Korean Baseball Weekend

A few weeks ago, I was invited by some of my students to attend their opening baseball game. They are one of my favorite classes; you may remember them from the baseball Santa picture. Because they are so crazy about the sport, I prepare an article from redsox.com or mlb.com every class to talk about. I use the Korean translator in my phone to give them the harder words. So far I've made them read and discuss the release of Jason Bay/signing of John Lackey, the rehab of Dice-K, and the star potential of young Jacoby Ellsbury.

This past Thursday, the plan for meeting up and heading to the field together was presented to me in choppy English by Boo Kwan, my favorite of the bunch. He started by drawing a diagram of a car. He labeled it a Hyundai (the national pride of Korea) and indicated that one of their parents offered to drive us all, and I would have the honor of riding shotgun while the other four crammed in the backseat. He made bullet points for the important info:

-Meet 9:40
-Eat before
-Bring a little money
-Bring a positive attitude

We met at the arranged time in front of the Lotteria below COOLish, and off we went.
Me and the boys (Right to left: Sang Hyun, Jun Hyung, and Jung Min; Boo Kwan not pictured, he took the photo).

The fields were way out in the middle of nowhere, and the grounds had more the feeling of an industrial park than a baseball venue. On one side stood an expressway, and on the other, train tracks on which every few minutes, a KTX train would fly by. It was a spectacle.
There were three separate fields with "dugouts" and "fences" (I use quotations because it all seemed to be established rather temporarily) that had games in progress when we got there and other games going on when we left. There were a lot of people of all ages playing ball. Even some older adult teams made it out.
Boo Kwan Shin at bat.

The game reminded me a lot of Jr. Babe Ruth, back in the glory days when I was still pitching and I wasn't riding the bench. My students weren't quite as lucky. Out of a team of at least 15, there were hardly any substitutions during the game. Boo Kwan was the only one of my students that started, and he played center.
My students play on the Phantoms, and they had some cool uniforms. They faced the Cardinals, who in an interesting mix of Major League franchises you see plenty of in Korea (I've seen guys wearing Yankees shirts and Red Sox hats), they had St. Louis Cardinals jerseys and Cincinatti Reds hats. Put your C's up!

The coach had an overbearing presence, probably one of the largest Korean dudes I've seen here. He may have been 6'4" pushing 300, and when he spoke, the players sure listened. I couldn't get a good picture, as I felt weird enough just hanging around his bench. He's wearing the dark pullover and if you look hard, you'll notice a cigarette in his hand. "Bad News Bears" style, he chain smoked and paced for much of the game.

The Phantoms fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first, but came back strong in the bottom 2nd to make it 6-1. At the top of the 5th, it was 8-1, but capitalizing on walks and key errors, the Cincinatti Cardinals scored 6 runs to come within one.

The game had been going on for a few hours already and the teams scheduled to use the field next had been waiting for awhile, so the ump called it after 5. Lucky for the Phantoms, but I would not have been a happy Cardinal.
At the end, the umpire said some words, and rather than shake hands, the players took a good respectful bow toward one another. My students were glad I came, I was happy they won and hopefully I'll make it out again.

I awoke Sunday feeling great. The sun was shining warmly, it was the last day of the weekend and I was without a hangover. My buddy Brady asked me if I wanted to join him and some other Daegu boys to go see the second game of the season for the beloved Samsung Lions of Daegu. I thought, why not?

It was a perfect early spring day for baseball. The Lions faced off against the LG Twins of Incheon. There are only eight teams in the Korean league and it's something of a glorified minors, but the quality of ball that I saw was pretty good.

I couldn't believe how cheap it was to go! 6,000won for admission ($5) and BYOB is encouraged. I joked you could be a season ticket holder here for the cost of a single Red Sox game. The funny thing is, it's true.

The stadium was quite small, with a capacity just under 14,000. It was totally packed by the first pitch and many ended up sitting on the stairs between sections. We chose to set up along the fence in center field. You can see Stefan and Brady soaking it up above.
The game got off to a rocky start for the Lions. The starting pitcher let up 3 runs in the top of the first. Pictured above is the center fielder breaking for one of the many hits that inning.
The Lions fought back and put up 5 in the third. It was 9-3 by the time we packed up and left in the 7th, and they went on to win 9-4.
Notice the paper visors. It was like rice farmer meets Little Bo Peep. The things people do to beat the sun. Throughout the game, I really enjoyed the crowd participation. In true Korean fashion, it was over the top, complete with mascots doing sexually seductive dances with cheerleaders, Korea-pop overloads, and obnoxious inflatable boom sticks.

