Dating (Take 2)

Dating is not easy no matter what country you are in. Thank goodness, because that would just be boring. A movie where two people fall in love and everything works out perfectly would put everyone to sleep. Of course difficult isn't exactly a joy either, but it makes for some pretty good stories.

Being single in a foreign country has some advantages. For one I'm the foreigner with the cool accent. Well, at least I stand out. I don't think Hoosiers' accents have ever been regarded as cool. Another advantage is that when things don't work out, I can blame the differences in culture. Boy, have I been blaming the differences in culture.

Let's return to Seoul Pub where two Korean ladies are being entertained by the owner's magic tricks. Three older westerner guys join the ladies in the shot game. They ask me to join.

"No thanks, I have to work tomorrow."

"So do we."

"What do you do?"

"We're pilots." Great. I guess when you have an overnight lay over there isn't much else to do but go have a drink at the pub. Not the most comforting thought, but they were fun to talk to. During that conversation, one of the ladies is approached by some young European hipster. She smiles at me.

"He wants to talk to my friend and I," she says to me. I nod. A few minutes later she goes to his table. One of the pilots suggests that she might have wanted to talk to me. Way too subtle, and I'm also extremely dense. So I finish my beer and prepare to leave. As I pass her table, I introduce myself to the hipster and offer her my card. "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to talk. Maybe next time."

Two days later we are having coffee. She is a science teacher. Yes! She hates kids. What? I ask her why she is a teacher. "Because I am a teacher."

The subject changes to...plastic surgery. Seoul is a mecca for plastic surgery. Some estimates claim 80% of the women in Seoul have had some form of plastic surgery. I was on a date once with a woman who had her eyebrows tattooed. When she arched her eyebrows, two became four. Anyway, she wants to tighten her cheeks. She talks about her friend who she was with that night at Seoul Pub. "She got a nose job...", her eyes light up. "You should date my friend!" Uhm, that really wasn't where I thought the conversation was going to go.

"I don't want to date your friend. I would like to have dinner with you." She accepts.

Fifteen minutes before the dinner, I get a phone call. "Would it be okay if my friend joins us?" I agree but now I really don't want to go. Her friend's nose job was not very good. A Korean friend tells me not to worry.

"This sort of thing is normal. It might even be a good sign that she wants her friends to meet you." Sometimes, I think I'm told things just to make me feel better.

I arrive at the restaurant and she motions me to our table. When I get there she introduces me to her MALE friend, "This is ____.  Isn't he cute? He's gay." It turns out he also couldn't speak English. I'm often clueless, but this was a whole new level. I couldn't figure out if she was trying to set me up with him or was trying to feel more comfortable on a date with a foreigner. It didn't really matter. I sat there in a daze listening to their Korean. Then she gets a phone call.

"My cousin will be joining us," she says as she hangs up. Of course. Why not? "Don't worry, she dates lots of foreigners." Once I realized that this train was bound for la-la land, I had a good time. We went for drinks afterwards, played darts, and danced. I never went on another date with her, though. I was too afraid of what might happen. Cultural differences can be really significant sometimes.