My foreign footballer friends

SEOUL, South Korea - Sergi kicks the ball in my direction. I trap it and make a quick pass to Ho-jun, who passes it to Lukas, who then kicks it to Giacomo, who dribbles it down the field and promptly passes it to Mathieu, who, with some fancy footwork, dances around the defenders and shoots.

Goal!

Where else can a Spaniard, an American, a Korean, a German, an Italian and a Belgian share something in common but a soccer field?

When I first arrived in Korea, my only friends were people I had met from my program. They came from all across the U.S. My program had the students arrive a week before everyone else, so we all became close rather quickly.

But I also wanted to branch out and make new friends by joining a club or an organization. Soccer has been one of my passions since I was little, and I always enjoyed a good pick-up game at the Woodlawn field at IU.

So I decided to seek out a club soccer team at my university. Coincidentally, there was a Korean student who was advertising for an international club soccer team, and I jumped right on that wagon and joined the Yonsei Global United team.

Now I’m sure it’s not weird for any of you to hear that I play soccer. However, it’s not a popular sport for girls in Europe and almost unheard of for girls in Korea.

Walking into soccer orientation in a dress and heels didn’t help ease the stares I received from the European and Korean students who filled the room.

As I walk past whispers and stares, I notice I’m the only girl. Awesome. I was definitely a little intimidated, but we all introduced ourselves and went out to eat Korean barbecue together. Any anxiety or tension I felt was gone quickly.

Practice is always chill and a lot of fun. I even earned some respect by surprising my team members with the fact that I actually know how to play soccer.

There are more and more people joining YG United, and there are now a couple of girls that come to practice.  

So far, it has been one of my best decisions while abroad. Some of my closest friends here are people I have met from my soccer team.

It’s a great phenomenon when people from very different backgrounds and competing nationalities (French vs. Italian) can come together and play on the same side.

There are at least 30 people that participate and we are a diverse group, but we know that we share at least one thing in common.

That one thing in common can lead to finding out that perhaps we share the same major or visited the same cities, which then leads to, “You must come visit me next summer.”

I realize now that most of the people I met are not so different from myself. There may be cultural differences and maybe even a language barrier sometimes, but it turns out we all love to travel, meet new people and try new things.

And though we don’t cheer for the same teams (a subject which should not be brought up in a room full of soccer fanatics), we play the same sport.