Lotte Giants Baseball Game (and other crazyness)!

One of the things that my co-teacher Mr. Park strongly recommended I do here is go to see a Lotte Giants baseball game in Busan.  I finally got around to going last weekend, and it was really an awesome time.  I had planned to go last month, but the tickets had sold out by the day before the Sunday afternoon game (a friend living in Busan went to pick up the tickets for us ahead of time).  This time we got the tickets purchased by a friend the Tuesday before and everything worked out.. for the most part.

Most of the group that was going (and that had the tickets) went to Busan early for lunch and to hang out on the beach, and the game was at 5 o'clock.  My buddy Jim from orientation called me up the day before and wanted to come visit Ulsan and hang out.  He had had plans to go up north near Seoul, but they fell through since the bus he needed to take only ran 1 or 2 times per day and he'd missed it.  When he called me I was actually at a riverside BBQ with some friends on the West side of town.  We were going to a friends' concert (Karaoke Dokey) that evening all the way on the other side of town near Ilsan beach.  I told him he could definitely come out, go to the concert with us, then come to the baseball game the next day.  It worked out perfectly as he arrived as we were leaving the river.  

Where we had our BBQ was actually one of the top 12 tourist attractions in Ulsan, Seonbawi.  There is this really interesting rock that must have been formed from wind erosion.

Here it is!  (photo from internet)  Rena, Keenan and I are the only ones that swam out and touched it.  Good times!

Here is a nice guy I just met Garret, then Becky and the grille-master Karl.  Becky and Karl are a really nice couple I've known since I arrived here.  They are trying to convince me to teach in China for a year or two... still not very close to a decision on that, but we always have fun when we get together.

Here are my friends Ellen and "Alex the Brit."

Jim and I took the bus back to my place where I got cleaned up from swimming in the Taewha River.  Then my friend Alex and his girlfriend Ellen came over.  I made us all some food and we went to find the concert venue together.  It was a great time, and the 'Stache Potatoes booked a show there for next month :]  

I didn't get any photos of Karaoke Dokey playing, but I did get this one of my buddy Yusef (from the band) who sang a few songs towards the end of the night once most everyone had cleared out.  

The next day Jim and I hiked to the temple up on my mountain which was really nice, but it took a little bit longer than I had anticipated.  We were hurrying down on a muddy path where I stepped awkwardly on a rock and hurt my foot.  I deserved it since I was hiking in my Chuck Taylor's (I really need to invest in some serious hiking boots.. one of these days).  So I limped down the rest of the mountain and we had a late lunch.  Jim was thankful for putting him up and having him in town so he treated us to some very delicious fried chicken.  By this point it was almost 3 o'clock, and we knew that we were going to be arriving to the game a little bit late.  We took a cab to my apartment (we came down a trail that was about a 20 minute walk to my place, plus my foot hurt).  Jim grabbed all of his stuff and then we took a cab to the train station. We had to wait 30 minutes for the next train, plus it was delayed about 10 minutes, so now we were wondering exactly how this was going to pan out.  Our friends bought enough tickets for me, but it was a group ticket or something, so we had to all be together to get in.  Also Jim was hoping to just buy a ticket when we got there.  It turns out the last time we couldn't get a ticket because they were sold out, was also a holiday weekend, so we had high hopes.  

Here is a photo Jim took of me on our hike.

Here's Jim at the temple.

We got off the train right at 5 o'clock and had to take 2 different subway lines, a total of 14 stops, to the baseball stadium.  A guy on the subway was watching the game on his phone so we talked with him about the game and watched some of it with him.  He spoke pretty good English which was cool, but he told us the game was definitely sold out.  We were starting to realize that our chances of making this game were getting slimmer by the minute.  I called my friends that we were meeting when we got off the subway at 5:40 and they said that they were just getting to the stadium as well!  They had just lost track of time and misjudged the time it would take on the subway to get there, which was awesome news for me.  We got there and Jim was basically making alternative plans, but decided to come up to the stadium with me anyways.  

When we got there we found my friends along with their Korean friend Johnny (who I'd never met before) waiting for us near the gate.  Johnny really wanted to help Jim get a ticket, so he took him around the corner looking for a scalper, but with no success.  We decided we would probably meet back up afterwards for some food or something, and parted ways.  About 5 minutes later as we were getting snacks inside the stadium (which had a 7/11 with normal prices!) Jim called me telling me he got a ticket!  Some old guy was out there with an extra ticket and sold it to him right on the spot.  So he met us up inside at the 7/11 and then we went in to watch the game.  I didn't even notice how late we were because finding a seat was a nearly impossible task.  We had the equivalent of 'bleacher' seats that were only 7,000 won, and you basically sat where there was an empty seat.  We got shifted around 6 or 7 times before we finally made our own seats at the front of a section.  Once we were settled it was an awesome time surrounded by some of the most enthusiastic baseball fans I've ever seen.  

This is Johnny who was very cool.  My favorite part of the whole day was when he was sitting up with some of our friends who were a section up and a section over, and we wanted to get his attention.  With the help of a rowdy Lotte fan we got our whole section to chant his name until he finally stood and waved to us.  It was so cool because the fans cheered for him like he was one of the players! haha (Also in this photo I am wearing my Sin Soo Choo, Cleveland Indians T-shirt.  My neighbors Shannon and Sarah Payne sent me this in exchange for some souvenirs for their nieces.  Thanks again!)

Here is a shot of the field.

The stands to my right.

A blurry but good picture of Jim and our friend Kate sitting down.

Between innings there was all kinds of entertainment.  There were mascots on the dugout break dancing, and I mean SERIOUS professional break dancing.  There was a kiss cam that would find couples sitting together and encourage them to smooch for the whole stadium.  There were also several competitions that the fans could participate in, which they do back in the States at games.   What was crazy is each player had their own chant, and EVERYONE participated in them with tons of energy.  Unfortunately we lost 7-1, but I don't think anybody left early or lost faith until the very end.  It was a truly amazing experience.

Afterwards we had dinner at a seafood BBQ place nearby and then went home.  Jim stayed in Busan since he had Monday off from school, and I guess he made friends on the beach and hung out with them all night playing games.  A very exciting weekend to say the least!  

Here's a picture from dinner.  Starting on the left is Kate, Johnny, Jim, Keenan and Rena.  What a weekend!