Korean style football cheering

The Korea game (chanted with their full name, day-han-min-gook or Republic of Korea) was a lot of fun. Easily the most entertaining sports event I’ve ever watched, with I would guess tens of thousands of people just on our street. Probably millions out across Seoul. We got a great sitting spot right as the police closed off the roads for us, then ate snacks and learned an awesome dance while we waited.

Waiting on the train for Samseong station.

Sunny gives his best thug pose.

Will and I show our K-pride. Sprinkled with a dash of inebriation.

Half the crew. Me, Viktor, Sunny, Joe, and Farad.
A half Korean, Russian, Indian, Caucasian, and Persian.

The crowd shortly before the sun comes up.

The streets lights went out shortly before the game ended, but it wasn't long before natural light reminded us of our folly. There were some tense moments when Nigeria blundered their shots, but Korea tied 2-2 and will advance to the next round. Obviously, everyone was excited about that, cheering and jumping and hugging one another. But the most amazing thing: as soon as people started leaving, they all picked up their trash and either threw it away or pushed it into piles in the street for easy cleaning. I wish I could be that impressed in the States, but I fear the environmental awareness and tendency towards frugality here will not influence the West in my lifetime.

Morning breaks, the game ends, the crowd cheers sleepily.

Yurianna and Joe.

Viktor leads us to the subway.

A trash pile! How nice.

For the game, we had left from the hotel at midnight. On the return, the police were very helpful in managing the subway crowd. We returned just in time to shower and get breakfast at 7:00 AM. I was super sleepy all day, but we got to take a nap on our way to the KSTAR facility in Daejeon (대전), a nuclear fusion research facility. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but they had a giant magnetic coil to create their fusion process. I wish I were awake enough to remember the details, but the facility was massive and clean. Reminded me of the Anomalous Materials laboratory in Black Mesa.

Next up was the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, where machines to fabricate machines and also LCD screens were developed. Only one picture was really interesting from that visit; the rest were of nerdy lathes, drills, and lithography tools.

Examples of their fabrication techniques.
The numbers are minutes of machine time.

After lunch we walked around town and tried our hand at essentially a crane machine. It was only really noticeable for it's 8.0 MP Love Web Cam and Sexy Beauties Lighter Lights. After four tries of failing to move the plunger vertically, we decided the machine was rigged.

500 won for a try, or about 50 cents.

We drove for about 3 hours to our resort in Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Korea. At a rest stop I enjoyed a fish-shaped ice cream bar with red bean paste. Very tasty. The city is kept authentically ancient except for the tourist resort where we're staying, and it's a beautiful part of the country with an artificial lake next to our hotel and walking/biking trails all around. We took it easy and had a steak with a great view of the mountains. We all stayed up late watching America play Slovenia at a nearby bar. We won 1-0, but it wasn't scored until the last minutes of injury time.

Sunny makes more friends. Russian this time.

Watching the football game over some beers.

I'm roomed with Viktor at this hotel, and getting to know the whole crew a lot better. I already know I'll be sad when we all have to split paths after the weekend.