Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Old & the Beautiful!!

The best thing about life is the surprises it keeps on throwing..some good some not so good..but it is still fun. After my last post I wasn't expecting to post a good experience for a long time..but you can never tell..how just a small decision of where to eat can end up in the most beautiful evening of the tour so far!

Well it so happened that instead of eating in cafeteria on campus as we usually do on weekdays..Anshuman & I decided to go out for a change..not so far but quite a walk..especially in the chilling cold! So there is this place called Pasta House in front of the KAIST campus gate where we decided to check out some Italian Cuisine..well the pasta was nothing special except for we were served the double of what we had ordered..we were planning to share one but they brought two separate for each of us!..so we sat for a long time trying to finish it..

Pasta House is a small and cozy place and except us there was just another family..a Canadian guy who has been in Korea for 8 years now, married a Korean and has two amazingly cute daughters! [talk about crossbreed haan..:P]..so as me and Anshuman were talking in Hindi the guy noticed and could not help but mention that it really sounded sweet apart from different..[sweet? my voice? aur anshuman's voice?..ah..I love this place!]..Sorry I could not take any photos of the cuties..but there was an interesting talk about how Koreans measure the age..because the smaller one was 3 but according to Koreans she was 5! Apparently it goes like this..the day you are born you are an year old..[something do to do with life starting in pregnancy..].then on change of year.you increment your age again! So a baby born on 30.12.2007 is 2 years old on 02.01.2008!..kinda weird because depending on the month you are born the difference between your actual age and Korean age varies a lot!

Anyways the family left when we were still trying to finish our twofold order...and the owner of the place happened to mention about this gathering that happens every Thursday 8:30 where some expats socialise for sometime. It was around 8 then..so we decided to stick around and see if there are any chicks than we can hunt..:P

Since there was still some time left we had a walk around the area..which we had not so far..some pics from the neighborhood..


A Church


Sparkle Harvest!

Anyways..it was a short walk..and Anshuman was not sure if it would be worthwhile but I decided to give it a try as the owner had mentioned that this tradition was started 10 years ago by some Germans but they left and people kept on changing but the tradition has carried on!

The count is usually 10-12 but today I guess was really different! There were almost 20 in the group and with just a couple of exceptions everyone was twice my age! But not for a single moment I felt that this was in any way less than a Friday night out at a pub..

The topics varied from origin of names to their modifications, from cultural differences to nuances of accents and languages, from good experiences to nightmares while traveling..well if you just take a look below you would understand how much more would have happened that I could not catch up with!..Let me see how many names I remember..


From Left round the table..Angel[Puerto Rico], Andrea, Colin & Phillippa [New Zealand], Adrienne [Australia], Lita, Mi [Korea], Olga & Dennis [Russia], Jean [France], Euhnee [Korea], Carol [New Zealand], Alan [USA], Jeung Sun [Korea], Hee Sun [Owner of Pasta House, Korea], George Suzuki[Japan] & Your's Truly [India]..phew!

Most of them were teachers and most of the teachers taught English but at different levels [from kindergarten to adults] in different kind of institutes..some had been there in Korea for long and some had just arrived..some had traveled a lot and some had in been Korea all there life..some were young and some were old..it was a complete potpourri! But there was something surely common about them..I dunno what to call that bond..some of them had came down from outside just for the gathering!..and they do it every week! Just amazing..



As I was sitting with the Kiwis..most of my talk was with them..and they lived in country side..Pep had brought some banana cake & walnut cookie [a typical kiwi dish which was called Afghan biscuit for God knows what reason!]

Anyways about 10 p.m. or so we all started dispersing as the people who had to travel had to catch their buses. With full stomachs and filled hearts...everyone bed goodbye for a week..

No bets about my plans of Thursday evenings till I am here!
Undoubtedly the best evening since I have been here..

7 comments:

Hash said...

Partha.... Keep Going Man...

I really can Feel the cold out there and the way u enjoy it...
but only one thing.. how did u eat that thing called afhgan bisciut... it looks like... you know wat

parththefirst said...

lol :P..its eaten man..so bites all arund..n the pic is not that good..it had choclate cream on the choco base with walnut on top.. :) and its hard like a biscuit not soft like..what u thought after seeing the picture...

sh00nya said...

what a wonderful experience dude...a very interesting evening indeed. I am still wondering about that "Korean age" thing :-) pretty strange?

I loved those pics for the composition and I still stand by my view that a camera doesn't matter it's the eye that does.
@Afghan biscuit - it looks really really weird :-)

looking forward to more of your experiences.

Unknown said...

Hi Parth

I read your blog this morning with interest. I didn't relize you were so good at photography. Would you be interested in outing with the Daejeon Photo group? We don't have a set plan yet but I hope we'll get together again soon.
Carol

Sunny Purushe said...

Hi,
I noticed the most important thing in this blog is expanding social contacts (I don't remember the exact term).
For all who knows, the most successful man has the most social contacts. Any why not!, it may help at some point of life when it is required most.
This is the most distinguishing feature about this guy which really need to adopt.
Sunny

Anonymous said...

Parth!
You see what an amazing thing it is to live in a foreign country?
great experience. I wish you to enjoy every moment at least as i have in India.

Aviv
p.s-7-8 degrees is not cold!!

SachinT said...

Nice to read. This is what i was expecting, to know something new about new place and ppl in informal style.

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