Athletic women

I may be generalizing...

but athletic women rarely exist in my part of town. Well, in all of South Korea apparently. When I tell Koreans that I love love love soccer, they say "cool" but I'm sure they're thinking "Ew. She plays sports and doesn't walk around in heels all day and doesn't add 18 layers of foundation? She's probably a lesbian!" (have you seen the women that play for the national team?!?). It's fun trying to explain how big women playing soccer is in the States. Let alone any [contact] sport.

I'm glad the kids don't care. They just love that a teacher is willing to play with them for once. I played soccer and basketball with 3 of my favorite girl students today and realized 1) how out of shape I am! 2) that I am 23, not 13 and 3) some of the most fun I've had in Korea have been with these girls.

We also had a teacher volleyball match after school. I was really excited to finally be getting into some of the social physical activities, until I realized I was the only female playing with about 15 men! I think we were all thrown off by that at first, and I even felt like they might've been a bit hesitant and sexist about me playing. But then I'd make a good hit and they'd be impressed. I was taken back a bit because even though I CAN play volleyball, I'm still pretty awful at it. But I think they understand that maybe women play more sports in the USA than they do in Korea?

Of course, all the female teachers were busy preparing a late afternoon snack/pre-dinner session in the cafeteria. I fear I may have grown a penis and a little chest hair throughout this whole ordeal!

Anyway, I'm glad I thought better against bringing my soccer cleats with me, seeing how I will most likely never use them. This saddens me. (Which is okay, because most are just dirt fields anyway).