I'd like to apologize to my three readers for the delay in the posts. It's easy to procrastinate on this stuff. I'll start off with exactly two weeks ago (I think). I played my first soccer game. I looked all over the ESL forum for anything soccer related, and it was hard to find. There were a few organized teams that played on weekends (something I can't commit too, since many of my few classes are on weekends), but that didn't appeal to me too much because they were probably really, really good (mainly people from the British Isles and Koreans, I'm guessing) and would be the type that would get really pissed off if you made a mistake. Pick-up is more fun. Anyways, there was one pickup game at 7AM on Saturdays far away, which really didn't appeal to me, and another one on Sundays at the same time as one of my classes. Luckily, I did find a group that plays on Tuesdays at 7, when I don't have class. The problem is it's really far away: in the suburbs of Seoul, and between an hour and an hour and a half from my house (though from my school it is much closer), but it's worth it because I really need some exercise. I don't like gyms and heard bad things about Korean gyms, and anyway, they're all between 60-70 dollars a month. Not worth it.
The field is gravel and pretty small with huge goals. We take it for granted in the US how many parks there are. There are two or three within a very short distance from my house that are very large, with nice grass. I've only seen a few parks in my entire time here. They never have any grass, usually only a basketball court or two, and a sort of courtyard with some benches where you can sit. I don't know what Koreans do for exercise. From what I hear the gym thing hasn't really caught on here too much, and they don't have much in terms of indoor soccer from what I hear. I think in the winter they just play badminton and in the summer, soccer and baseball, but I have no idea where they play those two.
Anyways, it was lots of fun to finally play soccer again. The first game I was terrible, there are a few English and Irish that come that are really good, and one of them might be one of the best soccer players I've ever played pick-up with (he's on a serious organized team as well). It's really hard to get used to controlling the ball on the surface, it rolls very easily, almost like playing indoor on a basketball court or something. After a couple weeks of playing I still can't really use my left foot. They decided to start playing twice a week though, so that's good, and I've gotten more used to it and had a couple of good games. But less and less people are showing up (weather, maybe? It's getting really cold here) so I don't know how much longer we'll be able to do it.
It was good though to meet up with a group of waegookin (foreigners) because it was only my second time doing so. They're a fairly likeable bunch so it'll be nice to have that during the week. We'll see how my schedule turns out, I might start getting night-time classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we might have to stop doing it for lack of interest.
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