We started the weekend by heading out to Gwangju with some fellow foreigners. We had bought tickets to a baseball game that evening, but were on our way early because we had other new and exciting plans. Neither Jamie or I had ever been rock climbing (you know, the kind without the bungee cord to pull you up that you do when you are kids) and our friends had only been once or twice, and certainly never in Korea. But we had heard about this particular gym from some mutual friends who were pretty sporty, and (and this is important) don't speak Korean. So we figured it must be a safe bet. The gym was small enough, and shared a space with a skiing practice gym (some sort of strange turf slopes that rolled like a treadmill. Don't ask... we didn't linger there long). But as we suspected, the owners spoke flawless English, and access to the gym along with shoe rentals was only 15,000 won (or less than $15). We started out on the easy walls, and well, didn't get much further than that. It only took about an hour before our grip and forearms were so weak we could barely hold a water bottle. Embarrassing? Yes. Fun? Incredibly so. We will definitely be back (after some pushups maybe). The owners seemed to enjoy watching us fall onto the padded floor after spending a few minutes getting just high enough that we were about twice our own height, and they asked us all sorts of questions about our time here in Korea. I would have taken pictures if I could have held the camera without my hands shaking, or if they hadn't been covered in chalk. Oh well.
After a big lunch and a nap at our respective hotels, we met back up to head out to the game. In the cab we got into the origins of baseball in the east, and did some googling (yay smartphones!). The cabby informed us that baseball in Korean is 야구 (ya-gu) which led us to believe that the Koreans actually aquired the sport from Japan during one of their occupations, since the word in Japanese is 野球 (yak-yu) and it is such a big sport over there (particuarly in high-school, I hear). Anyway, this was an interesting little revalation, and kept us busy on the ride. We had pre-ordered tickets, so one unlucky foreigner got to fight with the automatic ticket machine in Korean to get them printed out. We met up with others, and in total, there were probaby a dozen of us english speakers all together for the game.
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| Look how close to the field our seats were! |
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| These super-cute foreigners get a little excited. |
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| These fellow foreigners get really excited! |
The game was the Gwangju Tigers versus the Seoul Heroes and we absolutely crushed them. Well, it looked that way until the last inning when our 5 run lead was threatened by a good final-inning effort. But we pulled through. Our seats were exciting, not only because we were right by left field, but also because we were adjacent to a section called the "fever zone" which is positioned right behind the dugout and cheerleaders platform. The cheerleaders and mascots led chants from there, so this particular zone was notorious for having the most fun. The chants were relatively easy to learn, since usually they just consisted of the players name followed by "home run." This of course works because Koreans names are all exactly three syllables, so it always fits the meter. There was, however, one western recruit on our team. We saw him immediately (the only black player on the field) and again, did some googling. Apparently he is from Curacao and recently started playing here after some time in the states. His name was Rodger, and as you might guess, he had our full support, complete with chants, cheering, and whistling when our team took the field. Being foreign in such a homogenous country is interesting...
So we celebrated this Easter with rock climbing, baseball, and expats in the big city. Not exactly your classic celebration, but it certainly was special. And now, because my phone is overflowing with beautiful pictures, here's a few more of Goheung in the Spring.
Happy Easter, everybody!
-K
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