The High Kick and the Great Leap

Saturday Sept 30.

I went to my first soccer game ever. We went to Munhak Stadium where the 2002 FIFA World Cup was held.
It was such an interesting experience. Despite not even playing the sport let alone understand the rules completely my competitive side took over and I was screaming my hearts out.

We were able to get half-priced tickets bc someone brought their korean friend who managed to get a membership right then and there. The game itself was cheap 10,000won regular price but 5,000 won since we got membership. Some of the teachers bought school gear and got season tickets with it.

The team we were cheering for was Incheon United. The opposing team was Pohang Steelers. It's a University league but yet the crowd was so organized in terms of cheers and chants. We learned as much as we could but mostly kept up with the clapping. It was such a blast just cheering. I never thought I could be a spectator but I find that if there is a huge organized rally and u throw urself into it then spectating can be incredibly fun.

I think that's the problem with Baseball, there isn't enough organized cheering to make it a fun spectator sport.

In any case during half time, a group of (for lack of a better word) Cheerleaders were dancing and although they looked good, in my opinion they weren't real cheerleaders because there were no jumps. The funniest thing about them was that after one dance wherin they cheered for the home team The Uniteds, they stripped to another cheerleading suit and cheered for the Steelers. How efficient, one dance group for both teams!! Well, I thought that was funny.

We failed in our attempt to get autographs but managed to get on the Jumbo-tron without doing anything ridiculous. I had wanted to get an autograph of the Serbian Player that was on the Incheon team.

Speaking of Jumbo-tron, I thought it strange that despite the stellar plays by other players, it was the foreign players that tended to be shown on the Jumbo-tron. In fact there was one that I wanted to boo off cuz I thought he sucked it up. So I'm hoping that he was on the Jumbo-tron bc he was so terrible they had to keep showing his plays. I run the risk of sounding like a traitor but I felt that the Steelers deserved to win the game more. They played better all around and I felt they were much more organized. In any case the final score of the game was 1-1. I've been invited to go again and I think that I will take up that offer.

Sunday Oct 1st, 2006

The original plan of the day was to set out all the way to the other side of the subway and give moral support to our two friends Mike and Eric who were gonna go bungee jumping off a 45 m tower. Initially I was gungho to go but was discouraged by my father who reminded me of my back injury not too long ago.

In my mind, I imagined bungee jumping to be with your feet, so I can imagine the rebound trip to be very hard on your back.

We made the 2 hr trek there by subway, transfering a number of times before taking a cab ride to this national park. When we got there we found out that the next jump was at 4pm and that we had basically 1.5 hrs to wait until then. Sitting around and watching other jumpers, I started to develop a strong desire to go. I admit feeling a bit nervous that being said, I think excitement outweighed my fear. After seeing that there were two types of harness one on your feet and the other one a body harness. I made my mind up to go.

We managed to convince Anne to go as well, but failed to convince the other 3 people to go. So in total 4 of us went and 3 of us stayed behind with the cameras. We managed to convince Anne to go by saying look if those fragile Korean girls can go, so can you. Well it worked. At 4pm we made the trek up in the elevator and waited in line up there as one by one other jumpers made the great leap. I kept my mind focused on the music up there and so it was that I found myself more excited than nervous. The problem was that the dude up there kept postponing me. I was finally the last among my friends to go. Eric went first, Anne went second and Mike went third. Finally it was my turn.

When I was standing by the edge, two things I remember distinctly. My heart was pounding very hard. The edge was a lot more fearsome than I had initially thought. I stood by the edge willing myself to jump, but my right hand which had somehow found itself holding on to the pole, refused to let go. Finally I decided that I was ready. The dude with the cowboy hat asked me if I was ready and started to count me down. five-four-three-two-one, and I was airborne. I took the swan dive position and leaped... I started to scream but found that part of the way down, my scream did not voice itself tho my mouth was open and willing.

Most people only fear the first initial flight off. What they don't realized is that bungee jumping consists of a number of bounces each just as scary as the last. The moment you are propelled up again, you realized the rope is no longer taut and secure as you thought and as u plummet down once more, you feel the same adrenaline rush that you felt the first time.

All in all, it was INCREDIBLE. I love the feeling of being airborne. I love the adrenaline rush. Will I do it again? I'm not sure. It's not that I'm afraid. I've experienced it and I enjoyed every moment of it. I just felt incredibly guilty disobeying my parents, it's the fact that I feel that I'm their last hope that gives me that much more pressure to do right by them. I know that I was playing with fire and that I could've easily gotten hurt by it. But this is something I've got to do while I'm still young.

What's next? Skydiving, though I probably won't tell my parents about it until after I've done it.
P.S. is the spacing good enough now? =P
P.P.S. Eric got the videos, so I'll post it up when he uploads them and sends them over

Here's the video: