So yesterday was my best day in Korea so far even though I'm almost positive that I tore my MCL and fractured my ankle but I'll explain that in due time. The day started off as any other with me waking up at 5 a.m. since my sleep cycle is completely off. The worst part of being off your sleep cycle that many don't realize is that your eating habits are off also. I'm hungry at crazy times of the day. So yesterday I decided to face my hunger head on and had my first authentic Korean meal. I guess when your starving anything is good yet, surprisingly, this meal was quite delicious and more importantly it was most satisfying. But my goal yesterday was to play some soccer. So I headed to the nearby field to watch a pick-up game while I read my Brave New World (how appropriate) book. Again it was a bunch of old men playing an organized game so I decided to just practice some freestyle tricks off to the side. But before I knew it I had Koreans sitting close-by and watching as others decided to jump in and play along. One of those that jumped in was a spry old man of 76, Mr. Chae. Mr. Chae speaks English as well as someone who knows and never has anyone to speak it with. His first question, "Where you from? You Canadian? 'Merican?" To which I responded, "Texas sir." He asked me what I thought of ex-pres Bush and Obama. We joked back and forth as we kick the ball to one another. Meanwhile, during all this the organized game that had been going on had finished. They had been playing on a half field and apparently wanted to play on a full field but need more players. So one of the older fellas, prob 70, who spoke semi-English asked me if I wanted to play. Ha, of course, that was the whole reason I went out there. So here I am, 23 years old, six foot three playing against men whom none of which were younger than double my age. I decided not to play full throttle and just distribute the ball to make it fair and not seem like such an American. I was playing in my indoor shoes so it was actually easy not to play all out since I had no grip. Although I wasn't playing at my best I still managed to score twice. Then half time. This is where everything got fun. The old men huddled around me and started joking with me, "Your speed, ok." They pointed at my indoor then to their cleats. Obviously, they knew I should be playing in cleats so I dug out of my bag my Copa Mundials. Anyone who knows anything about soccer knows these cleats are the Rolls Royce of soccer shoes, timeless and the best. The Koreans knew this and all of them came over to feel my cleats and show me theirs. One joked that his name was Beckham another that he was Ronaldiho. But, the best part of all this was they were all smoking cigarettes, at HALFTIME! This blew me away. These old men were running as much as me but where smoking. Second half starts and my knee starts aching horribly which affects how I play. Then while chasing a ball my ankle gets crushed by another Korean's cleat. Now I know that some would say that red heads feel more pain but this knee problem was unbearable. I went home and lied in bed and I still haven't gotten up till just now to write this. I had to put a pillow under my knee just to take the pressure off the joint. But, I wouldn't trade today for anything. It offered me my first true interaction in the local culture and with actually Koreans. I will always cherish that half-time where we all sat around joking and laughing as the older gentlemen enjoyed their cigarettes. What a great place.
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