Pork, Baseball Bats, Makgeolli and Korean Drinking Games

On Friday night I went out with some of the adult students from work. There were two guys from my 7:40am class and one woman from my 9:00am class. I wasn't sure if it was going to be awkward or not and then my 9:00am student rang to ask if she could bring a friend, which made me think it might turn out a bit weird.

I was wrong. It was so much fun!! Lots of laughter and nonstop talking - no awkwardness at all.

I met everyone outside my work in Kyungsung at Starbucks and we headed to a pork restaurant that someone recommended in the area. It was a great choice with beautiful food and an amusing time learning about everything I should do being the oldest of the five of us (by 2 years). Things like being the first person to pick up my chopsticks to eat. Jay also said, after jokingly calling me an ahjumma, that I could even hit him because I am older than him and he can't do anything about it. So I did, ahjumma indeed!!! At the end I shouted dinner, which turned out to be really cheap; only 30,000won for 5 people. The lady at the restaurant was so approving. She said I was the first foreigner who had ever visited her restaurant to pay for Koreans. She loved it and said it was so good I was behaving like a Korean. Lol.



After dinner we went to the baseball batting cages to hit some balls. I have always wanted to do this and surprisingly, only one person out of our group had ever done this. We made a bet, whoever hit the least amount of balls had to pay for the first round of drinks at the bar we would go to afterwards. After many practice goes at the slow and fast straight cages we decided to go to the slow one for our competition. We played rock paper scissors to see the order. I was first, followed by Robby, Young Seo and then Jay. I hit 13 balls, Robby hit 13 balls, Young Seo hit 13 balls. It all came down to Jay. He hit 14 balls:( It was so much fun. I am addicted and can't wait to go back to play. It's really cheap; only 500won (about AU40c) for 15 balls.


Young Seo's friend had to leave so the four of us went drinking. We ended up at this place which had a special of the night. Unlimited Makgeolli until midnight for 5,000won each. We also ordered a seafood pancake as a sidedish. This was when they started teaching me Korean drinking games. Randomly, at any time during the night you can stand up nd say 'one' then they each have to quickly get up and say 'two' and 'three'. The last person to do so must drink their whole glass of alcohol. BUT if you get up at the same time as someone else, you must both drink from the glass. Another game is called horse. Each person is a horse number eg. 'one horse', 'two horse', 'three horse' and 'four horse'. One starts and might say 'one, three', the number three person should then go 'three, two' and so on, until someone misses their go. Then they drink. If you have to drink you can ask someone else to drink for you and if they agree you must do whatever they ask of you.

In Korea you are not allowed to leave someone's glass empty so when you see someone has finished their drink you should refill it for them. I did this when I noticed Jay had finished his drink and I put a bit too much in the glass, it was nearly to the brim. He looked at me and asked 'Do you like me?'. I was a bit taken aback as this was very a very forward question of him, until he laughed and explained that in Korea they say that if you fill someones glass to the top it means you like them. After that, we all kept filling everyones glass to the top. We had so much fun, we made plans for the four of us to meet up again in February. What lovely people. I have been fortunate to have met them.

Me and Young Seo


Jay and Robby