Another Korean twist concerned the refreshments. By mid-game, everyone, and I mean everyone and their grandma had ramen instant noodle bowls. Forget hot dogs. Also, nix popcorn and peanuts. The next most popular snacks were grill-your-own fish cakes and dried squid. This called for some crucial changes to the "Take me out to the ballgame" lyrics.
I was a little surprised to see the American flag flying, but hey, whose pastime is this anyway?

I got Seoul, but I ain't no Soldier

I'm surprised it took as long as it did for me to make it to the great South Korean capital. I never really had a reason until the lovely Joanne turned 22 and though it would be fun to go for the weekend.

We caught the rocket-ship attached to rails known as the KTX (4 hour journey in less than 2!) on a pleasantly sunny Saturday morning. As it can sell out, I bought my ticket along with everyone else in advance to assure a seat. However, I made a staggering miscalculation of how long it really takes to get from my door to the train station and after sprinting a gagillion steps up from the depths of the subway, I made it to the platform with only 2 minutes to spare. Phew...

In a repeat of the Daejon Christmas crew, it was Diana, Joanne, Handsome James and I kickin' it. The gals booked a hostel in a district called Hongdae. Near Hongik University, it had a fun/young/university/faux-hipster feel to it. Since Koreans tend to take the 'hipster' look in different directions than we're used to (the innocently ridiculous can soften the pretentious) I was feeling it. Our hostel, Beebop House, turned out to be a really nice place. Only having opened 6 months ago, everything was pretty new, the staff was helpful and energetic, and breakfast complete with eggs was included (a rarity considering that I expected no more than burnt toast).

After dropping the bags, we made a trip to Subway for my second "real" sandwich in three months or so. Complete with obnoxious pictures plastered everywhere of evil Jared Fogel, it was just like home. James and I split from the gals afterward, as Joanne was itching for some shopping and we wanted nothing more than to wander. We saw hats:
BOSTON EST. 1600? FALSE!!!! I would later learn that credit should be given for getting the century right. It was 1630 for those keeping score at home.

Wandering eventually turned into a search for silly things to wear out that night.
James fashions some, as he calls them, "novelty glasses." I wish you could hear him say novelty in his handsome British accent.

There were quality goods abound, but the highlight was definitely:
LEGALIZE GAY

James thought we had a show stopper. I mean what a thrill, to drop your pants on the dance floor to reveal neon colored "legalize gay" undies...

The price tag (33,000won/$30 or so) was discouraging. We settled for the less expensive, more dignified, but sadly not-neon colored headbands and wrist bands. Aviators were thrown into the mix as well.James's response the practicality of sunglasses in dark bars: "the sun never sets on a badass." Ha...

Added Joanne's birthday hat...

As Uncle G would say, we were feeling pretty nicked up the next day, so rather than strain ourselves with maps and walking, we sought out a bus tour.
The square where it left from. Also nearby:
The American Embassy! God Bless

The bus trip was my first, and hopefully my last. It was truly awful. The weather was lousy, there was heavy traffic wherever we went and most of the headsets with English translation of the sites were broken.
My large Starbucks was hardly taking the edge off. Nicked may be understating it.
Some famous shopping street.
Stefan, acting pretty much how we all felt. Note Burger King in the background.
There was a really cute baby in front of me though!
A fortress thing. After sitting in traffic staring at shitty buildings, we sped past this. Sweet.

Afterward, we tried to meet up with some friends on the other side of the city, but we didn't really know where we were going and the taxi dropped us in a place that was clearly not right. Unfortunately, when Korean cabbies ask you for clarifying information, the only thing you can really do is say "nay" (yes).

Standing on a random street corner, a elderly Korean man approached Stefan and started to strike up conversation. The next thing we know, we're following this guy to a Japanese restaurant bar at his insistence that he buy us a round. These arms, per usual, needed no twisting.

