Soju and a Margarita

            What an adventure Korea has been so far. It’s hard to believe I’ve already been here for over a week. In Korean areum-dapda (아름답다) means beautiful and is a word now used daily when talking to strangers about how I like it here. This past Wednesday the group of engineers that I work with had a team dinner that was an incredible experience to be a part of. Each month every team goes out for a special evening to socialize and have a good time. This is different than an American style happy hour where co workers casually meet up; it is hosted by the company and a way to say thank you for your hard work. It really helps boost morale and makes the workers feel very appreciated.

            Chang Soo Lee, one of our Samsung counterparts, gave me a printout at work of the address and map of how to get to the restaurant. I knew it’d be an adventurous night when the cab driver didn’t know where it was and it was only about 10km away. Upon arrival our driver pointed to an unpaved road that looked to be in the middle of a forest. After walking down the road I saw what looked like a small little cooking shack and a few dining areas (again, no chairs). The team was not there yet so I explored the area and saw that there were a bunch of outdoor dining areas around the property. Samsung arrived in about ten minutes and we all sat a huge 20ft table and there were a total of 10 of us. The dinner was several courses and although already cooked, it was presented in large bowls over mini gas stoves at the table to keep things warm. The first round was a whole duck in a soup, kind of like the chicken soup from the other day and it was very tasty. As usual there were a ton of plates of garnishes and side dishes including kimchi, hot sauce, peppers, bean sprouts, and even minnows which are used like salt. Yes, I did eat one of the minnows, I had to try it. The other rounds of food were more variants of duck – some with veggies some with rice, all delicious. I learned a few interesting things about Korea:

1)      I feel very bad for the dishwasher, we used about 500 plates

2)      Koreans don’t take leftovers home

3)      Waiters do not check up on tables unless you call for them (by tableside phone or buzzer)

4)      How to say, “Please bring me three bottles of Soju”

5)      They say “Kimchi” instead of “cheese” when taking pictures

6)   It is customary to never pour your own drinks and to use two hands when pouring or holding a glass



The restaurant



A view of one of the dining areas

 

Fooling around while waiting for Samsung



Ms. Kim and Ed



Min Gu and the cook. He is getting ready to prepare Bibimbap, a Korean meal that involves a lot of tableside mixing. You can see we were setting up for Soju Bombs.



Samsung and myself. The little green bottles are Soju.

 

Jongil and the duck soup

 

Chang Soo Lee and Jongil

 

Bibimbap before mixing



Bibimbap after mixing

What a great bonding event

               I drank some Soju that night, a lot of it. Soju is like Korean vodka and tastes a little like Sake. You can sip it from a shot glass or have a Soju bomb just like a car bomb. They all kept calling me superman because I told them it went down like water and I was twice their size so my tolerance was much greater. I had a lot of great conversation – they all love the Boston Red Sox so a lot of baseball talk and many questions about America came up. Only a few of them have ever been to the states so they are very curious. They now know what a man cave is. After about three and a half hours the meal was over and it was a night I’ll never forget. I really hope all the coworkers here can come visit me in America one day so I can share similar things about my culture.

Last night Ed and I decided to check out the downtown scene and do a little barhopping. It started at the Irish pub with a burger and some Korean beer, Hite. It is like bud light and very cheap, $2.5 for about 1.5 pints. The bar had some great music playing and we played three or four games of pool. We then wandered to another building where we found another bar that was practically empty inside. The owner was a mid 40’s Korean lady who had traveled the world and really did a good job hosting us. She had a dart board and a foosball table and played a lot of red hot chili peppers. Another man and her played a game of darts and I told them I called winner. She was a little cocky and insisted she would be the winner. She won and it was my turn. Before playing she explained the house rule that if either of us misses the dart board we have to buy the other person a drink. This stressed me out a little and I was second guessing playing the owner of the bar after she just won a game and I hadn’t played for a while. Side note for dart players: they don’t play cricket with points, you just close out and move on, and you also have to close out doubles and triples – closing those out is really hard. She threw first and hit the dart board but never scored. I threw three darts: bullseye, bullseye, 20. She quit on the first throw and offered me a drink of my choice. I asked for a margarita and she had no clue how to make one. I taught her how to make a classic margarita (tequila, triple sec, lime juice) and it was delicious. After a few more games of darts, we went to another bar called the International Pub. There were people my age playing Texas Hold’em at a table, including the young Korean cook from O’Briens, and another crew of people playing beer pong. It was late in the night so we didn’t stay long before heading home to the hotel around 2:00 a.m. I could tell Ed and I had a fun night because at breakfast today we didn’t talk much and both drank a lot of water.