"Don't you know?^^ I like you as you are."

The title of this post is a verbatim text message Il Han sent me, and was also the moment I knew that things were serious.

I am writing this blog knowing full well that I am going to get some crap for some of the sublimely saccharine things I am going to describe, but at least for posterity’s sake and a great story, I am writing this down.

So as I mentioned in a previous blog, I recently participated in a weight loss trial program. On perhaps the second or third day of the trial I mentioned to David that I thought one of the research assistants on the trial was cute, and I wondered aloud if I had a shot. So every meal I came in for I always made sure to smile at her and be extra nice and flirty. She seemed to be responding positively, but I assumed that it was most likely because she was required to for the program. I learned the girl’s name was Yu Il Han (Yu being the family name) and began addressing her by name.

Around the second week of November I decided I wanted to escalate things a little bit and I was going to use a Korean hallmark holiday, Peppero Day, as an excuse. November 11 in Korea is Peppero Day. If you have ever had Pocky Sticks, in Korea those are called Peppero (November 11, 11/11 is Peppero Day because the date looks like Peppero…get it?). So I bought her a nice gift box of the peppero, wrote her name on it and hid it in my lunch box that I knew she would find. When she found it, she politely came in and thanked me for the box.

During the trial I always worked during the dinner time so I had my meals delivered. David was able to go to the center, however. By sheer chance, one day David finished his dinner at the same time that Il Han was getting off of work. They chatted in the elevator and she mentioned she was going to meet some friends for dinner. The restaurant was on his way, so David offered her a ride to save her the taxi fare, and she accepted. At one point while they were talking, Il Han asked David why I gave only her Peppero, and not any of the other girls. David said something like, “Well, I think he likes you.” To which David said she smiled and seemed very pleased, but was concerned that I would ask her out before the trial ended, because she would have to decline for fear of losing her job. David of course, being the good friend he is, relayed this info to me.

So for the next week or so I continued my light flirting and eventually asked her for her cell number. At this point we started texting, and things kinda took off from there. My birthday was coming up and David and I let it be known what bar we were going to celebrate at (and break our diet, haha) and so to my surprise, Il Han and her friend Seung Eun expressed interest in coming. I was of course delighted, and the girls showed up. Despite being drunk on jaegermeister and 2 bottles of Soju I somehow remained quite charming (according to the girls).

At this point Il Han and I began casually dating. We’d text during the day and go out for coffee or norebang on the weekend. Things started to get serious and I started realizing I really liked the girl, a lot. I was always VERY understated at the center, because I didn’t want to be the cause of her losing her job. I think I did a good job because other than David and Il Han, her friend Seung Eun was the only person who knew anything. Seung Eun really took an interest in the budding relationship because she gave me a lot of advice on dating a Korean girl (it’s quite different, trust me). Seung Eun also helped translate a few times when one of us couldn’t quite communicate what we meant. Il Han’s English is fine, but it can be hard to explain your meaning to a non-native speaker sometimes.

So, fast forward a few weeks and the medical trial was finally over. I asked Il Han when she would be available for dinner, and she said Wednesday, so I picked out a nice restaurant and we decided to meet at 8:30.

I decided I would ask her to make it official on that date, so I picked out a nice set of silver earrings (pic on facebook) and we went to dinner.

Dinner was at a nice Italian place called Team, that was quite good. The arriabiata was delicious…good job Korea. I didn’t think you had it in you. So after dinner she wanted to take a walk, so I agreed, and we walked toward Deokjin Park a little ways away. We ended up walking through the park, which was really cool at night. We even walked across this suspension bridge that scares the crap out of me because it MOVES. So we took a lap around the park and at one point she asked me, “What do you want for Christmas?”

This is where it gets really cheesy. You can make fun of me if you want, but I got the girl in the end, so I win. Korean girls aren’t as jaded as we American’s are, so they appreciate the big showy romantic gestures.

