Take Me Out To The Ballpark… Buy Me Some Kimbap And Ddokboggie

Saturday morning I woke up, went and played tennis and anxiously awaited 5pm so I could go to my first baseball game in Korea. I was super stoked! Growing up, my mom and dad coached a softball team, my brother played baseball and all three of my sisters played softball in high school. Yes, I was the odd one out. I did triple jump and shot put in track, played sweeper and forward in soccer, point guard in basketball and then I found tennis. 🙂 Even though I never played softball, the love of baseball was ingrained in me. 
 
Ber and I arrived at the Stadium early to ensure we would get tickets for the game (despite learning Hangul, I couldn’t figure out how to buy tickets online). We paid 8000won ($7.29) for our tickets and sat in the equivalant of section 44 at The Ballpark in Arlington (lower reserved for those who don’t know the stadium). Yes, I know the sections by heart.  
 
I was told ahead of time you can bring food and drinks into the stadium so armed with my Kimchi Kimpab, I was ready to go. As we walked into the stadium we were harassed by all the street vendors trying to sell us chicken and I saw tent after tent where you could buy Cass and Soju. We made our way to our section of seats, I pointed to my ticket and in Korean said, “Yeogieo?” only to receive a perfectly spoken English response letting me know I could sit anywhere in the section. 
 
I listened to the chants coming from the crowd, trying to figure out what they were saying so I could chant with them. Participated in the “wave,” which in Korea is done at regular speed (as we do in America) followed by a slow motion wave, wrapped up with a super sonic speed wave. I snapped pictures of the food the Korean’s chose to bring to the stadium and eagerly got hyped up with the crowd in anticipation that we would be able to score even 1 home run.

It never happened, the Eagles never even got a hit but the crowd never stopped believing they would. And the best part, I got to enjoy the game with two people who had never been to a baseball game before, so I got to be their own personal English baseball commentator, fun job to have for a day!  

 

Share this post:
Facebooktwitterpinterestmail