Last Sunday, the Dongshin English Service formulated a plan to take over downtown Daegu—not really, but we got close! In actuality a few squads of Dongshin members were sent scrambling through the busy streets of downtown for an epic scavenger hunt.

I must admit that my mind wasn’t completely functioning that day because I was dead tired and had a massive headache, but I’ll do my best to recollect my experience for you all.

My group The Kings of Kimbap raced towards downtown via automobile—“race” may not be the best word, but we definitely tried our best. The traffic was beating us up pretty badly and the task of finding decent parking was a rather pesky one. Despite our initial hardships, The Kings of Kimbap hit the ground running at a good pace.

Every good team has a strategy to win, and we put our heads together to find the best way to achieve the most points. When I heard about getting points for a haircut, I couldn’t resist—I needed a haircut badly. Hitting up the majorly rewarding assignments while throwing in a few minor activities for good measure seemed a sure-fire way to win the hunt.

There really isn’t a quicker way to be singled out as a foreigner in Korea than pasting stickers on each and every Korean (or foreigner) you can find and snapping a picture with them.

I’m really grateful for the scavenger hunt because it helped me experience more of the culture than I would have if I were by myself walking around downtown.

Furthermore, I’m very thankful for the people on my team who could speak Korean–without them The Kings of Kimbap would have been The Kings of Konfusion (or Confucius, if you prefer a Chinese reference).

By the end of our journey across downtown, my team was quite successful in gathering up a copious amount of points. Alas, we were not victorious but our spirits were not stricken too badly by the pain of defeat. In our minds we were winners and that’s all that mattered.

In all seriousness, my experience was a very positive one and one that I will remember even after I head back home. It helped me develop better my teamwork skills and also provide a really fun adventure for my teammates and I.

(by Chris Whetsell)