Yesterday, after a tough day of doing a whole lot of nothing, I met up with 진희. We had planned on to check out some firework event at the Han River. Upon arriving at the rendez-vous point she told me that a couple of her co-workers upon hearing of this event wanted to come along, and asked if I was cool with it.
“Sure, the more the merrier!”
So we headed towards 인사동 to meet up with her co-workers, and her co-workers’ boyfriends/fiances (I wasn’t really sure what was going on with them). Her co-workers were both nice, their boyfriends (both of whom were also Americans) were kind of quite, saying about 3 words when I was introduced to them.
None of us had eaten yet, so we decided to grab some dinner before heading off to the fireworks event. Attempting to find food was something of a difficult task. One of the boyfriends was something of a picky eater. “That’s too spicy.” “I don’t like fish.” “That smells weird.” So after about 10 minutes of wandering around, it was decided that we’d have 삼겹살.
While 삼겹살 is delicious, it’s far from being my favorite food of this land, and I don’t really like eating it if I have to do other things, as going to a 삼겹살 restaurant means you are going to smells of grilled meat and cigerette smoke for the rest of the night…which is what happened. At the restaurant I learned that neither of the other boyfriends knew how to speak Korean. One apparently could drop a couple key phrases and could read a menu, but the other guy (the guy who wouldn’t eat anything) couldn’t tell 태 from EH.
After getting our grub on, we trekked off to a park on the Han River to check out some fireworks. The fireworks were decent, and it always amazes me that people will actually go “Oooh! Aaahh!” while watching fireworks. At the conclusion of the fireworks, the couple that included the guy who wouldn’t eat anything, or speak Korean took off.
DSC02553
Originally uploaded by wdunn.
Fireworks at the 한강공원 (Han River Park).
The rest of us headed to a tea house for a cup of tea and a chat. At the tea house, the coworker’s boyfriend was a little more talkative. So we all talked and joked about this and that until the tea house closed. He and his girlfriend left in a cab and 진희 and I walked in the cool autumn night air to the subway, and then parted ways until next time.
I have always wondered about people who won’t try any new foods or try to learn any new languages- I really wonder about those people who feel that way and still somehow decide to go live in a different culture!
Also, Wyatt, was the firework event centered near the fancy Hyundai towers that are on the bank of the Han River?
Comment by John Paul Jose — October 24, 2005 @ 22:48 pm
I too have wondered about those type of people. Apparently the one guy (the one who was less picky about food) was jealous of my Korean skills (which is rediculous since I am fairly horrible at Korean) and went home and started studying.
As for the fireworks, I’m not really sure where it was located. I know I was on the 용산 (Yongsan) side of the Han River, but weather or not there were Hyundai buildings nearby I’m not sure.
Comment by Wyatt — October 25, 2005 @ 14:00 pm
don’t be so modest! You have to admit that just by being able to hold a conversation, you’re probably in the top 0.5% of Korean speaking foreigners.
Was the picky guy in the military? I’m always trying to think of foolproof ways of preventing my future kids from being picky eaters- you’ve got to try it all I reckon
Comment by swiss james — October 26, 2005 @ 10:41 am
The picky guy wasn’t in the military. I really don’t know what his deal was. I too am looking for that foolproof method to prevent any of my offspring from being picky. I’m not saying a person has to like ever kind of food, but at least try it.
Comment by Wyatt — October 26, 2005 @ 13:06 pm
Not a big fan of 삼겹살 either. I imagine it to be similar and have the same consitancy of eating human flesh. eewww…weird.
Comment by meena — October 29, 2005 @ 23:20 pm