I Fell into a Frozen Lake in Seoul

Okay, so maybe only a part of me did

It seems funny now. But back then… it was still already pretty funny.

Does anyone remember the 2002 World Cup jointly hosted by (South) Korea and Japan?

Yes, I’m aging myself. But it’s not like soccer/football is any less popular now than it was back then. In fact, it’s probably even more popular now. Either way, this is not about soccer/football. This is about Seoul.

If you Google something along the lines of “2002 World Cup Seoul,” within the first page of image results you should see a photo (or three) of an attractive Korean girl wearing the South Korean flag and not much else. (I just checked. Yes, this is still true as of writing.)

What can I say? I was a kid in high school. The image stuck. (Not to say grown men are immune, but I’ve noticed a difference.)

Fast-forward a few years, and I’m studying in Japan. During the winter break, a friend and I decided to visit Korea. She was Korean American, so she had family there. It would be my first time.

She told her family she was going to bring a friend. She was probably going to be a good daughter and marry a fellow Asian.

It really wasn’t what they thought.

Anyway, this was also when the Korean Wave was starting to hit the US. Certainly not with the same impact that BTS and other K-Pop bands have made. But it was a beginning.

Winter Sonata, the most popular Korean drama of its time, was exceedingly well received in Japan. This was way before Squid Game.

All the episodes of Winter Sonata featured snow heavily (shocking, I know). The weather once we landed in Seoul matched the mood created in the drama. Not that Japan wasn’t already freezing. It was just that, according to my friend’s grandmother, it was the coldest winter in Korea in the past twenty years.

I remember reading a description in my guidebook about Korean winters being especially brutal because of the country’s peninsular setting and the Siberian winds that blow in from the northwest. I believed it then, and I believe it now.

Our plan was also to visit Busan in the south (if you’ve seen a Korean zombie flick…), but the weather had other plans.

Because the 2002 World Cup was still fresh in my mind (however deeply an image can embed itself into the mind of a teenage boy), I insisted that we swing by the World Cup Stadium. We couldn’t go inside. I just wanted a picture with the structure.

There was a frozen lake. I wished it was snowing.

Among the American students studying at our Japanese university, I was known for trying out new things. This was not always advisable. This was one of those times.

I tried to walk on the frozen lake.

It was not frozen through.

Fortunately, I possessed some sense of self-preservation. My other foot was still on solid ground.

My stepping foot went down nearly to the knee. Needless to say, my pant leg, my shoe, and, worst of all, my thermal sock were soaked.

It seems funny now. But back then… it was still already pretty funny.

Luckily, I didn’t get hypothermia. We marched back to our guesthouse (there was a short metro ride involved), and I changed out of that shoe and sock as soon as possible. I don’t think I had the privilege of dipping my foot in a hot tub of water, but there were space heaters aplenty. Towels and blankets were also very useful.

To this day, I’m wary of frozen surfaces. As I should’ve been then, since I was technically an adult. Well…

I have been back to Seoul since. Also during winter. I did not make a trip to the World Cup Stadium.

Terry Dip wishes this were a unique instance.

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