It’s almost hard to believe that I’ve been in Korea for two months already. Being away from hockey for this long has been fairly difficult, but I don’t think it’s fair for me to belly ache about it just yet. After all, we are all in the same boat right now, and by that I mean offseason Hell. I was lucky enough to get to three first round playoff games before I left, as I have been slowly recounting on here, but I really feel for the fans of the teams that didn’t make the post season, and have been doing nothing but playing with themselves since mid April.
Unfortunately, I think this installment of A Life Without Hockey will be just as boring as the last. Month 2 in Korea was more of the same; adapting to my new life on the other side of the world, and taking some down time from the chaos of eight years worth of hockey misadventures. What’s worse is that my camera broke on my birthday, and so I wasn’t able to take any pictures to document this past month. I’ve also been mildly concerned about my health. My body seems to react differently here. Like, for example, the other night I skinned my knee viciously on my mattress….somehow ahem……and it took days for the wound to even begin to heal! And let’s not forget that in my two months overseas, I am down 22 lbs! However, I’m sure that the majority of my medical concerns are borderline paranoia. I think after I went through the bizarre Korean physical the day after I arrived here, I decided it was not in my best interest to ever need medical assistance while I’m living in this country.
I’m sure things will start to pick up in Month 3. For starters, I’m going to China in two weeks, so stay tuned for that. I was told that hockey was pretty popular in China because of its proximity to Russia. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for hockey related stuff while I’m there. Also, while I was on the train to Busan earlier this week (visiting the Chinese consulate to apply for my VISA), I discovered a train route that claims to link up with the Trans-Siberian Railway. So, now I’m pretty much obsessed with the idea of getting to at least one KHL game this hockey season. I really hope I can make it; I’d love to see what the fans are like in the rival league.
In Korea people often want to have English names, so if you come across a Korean kid who has not been named, then they will ask you to bestow upon them the greatest name you can think of. Instead of going the standard Sally route, I decided to do our sport a great service and give these impressionable Korean children hockey names. Here’s my list so far:
Boys:
1. Messier
2. Bauer
3. Scotty (Bowman)
Girls:
1. Darcy (Tucker)
2. Vezina
I know, those are some bad ass names! And you’re welcome, National Hockey League, I’m growing the game one Korean child at a time!
Another highlight, as indicated by my top photo, was getting my first care package from my parents. They were sending back my camera. Damn you, Best Buy, and your shady warranties! You’ll recall I bought that camera while I was in Dallas in April. Anyway, my mom decided to stuff the box with sections of the Toronto Star, and in the sports section was a picture of Brian Burke’s Draft Day face! Burkie’s various facial expressions are some of things I was missing most about not being able to watch this season’s NHL Entry Draft on TV. As you can see I was a little too excited to get it; you know how I love my Dilves! Plus it didn’t hurt that there were several boxes of Cadbury Thins included in my big package!
Well that pretty much sums up my second month in Korea. Only ten months to go until I am free to reenter NHL land, but one question still remains… Ten months down the road, will I still want to come back?
