Gombei!

Gombei! is what you say when you drink, the "cheers" or "l'chaim" of Korea. I learned this last night when I was introduced to Soju.

Soju is the local spirit of choice in Korea, mostly made from distilled sweet potatoes. It's not very tasty, but it's cheap and very, very potent. It's pronounced "SO-jew," as in "Art always gesticulates wildly while talking; he's like, SO-jew ish." It apparently loosely translates into "you may be having a good time now, but you're going to regret this in the morning."

Here is what happens when you drink soju: Last night I went out with a fellow intern and a few of her Korean friends, and they ordered soju (my friend steered clear of the stuff--perhaps I should have followed her lead and stuck to beer). We had a rockin' good time, talking about Korea and the U.S., which culminated in a lesson in American slang, the details of which I'll spare you, but which I'm sure you can imagine if you know me well enough to be reading this blog. I staggered home close to midnight, pausing breifly to drunk dial my remarkably patient father at his office. I got off the phone, and as I stood at the crosswalk waiting for the light to change, I saw a cab pull up and deposit a man on the sidewalk. His footing was unsteady as he got out, and he had the same goofy grin that I did. We made eye contact. He smiled and said, "are you drunk?" I said, "soju." He smiled and nodded and said, "Me too." Then after a pause, "I am sooooooo fucked up!" (I want you to try and picture this. It's almost midnight, I'm standing in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Seoul, having a drunken conversation with a totally bombed Korean businessman the bulk of whose English consits of the words "drunk" and "soooooo fucked up!" Needless to say, I thought the whole thing was a riot). We crossed the street and talked for another minute (or rather, gesticulated). He invited me to keep drinking with him, but it occurred to me that this is probably how people get kidnapped and held hostage in the North, so I declined and went home and passed out.

Let's just say that this was a bad morning. Soju is like the bad one-night stand who wants you to make her breakfast. She's not leaving without a fight (mom, dad, I was speaking metaphorically there, okay?). The headache and cottonmouth were pretty bad, but I'd have to say the worst part of the hangover was the fact that sudden movement (by which I mean "any movement at all") made me nauseous all morning. The last time I was this hungover for a morning's activity I suggested to the group that we play "rock," the game where you try to be as quiet and still as possible.

I somehow made it through the day. The Korean lawyers think it's great that I got drunk on soju, sort of a rite of passage. But I've learned a lesson, and am going to take it easy from now on. Or at least until Friday.