A Surprise Festival in Seolcheon

A traditional Korean game called 투호 (Tu-ho)

     Wednesdays I teach at 설천초등학교 (Seolcheon Elementary School).  Usually the faculty play a rally style game of volleyball after classes are finished, which I always enjoy.  Today though, my co-teacher informed me that there would be a small festival involving the rest of our small community of 설천 (Seolcheon).  They had a volleyball tournament with the different organizations around the area forming teams, as well as some traditional Korean games, like 투호 (Tu-ho) pictured above.

     My co-teacher was very excited for the festival, because they had all sorts of food.  It was a feast.  They had fresh muscles from the coast about a half a kilometer from the school that had been boiled.  They also had some pork, along with 김치 (kimchi), which is the traditional Korean side dish that comes with everything.  It is basically cabbage that is fermented in Cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger, and vinegar.  I rather enjoyed the food.  I've eaten muscles before, but never that fresh.  I now know what sort of difference it can make.  I stuffed myself.

     After I had just about had my fill of the food, I was informed I was supposed to be playing in the volleyball tournament in 10 seconds... so I ran to grab my change of clothes, and managed to change quickly enough that I only missed a hand full of plays.  It seems there was some useful purpose to learning to change into workout clothes in 30 seconds while in cross country at Cedar Park High.  We did well during the game.  I had a few good plays, and a couple goofs, but we ended up winning the game.  It was bittersweet because we were playing against my main school 설천중학교 (Seolcheon Middle School).  I was happy to win, but we knocked them out of the tournament, so they were jokingly angry with me.  We went on to win the tournament, although I didn't play in the final game so that some other faculty could have a go.

     After my volleyball game, I went back outside the gym where everything else was.  Some of the older men were playing some sort of gambling game on a large wicker mat.  I asked my co-teacher what they were doing, and she said it is a simple game to play, but hard to explain.  I laughed (of course) and said thanks.  After watching for a while, I figured out the rules (I think).  Basically, there are two 'fair play' zones on either side of the mat, with the center acting as a sort of game board/ score keeping mechanism.  Along with the mat, there was a small metal bowl and four small wooden half cylinders that they used to play.  They would start from the opposite side of the mat they were trying for, put the wooden pieces in the bowl and try to toss them into their 'zone'.  If any of the pieces fell outside of the zone, the turn was forfeit.  If it was a legal turn, then the number of pieces with the flat side of the cylinder facing up became the number of spaces along the board they could move.  It did seem simple once I had watched it for a little while.  It is a gambling game, but they were using it as a drinking game, and the universal penalty was a shot of 소주 (Soju), the chief alcohol consumed in Korea.  It is a weak spirit  (16%?) made from rice that tastes something like vodka.

     The other game I played was 투호 (Tu-ho).  It reminds me a lot of horse shoes, washers, bean bag toss, and beer pong.  It is super simple, just like those games.  You have 10 arrows (that are rubber tipped) and a barrel.  Basically you just have to try and throw the arrows into the barrel, and the person that gets the most to stay in, wins.  It was pretty fun.  Our school won that tournament too, with my expert help.  I also played maybe a dozen games with one of my former students that graduated to high school last month.  By the end, I was Tu-ho-ing like I was born in Korea!  It's a pretty fun game and I would recommend it for tailgating or similar occasions.  For something that I didn't know was planned, the whole day was a really nice surprise!

A real life example of 투호 (Tu-ho).