It's been a long time since I've been to a Sports Day (Thailand 2003) and I've never been to a big corporate event. And I've certainly never been to a big corporate sports day in Korea. So when my institute invited me to come along on theirs I gladly accepted. But when they asked me to participate I was a lot more reluctant. 
(Can you see me? Hint: I'm wearing a red T-shirt)
But fear of acquiring and early nickname like 'Mark the chicken' or 'scaredy cat' forced me to agree to participate in the relay, chicken fighting and some strange horse fight (without any horses)- I guess some things are just lost in translation.
The sports day was on a public holiday Thursday in my second week so I was still adapting and a little jetlagged (listen to my excuses). Plus it was a very early rise. It was a huge event with JungChul(the name of my institute) campuses from all over Korea competing for the prize of one million won (about a thousand dollars).
It was a bit intimidating, but a nice opportunity to meet people and get to know the others from my company a little better and in a (semi) realxed atmosphere.
So I guess Koreans a pretty competitive and take these things kinds seriously. I learnt this first hand during the realy race. I wore a pair of trainers with my jeans for comfort, but when I saw my opponents in running spikes, shorts and vests I didn't feel quite so comfortable. I did my best and believe I didn't let the team down too much, but definitely feel this is one thing best left to the serious competitors (who clearly have nothing better to do with their free time).
Chicken fighting was much more fun (hoping around on one leg trying to know over other people doign the same) and I successfully picked out the oldest, frailest Korean on the field and put him on his but, jsut seconds before I got flattened.
And the horse-fighting thing (god I hope that term doesn't bring animal rights activists to my blog via google search) was also fun. In that each tram had a group of three boys and a girl competing. Us three boys linked arms and the girl sat up on our combined shoulders. Then we ran about bashing into other groups as our girl and tried stealing baseball caps (and clumps of hair) from the other girls who were doing likewise. We actually did pretty well in this game, probably more for our cunning and dirty tactics than for our actual brawn or skill.
There were other sports too like football and combined baseball/football for the girls, which were fun to watch, but I'm glad I didn't take part in. And somehow at the end of the day our group were pronounced the winners and a million won richer. Yey!
(Can you see me? Hint: I'm wearing a red T-shirt)But fear of acquiring and early nickname like 'Mark the chicken' or 'scaredy cat' forced me to agree to participate in the relay, chicken fighting and some strange horse fight (without any horses)- I guess some things are just lost in translation.
The sports day was on a public holiday Thursday in my second week so I was still adapting and a little jetlagged (listen to my excuses). Plus it was a very early rise. It was a huge event with JungChul(the name of my institute) campuses from all over Korea competing for the prize of one million won (about a thousand dollars).
It was a bit intimidating, but a nice opportunity to meet people and get to know the others from my company a little better and in a (semi) realxed atmosphere.
So I guess Koreans a pretty competitive and take these things kinds seriously. I learnt this first hand during the realy race. I wore a pair of trainers with my jeans for comfort, but when I saw my opponents in running spikes, shorts and vests I didn't feel quite so comfortable. I did my best and believe I didn't let the team down too much, but definitely feel this is one thing best left to the serious competitors (who clearly have nothing better to do with their free time).
Chicken fighting was much more fun (hoping around on one leg trying to know over other people doign the same) and I successfully picked out the oldest, frailest Korean on the field and put him on his but, jsut seconds before I got flattened.
And the horse-fighting thing (god I hope that term doesn't bring animal rights activists to my blog via google search) was also fun. In that each tram had a group of three boys and a girl competing. Us three boys linked arms and the girl sat up on our combined shoulders. Then we ran about bashing into other groups as our girl and tried stealing baseball caps (and clumps of hair) from the other girls who were doing likewise. We actually did pretty well in this game, probably more for our cunning and dirty tactics than for our actual brawn or skill.
There were other sports too like football and combined baseball/football for the girls, which were fun to watch, but I'm glad I didn't take part in. And somehow at the end of the day our group were pronounced the winners and a million won richer. Yey!
1 comment:
where's the wally mark?3rd row from the back and 7th person from the left,now where's my prize?it took me about 20mins it finally clicked u were'nt korean!
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