Free Soju, All Eyes Watching

Sunday night Jason and I headed to our favorite sam gip sal resturant for dinner. We'd been there a few times already and the place has always had a really friendly atmosphere. When we got there once again it was the same people working, a middle aged man and woman, and an older man and woman. Sam gip sal is really cool because they give you a huge pile of meat to grill by yourself, at your table. The middle of the table has a hole in it where a bucket of hot coals goes and then from the roof hangs down an aluminum chimmny that is small and easy to move around. The process is standard, the middle aged woman asks us what we want, we say sam gip sal, she tries to ask us more, we look confused and then all laugh, she goes away. Our meat suddenly appears on the table and the old man carries in the the hot coals from outside using a long pole, he lifts the grill on our table and slips them in.

Sunday we started grilling away and once again, the old lady came over and watched us eat. She laughed a little, we are apparently very amusing. This time they also gave us some fresh garlic to grill in a litle dish on the grill, the woman added some sauce to it so they fried up really sweet and juicy. I became addicted to adding garlic to my sam gip sal concoction. (And was still tasting it two days later and many many teeth brushings later... eww.) This concoction consists of: the grilled pork itself, a piece of lettuce, red bean paste, garlic sauce and salt. So yummy!

This particular night we were seated at a table next to two middle aged men. We noticed they were grilling a meat that looked slightly different than ours. About 10 minutes into our meal the man next to me puts some of the meat, already grilled, in a little dish and gives it to me! It was pork, but some kind of higher quality (we could never quite figure it out.) That first exchange turned into a more exchange. Next thing I know Jason is being  handed the man's shot glass and he takes a shot of soju. Then its my turn. Then the man makes a little lettuce wrap for me and feeds me. (I'm still put off by this, when students or adults just feed me instead of me taking the food and feeding myself...) The two men knew a little English and asked where we were from. They told the old woman standing behind them, who I believe was eager to know more about the two oddities that always come to her resturant. The place was packed on Sunday and we were again the only foreigners. Then the two men ask us if its okay to "change" the meat we have, we said yes and were brought a fresh pile of meat, this time the higher quality they were eating! They also bought us a bottle of soju! We tried to offer some to them but they said no, they had theirs and this was ours. They also told us to drink the soju "slowly" -- it was a really nice change from the other dinners out I've had where soju shots are flying!

During this time some little kids started playing soccer in the resturant. Also, this little boy, less than 2 years old, was standing next to his mom at the table across from us staring at Jason. I was watching him out of the corner of my eye every now and then. Suddenly his parents urged him to do something in Korean and then I saw it, he bowed to Jason! It was the cutest thing ever! I told Jason to look and his parents told the litle boy to do it again! Adorable! Later in the night a girl who looked about five wandered over towards us from across the room. She just stood next to me leaning on the wall and watched us.

Before the two men left one of them gave us his business card. It is custom to give people business cards when you first meet them in Korea. It tells the other person how to treat you. The Korean language has different levels of formality built into it so an exchange of this information is necessary so as not to offend and to not akwardly attempt to figure out how to address someone. His card had the Wonju city logo on it so perhaps he works for the city?

To top it all off, the man paid for the extra meet and soju he had ordered for Jason and I! I watched as he paid his tab and pointed over to us. The super kind middle aged man who works there looked over, laughed, and took his money. When we went to pay it was just our normal tab for sam gip sal even though we had tons more food plus soju!

We manged to finish our entire bottle (about four shots eat) over the course of our meal. We were definitely a little buzzed as we walked home. And we were definitely high on life. It was a moment that reminded me how fortunate I am to be living abroad and to have people treat me so nicely when I can't even speak their same language! I'm sure the soju didn't hurt my mood either.