Dinner Date

September 10, 2010

I went to dinner with Sujin tonight and it was great! I was completely embarrassed thought because I freakin had NO money on me! Earlier today I gave my co-teacher 25,000 won (like $25) to order some pears that another teacher had grown on her parents farm...I'm trying to get on everyone's good side ;) So that was like all the money that I had on me, literally. So then Sujin asks me to dinner and I was like "Sure!" forgetting that I didn't have any money until after school when it was time to go to dinner with her. So I told her all I needed to do was to go to an ATM and get some money out of my account back home...much easier said than done. Since I have a foreign card (SunTrust Visa debit card) only a handful of ATMs will let me take money out for a fee and they'll do the conversions. Well, the ATM that we went to happened to not accept my card. COMPLETELY embarrassed. She said she would pay and that next time we go out I can pay. Well, at this point I was just feeling terrible so I told her I was really sorry and that I would pay her back on Monday at school. Just ridiculous, really, I HATE to have people pay for me, I feel like a bum :( She was super sweet about it, though. So we walk towards the city part of where we live and she took me to this pretty nice restaurant that served some sort of chicken that is boiled. It was really good. We bought the meal that included rice and several different side dishes, soup, and egg. MMMM, MMMM, GOOD! The meat was delicious!

The greatest part of the night was the conversation. She speaks English but it's kind of broken English and she had to refer to her translator on her cell phone some of the time for certain words. I learned that she has one younger brother that is one year older than me and he just got a job working for Samsung as an engineer but hasn't moved to the new location yet. He lives here near their mother who has Parkinson's disease. I was like "wow." Apparently her mother has been living with Parkinson's disease for about 16 years and has now gotten to the point where she is rapidly losing the ability to speak because she her mouth muscles can't move. She can write sometimes but even Sujin can't read the writing since she has limited mobility in her wrists and fingers. I think she said her mother now lives in a community with other Parkinson's patients so that's good. The doctors say that her mother is one of the more fortunate patients since the others have way less abilities than she does.
I also learned that she is leaving to Japan at the beginning of next month to get her masters in Japanese studies. She knows Korean, English, Japanese, and she taught herself how to speak Spanish. She loves languages and feels like learning different languages allows her to connect with that culture; fascinating! I couldn't believe it! She said that she is not really fluent in the languages but I got the sense that she definitely knew enough to get around if she were in a specific country that speaks those languages. She already spent one year in Japan and learned most of the language (like 90%) in 3 months. She also likes to read books about philosophy, Buddhism, medical explanations about meditation, and books about the brain and how it works. So, at this point I feel dumb. Really dumb. I told her that too, I said "wow, I feel dumb!" She laughed and laughed. I told her I like to read books about love and mysteries lol. She was so modest. I kept praising her and telling her that I admire her enthusiasm to learn new things and to follow her interests and she kept shying away and saying "no, no, no." She also told me that she took this class on Korean foods; there are two tests that she has to pass. One test is a written test about the course and what she's learned, which she's already passed. Then she has to take a cooking test! She said that she wants to do the same in Japan when she goes so that maybe after her Master's degree she can come back to Korea and teach people how to cook Japanese foods. I mean, who is this woman?! She does EVERYTHING! The envy was all on my side of the table. I was just fascinated by everything she was saying and talking about.

We went to get some coffee afterwards at this really nice cafe on the second floor of a building in the middle of town. I had a mocha latte...it was awesome. She was telling me that she had a Japanese boyfriend that currently is living in Japan. They've known each other for four years and have been dating for the last two years. She said that when they first met she barely knew any Japanese but they still kinda started seeing each other...that's when she learned Japanese within three months. After a while they broke it off and started seeing other people when she came back to Korea. She said she didn't like Korean men because they call and text ALL the time (so basically, Korean men are clingy). Her boyfriend then came to visit her in Korea and that's when they started dating again. She said she likes the distance because sometimes that's needed in a relationship but that she does get lonely and wants to see him sometimes when it's impossible. I told her I knew exactly how she felt because my boyfriend is back home and we used to see each other ALL the time; so going from all the time to communicating over skype was a difficult change to face.

We started talking about movies and she told me that her FAVORITE movie was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! "I've watched 5 times!" she said. She likes Pirates of the Caribbean and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. She told me that she doesn't like to watch Korean dramas because there's too much going on and too many conflicts between the characters...she likes the nicer, less complicated stories and dramas. Ok...so we decided to go and we were walking down the marble steps and she loses her stepping...slips down the stairs and slides down at least two of the steps! I was so shocked and afraid for her! I dropped my bags and dropped to the steps, "Oh my gosh are you ok?! Oh goodness, are you hurt?!" I could see that most of the damage was to her pride. I took her elbow, looked it over, looked at her ankles, looked at her arms; there was some redness on her arms from the impact but she said that nothing felt sprained. I just kept asking "Are you feeling ok? Are you ok?" She was about to get up and she said "just 5 minutes" and stayed seated with her hands over her face. I felt so horrible! She was really shaken and I think she was mostly embarrassed. I told her that I trip all the time and I told her the story about my falling in high school in front of almost ALL of my friends at the beginning of the school year. I told her several more stories of me falling in front of people as we sat on the steps for a while as she regained her composure. I'm sure her bum was hurting because it was a pretty hard fall. I helped her up and asked if it hurt to walk. She seemed fine and she didn't limp at all. I told her it's OK because I'm really "clumsy." She didn't know what it meant so I explained that it's when you have a lot of accidents, break things and fall all the time. Sujin said that's her story lol. What a sweetheart.

I had a great night with Sujin and I'm actually really sad that she's going to be leaving so soon after we've met. She's such a generous, kind, and interesting person! I hope I get the chance to hang out with her again before she leaves to Japan.