Volley BALLIN

Yesterday, my school's volleyball team (which I play on) had a match against Yong-oh Elementary school, where my friend Jackie works. This is the first time this kind of thing has been done, and I'm told they did it because they knew Jackie and I were friends- and they were curious to see us together (serious!). Usually, Wednesday volleyball is kind of what we call a "club activity," ie, it's no big deal. No one takes it very seriously, there's a lot of laughter, the air is generally light hearted, and I usually pull some wild antics to generate laughter, ie, cartwheels, high kicks, team chants, and throwing myself on the floor/pretending to dive for the ball. It's good fun.

However, yesterday was different. As soon as I walked into the gym and saw the other school already stretching/lined up in the bleachers, my stomach sank. This wasn't going to be fun. Soon enough, we sot into our "positions" (in Korean volleyball, the rules are a bit different: kicking the ball soccer style counts as a volley; there is no such thing as rotation- you stay in your position the entire game. The specifics of "where is out" change every game. It's a bit hard for me to follow sometimes but I just go with it) and started playing. The gym teacher began yelling, the male teachers were spiking the ball harder than ever, and within five minutes (seriously!) the groundskeeper, Mr. Ha Dae Su, was out of the game with a pretty serious knee injury. Every time the ball came even remotely close to me, the gym teacher darted in front of me and whammed it out of the way, dripping with sweat, all the while yelling at each other. No one laughed, except me and Jackie. I tried pulling the dive maneuver once... it bombed.

frenemies

serious stuff! my principal was the adorable ref.

After the first game (which we lost!), I decided I didn't want to end up with a broken nose today, and decided to keep score. The other teachers seemed relieved, and I watched Jackie own the court (she's seriously good! and fast!). We lost the second game and somewhere down the line, the music teacher must have assumed I sucked at keeping score, because she sat right next to me and took over.

The third game, Jackie and I sat together and talked trash. After the third game (we won!), we all went out to dinner together as a giant group. Jackie and I sat with her co-teachers and scarfed down beef barbeque and lettuce wraps (yum!) and talked more trash. She's the best. It was so nice to have someone completely understand me on my own turf- I wish she were here every day! (Though... I really could care less if we ever do another volleyball tournament, haha. I can't wait to get back to the light hearted atmosphere of regular volleyball club.)

beef bbq... looks kind of gross when it isn't cooked.

me and jackie! she's a ray of light

This weekend promises to be exciting, with the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Gay Sexxyz's farewell show, and Easter Sunday at Jinju Castle. 
More soon!

M