I’ll admit it, I underestimated South Korea. Not to say that I had low expectations by any means, but it blew me away. The reason I went there was to witness the IAAF Track and Field World Championships live, a possibly once in a lifetime experience. I figured that Daegu, South Korea is a lot closer to Malaysia than the US, so why not make the most of it while I’m in Southeast Asia? So along with my friend Dakari Watson, who I used to jump against in college, we planned it out and made it happen. He works in Terengganu, a small province on the East Coast of Malaysia. I already had a friend from college living right outside of Seoul working as a teacher. I had spoken to her about staying there a few days while I was there to site see Seoul as well as attending the events in Daegu. I decided to go online and seek out some more contacts in the area too via Facebook and Couch Surfer; this ended up being one of my best moves. Unexpectedly, right before I was due to head there, my contact there disappeared mysteriously. No responses, not even any traffic on Facebook. So I had to be concerned about her, but more pertinently, I no longer had anywhere to stay in the Seoul area. Therefore, after a stroll around Seoul seeing historical sites, I was hecticly trying to formulate a plan whenever I gcould sneak some wifi in. However, the hospitality of my contacts (mostly Americans teaching English in Korea) and the overall generosity of the Korean people in general helped me to solve this and many other problems. A friend of a friend of a friend extended his hospitality for the night, shout out to Pernell for that. On the way there – and many other places – I had to ask the help of locals on the street. Their eagerness to help foreigners was amazing; it was above and beyond the Southern hospitality I’ve grown accustomed to. There were occasions were you would ask a Korean which direction something was and instead of simply telling you they would walk you there, handle the cab for you, or even give you a ride there themselves. We met ladies at one point who took us out to eat at a pretty good restaurant.
After a night in Cheongju, I made it to Daegu and got settled in time to meet more teachers and be in the stadium for the premier event of the world’s track attention- the 100 final. Although I was disappointed that I never didn’t get to see the 3 fastest men in the world compete in the final the way I wanted; each for different circumstances (Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell got injured the last month or so before the Championships, and Usain Bolt false started in the final resulting in disqualification). Nonetheless, being in the stadium to see the best in the world compete at all the different events was magical. To make it even more special, I know or have met some of the athletes and get to see them do what they do best at the highest level of competition. After the first two nights in Daegu, we had a few days before we had tickets to attend the meet again. The original plan was to spend these days in Seoul and came back once we had tickets again; however, as mentioned, I no longer had accommodations, so I needed a plan. One of my contacts through Facebook was hospitable enough to offer me her living room for this time; shout out to Jessica “JWo” Womack.
Other than the overall lack of food in the fridge (she did have pancakes however), she was the best host imaginable. We met at the train station trying to head to the town where she lived, Gimcheon, about a 45 minute train ride from Daegu. Well, we just barely missed the 12:42am train, the next train wasn’t until 4:05am. Consequently, I got another one-of-a-kind Korea experience instead, the jim jil bang. Basically if you need a place to crash for a night, or even a few hours, you pay about $7-8 US which gets you a towel, a night outfit, a hard pillow, a blanket, and a mat. You enter the facility and it has a common area with couches and TVs, showers, lockers, and sleeping areas where you can put your mat on the floor and go to sleep for however long you desire. It would have been cool if not for all the male nudity, Koreans are comfortable enough that in such a place they usually spend the whole time there naked rather than just before and after showering like I would be used to. Call me homophobic, but I’m just not comfortable with someone coming and sitting beside me on a small couch trying to hold a conversation if he has no clothes on. Therefore, I’m not in a rush to have the experience again. Well, we finally made it to Gimcheon, where I would be spending the next few days until my reservations at the hotel start back. So in the meantime, I would be travelling back and forth to Daegu if I needed to go back. It’s very easy to get anywhere in the city and even from town to town with their transportation system. I went back for a day of competition, to meet with a very pleasant contact named Anika that I spent some time with, and even ended up on a double date one night; apparently double dating is big in South Korea. One night, Anika and I went to a traditional Korean steakhouse, which was amazing. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. She also helped familiarize me with downtown Daegu. However, one night I got back to Gimcheon very late and found out the hard way that JWo is quite a heavy sleeper. LOL.