His name was Lou (at least that's what he told us to call him). His English was excellent as he had served in the air force and was stationed with US troops in Saigon during the latter part of the Vietnam War. He also lived in the US for 3 years while working as a consultant for the Boeing Company. He was 73, but boy was he sharp. I swear Koreans have some sort of anti-aging thing going for them. And I was under the impression that downing soju bottle after soju bottle would be the anti-fountain of youth...
A toast to Lou!

He seemed really enthusiastic to use his English and talk about his life to a bunch of young carefree dudes like ourselves. I'm not sure what to make of it, but he singled me out as a "playboy" and repeatedly expressed his "concern" for me. Maybe it was the head band.

We especially enjoyed his story about a Hooters t-shirt he brought back from the States that he handed down to his son. Of course, his son immediately consulted his Korean-English dictionary and was puzzled to find no entry for "hooter." We gathered that this led to a special "talk" between him and his son. After we had our laughs and jokes over this, Lou mentioned there was in fact a Hooters less than five minutes from the place we were sitting in. For old time's sake, we went.
Seriously. The people we were supposed to meet up with hours before texted us:

"Where'd you guys disappear to?"

Response:

"At Hooters with a 73-year-old Korean guy we met on the street. Explain later."

SKI KOREA: Part Two

YONG PYONG

Taking advantage of a three-day weekend a few weeks ago, seven Daegu boys and I headed up to Yong Pyong, one of the biggest ski resorts in Korea. We were a rowdy gang and it made for some memorable experiences.

To kick things off, Handsome James and another Brit by the name of Jon went out hard the night before we left. Even with an 11:00AM bus departure (cake in comparison to the 5:00AM departure we made to hit HighOne), they were late. The five of us that made it on time were sitting on the bus at 10:59 thinking they were screwed. We got them on the phone and they were still on their way in a cab. They said they had arrived at the station and we tried to create a diversion, and Tim ran off the bus to meet them, but then they said they actually hadn't arrived, the cabbie had just faked them out.

"No way they'll make it."

After getting yelled at by the driver for holding things up for nothing, the bus pulled out of the lot and began pulling around the station building. We were still on the phone with them.

"Wait, we're really here, we're really here!"
"We're pulling out now, run to the Lotteria! The bus is heading right towards it..."

At that moment, we could see them in the street. James bravely approached the front of the bus and got it to stop. The driver VERY reluctantly let them on and proceeded to yell and unload a series of crazy emphatic gestures. There was (we think) much profanity. We felt bad, but couldn't help but laugh, because we had no idea what he was saying, and in these situations, they're aware of this fact, but still chew us out anyway.

Having made his point, the driver went to a compartment behind his seat and pulled out two plastic mats. We looked around and saw there wasn't a single empty seat - their two seats had been taken by other passengers waiting in standby. So the driver unrolled the mats, handed them to James and Jon and gestured to the floor.

"Oh no, oh yes! James and Jon are about to enjoy the four-and-a-half hour bus ride on the floor of this bus - hilarious."

Still smelling of soju and just breathing hangover, they luckily found this about as funny as we did.

On to the actual skiing...

Yong Pyong was a much bigger mountain and since it was the Korean/Chinese New Year (they also observe the lunar calendar) nobody was there. No lines means lots and lots of runs. We also had the fortune of a huge snowstorm just before we arrived. It was incredible. We got off the bus right next to this tree. It's so Asian, and so snowy, I was so excited.

The landscape outside the lodge.

At the resort, sleeping arrangements hadn't quite been sorted out. The guys that had the original idea reserved beds in a hostel, but once more of us expressed interest, the place was booked. James, Jon, Tim and I managed to work out a plan to stay in a condo of a friend of a friend from Seoul. What we weren't prepared for was that it was the Korean idea of "condo" with a small bedroom and one "living" area connected with a kitchen and we were to share space with a cheeky 13 other people.
James and Tim take it in on our way up to the first run of the weekend.
Stefan, Brady, Kelso and James in a Korean winter wonderland.
We hit up night skiing twice, and the lift rides alone would have been worth the lift ticket. With fresh snow on the trees and beautifully lit stretches of mountain around the lift line, it was like floating through Narnia or something. The pictures hardly do justice.

