Baseball Top Ten: How Busan Does America's Game

Our first adventure to Sajik Stadium was just that, an adventure. The songs, the food, the cheers, and the pageantry were all on display. Here's my top ten list of things that make Korean professional baseball (Busan Lotte Giants specifically) great.

                                                                         10. My students' Dads play for

the team - No joke here at all. Two of my students have dads that play for the Giants. I don't think it's right to say who they are, but one of them starts in the field and the other is a relief pitcher. It's really cool to hear about. Every once in a while they'll come in to class super excited and tell me, "My father struck out two batters!" or "My father hit a home run!" It's pretty freakin' awesome, to tell the truth.

                                                                        9. Foul balls go to kids under 8. This is a strict rule. Any time a foul ball goes into the stand, everyone chants at whomever caught the ball to give it to a child, specifically one under eight years old. A student of mine, Harry, once told me how he got a foul ball at the game. Harry is 11, and he was too old for the crowd. He said he wanted to keep it, but was forced by the crowd to give it to a younger spectator a row ahead of him.

                                                                                                                             8. Scantily clad bat-girls - Back in America, the role of bat boy is usually filled by a player's son. Here, bat girls add to the entertainment of the entire evening,  at least for the first viewing of a Korean baseball game.

                                                                                                                             7. There are many a song to be sung -

The lyrics are in

Korean and made to fit the players' names. There's a bunch of classic, standard songs made into cheers: Champs-Elysee (classic French), Glory Glory Hallelujah (classic religious), Rivers of Babylon (classic rasta), If You're Happy and You Know

It (classic kindergarten), Cum on Feel the Noise (classic crappy-glam-metal), What's Up (classic 90's 4 Non-Blondes), all culminating in The Maple Leaf Rag (classic Joplin). Plus there are songs for when common things happen on the field, for example, an out at first base:  "Oh-Noo-Nai" which translates to "Someday."

                                                                                                                           
6. Mini Cooper bullpen cars. In the 80s and early 90s, bullpen cars were used to usher relief pitchers to the mound in the MLB. Being the Brew Crew fan that I am, I remember seeing Jose Orosco being driven up to the mound in the sidecar of a Harley. Here in Busan, the local BMW dealership sponsors the bullpen car, a Mini Cooper convertible. It's pretty awesome to see. I'm a big fan of bullpen cars in any form. Especially if it's a car for high school girls and men going through midlife crises.

                                                                                                                  5. Convenience stores in the stadium with my choice of beer. Do you hate paying $7 for a Miller Lite at a MLB stadium? I do as well. Screw mass

produced American beer in general, but it gets even worse when you have no choice and have to pay way too much for it. Enter the concourse area in Sajik stadium and enjoy the pleasure of in-stadium-convenience-stores. Beer fridges stocked are high. The prices are slightly elevated from the store downstairs from our apartment, but it's still less than 7,000 won for 64 oz bottle to share with friends. And yeah, it's still crappy Korean lager, but I'd rather drink a Max than a Busch Light any day, night, week, or weekend of the year.

                                                                                                                              4. Dance battle in the crowd = much more fun than Kiss-Cam. Yes, this is just what it sounds like. There is still a Kiss-Cam, but it is not the only jumbo-tron attraction in this town. Dance battles, yes, dance battles.

                                                          3. Lively spectators. I love a baseball game. Most any baseball game. Sometimes a crowd just isn't into it. Not so with the home crowd at the Giants' games. The crowd is pure electric. I've told you about the cheers, the songs, and the availability of copious amounts of beer. What elevates all of that is the dedication of the fans. They are in it until the end of every game. It's a party in the crowd and everyone is invited. Our seats were loud, super loud. It was like being back at a metal show in America, almost. It's not like metal shows have cheer leaders with a costume change per inning, but you get the point. The stands shook when the dancing girls started up. On top of that, the fans bring their party supplies to the game. Home made pompons from that day's sports sections are one of my favorites. Also the inflatable fingers, not foam, make a game day easily packable, yet fun to be at. The best comes around the 7th inning. Bright orange, plastic garbage bags are handed out to all the game's attendees. These bags are meant for stadium goers to bag their own garbage out after the 27th out, but for the 7th and 8th innings, they become Pacific-Rim-Ralley-Caps. Flopping, bubble style for the boys, Minnie Mouse style bows for the girls.

                                                                                                                                2. Fried Chicken. Growing up a Brewers fan, I know that stadium food means popcorn, peanuts, and sausages. Encased meats of all kinds grace Miller Park back in Milwaukee, but in our adopted hometown, fried chicken is king. Fried chicken in the stands is awesome. Get it inside or outside the stadium. It almost always comes with a couple of sauces and sometimes chopsticks. The chopsticks are nice, but isn't stadium food meant to be eaten with your hands. Oh yeah, get yourself a chicken glove, basically a Subway sandwich artist plastic glove, but it keeps the fingers clean and keeps the chopsticks in the box.

