Sunday Morning Trips

the way to the rink. well a part of it anyway.

the arena, this is what I call home every sunday morning

A little closer

the beautiful people who look nothing like any Korean I have ever seen

The front doors


Inside and delightful, unfortunately on this day we did not play on this surface, we played in the basement. yes the basement, this arena has two rinks, the main floor and there is a rink in the basement. amazing. talk about making use of your space.

So every Sunday morning I wake up with the local church folk and head to the subway. Some Sundays are earlier than others. This Sunday was about average I suppose. I was up at 8 and as I walked to the subway I always ask myself why am I doing this. Its too bad I find the answer an hour or two later when I step on the ice and think ah yes, this is why. I have found out that I love hockey more than I thought. I get up Sunday morning at 730 or 8 am every Sunday to take a walk 30 minutes and take a subway for one hour all just to play hockey. Pick up hockey at that. Although the walk is quite nice and I do find time to read or study while aboard the large underground metal worm. So this weekend was nice. It was the first time I have played against another team other than the guys affiliated with the chiefs. I was excited and tired. My skates did not fit and hurt my feet before I put them on, nevertheless I dawned the size 9's (I am a size 10) and stuck it out. It was worth it. Without dragging this on it was a good game. Fast paced and energetic. We won 7-5. I had a short handed goal. But my favourite moment didn't really count. At the end of the game we had 10 minutes left and decided to keep playing in a friendly manner. I had the puck across the blue and made a slight move on the defense and the goalie gave me about six inches between the cross bar and his shoulder. I lifted the puck and off the cross bar into the side of the net. Goal. At that moment I realized why I woke up and travel 3 hours just to play for 90 minutes. I had fun all morning and felt great. It was a good day. My feet were numb for a good hour but I had at least 60 minutes on the way home to sit and get the feeling back. That's hockey in Korea.