Me and the Britboys were the last to make it back to the condo later that night and made no friends as we waded and chuckled through the dark room dense with slumbering bodies. I found real estate underneath a glass coffee table, no blanket, no pillow, no problem.

Day Two

In contrast to HighOne, we managed to keep the group intact. Everybody was pretty close in level and pacing so it was easier. All in all, the runs were leisurely and I could feel my boarding ability improving. I only took two "bad" falls all weekend.
The fresh snow a little more clearly seen the next day...
The summit of the highest run.
Love these guys.
Strapped in and ready to rock...
Spying Tim, Brady, Stefan and James in front of another really Asian-looking snow covered tree.
Stunning.

On the way back, we thought it would more fun and about the same price for us to rent a car to get back down to Daegu. Tim, through amazing trials and travails recently got his Korean driver's license. All the test consisted of was him doing one standing squat. This basically concedes that if you're fit to use a "standard" (squat) toilet in the Republic of Korea, you're fit for the roads. God help us all...

If you're curious, Hertz said no. We took a bus.

A Casual Trip to the Korean ER

So as I dug into my instant beef curry noodle dinner tonight, I began to feel an itch around my underarms. Having finally tracked down deodorant yesterday, I thought that maybe the Old Spice I paid $15 for was some sort of black market knockoff loaded with skin irritants.

By the time I finished eating, the itching had intensified and I also felt an itch around my hips. I went into my bathroom for a closer look and I saw that I had crazy rashes under my arms and around my pelvis, with hives in other random places. I went online suspecting an allergic reaction of some sort, and as I read symptoms for anaphylactic reactions, I felt lightheaded and I began to have tingling sensations.

Everything I read online advised that I seek immediate medical attention. For a moment, I tried having an attitude not unlike my dad's. When my mother's appendix burst, he prescribed some aspirin. When her water broke with my sister, I'm pretty sure he suggested they wait until the next day to deal with it.

I could feel my condition getting worse. When I realized I was having a little trouble breathing, I called Mr. Lee, and he drove me to the emergency room.

What followed involved a lot of gestures, pointing, and stripping. Ultimately, my self-diagnosis proved true. One moment, I was talking to the doctor:

"yes, you have allergic reaction, it is not too serious, but we should take precautions...this will be painful"

and the next moment a nurse appeared and I heard "sey-gay," which means three. She promptly gestured for me to drop my pants and offer my cheeks up.

Me: "Awwwww, in the butt? Really?"
Nurse: "Nay (yes)"

Having just been told "painful" and translated "3," all I could say was "aw, shit."

So as I hunched over the bedside, in went the first, and it hurt, and the nurse tried to be quick about the second, but I was taken by surprise and I tensed up. She motioned for me to rub the cotton ball from injection one and I was half doing that and half trying to keep my pants half up. She said "second, two" and kept telling me to relax (relax-ah!), but I was like "come on, give me a moment to recover here." She started laughing at my mumbled curse words, so I started laughing too.

All of this was going on in a crowded ER and we were only separated by a sheet. I can only imagine what the other ailing Koreans made of it.

She then made me lie down on the bed for one in the arm. Once that was over with, I was feeling quite woozy (those of you that know me well may be aware of my troubles with needles and such) and the nurse had another cotton ball in place. For the record, this is exactly what I heard:

Nurse: "don't love"
Me: "love what?"
Nurse: "don't love"
Me: "love?"
Nurse: "don't love!"
Me (thinking): you just stuck three terrible needles in me, I love neither you nor the needles
Me: "no love!"
Nurse: "love, love, love!" (gesturing in a rubbing motion)
Me: "OH, RUB!"

Once made clear, I took her advice. I can't speak towards other Asian languages, but I understand why Koreans have problems with "r" and "l." The character in Korean "ㄹ" is basically both. Try saying an "r" and "l" sound simultaneously and that's what you've got. The confusion over "v" and "b" is similar.

It took about an hour for the drugs to kick in, and then the hives were gone, and Mr. Lee laughed his ass off at the exchange between the nurse and I. No more instant beef curry for this guy...

SKI KOREA: Part One

HIGH ONE RESORT

Before coming to Korea, I'd been on a snowboard a total of three days in my life. The first time was on a Duxbury Middle School ski trip in the 7th grade. The next time was not until my second semester at UMass. That was 2006, so I'm thinking four years later, how hard could it be?

