The Amazing Race

Last Sunday, the foreign community put on an amazing race, open to all of Daegu but consisting mostly of foreigners. About 12 teams showed up promising the top 3 racing pairs a prize.

The race took place in the small area of downtown Daegu. They told us to find the 5 people in charge of stations somewhere down town. It started at 3 O clock and the first team came in around 10 after 5.

My partner and I ran around downtown a little before finally finding our first station. Our task was to go to the 7th floor of the building where we would find another guy who had our task for us. The dask was to play a round of DDR and not get an incomplete. That was the first time both of us played and we weren't sure we passed it but we were given a pass anyways.

The next event was singing on a stage and gathering 3 random people to sing and dance with us for at least 10 seconds. We made a deal with the group before us that if they sang with us we would sing with them.

The 3rd event was the inevitable event involving alcohol...in this case soju. I let my partner drink the multi shots of it saying I would do the next task. Afterwards he led me with a blindfold on down the street to another person. I was carrying a cup of soju and had to ensure I didn't spill too much of it, or we would have to drink the remaining and redo the task. Luckily we passed.

It was quite foolish of me to say I would do the next task. The next task involved eating 2 pieces of sushi. I convinced my partner, who also hates sushi, to eat the first piece and I decided to suck it up and eat the 2nd piece. Take one for the team. The rule was we had to chew for 20 bites. My taking one for the team lasted a whole 4 chews before I gagged hardcore and spit the chewed pieces back on the plate. We requested another piece and my partner did the deed. He also puked later, from a mixture of the sushi, heat and running.

The final event, or so we thought, was throwing 3 sticks into mini holes standing the same way basketball hoops do. We only managed one, which gave us a 30 minute penalty and we raced back to the finish line of the race. Here we were given our final task...go to woobang tower.

When we arrived at woobang tower we were told to go to the 77th floor, which meant only one thing. Sky Jump. I wanted to do the jump, but my partner wanted to as well and seeing as he did everything else I had to let him do this too. He was quite afraid, needing the guy to push him off the tower...but I think he enjoyed it. After that it was a race back to the starting line, for real this time.

Luckily my friend had his autobike and we didn't have to wait for a cab or for traffic. That helped us get to woobang and back pretty quickly. When we arrived back it was just about 20 after 5, and most importantly we were not the last team. We also found out that only 2 teams managed to avoid the 30 minute penalty from the stick throwing, and they both came in an hour after us.

Once the race was completed and the penalties were all accounted for we found that we weren't last. In fact we were the 3rd team in. We won 50 bucks, a family pass to an amusement part, a free jump off the tower, which I will get and a $30 gift certificate at a sushi restaurant, which we gave away.

All in all, a pretty good weekend run for me. A first place finish in the baseball league, celebrating the night before and then a 3rd place finish in the amazing race.