World Cup Talk

New friends and acquaintances are just one of the many great things that you get when you are in a foreign land. There’s just that extra spike of confidence in you to reach out and mingle, and simply make the most out of the seemingly separate life that you create in that foreign world.

Now almost usually, you first run to people of the same fate as yours, and so you go and make that easy effort in meeting up with your own countrymen. They’ve always been friendlier, of course. Topics for conversations are not hard to find since you speak the same tongue, and you’ve breathe the same native air before leaving it.

Ms. Eileen is one of the first few people whom I practically held on to when I first arrived here in Seoul, at that time when I still did not have a mobile phone and would still go to a computer shop to connect online. She’s a “recommended” friend by an equally good friend, Ate Mari (whom I miss biking with, anyway). Before I left the Philippines, I have been informed of her stay in South Korea, and how she can always be a source for help.

It took a while before Ms. Eileen responded to my very first e-mail to her back in August-- that e-mail, which speaks of so much homesickness and an incredible longing for home. It feels so much great though having finally heard from her, and when she set the time for us to meet.

I had my first taste of mass in Hangeul at the Susaek Catholic Church, and Ms. Eileen led me to a series of prayers using the Holy Rosary. We then had lunch at the World Cup Stadium, and gave in to our Italian cravings at a restaurant called RIMINI. YumYum!

The talk was a lot yummier, I must say. I found myself blabbing to the fullest. And that must mean a special level of comfort with the one I am having the conversation with. The talk went all circles— from light talks about our families, to the more serious topics on cultural differences, and which eventually segued to little sharings on blooper moments during our stay in Seoul, in admittance to the country’s more progressive way of living here.

I know that a lot of people will still come and go. This anticipation is part of what keeps me afloat amid the fact that I am away from home, separate from my usual, common people. The diversity of people’s minds and my natural craving for anything new to assimilate from it make it even more exciting. For as long as people are as kind and comfortable as Ms. Eileen, then I don’t see anything to fear about setting a lot of meet-ups here in South Korea.

By the way, as I’ve already said, the food at RIMINI was great. We ordered Due Set 1, yet Ms. Eileen and I think we can have another with us in that lunch, with the big serving that we got.