Its not just Starcraft being played in this small cyber cafe in Guri-si (a small-ish town of 200,000 on the eastern cusp of Seoul). To the right of me are a pair of men in their early 20s who appear to be grinding for XP in Guildwars (or some Korean counterpart which I cannot identify - I know no Korean) and all around me people are avidly shooting away in a game very similar to counterstrike. Small cups of very sweet coffee and endless streams of cigarettes fuel the endless entertainment, which costs the regular patron \1000/hour ( 1 Canadian dollar exhanges roughly to \865, so thats about $1.20/hour Canadian - not bad). While walking on the street or while visiting the school where I will soon teach (my wife and myself are ESL teachers here) I got quite a few curious glances or giggles. Here, I barely exist. Soon enough I will try my skills against those around me and hopefully turn some heads. The guy to my left just closed downt he CS clone and opened a solo game of SC against 8 computers; he's protoss and he is clicking furiously. Since my arrival here 2 days ago, I have watched about 4 pro matches of Korean star-league on television, and know that I need practice. They do'nt use the BGH maps here either, only well balanced sanctioned maps that require frequent expansion - holding yourself in and building a mass wont do. I hear the ding signaling my time is almost up, I'll have to sign off for now in case I lost my typing. If this guy does anything phenominal I'll be back to post it, otherwise, stay tuned for a post here or there about my expieriences in the ever-wired country of Korea.
Have you ever accidentally locked eyes with someone on the street there, only to have them suddenly rush you screaming "kekeke!1!!" at the top of their lungs? 'Cause that would be awesome.
That guy ended up playing a standard zealot rush and wiped out all the computer opponents. The funny part was he did it just because he had nothing left to do with his remaining 15 mins, and he just wanted to keep his SC speed skills sharp. He would smake his cigs, talk on his cell phone, and just pump out gateways. I'm eventually going see how I fend against them in SC, but I have to teach a class tommorrow so I have to prepare. Everyone here is very kind (many people say the K in Korea is for kind, so far thats very true) so it seems like this is going to be a wonderful year in Korea.
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Somehow, I knew Korea would be in this blog.
sounds like quite the atmosphere.
Have you ever accidentally locked eyes with someone on the street there, only to have them suddenly rush you screaming "kekeke!1!!" at the top of their lungs? 'Cause that would be awesome.
That guy ended up playing a standard zealot rush and wiped out all the computer opponents. The funny part was he did it just because he had nothing left to do with his remaining 15 mins, and he just wanted to keep his SC speed skills sharp. He would smake his cigs, talk on his cell phone, and just pump out gateways. I'm eventually going see how I fend against them in SC, but I have to teach a class tommorrow so I have to prepare. Everyone here is very kind (many people say the K in Korea is for kind, so far thats very true) so it seems like this is going to be a wonderful year in Korea.