John Gunter

Thoughts on Life and Living

Free lighters, Gangnam, and other sights in Asia…(videos included)

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It is Sunday and the sun is shining.  THE SUN IS SHINING! I hate when people complain about living over here, I really do.  However, I am about to do just that for a bit.  The sun rarely shines here.  We often go 20-30 days between sightings of our big burning friend in the sky.  There are a lot of theories as to why this is the case. . . cloud cover from the mountains, pollution, even the outlandish one that the people running the country in from the capital controls the weather and doesn’t like this city.  As for me, I have no idea.  I just no know that we RARELY have days like this.

Lighter grab at the airport
The free lighter grab at the local airport. . .

In light of the unusual sighting of, um well, light, I thought I would tell of two other “different” things that I/we have noticed here the past few weeks.

The first one was at the airport a few weeks ago while picking up our friends, the Littlepages.  Ever wonder what the airport does with the lighters they confiscate from people whom futilely try to take them onto planes?  Well, here they simply place them in a container where arriving passengers exit the airport.  You can fill your pockets with free lighters if you like.  I guess if you MUST have a quick smoke from your air travel, this is great!

I don’t know why this struck me as so funny, but it did.  It is actually a fairly stand up thing to do.  However, in a world where smokers are increasingly ostracized and marginalized, here they are still encouraged in many, many ways, like free lighters at the airport.  As I type this, I am in one of the only “non-smoking” coffee houses in this area.  There are signs [Read more…]

Funny nuances of my Asian college basketball team

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(This is the second post about my college basketball experience in Asia.  If you have not read the first one, please click here.)

Here is my college basketball team, as well as some other Americans
Here is the team after Pat and I lined up a game with other Americans in the city (I am on the front row, third from the right)

As you might guess, basketball is essentially the same wherever you go.  The goal is still to outscore your opponent.  The basic rules are the same.  You dribble.  You shoot.  You play defense.  However, there were some funny differences in the basketball here that were superficial, but shocking none the less.  Definitely took some getting used to.

This first one wasn’t a difference, but rather a shock to my system.  I was absolutely dying every time we hit the court those first few weeks.  It had been 10 years since I had been involved in competitive athletics.  Since that time, I had studied much and worked out little.  I had broken a few bones and had my second shoulder surgery.  As I said in my first post, I had come to Asia to learn a language and, hopefully, make an impact for good.  In my wildest imagination, I had never dreamed I would be on a nationally recognized basketball team.

We were training like big time programs train.  Wind sprints, drills, suicides. . . we were doing it all.  I was in typical physical shape for a 28 year old professional from America.  I was doughy.  My thoughts were often, “I can’t believe I am 28 and still doing suicides!”  If the opportunity weren’t so great to meet friends, I would have quite the first day.

It ended up being the best thing imaginable for my health, as well as for my ability to engage in campus life in Asia, yet it was definitely a shock to my system to jump into training with a college basketball team!

The second thing that we immediately took note of was that the team NEVER drank water.  Never.  Patrick and I [Read more…]

How I became an Asian college basketball star at 28

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Since the college basketball season began this week, I thought it would be fun to write about one of my favorite things from my first  year in Asia.  This is HOW I BECAME AN ASIAN COLLEGE BASKETBALL STAR AT 28!

John Gunter and his Chinese basketball teammates
Pat Ku (next to me), Drew Johnson (second to the right), and me with two of our basketball teammates during a “night on the town”. . .

My entire life, I had dreamed of athletic glory.  I had hoped that, at a minimum, I would play college sports.  I assumed it would be baseball.  There was an outside shot at football; perhaps I had a chance at a strong school with a bad team.  I never dreamed I would play college basketball.  I didn’t even play at the high school level.  The thought of playing with the national champions in Asia was beyond my wildest imagination.  However, that is exactly what happened.  This is how I backed into playing college basketball in Asia at the best program in the country.

Upon arriving in Asia, the language program I was part of decided we would all participate in some kind of student activity.  This would make finding friends and being a part of campus life much easier.

On the first day of class, our language teacher found out that Patrick Ku (my roommate, friend, and fellow Georgia Tech alumni) and I enjoyed playing basketball.  She told us to be ready at 4:30pm the next day.  She would take us to play.  I thought that we would just play on the outdoor courts with random students.

