Speed Dating

As the title implies, I tried speed dating this weekend! The company that puts on international parties hosted a speed dating event yesterday in Gangnam, so I signed up on an impulse. I got Meghan to go with me, thankfully, because I really didn't want to go alone! (I read a stat that says 60% of females go to these events with their friends, 90% of guys go alone!)

Just to be thorough, here's my Sunday prior to the speed dating event: woke up at 8:30am, went for a run with my neighborhood buddy, Romeo. We ran the beautiful path next to the stream in my neighborhood. It was a great first workout to get myself back in the routine! Next, I got my hair cut in the neighborhood (took a chance with someone new). Turned out okay, but only after I came home and rewashed and styled my hair (they did NOT do a good job!). After that I cleaned my apartment, made some lunch, then headed to church. Church was amazing, but I had to leave a bit early so I could meet Meghan in Gangnam.

I arrived right at 6pm, we got some food and then headed to Chicken 'n Chips which is the restaurant where the event was going to be held. We walked in and there was about 25-30 people scattered around just sitting and talking. We looked around awkwardly to see who was in charge. Seeing no one that looked like they were heading things up, we took a seat next to two girls who looked friendly. Finally around 6:45, someone came in and started actually getting things organized. The registration was supposed to have been at 6:30, so that dates could start at 7. Well, we didn't even finish getting everyone registered until 7:40, so needless to say things started quite late!

One more thing worth noting: there was a guy who was there when we came in wearing a horse mask. Like in Gangnam Style? Yeah... he was kind of the talk of the room. Like, why is this guy doing this?

Finally dates started. Some of them seemed like a very fast 3 minutes (and in fact I think weren't even 3 minutes!), and some felt like forever. Here's a quick run down of the interesting people I met:

- Hungarian guy
- Swedish doctoral resident
- French dance instructor
- Filipino guy who works for the Embassy here in Seoul
- annnd a white guy with a horse mask on. Who, I actually had a lot of respect for, for having the guts to wear that crazy thing THE WHOLE NIGHT despite some obviously hostile looks and comments from certain people!

It was a mixed bag in every way: maybe half and half Korean vs. Foreigners. Some weirdos, some really cool people! There were more girls than guys (thanks to some guys not showing up), so I had some time without dates, which was really nice, since otherwise it was 3 hours of repeated answers to pretty much the same questions!

We ended up not getting a break, and it ended around 10:40pm. So, my overall experience:

Negatives:
- started late
- not that well organized
- not individual tables, so it was hard to talk to your partner without hearing all the conversations around you
- beer/drinks didn't arrive until almost an hour into the party
- the room was very warm, and it took a while to get the windows open and fans on
- some odd-balls in the group

Positives:
- new experience
- met some really cool people
- got told I was beautiful at least a dozen times, and that I looked like Britney Spears 4 times (wait, is this a positive...?)

Even though the negatives outnumber the positives, I'd still say I had a good time. I made sure I was nice to everyone, even the guys that I could have checked the "no" box as soon as they sat down. I smiled and didn't let any bad emotions cross my face (this is a win!)

Finally, I got home around midnight and fell into bed. Monday morning came way too quickly! Now, another week is ahead of me... But, Gramma comes in on Thursday night. Yep, my Gramma is pretty cool! I am in the process of cleaning up my apartment and bleaching my bathroom floors to get ready for her!

Until next time,