New sights, sounds, etc.

Saturday I went to the Lotte Giants baseball game, our local team. Quite amusing and a nice way to kick back. The stadium was completely full of singing and cheering, sometimes jeering, crowds. When I say cheering, I mean cheering. There were at least 20 songs and chants that were repeated ad nauseum - right up my alley, even though the most I could do was clap along and chime in to the "Lotte" portions of them. My love for sport chants must be a long-lasting side effect of my time as a Pacesetter. One of my favorites is one for fly balls where everyone yells something to the effect of "give it to a kid, give it to a kid!"

One interesting thing to note is that the teams in the Korean baseball league are all based in specific cities, but they are named after large corporations instead of the host city (i.e. Lotte, Kia, LG, Samsung). One girl I was with pointed out how bizarre it was that we were chanting the corporate name over and over. Just imagine chanting "Microsoft, Microsoft" at an American baseball game! The best part, though, was when they passed out plastic grocery bags to the crowd, who then trapped some air in them, tied them shut, and securing the handles around their ears, put them ON TOP OF THEIR HEADS. Wow. And it wasn't just some crazies around me - it was practically anyone who had gotten their hands on a bag. Man I wish I had had a camera for that one. It was actually kind of smart though because when the game was over (we won!) people took them off their heads and filled them with trash, which effectively cleaned up the entire stadium.

Today I did some good old-fashioned exploring. I ended up at a market I'd been semi-curious, semi-dreading to see. This market is notorious for selling dogs for meat. I can walk through markets with pig carcasses (and heads and hooves) without getting too grossed-out because I know in the back of my mind that I don't eat that stuff. Of course I don't eat dog, but I knew it would be a little different to see those lil guys chopped up. And it was. The dogs looked just like any dog you'd pick for a pet. Yet there they were in cages right next to slabs of dog meat. It was quite sad. On a lighter note, I have yet to meet a Korean that has tried dog.

Exploring a little more, I found a SE Asia/Middle Eastern food mart. I bought some basmati rice and curries and some vegetarian Indian goods. It will be nice to have a little change of pace in my kitchen. I also picked up a card at the counter advertising Turkish Halal food. Upon doing subsequent internet research on the place, I discovered that there is a Busan Muslim Federation next door. Who knew there were enough Muslims in Busan to form a group? That means one really important thing...the food is gonna be good.