Two losses, but one great time!

Photo Credit: FIFA

For those not in the know, the World Cup started a few weeks ago. 32 teams from around the world were divided into 8 groups. After three games, the top two teams in each group (based on points awarded for wins, draws, and goals) move on to the second round (Round of 16). It’s here that the matches really get intense, since it’s a single elimination round. Both the US and South Korea advanced and had their Round of 16 games Saturday night/Sunday morning local time.

Football (Soccer) isn’t that widely followed in the US, and according to Jo, the CNN anchor covering the US match had to hand over the mic to a spectator in order to explain things. I find this quite odd, given the number of parents sending their children to Soccer Camps. Heck, even I played soccer for a number of years when I was a kid. Football in much of the world is the national sport… as it should be. It’s a demanding game and far more exciting than Baseball, American Football, and Basketball combined.

Since football is one of my favorite sports, I’ve really enjoyed World Cup fever here. Up until this point, I only had the opportunity to watch games at home or in a pub. Since this was the birth of the Round of 16, and Korea had a real chance of losing (and thus being eliminated from further games), I wanted to experience the game as it was meant to be: in public.

In Seoul, there were a number of public venues set up for fans to watch the game. This is in and above all the pubs and movie theaters that held special events. I chose the heart of Seoul to watch the game. Seoul Plaza is a massive venue and averages 90,000 people per match.

Yes, 90,000.

Yeouido’s Floating Island is the new “hot spot” to watch the games, and they average over 100,000 people.

Then there’s places like World Cup Stadium and the COEX. The point being, is that supporting your national team (Korea) is important.

Six hours to go...

I arrived around 3pm to Seoul Plaza and it was already half-filled. Television crews were testing out shots and the performers for the night’s concert were running through dress rehearsals. It was going to be a massive event. I tried, in vain, to get a group together to watch the match, but most were put off by the large crowds and the fact that it was to rain. But I was committed. I was going to have a great time no matter what.

While there, I met a couple of University students and we shared some ground cover. While there I ran into a few old friends like Natasha and Melissa. Two boys from Suwon also approached me and became great friends during the night.

At 9pm, we were treated to a 2-hour live music show. I wasn’t familiar with many of the groups, yet I had heard most of the songs on the radio while walking around Seoul. The place was packed and filled with incredible energy… then it started raining. Nothing Mother Nature could do would deter our fun.

Go Time!

When the game finally started, we sat down on the lawn and watched as Korea was defeated 2-1. It was a devastating loss, especially since Korea had so many chances to pull ahead, yet failed to convert. I wasn’t too pleased with the referee in the match either. But that’s Football.

Once the game was over, I saw something amazing. People actually stayed around to help clean up the plaza. That would not happen in the US. But here, thousands of people worked together to form large heaps of rubbish for easy removal by others.

Following the game, I went to a local Wa Bar and waited until the 3:30am US match started. I watch the game there until it was over. Talk about a nail-biter, but as expected Ghana won. I finally made it home on Sunday around 9am. What a great weekend! Check out the video below!

How was yours?

What to drink????

For those of you that don’t really know me, let me say that I grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas (in the United States). I have very fond memories of my 9 years there and still call that State the home of my youth. During the 1970s, my father began running as part of his health care.

It was during these daily four-mile runs that I was first introduced to Gatorade. Back then, it wasn’t available everywhere, but only as a powder you’d mix yourself and store in the household refrigerator. This is what we did and he preferred that beverage to sip after his long runs than anything else. I also became hooked on it and asked to have it at my youth soccer games.

Over the years, Gatorade has changed and unleashed a huge array of flavors aside from the orange and lemon-lime of my youth. It’s also one of the reasons that many Americans are fat, since there’s so much sugar in the drink and people don’t realize that if you drink it as it was not intended, you risk some serious complications.

That being said, I still love it and prefer getting that drink when I get the chance, since the carbs and electrolytes can do me a little good (especially since I don’t eat all that much and try to cut out the salt). However, I’m not much of a fan of Gatorade here in Korea.

I’m not sure what changes they made to the formula were made when they unleashed the produced in Asia, but I can tell you that the lemon-lime flavor that I love so dearly is not what is sold here. In fact, it tastes watered down. In fact, the color of the beverage is anything but electric green. It has a pale green appearance, indicating its weaker flavor.

So what are your drinking options then? Sure you can get the Gatorade (and I have seen Powerade here too), but why not go native?

Beginning in the 1980s, A Japanese company started manufacturing Pocari Sweat. They bill it as an ion supply drink – essentially a beverage deigned to give you back your electrolytes. Since sweat isn’t necessarily a word that resonates with Japanese (and now Koreans), it was easily marketed as the drink you consume when you sweat… (not that you’re drinking sweat).

