Korean Basketball League and a familiar face

Sporting events in Korea are very intriguing to me because, well: a) they are sporting events and b) I'm curious to see how they differ from their Western counterparts.

A few months back I had a chance to go to a soccer game.  That certainly was a different experience with all the chanting and singing, etc., but America doesn't really have a good soccer comparison for any foreign league.

But Sunday I went to a basketball game.  Well, let's just say we invented the game.  I didn't really know what to expect when I entered the arena for the first-place showdown between the home team and league-leader Incheon ET Land Elephants and the Wonju Dongbu Promy.

In some respects it was much like an NBA game with the piped in music, fan giveaways and such.  But the cheerleaders in Korea are much more intense about getting the fans involved.

The man pictured in the two pictures above was seemingly the head cheerleader and he stood on a platform that jutted out of the second deck and led most of the cheers.

It was a pretty entertaining game, with the Elephants pulling out a narrow, come-from-behind victory to remain in their perch atop the KBL (Korean Basketball League) standings.

Final thoughts of the game:
• It was pretty strange to see former Marquette center Amal McCaskill suited up for the Elephants.  I didn't expect that he would still be playing anywhere, seeing that his MU teams of the early 90s are among the first teams I remember watching seriously.  And after all, he's 37 years old.

McCaskill is second from left if you couldn't tell.

The old man didn't get that much playing time, only 10 minutes, but it was pretty cool to see someone from your childhood playing on the other side of the globe.

• Elephants is such an awesome mascot choice.

After the game my host Kwong Min, a teacher from school who has gone out of his way to be friends with me, and his friend, strangely enough the son of my school's vice principal, moved on to a new activity - ping pong.  OK, you can stop laughing now.  And yes, all those stereotypes about Asians and their ping pong skills are completely true.  I got smoked even when they took it easy on me and/or spotted me points.  Seeing some of the things some of the players could do with a ping pong ball was pretty crazy.

Then it was off to dinner.  We picked up Kwong Min's wife and young daughter and headed off for some samgyeopsal.  At first his daughter, who had met met me one other time, was quite shy and/or scared of me, but by the end of the night she warmed up to me.  Dinner was fantastic.  The samgyeopsal was amazingly porky and delicious, but there was one catch that made my night all the more interesting.

Shortly after our food came out Kwong Min uttered a collection of words that would change the night.  Among them were soju and juseyo (please).  In Korean culture it's impolite to turn down drinks, especially from your elders.  And considering that my meal and the basketball game were a treat on Kwong Min, I wasn't about to step on any feelings, real or imagined.

Luckily, the guys drank rather slowly, but we still polished off 3-4 bottles of soju.  And that left me with a sufficient buzz as we excited Pork Heaven.

Considering it was a Sunday and all, I was looking forward to getting back home fairly early, but Kwong Min was determined to have us stop by his home. Next up was a series of stops at different stores to pick up different things, including my assigned task of finding ice cream. 

Finally we made it back to his family's very nice, quite spacious apartment, watched some home videos, ate fried chicken (for some odd reason they thought we needed more food), sampled some pretty solid cookies and cream ice cream and Kwong Min broke out some Korean wine.  All the while his daughter was offering to feed us ice cream or other snacks.  It was pretty funny and cute, especially considering her initial reactions to me.

When it was time to leave I set off with the vice principal's son not really knowing where the heck we were going, although assuming it was toward the subway.  Well, he pulls into a building presumably to go to the bathroom or something, I didn't hear what he said, other than he would be right back.  Fast forward 10 minutes later - he's still not back.  So not knowing how to get to the subway I just flagged down a taxi, since I just wanted to get home.

I found out this morning he did take the subway back.  But I'm still not sure what the detour was about!

Home Cooking

Some people say it's cheaper to eat out in Korea than to eat at home, and while there are many places to find a low-price meal, it's still much cheaper to dine at home.  Plus, it often can be healthier as you control more closely what shows up on your plate.

But so far in my time here, despite not eating out all the time, I've avoided doing much cooking at home.  Or maybe more accurately I've been lazy and/or uncreative in my home-cooked meals (think scrambled eggs).  However, last week I decided to try my hand at adding some Korean flare to my cooking repertoire.  I made a very basic Korean style meal with rice (obviously), sesame leaves, ssamjang (seasoned bean paste), laver (seaweed), and mushrooms.  I just rolled the pan-fried chicken pieces in the sesame leaves with some rice, paste and mushrooms dipped in soy sauce for a simple, decent meal.

But Monday I was at the grocery store and while wandering the isles had the inspiration to see if I could pull off something new.  So I picked out a bunch of ingredients and set off for home eager to eat in my post-workout daze.  When all was said and done I had pulled off haemul pajeon (Korean style seafood and green onion pancake) and chamchi (tuna) bibimbap.  And it turned out alright!  Well, enough with the words.  Check it out yourself.

School Festival

Unless you've experienced one it's hard to fully describe the South Korean school festival.  It's kind of like homecoming week all squeezed into one day: carnival games, food stands, a haunted house and of course the talent show.  My school held its festival a week ago Friday.  I'll let the pictures (and videos) do some of the talking.

Yogurt drinking contest.

On my third go around I won back my money and a pair of socks!

Human bop-it game.

Samgyeopsal (grilled pork)

My haunted house escort.

Teacher rocking out while dressed like a student.

 

 

 

School Lunch

I really can't complain about my school's lunch program.  Four of five days I'm plenty satisfied with my meal.  I think the quality is a notch above American school lunch.  The biggest difference between lunch time at a Korean high school and its American counterpart is that you won't see anyone eating anything but what the school provides.  Sure, the kids will have snacks throughout the day from the school store, but at lunch everyone eats the same thing.   Below is a sample lunch (unfortunately not one of the best days).

Every lunch has some sort of kimchi (top left).  On this day we were blessed with radish kimchi (probably one of my least favorites).  And we always have rice (bottom left) and some time of soup (bottom right).  This day it was seaweed soup, which is a pretty steady, mild choice.  Then we typically have some other type of vegetable dish and a meat or tofu concoction. 

Today was seaweed soup, a carrot and meat (including octopus tentacles) entree in a sweet sauce, with cucumber kimchi (my favorite) and some other slightly sour greens.  A pretty solid lunch.

Korean Wedding

Last weekend I had a chance to go to a Korean wedding, as one of the English teachers I work with was getting married.  I was anxious to see what a ceremony was like here, so I was a little disappointed to find out it would be a Catholic wedding.  But it still was far from a Catholic wedding you might see in America.

Bride and Groom

I went to the ceremony with a few co-workers, and we watched as the Korean priest rambled in Korean for a while before the vows and giving of the rings.  But after that the bride and groom disappeared from my view (maybe sat down?).  And a minute or two later our group left the sanctuary to hit the buffet.  I was a bit taken aback that people would walk out before the ceremony had finished, but we were far from the only ones, and when we reached the first banquet room I was shocked that it was almost full.  Apparently in Korea it's quite common to not attend the ceremony and just give a gift of money and grab a bite to eat.  Well, since the first banquet room was full we headed downstairs to room number two and snagged plates full of food from an incredibly varied and long buffet table.

And after eating we took off.  That was it.  Very different in some regards and very normal in other.  Someday I hope to catch a more traditional ceremony.