Green Fields

I was in Seosan when the South Korea - Greece game was on. I was there visiting a friend from back home, Joe, along with a new bunch of friends I have made through him since I arrived. Saturday, the match day, was again initially fogged over by the Soju hangover from the night before. Already I feel like this drink could be a new habit that will only do bad things to me for a long time, after a brief spell of hilarious intoxication. It wasn't long till the buzz of the game ignited the senses to a new purpose. During the day we saw workers erecting the huge canvas, where the game would be projected, in the main square outside the cultural and health centre, where on a banner across the grey block of building the words "Healthy and Fitness Happy Seosan" was sprawled. It seemed to sum up the mood at the time.

We returned to the square at the appointed time. People in red shirts everywhere, weaved through the small streets, gathering strength in larger thoroughfares, building in mass on the main road leading to the square. Tributaries, bled red with the passion for football that flowed free towards the main reserve, collecting in a mass container frought with a desire for victory, chopping and swirling about, anxious for the excitement, that would release itself with the kick-off whistle. The noise was relentless, with cheers of "Daehamingu" (Korea) and the ceaseless banging of inflatable tubes. Red horns flickered in the dark, spots of firey contact for the eyes already strained by the barage of movement. When the first goal came, the noise was immense. The scream of victory was heard in every voice, including mine, and felt in every stomach. Fireworks kicked up, with greater flashes of red brilliance piercing the clear black night. My eyes were tranfixed upon the game, the first proper taste of the world cup I have had, the sweet drug that medicates the world with euphoria once every four years. Even the people that don't usually enjoy football were swept up with the communal joy that the games invoke.

The second goal sealed the expectation that every fan shared with more noise and lights.

Coming into Season gave me the chance to see a bit of the countryside, and even though it consisted of countless rice fields, it afforded me that glimpse of an agricultural culture foreign to me. The roads cut grand paths through stunning scenery consisting of forest mountains in the distance. Off the main roads were the fields, that took the form of steps, rising higher for irrigation purposes, aided my the rivulets and aquaducts, manmade, yet still possessing an enchanting magic of layered intrigue, green and folded with quilt like delicacy. God's steps almost, rising towards a mysterious terrain, dotted with majestic pylons holding high hung wires of pulsating communication, nestled within a blur of fiercer shades of green. Ragged lines of soft foliage revealed forests, rising higher with the greater altitude, hinting at mountainous territory that teased you with adventure. Theres nothing more inspiring than the thrust of concrete creation, forced to live with the wild nature of where you are travelling through. For the novice explorer the chance to observe the country from the confines of modern, polluting vehicles, allows a guilty pleasure, unknown to those that secretly wish for an untouched earth. I on the other hand appreciate this messy juxtaposition of man and nature. Coupled with the lulling motion of the coach, whispering to you of long lost days of sleepy school trips, an injection of comforting nostalgia made me happily displaced in this new land, where imaginations of foreign fields could realise the potential that you never thought could be matched.

World Cup fever was not dampened by the loss to Argentina, an outcome that was not received with too much shock. Hope is held in store for the later game with Nigeria, a match that will test the collective national desire to the point where breath can only be exhaled after those ninety minutes. Personally I think Korea can beat them.

I am thankful for the World Cup also for its ability to make a lonely Seoulite, with not much to do on some week nights, confident enough to enter any bar on their own just to watch the football. That's what people want to do, and that's what they should get. One doesn't feel lonely any more sitting at the bar watching the games, for through that fancy Samsung screen, where within are those perspiring players passing on a perfectly green field, the ball, the crowds, the loud commentary, you are connected with every other person watching the game, safe in the thought that your loved ones back at home, the people you've met, and the people you havent met, are all doing the same thing, banishing all notion of solitude as your imagination provides all the companionship you could want.