As the title say, it's been a pretty good weekend.
Thursday was highlighted by ping pong but that's not all. I had a delicious lunch at Mie's after playing a fun Korean game to learn numbers in a park on campus. There wasn't much more to the day besides those two activities. There lies the problem of not blogging for a few days, though, as now it doesn't seem like much happened, but I'm sure some stuff did happen.
On friday I had a really good time. The midterm turned out to be really easy, so that was a relief. All I have to do is hope that I didn't actually bomb it when I get my grade back tomorrow.
Either way, I was so incredibly surprised that the midterm seemed so easy, I was on autopilot for the rest of the day. Almost immediately afterwards, me, Phillip, and an English teacher, Adam, all went with Kayla to drop her off at the train station. We had lunch and got her to her train, then made a day of downtown Daegu. We found a place that served delicious drinks and had those as we walked around. I bought a hat from Le Coq Sportif, and a long sleeve shirt from Who.A.U. (basically a cheap abercrombie). I actually amazed myself because I haven't bought clothes for myself in like a year or two, and before that, I think it was a couple of years also.
We had dinner at this delicious little hole-in-the-wall restaurant later on. I'm pretty sure the owner was in there eating with us, and was one of the best sources of entertainment for our meal. Every few minutes he would look over to us and slur a Korean sentence which was supposed to be something along the lines of, "You guys ok?" or, "You guys need something? Water? More food? Is it good?" Like I said, though, this was heavily slurred so even Adam, who knows more Korean than either me or Phillip, had a hard time understanding exactly what he was getting at.
That's one of the best parts about being here in Korea. Pretty much every restaurant is going to be delicious. There isn't really any size requirement for the foodshops. I have been in places with literally two tables, and they have been awesome. It's sort of like that at home, too, but not to the extent it is here. I can Always look forward to eating out here, and never have to worry if it will be good.
We made it home about 9 o clock I think, and I got all of my stuff together before passing out, all ready to get up at 5 the next day for the table tennis tournament.
I ended up getting up on time, and made it out to Gumi with the table tennis club. Those guys are a lot of fun to hang out with. I could just imagine what being around them would be like if I could understand anything they said. I understand context and can basically 'dub' conversations in my head (in other words, I can guess what they're talking about), which makes them equally hilarious. Sometimes when I'm bored, I like to dub conversations all around me with much more hilarious context. It's really fun, because it makes me at least look like I can follow, even if I have NO idea what's going on, with the added bonus of giving me a real laugh to go along with everyone else's, because even though I didn't get the intended humor, I've fabricated my own equally/greater fun.
So anyways, me and my friends all arrive at the tournament, and I'm so excited/nervous i can't really even comprehend anything. Thinking back, I didn't feel all that nervous, but I'm pretty sure I was performing my best impersonation of an Egyptian, because I was definitely in denial. The tournament started, and I was so nervous, I couldn't do anything. I'm not used to getting so nervous, and have only ever gotten that way before once. In baseball, we call the loss of performance "pressing," and pressing usually translates to a lack of performance. I want to go ahead and use lack of performance because it sounds so much nicer to write down than does complete and utter chokefest. Hindsight 20/20 I played the best I could, especially being so nervous.
I have deliberately left out any real concrete record of how I played because I'm not proud of it. Table tennis' rules are very similar to that of regular tennis. Matches are divided into sets, and sets are determined by the player who wins the most games out of 3, 5 or 7. The format of this tournament was at first to separate all 64 players into pools of 4. From those pools, the top two go on to the real bracket of the tournament.
I elected to play first, and it was against a tall heavy set Korean guy. I won the first game, and was up in the second game 6 to 3. However, what I failed to notice at that point was that my self-destruct button had gotten pushed somehow, and I lost handily in three straight games.
Match 1 over.
I was still pretty nervous, and on top of that I was a little worried because I had lost, so after keeping score for the next game, I played a thin Korean guy. I was beat without much real challenge to him 3 games to 1.
Match 2 over.
