonton won the cup this year. Everyone, I mean everyone is into the World Cup here, including mothers, fathers, grandmothers and five year old kids.
I think they appreciated my red tshirt. As I walked around today, I got a lot of “Daehanminguk”! That’s their fighting chant which literally means Republic of Korea. Most people wil go to Saejak stadium to watch the game on the big screen. I wouldn’t mind going but the game is on at 4 am, and I would rather wake up in my bed and watch the game.