First evening out in Seoul

Korean dinner and Korean discipline
In a street opposite the city hall where countless children were bathing in a fountain to get a refreshment from the hot-humid summer monsun weather, we found a restaurant that looked Korean to us. There was one section where people sit on low tables on the floor and wore no shoes, and one section with western-style tables and chairs. In the middle of all tables was the typical built-in Korean barbecue grill. The section with the low tables looked pretty crowded, so we were seated at a western table, which was probably not the worst of ideas since we were still a bit rusty from the flight and sitting on the floor is not exactly the position we would call the most comfortable in our culture.
A few minutes after we sat down, a Korean mother and her two teenage girls sat down beside us. We discovered later they ordered the same dish as we did: Bossam. This is fatty pork served in a pan with kimchi side dishes, a bean sauce and salad leaves. Excellent stuff, we just started packing the pork, kimchi and sauce into our salad leaves, wrapping them as we learned from Michelle, the half-Korean wife of one of Ossi's colleagues, when we saw the three ladies using scissors to cut off the fat from the meat. Ossi looked at me with widening eyes as if he'd just swallowed a snail and said: "Weren't we supposed to eat the pork fat at all?" I shrugged my shoulders. Ossi discovered that there were scissors in a bin on the table and also started to cut off the fat from the meat. You always learn by watching locals how to do things correctly. The scissors were obviously also good to cut the kimchi which was too big to be swallowed in one bite.
We were only just through with our meal, when the three ladies, who sat down quite a while later than we did, stood up and squeezed their way out. The dinner table doesn't seem to be a place to relax and having long talks in Seoul. Afterwards we found the same thing at most other places we ate. Leisure doesn't seem to have a high position in the Korean culture. People work the longest hours in the world and seem not even to have time for eating. But their economic success must come from somewhere. Considering this country's GDP was 82 US dollars in 1960 (about the level of North Korea today), it's almost unbelievable to see what has become of this country today. Korea seems to be a country representing a lot of Asian discipline and assiduity.

Where the streets have no name
After our dinner we headed to Yeouido, where UBS Hana Asset Management is, to check out the place so Ossi would find it in the morning for his meetings. We found a building with the Hana logo, but weren't sure if that was the right one since there are many Hana branches in Seoul. So we asked the guard, who of course didn't understand a word of English, but Ossi had a business card with the office address and asked with hands and feet if this was the right building. The guard nodded and called the phone number on the business card, although Ossi tried to tell him not to do so since it was already late and after all, the meetings were only the next day. In the meantime, I went outside to compare the building number with the number on the business card and discovered they were completely different, even the street name didn't seem to match. We had several experiences in Asia where people just say yes even if they don't know to maintain their face. So we weren't sure if we could trust the guard. I told Ossi that the street and numbers don't match and that we'd better make sure if there is not another building of Hana around. Luckily, on our way out, Ossi discovered a billboard with all companies in the building, and there was the UBS logo on one of them. Afterwards we found out what the problem was. What we are used to, street names and building numbers, is obviously not the system in Seoul. The streets have no names, only districts are named, and the first building built in that district is numbered 1, the second 2, etc. So we were in the right building indeed, but the address didn't match in the way we expected.

Western Cafés
We decided to go for a drink since we dehydrated extremely fast in that hot-humid climate. In a western style café we found cookies from the Swiss cookie producer Wernli - which gave a feeling of home for us- but of course it was sold at a throat-cutting premium! Also the fruit squashes we ordered were more expensive than we ever imagined - and they were not even fresh! Ossi's was way too sour and mine was way too sweet. Well, we learned that western style cafés are not really worth sitting in - but the choice otherwise is limited. In the course of our stay we didn't find a single Asian tea house to sit in, have a sip of tea and a chat. As said, in Korea leisure seems to be a foreign word. Only westerners and the rich kids of Seoul seem to be interested in sitting in tea houses and cafés. And that drives prices up, as everything for foreigners is sold at a premium here. We hardly got around sitting in Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and Co. several times and go through the rip off.