The title to this post is a tad misleading. The weekend wasn’t particularly lazy, but I
didn’t go anywhere. Given the long
travel to-do list I have, I consider it a lazy weekend if the weather is good
and I neglect to go anywhere. I did try
to go to Geoje island, which is supposedly just an hour and a half from Busan,
but no one cared to join me. The
logistics seemed a bit difficult for a non-Korean speaker, so I opted not to
tough it out alone. Instead, I tried to
make the most of my days off in Busan.
On Friday I went to my first Lotte Giants game of the season
with Nick, Doug, Max, and Gah Yeong.
Despite losing I Deh Ho (their best hitter) to Japan and Mr. Goatee
(their best pitcher, and not actually his real name) to the military, the
Giants are in first place. Given their
popularity, surprising success, and the fact that it was a Friday game, the
place was packed. Gah Yeong got us
tickets online, but for some reason Korea doesn’t scan tickets so you still
need to get your tickets at the door (a surprisingly slow and stupid system in
the generally super-efficient country).
Even with no money exchanged, the line was over 40 minutes. As a result, even though we arrived over a
half hour before the first pitch, we didn’t get inside until the bottom of
first. The game itself was fun, though
Lotte played terrible defense and got blown out. We left in the 7th with the score
14-8. The final score was 20-8.
After the game, Doug, Nick, and I were going to go out, but
Nick and Doug were tired and decided to stay in. I still had some energy, so I texted Josh and
Fernando. Josh was far away but Fernando
was in Gwangalli, so I went to meet him.
Strangely, even though we spoke over the phone, he was nowhere to be
found. I called and texted him, but got
nothing. So after waiting around for 10
minutes I jogged home. I surprised
myself by running about a mile and a half without feeling too winded. I guess Taekwondo is improving my cardio.
I started my Saturday by watching the Intouchables, a French
movie I’d been told to see. It’s about a
wealthy paralyzed man who needs a new personal assistant, and he ends up
selecting a poor black guy who at first seems totally unqualified. Although it seems impossible, they end up
becoming great friends. It was a sappy
feel-good, but I’m a sap so I enjoyed it more than I’d care to admit.
After lunch I went to Haeundae with Doug, where we played
volleyball and beach soccer. When I say
“played,” what I really mean is “practiced,” because with only two people you
can’t really get a game going. We just
passed the volleyball around and then did a soccer shootout.
But the highlight of the beach trip had to be this group of
weird Euro people. I’d seen them a
couple times before, and I still have no idea what the hell their deal is. It’s a group of probably 10 guys, all dressed
in speedos (one had a man thong), all really fit and really tan. They have this area set up where they play
garbage techno music and play beach soccer.
For the life of me I can’t understand why they live in Busan. They clearly aren’t teachers.
After the beach Nick, Doug, Max, Gah Yeong and I got dinner
in KSU. We went a fried chicken place
that had unlimited fried chicken for 6,000 won and unlimited beer for 5,000
won. It was awesome, but turned out to
be a bit of a curse. We’d meant to go
out afterward, but found that we were all too full to do any more drinking.
On Sunday I went to the Dog Café with Nick, Max, and Gah
Yeong. And no, it is not a café where
you eat dogs. It’s a café where you play
with dogs. For 8,000 won you get a
smoothie/coffee/tea (I got a smoothie), access to a dessert buffet, and
unlimited petting of super friendly dogs.
It was quite nice to play with canines (I hadn’t done so in over 7 months);
definitely something I miss from home.
After the Dog Café we went to Haeundae to play volleyball
and soccer. The Schradester and I
triumphed in volleyball, and then split a couple of intense shoot-outs. Around 4:30 I headed back to play basketball with
Doug, and unfortunately ran into Chad.
Despite being almost as bad at he is hockey, Chad talked shit
non-stop. He also was really hard on
himself, which is weird because he’s honestly barely any better than I am. But it was frustrating because he ended up on
the best team (thanks to Doug and huge center), so got to talk to his heart’s
desire.
I closed out the weekend with a pizza and the Muppets movie,
which I found disappointing. I generally
like Jason Segel, but this was pretty blah.
My guess is that it was a hit with kids and parents, but I don’t think
you’ll find many young adults raving about it.
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