I am from Middle Earth, Nice to meet you
Finished school/piano and my ever so loving father (props to you NZ Dad…) helped me out with a bit of tie-over cash till my first pay check. I celebrated by popping out to a cheap bbq style restaurant near my house. Yet another cultural misunderstanding was underway. This was the same restaurant where on my second night in Korea Hyun had taken me to eat and drink many-a-bottle of the dreaded Soju. So I figured it’s a safe bet to pop back there alone as the owner could/would recognise me and be a little more helpful. Anyway, I arrived, ordered a bottle of Soju and tried to decipher the menu on the board with my minimal knowledge of Korean language.
‘Gogi’ is meat, therefore in Korea you can get ‘So-gogi’ (Beef), ‘Tweh-ji-gogi’ (Pork), ‘Mul-gogi’ (Fish - FYI: ‘Mul’ is water so the literal translation is ‘Water-Meat!’ - this refers to fish swimming in water, however the term ‘Sangson’ is used for fish when you are eating it) and so on. All I could recognise on the board was ‘Gogi’ so I called my Korean translation service (my friend Hyun) and asked him to order for me. This was a very good idea, as I was told by him that the bbq style of restaurant I was eating in is for groups of people, ie. minimum of two. Typically people don’t go there alone because:
A: It’s cheaper to eat together
B: It’s more friendly and relaxing eating together
C: The restaurant does not make enough money to cover costs when there is only one person ordering one meal of bbq.
Thus, I had to order for two people, which I happily obliged to. Another tidbit of good Korean knowledge, Korea is a ‘together’ country. Eg. there is no term or language for ‘My Country’ only ‘Our Country’ ie. ‘Our Korea’.
The bottle of Soju was barely touched when I took my last bite of that sweet, sweet bbq beef, so I took a chance and stoop-walked over to a neighbouring table of four military men dressed to the nines in their full camo-regalia. Bending down beside one of them I said, “Hello, my name is James, I am from New Zealand, may I pour you some Soju?”. All four of the men gave me the biggest smiles and pulled me down to sit, drink, smoke and chat. I am still friends with these men, and three weeks later I learned that my pronunciation that night was impeccable, and that they didn’t believe it was only my second week in Korea.
Our initial bonding topic was, lo and behold, Gandalf, Frodo, Mordor and the whole LOTR possie. They were very enthusiastic about NZ as the modern world’s Middle Earth, and I had to explain that I did not live in a hole in a hill, I did not pitch battles with my neighbouring orcs, nor did I smoke pipe-weed with my elf, wizard and dwarf friends (although NZ weekend nights with Khan, Slygo, the Prestney’s, McDaddy, Craig and the rest out the back of Majoribanks did come pretty close)…
All four of the men were in their late 20’s, 30’s or early 40’s, and all were captains in their units, so were very respected on both the base and outside in society. We parted ways with a Korean coffee in hand and swore to meet again soon.
On my way home I popped into the HEITZ pool-hall (similar to Courtenay Place’s Cue Room) for a quick drink. I was introduced by the owner to a man named Ji-Yun (which is Korean for Mary and he later told me he was teased everyday at middle school for it) who owned the French bakery near my school. The bakery’s name is Tous Les Jour, it is a massive franchise in Korea and you see them every five minutes when you ride the bus through Seoul. Ji Yun lived and worked on a farm in Christchurch for one year back in 1998. I explained about my friends longing for a NZ meat pie and I was surprised to learn that in the whole 12 months he spent in NZ, he never once ate a pie! You can imagine how sorry for him I felt, and when I explained the concept to him he was desperate for me to use his bakery as the starting point for our pie creations. Who knew networking could be so simple?: Business Plan # 1 gets underway…
For anyone with time to kill at work (which from memory is pretty much the entire NZ population) or home, check out the bakery website - www.tlj.co.kr
It didn’t matter that I lost the game of Korean pool to him with a score of 25-0. The drinks were flowing and international friendships were blossoming. I was similarly stoked to meet another man named Mr. Kim who plays in a social soccer league on Sunday afternoons. The average age of players is 35-40, and they play three games of 25 minute halves. First game is coming up this weekend, should be a riot! Mr. Kim’s job is band and event management/organising, so we discussed a whole range of music and I learned that he managed top of the world artists like Madonna, Beyonce and Michael Jackson when they were touring through Korea. Later this year he is bringing over veteran scary rock’n’rollers Slipknot. I was blown away by this news as I got to serve drinks at a bar in Brisbane when they came in for an afterparty, minus the freaky masks. I left the pool hall beaming with my good fortune. Sleep followed easily.
link