Lunch With Some Awesome Koreans

Today after my Sports Medicine class, two people from my group, and a girl from last project's group, asked if I would like to join them for lunch today!  It was really great being invited because as I've mentioned before I'm the only Caucasian in the class.  It meant a lot to me to be included and we had a really wonderful time.

We went to the upstairs cafeteria in the Student Union, it's typically less crowded than the downstairs one.  There's about 4 different food stations, 2 Korean ones, an Italian one, and then a Chinese-fusion food station.  I ordered a meal from the Korean station that I've had before.  My classmates insisted on treating me to lunch which was incredibly kind.

I had a Korean "lunchbox".  It's a metal box with rice, mini hotdogs, seaweed topping, fried egg, and kimchi.  It also comes with sardines which I always ask the Korean ladies working there to make mine without.  The servers don't speak English so it's quite comical watching me try to communicate "no sardines please".  I usually make a fishy face and pretend to swim and then I make an 'X' with my arms, which is the Korean symbol for 'no'.  Of course, I could ask someone around me to translate for me, but this is way more fun.  And although the ladies don't smile, I know they're laughing inside.

Lunch was fantastic.  I ate with Sungha and Oohyun who are my current group mates and Haedeun who was in my group for the last project.  We had a great time talking about funny American habits and what it's been like for me adjusting to the Korean culture.  Probably the funniest moment was when they asked me if it's true that Americans from the west coast and the east coast talk at different speeds.  Definitely a random question, but it's interesting to hear what they've been told about Americans.  I explained that it's a silly, but common stereotype that people from the west coast speak really slow, in a relaxed tone and that people from the east coast speak very fast with more of a type A nature.  They especially laughed when I tried to impersonate a west-coaster!

It was a great experience to not just be included, but to have the opportunity to get to know my Korean classmates much better.  As of now my social interactions have always been with fellow exchange students and sometimes some Korean friends from Mentors Club, so having lunch with my classmates was was a really cool change of pace.