A Day in the Country

For the past two and a half years, my life in Korea has been, to put it mildly, much less than I would like it to be. Part of this, of course, must be related to my own character. But I find that I have very few "normal" experiences. I meet very few Koreans in "normal" settings. Perhaps part of it is cultural. Informal entertainment in one's home doesn't seem to be common. I go out for dinner and movies with Korean friends, but it's always a date or something.

My day to day life involves me interacting in an academic setting with students who are half my age. I don't socialize with them. If I invite Korean colleagues to my home for a drink or coffee, it always becomes a party, and it feels more formal than I would like. I would just like them to relax and feel at home. I just want to socialize outside of a work setting. I don't want to hang around in bars.

Living where I live, Itaewon, hasn't helped either. I can't leave my apartment and walk a hundred meters without breathing second-hand smoke. If I walk down the main street, it is crowded with carts selling things to tourists and made more crowded by groups of touts hanging around smoking and making rude comments about western, Japanese, and Chinese women. Itaewon is not all drunks. A lot of it is rough, middle class Koreans on the make.

So...an invitation from a colleague to join her and her family (her husband is a professor) for a barbecue in the country was very special. Her husband has twice yearly barbecues for current and past grad students at a family house in the country. We drove for an hour and a half northeast of Seoul to arrive at a very pleasant house with lots of greenery and fresh air. Of course, the yard had to be mowed (Boy, did that bring back memories).

The barbecue was beef and chicken. There was salad, taco chips and salsa, and beer. The grad students were a very pleasant, relaxed bunch. I had a really good time.

Perhaps the worst part of the day was returning to Seoul. As we neared the city, the air turned gray and foul. It was quite depressing knowing that I was going back into that soup to breathe that air.