Finally getting some time off to go and explore the city our orientation was in, I took off with a gopro and a backpack to explore the city.

Soon After that, we had a baseball game scheduled for us. Now to be fully honest, I am not a baseball fan. Back home baseball, in this Canadians opinion, is somewhat of a relaxed, sit down and have a few 12 dollar tall boys with your friends until you decide to just go to a bar somewhere around the 6th inning. I originally was not interested in the slightest to see the game, until a friend let me know that baseball in Korea is a very different experience.

She was right. Every time the batter came up to the plate, the entire crown, led by cheer leaders and a very excited Korean man with a mic, would sing songs and chants that seemed to be written specifically for each player. By the end of the game we were all out of our seat cheering and singing. It was an interesting way to see how another country can take a sport and completely change the way it’s presented. One thing I did notice though was although the team was based in Gwanju, and playing Busan, it was the KIA Tigers, not the Gwanju Tigers. It would really throw me off to hear back home “The Roger’s Maple Leafs facing off against the Joe Louis Red Wings”, but then again, the teams back home were rostered by not Torontonians, but by other Canadians, Americans, Russians Swede’s, so maybe the idea of having a team be city region based is a little antiquated anyways.

None the less, seeing how similar some parts of a time honored game, only to have the whole experience augmented by the differences between here and the west, was certainly an interesting and eye opening experience.