Pocari Sweat also has a pale color and lemony-lime taste. It isn’t that strong of a flavor and the reason why I think Gatorade toned down their taste. Of the two beverages, I’ve found that I prefer Pocari Sweat over the Korean version of Gatorade. A 245ml can of Sweat runs about W600, while the 240ml Gatorade is W450. This of course is dependant on where you buy things, since I was able to pick up a can of Sweat one day on the street for W500.

Some foreigners really don’t like the taste of Pocari Sweat. I think they visualize that they are actually drinking sweat, rather than just the beverage. As with everything, I think it’s a matter of perspective, since I don’t really like Powerade back in the States.

How to Spend a Rainy Saturday…

FORE!

One of the great things about being a Native (English) Teacher in Korea, is that you have your weekends off to go out and explore. Sometimes that means staying home in the event of a rainy day. That’s what happened today. The rest of the week was fantastic, but for some reason, the heavens opened up this morning and poured tons of little drops on the city of Dongtan.

That’s okay, because I had actually planned on doing something indoors today: Screen Golf (스크린 골프)!

Now what is screen golf? Well the short answer is that it is a golf with a screen. Beginning in the mid 1980s, computer simulators have been used to approximate golf games. In fact, my first love of golf came to be due to the game Mean 18. It was a really cheap golf game, but it gave me and my friend Steve hours of fun.

As the years passed and additional electronics were developed, it became possible to use motion capture equipment with some of the best software to recreate a real golfing experience. In the United States, or for that matter anywhere where golf is easily played, it might seem like some sort of excessive video game. However, in Korea it isn’t.

A real round of golf can run you anywhere between W100,000 – W200,000 or more. That’s right. A simple round of golf can crack open your wallet for over US$200. The reason is that land is precious here. Korea is roughly the size of Indiana, but with 49,000,000 people. So the use of golfing simulators makes playing the game affordable, since a full round of golf is only W15,000.

That’s right, for less that US$15, you can play 18 holes. What’s even more enjoyable is the environment.

Each Screen Golf Room is private with a few couches and AirCon. You can order off the menu or have something delivered as you play your round (and why not – you are going ot be there for a few hours).

So what’s it like?

For the most part you have the real golfing experience. In each room are a set of clubs (or you can rent some). You walk up to the tee-box and whack your ball at the screen. The laser motion capturing devices analyze the swing and ball to determine its path and then computer it with the environmental aspects of the computer program. If you’ve ever played golf on a computer, imagine playing the same game… only having to swing a club each turn.

I thought that was the roughest part, as I am anything but consistent.

Putting was also difficult, since I found it really hard to “read the green.”

But let’s face it… W15,000 for fours of fun is well worth it. I’ll be going back again and again.

Here’s the video of my day at the Screen Golf place.

Now this is funny…

No running here...

Each year, I enjoying spending a large amount of time watching sporting events. I think the time and effort in preparing one’s body for physical competition is admirable. Of of the sports that I think is fairly interesting to watch is Race Walking.

I remember seeing this for the first time in 1984 during the Games in Los Angeles. I was amazed at the speed these competitors achieved… and for how long. For those unfamiliar with the sport, here’s the Wiki:

Racewalking is a long-distance athletic event. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. Stride length is reduced, so to achieve competitive speeds, racewalkers must attain cadence rates comparable to those achieved by Olympic 400-meter runners—and they must do so for hours at a time since the Olympic events are the 20 kilometres race walk and 50 kilometres (31 mi) race walk.

I mean, think about it… keeping up a fast-paced walk (which is faster than most can run) for more than a marathon. That’s some serious endurance training. I always found it interesting when athletes were accused of running or given warnings for doing so. I’ve tried to do it a few times, and the best I was able to achieve was a 9-minute mile.

Just how fast do these participants go??? Take a look at these records:

Men’s 20 km

See also: World record progression 20km walk men

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
1:16:43	Sergey Morozov	Russia	Saransk	June 8, 2008
1:17:16	Vladimir Kanaykin	Russia	Eisenhüttenstadt	September 28, 2007
1:17:21	Jefferson Pérez	Ecuador	Paris	August 23, 2003
1:17:22	Francisco Javier Fernández	Spain	Turku	April 28, 2002
1:17:25	Bernardo Segura	Mexico	Bergen	May 7, 1994
1:17:33	Nathan Deakes	Australia	Cixi City	April 23, 2005
1:18:04	Bu Lingtang	China	Beijing	April 7, 1994
1:18:13	Pavol Blažek	Czechoslovakia	Hildesheim	September 9, 1990
1:18:20	Andrey Perlov	Soviet Union	Moscow	May 26, 1990
1:19:08	Mikhail Shchennikov	Soviet Union	Kiev	July 30, 1988
1:19:12	Axel Noack	East Germany	Karl-Marx-Stadt	June 21, 1987

