All You Can Eat Buffet!

Wow. This is probably going to be a pretty long post considering so much happened yesterday. I apologize again for missing a day, but by the time I got home it was pretty late and I was in no shape to write haha. The day started out with exercise together with the other foreign students. Then I had to leave early with the Mongolians from my class to get my alien registration card. After that was the all you can eat buffet.

So the day started with exercise. We were supposed to meet at 9am on the recreation area next to the global lounge where we take our classes. I got there a little early to make sure that I finished everything early. I didn't know how chaotic things were going to be. I was right, things ended up being crazy. Most of the other teachers don't know how to speak English, so figuring out what they are saying is tough.

My Mongolian buddy (lets call him Monk for short) and I stood around together and hung out while everyone else was getting their name tags taken care of. Nathan also got there around 8:50 and hung out with us while watching the crowd gather around. There had to be close to 200 students at this thing, it was pretty crazy. I took some pictures to show you all.

Stretches to warm up!

Balloon Game?!

Chillin in the shade watching some kind of game.

They will literally deliver food ANYWHERE here...on motorcycles.

Nathan chilling in the shade, bein a cool dude.

So we started out with a bunch of stretching. They put us all in lines about 10 students in each and stretched out across the rec area. I hung with Nathan for most of it. After that was done the games began. The first game was 피구 (Pigu) or dodge ball! I had signed up for it the week before thinking that it was one of the least offensive games they were going to have. I'm also pretty good from what I can remember of school. After I signed up though, the other students pointed out that I would be a big target for everyone else to throw at.

Korean dodge ball is different from American. You have a set amount of players (in this case 6) around the edge of the other team's square. These are attackers and can assist in getting the other team's players out. There are unlimited passes, and obviously the object is to get all the players on the other team out. If you catch the ball, then someone from your team is saved. I was chosen to be an attacker around the outside of the other team's square, which was probably a good decision by my team.The other strong guys from our team were also chosen, and the same went for the other team.

We lost the first game pretty badly. We hadn't really figured out the teamwork yet. Also there was a girl on the other team that was surprisingly good. I made sure to take note of that and got her out pretty early on in the second game. She was NOT HAPPY haha, but it was all in good spirit. We won the second game pretty handily, and I'd like to take some credit for it. I started to pass the ball around the edge of the square to force the students in the square to move a lot. The other guys on my team picked up on this quickly and we ended up winning. I had to make the hero play to end the game too, I zeroed in on the last girl and threw a rocket to get her out. That brought a lot of cheers from our sideline.

The same thing happened for the third game as well. (I made sure to let the girl who was good know that I was coming for her). There was even a girl who came up to me before the third game and said she was scared of me because I was so strong. I laughed and promised I wouldn't hurt her. Early during the third game one of the girls from the other team got the ball and almost threw it at me. Everyone cracked up because you can't get the attackers out. These events are always good to bring people together even though they seem like they will be a drag before they start. We ended up winning 2-1 in dodge ball and scoring a point for our team.

Following dodge ball it was time for me to relax. First though I wanted to take a video of what was going on. In the middle of my video I was approached by two Vietnamese students who wanted to take pictures with me. This is beginning to be a pretty common occurrence here so I'm not even phased anymore when it happens. After that I went over to the shaded gazebo and watched the balloon game. Nathan followed as well as some other people. There was also a Japanese girl who sat next to me and apparently just wanted to listen to English being spoken. She hung around us all day. That was pretty cool.

After a little while they served lunch. We each got a roll of 김밥 (Kimbap) rice/veggies/egg/ham rolled in seaweed, and 닭 (Dak) fried chicken. Nathan and I were a bit late to the party and didn't get any chicken, which I was ok with. I wasn't all that hungry because I had a big breakfast, plus I wanted to make sure I was famished for the all you can eat buffet that night. Nathan however wanted all the chicken he could get his hands on.

We headed over to the gazebo with our new found friends and there was a girl from the Bahamas there. She had her own box of chicken so she shared with Nathan. Boxes were supposed to be for 3-4 people, but I guess she had somehow got one by herself. After lunch Nathan and I were headed to the bathroom when one of our teachers yelled at me. I thought we weren't supposed to go to the bathroom, but instead he gave me a box of chicken. He told me to bring back the trash when I was done.

Well Nathan didn't want to waste the chicken, he wanted to save it for later. So we hatched a plan to give the teacher back some of the trash we had just disposed of, and he would run the full box of chicken back to his refrigerator in his dorm room. We felt pretty awesome doing this, it was like pulling a heist. Everything went off without a hitch and he got back in time for the next games.

