K-League Game, Parade and K-Spam

Yesterday I finally made it to a K-League game in the World Cup Stadium in Mapo-Gu...it was pretty cool, but nothing like the throngs of people that I saw on T.V. for the 2002 World Cup games. For one thing, there were:


...lots of empty seats.

But it was still good. On the first kick-offs of the halfs there were massive fireworks, which was a little firghtening at first (North Korea with Nukes and all). I tried to take a pic of the actual explosions, but missed it...dooough!


Boom!....Beware the fog.

That fog, along with the humidity (68%) made it look like a cloudbank rolled in. Then in the stands there was more fire(works).


Fire in the stands? Nope, just fireworks.

In the end the home team, F.C. Seoul, beat those guys from Incheon United 1:0. Yay!

UPDATE: Oh ya, forgot: when we got to the stadium we couldn't find the ticketbooth, but happened upon a guy who had a whack of tickets that he got through his company (he paid 6,000 won for these 8,000 won seats). He had some extra so offered them to us for 5,000 won...not each: for BOTH. Oh yeah! Add on some noodles and Pocari Sweat and we were still up 4,000 won. We're making money!

The next day I heard some Korean traditional music in the street: which, here, could mean anything from a grand open(ing) of a business to street-cleaning. As it happens, it was a bowing parade of about 40 guys in yellow jackets and (a la Monica Lewinski) knee-guards taking 3 steps, bowing right down on the ground then taking 3 more. The signs (I imagine, as they 'radioactive symbol' was on them) likely said something like No Nukes in Korea. Interesting.


Bowing for Columbine!

As I reported earlier, Spam is a big thing here. I just got spam of a different sort also (well, I get a lot of it, but this one was particularly interesting. I've seen many of these from Nigeria and other dodgy places, but this was the first from my adopted home.

Subject: ACKNOWLEDGE MY MAIL From: "jun"
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 03:48:26 +0200

Mr. Jun Cheng,
Bank Of Korea,
16-1, Yoido-dong,
Youngdungpo-gu,
Seoul 150-873.

Dear Friend

I am Jun Cheng a manager of bills/exchange at the foreign remittance department of Hanivitbank. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of $44,700,000.00 (Forty Four Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only) in an account that belonged to one Late Mr Andrew Phillips an American, who died along with his entire family, on November 1996, in a ghastly plane crash. Since we got the information about his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come over and file a claim as next of kin over his money because we can not release it unless somebody applied for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to claim this money. It is based on this that some officials in my department and I have decided to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence by contacting you. We want you to present yourself as the next of kin to Late Mr Andrew Phillips, so that the funds can be remitted into your account. Moreover, we do not want the money to go into the government account as unclaimed bills. The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that any account abandoned or is dormant for a period of years, is deemed closed and all money contained therein forfeited to the government treasury account.

Now, it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into the government account as an unclaimed fund on or before the end of this financial quarter of 2004, when nobody come forward to lay claims. The reason for requesting your assistance, is occasioned by, the fact that the deceased (Late Mr Andrew Phillips) was a foreigner, and we have access to his detailed bio data which you will hold as a weapon to present yourself as the next of kin to Late Mr Andrew Phillips.

The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your account, shall be 70% to my colleagues and I, for the role you will be expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give you 25% of the total sum and 5% for the expenses we are going to encounter by the two parties in the course of this transaction.

Therefore, you are expected to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to participate in this business. After receiving your reply, you will be communicated to with the exact steps to take. I expect your urgent response and I shall contact you for further discussion on this matter, to enable us conclude this transaction urgently without any delay or hitch. Please treat this business proposal as strictly confidential for security reasons considering my official position in Bank of Korea.

Personal Regards,

Mr. Jun Cheng

There were a few things that tipped me off with this email:

(i) Bank of Korea is located in Chung-gu, not Yeouido. I know the block he states as his address...it's not there. (Plus, the postal code is off a bit, too.)
(ii) 44 mil is not the kind of sum you put in an email to someone...that kinda dough necessitates a personal visit, does it not?
(iii) the English was perfect (a dead give-away if I ever saw one).

However...this opportunity may be too good to pass up...