a pretty good 36 hours

SO I proved I can still stay up all night. I wasn't sure I still had it in me.
It all started Friday night. I knew the Korea game wasn't til 4am and I knew I wanted to see it. I had a couple of choices. Eat dinner in Bongguk, go home and go to sleep, wake up and meet friends for the 4am game.
OR what actually happened. Have a drink with Christa, slowly b/c I assumed this would be the path I would take, then go eat gimbop. Back to Greg and Bryan's for a couple more slow drinks and to decide where we would watch the game. Christa and I were leaning towards downtown but the rest of the crew wanted the stadium. Since I hadn't seen a game at the stadium and since I did'nt know when I would have another chance to watch Korea in the world cup at a stadium in Korea...we went there. Walking in all you could see was a sea of red. Red horns, red shirts, red balloon bangy things. And lots of chanting and drumming. We were hemhawing over where to sit when I saw Greg being pulled up onto the balcony by 2 Korean men in flags. Beard was next so Alice and I decided to find some stairs up. Easy enough. Christa, Rory, Bryan and Tina came up a bit later. There was much drinking--me still at a medium pace--and cheering with the drummers who eventually made their way up.
We sat on the railing for a bit but sat down eventually. We were staring directly at the huge screen. One dude who drank too much kept leaning on Christa. Bryan came over to tell us that Rory had given him a shot of "the creature" and then decided to nickname him '20 minutes'. After seeing the condition he was in while leaning on Christa the name was changed to '5 minutes'.
The Bongguk crew left a little after Switzerland scored the second goal. Beard and I stuck it out til the end. Then it was time for the walk home. Beard was kind of pushing for a taxi but it was going to be difficult finding one and it was a beautfiul morning. We walked threw some back streets and then up a little hill that led us to some fields and paddys. Got to see some ajummas picking/tending their crops--and got plenty of stares from them too. How often do you see 2 waegooks in your garden at 6am? I would have stared, too. I even got to stand in a Korean corn field--if 6 stalks is considered a corn field.
We made it home and Beard put up the net and crashed. I drank my coffee in a can, made and ate an egg sandwich, took a shower, talked to Joan(Beard's mom, not here Joan) on the im. Around 840 I sent a text to Joan to make sure she was still leaving at 915. If she had decided to go later I was definitely going to bed. I was drinking mt. dew at this point and seeing Beard sleeping peacefully in the bed made me want to join him. She replied and I left the house with my backpack. I wasn't entirely sure what I had in it but it was a lot.
Met her, Rob, and Will at ss mart and were OFF. Got to the stdium and there were only 3 or 4 of our team members there. Not looking good. By the time the game started we had just enough for a game. Slowly the others arrived. They had stayed up to watch the game, too but had opted to sleep--suckers.
This was the tournament, there was a trophey at stake--and a bbq. There were other waegook teams from Seoul and one from perhaps Nigeria. I don't know. Joan had persuaded me to start drinking again--and was pushing beer but I resisted that much--so I don't know if Nigeria is correct. By the last game we were all hammered. Well, most of us anyway. There was a lot of cheering and general mayhem.(Shab, "so it's M-A-M-A?") We lost but we tried hard and drank harder.
After the games we stood/sat around talking. When it started to get dusky I hopped on the bike with Beard (he hadn't drank at all. He doesn't fancy the soju and with the no beer drinking he's not imbibing much these days) (AHH THESE DAYS I HATE THAT TERM) and Rob, Joan, and Christa in a taxi, Will on his bike and we headed for takgalbi--spicy chicken. YUM.
Came home after Will said we could all take short naps and he would call at 11 and we would meet at psycho. Got a text from him at 10something this morning, shortly after we had woken up saying he just woke up and is it too late to go to psycho. Christa made it though--GOOD JOB!!
And now--it's almost noon. I'm going to hop in the shower, eat some lunch, and go to Daegu with Christa and maybe Beard to get a travelbook. I can't wait to start planning our vacation.