My mom and brother (Med Bot) visit Korea for some sightseeing, food, people, and general good times. This is my diary of the momentous occasion.
Day 6: Tuesday
I teach in the morning, get pelted in the nuts during "High Five Time," pick up my family, and then we're off to a baseball game. In Korea, cities and individuals don't own teams, corporations own them. So instead of the Seoul Tigers, they're the Kia Tigers—Kia being the Korean car manufacturer. Usually, I'm against all this corporate sponsorship stuff, but for some reason, in Korea, it's out in the open and I think it's cool. They're not fooling anybody.
Today, we're seeing the Doosan Bears (Korean construction equipment) play the LG Twins (cell phones, TVs and such). In MLB, I'm a Minnesota Twins guy, so I cheer for the Twins, as does my brother. My mom doesn't really care.
Another great thing about the Korean fans is they don't trash talk. There's none of this, "You like the other team? Fuck you!"Seoul is a huge city but doesn't have enough stadiums for all their teams. They've got almost five baseball teams, some of which are sort of in the suburbs, but any way you look at it, that's a lot of teams. So the Twins and the Bears share a stadium. In Korea, fans sit in certain sections. The home team on one side of the stadium, the away team opposite. This cuts down on the fan beatings and swearing and other nonsense you deal with in other countries.
Now some folks say, "Only Americans play baseball. It's a stupid sport." Not true. I could rap about Canada, Japan, Cuba, and Mexico, but Koreans effing love baseball. Maybe more than Americans. At games, they've got attractive cheerleaders who dance, sing songs, and—duh—cheer. But not just during exciting moments, during every single pitch. So you don't go to the game to sit around, you're constantly chanting, singing, or just yelling.
One glaring difference between Korean baseball fans and those in other the U.S. is that you see a TON of girls there. And they're not there to watch with their boyfriends or meet dudes, they're there to WATCH BASEBALL. They know all the players, their stats, their hometowns, and their blood types—Koreans believe your blood type determines your personality, kind of like a vampire horoscope. It doesn't hurt that the Korean girls are sometimes really hot.
Another great thing about the Korean fans is they don't trash talk. There's none of this, "You like the other team? Fuck you!" They cheer on their own team, never against the opponents. Rarely do you hear somebody swear, unless they drop their beer.
Which, brings up another great point. Beers are 4,000 won (about $3.50), which is only a 50 cent markup from the beers you buy in the store. Hot dogs, corn dogs, and weird Korean street food are all reasonably priced. It's amazing. So you go to the game for about ten bucks, and everything is really cheap. I'm happy to spend the $25 it costs to go to the game, get drunk, and chill.
Medium Bot wanted to pick up a Twins jersey, so we found one for $40; in the States, they'd cost at least $100 at a game. Then Med Bot spent an extra $7 to get his new favorite player's name ironed on. I've never been more jealous of him. We snapped many photos.
In the end, the Twins lost, sort of like the real Twins. But we enjoyed ourselves and the price didn't murder us, er, me—I footed the bill for this one too.
Med Bot is a little hungry, so I introduce him to the Korean snack food Kimbop, which is sort of like sushi, but with cheaper fish, more seaweed rolly, and mayonnaise and carrots and stuff. It's really good—until you eat it every day. Then you get sick of it.
Day 7: Wednesday
Today I really really really needed a break. So I hired my Korean friend JK to take my fam around town so my Mom could shop for more effing jewelry. She nearly gave me an aneurism with that shit, and had she been anybody else, I'd have strangled her. But since she fed, clothed, and sheltered me for far too long, I figured that just wouldn't be right. JK wanted to take them out, and I was only too happy to oblige.
I returned to work, which sucked, but was a little nicer than running around looking for jade jewelry. And wouldn't you know it, they found some.
Day 8: Thursday
I only spend a fleeting amount of time with the fam. We eat a meal and call it good. I'm still not wrapping my head around the fact that my dear sweet mum is in a foreign country to visit me.
During the day, JK takes us to a sam-gip-sall place in the "country." They call it the country because there aren't skyscrapers, but trees. Even in "the country," this spot is more densely populated than most cities I've lived in, but anywho.
Sam-gip-sall is really thick-cut Korean bacon. They cook kimchi (spicy cabbage) and the bacon at the same time, but on a slanted griddle so the bacon fat cooks with the kimchi, resulting in the most delicious type of kimchi ever. The meal is heavy, and we all need naps. It's my mom and bro's favorite meal. Me? I felt really fat afterwards.
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