Tonight I was eating dinner with a friend, he ordered a chicken sandwich and fries . . . he then proceed to eat that entire meal with chopsticks.
Wish I would have grabbed a picture.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Sports!
From morning to night sports and fitness are incredibly popular in this country. Racket sports like badminton and ping pong are very popular and I have had the chance to play ping pong with some of my friends. They're skill levels vary greatly, but when they are good, they are really good and I lose by scores like 21-5. Soccer also has a following but people always quickly lament at the repeated failures of the national team.
But by far, the most popular sport is basketball. I would say that, if it is not already, the NBA will be more popular here than it is in America within the next 10 years. Not just in total number of fans, but in percentage of the population that actively follows. As an example, I was talking to a friend about Reggie Miller (a former NBA player) and I referred to one specific feat from his career, expecting my friend would not know much about a player from 10 years ago, but my friend responded correcting the facts I had given him and providing several more Reggie Miller related stories.
More signs of NBA influence, I have met people with English names such as Lebron and my personal favorite, Allen Iverson. No, his English name was not Allen, it was Allen Iverson.
People here also like to play basketball, but most everyone gives and identical response when asked if they are good, "I like to play, but I'm not very good."
But its not just young people, folks of all ages get participate in sports, each morning elderly women gather outside my apartment and do their excercises (sometimes with swords!) and this video below shows my personal favorite form of East Asian excercise (in case you are wondering, as best as I can tell, these groups don't practice or rehearse, they just do this on the fly).
But by far, the most popular sport is basketball. I would say that, if it is not already, the NBA will be more popular here than it is in America within the next 10 years. Not just in total number of fans, but in percentage of the population that actively follows. As an example, I was talking to a friend about Reggie Miller (a former NBA player) and I referred to one specific feat from his career, expecting my friend would not know much about a player from 10 years ago, but my friend responded correcting the facts I had given him and providing several more Reggie Miller related stories.
More signs of NBA influence, I have met people with English names such as Lebron and my personal favorite, Allen Iverson. No, his English name was not Allen, it was Allen Iverson.
People here also like to play basketball, but most everyone gives and identical response when asked if they are good, "I like to play, but I'm not very good."
But its not just young people, folks of all ages get participate in sports, each morning elderly women gather outside my apartment and do their excercises (sometimes with swords!) and this video below shows my personal favorite form of East Asian excercise (in case you are wondering, as best as I can tell, these groups don't practice or rehearse, they just do this on the fly).
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