Teacher's Sports Day

Following on the heels of the student's sports day was teacher's sports day. Last Friday three bus loads full of Sangji Girls Middle and High School teachers made the hour long journey to Chuncheon. This day was only for private schools, not public schools, so instead of hundreds of schools participating from Gangwon province there were about 20 schools in total. In addition to Jason and I, our friend Scott also attended, as did an old friend from UCI named Ben who I had not yet previously met up with in Korea. 

Arriving at school at 7:30 we promptly left and were given kimbab to eat on the bus. Although the ride was only an hour, we stopped at a road side snack shop. I think it was just for the teachers to have some fun and buy coffee because we didn't need to stop. They even bought me some coffee and tried to convince to me to run the relay race. "Relay? You run?" I laughed and shook my head, not wanting to be signed up for any more events. I was already slated to play women's kickball and team jump rope. Back on the bus we went and within 20 minutes we had passed through Chuncheon to the beautiful forested outskirts of the town where the sports complex is. It was a huge place, with three or four different stadiums devoted to baseball, soccer and tennis (I think.) Inside the soccer stadium tents were sent out lining the court for the different schools to park their stuff under and relax. 

Sangji found our spot and the teachers quickly put down some shiny aluminum like material that they had brought in a large roll for us to sit on. They also immediately opened the two large coolers that had been carried in. They were filled with food and drink! And when I saw drink I mean not just water, soda and Gatorade, but beer, soju and mackeolli! This was to be more of a drinking and eating day than a time for playing sports. Before it was even 10:00 the women teachers had opened some beers and were chowing down on strips of pork with spicy dipping sauce. Unfortunately the festivities were cut short when we all had to stand up and go to the lawn for the long and boring opening ceremony. 

And then bam, it was time to play kickball! All us women teachers had matching soccer jersey's on that we'd borrowed from the students, so we looked like a unified team. I'm not sure how athletic we really were. Most of the women were over 40 on our team although a few were surprisingly competitive. It seemed like most of the other schools had teams composed of really young teachers. Whatever. While Scott said his schools team wanted to lose right away so they wouldn't have to play, our team captain wanted to WIN! So thus started our first game. Each game only lasted three innings. At the end of the three, we were tied. Rather than have us keep playing, the officials decided rock, paper, scissors was the fairest way to decide who would advance. (I was stunned thinking, are you kidding me?!) By some twist of luck, our VP won and we advanced! 

And so the day went on, we played 5 matches in total. We did so well we were in the semi-final match, our 5th match of the day, around 2pm. After we finished was the final men's soccer match and then the day would be over. This game was intense. The team we played had strong kickers and obviously knew the technical rules of the game, something our teachers lacked knowledge of. There were plenty of times we could have had an out but they just wouldn't throw the ball to the right base, or the other team would score a run because we wouldn't throw it back to the pitcher to stop the play! I tried to frantically convey to my teammates what to do many times but no one listened or understood when I would yell "second! The ball to second!!" Too bad. In the end we lost, 6-7. But our super competitive team captain couldn't let it go and she argued with the referees for over 20 minutes. In a very unfriendly like manner and a show of poor sportsman ship, we didn't even bow and shake hands with the other team, everyone just walked away! Basically our team thought we should have won because we got a player out at the last second thus her run shouldn't have counted. Yet she wasn't forced to run, so we needed to have tagged her rather than just simply stood on the base. No one understood this on our team and while I did, I couldn't convey my understanding to anyone. Language barrier to the max. So I just smiled and wandered away.

All the teachers were super impressed by me because I was practically the only one that could strongly kick the ball. Every time I would kick it over the outfield's head and gain two bases. I could also catch the ball when it came my way. Like I said, our team wasn't very athletic. This was the most athletic exercise I'd had in months, maybe even years! On the side line the teachers kept yelling to me "I love you! You are genius! Wow, big kick! My friend!" or in the end "MVP!!" Made me feel good and it was actually really fun to play. (Pathetically, I was swore for two days afterwards, so out of shape I am!!)

Besides playing so much kickball all I did was eat all day! Truly the main event for every teacher was eating and drinking! Before the day was done all the soju, watermelon, grapes, pork and other various snacks had been consumed. It was a horrible mess. Koreans are so funny sometimes! I would have eaten more if I had more time. Scott didn't play any games so he was stuffed. Jason managed to get on the soccer team and had lots of fun playing two games. I was impressed by his skills, I had no idea he was so athletic! He got super sunburned and was bright red at the end of the game. One teacher told him he looked like an apple.