Thursday's Outing 11 Sep 08

On Wednesday, our class went to a Korean restaurant, and I noted a funny thing.  Earlier in the day we had been taught that the lower the bow a Korean gives, the greater the respect.  SO... leaving the restaurant, one of the waitresses bowed a bit lower for me than the guy in front of me.  Just to be sure it wasn't a rendom happenstance, I watched the guy behind me as he passed her.  She definitely bowed lower for me.  I must, therefore, definitely look older to her.  Fun.

Today, we were released a little early.  So... We went downtown.  We= two friends and I: Anthony C. and Nat H.  

Nat had a friend with him.  His new girlfriend evidently.  He updated his Facebook to "in a relationship".  She showed us a few things.  We all went to eat dinner at a restaurant that didn't have an extensive menu, but was known for its spicy food.  The main color of the decor and uniforms was red, and quite appropriately so.  The food was all cooked in a pot in the center of the table.  We had seafood, including tiny octopi, cool mushrooms, and a type of dumpling, with a few vegetables.  

We all ate out of the same pot, but we each had a small dish in front of us to aid us in making the food we retrieved from the pot into bite sized bits.  Some very hard laughter perforated our meal.  The first outburst was Nat.  He touched a button on the table.  This button calls the server, and they all responded.  Nat didn't know what he'd done.  Neither did Anthony or I, and Sofie was trying her hardest not to laugh.  She waved away the servers, and kept laughing.

So, the next bought of laughter came at my expense.  I was reaching into the pot with my chopsticks and touched the side of the pan.  A muted squeal of pain escaped my throat, but wasn't eliminated simply by keeping my mouth shut.  I grabbed the injured finger and brought it to my chest for examination.  When I looked up, everyone was laughing uncontrollably.  Sofie seemed particularly primed to laugh at my mistakes; She being Korean, and I unskilled with Korean food and utensils.

I dropped food with my chopsticks.  I think I need to figure out a new way to hold them.

I burnt my mouth.  

I had tears streaming down my cheeks from the hot food and hard laughter.

I had to use my chopsticks to fight Anthony off of a piece of meat I wanted.  Good little duel.

Nat ate some food that looks like a little testicle.  Well, he bit it and spit it out.  This is, as I have recently learned, the right way to eat that particular item.

Later that day, we were trying to get into a PC cafe and had to stand in line while Sofie got out cards.  I heard the sliding glass door slide shut right behind me, and right in front of Anthony.  We didn't realize where the door was until it slid neatly between us.  I turned and looked at him and found him staring at the door.  It was comical.  

Later, as we were exiting the subway, Anthony turned as though he wanted to share some deep thoughts about life or something.  I said simply, "Keep going, I'm crop dusting."  He busted up laughing, but didn't stop.  He said he'd done the same thing on the subway when we were walking through the many train cars.  

Oh, and about the subway... I lost my balance.  Not bad, but stepped on some random Korean.  So now it's as if the United States stepped on that Korean.  Poor guy.

Oh, and in Dongdaemon, I found the fabric mall.  Easily twice the size of any 3 story department store.  But the departments were all fabric.  I had to have passed at least 150-200 stores.  Lots of fabric.  7 stories of it.  It was tiring.

Wew!  What a day that was.