For sure, I'm not alone in my limited experience. Handsome "you know what really boils my piss?" James has only picked up skiing in the last month or so. Another friend, Tim, learned to snowboard two months ago. Both have only hit the mountain a couple times and they aren't unusual cases amongst our other friends.

My first trip was to HighOne Resort. It was a package deal - bus both ways, 2-day rentals, 2-day lift pass, and one night hotel accommodation for 180,000won (~$170).

When I finally got up there, it only took a few spills to get the feel down, and before long we were tearing.
I attribute most of it to long summer days spent skimboarding Duxbury beach. Little did I know back then the service it would do me on the mountains of Korea. I certainly never really thought that Korea would be the place that I'd hone my snowboarding skills, but the opportunities are there and I'm thrilled.

Hitting the mountain has definitely gave me a deeper appreciation for the beauty of the Korean landscape and outdoors. Given the bitter cold, it's hard to get out there, but I think once the weather breaks, there will be loads of fun stuff to do.
Tim and I take it all in.
Joanne and I prepped for our first run of day two.

Some of the get-ups Koreans wear out there are remarkable. If there's one thing these people do, it's accessorize. They may be disgracing the sport by falling all over the place but they look damn good doin' it. There were times when I felt like we were in the midst of a winter sports fashion show. It's winter 2010, and neon colors are IN.

Dude in the purple dread ha blue ice-demon suit smokes a cigarette (not pictured).
Another big thing is the couples matching. Couples would have the same outfit from head to toe. A ridiculous show of affection and a little nauseating.

The resort employees were awesome! They had these adorable suits and would wave with two hands, head rocking back forth and bouncing: "heyloooo nice-ah to meet-ah youuu." In the west, this would be considered humiliating. Here, it's embraced, and it brightened my day.

Regular Koreans also got into the costumed spirit:
Flying squirrel, tiger, and cow have mountainside a conference.

It's hard to convey in text, but Korean language doesn't really allow for words to end in a consonant. Instead they add an "ee" or "ah" to the end. I regularly hear my school (COOLish) referred to as COOLisheee. At the end of lessons, students say finisheee. More common is the "ah." It makes for some funny Korean accent impressions to just "ah" to everything. Case in point:

YOU WANT HOT DOGAHHH!? NEW YORKA HOT DOGAHHHH!!!

Skype me and I'll gladly act this out for you. My parents seemed to get a kick out of it.

Don't underestimate Korean ingenuity. Featured here: the log cabin ski-lift-drop trash receptacle.

Tim, handsome as ever, during out last run of the weekend with cool sky lighting effects in the background. Without all that much soreness, we ended up finishing strong.

STAY TUNED FOR SKI KOREA: Part Two...

Superbowl XLIV

Out and about the Saturday night before the Superbowl, I ran into a guy I met a few weeks ago named Yuri. Yuri's a hulking Russian that I may or may not have told resembles a villian out of a Bond film...
...but contrary to my cheap impression, he is a very kind dude and a member of the U.S. forces stationed here in Daegu. We eventually got ourselves some "breakfast" after the bar.

I had originally planned to watch the big game at the Holy Grill, a renowned expat restaurant/sportsbar downtown. It's owned by a cheerful lumberjack of a Canadian, he's got a remote DVR setup back home called a slingbox and will gladly tape and play any sports event you could want. I watched #6 West Virginia play #21 Pitt in basketball a few weeks ago as there are a couple WVU alums here teaching. Watching new ESPN commercials never seemed like such a thrill.

Well, Yuri tried to talk me out of going to Holy Grill during breakfast, insisting instead that I watch at Camp Walker, the largest of three bases here. With promises of lots of food, beer, and enthusiasm (not to mention as American as a great American holiday could be) I agreed.

One big catch was the time he told me to meet him. I know I keep mentioning it, but I'm 14 hours ahead of EST. A 6:30PM kickoff time means 8:30AM here. Yuri seemed wary about finding room to sit, so he told me to meet him at 6:00AM. Ouch.

It's SUPERBOWL MONDAY MORNING IN KOREA. It's most certainly not the same...