I was also signed up for the 팔씨름 (Pahl She Reum) arm wrestling event. This is such a lose lose for me. I'm easily the biggest guy here, and I'm obviously expected to win. Either I win and it's business as usual, or I lose and it's the biggest upset ever. I was pretty determined to not let that happen. I blame the girls in my class for signing me up. They kept yelling my name when the teacher was asking who wanted to do it.

They taped off a small section of the rec area and pulled out two chairs and a table for the competition. It was actually a REALLY cool atmosphere as the students crowded around to see. There were also a lot of pictures taken. Nathan also showed off his photography prowess and sent me some of his work.

My final match.

#Winning

They put 5 people on each team. Whichever team ran out of members first lost. The girls started. The other team started with their best member and she beat the first two of our girls easily. Then our third girl came in and literally ran the table on the other team. Pretty awesome to see. They presented her with a gift as the champion, and then it was time for the men.

My team thought the format was different. Originally I was the second member of our team, but my team wanted to switch me to third because they thought the strongest guy on the other team was third and I would be going against him. As a result the first member from the other team beat our first two guys. I was a bit nervous at that point because those guys had looked pretty strong when I had seen them before.

As the second guy on our team exited, it was time for me to step into the spotlight. I was terrified, there were HUGE cheers going out from the crowd and people saying woahhhhh as I came in. I made sure to shake the hand of my opponent to do my best to seem friendly instead of a stuck up self important big guy here to clean up. Who knew what could happen?

The first guy must have been a bit tired because I beat him much easier than I thought I would. One by one they came in and lost. Their third guy who my team set me up against specifically came in and tried to tell the ref how to do his job. I welcomed the rest, but it was a bit ridiculous. Finally we were ready to go and we went at it. This one was definitely a bit of a struggle, but I finally emerged victorious. I also finished off the fourth and fifth challengers and awaited my prize.

But wait! We're not done yet! They started bringing my own team up to challenge me! I guess they felt bad that the other guys on my team didn't get a chance to face me. My arm was already dead at this point. They actually asked if I wanted to switch to my left arm. I said no I was fine and we moved on. I beat everyone else one by one until the last guy. His name is Justin and he is from Jamaica. He's a really nice guy, but he came in INTENSE. No smile, nothing, just business. Ok I respect that. That top picture up there is me and him staring each other down.

For the first 15 seconds of the match we both looked each other dead in the eyes. I can't imagine how intense those moments were for the students watching. We were deadlocked at the same position the ref had started us out at. I couldn't move him at all, he couldn't move me at all. I stared right into his eyes and smiled. All the other matches I had immediately gotten an advantage over the other person, this one I didn't. He must have had a ton of adrenaline built up because he was strong. After realizing I wasn't going to brute strength him down, I decided that I needed to be smart.

I took a little bit of force off, and held just enough to not go past even. This caused him to get a little edge and people started going crazy. I wasn't going to let that happen though. I knew that if I went past 90 degrees I would have been done for because I had already gone through 8 matches. I held strong at 90 degrees and then went for a burst. I think this caught him off guard and gave me a pretty good edge. More cheers went up from the crowd and he got a burst of energy to stop me for a short time, but I wasn't going to let up, I shifted my weight a bit and tried to get on top of him. I ended up winning and was presented with the championship!

My prize for winning the arm wrestling title!

After I had won, Nathan decided he wanted to challenge me.

Nathan was curious how he would do against the champion, and I obliged. We went left arm first because I was more rested. I got him off the bat but he resisted well for awhile. I didn't really have the strength to finish him, but eventually I got him. Then we went right arm. This match went almost exactly like my final match from before. I couldn't budge him at all, he couldn't budge me. Then all of a sudden I used a burst to get him down. He didn't even know what happened, he was like "wow I felt like I was doing really well then all of a sudden my arm was down, what did you do?". That was fun.

Being the solo sport that it is, I got all the glory that comes with winning. I was a celebrity, a superstar once again. People were handing me cold waters, and taking pictures with me. Girls were smiling at me and guys wanted to be me...or something like that. Unfortunately it was time for us to leave to go to the embassy. I had to forego much of my party to head over there and apply for my alien registration card.

There were about 16 of us, and we ended up having to take a bus there. The bus we got on was packed so most of us were forced to stand up. Let me tell you that's not easy for a big guy especially the way this guy was driving. They must go through brake pads every week. Slamming on the breaks, jamming on the gas. When you have more weight, you get thrown around a lot harder. After already doing arm wrestling, my arm was dead and trying to hang on to a bus handle was tough.