Men’s 50 km

See also: World record progression 50km walk men

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
3:34:13	Denis Nizhegorodov	Russia	Cheboksary	May 5, 2008
3:35:47	Nathan Deakes	Australia	Geelong	December 2, 2006
3:36:03	Robert Korzeniowski	Poland	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:36:04	Alex Schwazer	Italy	Rosignano Solvay	February 11, 2007
3:36:06	Yu Chaohong	China	Nanjing	October 22, 2005
3:36:13	Zhao Chengliang	China	Nanjing	October 22, 2005
3:36:20	Han Yucheng	China	Nanjing	February 27, 2005
3:36:42	German Skurygin	Russia	Paris	August 27, 2003
3:37:04	Alex Schwazer	Italy	Cheboksary	May 11, 2008
3:37:09	Alex Schwazer	Italy	Beijing	August 22, 2008

Women’s 20 km

See also: World record progression 20km walk women

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
1:24:50	Olimpiada Ivanova	Russia	Adler	March 4, 2001
1:25:18	Tatyana Gudkova	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:20	Olga Polyakova	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:29	Irina Stankina	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:25:59	Tamara Kovalenko	Russia	Moscow	May 19, 2000
1:26:22	Wang Yan	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001
1:26:22	Yelena Nikolayeva	Russia	Cheboksary	May 18, 2003
1:26:23	Wang Liping	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001
1:26:28	Irina Pudovkina	Russia	Adler	March 12, 2005
1:26:31	Olga Kaniskina	Russia	Beijing	August 21, 2008
1:26:35	Liu Hongyu	China	Guangzhou	November 19, 2001

However, I will say this… the sport does look funny. The way that walkers swing their hips to get the right cadence cane make you laugh after a few drinks.

This week on Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me it was the subject of one of the on-air games. In the game, a contestant was asked what would make a race-walker run… watch this video from Japan and find out. It’s great.

Fitness

I am almost beside myself… two fitness stories with a week.

First, I was waiting outside Jo’s office on Thursday, admitting the calm breeze, tranquil water feature, and lovely trees, when I noticed a rather large woman exit an office. Now, I have nothing against fat people, and in fact, think that too much pressure is placed on society to conform to a specific size. However, what caught me off guard was that this woman was exiting a health clinic on the second floor. This lead me to believe she was visiting the clinic for fitness reasons.

Good on her! We, as in Americans, are for the most part a lazy group who fails at each attempt at regular exercise. As she approached the exit of the second floor of the open air complex, she was faced with a dilemma. Stairs or elevator… to go down one flight. She chose the elevator! I chortled to myself. So much for being committed to fitness.

Then yesterday I was able to meet up with some friends to play some flag football. It was a great experience. I haven’t thrown or played football since my undergraduate years. I really wasn’t prepared for it, since I’ve been training a little for some planned hiking. That means long bouts of hitting the treadmill at 15% – no running.

The constant full-out running and killed my legs. I could barely lift them yesterday. Proof that I need to do a balance of running and hiking to get into shape, since we’re planning a rematch in two weeks.

Despite my lack at running skills, I did come up pretty well for the morning: 2 receptions (1 drop), 3 batted balls, 3 sacks (flag pulls), 1 near interception, 1 TD. Our team won 5-3.

I really hope I can make it next time. It was a good deal!

Go Cards!

Can you feel the fire?

Wow! What a weekend!

I’m not a huge fan of football, but I still remember the day when the Cardinals came to Arizona back in 1988. Back then, they weren’t even sure what to call the team. No kidding. There were three names floating around: Phoenix Cardinals, Arizona Cardinals, and something else. They finally settled on Phoenix Cardinals (only to change it a few years later).

In those early days, if you went to a game, you really went to see the opposing team. In fact, when they played Dallas, all you saw in the stands was blue and silver.

With the wins of late, I know many here in Arizona are fair-weather-fans, but I’ll take what I can get. I mean, I’m no huge fan and freely admit the only reason I pay attention is because I have a friend on the team. I can’t wait to see them play in two weeks… but it does pose a slight problem.

I’ll be in Las Vegas that weekend.

So currently the plan is for Jo and I to bolt out of town at 9am to make it home before kickoff.

I can’t wait to see them play in the big game!

Go Cards!