Tonight I met up with a new friend who I hope to do a culture and language exchange with. Her name is Sanne and she spent a lot of her high school and college years in the states, so we can relate in a lot of ways. She just returned to Korea from the US, so we discussed how fast paced and crowed Korean culture is. There’s so many people who work so much and then when work gets to be stressful, which is everyday, people go out with friends.

It’s just the way things are here. “Going out with friends” could mean so many things depending on your tastes, but for a lot of business people it just means going out when you get off of work at 7 or 8 and drinking soju, eating, or anything to get your mind off of work.

It’s so nice for me now, since I don’t have to worry about working like I did in the US. She had a lot of insight to share and it was definitely a good start to learning more than just the surface culture. I hope we’ll have a symbiotic relationship so she can practice her English and I can learn more Korean as well as get a better feel for how I fit into the big picture here.

Anyway, we met up and had spaghetti which was surprisingly good. I guess I have low expectations of the Western food here, but I shouldn’t. It usually has a little bit of Korean flare, either simply because of the availability of ingredients or just because the chef loves anchovy paste. It strikes you a bit strange at first, but overall the food is fusion at its best.