Picture it: Saturday night, beautiful weather, neon lights make it look like daytime, and my friend's birthday...a good night to go out.
Not really having a plan, we head to dinner looking for wine - a rare commodity around here (more blogging on that later...). We find a fusion restaurant (which means, basically, Italian with some hot Korean spices thrown in) with a short but interesting wine list, and order a Malbec...yes, you CAN get south american wines here, hoorah...just at twice the price. But whatever, we both like Malbec. Sadly, our waiter (who is proficient in English-to-Korean sign language), says they're out. Ok, we try to order a different bottle...no, they're OUT, meaning out of ALL wine. What?? This can happen??! Yes, it can.
During dinner, they actually play the song "I Just Had Sex" from SNL. I almost spit out my seafood risotto.
After dinner, we start the hunt for wine - anywhere? anywhere?!? We do find a couple of places that SAY they have wine, but they, too, are OUT. (How is that possible??). Even a place called a "bistro" only served beer (with lemon?!?). The hunt takes us to several different restaurants, pubs, bars all over downtown, which is, thankfully, not too big (think all of Mag Mile). And here's where we come to my favorite part of the evening:
So, I'm the Army Substance Abuse Program counselor in the region. That means that any soldier caught drinking under age, DUI, late to formation and smelling of alcohol, getting rowdy and alcohol involved, etc etc, sees me. I have signed an ethical code here not to be seen crazy drunk or high ANYWHERE in Area IV (my region). It doesn't prohibit me from going to a bar, however...but maybe it should. Because, at the third bar on the hunt for a decent drink, I spotted a soldier whom I just graduated from the program...for underage drinking. So he's not even supposed to be IN the bar, right? Right. So I casually walk past him, avoiding eye contact of course, and take a place at the bar, my back turned to him. And not 10 minutes later, this soldier just comes over to say hello. Our conversation goes a little like this:
Soldier: "Hey, didn't I see you at [name of some other bar]?"
Me: "Um, no, not there..."
My friend: "Oh, no...."
Soldier: "No, no, I know I've met you somewhere before..."
Me: "Uh, yes, you definitely have. But you don't want to remember me right now?"
Soldier: "No, come on, just tell me. I know I remember you from somewhere."
Me: [to my friend] "Should I tell him?"
Friend: "Hmmmm...."
Soldier: [something unintelligable]
Me: "Oh, PVT [name], I'm your ASAP counselor."
Soldier: "Oh! I'm totally sober!"
And you can imagine how it went from there. It wasn't a long conversation, and of course I didn't admonish him for drinking or anything lame like that, but he did leave the bar with his friends pretty quickly. I mean, what else can I really say about that.
We did eventually find the last restaurant in all of Daegu that had ONE bottle of red wine left. It was delicious.
Not really having a plan, we head to dinner looking for wine - a rare commodity around here (more blogging on that later...). We find a fusion restaurant (which means, basically, Italian with some hot Korean spices thrown in) with a short but interesting wine list, and order a Malbec...yes, you CAN get south american wines here, hoorah...just at twice the price. But whatever, we both like Malbec. Sadly, our waiter (who is proficient in English-to-Korean sign language), says they're out. Ok, we try to order a different bottle...no, they're OUT, meaning out of ALL wine. What?? This can happen??! Yes, it can.
During dinner, they actually play the song "I Just Had Sex" from SNL. I almost spit out my seafood risotto.
After dinner, we start the hunt for wine - anywhere? anywhere?!? We do find a couple of places that SAY they have wine, but they, too, are OUT. (How is that possible??). Even a place called a "bistro" only served beer (with lemon?!?). The hunt takes us to several different restaurants, pubs, bars all over downtown, which is, thankfully, not too big (think all of Mag Mile). And here's where we come to my favorite part of the evening:
So, I'm the Army Substance Abuse Program counselor in the region. That means that any soldier caught drinking under age, DUI, late to formation and smelling of alcohol, getting rowdy and alcohol involved, etc etc, sees me. I have signed an ethical code here not to be seen crazy drunk or high ANYWHERE in Area IV (my region). It doesn't prohibit me from going to a bar, however...but maybe it should. Because, at the third bar on the hunt for a decent drink, I spotted a soldier whom I just graduated from the program...for underage drinking. So he's not even supposed to be IN the bar, right? Right. So I casually walk past him, avoiding eye contact of course, and take a place at the bar, my back turned to him. And not 10 minutes later, this soldier just comes over to say hello. Our conversation goes a little like this:
Soldier: "Hey, didn't I see you at [name of some other bar]?"
Me: "Um, no, not there..."
My friend: "Oh, no...."
Soldier: "No, no, I know I've met you somewhere before..."
Me: "Uh, yes, you definitely have. But you don't want to remember me right now?"
Soldier: "No, come on, just tell me. I know I remember you from somewhere."
Me: [to my friend] "Should I tell him?"
Friend: "Hmmmm...."
Soldier: [something unintelligable]
Me: "Oh, PVT [name], I'm your ASAP counselor."
Soldier: "Oh! I'm totally sober!"
And you can imagine how it went from there. It wasn't a long conversation, and of course I didn't admonish him for drinking or anything lame like that, but he did leave the bar with his friends pretty quickly. I mean, what else can I really say about that.
We did eventually find the last restaurant in all of Daegu that had ONE bottle of red wine left. It was delicious.
The search for wine sounds torturous. I mean, Really Korea... REALLY?!?
ReplyDeleteWow - great story, greater payoff.
ReplyDelete"I know I know you from somewhere." Guess he wasn't actually looking at you when you were talking to him sober in broad daylight. Are you discouraged, or amused? Or both?