Interesting Night with Strangers!

November 10, 2010 (night)

Status: Luckily Alive and very…. Amused.

School day- normal

Exception: I went to Osan with 3 students for an English competition. One of the students placed 2^nd. Hooray for John! As a treat, we took them out for burgers at Lotteria. I ordered the Double Cheeseburger, which looked humongous in the picture. That thing is sooooo small. It looked like a kid’s cheeseburger from Mc.Donald’s. Lol. I told my co-teacher how shocked I was and asked her how they can get full off of something so small. She told me burgers are considered snacks and not meals in Korea. Well, I didn’t know that. If I had known, I would have ordered 3 “snack” burgers. Hahahaha.

This is John. He won 2nd place in the English contest!

Anyways, moving on to the good stuff- I got home and took a shower then I decided to go on a candy run. I left my apartment and was walking towards a nearby store to buy candy when I saw Michael buying food in some restaurant. (You remember Michael right? The one that thought I was Korean at Pizza Maru.) I waved and walked in to chit chat for a bit. He got his food and we ended up walking down the street. We stopped at the intersection in front of my apartment and were talking about what we wanted to do this weekend, when another foreigner walked by. Michael said “Hey! I don’t know you! You must be new!” and that is when I met STEVE.

Steve is also a teacher working for a private English academy, like Michael. Michael invited Steve to hang out with us this weekend then they exchanged numbers and Michael left to eat his dinner. I said bye and was walking off when Steve asked where I was going. I told him nowhere in general and that I was just going to walk down the street. (I wasn’t really sure if I was hungry or if I just wanted candy) So, Steve asked if he could accompany me to wherever it was. I said “sure” so we ended up trying a new place I always wanted to try but was too scared to try alone. The meal wasn’t special but it was pretty cheap and satisfying. The conversation, though, was a little overwhelming. Have you ever been presented with so much information that your brain just starts to reject incoming info? That’s what happened. I can’t really remember half of what Steve was talking about but he sure does have a lot to say. He’s quite entertaining and I enjoyed the company.

After dinner, we just started walking again. We ended up walking towards his school which is located on top of my favorite coffee shop (also where I wanted to go to get candy). We got coffee and, as soon as we sat down, his boss called. His boss wanted to go drinking so Steve apologized because he had to leave so abruptly. I told him that it was perfectly fine but that his boss will probably try to invite me along. His boss pulled up in a really nice car with tinted windows. He looked much like a gangster and, sure enough, he invited me along. I know what you’re thinking, because as soon as I got into the car, I was thinking the same thing. You just met this guy 20 minutes ago, now you’re getting into a car with a gangster and this stranger. On top of that, you are in a foreign country and you don’t speak the language or have a cell phone to call for help. My life was in their hands. We drove a couple of blocks down to pick up some woman and then headed to a restaurant. So they didn’t want to kill me for my organs= yay!

The woman, Helena, is the head director for the private academy Steve worked at. His boss, Luke, aka the gangster was very nice. They were impressed to find out I’m an education major and that I also taught. They ended up eating things I would never dare to, like 2 different kinds of grilled intestines, a plate of cow intestines, liver with sesame seeds, and things like that. I was forced to eat one piece of the grilled intestines, so I chewed it quickly and drank lots of water afterwards. It was not delicious to say the very least. Lol. Between the three of them, they had 5 bottles of soju (Korean vodka?). By the time we got out of there it was 11:30pm.

New info I learned: when you’re drunk, you can pay someone to drive you home for about $10 then they get picked up by their friend. That’s what Luke ended up doing. Steve and I got dropped off near his place because they assumed we lived closer to each other. Steve walked me home but then he started talking again for another 30minutes. Remember, it’s about 30 degrees or high 20s outside and he’s just standing there talking about stuff. I finally convinced him to give me his email address because I was freezing to death. He walked me to the bottom of my apartment complex and that was a wrap.

That was the craziest experience I’ve had in Korea so far and I have a feeling this year is going to be a very interesting one. Lol. I am alive and I met some really nice people. However, now that I’m back in the comfort of my own home, I realized how risky it was for me to get in a car with a complete stranger. I probably won’t do that ever again, but just for this one time, I’m glad I did.  There are some really strange but nice people in Korea.

Good Night Korea and Good Morning America! 


P.s. Thank you everyone for reading my blogs and leaving such nice comments! Though, I feel a little self-conscious now, Ms. Choate, because I know teachers are reading my blogs. JK. LOL.