My First Dining Experience

Well, Sunday morning I awoke and finally unpacked everything, put away my new purchases, and surveyed the damage. Not good. $465 later, I had not gotten very far...I was still lacking tons of items. Yep, back to shopping I had to go...I won't bore you with the details of this experience...let's just say it was much more pleasant than Saturday.

On the way to the store, I decided to finally indulge myself in my first restaurant meal. I walked down a commercial street near my apartment that is teeming with restaurants and cafes. Some were a bit scary looking, and as I was observing the store fronts, I saw a nicely-dressed couple exiting a clean and harmless-looking establishment. Bingo.

I walked in, took off my shoes, and sat at a table. The waitress came up to me and started speaking and I just looked at her and said, "Sorry." She pointed to the menu on the wall...written in Korean, of course, and to my dismay, no pictures. I looked around the restaurant, which was pretty empty, and spotted a young man nearby. I don't know what someone who knows English looks like, but I had a gut feeling he knew something. I tiptoed over, asked if he knew English, and was ecstatic to learn that he knew "a little." I asked what was good...he went over the menu with his broken English and I just nodded and smiled, even though I had no clue what he was saying. Well, when in doubt, order #1...and that's what I did.

The waitress brought 2 empty bowls and 2 empty plates to my table, along with a bowl of red cabbage stuff (yes, I shamefully learned later that the mystery cabbage was in fact kimchee...and I liked it!) and a bowl of still-unknown green stuff. I was still a bit nervous about what I had ordered, but I was quickly put at ease when it arrived: a huge bowl of broth soup with noodles,shellfish, and some sort of tasty wonton.

I began to eat and heard soft chuckling and realized people in the restaurant were laughing at me. Apparently I was using the wrong utensils and not using my extra empty bowls and plates correctly...and I absolutely had no idea what to do with the scissors she brought me. I decided to work on my observation skills, and by the time my meal was finished, I knew how to cut and eat kimchee and where to put my empty shells.

Aaaahhh...so proud of myself...and all that food for under $4.00. I am ready for my first week now!

My neighborhood is bustling with restuarants and shops, but my steet is very quiet.