Out Drinkin

*So recently, both the US and Korea were in a little program called the World Cup. Heard of it? Well, here in Korea it’s a huge deal! They even keep the subways open later on the nights that Korea plays. Although, I did just learn that the subway stays open later during the week then it does on the weekend!!! Like me, you might be saying, ah waaa? That’s right, the weekends are to be spent with your family, not out drinking with your friends! Silly, that’s what week days are for!
Anyways, back to the World Cup. Vicki and I, although not huge soccer fans we are well aware of the rules of the game, so we decided to give it a go and join the fans in Gangnam. It was pouring rain and every bar we went to we were turned away. At first, I thought it was because we were foreigners and the bars were full of Koreans so no waygooks allowed! But no, some young Korean girls with their skirts up to their hoo-ha’s were turned away too so we knew there must be another explanation. Well, the deal is most places you needed to have a reservation. There is no such thing as standing room only. You can’t order a beer and stand near the bar and drink it, noooo! You have to have a seat and a table or nothing at all! Strange right? Yeah, I thought so too.
So we ended up watching the first half of the game out in the rain, under umbrellas, drinking canned beer from the GS. The game was televised on a huge TV / billboard so we got to see if just fine, although my shoes were filling with rain water. At half time we decided to start out search for a bar with an open seat once again. We finally found one! Hooray!
Now this whole “much have a table thing” seems really strange, but the deal is that most places require you to buy ‘anju’ or snack foods in addition to your beer. So you can’t just order a 30$ pitcher of beer, you have to order squid, pancakes, or French fries too. Yet, Vicki was not aware of this rule after living in Korea for 7 years so its really just a law they enforce if you are with a Korean. If it is two waygooks then they don’t bother. Trying to translate this requirement for us in addition to having to translate their menu that has no English on it would be near impossible so Vicki and I are safe as long as we are just hanging out with each other.
*Vicki and I went to a bar near my house and got really excited when we saw the following on the menu: Red Beer, Blue Beer, Purple Beer, etc. So we thought, yes! We are gonna get a picture of us drinking every color of the rainbow! This is gonna be sweet! So I ordered the purple beer and she ordered the orange beer. Oh god! It was the worst beer I have ever, and I mean ever, drank in my entire life!!! In fact, I could only have 3 sips before abandoning it and ordering a regular beer.
What makes this beer so terrible you ask? Well, it was cheap Cass, which is not all that terrible by its self, but what makes it “Red, Yellow, Blue, etc” is the addition of fruit syrup. I know it might not sound that bad, but trust me, it really is worse then you are imagining. So the “purple beer” I had was full of raspberry syrup, and the “Orange Beer” contained peach syrup.
Dear Korea, stop making your already poor quality beer even worse.

Post for June

*Well I’m sorry to say I have been slacking in my blogging activities and I have no excuse for that. All I can say is that my mother and father came to visit me in Korea recently and I did so much sight seeing with them that after they left it took a week to regain my energy. Then, another week or two to get over the depression and alienation I felt in their absence. So, here I am, back again and in brighter spirits and ready to share my interesting stories with you all once again.
My parent’s visit was much like my visit to Japan, way too much information and activities to write about. I will give a short list of the activities I shared with my parents: went to the beach, Korean National Museum, open air market, Han river boat cruise, Insadong tea house, the presidential Blue House, Gyeongbok palace, Hanok traditional village, the giant Buddha statue near Coex, and Lotte World amusement park. Hard to believe they were only here 4 full days! I think I am now officially a certified Seoul tour guide! Let me know if you would like to schedule a tour with me (within the next 4 months of course).
*In other news, I got a new desk! I’ve gone from a seat as a secretary to a seat as a sajanim, or boss. (I started using the term ‘saj’ for short, kinda close to serg. which is short for sergeant). Now I have a nice corner desk with a window right behind me! I guess maybe I have earned the right not to have someone looking over my shoulder constantly?
* I was talking to one of my friends from work, Dasom, about some of the cultural difference I have come across and she made some good observations too that I never noticed before. She said that Korea doesn’t have any drive thrus. No drive thru coffee, fast food, or in some selected states drive thru liquor stores. And yes, I have been through a drive thru liquor store in Kentucky so I know we have them in the U.S. But not here in Korea. I guess because of the limited land they have to work with, drive thrus just aren’t feasible.
She also said that Korean friends do not go to each other’s homes. This I thought was really strange. I mean, that’s what we do in the U.S. If someone is going to bridge the gap between coworker or study buddy to a friend, this transition occurs by inviting them into your home. So when I was feeling down because I had only been to 3 people’s homes in the past 8 months, she explained that that is totally normal. For Korean’s, they always just meet up outside the home at bars, restaurants, or movie theaters. They don’t invite each other over to watch movies or have a BBQ, that just isn’t done. I felt a lot better after she explained that to me.
* Dasom also helped me find a vet to get Tokey Pokey fix (and no, I don’t mean BBQed, stewed, or shish kebab) and I taught her two new English words: spay and neuter. Dasom and I walked to the local vet’s office and she talked to him for me. He seemed really surprised that I wanted to have my rabbit fixed. He does it all the time for cats and dogs, but this was his first rabbit. He said he would try. And although that statement didn’t instill a great confidence in his ability, I also knew that this was probably my best hope of finding someone to do the procedure.
Now I know what you must be thinking, why do this procedure in the first place? Well, once Tokey Pokey reached sexual maturity he started pooping and peeing everywhere! All that hard work to get him potty trained when he was a baby was wasted! I also know that I most likely cannot bring him home to the states with me. And if he is no longer potty trained, I would have a hard time finding a good home for him with a replacement mommy.
!!!!!!This is very important, please skip this next section if you are grossed out easily. Just go to the next * instead of reading further!!!!! I took him to vet today and dropped him off, hoping for the best. I returned in the afternoon with my fingers crossed that everything went well. I came into the office and the vet went into the back room and brought back Tokey Pokey’s testicles on a paper towel. He said, “Testicles,” and I said “Ohh, ohhh.” I think he registered the look of shock on my face and put the paper towel down in front of me at the reception desk and went back to go retrieve my rabbit. I was thinking to myself, “What in the hell am I suppose to do with these? Earrings? Soup?” I was so grossed out!
When he brought the box with Tokey in it I just grabbed it, thanked them, and left with both hands full so I didn’t have to worry about taking his testicles in a “to go box” with a ribbon tied around it! I know that sounds terrible but if you have been to Korea, you know it is all about presentation; they box up your left over food at restaurants and tie beautiful bows around it, so I was half expecting them to try to make me wait while they did that to Tokey’s parts.
*Ok, always end on a happy note. So I love a Korean animal TV show! I’ve told you about it in previous posts. This past show was great! There was a baby chicken and it was best friends with a cat! The cat would lay down and then the baby chick would jump on top of it and start pecking the fleas off, or pecking the ear mites etc. The cat would eventually get tired of this and get up to walk away and the baby chick would follow the cat every where it went. The owner even built a little dog house type structure for the cat and chicken to share. So cute!
Another great episode showed a mamma hen who had her chicks taken away from her. She was feeling motherly and had no one to love so she adopted some baby guinea pigs! So freaking cute! These five or so piggys would all cuddly under her like she was one of those pet store plastic igloos! And she would just sit on top of them, keeping them warm?
* Oh I almost forgot, I made a Kook Bok! Its my account of all the Korean dishes I have made so far. I'm not done with it yet, I didn't finish describing how to make the last dish, but the rest are up and available. http://www.wix.com/rbazant/Korean Kook Bok