Let's Go for a Coffee!

There’s nothing better than spending a Sunday morning with new friends in a little coffee shop.  “What new friends?” you ask.  Well, let’s begin with my theory.  I think that by moving to the other side of the world I momentarily confused the cosmos and things began aligning to my advantage (at least for that for that first week).  As a result, I was walking home from work last Friday (my second full day in Korea) and out of the corner of my eye I noticed two foreigners carrying giant boxes and coming my way.  We met at the corner of the crosswalk and without a second thought I jumped right in and introduced myself.  Later on, my new friends would tell the story and claim that I had a lost look on my face and seemed overwhelmingly overjoyed to see them, lol.  They were some of the first foreigners (people not from Korea) that I had come across and I was not about to let that opportunity pass me by and of course, I jumped right in and introduced myself.  After a bit of chit chat, I learned that my new friends were an about-to-be-engaged couple from South Africa and have been in Korea for quite a few months already.  One thing led to another and I scored an invite to church for Sunday morning.  I met up with my new friends at a Paris Baguette Café where they kindly bought me a tea and a treat for breakfast before church.  The cappuccinos were adorable with their decorative hearts in the topping and I thought that it was well-suited to my two coffee companions.

Except for my one evening out with my co-workers, these were the first other foreign teachers I had met and they were absolutely delightful!  I shall nickname the lady of the hour as Winny and her fiance as Andy.  Winny is so full of laughter and has an externally young spirit even though she almost 10 years older than myself.  Andy is much more of a practical sort but is a charming and well-spoken gentleman.  They told me about how they started dating long-distance after being matched up by a friend back in South Africa.  At the time, Winny was living in the UK for work but feeling a little homesick, Winny called home and asked a friend to give her a phone number of someone who could tell her a good South African joke.  That person was Andy.  Random, eh?  I loved this story and it was quirky enough to resonate with me.  They had only been dating for a little over a year when Winny decided to make a career move and teach English overseas and her hunny followed suit.  So they've been here for about 7 months and been loving it and growing together as a couple.  Such a daring and romantic couple!  I am definitely looking forward to spending more time with them.  Unfortunately, they work opposite hours to myself and they are in that couple-type stage where they would prefer to nestle down into their home for the evening rather than go out and live it up in Korea.  But we will make it work and see each other when it is possible! 

Let’s recap the first week.  I’ve been in town for less than a week and I’ve already partied it up with my crazy (but married) coworkers, found an English-speaking home church, and met a couple of new friends.  Not too shabby for a Murphy girl.