I was returning from a late night out in downtown Daegu and luckily I had written her address (in Korean) down because I definitely had trouble finding it in the darkness of night. After getting help locating the exact building, I realized the entrance code for the building door was more than meets the eye. I had also written down the 4-digit code, but found that you had to press a button before and a button after; I wasn’t savvy to which buttons in which order. The same gentlemen that helped me locate the building showed me that it went *key button,* then the code, then *doorbell button.* So I make it to the door and knock, I receive no answer. At this point, it’s past 5am and my friend will be leaving her apartment around 7am. I’ve conceded that if I don’t get an answer I will dose off on the steps beside her door in a seated position and she will see me and let me in when she comes out. However, to my surprise, the same gentleman who helped me before reappears to see if I’m still in the hall. I have her phone number, but my Malaysian cell phone doesn’t work in South Korea, so he lets me use his. After 3 attempts, no answer; like I said, she sleeps hard. The man disappears again and once again I prepare to dose off on the stairs. But then the man reappears with a security guard. Now all of a sudden, I’m on the brink of getting thrown out of the building if I can’t wake her up and get inside. So she finally answers the phone and lets me in. Fun times. Lol.
As the rest of the heavy hitting part of the Championships approached, I got back in track mode. One day I was lucky enough to get a friend of mine who was competing to help sneak me into the Athlete’s Village; it was mind blowing. The facilities were brand new and they had their own dining halls, practice tracks, shops, even live tradition Korean performing arts pretty much all day long. The people I knew there said it was even nicer than the Athlete’s Village from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. I got to spend time with plenty of people I knew there: my college track coach Nat Page, Nigerian hurdler AJ Adamosu, and Jamaican hurdlers Richard Phillips and Vonette Dixon. I also saw many of the faces from TV whom I had previously never seen in person. I snuck a free meal there and had a comedy session over popsicles with my old coach and other practice mates; I had them every day at practice in college, but I sorely miss them in Malaysia.
Once we made it back to the track, the excitement kept on rolling. I saw a world record in person, even though it was disappointing to see the USA runner front flip out of the race in that same event. I saw Usain Bolt run the 3rd fastest time in 200 meter history. I got to see two Atlanta natives and track legends that I know personally – Angelo Taylor and Dwight Phillips – win gold medals. I saw a 21-year old Atlanta native, Christian Taylor, that we used to compete against in college become the 5th longest triple jumper in track and field history and take the World Championship over incumbent champion eccentric Briton Phillips Idowu. To make matters more impressive, his 20 year old college teammate Will Claye, won the bronze medal in the same event beating some really stiff competition from places such as Cuba, the Bahamas, Portugal, and Sweden. That was an amazing event as a whole. An American hurdler, Jason Richardson – who was close to quitting track recently – competed against the three fastest men ever in his event and left with a gold medal. In the women’s hurdles, the most sweet and innocent looking woman in the race, Aussie Sally Pearson, went wild and blew away the competition for one of the fastest times ever. There were stories of redemption for athletes coming back from suspensions (Justin Gatlin and Lashwan Merrit) and celebration for athletes making it over the hump for their first gold medals (Carmelita jeter and Lashinda Demus). There were several more events I’m not usually that into that captivate your attention when you are there in person seeing the best in the world perform; there were several Championship and National Records broken too. We found some other Americans to bask in the glory with as other nations (especially Jamaica) were visibly displeased anytime America won a gold medal. It was a magical event and I hope I can get back to one again one day.
After the bulk of the athletes were finished competing, it was party time for them. A friend of mine Angelo Taylor, gold medallist who went to Tech before I arrived there, hooked me up at a club in downtown Daegu where most of the track people were having a good time. It was also fairly relieving to see these World Class athletes who had been so focused and stressed the past 2 weeks get to relax and have fun. Some of them are pretty wild too. After the very last night of competition, we had to hop on a bus back to Incheon Airport to fly back to Malaysia. By that time both me and Dakari didn’t want to go back. The trip has shown us how much of polar opposites two countries in the same region of the world can be. Between the pleasantness of the people (both Korean and foreigners there), the food, the convenience of transportation, the propensity to enjoying having fun, or the culture, Korea was amazing. No offense to Malaysia, but it doesn’t even compare quite frankly. So then we had to take the flight back to reality. Hopefully I will see you again South Korea. My friend is already making plans to teach there when he’s done in Malaysia; it helps that on top of the aforementioned benefits, it pays a lot more too. See pictures below:
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