                                                                                                                            1. The price. Lets get real. I love the Brewers, but it can cost ton to visit the old ball park. $50 can get you to the lower level on the first base side for a game back in Milwaukee. In Sajik, we had premium seats for a grand total of 10,000 won a ticket. Lower level, right above an in-stadium 7-11.        
                                                                                                     

Lotte Giants Game from Shane Ebel on Vimeo.

Busan baseball, how I love thee, let me count the ways. Oh wait, I just did.

The Amazing Race Daegu

Nothing says adventure like an Amazing Race scavenger hunt, so when opportunity knocked on our door in the form of Dianna and Bryan inviting us along, we went with it. Our team of four, Team Amuricah (said with a slow drawl), took on the city of Daegu, the third largest city in Korea, just a bit northwest of Busan. 

Seventeen teams competed, mostly all foreigners with a few native Koreans here and there. About six of us teams had never set foot in Daegu before-- including us. That would prove to be less of a disadvantage than you think it would. 

We were given instructions, rules, and the final checkpoint, should the missions be just too impossible for us. 

Starting Task: Hit the shuttlecock thing hackie sack style five times in a row. The boys ruled it. 

When finished, we were handed our envelope with super secret missions inside. At each location, we had to take a video/pic of the entire team to prove we did all the tasks.  

Mission One: "Holy-Roller Mission: This has been a place in Daegu since 1886". 

Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a far off country, looking for a specific landmark that you don't know the name of or what it looks like, but I will tell you, it's not actually as hard as it seems. Some help of our guidebooks, the tourist information stand conveniently located at the starting point, and our dazzling street smarts got us to just the right place. After stopping at the wrong cathedral first. 

Mission Two: "Park Ji-Sung Mission: On June 6th, 2002 the Red Devil's faced-off against Uncle Sam's Army at this location." Park Ji-Sung is the most famous soccer player in Korea, students rave about him. The goal was the World Cup stadium. It's there in the background.

Mission Three: "Ajima Mecca Mission: This is the largest market in Daegu." Background info: Ajimas are any woman in Korea who is married. Older Ajimas have a very... particularly strong... personality. They are widely known for the following: huge visors that hide their entire face; polyester clothing in bright, floral, and strange prints; being either generally pretty cranky or rarely very nice; short, tight perms; and a complete willingness to give you the stare down or even push or (I have heard cases) hit you. We headed off to Seomun Market, a huge traditional market selling food, clothing, fabric, spices, and all sorts of other treasures. 

Mission Four: "Food Mission: Find and eat either soondae or dong jeep. Racist clause: You can not have a Korean member of your team eat this food." We're still not clear what dong jeep is, but soondae is pig intestine blood sausage filled with noodles and spices. Thankfully, the boys covered this one too. Notice the vendor's face. 

Soondae in Daegu
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Mission Five: Dancing Mission: Record a choreographed dance at one of the following locations: Dongdaegu station, downtown stage by the McDonald's, or a crowded subway car." We took the subway car, and also took the easy way out by using an old standby instead of making our own. Got the ajima stare down for it. 

Mission Six: "Viking Mission: Go to Soosung Lake and ride the most unsafe amusement park ride you can find. Take a video."  This was just plain awful. Super scary. Like I cried scary. Don't make fun of me too much. 

Viking Quest
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Mission Seven: "Speed Game: Your team will receive a sealed letter at the beginning of the race. You must find a random Korean person to read this to you. The letter has a secret word written on it. The Korean person will give you clues and you must guess what they are talking about." This was actually probably the most challenging task. We used our well honed street smarts, and found a random Korean with a western boyfriend. This is a big clue the gal knew English, so even though she pantomimed the words, she was able to confirm when we got the word right.

Mission Eight: "If you live in Daegu you might have been to this park at least once or did a sky jump close by. Find an attractive ajima wearing a visor and get a picture with her." Impossible. we had to hatch a trap, wherein we posed and waited for an ajima to walk by us, and snapped a picture while she was trying to figure out what was going on. 

Mission Nine: "Find Daegu's premier skater boi doing tricks at his hang out downtown." We had no idea about this one, but a phone-a-friend bailed us out. 

                                       

Mission Ten: "Do your best Abbey Road recreation. Be careful." Another scary mission. South Korea has a really high traffic fatality rate. 

