Korea Life Blog - The Champion



This past weekend Julie and I played pool, or pocket ball as they call it in Korea. It's a fairly popular game with a place to play pretty much everywhere. They aren't too cheap though - generally charging 1000 won per 10 minute increments per person. In other words, if 2 people play for an hour, it'll run 12,000 won.


My friend John from Australia who I used to hang out with in Ulsan was probably the best player in town. He'd take me on as a partner to give the other teams a chance. I hated playing with him though as he took it so seriously, and I always missed key shots. We had a falling out for awhile when, during a small tournament at the local foreigner bar, I missed an easy shot which caused us to lose. I swear John never forgave me for that despite the fact the prize was under 50,000 won. Now that I remember, he was always getting angry when he played, especially when against Koreans. There are a few differences in the rules between countries apparently. The one that John would fly into a rage over was the luck shot, when the ball aimed at fails to sink but another unintended one does. It would crack me up watching our opponents joyful surprise by their luck and John flipping out as they moved in for another shot. In his Australian accent: "No, no, no. Raaack off, you caaaan't taaaiike thaaaat! Are you bloody pissed?" and the clueless look on the Koreans' faces.


Maybe I should be a nice guy and let her win...

(completely horrible photo of myself deleted...how could I have let that sit here for 2 years!)

Not a chance, baby! After 20 long minutes of missing almost every shot, I finally won the first game! Whoo hoo! We are the champions, my friend. Who's your daddy? I hate to brag again, but even with her luck shot handicap, I ended up winning 3/4 games (the one I lost was by sinking the 8-ball by mistake. I'll give her credit though...she has a mean break! She sunk two balls off one. Hey, did I lose weight? Where's my belt?



Later we went to a board game cafe. I love these toy hammers they give you to bash the loser with. I sometimes use one of these on the students, playfully. John could have used one for whacking wankers who take luck shots.


Julie lost at UNO, but she won 5 out of 7 games of Connect-4 which means I got 5 whacks on my head...

I had some pictures posted here of Julie, but she asked me to remove them and I don't blame her. Though she always looks beautiful to me, she feels she doesn't photograph well and she was embarrassed.