Dinner Parties and Bread Pillows

So I was lucky enough to be invited over to one of the Seoul Mates' house this past weekend for a dinner party. In total 5 of us students went, while 4 of the Seoul Mates were there. We were gong to meet up at exit 2 at the subway station that was near YuJeong (Seoul Mate host)'s apartment. Now let me tell you all about the subway system here in Seoul. I love it and it is very easy to understand (unlike the bus system *shutters*), but sometimes it takes a lot longer than you think it does, especially if you have two different trains using the same line (ie express bullet trains verses the normal All Stop train). Well long story short, I missed the all stop train the first time around and had to wait awhile until it came again after the express train had come and gone. Never felt so much like a salmon swimming upstream then I did when the express train let off all those people who had to transfer to the inner circle line, very glad that I was able to stand on the other side of a column while they  all poured out around  me.

I eventually made it to the station I needed to get to and also met up with my group of friends at the exit we needed to be at (thankfully, because I have no data on my phone at the moment, so not outgoing text/calls for me). When everyone was there, we left the subway and walked to the corner grocery store by my friend's apartment and bought meat, sesame leaves, beer, soda, and other foods for our dinner. It was not that back, split between everyone there, we only had to pay about 5000 won per person (about $5).

our poison for the night, mostly stayed to the soda and Max

After getting the food for the night, we went to YuJeong's apartment to start the festivities. When we got in, we left our shoes by the front door like custom and then made ourselves comfortable in the living room area while the Koreans all started to cook our dinner. We helped them out by bringing the finished dishes to the table and set the atmosphere for the event. We all were talking and swapping stories. I even played DJ for the night!

I made a new friend for the night! We named him 빵이, or in English "Bready"

Dinner was amazing! We had the meat rapped in the sesame leaves with hole grilled garlic bulbs with rice and also an odeng soup that YuJeong had made that was so good! For those of you that do not know what odeng soup is, it is a presses fish cake that in cooked in a broth with onions and radishes for a long time until all the different flavors are blended together to make a great warm soup that is not to strong in any one flavor.

the meat that was also grilled with the whole garlic cloves, the lettuce/sesame leaves, and the Odeng  soup with rice

After dinner we cleaned up the table and the dishes and started playing Card Against Humanity, aka Apples to Apples the rated R version. Let's just say that it is a little  awkward playing with non-native speakers, because every now and then we would come across a phrase or word that they did not know, and all of us native speakers would just look at each other and silently ask who would be the one to explain what was gong on (for example it really hard to explain what "Queefing" is to a non native speaker). Even though truthfully even I had no idea what some of the card were saying, but I knew that in the context what they were getting at.

We played for a few rounds, until most of the card were in the discard pile. But unfortunately our night had to come to an early end, because the last train was running at 11:30 that night.  So since we had to get the last train, we all speed walked through he neighborhood to get to the train station. It must have been really funny to watch us. There we were 5 people all speed walking/jogging in a  line through the side streets in the dark just laughing as our breathes were puffing in the late night cold--like little penguins in a row!

We got the last rain and then had to run like mad-women through the transfer station so that we could get the last train that would take us to Ewah station (we were on the other side of the Han, so it would have been a little pricey cab ride). Well we got to the station on time after having run to the wrong side then sprint to the other side. Note for the future, never sprint in the subways after you have had lots of soda and a few beers while you gorge yourself on grilled meat and later chocolate brownies!!!

It was a great night, but it was also a great honor to have been invited. Here in Korea, it is really rare to be invited to other people's home. There is not real thing here as a sleep over among friends and dinner parties for friends. It is a real western idea, and not really a thing here in the Land of the Morning Calm. But to be invited really showed me how close I was considered as a friend and that they really wanted to get to know us in a more relaxed manner. Really hope that I can get the opportunity again!
 
고마워 유정 언니!

photo by YuJeong. I had such a great nigh!!!