Made a New Friend Today

While I was in Seoul for 3.5 weeks, I was able to hook up with an old classmate from my days as a student at Yonsei's Korean Language Institute. He is originally from L.A., and was there for the same reasons as me...to learn Korean. Well it turns out that after his stint in Korea for a number of years, he finally went back to UCLA to finish up his degree only to return to Seoul with a job. He is now working and living in Seoul as a single high rolling expat with his own bachelor pad and a car to boot. Apparently, he is just so the swinging bachelor that he has a list of girls for late night bootie calls lined up. I was extremely bothered by this transformation because when I knew him 15 years ago, he was essentially a short, ugly, fast talking geek boy. And now he acts like he is what Koreans would call a "king car."

His sister happens to live in Singapore so I called her earlier this week and she invited me over for coffee. She lives in a beautiful house with a nice size pool in the backyard. Her interior decor looks like something out of a high living magazine where all the wall hangings and furniture looks collected from years of living in exotic Asia. She struck me as somewhat overbearing as she proceeded to dictate how I should treat my live in maid. Her husband rakes in the big bucks as a hedge fund manager/owner of his own firm in Suntec City. She has 2 children just like me but they are 13 and 12 year olds attending the prestigious highly coveted American School on the other side of the island.

Now, while she struck me as the typical loud mouthed materialistic LA girl, I couldn't help be put off by her overbearing demeanor and presumptuous nature. She was focused mostly on her social life, consisting of country clubs, night life and parties in her home. She seems to have a good network of Korean American friends in the area but never once offered to introduce me any of them. All she proffered was if there was anything I ever needed don't hesitate to call her. And then I was offered a ride if I waited for her to get ready or her maid can call me a cab.

I wound up near the shopping district and called Mike out for lunch instead. He seemed rushed as he ate, kept looking at his blackberry, and announced that he needed to hustle. Some relaxing lunch! And on Monday, he is off to Bankok for the week!! And it's Thanksgiving Day on Thursday. Boo hoo. Wish I was going with him.