It Seemed Like a Good Plan

I have mentioned in the Too Much of a Good Thing post that I have visited Korean dance clubs three times. My second trip was so bizarre involving hostesses dressed as Russian submarine sailors, a fight, a trip to the police station, interviews by the U.S. Military Police, crashing an English course at one in the morning, smoking hookah with a model from Portland... I'm hesitant to write it because I fear I cannot do it justice. Perhaps one day, but not today. Instead, I will tell a quick story about my third trip to the dance clubs since I am procrastinating packing for my trip to CT tomorrow.

One of my good friends here, Mike, is a Korean who lived in the States for several years and now teaches English in Seoul. One night he texts me that he will be in Suwon Friday night and I should join him. The night life there is pretty good, so he wants me to see it for myself. Of course I agree even though Suwon is about an hour and half trip by subway.

I arrived around nine o'clock even though things don't really start until midnight. Since we both hadn't eaten, we decided to scout around for a restaurant. We found a Brazilian barbecue place (Korean style) that was all you could eat for 12,000 won ($12); however, if you left food on your plate it was 24,000 won. Okay.

What does Korean style mean? It means that you cook the meat at your table. Not someone that works at the restaurant. You. Korean barbeque is very good. I've heard it is becoming popular in the States. I hope that is true. Since this was all you could eat, the raw meat was part of a buffet that included pasta, squid, and of course kimchi.

Korean Barbeque is really good.

As you cook the meat, you cut it with scissors so that you can use chopsticks. Usually, you roll the cooked meat in a piece of lettuce with some other vegetables or rice. It is one of my favorites. Sadly, we did not eat all of our lettuce and were charged a 900 won food wasting penalty. That's roughly 90 cents.They can be very tough here.

Once we had finished dinner, Mike leads me to his favorite bar in Suwon, the Lucky Duck. "It's a dart bar with chicks," he says with a smile. Mike is a very good dart player, so I was surprised to see two dart machines, several tables, and a ... dance area. "They dance here too. Darts. Dance. It's all good. I don't dance though."

The club was not that crowded but we still had to wait our turn to play darts. As we were waiting one of the nerdiest guys I have ever seen wearing a blue tank top T-shirt begins to dance by himself. It was hilarious. Then some of his male friends join him on the dance floor. I love to watch the Koreans dance. They simply love to dance. These guys, however, were a little touchy-feely which is somewhat odd here.

Finally, it was our turn at darts. As we played I caught the eye of a woman near the dart machine. She clearly wanted to dance. Being the only foreigner in the dance club is a huge plus, so I asked her to dance. "Why not?", she said and off we went.

It was fun. She was a good dancer. When the song ended I thanked her for the dance and headed to our table. She must have really liked the next song because she grabbed me and dragged me back to the dance floor. I love the dance clubs.

Sadly, the summers here are really humid. Eventually, you work up a sweat sitting let alone dancing. We both needed a breather. I made it back to where Mike was sitting and started to drink my beer. The nerdy guy also needed a break until he passed my table. I guess seeing a foreigner was too much for him. Once again, a dude dragged me onto the floor at a Korean dance club.

I was a little concerned having seen him grind with his buddies, but I thought my female dancing partner would come to my rescue if I got in trouble. Indeed, I thought that would be a clever way to get her back on the dance floor. The guy was very nice asking me where I'm from and telling me how much he loves the U.S. Then his friends surrounded me. And they got closer and closer. Then the nerdy guy wanted to grind! His friends grabbed me, and I started waving to my female dance partner. I couldn't help but laugh. It was too ridiculous, but I also needed to get out of there. I got the attention of my partner's friend. She laughed and tapped my dance partner on the back. Thank God, I was about to be rescued. My dance partner turned, saw my predicament, and ... left! I really thought I was going to be dancing with her the entire night. Instead, I was trying to free myself form four grinding males as Mike just sat at the table laughing. I really thought the rescue ploy was going to work. The theory seemed sound.