A new bar, in a new city, in a new
country. Two weeks ago I was in Belledune, New Brunswick, nine
days ago I was leaving Montreal, today I'm in Pusan, the second
bigest city in the R O K. The new bar truely is a new bar, it
only opened yesterday and it isn't just any new bar, it's a new
western bar. Those of you in the west probably don't see the
humor, i was thrilled to see my first western bar, and was quickly,
and somewhat mockingly told that their were thousands of western
bars. Though I suspect their are none that would that would
meet that definition at home. Actually I'm starting to think
that it means the bar has western tables and chairs, instead of the
low tables and mats that so many of the restaurants have. That
would make sense, and everything here makes sense, if you look at it
from the proper prospective.
The staff is a mix of youth and
experience. The three waiters are young men who seem to be
bursting at the seems with enthusiasm, they are neat and very
polite. The waiter closest to the door doubles as the
doorman. Two older men work behind the bar, I'd guess they are
in their thirties but that would only be a guess. One is
dressed in a suit, and the other wears a white dress shirt.
The man in the suit seems to see everything but say nothing,
posessing a quiet dignity that he will likely have till the day he
dies. He fills the draft glasses and gives them to the waiters
to distribute. It would not be unfair to say that he has not
really mastered the art of pouring draft yet. Each glass I
order arrives with about an inch of foam floating on top of
it. On the plus side it is very cold and it's served in frosty
mugs, the ones that have a layer of ice traped in the bottom and
sides of the mug. I presume the man in the white shirt is the
bartender, he may even be the owner, I'm not sure what I do know is
that he is the lynch pin of the whole operation. Both in the sense
that he is the boss and in the sense that he sets the tone for the
rest of the staff. After speaking to him and watching him
interact with other people I concluded that he has the ability to
put people at ease. I struggle to find the words to explain
it, he is friendly but not puppy dog over attentive, cheerful but
not silly, quick to smile and laugh, but always with you and never
at you. I suspect that he intuitively does many other little
things that I don't even notice but react to emotionally. It
is a rare gift, and it is one I wish i had.
The bar itself is like a thousand
others I've been in. Stained wooden walls, with wooden tables
and chairs, and a long wooden bar. At home it would be narrow
and deep, but here it is quite large. There are surprisingly
few decorations on the walls, the other bars I've been in, all ten
or so, have had almost every available inch of wall space
decorated. This is much more to my liking, the places that
seem like the inside of a casino start to where on you after a
while, in my case, a very short while. I think business if pretty
good, there are about twenty-five koreans in the place, which i
suspect is ok for a Tuesday. I am the only foriegner.
"What's Up" the song by Four None Blondes is playing on the
stereo. I have always liked the song, though I suspect that
the writer and I would not agree on a single thing if we met in
person and had the oportunity to talk. But as I wrote before,
I always liked the song.
The thing that I have found most
striking about Korea is the shear number of people, often I find it
almost overwhelming. When I'm walking in the street I find the
people blend into a huge homogenous mass that seems to flow bye me
like some giant lazy river. In bars and restaurants the
numbers become managable and I start to see people as individuals
again. This bar, on this day felt familiar, it could have been
anywhere, university students out with there friends, trying to blow
off a little steam before they head for home. Well it could be
anywhere accepting the fact that people spend the lulls in there
conversations looking at me. Please don't misunderstand me, it
is not out of conceit that I say this, at home I don't warrant a
second glance, but here, i might as well be the entertainment.
Surprisingly it bothers me very little, if nothing else I don't have
to worry about paranoia, here everyone really is watching me.
The belle of the ball is a woman
wearing a black t-shirt. She is so caught up in her friends
that she may not have even noticed me. She is incredibly
petite, i would guess that I outweigh her by at least a hundred
pounds, maybe even more. She controls the people at her table
with mischeivous smiles and laughter that rings out clear and
high. I feel like she weaves a spell of happiness around
her. Even sittling three tables away I can feel it, as though
I'm somehow getting back some of what life has taken away from me
over the years. Bitterness and resentment seem to be, for the
moment at least, washed out of my soul. It is a fleeting
moment and I understand that it will pass. I'm begining to
feel that living in Korea is about moments. Some of the moments are
good, some are bad, so far I feel I've had more good moments than
bad. Taking stock of my options I order another beer, this
moment may be fleeting, but I won't do anything to end it. I
look around the bar but everyone else is oblivious to the
magic. Her friends, accustomed to it, take it for granted and
everyone else is too preoccupied to care. Perhaps it isn't
really fair to say that, but I've never really been accused of being
fair either. I choose to waste no more time on these thoughts,
instead I settle in to bask in the moment, pausing only to
acknowledge the waiter when he brings me another beer.
Authors note: During the
period of time that I was too lazy, busy or drunk to edit this
story, the man in the suit has learned to pour draft. I've
learned that the name of the bar is the Rodeo,though the
name only appears in Korean. I have assumed that the man in
the white shirt is the owner. And finally I've learned that
the Rodeo is the perfect place to have a beer after teaching my
children's classes in the afternoon.
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