Ye', Drinkin' with the Locals

So today as I left work, Heather's dad followed me down and asked if I wanted to go drink some beer. He had asked me to drink with him when I was living at Heather's house, but I said no at the time because it was a school night. At this point, I'm not quite as concerned with what I do the night before work, so I said okay. He drove me to this place about a quarter mile away from my apartment. I'm pretty sure it was called Camelot, although the name on the building was in Korean, and I don't think it said that. The menu said Camelot, though, so who knows.


So he took me to Camelot, which is a nice place. The tables on the perimeter of the bar each have their own stall, kind of like enclosed diner booths, and there are also tables in the middle. We sat in one of the stalls, and he ordered three beers and a fruit plate. Koreans eat a lot of fruit. When the waitress brought the three beers, at first I thought he was going to double-fist it for a second, but then I remembered about Korean eating and drinking custom: everyone shares. So we each got a glass, and we shared every one of the five beers we drank (I think he went light on me since it's a weekday. I'm sure he could have tossed back a few more easily. Koreans party hard.).


We drank Hite, a Korean beer that, I'm pretty sure, tastes exactly like Budweiser. Not having had a Bud in almost a decade, I'm not positive, but all beer tastes the same to me, anyway. It's worth drinking shitty alcohol to have an important cultural experience, though.


There was a lot of Konglish and Engorean. Neither of us speaks enough of the other's language to have a real conversation. He obviously speaks more useful English than I speak useful Korean, though. I was able to make a complete sentence about what we were doing, and he thought that was funny. I also could name some of the fruit we were eating, and name some colors, and say which fruit was big and which was small ("small red tomato"), and he would laugh at that. Silly American.

He was telling me about how much the other teachers drink. Lissette, the girl I replaced, drank three beers, which he seemed impressed with. I don't think women drink as much here. He said Steven drinks a lot, which I can understand, as he's a pretty big guy. I said I usually drink whiskey and coke back home, and he said Lissette liked that, too. I wouldn't be surprised if he treated me to whiskey sometime. It's more expensive, of course, but this family seems to have some money.

Some funny things:

I still don't know Heather's parents' names. She told me to just call them Omma and Apa--Mom and Dad.

Although an ashtray was provided for the rinds and seeds of the fruit we were eating, Heather's dad still spat watermelon seeds onto the floor. And not just onto the floor around the table, but out into the main part of the bar. Stuff like that seems totally okay here, as confusing as it is to us.

The big tv they had going on the wall was playing the most bizarre stuff. Every time I looked up, I was like what the crap? For example, one time I looked up and a bunch of people were holding up picture frames with plastic wrap stretched inside them and pressing their faces into the plastic wrap. I think maybe they were making face prints??? One guy just smashed his face right through the plastic, so I don't know if my theory is right. Korean tv is so weird.


We only stayed for an hour, which was better for me, since I had already stayed a half hour late at work to correct, and I only have three hours or so from when I end my last class and bedtime. It was a good time overall, and I'm glad I didn't knee-jerk refuse based on communication barriers and it being a school night.