Giving Kids Candy In The Park/A Family Meal

(Yeah, this is a long one.)

After our return from Panmunjom, Mr. Rogers and I had a couple unexpected hours to kill. As it turns out, Mia Sorella has a great neighborhood park just a couple blocks from her apartment, and

after a bit, that's where we ended up.

We'd been there the day before with her to explore and now we were on our own. Now, I should mention something: this is not like an American neighborhood park. First of all, it's quite large. Secondly, there's exercise equipment scattered around. Third, it's mostly populated by older folks, including a large population of old men playing something like checkers. And fourth ... there's a pretty good-sized hill on one side.

That had more to do with that Seoul's-surrounded-by-mountains thing than anything, but it doesn't change the fact.

Ah yes. And don't forget the Hula Hoops of Torture.

Seriously. Why would you stud a hula hoop with
ANYTHING?!

Anyway! We head for the park. Mr. Rogers is there for exercise; I'm there for fresh air and new spot to write. As we enter the park, a kid on a bike waves at us -- turns out it's one of Mia Sorella's students and boy, is she excited to see us again.

We wander briefly before Mr. Rogers heads up the hill and I find a bench to sit and people-watch.

Now, I admit that ... I stand out a little. I'm the only foreigner in the park and I attract plenty of stares. But I'm keeping to myself and for the most part I am entirely ignored.

After a few minutes, though, the kid that recognized us when we walked in turns up on her bike. Sue (I told you she'd turn up in a story again!) is thrilled to see me and scrambles up onto the bench. She asks -- haltingly -- where Mr. Rogers is and I point at the hill. At that point, she apparently decides she will wait for him. For the next half an hour or so, we entertain each other -- me with my three words of Korean, her with her six-year-old English, and both of us able to draw pictures back and forth.

Luckily, it doesn't take much to entertain a six-year-old. Or me.

And yes, at one point I was giving this kid candy.

Somewhere in here, a slightly drunken ajossi (old man) wanders over and -- smilingly -- starts asking questions. I, of course, can't understand a word he's saying, and clearly he doesn't know English. For a couple of sentences, Sue can translate a little (she tells him I'm a teacher, which is close enough to the truth) and then we're both baffled by this strange old man who just ... keeps talking.

And keeps talking.

At this point, I can only take my cues from Sue, who just looks ... bored. After about five minutes of this -- although it felt like much longer -- I'm trying to figure out how to walk away without totally offending him when a passerby walks up and asks if he can help.

I was embarrassingly grateful. He translates for us for a couple minutes -- and it turns out the old man had been giving me a history lesson the whole time. Several of the places we had visited are known by the wrong name because the Japanese changed them during the occupation.

And he just wanted me to know. How do I find these people?

As luck would have it, the imposing (and sweaty) Mr. Rogers appeared a couple minutes after that, interrupting both the ajossi and the helpful guy. (I believe this was the point where he was compared to David Hasselhoff, although that might have been at dinner that night...) Sue excitedly said hi and then dashed away, no doubt running late to get home, and there were a few more minutes of chat before we excused ourselves and headed back to the apartment.

That night held an entirely new experience. We had been invited to the home of some of Mia Sorella's friends for dinner. Their mother is a former restaurant owner and fantastic cook ... and she wanted to make us supper. So it was that we found ourselves walking into a family-sized apartment in another part of Seoul, not too long after leaving the park.

To say the food was great would be putting it too simply. It was the best meal we had that week. It was also the most complete and I may have eaten just a little too much.

On top of that, the conversation was probably some of the best we had. First there was the somewhat jarring experience of hearing a native Korean speak English (better English than mine) in a British accent. Second, there was the fact that Mr. Rogers once again got to hang out with another guy. Third, there was another pair of siblings present, which added to the humor here and there.

After dinner, the five of us met up with one more of Mia Sorella's friends and we headed for ... the only velvet-covered regular bar I've ever seen. There were even curtains on the booths.

The guys may have had valid complaints about it not being particularly manly.