In the end, we came in ninth, not bad for strangers to the city. While we were waiting for other teams to come in, we grabbed a juicy, delicious burger and beer at Gorilla Burger. Super amazing tasting. Best onion rings I've ever had. 

After a long day, it was time for the awards ceremony and drinks at Who's Bob Bar. Great drinks, great people, great fun at Amazing Race Daegu!

High Entertainment, Low Cost- Korean Pro Basketball

Ten teams make up the Korean Basketball League (KBL). Even the names are entertaining:

Wonju Dongbu Promy

Ulsan Mobis Phoebus

Seoul Samsung Thunders

Seoul SK Knights

Changwon LG Sakers

Daegu Orions

Incheon ET-Land Elephants

Jeonju KCC Egis

Anyang Korea Ginseng Corporation KGC

and our hometeam:

Busan KT Sonicboom

The two American players on Sonicboom make it feel even more like they’re our home team. See if you can spot them:

This early on in the season, the stadium wasn’t too full. This little boy had a great time, despite the one point loss. His favorite cheer was “K. T. Son- Ic- Boom. OLE!” Make sure to throw your hands up in the air on “Ole.”

The game itself was a tight one. According the Shane, the level of play isn’t quite world class. For perspective, there has only ever been one Korean to play in the NBA, and he is 7 foot, 3 inches tall. Nevertheless, their skills are developing. NBA Hall of Fame coach and player Lenny Wilkins is a big supporter of basketball in Korea. 

Also notable entertainment at Sonicboom games are the mascots:

The gray one seems to be some sort of wireless internet signal. KT is a cell phone company. The bird, therefore, must be what a Sonicboom looks like. 

At halftime, the staff brought a very embarrassed looking young woman to the middle of the floor, gave her flowers, and started showing a slideshow of her and her boyfriend, who a few moments later popped out of the costume and proposed to her. We think she said yes. 

Finally, we have the dance team, swinging their hair, scintillating the crowd:

We only paid for the cheap seats, at 8,000 won each (about $7.00). Those luxury courtside recliners run about 29,000 won per game. 

Finally, what’s a game without some snacks? Stadiums here don’t feature overpriced food. You have the option to bring your own in, or just hop over to the convenience store inside the stadium for a cheap can of beer or bag of chips. 

Korean basketball is a game of unspectaculars. But the three point shots and the de-fence cheers are the same. It feels sort of like home, even if there are no nachos. 

Drinkin' German, Rockin' Bulgarian, Livin' Korean

Onstage a Bulgarian band rocks out a mix of American, Korean, and Eastern European jams. Friends tell me they play here 364 nights a year. I can't read the group’s name, but I’m already a big fan.

A chilly November Saturday night, and Shane and I are at the HurShimChung Brauhaus, underneath the elegant Hotel Nong Shim. We join friends at a table at the far end of the ginormous beer hall. Most of the group are cast members from the Busan Night Live show a few weeks back. They've already ordered a growler and German-esque sausage plate. A couple hundred rowdy Koreans populate the rest of the room. It’s nice to see this side of the Korean personality, so far removed from the stoic faces on the subway. 

We sit and we drink. The beer is strong and refreshing. Servers dressed in dirndls and lederhosen hurry by. We order Pilsner and Hefewiezen and another sausage and sauerkraut plate. We talk politics, we talk comedy, we talk books, and we laugh loudly and often. 

As the night wears on, the beer starts working, and we start singing. We sing "It's a Beautiful Life," many renditions of the Korean birthday song, and, begrudgingly, "YMCA". I even recognize a poppy version of "Arirang," an old Korean folk song my kindergarten kiddos love to sing. Fathers dance with daughters, women dance with sisters. After we've spent enough money, we stumble our separate ways just in time to catch the last train home. Bauhaus HurShimChung is an out of country experience in our own little city. 

Hanguk Halloween: The Party Part

Fresh leaves cut from bushes. Check. Ray gun. Check. Two or three pre-party soju cocktails. Done.

Around 10:30 p.m. on October 30th, a beer fairy, Baccus, Leela, and a love triangle jumped in cabs and headed for Kyungsung University. We didn’t know how many people would be reveling, but this is Busan, and there’s a great expat presence here. 

And here's the rest of the story:

At Old '55, I hung with the fabulous Lady Gaga.              

  

While Shane chatted up Audrey Hepburn.

Back on street level, I ran into my animated friend Marge.

Kyungsung’s streets were packed.

So these guys made a ton of money peddlin’ drinks on the street.

We bought a few. Several times. 

Then Shane met this guy...from guess where...Watertown (next to Jefferson, Shane’s hometown). We made a bunch of new friends that night.

And these guys were there too.

... later, there may have been kebabs.

