Samsung Lions (Daegu) vs. Lotte Giants (Busan)

The Samsung Lions are the baseball team in Daegu, and they are currently the 1st place team in the league. They are also the defending champions because they won the South Korea World Series last year. Yesterday after school, we rushed over to the stadium to catch a game. Tickets were only 7,000 won each (like $7). Most of the seats are general admissions, so you can sit wherever you want. I think it would be harder to get seats if we had gone on a weekend, but since we went on Friday I wasn't too concerned.

We had a little bit of trouble getting to the stadium because it's a bit of a walk to the subway station. We kept trying to ask people, and I think the people didn't speak English enough to tell us, so they didn't want to try. We decided just to try a taxi, and I said Samsung Lion and baseball to him. I showed him a picture of the team and the website (in Korean mind you!), and the driver kept saying no. I have no idea if he meant "no, I don't know where that is" or "no, I don't want to drive you there." Sometimes taxi drivers in Korea will refuse you a ride, especially if it is far away because they won't get cab fare back, but it is, technically, illegal. Even so, the stadium wasn't even that far away! How can you not know where the baseball stadium is. So annoying! Anyway, some teenager walking near us heard that we were having problems and told us to follow him. He pointed us in the right direction and got us to the stadium. Thanks kid! Whoever you were.

We met us with a group of our friends from orientation (Maria, Matthew, Kat, Maria, Jake, Stefanie, Josh) and got our tickets. At Daegu stadium, you are allowed to bring outside food into the stadium. They sell all kinds of friend chicken outside, so we all loaded up with chicken and beer. I guess chicken is the snack of choice at baseball games in South Korea, or at least in Daegu. Some people brought TONS of food though. I saw people with full pizzas and boxes of beers. That's definitely the way to go next time. We started out sitting down by right field, which, we soon realized, was the territory of more of the Giants fans. We could see that there were Samsung fans cheering and doing chants across the field. Maria and Jake went to scope it out first, and I came later because I wanted to take pictures of the mayhem. Finally, we got everyone over there. For a while we were sitting in some empty ticketed seats, but them someone came over to claim them. Apparently, it's ok to be fashionably late to a baseball game. Oh well! Matthew, Maria, Gianni, and I found other seats right at field level. It was a great view. Besides chicken and beer, I got a few other snacks from one of the vendors inside. I got the milkshake in an IV bag that I had at orientation, some Bugles corn chips (they weren't bugles I don't think, but they were the exact same thing), and some chocolate-filled, small, square, biscuit things. The snacks were really delicious, as was the chicken.

Sitting near the Lions fans was awesome! During the entire game, they had amazing chants happening throughout the game. They also had mascots and cheerleaders on a stage in the stands dancing and getting everyone excited. The best part was the MC of the baseball game. There was a man dressed in a Lions uniform who was leading chants, giving away prizes, and being generally awesome. It really kept everyone going. At one point, we did the best wave I have ever seen. It went all the way around the stadium like 4 times, and there was a slow motion and a super fast motion wave! So much fun! The man sitting behind us with his wife and two sons was kind enough to answer my questions when I wanted to learn more about the chants. I didn't learn many, but one of them said the players name and then "get a hit, please." Hit is "aunta" in Korean. Baseball fans in Korea really know how to enjoy watching a game. We had a great time, and we would definitely go back again! Also, Samsung played really well. They won 10 to 5 in the end, I believe.