What Happened Yesterday

Sorry I didn't get around to posting yesterday. I literally had no time to post. I posted a message on the Seoul CS site and asked if anyone wanted to meet up and the response was overwhelming. I spent most of yesterday meeting with CSers across the city.

After morning touristy things, I met up with a CS Ambassador from Seoul named Min Kyoung in the afternoon. She showed took me to a little Korean restaurant where we got an order of Kim Bap (think raw fish-less sushi) and took it back to her apartment and chatted for a while. This was actually one of the more interesting conversations I've had since I've been on this trip. We talked about a wide variety of things including travel (she's moving to Buffalo in August), North Korea (she says South Koreans really don't think much about North Korea) and finally marriage. This is where I got a good laugh...

You see, Min Kyoung is engaged. More or less. When she told me this I immediately looked at her hand. No ring. Her boyfriend (an American from Buffalo) asked her to marry him. He presented her with his great-grandmother's engagement ring and she accepted. Only, as she put it, "So I´ve been engaged like 10 times." Curious. As we dove a little deeper into conversation I find out that in the Korean culture, one of the first questions you ask is "Will you marry me." Kind of the Korean version of "So, um, do you think I'm marriage material?" I went on to explain to her about what engagment means to Americans and the traditions of the proposal. Min Kyoung doesn't always wear her engagement ring because as she said "It doesn't go with jeans." I then explained to her why her boyfriend/fiancee gets upset when she doesn't wear it.

But, after talking with her I can tell she really loves him and wants to be married to him. There was just a culture gap when it came to the symbolism of the ring and it left both parties a little confused. Min Kyoung, if you're reading (which I hope you are), I wish you and Jake nothing but the best! Just make sure that if you want to keep him happy, keep the ring on. ;)

My short time with her was full of great conersation. Another testament to the beauty of CouchSurfing. After leaving, I went to meet another CSer in the northern part of town near the Korean University. Do you ever have one of those moments in your life where you look around and just take stock of your life? Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you just are amazed at your surrounding and can't believe its really happening to you? This was me last night. So I find myself sitting at a table in a small Korean restaurant eating Sam gyeopsal (literally Triple Fat meat) with two German girls (one of which is half Korean, the other half Japanese), a Korean guy, a Cambodian guy and a Samoan. Can anyone else reading say they found themselves in a a similar company lately?

Anyway, we had good eats, good conversation and good companionship for a couple hours. I then returned back to my place for the evening. I had to get up early...