So Il Han had just asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I responded with “Well…what I really want is…Na-ough yeoja-chingu-ga dway-ough jool-eh” which means “Will you be by girlfriend” in Korean. I practiced that for a decent amount of time to get the pronunciation right and to be able to say it without stumbling over the words.
It took a second for what I said to sink in and looked at me with a surprised look and said “you really asking me?” I said “Yes” and she said “I am so surprised!!” she then paused for what felt like an eternity, but was prolly only about 3-4 seconds and finally said, “Ok. Good!” and gave me this really cute double thumbs up and then jumped in to my arms for a hug. I am betting you all are wondering why I didn’t give her some big passionate kiss or something like that, but this is Korea. They move agonizingly slow here.

After this, I gave her my Christmas present, which she loved. She asked me “What I really wanted” for Christmas, and I said “You said, yes. I’m happy with that.” We then walked out of the park and I got her a cab and then myself one and headed home. All in all, it worked out quite nicely :)

Just to make things a bit more poetic, I’d like to point out that I realized the place I asked her was no more than 300 yards from the hotel that I spent my first two nights in Jeonju at. I literally could see the place from where we were standing. I suppose it kind of brings things full circle.
What a crazy year it has been.

V is for Victory

So tomorrow is the last day of the diet food trial and it is safe to say that over the course of the two months David and myself have won over the majority of the ajummas and ajisis (old Korean women and men). I am always respectful and full of smiles when I come in to the room and they seem to like that Dave and I always seem so happy. Except for two men. We'll call them Captain Frowny Face and Sidekick.

I don't see them as often as David does due to timing, but they like to needle David about how he has been in Korea for 6 years and isn't fluent in Korean. They do like to pick on me when I come in because I know significantly less Korean than David.

So David and I came in to lunch this afternoon and sat down. A few minutes later Frowny Face and Sidekick came in and sat down and immediately went in to a diatribe about how I was "polluting the air with my American talk" and how dare I speak English in their presence. I obviously didn't understand everything that was being said but between our limited knowledge, the liberal peppering of "David" and "Joshua" coming from his mouth (and a few translations from the research assistants) we knew what they were saying. This diatribe went on for a good 10 minutes and David was obviously quite annoyed and trying to remain silent not wanting to do something he would regret. At this point I decided that my reputation in the room was enough to put this prick in his place.

I began to talk a little louder to David and started to laugh and enjoy myself. I looked Frowny Face directly in the eyes across the table and said "Hangu maol moteyo, SHOCKER!!" (I don't speak Korean, shocker!!) and made a face that basically said "ooooh!" and this elicited several laughs from the ajummas. He started barking and pointing in my direction in obvious displeasure. It was at this point through sheer awesome timing a Christmas commercial came on the TV playing a Christmas song in English. I looked up from my lunch and dramatically pointed at the TV and said "English-ey! GRRR!!!" which drew a bigger laugh from the ajummas and Frowny Face began to get red with anger. A few minutes passed and he is STILL bitching about me and trying to shame David and make him tell me to shut up.

I gave David a sideways glance and asked him how to say "happy" in Korean. I then said in Korean, with a huge grin on my face "I am happy". I looked down for a second and asked David how to say "angry". I then looked up, pointed directly at Frowny Face and in Korean said "he is angry" and then made a dramatically angry face and mimicked him. This sent the whole room in to hysterics and basically forced Frowny Face to shut up. He was generally quiet for the remainder of the meal, and David and I sat there with a triumphant look on our faces.

At this point, Mrs. Han comes in. Mrs. Han is one of the older ladies in the trial and is also one of the kindest (which is VERY shocking considering the way most older Koreans view foreigners). She immediately feels the tension in the room and asks what is going on. One of the other ladies explains that Frowny Face was giving me and David a hard time as usual. Mrs. Han immediately starts laying in to him about leaving us alone. She said that everyone should love each other and that Koreans need to accept and love the Chinese, the Japanese, Canadians, Americans, and all the people of the world. Frowny Face got up and gathered his things and as he was leaving I got one last jab in to the delight of the room as I smiled, waved, and said, "I love you!".