Anyang Halla - Fighting! Saturday

Weird post title, yes? Well, on Saturday afternoon I made it to my first meetup group outing - a trip to see Korean ice-hockey in Anyang. It was awesome!

There was about 10-12 foreigners who all met at the subway and then we went to the stadium together. We bought our tickets and then waited in line to go in. We got there quite early because the seating isn't assigned, and the group wanted good seats and to stay together. Everyone in the group was so nice (and so normal!!). I don't normally feel super comfortable in groups of people my own age, but all these folks were laid back, friendly, talkative, non-awkward and really nice.

One girl, Laura and I paired up right away, and I had a nice time hanging out with her! We're planning on getting together next weekend to do something - possibly the zoo.

This is outside the stadium.

Me with the Anyang Holla polar bear mascot

Anyway, back to the hockey. While standing in line to go in, a mad with a big video camera came up to the group and asked up to yell "Anyang Holla, fighting!" ('fighting' kind of means 'go!' or 'go get 'em'), so we did, and are now probably on Korean TV somewhere! 

So, we line up and get inside the stadium (no security checks here, and you're allowed to bring in your own food, drinks, even alcohol! from outside). Just inside the door we all had to pick a piece of paper out of a box, and maybe win a prize. Lots of people won cakes, cookies, stuff like that. I won a full-sized Anyang Halla (the local team) hockey shirt! So cool! I never win stuff, it seems, so this was a nice surprise. I put my shirt on, even though it was huge and looked a bit ridiculous, and got into the cheering spirit as the game started (after Laura and I got a bit lost, ended up in a 'restricted area' by accident, and then sniffed out the popcorn cart to buy delicious, delicious popcorn). The game itself wasn't anything super amazing, but it was fun, and both teams played well. And Anyang Halla won! My new adopted team thanks to the hockey shirt :)

Inside the stadium.

Andre the Korean from Uzbekistan and I in our new shirts.

Yeah, it's a bit big.

But awesome!

And Anyang Halla won :)

After the game the group went for dinner at a Mexican restaurant (Americans sure are crazy about their Mexican food!?). Apparently it was Koreanised Mexican, but not being very familiar with Mexican food apart from Old El Paso packet mixes, I couldn't really tell. It was just tasty to me. Then some of the group went home, and the rest continued on to a nearby foreigner bar. Not being a drinker, I'm usually pretty uncomfortable in bars, but I felt totally at ease with this group, and we played an awful, awful game of darts where I sucked so bad it was funny :-D But then, at 10.30 both Laura and I had to leave to catch the train, because they close between 11-12, depending on what line you want. It was a bit annoying having to leave so early, I could have happily stayed longer, but a taxi home would have been pretty pricey. Anywho, I got home about midnight.

It was an awesome meetup experience, and has definitely made me more confident to go on more! And, maybe I made a friend :)