Eventually enough people got off that we were able to sit down though and I sat next to a guy I had just made friends with. Ironically his name is also Joseph Kim (just like my boy Wipkim). We were standing up next to each other and he asked my name and seemed to want to talk. I smiled at him but was busy talking to Monk who was also on this journey. Funny enough when a seat opened up it was right next to Joseph and I didn't realize it until I sat down.

I was exhausted so I leaned back in the seat and he said hi. We started talking and had a good conversation. He told me I looked like one of the Samsung Lions (pro baseball team) players and showed me a picture. He said he was majoring in English, and I kind of expected his English to be better, but maybe he was a freshman. Either way we had to get off and I shook his hand and thanked him for a good talk.

We walked about a block to the embassy and got to sit down and relax a bit. The escorts with us had already taken everything needed for our applications so all we had to do was wait. Monk and I just talked most of the time and finally it was time to get our fingerprints done and head back to school.

Outside the immigration office.

There were some African students with us who had to go upstairs and do something special. We ended up leaving them behind and catching the bus back to campus. I made friends with a Vietnamese girl on the bus ride home. She's also a student in the foreign language program at Daegu University. The Vietnamese students here know zero English. It blew my mind that we had a full conversation in Korean and understood each other. When did I learn to do this? What is going on?!

I knew I was on a schedule with the buffet being that night. I thought we were supposed to leave about 6:30 so we had plenty of time. I didn't have wifi this entire time either so I wasn't able to send or get messages from anyone. I walked back in the dorm and Heavy G started yelling "where have you been" etc. Ok he wasn't yelling, but it felt like it haha. I told him I just got back from the embassy and I couldn't avoid it. He urged me to shower and get ready as fast as I could so we could go.

I showered and threw on some clothes and we headed to the buffet. The place was like a block from our church which was pretty cool. It was in a really nice hotel, and was a German themed restaurant. The buffet was all you can eat AND all you can drink. We got there and the other RA's were apologizing profusely for being late. I guess that's a cultural thing because I was under the impression that I was the guest of honor and it's not like I could apply for my alien registration card at some other time.

You know it's gonna be a good night when you hop in the car and your jam is the first thing that plays.

Anyways we jumped right into the food. Man it was really really good. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of the buffet itself because I figured that would be pretty awkward walking around with my phone. I did however get the waiter to take a picture of all of us sitting together eating. I had a really great time and finally got my first taste of Korean eating/drinking culture. Let me tell you, it's crazy.

술! (Sul) Alcohol

The K-PACE employees

Stage with live band!

There was a live band there playing both Korean and English songs the entire night. After our first plate of food, An Hyo Sang and YJS went to get us some 맥주 (Mek Joo) beer. I haven't had a beer or a time to let loose in about 2 months so I went to town. After awhile they came back with some 소주 (Soju) as well as beer. We started making SoMek which is soju shots poured into beer. This place brewed their own beer and had 3 different styles. There was an American lager, a hefeweizen, and a stout. I figured out quickly that while I love hefeweizen beer the most, the stout was best when mixed with soju.

Eventually the higher ups decided to head home, but the teachers and RA's stuck around to party. This is where things started getting wild. They started doing "one shot" waterfalls where you were required to finish the rest of your drink (whatever it was) in one shot. I was drinking stout with double shots of soju in it, so that got fun rather quick.

We ended up heading out of there and down the street to another bar. This time we were making SoMakSa, which is a combination of Soju, Makkeolli (rice wine), and cider (think 7up). This stuff was so good. I'm pretty sure it's the blackout drink, because it doesn't taste like you're drinking anything. We also ordered a lot of food, which was strange because we just came from a buffet haha but I didn't argue. I wasn't hungry so I thanked them profusely for the food I was offered but said no.

One of the teachers decided to stir the pot a bit and ask me what I thought of all the other female teachers. She also told me that one of the other teachers was my girlfriend now. Heavy G drove us there but he was forced to drink with the other teachers so we ended up having one of the hotel employees drive us back. This is a service that is regularly offered here. The employee drives you home and a car follows to bring them back to their job, pretty genius if you ask me. Either way the night was awesome! There was a lot of community drinking, and a lot of fun. I really really enjoyed my time out with them. I'm sure there will be more times coming!

Sorry for the long post guys, I was going to do today's post as well, but I've been working on this for about 2 hours and I'm pretty sleepy, so I'll get to Saturday tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in!

Korean Word/Phrase of the Day:파티 (Pah Tee) Party!

TL:DR I'm in Korean.