Fun Tuesday

I started Tuesday out by chatting with mom and dad on facebook :) It's always nice to chat with someone from home. As I was chatting, my roommate Jill (that's her American name but she is Chinese) asked if I'd like to join her and her friend for lunch. I gladly accepted and we were off to the subway. She is pretty good at english but at times gets words or meanings confused. She is very helpful but can be pushy at times. For example, she'll tell me certain phrases they use here, like a greeting, what to call an elder, or 'thank you.' After she says the phrase, she makes me repeat her over and over til I say it right. Or when we passed her Chinese friends she told me to say 'Ni hao' and then elbowed me. At times I feel like her little American pet. It's cute, I guess.

Anyway, she showed me a new way to the subway and told me all the important things to remember, like all the colors mean a different thing or not to sit in the last 3 seats at the end of the car b/c those are reserved for the old folks. I had to stifle my laugh when we arrived at our lunch destination, Bennigans! Her friend (I can't remember his name) was waiting for us outside the restaurant. She calls him Opa, as this means 'older brother' in Korean. It's the usual name used by younger girls when talking with older male friends.

Over lunch, I came to learn that he is 31, used to be her college professor, then she tutored his niece in Chinese, and now they were friends. He is studying to take an exam on saturday to become an english translator. I suppose it's pretty difficult as he quit his job 3 months ago to start studying. Even though he is 31, he still lives with his parents. This is rather normal in Korea. Most people live with their family until they marry and I guess most don't get married til their late 20's or 30's. Our friend Tim's girlfriend is 28, still lives at home and has a curfew! Opa also has been to the states before. I'm a little confused on the story because there were so many! He said he went for a girl but it didn't work out. He also went because he was in the Korean air force and went after 9/11. Also, he had an 'internship' at Dairy Queen (which did not at all sound like Dairy Queen when he said it) and at Holiday Inn. The funniest thing about him is that he loves Sex and the City and Friends. He even quoted Friends and thought I would know what he was talking about. I just smiled and laughed along with him.

I haven't been to Bennigan's in forever, so it seemed a little pricey to me. I have found that if Koreans invite you to a meal, they pay for it! Or so has been the experience for us so far. Before he paid, he used his discount cards. There are advertisements for them everywhere and I would like to know how they work, if only I understood Korean! He said he got a VIP card because he's used the same phone company for 4 years. They put about 200,000 won on the card for him to use.. that's roughly about $160 usd. Pretty nice; why don't American companies do this?

Here's after lunch:


Jill and Me:


Opa making up for his serious face/ doing Joey from Friends:


After lunch, Jill and I went to an underground market to look for a birthday gift for her friend. It was nice to go shopping with a female for once (shopping with Kraig is no fun!) During lunch I told her my plans to meet Kraig in Itaewon at a bookstore. She seemed so worried that I would get lost, that she made me pull out my subway map and show her how I'd get there. Then she double checked on her cell phone. After shopping she walked me to the subway gate. I surprised her by knowing which direction I wanted to go, haha. I really am starting to feel like her little pet.

My trip to Itaewon deserves it's own post. I'm still bitter about it and at the moment I need to meet up with my husband to pay the dorm. Until later, leave me comments! I love them!