Sunday 17th May, 2011

After coming home from Busan last night, Mr Kim, the hotel manager said there was a message for me from Joy. .... Joy.... Joy..... I'm thinking, who is Joy?! and how did they know how to contact me. I had no idea! I looked at Daniel, thinking, hmmm did you meet a Joy???? Hmmm!...

And then it clicked! Joy! from Pub Garagie. True to her word, she left a message at reception saying she was going to come pick me up at 1.30pm tomorrow. Hahaha I didn't know what to think. What else did I agree to do on Friday night??? Ekkk!!! All I could do was wait until tomorrow and see what I signed up for...

Daniel kissed me goodbye and I said to him if I wasn't home by nightfall, come looking for me or go to the Pub Garagie, atleast you know where she works!!

There was a wedding in the hotel today and it was FULL of Koreans dressed in Traditional clothing so I was sure I would be easy to spot. Soon enough 1.30pm rolled around and I went downstairs to wait. Joy was already waiting for me and when she saw me she gave me a huge hug and said 'ohhhh Tahneeeeee!!' I was so surprised she actually remembered my name. Noone ever remembers my name. Not even English speakers! We went over to her car and I thought now would be a good time to ask what we would be doing, or where we were going. She said we would have lunch with Dick and Hansy and then, who knows! I thought, ok yep, sounds good; and so off to lunch we went...

On the way there, Hansy rang Joy to tell her they were already there and waiting. We were only about 10 minutes away. Joy lives close to the Basketball Stadium, up in on of the back streets. I haven't really been in the back streets of Changwon, but it's such a cute kept secret. It is mainly all residential houses and they either have a small courtyard or a wrap around balcony. She lived on the top floor, with two other room mates.

We all greeted each other outside before we made our way up the stairs. Before entering, we took our shoes off and went into the lounge room, where they already had the table set up. She soon told us to have a seat as lunch was about to be served.

I have never been to a Koreans house for lunch, so I didn't know what the tradition was, but I soon learnt. We sat on the floor and got comfortable. I laugh when I write this. It was quite funny seeing Hansy, Dick and myself trying to cross our legs and spread them out, trying to get into a good sitting position. We managed, but I'm amazed at how Joy and her flatmate could sit in the same one position for ages, while the 3 of us kept moving and changing positions- hahaha I loved it!

Getting comfortable

Apparently Joys flatmate (I'm not too sure what her name was, but I think it was mina??) had been cooking all morning for us. I felt so bad as I was not expecting any of this, but she was happy to do it. Mina has been friends with Joy for a long time and they recently started renting this house together. She has a 10 year old daughter, who also lives in the house and a small maltese dog, who just kept barking and barking and barking at us, until they took her to the beauty salon for the rest of the afternoon.

Bark, bark, bark!!!

With the beer flowing and orange juice for me, Lunch was served; and it looked AMAZING. I could not believe they had cooked all this for us and all out of generousity. All up, there was about 5 courses! First they brought out the all famous Kimchi, with Korean pizza, which is like a huge omelette and some noodles. Then we had squid and boiled chicken with soup and then rice pudding. I was already full after the first serving! The food was so tasty and again I just couldn't get over how welcoming and hospitable these girls had been with us.

Lunchies!!!

Joy cutting up the squid

After a delicious lunch, we headed outside onto the balcony to take in the view and rest our full belly's. The location of their house was so good, being close to the shops, schools and main road. Although it close to everything, it was in a very quiet area and you didn't hear any traffic. Mina's daughter soon came over with two of her little friends. They brought back the pup from the beauty salon, who I can tell you, looked like a little windup toy. For W25,000 The little pup, got a bath, clip and new hair dye. That is so cheap! in comparison what the grooming rates are back home. One of her friends also brought over her pup, cookie. A fluffier, bigger maltese, minus the hair dye

I love this photo of the girls and their pups

Back from the beauty salon!

View from the balcony

View from the balcony

I love these trees

It was a lovely, warm afternoon and made me remember about lazy, sunny, Sunday afternoons back in Sydney. How I miss them. It's just strange to think I was in South Korea, in someones home, with some great company and to top it off- Joy brought us fresh, giant, juicey, red strawberries. My Gosh they were good.

Dick and cookie

Hansy and the gifts he brought over

I didn't realise how fast the afternoon had gone. It was now close to 6pm and Daniel finished work at 4pm! He was probably wondering where I was by now, as I'm usually always at home first before he is. We started saying our goodbyes and Joy and I made plans to go hiking on Thursday. We also plan to go shopping, but I'm not too sure when. I told her to let me know as I'm more flexible with time, then what she is. Hansy and Dick gave me a lift back home. I can't believe how random, but how awesome, my Sunday was.

Thank you Joy and Mina
x

Mina and Joy

Tradition Korean Lunch remains copyright of the author Two Otters, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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