Paintball in Gumi

This one is a little late but...

The day after Gage left Korea, we had another early morning planned. Sian was a fantastic girlfriend and planned a paintball trip for Thomas's birthday! The normal group of our friends along with some of Thomas and Sian's other friends surprised him at the train station and headed out to Gumi. There is a paintball club in Korea, created by foreigners and based in Daegu. Sian talked to one of the members who organized everything. They go to Gumi like once a month to play, and they taught us how to do it and some different games to play while we were there. Gumi is pretty close to Daegu, so it wasn't a bad train ride at all. A small van picked us all up from there to go over to the paintball area outside the city. This place is run by a man who calls himself "Snake." He is a serious badass dude, and he's amazing at paintball. I think he used to be in the military and now runs this place. He does paintball there but also business team building retreats and stuff. Once we arrived, we got all geared up in helmets with masks as well as full canvas suits that, if they were orange, would have made us look like prisoners.

Gianni and I all geared up

We played 4 different games of paintball, with a delicious, homemade lunch of pasta and potato salads, veggies, and sour cream, and an amazing cake made by Marie amongst other stuff (very happy to have proper comfort food when I can get it) in between. Each game was different. For the first one, we played a modified capture the flag where you had to capture the other teams flag from the center and put it over in their base. The second game was a birthday one for Thomas where it was everyone against him and a few of his chosen helpers. They had to search for his hidden birthday presents while trying not to have their birthday hats knocked off their helmets--the hats were taped on. Basically, it was just an excuse to shoot the

Me at the bottom trying to shoot ANYONE

birthday boy over and over. After lunch, we played another team game where we had to take each other out, and we only had one respawn each (the other games had unlimited respawns). Because of that, most of the games are 20 minutes each, otherwise they'd go on forever. I should mention that getting his in the arms or legs doesn't count as getting out--only head or body. Marie, our official photographer for the day, got hit in the chest during the third game. Luckily, her camera was fine. She wasn't actually playing, but I think someone must have mistook her for a member of the opposing team. I felt really bad when that happened. The final game was a couples game--couples against couples--with unlimited respawning. Unfortunately, my gun ran out of air right after I came back in after getting hit once. That meant that my gun wouldn't fire. I tried to fix it, but I kept getting shot, and as I went to go to the dead zone, I got right in the line of fire of a battle between other couples. I freaked out a bit because I didn't know how to get out, and it really freaking hurts getting hit with paint balls, so I decided to go up into the woods where we weren't supposed to go because there's a small grave site. Even still, I had a few people trying to shoot me up there. I was really frustrated and kind of disappointed that I couldn't play the last game because I really wanted to play with Gianni. Yes, my friends got to see a full on freak out by yours truly. Not my proudest moment, but whatever. Disappointment hits me hard I guess.

Marie was amazing at paintball!

This was only my second time playing paintball, and it was wayyyy harder playing with all these experienced people than the mildly experienced ones that Gianni and I played with when we played at his college a long time ago. Also, the terrain was hilly and uneven. The obstacles were really cool though: barrels, nets, wooden areas. Much different than the blow up obstacles from Bard. This was much more natural and really cool. I wish I could have played better because I'm fairly certain I didn't really do much damage. Oh well, I still got some bruises to prove I was there anyway. Maria did a really fantastic job; she even got a compliment from Snake at the end. I got a few on my arms, stomach, and legs, all on my left side since you have to stick that side out more from behind the left side of obstacles if you want to shoot with your gun in your right hand. We all had a really fun day of paintball and eating delicious food. It was a really fun birthday party! Thanks for planning it, Sian. Thanks for having a birthday, Thomas. And thanks Marie for taking all of these lovely photos.