We met our teacher at the main campus building.  She walked us past the main outdoor courts.  I was curious.  She took us into the campus gymnasium.  We quickly found out that she had set it up for us to try out for the varsity team of the university.

We had heard the buzz around campus of their recent national championship, but we knew nothing else about them.  We showed up and the court was filled with massive dudes running drills, dunking, etc., complete with their whistle blowing coach.  Our teacher, a tiny woman of about 65 years old, walked on the court, interrupted practice, and asked the coach to let us play.  I felt ridiculous. [Read more…]

Community, relationships, and other thoughts on loneliness. . .

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After my previous post (CLICK HERE if you have not read it or this post won’t make much sense!), I have continued to think more about this subject of loneliness.  It is a vital subject.  It is so important simply because almost all of us experience loneliness, to some measure, on a regular basis.  Since it is part of all of our “pilgrimage” in life, I wanted to talk about a few of things that have kept me afloat over the years.

Front and back porch views
Views from my apartment here in Asia. . . top from back porch; bottom from kitchen

Beyond my living overseas (which is innately lonely), I am still single.  Though I have had some of greatest roommates in human history, the last three years have seen me living in Asian apartments by myself.

Additionally, I have taken hundreds of flights by myself and spent WAY too many nights in hotel rooms with just me, a bed, and really bad Asian TV as my only personal contact.  Heck, I’m embarrassed by the number of movie theaters of which I have played the role of “that creepy guy” sitting off in the corner by himself.  That guy who couldn’t drum up a single friend to catch a flick with him. . . yep, that guy has been me in places like Bangkok and Hong Kong more times than I care to mention.  All of this puts me in the unenviable position of perhaps being an “expert” on the whole area of loneliness.

So here are a few additional thoughts I have had on staving off the pangs of loneliness in my own life.  I would love to hear your thoughts at the end of this post. . . 

1)  You are understood in all things by Christ Jesus (especially in this area of loneliness) – I will not spend much time on this, as I dealt with it in my precious post.  However, even this week I have been touched by just how lonely, isolated, and even despondent the Bible clearly shows parts of Christ’s life were.

All within Christ’s last week before the crucifixion, His disciples couldn’t even stay awake for Him during His darkest hour (Mark 14:32-46), Christ was betrayed by a disciple (Matthew 26:48-50), and He was denied by one of His closest friends and confidants in the world (Mark 14:66-72).  These are brutal betrayals to a level that most, if not all of us, will never face.  Aside from this, He was literally beaten, spat upon, and went to His death completely alienated from all of His followers and friends.  However, Christ faced them all in excruciating fashion.

When loneliness latches on, I find it helpful to remember that Christ really does understand in a first person, extraordinarily empathetic way.  HE is with me, everywhere and at all times.  He DOES understand me in each and every situation in which I find yourself.  Great to cling to this reality during periods of loneliness.

2)  Community is everything – The [Read more…]

“no one understands me”– one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves

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Thank you for all of your feedback on my last post, The inevitable pain of loneliness . . . I am going to write a follow-up to it in a few days.  However, here I wanted to get some of my thoughts down on a different subject that is important to me.LIES_edited

A little while back, I was trying to help a friend in a very difficult situation with his wife.  They are back in America and not even from Atlanta, so I don’t have the advantage of seeing them on a regular basis.   However, it was clear to me, as is the case pretty much with all such instances, that there was blame to be laid on both parties.  The husband was in a rough situation, no doubt.  However, he was also part of the problem.

I tried to help out as best I could.  I tried to sympathize with him on where he had been wronged by his wife, and she clearly had wronged him.  He appreciated this.  However, when I also tried to get him to own some of his fault in the situation, he immediately rebuffed and became angry with me.

“You don’t understand me. . . you don’t understand my situation!” he literally yelled at me.  When I asked him who does understand his situation and even tried to point him to others whom I thought could help them out, he then let me know that NO ONE understood his situation.

I am not married.  I did not completely understand his situation.  However, my friend had fallen into what is clearly one of the biggest and most detrimental lies you [Read more…]

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