So Sunday morning I wake up hanging and tired from Global Gathering the night before, and faced with the prospect of making my way down to Daegu to take on a team of soldiers who will probably be extremely fit and physical.
We were picked up at the station by one of the soldiers who looked like Zeus from the old WWF.
We arrived at the base about 3.30pm and it took us an age to get in. We had to wait in a fenced area with barbed wire around the top, while a soldier we had been assigned to signed us in with our ARC cards or passports. I didn't get the name of the soldier who signed me in, but he was Ghanaian and likened himself to Michael Essien.
Essien then gave his mate Dixon a call to come and pick us up and drive us to the pitch. At this point I'm thinking Sgt Bilko's gonna turn up in one of those open-top two seaters you see in the movies.
No. Dixon, a soft spoken Libyan who likens himself to George Weah, turns up in a brand new Ford truck. We get in, he puts on some very happy African music(I don't think there is any African music which doesn't make rainbows fly from the speakers), and drives us a 1 minute drive to the pitch.
As we are driving along we pass a library, a community centre, a youth centre, a church and even a bloody petrol station! When the soldiers arrive here they can hire cars such as the Ford we were in. And they're not all Korean either, there were many Fords and Chevys about.
The pitch served as a football, baseball and American football pitch. When we got to it, there was a softball game going on so our match was postponed till 5.30. So we went to Subway. I know, bonkers! They have a Subway on the base. Not just that, they also have a Taco Bell, a pizza joint and a supermarket. And when you buy something, they give you your change in US Dollars.
Outside of the subway there were a bunch of cheerleaders. All of them daughters of the soldiers. The soldiers have their wives and children here but I don't know where they stay. Anyway, the cheerleaders were selling fairy cakes for charity. So I gave them a few hundred won and had myself a pre-match cake, you know, showed off the old English accent while I was there. They probably thought me and the Queen play Croquet on a Sunday.
As for the game, we won 7-1. I came on second half and played defensive mid the first 20, then centre back the rest of the half. The soldiers were very fit but they weren't physical at all. They moaned every time you got close to them. We didn't say anything though, they have guns after all!
After the match they put on a bbq. Lots of hamburgers, hotdogs, chicken, rice, juice. It was class! They did all the cooking and cleaning and running around and did their best to make sure we had everything we wanted.
When it was time to go Essien took me back to the gate and signed me out and Zeus gave us a lift to the station.
Those few hours I spent on that army base never felt like Korea, it felt like I was actually in America. It was all very laid back and I never saw one soldier in uniform, granted it was Sunday. It felt more like a place to relax than a place ready to jump into action should the North have one of her funny turns.
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