Today, for the 239572 time, I have been shown the kindness of a people through a simple act of selfless giving. Before I get into that, though, I left out a really interesting part of my day yesterday.
I don't know how many of you follow/care/know about baseball, but yesterday was actually a big deal as far as sports is concerned. The game played at 9:30 my time (7:30 CST) was yet again another example of how America's place as a world leader in everything is diminishing.
Back in the good 'ole days (not quite as far back as when you had to walk 6 miles to school in the blistering wind of a hail storm, while you collected the rocketing ice balls for fresh water because otherwise you had to go and pump the well for ten minutes in scorching heat just for a glass of water...) America was the best at everything: baseball, basketball, football, manufacturing, and life in general.
Everyone wanted to be us. It felt great, really.
However, yesterday, the championship of the world was at stake. Two titans were in the heat of battle with each other, and boy was it a slugfest. America's team however, was nowhere to be seen (on the field, at least).
That's right, Japan and Korea were the competitors in the final game, with Japan edging out Korea in extra innings. I have heard of some editorials that blame the pitcher and manager for the loss, because Ichiro Suzuki should never be allowed 8 straight pitches to try and score the winning run. It's simply not good managing. I'm not saying, that there weren't other people responsible for the loss (i.e. the whole team), but walking Ichiro would have probably gave Korea a better chance (Ichiro is probably the best hitter to ever come out of Japan, much less, Asia).
But I digress.
The important point of the matter is, if America ever wants to see domination in (anything really) baseball, we, as citizens, have two options.
1. Put the best players we have in the game. When every other team is putting the absolute best they have to offer, we have to do the same (see the 2008 United States Summer Olympic Basketball Team). Sure we had guys like Rollins, McCann, Adam Dunn, Jake Peavy, and Latroy Hawkins, but where are our superstars? Where is Joe Mauer, Barry Zito, Tim Lincecum, Carl Crawford, Pince Fielder? I could essentially go on and on.
2. (this might be a little radical) Produce better players. I think the American mindset has allowed us to become happily stagnant. We aren't the best anymore because our athletes (for the most part) are satisfied with making it to the majors and then assuming it's a job. It's just like the average citizen, too. Everyone wants the easy money. Everyone wants the gain without the pain. I think we know we have something to learn.
I hope you don't think the World Baseball Championship is just a meaningless tournament. Baseball is America's game.
Sorry about the tangent, though.
On a lighter note, it was neat to be present in Korea for the game yesterday. You would have thought that Korea was landing a man on the moon. Everyone was watching. I don't even mean that as an exaggeration. As far as I could tell, everyone was doing everything in their power (even if they don't care about baseball) to watch the game. Granted, the game was Korea vs. Japan (easy to say they are historical adversaries), but when does America ever get together for the sake of pride? Besides tragedies? or the final American Idol show.
I'm done with the baseball talk now.
Today was good I think. My korean class went pretty well. The teacher is talking faster and faster and it's hard to understand sometimes, but I'm doing pretty well so far so I'm really excited. We have another test tomorrow, so I will need to study for that I think. I'm really looking forward to Friday, when we go to the cherry blossom festival. I think it's going to be so beautiful.
My philosophy class went well too. We went over Socrates, the Sophists, and their conflicts and why they didn't like each other. Philosophy really intrigues me. It's like, a study of everything, and a study of nothing at the same time. You can be right and be completely wrong all within the course of a conversation. Fascinating, really.
After class, I did a little table tennis conditioning and headed off to dinner and my english group. Dinner was good (pork, kimchi stew), but helping the english group was great. I taught them how to use a, an, and the, and also how to use colons and semicolons. They are really good at english, it's pretty neat.
After helping the group, one of the guys (his name is Rza, like the rapper) walked me home and asked how to get rid of his accent. I told him to just do what I did to get rid of my southern accent: watch newscasters and try to impersonate them.
I arrived in my room and quickly got into my table tennis stuff to condition some more. I went to the gym, and hit the table tennis room for a little bit. In there, I met a guy who didn't speak much english, but I knew enough Korean to introduce myself and get him to start playing.
Before I go any farther, I just want to say that having some sort of skill (sports, photography, music, serious religious convictions), whatever it may be, is actually really useful in Korea. Surprisingly (hopefully not though), Koreans are interested in hobbies too, so if you share a past time with a Korean, they will want to be your friend.
All joking aside, is really is a great way to meet Koreans. They are tough to just approach and get to know, and using a hobby makes it WAY easier to do so.
Anyways, back to my story. This is the whole part about more kindness and loving the Koreans' attitude, by the way.
Me and the guy get done playing, and we had a blast. He had a really fun paddle, which , when used back in the States, allows old, and/or obese men to play with younger guys. It does this by reversing the spin of anything hit at it (I don't want to get too technical, so I will leave it at that). It was really a blast. I could tell he was having as much fun as I was, and when we were done, I remarked that the paddle was really nice, and it makes playing table tennis lots of fun. I in no way even remotely made it sound like I wanted it.
However, after some conversation, he told me that he wanted to give me the paddle as a gift. I couldn't believe it. He had two paddles that he and his friend used, and he wanted to give this one to me. It was pretty much the ultimate act of table tennis kindness you can take part in.
I'm honestly amazed every day by the attitude of people here. How are they so nice, so kind, when back home we are so cold? I understand that it's because of cultural things, but when did our culture become so?
I sincerely hope everyone reading this gets to come to Korea some time.
Forever Amazed
Aron Huckaba International Vagabond
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