London's Suji South Korea Adventure: Tay-hahn-meen-guk

Tay-hahn-meen-guk! This roughly translates to Fighting Korea! We heard this a lot this past weekend as we prepared for Korea's first game in the World Cup. The entire country was decked out in Korea gear and covered in red from head to toe. Everyone was wearing red horns in support of the Fighting Red Devils. It is so exciting to be in a country that actually cares about soccer during the World Cup.

This past Friday, Steve, Josh and I headed down to Pohang to visit Fred and enjoy the game there. When we woke up on Saturday we headed straight to the beach. Most of the foreigners in Pohang came out to play beach softball. After hanging out on the beach for a while we headed back to Fred's apartment. On our way we stocked up on our Korean gear for the game. We got t-shirts, bandannas, red devil horns and tattoo stickers. We then headed to the favorite foreign bar called Tilt. As we walked cars and taxis were literally slowing down as we passed to shout Tay-hahn-meen-guk. We got numerous shouts and fist pumps for other street walkers as well. Tilt is owned by a Korean-American from WI who went to St. Cloud State. He had bought some American hot dogs and brats and made home-made potato salad for a grill out. The game was being shown on a jumbo screen on the beach but we thought that it might rain so we stayed at Tilt for the game. The bar was packed with foreigners and Koreans. Korea ended up beating Greece 2-0. It was so much fun!

We ended up staying for the middle game as well. We filled our time with the soccer game and our own card games as we waited until the 3:30am start time of the USA-England game. Finally, after hours of waiting, the game started. I didn't think that it was possible but more people had squeezed into Tilt. There were a handful of teachers from England thrown into the mix as well. This made it very fun. It turned out to be England and Canada vs. US, Ireland and Scotland. (There are foreigners from many more places in Pohang then in Suji. There are also many South Africans.) Our 'team' was elated with the tie and the English team was upset and shocked. Around 6am we finally went to bed! We woke for lunch then took a 3:30 bus back to Suji. Overall it was a great weekend and I cannot wait for the next Korea game on Thursday. I hate to say it, but I officially cheering for the Fighting Red Devils! Tay-hahn-meen-guk!!