The Suwon Rodeo

This weekend, I went with Virginia on a day trip to Suwon. We visited the Hwaseong Fortress, took pictures in a Buddhist temple, and enjoyed the warm weather. Once we finished, we decided to go find a Galbi restaurant on Rodeo Street. According to the guide book, Suwon is famous for Galbi (a dish you can get almost anywhere in Korea) and Rodeo Street is a good place to look for a restuarant.


We hailed down a cab, asked the driver if he knew Rodeo street, and hoped in. It wasn't until we turned down a small back alley that we began to wonder exactly where the heck we were going. The cabbie pulled to a slow stop. We looked at each other, than looked around for street signs.

"This isn't right..." I muttered.

"This is Heungman Street." Virginia said to the driver.

"Yes, I know." He nodded.

Uh....

"We wanted Rodeo Street, sir. RODEO street."

He blanked out. Seriously, there is no other way to describe it. The expression, the vitality simply melted out of his face and he stopped moving. It was like someone pulled his plug. Its an expression I'm used to seeing on my students faces when they don't know the answer to a question in class. Its an expression that is significanly more disturbing when you're in a city you're unfamiliar with, starving, and sitting in a cramped alley.

We shifty-eyed each other, then looked back at him. He still wasn't moving.

I looked around, and saw the we were parked in front of decent looking restaurant.

"Let's just get out here" I whispered. "We can eat or catch another cab."

I tried to pay him, but he shooed my money away. We got out.

After stuffing our faces with Suwon-style Galbi (which was actually different and more delicious than the Galbi I've had in Bucheon), we went across the street to a coffee shop to hang out. Virginia ordered Fruit Tea and knit. I slurped down a vanilla milkshake, and scribbled in my journal.

Of course, scribbling got boring, so I began people watching while I avoided the unsolicited gobs of chocolate syrup in my shake. I looked up at a Karaoke room across the street and my mouth fell open.

"Look!" I said, licking ice cream off of my lips "Rodeo! Rodeo Norae-bang!"

(Norae-bang is what they call Karoake in Korean)

Suddenly the cabbie and his weirdness made sense. He did know Rodeo. Just not Rodeo Street. Although, why he would know one and not the other (Rodeo is a major avenue in Suwon), I don't know.

But it worked out. We rolled our eyes, and settled back into the couch cushions.