My month in review: part 1/2

Forgive me readership, for I have committed the sin of omission - specifically, omitting to post much of anything recently. Here's a whirlwind tour of my month.
Above: I didn't know that the world cup was played by giants!

June 5-6: LGBT Film Festival

I saw two films at the annual Seoul gay film festival. The first was a Korean film (with English subtitles) about two gay men celebrating their fifth anniversary. Because they are not out (cannot be, in many ways), they live their relationship in secret, and are subject to huge family pressure to marry (women). A very interesting, well executed film. There was also a Q&A with the director, and I was lucky to have a very fluent English-speaking Korean sitting beside me to translate.

The second film was a French film about a middle-aged woman who is struggling with her newfound lesbian identity - especially in respect to her daughter. I had half hoped there would be no English subtitles so I could practice my French, but there were. It was good, as I caught some but not all of the quick-paced French. I did manage to practice after the film by conversing with a cute lesbian couple from Paris. (Architects, too!)

One thing I noticed: though the film festival was called the LGBT Film Festival, in its promotional materials it had an unfamiliar backronym: Lively, Gay, Beautiful, Tasty. It both irked me to see that our allies in the queer rights movement (the traditional Gs, Bs, and Ts) were not being recognized, and clued me in to the status of the movement here. At some point I plan to write a whole post about my experiences being gay in Korea, and I'll touch on this thought in more depth.


June 12 - 13: Volleyball Championships! (Right: my volleyball team, sans me.)

The next weekend I was torn between going to the nascent Seoul Pride and competing with my Gunpo volleyball team. I ended up choosing volleyball.

We trekked out together in the rain (I took this as a sign I had made the right choice) to a city about an hour's drive away. I had been told that this was a championships, so I assumed it would be a large tournament with many teams and multiple games being played at once. Not so - the gym had only one court, and there seemed to only be 15 or so teams competing, so either I got a bad translation or it was the culmination of a qualification process which culled the number of teams.

In any case, we quickly got to playing. The difference in energy and intensity between our weekly practices and playing here was so obvious it is almost tangible. The game was fast and both teams played well, though it became obvious that the other team had the advantage. We put up a good fight, but they took the match in two sets.

I learned that we had one more game Saturday, which would determine if we played in the playoff games on Sunday. After a good lunch, we took to the court again. I played... well below my potential. We lost the first set, and the coach justifiably made a substitution for me. With me cheering from the sidelines, the team won the second set, but quickly fell behind 5 - 1 in the 15-point third set.

Sensing that the team needed an energy shift, I was subbed back onto the court. I was determined to make a difference, and I did. The setter found me over and over as I whacked the ball down into the opponents' court, scoring several points. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late and we lost the third set - and concluded our tournament.