My First Korean Friends

So what my new Korean friends are between the ages of 35-46 and are married. Don't judge me!

I was supposed to meet some people today to play soccer at one of the university fields. I got there a bit early ready to meet some native English speakers and have a real conversation. Yet to my dismay there was no one at the field! Luckily, I brought a book and it was a beautiful sunny day. I decided to walk up a bit to see the university, but I stopped to watch some people play tennis. It was so relaxing to watch that I stood there for about 20 minutes. Then I heard, "HEY!" rather loudly and close to my face. "Do you like tennis-uh?". "Yes, I do." was my reply. Then I decided to sit on the steps leading down to the tennis court and read my book.

Secretly, I was hoping someone would take pity on me and ask me to play. I felt like that kid who had no one to play with at recess in grammar school because they too much dandruff or smelled funny. I comforted myself with my book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and continued to peer up over my sunglasses and spy. I wanted to be seen, but not seen staring too much. Then 30 minutes later my plan worked! Moo hahahaha. Someone yelled, "Hey you, come here." So of course I obeyed. The man who called me offered me some coffee and gave me an XL Prince tennis shirt. I accepted with pleasure and confusion. I suppose he thought since I was from the U.S. an XL would fit me.

I asked if I could borrow a racket and hit with him. I think things got lost in translation. He thought I was asking to take the racket. Then another person came and sat down, Lim Sang-hyo was his name. I saw that he had no one to play with and he could understand my English a bit better. So I asked if I could hit with him. Deep down I felt ridiculous. This is what they teach you to say in grammar school, but it actually goes a long way. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!

I played 3 sets that lasted from 4pm until 7pm. They had to turn the lights on because it was getting dark. I played with Park Su-yong twice and Lim San-hyo once. I could tell they were actually impressed with my ability. They were the best doubles matches I have played in a long, long time. And the best part was me making up names for my opponents. Raging Bull was No Hong-seok (I had to make up nicknames before I knew their real names) and the other was Flying Dragon or Bak Sang-ki.

-"Ok, nice to meet you. Thanks for lending me your racket. Perhaps I will see you next weekend."
My body was aching and my eyes were slowly shutting from fatigue. But wait!
- "No, no, no Sa-man-da. You must come to dinner with us. I will pay."
- "Oh, dinner OK!"
So we all went to dinner. I had a Hite beer, udon noodle soup with tofu (man was it spicy. they put pepper in the soup, but it was strangely delicious), chicken and scallion on a stick, some fresh cucumbers and chinese apples, fried chicken wings, and what looked like pork rinds but only smaller and not different colors. We sat for an hour and a half. My new friends told me that my head was a nice size. I am not making up these terms. We talked about head sizes. They said their heads were big and Park Su-yong's head was 'triple size'. We all had a good laugh at that. This is what I need to know how to say in Korean. Forget about my name is, i live in jinju, i am a teacher. I want to know how to say, my head is smaller than yours.

Moral of the story. I am meeting them tomorrow at 7pm to play tennis and to meet a tennis coach. They said they will try to get me a discount on lessons. I'll offer to tutor anyone the coach would like in English if I get lessons half-off.

I can't wait to wear my XL Prince tennis shirt tomorrow. I put it on and it is swimming on me, but at least I look Semi-Pro.