Nothing like having 2 Dinners

I actually said to myself "I will not blog today"... mainly because I realize that I blog almost everyday and slightly feel like a loser. Even though multiple things happened today worth blogging about, I still refrained... until now. I may vomit. For real, 100% barf.

The back story is that I finished work at 7:20 (no more leaving early for this girl) and headed to the underground shopping near my subway station. I won't go into it even though I found some gems and somehow spent 30,000 won before I knew it. But on my way back I found this new bakery so I stopped in... I saw some decent food that I decided to pick up for dinner. When paying, the old couple behind the till were great, they spoke a little English and even gave me candy before leaving. I'm not sure if they were so excited to see a foreigner so that they could use what little English they knew, or if this was their crafty way of getting me to return... but you can be certain I will! Also I found Dr. Pepper there, that alone solidified my return.

I got home and ate then about 15 minutes later some weird sound was going off in my apartment. I tried to ignore it but it wouldn't stop. I finally realized that it was this phone thing near my front entrance. My boss's wife was downstairs and told me that they were going for dinner and to come down immediately. Of course this is not word for word what she said, I believe all that came out of her mouth was "Jana..... bulgogi..... now"... I have learned to read between the lines very well.

I get downstairs and my boss, his wife and two of my coworkers are in his tiny minivan/car thing. We pick up another coworker who was at an ATM and off we go. Now let me remind you, I just ate.... but in Korea you don't say no. And not only was I forced to eat pork and some beef, I also had to drink beer and Sprite (known as cider here). Normally I would be in heaven, beef and beer especially. Not today. I feel like at any moment it's all going to come back out.

At one point during dinner I had an awkward moment with my boss... he told me, from the other end of the table that I "look like healthy"... Everyone stopped to try and hear the conversation and help translate. Korea is a very vain country and if you are larger than a size 2 you are usually considered (and called) fat and ugly. I can't tell you how many people I've met here that get called fat on a daily basis by their students, coteachers and bosses. I was expecting some sort of similar conversation to ensue, but the opposite happened. My boss proceeded to tell me that I am always happy and energetic and must be very healthy to be like this all the time "very good, very good". His wife then added, "Oh Jana... and so pretty". I would like to point out that it is Tuesday night and I haven't showered since Monday morning... I'm glad my work has low standards.

I figured that at least I could work some of it off and walk home being we were about 10 minutes away from my house, nope... my boss insisted on giving me a ride. I then decided to at least take the stairs up to the 10th floor... I should have done it at least another 36 times I'm sure.