At this point I knew I had no chance of making the tournament, so the nervousness was pretty well replaced by disappointment. However, disappointment is really no help to a player whose game is based on precise movement and quick reaction time. I was beaten again, this time 3-0.
Match 3 over. Singles hopes over.
My singles bid was hushed before it even started, but I was told I would get a chance to help the B team (the kind of JV team, which, after how I played in singles, I don't blame them at all for placing me in) in the team matches. Unfortunately, the team competition didn't start for a good 4 or 5 hours after my singles matches were done, so I was merely a spectator at that time.
When it came time for the team matches, I was actually able to be a source of positive outcome, though, as I won my singles match and helped win the doubles match, to propel our team to a 3-2 victory. I was so excited.
Since we won, we went on to play another team, but I lost again, less handily this time, in my singles match 3-1. Since I lost, my team lost 3-1, and that was the least fun part of the whole deal.
Doubles Over, tournament over.
On the way home, we stopped at a meat buffet. This restaurant was remarkably similar to the place we went to in Jinhae, except this one was nicer. I ate meat until I thought for sure my body ran completely on cholesterol. It was so good. Needless to say, when we rolled into the room at around 11, I was ready for bed.
Today, Sunday, was good too.
I went to church with my professor, to the Church of Blooming Love. Sweet name, I know. I think it was a Presbyterian church, but I'm not really sure, especially since the service wasn't like anything I was used to back at home for Easter.
Being in church was really nice though. I couldn't really understand what the preacher was saying, but I was able to figure out what he was saying by the words I could pick out, and the reading. Instead of reading the same scriptures about jesus rising again, this time we read a different part of the same book. It was kind of refreshing. I really wish I had the ability to understand the pastor guy, though, maybe I could have appreciated the sermon much more.
Something really funny actually happened in the church too. It was one of those moments where you're just kind of frozen, unable to really do much of anything, because you're just so shocked. As we were leaving the big hall, my professor and his wife left got up very quickly, but I was still getting my stuff together. When I looked up, the person next in the line to leave was this tiny old lady with white hair who beckoned me to go in front of her. I thought it was really nice, especially since there were 345235 people behind her. After saying thank you, I took my spot in front of her. The line was barely moving, though, so I was just kind of standing there in front of the old woman waiting on the line to move. I soon discovered the peril of standing in front of old ladies, though. For a good five minutes, while the line was barely moving, I stood there, with an old lady's hands sitting on my butt. No kidding. While she was a nice old lady and all, I don't think she was nice enough for that kind of friendship.
I wanted to say something, but realized I couldn't say anything she would understand. When I realized I knew nothing she would understand, I wanted to move, but there were a couple of problems with that theory:
1. What if this was just one of the little perks old ladies get when they get older (in Korean culture, older women basically run amok, as a sort of amends for them having a rough life up to that point)? If this was true, I would be committing a really rude cultural offense, and thought it would be best to wait the couple of minutes, however uncomfortable they may be.
2. What if she couldn't stand otherwise? For all I knew she could have been jogging before church, or cleaning her house, or some other very healthy and normal task which requires the use of normal walking skills, but I couldn't remember seeing her standing on her own. I hadn't remembered actually seeing her before this episode, so there was no telling if she needed help remaining upright or not, and I certainly had no desire to be the cause of a broken hip, much less a Korean broken hip. I resolved by this thought process I should wait out the two or three minutes, no matter how uncomfortable they may be.
So I stood there. For what seemed like forever. Finally, the line started to move and I was freed.
Besides the self entitlement old ladies think they have while in churches, I find going to church is really kind of nice here. The people are super kind, and lunch is even served for free. Sure, you might have to stand around with a couple of old hands on your butt, but boy was that food good.
After church, my professor brought me home, and I caught up on some reading and had dinner at my favorite chinese restaurant here. Phillip went with me, as did Rita, a student I met last summer (although I didn't remember straightaway until she told me). The dinner was really good, and to my surprise, Rita's english had improved dramatically.
Basically that's the end of my weekend. Long post, but it was worth it I think.
For Now,
Aron Huckaba International Vagabond
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