more on korean culture via a random night out

hi all!

I hope you are all sitting at your computers panting and anxiously awaiting my next entry!! Well, actually, right now it's anout 3:30 in the morning in Canada, so you should all be asleep at your computers waiting for my next entry. MWAHAHA. Who am I kidding? I can see you all thinking "Vanessa? hmm, that name sounds familiar...where did I hear it again?"

Anyway, as the title promised, I'm going to tell you a bit more about what I've learned of Korean culture. And this new information I learned during a very random night out on the town. Firstly, you have to understand that a "night out on the town" in Boseong is much like calling a night out to the Rumour Mill in Grimsby a "night out on the town". *chews on a banana chip thoughtfully*

So, the last you hearn from me, I was trying not to feel nautious after a gruelling bus ride. As it turns out, I met up with some new friends that very night. I can't remember if I mentioned him before, but there is a french canadian dude named Rock who just moved out of Boseong after teaching here for a few years. He's been in South Korea for 7 or 8 years now, so he knows a lot! He is the photographer for the Boseong men's baseball team here and I've met them a few times before. OK, enough background info...

I ended up at a small japanese bar/restaurant with Rock and the members of the baseball team. They were sitting in a gazeebo of all places (3P!!!) drinking beer and soju and eating some munchies. They welcomed me warmly into their circle and made many attempts to speak with me in English, which was very nice. Y'all know I don't really shy away from being the center of attention and being a) a girl and b) a foreigner, I was definitely the center of attention.

Korean lesson number one: Girls don't pay for anything at the bar.
Number two: Don't ever empty your glass unless you want it to be refilled. If anyone sees an emtpy glass here they automatically fill back up to the brim. This isn't so dangerous with the extremely light beer I wasdrinking, but when you start drinking SOJU (korean liquor, 25%, vaguely tastes like vodka), then you're in big trouble.
number three: always hol your glass in your right hand and always pour with your right hand
number four: They will try to set you up with any single man around. There were three single guys there and two of them kept saying "me! me! solo! solo!". How subtle. The other single guy can actually speak english well, AND he even speaks some french. le sigh. Nessie always goes for the shy ones. But that's neither here nor there.
number five: When we left the gazeebo to go into the bar, there was an enormous collection of empties and left over food. We just put our mugs down and walked away, leaving two guys to clean up the mess. I said to Rock that I should probably go back and help them clean up. He said no, I would be insulting them!! Well, doesn't that just go against everything my mom taught me about manners!

*funny side story* One of the guys made reference to the size of someone else's, um, shall we say "manhood"? He says to me "Him! *points* small and down. small and down. LIMP!!" and then laughs. It was pretty funny, well, for everyone but the guy he was talking about. K back to the Korean culture lesson...

This last thing I learned about Korean culture I already had heard, but have never actually SEEN. OK, so in Korea, there is a strong focus on age and respect (comes from confucinism). Later in the evening I was sitting inside the bar with Rock, the baseball team captain, another player and one of Rock's good friends, Joe (Korean, Jo). he is an older man who is apparently a very good contact to have if I ever get in trouble here. ANYWAY, when it was just the baseball team, the team captain was the oldest person there, so all the players HAD to listen to what he was saying. When we were inside, Captain was no longer the eldest person. The captain says something to me in Korean, which I don't understand, and all of a sudden Joe starts to talk to the captain for about ten minutes. I asked Rock what they were saying and he said "just wait, you'll see".

After about 10 minutes of straight lecturing, the team captain gets up, bows to Joe, to Rock and to me, and then leaves the room. Joe then turns to me and said "He said something rude to you, so I had to scold him for it. Afterwards, he had no choice but to leave."

WOW! that just doesn't happen in Canada, instead, there would be a good ol' fashioned bar fight. Naturally, I was quite thankful to Joe for looking out for me.

All in all, I had a very fun night; I learned a lot about korean culture, met many new friends, and developed my first crush on a Korean :P

I hope everyone is well!
ness