Finally, My Very Own Blog: Oh well, it was fun while it lasted...

Check out this photo! That's where I was this morning!

Is it possible for the collective will of a group of people to change the outcome of an event? If enough fans want victory badly enough, can they actually WILL a team to win? I sometimes wonder if that's possible, but tonight would be evidence that it is not. Because I have a hard time imagining that the will of the Swiss could have possibly been any stronger than what I saw from Korea this morning.

I have never seen such an amazing display of unity in support of a sports team on such a large scale. Koreans are rabid about their soccer team. I mean, just look at the damn picture at the top! That was taken during the game that I just came home from, which started around 4 in the morning. 4 in the morning! And there are hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets of Seoul, cheering non-stop for their team to win. Let me tell you, the Koreans wanted their team to win more than I have ever seem a group of people want anything. They had the gear to prove it too ... you should have seen the merchandise - devil horns, flags, noise makers, blankets, blow up sticks, hats, you name it, it was for sale. If gear alone could win a game, Korea would be a sure thing. But as it slowly got light this morning, it became clear that no amount of kitchy paraphenalia or victory songs could win a soccer game.

And the Swiss beat 'em. Everyone is blaming the loss on a bad ref call, of course. Supposedly the second goal should not have happened because they guy was offsides. I'm no soccer expert, but I think in the end, the Swiss just played a better game.

So Korea is out. There is a somberness hanging over the country right now, partially because of the loss and partially because a large percentage of the population stayed up partying all night to watch the game. I imagine productivity will be down quite a bit today.

And yes, I watched the game, right in the midst of all the chaos downtown, along with thousands of other red clad fans. In fact, I can pick out the spot that we were standing in that photo at the top. I've been wanting to be a part of that ever since I heard about the massive jumbotron-watching street parties from the 2002 World Cup. I'm glad I got my chance before it was too late, but I'm bummed that it had to be for a losing game, and on a night that I was so tired.

It's 8:30 am right now, and I just got home, so I'm damn exhausted. Although I cheated a bit and took a short nap after work before heading downtown around 2 am. The original plan was to go straight there after work to get a decent spot, but I was so tired when my last class finished that my whole body actually ached. 11 hour teaching days will do that to you!

Here's a few of my photos from the game. We watched at Gwanhamun, which is near downtown. One estimate I read said that there were about 350, 000 people out in that area, with a total of 1.5 million on the streets of the wider downtown area. Holy shit. Yeah, that's a lot of people.

The amazing part is that the biggest problem reported was too much trash left behind. Can you believe that? Unless they are protesting something, Korean's are so damn well behaved. I even saw guys ashing their cigarettes into empty bottles instead of on the street because they didn't want to ash in a spot where people might be sitting later.

At one point Sun asked me if anything this sort could ever happen in the US. NO WAY. For one thing, there really isn't anything that unites that many Americans anymore, at least not to get them out into the streets at 4 am. Secondly, the authorities would never allow that many people to gather publicly. And if they did, can you imagine the problems that would probably ensue? No way, this could never happen in the US.