The process of getting me into a high-security military base was anything but straightforward. I had to show a passport and surrender my Korean foreigner ID while Yuri had to sign me in with his ID and produce a digital fingerprint, which wouldn't be so hard, but the machine broke. Nice-ah!

Once in, I tried to use an ATM, but my Korean debit card wasn't working. Luckily, they have a huge BANK OF AMERICA, so I took out some greenbacks.
Long time, no see Mr. Jackson.

To add to the novelty of withdrawing US dollars from a BOA machine, the Supervenue Yuri led me to was a restaurant in the base called...brace yourself..."The Hilltop." My stories of giant cow statues outside famous American steakhouses seemed quite lost on my Russian comrade, but it didn't lessen my excitement. The Korean Hilltop didn't disappoint. I got that classic American buffet style breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, homefries, OJ, and shitty drip coffee. Oh, how absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Many of the servicemen and women were on the older side and there were a handful of military families with kids there. Yuri introduced me to his friend Ben, a Giants fan from New York. We were probably among the youngest there.

Watching the big projector screen setup, I realized we would not be watching a regular broadcast. Instead, I saw a feed of CBS through AFN, the Armed Forces Network. Ben informed me that there would be no hyped multi-million dollar ads, rather, we would be treated to military public service announcements and other non-commerical fillers.

Offerings of thanks and praise also came from Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, NFL Hall of Famers, sports commentators, and a load of players from the Saints and Colts. The messages seemed very heartfelt and I tried to spy how they were received by those around me. It often depended on the speaker, but I'd say by the end of the game, the generic thanks became something like a broken record to them.
The announcements reminded troops of important things like not to litter, get too drunk and create trouble with locals, or allow embarrassing videos or pictures of themselves (especially uniformed) to surface on the internet. They were all super low-budget, local business TV ad style. I was waiting for Ernie Bock Jr. to pop onto the screen...

By kickoff, you could hardly move in the place and overall I'd say the crowd favored Indy, patronizing the Saints fans from the start. When Manning connected for the first touchdown of the game, the Colts support really boomed. Even I could feel that the flood gates were about to open. It never happened though. As momentum shifted to the Saints, the "who dey" chants just got louder and louder through the second quarter and never stopped.

What a game. I was way into it, and discovered that rooting against the Colts was almost as motivating as rooting for the Pats. I was sucked into it all the more so by the general enthusiasm. Clapping, high fives, and jeers of all varieties came after most every play. It was a shame that it was so early, because there was so much food: pizza, chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, jalapeno poppers and more. I wanted to find these treasured football foods appetizing, but given so little sleep and such a big breakfast, Miller Light draft was about as far as I could comfortably push it.

Props to my dad for calling the pic-six. I began to believe it would really happen over the course of the game, and then lo and behold, the most satisfying Peyton-face in history:
Hallelujah! Manning's on his ass, goodnight Colts!

At halftime, there was a guy from AFN giving things away like gift cards and NFL jerseys. After the game, they still had stuff left over. They gave out raffle tickets at the beginning for a lazy boy, but after giving up on awarding leftover prizes through NFL trivia that no one seemed to be able to answer, they just started calling numbers.

There was a huge pile of jerseys at the start, maybe one or more of every team up for grabs. Winners got to take the jersey of their choice. I wanted to split early, but Yuri insisted we stay until the prizes were gone. The last two jerseys left were a Vikings jersey and a Tom Brady jersey. The next winner, already donning a Jason Taylor Dolphin's jersey, picked up the Brady one and thought for a moment about his deep hatred for the beast of the AFC East before throwing it down in disgust and taking the Vikes one.

I was surprised and perhaps a little hurt that no one wanted anything to do with the Pats jersey; I was much more surprised and not at all hurt when the next number they called was mine! Woo!

I did hesitate for a moment to ask Yuri and Ben if it was okay, seeing as though I didn't want to overstep my welcome as a civilian guest, but they urged me on. So up I went with my Pats hoodie on that Kourt got me with a big grin. I think the jersey chose me.

When I picked it up, I realized this wasn't any replica plastic-screen print job, it was the real deal sewn numbers, logos, and name. At the NFL shop the authentic "on-field" jerseys retail at $259.99. Yowza. It made for one of the brighter Mondays in recent memory.