South Korea’s first match in the World Cup, in Samsung Station [2014.06.17~18]
If you want to know about the AWESOME experience I had tonight, read all this!! [spoilers: PSY, other k-pop idols, World Cup, interviews with Korean tv, the most amazing experience I ever had with Koreans]
After finding out PSY would be doing a concert for the World Cup in Samsung Station, I was SUPER excited to go and check it out! I don’t like to generalize, but hey, I’m Spanish, and I do love watching football most of the time. I know the South Korean team is not bad, but they ain’t greeeeeeat either [my heart is trying to scream “SPAIN WILL WIN THE WORLD CUP.” But after the smashing 1-5 agains Netherlands, I will try to make my heart shut up.] Then, it was obviously a win-win situation for me!
At 11:30pm, me and my friends, took a subway from Hongdae station to Samsung station. We struggled finding the place where we were supposed to go, since they started building the screens and everything around 11pm, nothing was ready yet, and we had to wait in a very-well organized line in the street. There were staff EVERYWHERE pointing you where to sit and how to sit, literally.
The only “requirement” for the event was to wear something red, so I was wearing maroonred from head to toes. I thought people would be a little crazy and wear something like I did, but it turns out most people didn’t. I don’t know if that’s the reason why they did it, but after a while, the staff started giving free t-shirts to the people waiting in the line.
We waited for 4 hours in the line, sitting in a blanket with my friends and playing drinking games. We drank soju, water and tea, and we ate the cheapest snacks we could find in the convenient store. Some Korean guys joined us as well, because they were surprised to see foreigners supporting Korea! After a while, the reporters started appearing, and me and one of my friends got an interview about the game [I’ll be in KBS News on Friday, apparently].
After 4 long hours, we got to go inside. We went slowly, and my friends and I got a place next to the main screen, where all the stars would perform. People was trying to get there, since it was right in front of the press and all their cameras. But luckily, one of the camera girls who interviewed us, helped us to get the spot (KBS camera-girl, If you ever read this, I love you). All the press went crazy when they saw a bunch of foreigners right in front of them, so we all felt pressure to cheer non-stop!
It was a big surprise when they came up! Let me tell you about this. We did know PSY was going to be there for sure, but nobody knew when was ge coming or what was he doing. So imagine everyone’s excitement when Wonder Boys, Ladie’s Code, 4Minute, G.Na, a famous ballad singer (didn’t got his name), Park Hyun Bin and Girl’s Day appeared before PSY. It was such a great night, with great music and great people! Everyone cheered, danced and sang at the same time. But all good things come to an end (luckily, because 3 hours cheering and screaming non-stop, without any sleep, was getting the best of me).
Before he match started, an English tv program approached us and interviewed me and a friend about PSY’s performance. They wanted to explain my feelings, and I was like “HE JUST SANG GENTLEMAN AND GANGNAM STYLE. I CANNOT CONTAIN MY FEELINGS.” But I guess I didn’t look like a crazy fan (I must say, I’m a big fan of G.na and when she came out all the cameras recorded my reaction because I got more excited than the fanboys. I am not even sorry.)
So the game began, and some camera-guys focused their cameras on my and my friends to catch out reactions. Usually I get angry while watching matches, but I had to control myself because of the cameras (I hope I didn’t look too bad in their recordings).
When Korea score the first goal, it was amazing. We all standed up in a second, screaming and jumping. There were fireworks, songs, and someone was throwing beer everywhere (I don’t know if it’s a Catalan thing, but we usually throw champagne when we watch football and we win. Not beer?). But right after that, Russia score their goal, and everything got quiet. Even after that, no one was diappointed. We all cheered more fiercely, and Koreans sang “Arirang” (which is a traditional folk song). It was pretty moving!
After all, South Korea played WAAAAAY better than I expected. My favorite player was there, and he did his best. And the defense was pretty alright. I enjoyed every second of it, and I must say they deserved to win. But hey, the result ain’t that bad either! Everyone was expecting them to loose.
While we were leaving to the subway, one of my friends got another interview. And some companies asked us to take some pictures with their products. There was some Korean guys that asked us, the girls, to take pictures with them (I felt flattered, but some of them were a bit creepy lol).
I must say, I was dead by then. I went back to my room, and I slept a couple hours. But everything was worth it. This has been one of my favorite days in Korea so far.