Seoul Ball Hockey Tournament!

Last fall and winter I played ball hockey in a small league in Daegu. "Ball hockey" was a new term for me. I was used to floor hockey and street hockey and ice hockey and field hockey. Most of the people who play are Canadians though, and they have some funny words for things, like calling hats or beanines "tuks".

Anyway, ball hockey makes sense I guess. It's not on a street, it's outdoor and thus not on a floor, not on ice, nor on grass. In any case, on the 8th of May, the Seoul ball hockey league held a tournament that involved eight teams. Six teams were from Seoul, one from Busan, and one made up of star players from my humble Daegu league. Naturally, I was on it.

A lot of people from our team went to Seoul Saturday morning. I went up Friday night with some other guys and one girlfriend. We stayed in the same love motel as some of our other teammates. Some love motels are nice, some are kinda sketchy. This one was a little sketchy. I made the mistake of looking down between the edge of the bed and the wall. I won't make that mistake again.

The tournament was played at two rinks, each rink with a division of four teams. We played at the Olympic park in Jamsil, a really nice place for ball hockey. We got shut out our first two games, and things were looking pretty grim for our day. At the end of our first game, I got our teams only penalty for tripping with some enthusiastic back-checking. We both hit the deck, but the other kid his head on the ground. He was okay though. I talked with some obnoxious Americans while in the box. They were part of the all-American team that we played in our third game, and final game of the round-robin. We kicked their asses 5-1, I think. They had been drinking pretty steadily, which may have helped us.



After the round-robin, in which we finished 3rd out of 4, we had to go over to the other rink. The second rink was bigger than the first, which in turn was bigger than the one we play on in Daegu. We were pretty worn out, but so was everyone else. We beat our first round opponent. We had a game off before the next round. At the start of the second round game, Moose got a high-stick right above the eye. I was right near him and blood was dripping everywhere. He came back though, with a bandage wrapped around his head. It was a good thing too, because that game ended in a tie, and after the initial three shooters on each team were stoned, Moose came through with a goal, and then our goalie stuffed their last chance shooter.



We were in the championship game, and we got one game's worth of rest while the other semifinal game was being played. We were all excited about our chances because we were getting a rest, and then we came out and scored a quick goal right off the bat. That was the end though, because the other team took it to us and kicked our asses. Our goalie Adam did all he could, but it just was too much. BUT! after losing our first two games and not having too many expectations, we were quite happy with second place, and it was a fun, though exhausting tournament.



That night there was a banquet at a Canadian brewery. I had one plate of French fries, hot dog, nachos, and pizza, and I was full. I thought I would eat so much more. But the beer was the main attraction. They had 4-liter jugs with their own nozzle. My ex-girlfriend Terry came out to meet me with her sister and later some of her friends came, including her new boyfriend. Sorta weird, but probably more weird for him. Paul was in Seoul and he came out to meet me. It was fun, we went to a noraebang, and I was pretty drunk by the time I got back to the love motel to find Josh and his girlfriend smoking cigarettes outside. They convinced me to hit another noraebang with them. It was a fun night.