I'm a Ninja

When I was in college a housemate put up a dart board. With the exception of the grinding with Korean guys ( It Seemed Like a Good Plan ), that action has generally led to positive experiences and some pretty good friendships. For example, most of my housemates took up darts. We would play a dart game called cricket late into the night.

Of course when you are in college many things become a drinking game. Cricket was no different. On the dart board there is a small outer circle which is where the doubles reside. If your dart lands in that circle it counts as two of that number. There is also a smaller, inner circle which is where the triples reside. Those count as three of that number. Hitting trips made the other person drink. For some reason saying the word 'drink' is extremely satisfying in drinking games. It feels so good that we ended up only throwing at triples.

"Nice triple."

"Thank you. Drink."

Usually, the dialogue was not that congenial. Replace 'nice' with a string of explicatives and 'thank' with a simple, four-lettered word... well, you get the idea. Our focus on triples also led to the discovery of the beer curve. The beer curve resembles a small incline that leads to a rather sudden and steep drop off. After having to drink a few times, you would actually get better at hitting triples. But eventually there was a marked decrease in hitting anything let alone triples.

Several years later I am back throwing darts. I am still pretty awful, but it is a very social game. Even some dance clubs have dart boards (Is that a pickle ... No, they're darts.). A few weeks ago the owner of my favorite bar asked me if I would like to join their dart team. What better way to spend Monday nights? (Monday night football is Tuesday morning here)

Our team name is the Ninja's (Of course it is. Didn't someone just release a movie about ninjas?). We were undefeated until I returned from the States for my primiere in the Itaewon dart league. Our opponent was the Blue Frog bar, a renowned dart bar on hooker hill. Tucked away among several bordellos down in the basement resides the Blue Frog. It amazes me that such a bar could stay open. There is a pool table, three dart boards, and a refrigerator full of beer. Let's play.

My opponent opens with four 20's. I miss everything, and, suddenly, I am way back. But just as things start to look bleak, I hit a double 16, a double 15, and a 20. I'm back from the dead. All I need is a double bull. I'm going to win. I'm a winner, baby.... okay maybe not. I never came close to the bullseye let alone the double bull. The next two games weren't even close, so I started 0-3.

Next up was the doubles. The league is sort of like the Davis cup in tennis. My partner and I go 0-3. Not pretty but great fun. There are three women on our team of six, and they are a blast. During our doubles match one of the women from our team was keeping score up front near the dart board. As we fell further behind, my female teammate stands behind our opponent who is throwing and starts to mime to the scorekeeper to flash him. "You have to distract him!" What can I say? We are Ninja's. As a side note, I started to throw really well after that.

The final game is a six-on-six countdown from 1001 to zero where you have to hit a double to exactly get zero. Having been crushed the entire night, we finally take a huge lead, and yours truly hits a double one for the win to go 1-6 on the night. Finish strong, I always say, so we went back to our 'home' bar and closed it down. Then to Seoul pub where it was finally decided we should go to a noraebang (karaoke place). That was great fun but requires a post all its own.

The Bless U Ninja's and friends.

It's a sign of character to be able to rebound from a tough loss. As you can see from the picture, I think we put the loss behind us rather quickly. I can't be happier with our team. What can I say? We're Ninja's