Saturday Night Lights: The Fireworks Festival

When you're an expat, you deliberately surrender the traditions that make home, home. But if you're lucky, you'll have experiences that remind you that although you're a stranger in a strange land, things aren't so different after all.

In late October the Gwangalli beachfront hosted the 7th annual Busan International Fireworks Festival. Like the Fourth of July, but on steroids, and in October.

Thursday night’s warm-up act featured many-a-Korean-superstar musical acts like BoA, Super Junior, and SHINee. Friday showcased short fireworks shows representing China, Italy, and Portugal. Shane and I opted out, saving ourselves for the headliner Saturday night.

Weeks before, we were advised by those in the know to get to Gwangalli hours early to get a spot. Organizers expected 1.5 million spectators crammed on rooftops, in streets, and on the 1.4 kilometer-long stretch of sand-- standing room only if you got there anytime after 6:00.

Our cohort arrived around 3:30. Camping out with other expats, we drank pitchers, ate pizza and street food, and chatted with new friends, comparing notes on our Busan experiences. As the show approached, we found ourselves gridlocked on the beach, defending our blanket territory amidst a sea of Koreans. A simple trip to the bathroom, a mere 50 feet away, turned into a 45 minute debacle including stepping over bodies, finding an officer to stamp your hand as proof that you in fact had a prized spot on the sand, wrestling your way though the crowd, and waiting in line for 20 minutes. Then you had to make it back.

When the sky darkened enough, the Diamond Bridge lit up, outlined by colored lights and spotlights. We were entertained by enthusiastic dancers, giant beach balls, and Korean music blaring over the loudspeakers. As soon as the first of the 100,000 fireworks was shot off, the crowd cheered and then fell into a trance.

It was magnificent. The fireworks lasted an hour, and were timed perfectly to a multimedia presentation that took us around the world. Giant screens perched atop barges played videos of the chosen countries, while music representing those nations played on the loudspeakers. So what songs represented the U.S, you ask? “Under the Sea,” “New York, New York,” and the “Sex and the City” movie theme song. Of course.

After this show I'll probably be spoiled for life. No fireworks show will live up to the BIFF's variety, beauty, and brightness. Except maybe the next time I see Fourth of July fireworks back home.

If you watch the video, watch all the way through- the finale is the best.

Busan Fireworks Festival Uploaded by shane11111. - Discover new destinations and travel videos.

Birthday Bulgogi

I turned 27 this September. My birthday fell during Chuseok, one of the country’s most important holidays. Chuseok-- Korean Thanksgiving-- celebrates the fall harvest. Traditional ceremonies honor ancestors and elders. Many families hold rituals in their homes and at cemeteries. Chuseok is always held on the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month, so this year, September 22.

Because of Chuseok, we got the day off from work. Actually four days. Other foreign teachers long had vacations planned, so Shane and I flied solo. Though quiet, my birthday was memorable. We hiked in the morning (see Hiking Seunghaksan: Attempt One) and after some restorative Veronica Mars episodes that afternoon, ventured for dinner.

We wanted to try bulgogi, one of Korea’s most widely-known dishes. According to our Moon Handbook, until about 30 years ago, eating meat wasn’t even that common, but post-war prosperity increased carnivorousness. As we soon found out, Korean barbecue rocks so hard you’d think they’ve been doing this forever.

Searching for the cheapest option, we settled on a corner place filled with locals. Please know Shane wasn’t being a cheap-ass on my birthday. Each bulgogi restaurant is more or less like the next, with variation of side dishes, and you can pay twice as much for the same foods. We pointed to the menu for two servings of beef but successfully verbalized beer order (maekju- the only word we really know so far besides hello, thank you, and car, despite our students’ best efforts to teach us).

The waitress/cook/ dishwasher ran, yes,ran, to our table with a long-handled pail full of red hot coals, which she promptly dumped under our table top grill.Before we knew it, side dishes covered our table. The side dishes (banchan) included marinated cucumbers, super spicy rawpeppers, oil with salt in it for dipping, garlic, kimchi, red chili pepper paste (super awesome), dried anchovies, noodles, and a salad of onions, bean sprouts, red pepper paste, and sesame leaves.

When the heap of rolled up beef slices arrived, we threw some on the grill. In minutes, we were eating. It was like eating bacon-- beef bacon-- for dinner.What a difference a couple months makes for us former vegetarians.

And what’s a birthday without cocktails? Don’t worry, we got some after at Fuzzy Navel bar. Shane got a brandy sidecar, which he needed to end his brandy drought. I got a maitai, probably one of the best cocktails I’ve ever had, tangy and only slightly sweet. Birthday success.