It's 8 AM.
You're in Korea.
The superbowl starts in a half hour.
You gather your snacks.
You put on your Redskins shirt
unless you suck.
You log onto the CBS website.
You prepare yourself to watch the live stream.
Kick off....
Site.
Doesn't.
Work.
Frantically you google what other websites you can get a superbowl stream on but alas, none of them work. You google "Places in Korea to watch Superbowl 2013". Bingo. You take a picture of your computer screen.
You throw on whichever clothes are closest to you and head out the door. You hail a cab. You're on your way.
You arrive in the neighborhood of all of the bars that claim to be showing the superbowl. You pay your expensive cab fare. You wander around looking for signs in English that say "Sam Ryan's Pub". Nothing. You racistly ask every non-Korean looking person questions like "English?" "Sam Ryans?" "Superbowl?" and are unsuccessful for another half hour. You eventually find yourself in a police station at 9:30 AM. A friendly police officer shows you a map of how to get to your destination. Three blocks later and you hear the game from the street. You walk inside and kiss the floor.
Except you don't because eww.
But you really think about it.
You are able to catch the last bit of the second quarter and are happy to make it to the bar in time to see the half time show. You are with your fellow Americans. They range from young frat boys to retired military vets, but you love them all the same. You are home.
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| Sidenote: Can we talk about how mesmerized these older guys were by Beyonce? |
You look at the clock and realize that since you have to be at work at 2 and want to leave the bar at 1, you should only have 1 drink and should eat because you won't have time to eat when you get back home. You are ok with this realization because Sam Ryans is serving American Breakfast today.
You eat as the Ravens play with your emotions. Immediately after the game ends, you thank Jeremy and Andre for letting you sit at their table and head out to catch a cab home. You call your dad to ask him how he likes his Ravens. But actually you should have waited to call your dad because he gets super confused listening to you speak Korean to your cab driver so you hang up on him and call him back but its fine, he doesn't mind. You make it home with about a half hour to spare before you have to be at work! What a productive superbowl Monday you just had. You should be super proud of yourself.
******UMMMMMMMM I had a great day. It was super annoying that the live stream didnt work because I would have loved to watch in bed and actually be able to see the commercials. A lot of the commercials wouldn't work at the bar and it must have to do with an international sponsor thing where they can't stream the commercials to whatever system the bar was using. It was awesome to be able to understand everyone around me for the first time in weeks. And at the risk of sounding annoying and sappy, it was really cool to have a bunch of Americans united in one place to watch something that reminds us of home. It was a really great morning so I kind of don't mind that I spent so much time and money trying to find a place to watch it. And its definitely my most memorable superbowl lol. I was surprised none of my coworkers wanted to get up and watch it but they've been here longer so I think they don't really mind missing it. I'm fresh from the mainland so I definitely had to watch! I'm glad I picked Seoul to teach in because of how international it is. I definitely feel like I'm totally immersed in a new culture but when something like the superbowl is going on, you don't have to worry about finding some place to have the experience.
Great day!
