I arrived today in Incheon at 6:05 p.m (an 11 1/2 hour flight). The weather is humid, hot, and wet. I was greeted my a korean gentleman, named Eddy. He transported me to temporary apartment for the evening, and advised that I will be picked up tomorrow morning and driven to my campus and permanent apartment. After placing my luggage in my apartment, Eddy invited me to dinner. I didn't want to be rude, so I politely accepted his offer.
I must tell you, that Eddy speaks broken english. So, when deciding on a location, he asked if I had ever had korean cuisine. I politely statted no. Then he pointed to a dodgy looking restaurant and asked if I like tog. tog? I could not decipher what he was asking. He repeated tog, tog....like bark, bark. I almost died. He was asking if I liked dog! I said no thank you and he started laughing. He stated that there are restaruants that serve it and that only the elderly will eat it. The younger generation does not. What did I get myself into?
So, he asked if I liked fish. How bad could fish be? We walked to a restaurant with tanks full of live squid, crabs, and some unknown fish. I didn't want to be rude, so we went in. He asked if I liked rice and fish or sushi. I opted for the fish. The restaurant was Japanese. We had to take our shoes off and sit on cushions (crossed legged) at the table. There was a wet cloth on the table that was used to wash our hands before we ate. Not so bad....
Then the food came. The fish came out head, bones, and everything. There were two on my plate. Don't ask what kind of fish it was. I had no clue. There was a bowl of rice, seaweed soup, kimshaw, and spicy beans. There was nothing I could do, but close my eyes and try.
After fumbling with the chopsticks and making a mess, the waitress laughed and brought over a fork. It was very hard to eat the fish and not get a mouthful of bones. lol. But it was pretty good, a little salty.
I think that I expierenced a little bit of culture shock today.
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