A week of sports

Hi Everyone,

Hope all is well in your worlds. Things are good over here in the far east. I had a athletic packed week which was awesome. There were two highlights. The first was getting to play baseball again.

The last time I played on a baseball team was when I was 14 years old and walked out in the middle of the game because I got benched and was pulled to negative things. Well, a really great Korean guy named Hyu is on a club team here and asked me if I wanted to play. I jumped on the opportunity and on Tuesday I went and met the biology majors with the team name Star Fish. They were just playing a practice game, but I was siked to play.

I sat out the first 3 innings, and then was put in the game. I was up to bat and was so happy to be facing a pitcher again. Even though the skill level wasn't so high (which is good because it has been 8 years since i have played), it was awesome to be out there. I took the first pitch for a strike. The next pitch, the guy through me a nasty curve ball. Having not seen one of those for awhile, I took it for a strike.

So there I was, 0-2 in my first at bat and there was no way I was striking out because I had to show these guys that I could do something so I could play again. The next pitch was a ball by far but i fouled it off doing anything not to get called out on strikes. Eventually I swung at a low curveball and popped out but I made my contact. The next at bat was a little more successful. Bases were loaded and i got thrown 4 balls in a row for a walk; I took my RBI with pride hahaha. Anyways, it was just great to be out there.

But now for the interesting stuff. The whole game there was a soccer game going on in the outfield!!! I asked some Koreans why this was happening and they explained that the field space they had was limited so they had to share. You would never see that in America. I was playing left field and had 20 soccer players all around me into their own game. Every pitch I had to move a little either left or right so I could see if the ball was being hit my way or not! And, sometimes the soccer ball would go into the infield; they would call timeout in the baseball game, let the soccer players carry on, and then once the soccer ball was back in the outfield they would play ball.

Another cool thing is that every time someone comes up to bat, the hitter and pitcher both bow to eachother. And after the game, we lined up facing the other team, someone said some stuff in Korean (one word was thank you), and then we bowed to them. But that's not all, each team had about 5 to 7 girls that were managers. So we went across the field to the other team's managers and bowed to them. Then we came back to our side, lined up and bowed to our own managers. What a beautiful tradition! It is a sign of respect and gratitude for your opponent and own team. I really got a kick out of that.

After that, the club circled up and I had to introduce myself; at this point I figured I was "in"! So I did and they were all very welcoming. Some freshmen introduced themselves, of course I had no idea what was being said, and then I got invited to the team party afterwards. Hyu was not able to make it, so I figured I would not go. But he introduced me to another guy who barely spoke English and he told me that he would take me.

Now this was really neat. I went to dinner with about 16 other Korean students and I wa the only foreigner. It was awesome. We went to a restaurant where you sit on the floor and cook your own meat on the stove in front of you. I had a blast trying to communicate with all these different people who were so welcoming to me. Some wanted to practice their English, others wanted to help me with my Korean, and some just wanted to visit. We enjoyed a great meal.

I also learned that age is really important in Korea. When someone would ask me how old I was and he found out he was older then me, he would laugh and say "I'm older brother". Basically, if a guy is older then me I am supposed to respect him. When i speak to him, I am supposed to add "jeong" or something to his name which means "older brother". So then I found people that were younger then me at the table and claimed my status! Another neat thing about age is that when you are born in Korea you are already one year old. They count the time in the tummy as a year. So in Korea, I am 23 even though back home I am 22. More than that, everyone born in the same year turns the same age at the same time. So everyone born in 1987 this year turned 23, even though the actually birthdays are scattered throughout the year.

So that was a neat experience. That night was also St. Patrick's Day so the foreigners had a party at one of the bars. I enjoyed it alright. It was neat to see all these Korean, Japanese, and Chinese people dressed in green celebrating the holiday with their foreign friends. And yes, they were drinking green beer and green soju! (Soju is cheap liquor or something over here. Of course, I don't really know but it is the popular drink for college kids cause it is so cheap. But as my stepdad so wonderfully put it, it is "noju" for me, haha.)

I have also played a lot of basketball this week. On Thursday I played for like 2 hours and yesterday I played for 3! I played some other days too. I love it. I have not had time to do that since I was 14 going across the street and playing pickup games. My game is slowly coming back, but it is just fun to be out there.

Yesterday was definetly the best. We made teams of four, and the winner would stay on. My team consisted of a Canadian from Vancouver, a guy from Tenessee, and another guy from Japan. There were guys from China, another team from Korea, and i think the other team was Mongolian, or at least one guy was I think. Anyway, what a neat experience. All of us from different parts of the world, speak different languages, but shared a love for basketball. Trying to communicate is fun and the games were even better. Everyone offere some good competition. Our team did have the best run which was awesome. We won six games in a row beating each team twice so we were proud. But they were all close, and we lost our fare share as well. Our Japanese teammate was difinetly the key to our success; he is very good. It was a heafty workout but a blast. I had worked out my legs in the gym before that too so I was really feeling it.

Besides that not too much else to report. I started my exchanges this week. That is pretty much what I get the stipend for. I meet with two Korean students for an hour and we are supposed to talk about things. The purpose is for them to improve their English and learn about Western culture. Not all of mine showed but I had some pretty good ones. I am definetly going to have to come up with some activities for us to do because just sitting and talking can get worn out.

Well I'm signing off now. I am going into Seoul tonight, will sleep there, and then maybe do some museum tomorrow followed by a gathering of fellows like me. My love and regards to everyone back at both homes (Texas and Canada) and I miss you all very much. Hope this one wasn't too boring. Will write again soon.