[Distance] Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

So, I spent a significant portion of my young life getting trucked around to soccer games, often times unwillingly. I also spent a significant amount of time watching it on TV because Dad or Ben (then eventually Mom, too) wanted to watch it. I was not always the most avid lover of the sport. Some people might use the word.... bitter? The whole family loved this sport that I wasn't good at and I just wanted to SWIM! Having a star brother doesn't always help the bitterness go away, either; especially at the tender era of early adolescence.

Well, turns out all those years of soccer games and all the sounds of EPL and Serie A games being watched in my house have become part of me. As I got a little older, I started to be able to handle being different from the rest of my family and start to appreciate the WONDER that is the sport! Which was great, because it is so fun to watch. And this way I can watch it and not constantly mourn the fact that I can't do any of those things! :) A spectator's life can be a good one.

I have a lot of fond memories of the World Cup. The 2002 one in Korea/Japan was going on as I was moving out of my childhood home in Massachusetts, and we spent some of the games getting up obscenely early and watching them in bed with mom and dad, and then when we had moved out we watched some of them on a big screen in the Gordon College student lounge (we lived there temporarily). That was the year the US got to the quarterfinals (wow!), and it was SO EXCITING. Ben even bought a documentary called "Our Way" about the US' team experience there haha.... which I've probably seen upwards of 10 times.

The 2006 one was a summer I was home between college, and I think I watched most of the games. The US didn't make it that far (aka they couldn't get out of group play), but by then I really enjoyed watching the other teams. And I'll never forget the depressed Ben that took off his Zidane tshirt after the infamous head butt in the final game.  Watch it. It's pretty memorable.

ANYWAY. All of this to say, watching this world cup here in Korea has been really fun in a lot of ways, but it makes me miss my family a lot, and it makes me wish I could be there to talk it all out with them. My dad has this way of being 100% calm about any and all events and maintaining a good analytic attitude, while Ben can't sit down the entire game, but has to run a soccer ball around the inside of the house several times during the game. Oh, and there's Mom yelling at all the players by their first names.... that's wonderful, too. :)

Watching the Korea/Greece game in downtown Gwangju

I will say this for watching the world cup here: it is SO FUN to be in a country where everyone loves the sport! It has provided endless class discussions about the world-uh cup-uh, loads of entertainment seeing all the glowing red devil horns and red shirts everywhere, and a fully alive atmosphere whenever we've watched the games. I love it! I even appreciate in a small way the fact that we've had to stay up till 6am several times to watch our team play.... and knowing that I'll be doing it again for the final game.

The Korea/Uruguay game was aired in a stadium in Busan

Also, I'm excited for the event to be held in a time zone close to my location next time... thank goodness this thing is only every 4 years!