Day 28: Dinner at Sunny's

I slept in even later today. I think I’m going to set some kind of personal record for sleeping in if I keep going at this rate...

I didn’t have any plans for today except dinner. Here is some background information about the people I was meeting for dinner: My dad met a man named Sunny (who is from South Korea) at a trade show. They exchanged information and my dad contacted him before I came to Korea to give him a heads up I was coming and provide me with someone I could go to if there was an emergency. Sunny was the one who was kind enough to get me the two tickets to the concert in Busan that I went to the first week I came to Korea. Ainslie (his wife) also took time to meet up with me and help me get a bracelet for the Gangnam festival and she and Jisu (her daughter) took me to Insadong on day 2. I have stayed in touch with them and they invited me over for dinner today.

I left my house around 4 and took the subway to get to their station (listening to RM's playlist the entire way). Sunny and his youngest son met me at the subway and we walked back to their apartment. His other son wasn’t getting home from school until 7 so we went to a park that was across the street from their house and walked around for a bit. It was a really nice park with lots of walking trails and a small river that ran through the middle of it. We walked around for a little over an hour just chatting since we hadn't actually had much time to get to know each other yet. His son eventually got bored so I ended up racing with him for awhile and giving him piggyback rides before we went back. I hadn't run in awhile and he kept wanting to race! I haven't felt so out of shape in a long time haha.

We went back to their house and I played lego with him until Sunny's other son came home and it was time to eat. The dinner was amazing! It was the first dinner I have had at a home and there were so many different, amazing dishes. Everything was delicious and I ate so much! My favourite was a dish with rice cakes and beef but there was also some super yummy chicken. I am realizing that I really love anything with rice cakes. They don’t have much flavour but the consistency is very interesting. We also had dessert and then sat and chatted at the table for a bit.

I played some more lego and then listened while Kyeongsik (Sunny's youngest son) read me two of his English books from school. He is only 7 but his English is really good! I talked with Sunny and Ainslie for a bit and they recommended that I go to Nami Island. I had already been planning to go but they said I should probably make time to visit it in the next week or so before the trees lose their leaves.

I was there for about 4 and a half hours and then decided it was time to go home. It was so nice to spend the evening with them and the food was absolutely amazing. They even gave me a little bag full of rice cake desserts when I left which was so kind!

Korean meals are much different from Canadian ones, even at restaurants. People usually order (or serve) several dishes and then everyone shares from them. Each person has their own small plate where they can put the food while they eat it rather than every one getting their own meal.

In the top left (the bright multi-coloured ball looking things) is a kind of rice cake dessert. The plate with tomatoes has chicken and salad. The plate beside that is a noodle stir fry. The one below it is steak with peppers and onions. The last dish is beef with rice cakes (the long white-ish things are the rice cakes).

I took the subway back home, grabbed a snack from the convenience store and went to the park to read for an hour or so. When I was at the convenience store I saw a coke can with BTS members on it which was cute.

You can see RM's face on the coke bottle in the middle of the top shelf.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(October 23, 2018)