So... one week after and with so many new things to write about, I have to get The Amazing Race out before I forget the details... and yes pictures are still forthcoming. The day began as many here in Korea do: hot and sweaty! it was over 90 degrees and the humidity was scalding! Amanda and I met up at Sangin station and headed on down to Jungangno where we disembarked and strolled on down to Thunderbirds Lounge, the wonderful drinking establishment owned by the Moose, local Candian extraordinaire. Once everyone was in, 27 teams in all, the door was locked and each team was given an envelope. We opened them to find a map of downtown Daegu and a "passport" which we hung around neck which would show how many challenges we had completed. It was at this time that I started to feel bad for all of those in flip flops... I love my Saucony's! After the rules were explained, the doors were unlocked and the Race had begun! Amanda and I ran off with several other teams in the direction of the park, which didn't fit in the neat square of the rest of downtown, which was a sure sign that some event was located within. We showed up and the station wasn't set up yet =( The event was set up in coordination with alot of Daegu businesses and even their Chamber of Commerce and Parks and Rec, who hadn't opened up their building for the necessary supplies to be retrieved yet. So off we ran to find the next challenge. Now, Amanda and I were by far the newest people to be in the race and knew downtown less than anyone around so we definitely faced an uphill battle! After wandering around for twenty minutes we stumbled onto our next site... stumbled being very appropriate because one of the team had to drink a cup of soju, fill the cup, get blindfolded and be lead down the street to the end of the station where still blindfolded pour the soju into the cup and pass a certain line on the other cup or else you fail and get a 30 minute penalty. Now the soju was extremely hot being stuck outside so this was definitely not the highest on my favorite challenges, but we managed without too much difficulty despite walking through the packed downtown streets! We roamed around downtown and went in circle after circle trying to figure out which streets we had been down. It really is a maze with so many places looking identical. After letting my buddy Mike know where the soju station was he told us where the DDR station was located: on the 8th floor of the XN Milano building! So we roll up to the arcade on the 8th floor and we get 300 won to play Dance Dance Revolution...
let it be known that white boys can dance as I got one of the highest scores of any contestant lol. The challenge was that each team had to compete, both members had to dance, and to pass the challenge the only requirement is that you don't fail. I got a D and Amanda got an F, but even an F is still passing ha! Don't let the game deceive you though.... its not all that easy to pass! Anyhow, we got out of there and wandered around the streets trying to find our way and figure out which streets we hadn't walked when we came upon Outback Steakhouse. Outside of Outback there was a large platform and two people from Tbirds. Challenge Three was to pick a song from the list, they would cue the music, give you a mic and you had to stand on the platform and sing the song karaoke style while your partner grabbed 3 pedestrians from the street to join in singing and dancing with you! I, for some reason still unknown to even myself, chose ABBA's Dancing Queen and got up and started singing. Amanda went off to round up some people but failed miserably!
I kept interrupting my song to tell her to physically drag them up on stage but she was too timid and we ended up failing and taking a 30 minute penalty. Since we knew where the park was we started wandering around looking for the last station, which we had been given a hint of a hot Japanese restaurant... after about 45 minutes we finally found it along with another group, Mike (different Mike and he's from Thief River Falls) and his girlfriend Maum, rock, paper, scissored our way to do it before them and went in, where we learned the true meaning of the "hot" restaurant. Challenge Four was choose 2 of 3 plates of sushi, blue, green, and pink plates. One of the three had a "hot" piece of sushi and the other two were fine. We chose pink and green, we sat down and Amanda was given the pink and I was given the green, we had to chew each piece twenty times before we were allowed to swallow it. When I looked at the green plate, I knew I was in trouble. Beyond having a chunk of wasabi the size of the first bone of your thumb, it was dripping in red pepper sauce. I was fine until around bite 15-17 and then I started sweating, at bite 20 it still took me another 10 or so bites to actually be able to swallow it! I was sweating and crying from the heat! It was hilarious! We ran off to find the park to do the last event and get back to the bar to kill the burning sensation in my mouth and belly! We hit the park and had to throw these bamboo sticks with rubber tips into these 3 holes... kind of a variation on lawn darts but the bamboo/rubber combo made this extremely difficult, we only got 2 in 3 minutes and failed, but only two teams actually passed that event, so we didn't feel too bad, except we now had our second 30 minute penalty. We know we weren't going to win so we kind of strolled back to the bar and we show up and grab waters and a beer to kill the burn, even though I just wanted to drink water because of the insane heat.
Moose hands us a note that says: Detour! Head to Woobang Tower, walk up the long road and turn to the left of the ticket booth! Don't buy a ticket! So we ran out with beer and water in hand and hail a cab going to Woobang.
