Korean Kindness!

Well it is late friday night, well technically early saturday morning here, and although I already posted once about swine flu, foreigners and Lobsters, I wanted to also take a minute to write about the extreme kindness which Joseph and I have experienced tonight in the short time from leaving school to now, hitting on 2am as we are chilling in an internet cafe.

So first let me just say, I am in love with the the people of Korea!

After School tonight, both of us finally feeling better, we decided to go back to a really delicious Korean BBQ restaurant... nothing like Lexington BBQ, this BBQ involves you sitting at a table with a large flat grill ( more of a gridle) in front of you, and they bring you what looks like giant slabs of bacon, onions in some kind of vinegar, spicy sprouts, Kimchi and lettuce... you cook the bacon and sprouts and kimchi ( along with [ieces of garlic) and then wrap it up in lettuce and enjoy. You basically cook your own food but that way you get it just how you like it!

This was the first restaurant that Joseph and I tried here on the Island and so far it has still remained the best food for the best price, so since this week was a long tiring week and we didn't get to enjoy alot of food (because we were sick) we decided since we both felt well, we should go and have a great meal on friday night and go out and have an evening of fun! Got to start the weekend Right!

As always we got amazing service ( you get your food to cook shortly after you order it here..So fast!!!!Our Waiter was so patient as we tried to order in broke Korean) and while we were waiting for our food to cook, Joseph, being the smarty pants that he is, started to idly pronounce the other items on the menu. We have been studying hangul and he is far surpassing me... but he started to read some of the items, and not loudly either, but the woman at the table next to us heard him slighly mispronouncing his words and corrected him so he could properly say the name of the item we ordered. We then struck up a conversation with the table next to us. The Couple wanted to know where we were from and why we were in Korea... just small talk which ended up in them buying us another round of Hite ( the best Korean beer we have found so far) for us. They tried to get us a shot of Soju, but we were not ready for rice liquor! Just for practicing English with them, and telling them we knew who Obama was and that we were from America and teaching English here in Korea, we got a free drink. But it was not just about a free drink, We kinda bonded in that tiny restaurant near the Harbor... I think they found us different and fascinating... or maybe funny because after the hite we had already had we could not properly use chopsticks anymore... I don't know, but they were so kind. They also allowed us to practice our Korean on them!

Gam-sa-ham-nida is thank you and they didn't laugh when we thanked them for the beer, they just bowed and nodded and said Ayeong Haseyo which is something like "goodbye/go in peace"

Then, the Guy at the checkout counter at the restaurant told us to "take it easy!" in perfect English... haha, very cool.

So after leaving our friends at the restaurant we decided that nothing goes better with Korean BBQ than Family Mart Ice cream, so we headed to our favorite 24 hours store to see what was in the freezer this week. Each store has different ice cream novelties so you never know what you may find. I got a Crunch King Cone, and Joseph opted for some Strawberry filled chocolate crunch bar. Both were very tasty!

And then since we broke a 10,000 won on ice cream and had a bunch of change, we had to play a few vending machines, and as always Joseph didn't dissappoint. On this particular night He had already won a "Korean Cherry" (which is basically like a large lump of cherry fruit snack... they are actually really tasty!) And on the belt was a free movie ticket, all we needed was one more item on the belt to knock it down. Unfortunately we ran out of change, but Joseph has such an uncanny ability to win at the crane games that he sometimes draws a crowd, and tonight was no exception. There were several samsung workers who had joined us, and though they spoke no English and we spoke no Korean, they knew what was at stake, and one of the men offered up some money and made Joseph keep playing until he won! (which he did!) and then would not take the prize he paid for Joseph to win. He just wanted to see someone win and that was it. No greedy undetones, He was just genuinely happy for someone to win something cool out of a crane game...Again it was a good time to Practice our thank yous! Gam-sa-ham-nida!

After saying goodbye to our new Samsung buddies, our lucky evening took another turn up to the pool hall above our PC cafe near our apartment. We had wanted to play Pool for some time so We walked up the stairs and into a smoky room hoping to play a game of pool for an hour, but Korea had other plans for us. Instead of regular pool we find ourselves looking at a Billiard table with two red balls, one orange ball, one white ball and no pockets... we had no clue what to do... but we didn't want to look stupid and walk out, so we tried to play. Too bad we were no good at pretending we knew what we were doing. The Koreans were not fooled! But the Shining example of Kindness tonight was our new friend who worked at the "pool hall" He took us through the rules using no english, just showing us how to make moves. The only english he spoke was "From?" and we told him America, North Carolina... and he said... "oohhhh Carolina, North? Is beautiful!"

He then stayed with us, helping us through a game and brought us apple juice to drink while he continued to teach us the rules. The game, Which was very complicated, was tons of fun... I was terrible at it, although I think Joseph was pretty good at it by the time we left. Our Pool Hall manger was so patient, but he laughed with us and tried to make us understand even though he didn't have too. We stayed for over an hour with our new friend and thanked him when we decided to go.... and I am pretty sure he didn't charge us for the apple juice...
Again... Gam-sa-Ham-Nida Mr. Pool Hall Man!
So now... here we sit, one floor below about to head home for the night, playing on Blogspot and Warcraft and we are learning more from Korea everyday... not just Hangul, or new billiard games, but a breed of kindness that is hard to come by.
A kindness so overpowering that it goes beyond words or understanding... an unconditional kindness that encompasses you and makes you a better person... Korea is making us better people... I only hope that I can extend that same kindness in return, or at least show properly my graditude and my thankfulness to the kindness of strangers.

Gam-sa-ham-nida and Goodnight!