Argentina vs Korea

So it seems I had nothing to worry about. Argentina thoroughly clobbered South Korea 4-1 (although one of Argentina's goals was an accidental self-goal by one of the Korean players). I went to a place called Batman Bar to watch the game with co-workers. Just as a side note, the bar is not in any way associated with anyone or any company that owns "Batman." Korea doesn't really have copyright laws (and if they do, they're not enforced), so you end up with things like Batman Bar, and tons of knock-off clothes with brands like "Pink" (from Victoria's Secret, although most of the time in Korea it's not actually the VS brand).

I really hyped up the game to my kindergartners, and their parents were eager for it. I had written in my weekly reports last week to the parents of my kindergartners about the "bet" I made with their children, presenting it in a way that it could be taken as a joke (in case the parents didn't want to actually take part in it). Well, more than one parent decided to take me up on it, a few of them writing in their responses to me on the reports things such as:

"Fighting Korea [and a Korean flag drawn next to it]. You will buy a pizza :) "
"...Katie was talking about the bet. :) It sure sounds fun! If Argentina wins we will bring pizza on Friday okay!!... I hope Korea wins..."
"...Argentina soccer team is very strong. Team manager Maradona is a very famous player, as "Hand of God." It's a joke!... Thank you for your pizza!"
"You and our children's week seemed like to be happy and beneficial."
"...For your hope, Korea wons over Greece! Tony also was very excited. I look forward to "bet" about soccer..."

Whatever grammatical mistakes you read was not an error of my typing, but what the parents actually wrote. Also, I want to also highlight that some of the things that have been marketed for the team and the World Cup to Korea have been the slogans "Fighting Korea" and "Shouting Korea." There is one commercial in particular where you see Korean players on the field with another team (there is no logo on their jersey, but they are conspicuously wearing the unique Argentine design of white and sky blue vertical stripes), and those other players can't concentrate because of all the Koreans shouting, thus allowing the Korean team to score. I did not like this commercial, mostly because of their use of stand-in Argentine players. I have seen 3 such commercials with these un-named players wearing the Argentine colors and design.

Anyway, the parents seemed a bit hyped up about the bet, too. I decided to make it as fun as possible by sometimes antagonizing my kids so that they would start shouting "Korea! Korea!" I also taped some written reminders to their folders on Wednesday reminding them to wear the colors of their favorite team. Despite two of my kids voicing an interest in cheering for Argentina, I knew that their parents would have the final say on what they wore (these kids are, after all, only 6 years old). Sure enough they ALL wore red; all 10 of them (at first it was only 9 of them because one of my children, Sara, forgot about it and clearly her mom didn't care, but once Sara came to school and saw that everyone in class was wearing red except for her, she had her mom take her out and change her into a red shirt, and then she came back to school).

They were the only class to all wear red. It was sooo adorable!!! During lunch, when all the classes were sitting in single file lines in the big gym, I knew my class just from a glance because they were the only all-red line. I received many comments from other teachers about it. Here is picture of myself as the lone Argentine wearing my national pride in my class of ultra-Koreans:




I would also like to point out that all of the American teachers at my school wore Korean/red shirts, and all of the Korean supervisors (with one exception) also wore red. I was literally the lone Argentine. All of the other children in the other classes kept pointing at me when they saw me in the halls, and they would ask their respective teachers, "Carla Teacher, Argentina?" with somewhat disbelief. One of my supervisors pointed out, "Carla, you realize how alone you are right now, right? We're all wearing red..." I said, "I know, I noticed. This will make victory all the sweeter." And it did!

I was bit nervous about the game and the bet due to Korea's performance against Greece last week, as well as Argentina's. I felt Korea was going to be a formidable opponent, and I was panicking briefly due to my immense pride. But thankfully Yelena convinced me to watch the game with friends, and to just enjoy things. Things turned out well.

On Friday we had a pizza party per the terms of the bet.

The parents brought the pizza, cups, juice and plates. Here I set everything up while the kids were doing their lunchtime activities.

They all enjoyed a slice of delicious victorious pizza.

Korean pizza is interesting in that they tend to combine things you wouldn't normally combine in a pizza, like here we had potatoes, ham, mushroom, onion and some sort of ricotta cheese or something of that nature.

A good day, indeed.

-AALA