The Hanwha Eagles made the playoffs! This is definitely big news for residents of Daejon and surrounding region. Seating at these games, whether playoff or not, are first come first serve (as opposed to reserved seating at movie theaters) so a bunch of us from TCIS decided to head to last Wednesday's final game early to get good seats.Once again the hype surrounding the game proved to be more interesting than the game itself... from (16th century) Korean warrior mascots to the smoking fireworks. The Koreans get into the game like I've never seen before and since we were in the front row of our section, we saw it all!
No inhibitions here. Fans took turns running the Eagles flag around the stadium and some even lead our section in cheers. Admittedly, I don’t have a clue as to what they’re chanting in Korean but it sure is catchy. At times I swear they were yelling “who let the dogs out” but I wouldn’t place money on it =)A friend from school wanted to see if there were any limits to this enthusiastic crowd so he started chanting “U... S... A...” and, sure enough, our part of the stadium picked it up and ran with it. Too funny. Most in the crowd probably had no idea what they were yelling but they were sure getting into it!
I am constantly amazed at the level of hospitality and friendliness of Koreans – even at baseball games! Despite the language barrier, many Koreans put chicken and other foods in our hands and motioned for us to eat. Fortunately no one offered us dried squid because it isn’t polite to decline and, well, none of us were in the mood to eat 3 foot long strips of dried squid that night =)
All in all, another great time at the ball park! How could our evening end any better than having dozens of Korean fans wave and say “good bye” to us as we left the stadium? I’m sure the Koreans, like most citizens of other countries, are delighted when foreigners take an interest in their country and participate in cultural activities. In all reality, it’s our privilege!