We meet up with Mike and Maum again on the walk up the road and we come to the base of Woobang Tower and are told to head to the 77th floor. This can only mean one thing... Sky Jump! We get up there and since both Amanda and I want to do it, we rock, paper, scissors (this is the argument decider for everything over here) and she wins so she gets to jump for our team. Stuck on picture duty I watch enviously as Amanda jumps off this guideded free-fall. Mike and Maum are up next and they both back out so I get lucky and get to take Mike's jump!
It was a blast, like walking the plank, clipped in to a harness and then get clipped into the cable. You jump off and then fall all the way down to the ground! The jump off is kind of breath taking but then it was all fun in the sun! Caught a cab back to Tbirds and BBQ'd on the roof and relaxed after an amazing day!
let it be known that white boys can dance as I got one of the highest scores of any contestant lol. The challenge was that each team had to compete, both members had to dance, and to pass the challenge the only requirement is that you don't fail. I got a D and Amanda got an F, but even an F is still passing ha! Don't let the game deceive you though.... its not all that easy to pass! Anyhow, we got out of there and wandered around the streets trying to find our way and figure out which streets we hadn't walked when we came upon Outback Steakhouse. Outside of Outback there was a large platform and two people from Tbirds. Challenge Three was to pick a song from the list, they would cue the music, give you a mic and you had to stand on the platform and sing the song karaoke style while your partner grabbed 3 pedestrians from the street to join in singing and dancing with you! I, for some reason still unknown to even myself, chose ABBA's Dancing Queen and got up and started singing. Amanda went off to round up some people but failed miserably!
I kept interrupting my song to tell her to physically drag them up on stage but she was too timid and we ended up failing and taking a 30 minute penalty. Since we knew where the park was we started wandering around looking for the last station, which we had been given a hint of a hot Japanese restaurant... after about 45 minutes we finally found it along with another group, Mike (different Mike and he's from Thief River Falls) and his girlfriend Maum, rock, paper, scissored our way to do it before them and went in, where we learned the true meaning of the "hot" restaurant. Challenge Four was choose 2 of 3 plates of sushi, blue, green, and pink plates. One of the three had a "hot" piece of sushi and the other two were fine. We chose pink and green, we sat down and Amanda was given the pink and I was given the green, we had to chew each piece twenty times before we were allowed to swallow it. When I looked at the green plate, I knew I was in trouble. Beyond having a chunk of wasabi the size of the first bone of your thumb, it was dripping in red pepper sauce. I was fine until around bite 15-17 and then I started sweating, at bite 20 it still took me another 10 or so bites to actually be able to swallow it! I was sweating and crying from the heat! It was hilarious! We ran off to find the park to do the last event and get back to the bar to kill the burning sensation in my mouth and belly! We hit the park and had to throw these bamboo sticks with rubber tips into these 3 holes... kind of a variation on lawn darts but the bamboo/rubber combo made this extremely difficult, we only got 2 in 3 minutes and failed, but only two teams actually passed that event, so we didn't feel too bad, except we now had our second 30 minute penalty. We know we weren't going to win so we kind of strolled back to the bar and we show up and grab waters and a beer to kill the burn, even though I just wanted to drink water because of the insane heat.
Moose hands us a note that says: Detour! Head to Woobang Tower, walk up the long road and turn to the left of the ticket booth! Don't buy a ticket! So we ran out with beer and water in hand and hail a cab going to Woobang.
We meet up with Mike and Maum again on the walk up the road and we come to the base of Woobang Tower and are told to head to the 77th floor. This can only mean one thing... Sky Jump! We get up there and since both Amanda and I want to do it, we rock, paper, scissors (this is the argument decider for everything over here) and she wins so she gets to jump for our team. Stuck on picture duty I watch enviously as Amanda jumps off this guideded free-fall. Mike and Maum are up next and they both back out so I get lucky and get to take Mike's jump!
It was a blast, like walking the plank, clipped in to a harness and then get clipped into the cable. You jump off and then fall all the way down to the ground! The jump off is kind of breath taking but then it was all fun in the sun! Caught a cab back to Tbirds and BBQ'd on the roof and relaxed after an amazing day!
1 comment:
holy crap! somehow i missed this post the other day, but HOLY CRaP! what a fun day! i can picture almost every moment. especially you singing ABBA in the middle of downtown! HA! I'm SO glad you got to do the sky jump. That woulda been a bummer. And i think the rock, paper, scissors, thing is hysterical! Paper is pretty much my favorite outta the three. :)
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