::A Geek in Korea::

The word "story", iyagi in Korean (이야기), is used completely differently than in English. It’s similar to the way we use the phrase "experience with" to describe your interactions and relationship with an object. Things have "stories" in Korean. An object like a notebook might have a story, as it is used and then discarded. Thus, the newest porridge restaurant near our school is called Chuk 1001 Iyagi (1001 Porridge Stories). While this might be a strange name in English, seeing the word "story" attached to something in Korean is fairly common, even if it is something as common as porridge.

The grand opening of the store was yesterday. They paid attractive women to wear flashy clothes and pass out menus while polluting the air with loud music for the entire day. I took the menu politely, and didn’t throw it out when I got home. My wife saw the strange flavors listed on the menu, (Cheese porridge?!), and it sparked a memory about the store. By the time I was on dinner break I was absolutely craving Ginseng Chicken porridge, my absolute favorite of all porridges. I convinced my coworker to go with me to the new porridge store with me for dinner between classes today. He wasn’t a fan of Korean style porridge, which he described as bland. Since I knew there had to be some flavor he would like, I talked him in coming over and checking out the menu before deciding. Eventually he settled on a "seafood porridge" that looked very good.

We sat down and admired the interior. A week previous the store had been a hard liquor store that had closed down. Now it was selling porridge in a moderately upscale setting. I ordered for my coworker and myself, and we got to talking. An elderly woman and her caretaker (daughter?) were the only other customers. The woman was shaking and needed help feeding herself. Porridge is said to have many health benefits, so perhaps that’s why they were eating here.

In the middle of the wait, a group of Buddhist monks came into the store. They were dressed in their gray winter robes. When Buddhists want money they aren’t subtle about getting it. They pull out a cow bell like piece of wood and bang on it with a stick. An annoying "tock tock tock" sound that drives everyone trying to have a conversation to either look at them in annoyance, or just pay them off so they stop being so noisy. The owner, as politely as possible, paid them off and pushed them out at the exact same time. Smooth.

The begging wasn’t done. There is a beggar that works our area of the city fairly often. I’ve seen her a few times while out to eat with my coworker. It must be her prime time begging hour. She’s the only beggar to work in English however. When we saw her on the street, she came up to us and said, "Give me some money." Not to be callous or anything, but the power of English education in Korea is undeniable. There are enough English speaking people for this woman to talk to that even as a beggar she needs to use English to survive. Too bad she doesn’t use the word "please" yet.  (Ok, that’s being callous).

The owner somehow calmed the second beggar enough to get her out the door. After that, our food arrived and I explained the proper eating procedure as well as some porridge related stories I had from my stay in Korea. This is yet another sign I’ve been here an incredibly long time. Not only do I have stories about eating porridge, but I have several that were interesting enough to discuss over the course of a meal. I don’t think I have 1001 porridge stories though. As a gift to us for being a customer on their first day of business, we got nice free tea mugs that have the logo of the store on them. Awesome. That just adds one more story about porridge to my collection..