A Bit o' The Ol' Push 'n' Shove

My Chuseok holiday finished with me ambling around Bundang for a few lazy days in late September. There was a game of screen golf with Matt and his pal Will, both originally from the U.S. but teaching in Korea now for 1 and 3 years respectively. Will was quite the golfer, and at one point criticised Matt - who is always looking to improve his game - for his "Willy Loman-like stance." I asked what that meant and Will went into his "a man is not a piece of fruit" speech. Basically Will thought Matt looked a bit pathetic.

I enjoy the company of these two guys. Matt consistently displays the similar style of whimsical and irreverent Facebook status update that I favour, though (if possible), he does it better than me. Screen golf on the other hand is as boring as batshit. Yes it is amusing for the first half an hour to hit a ball against a screen then let the computer take over, but after that novelty wears away, all there is to do is drink. After an hour of that, the golf just becomes a nuisance. Some say that golf ruins a nice walk, but it ruins so much more than that, including the opportunity to have a good piss up with your new mates.

So we went to Traveler's "for 1" after the golf, and stayed for 5. There we managed to continue the afternoon of "sport" by playing fussball and darts. Each one of us emerged as the best at one of the sports, and I'm pleased to say that I became known as the one to beat at darts, which is of course the only real sport of the 3.
I called it quits early though as I drink so infrequently now that it knocks me for 6 whenever I do touch it. I also can't think of a better way I could have saved more money than in reducing my alcohol intake, other than to take up smoking and give it up in the same week.

Before you get the wrong idea please know that I went to Sarah Wilson's housewarming party 2 weeks ago and got completely soused. Okay, let's move on.

The marathon training is in full swing now as the big race is less than 2 weeks away. I will run my final long distance training session this Thursday, then do a couple of quiet ones in the week leading up to the race. On the big day I am praying for weather much like what we've been enjoying lately. My prediction came true that once the summer passed and the humidity dropped sharply I would cope with the distance running so much easier. I've even got half a mind to enter a full marathon in March, before it warms up too much.

But the major event on my horizon is my trip to China this January. Any day now I will receive my jolly old Lonely Planet China from Amazon, after which I can plan in detail my trek across the eastern and central parts of China. At the moment the idea is to take the ferry from Incheon to Qingdao, then use trains once I am on the Chinese mainland, working around to Xian and Beijing, before heading home (to Bundang - I think of it as my home I guess). In preparation for this I have been refreshing my Mandarin; it's remarkable how much stuck from all the way back in the year 2000. Immediately upon forming the first few words I fell for the sounds and the tones of the language again. After perusing the phrasebook for 25 minutes over a meal of deok mandu guk last night I found I had forgotten every word of Korean I knew, almost saying goodbye to the cook in the wrong language.

The Koreans are treating me well and I've gotten used to some of their behaviours, even if I can't always immediately accept that the "rudeness" isn't to be taken personally. I've never thought too much about the simple act of walking in a crowd, however within a few weeks of landing over here, I found I'd reflected upon it many times. There is a different flow of pedestrian traffic, one which I am used to now and so don't even notice that much, but I saw how the "after you" and "do you mind if I don't" gestures which I was brought up to believe in were less a kindness and more of a hindrance over here, where everyone already knows their place and so expects to either go first or wait for you. There are random acts of kindness of course, and in general the lack of aggression and the safety of Korean society are very attractive parts of the culture. But these "western hang-ups" of mine - of believing in personal space for instance - will just have to be suspended. It's not always that bad: Lucy brushes up so close to me during lesson planning that I have to remind myself that it doesn't mean anything. In truth, however, there have been fewer instances of that, and more of being forced up against a dribbly old man wearing a smashing US Navy cap on the subway, and not being able to move until we get back to Seolleung.