It's time to spend some time with the one who is most important in my life. After 23 years she is still Korean and she is still cute. I really can't change that about her and I'm not going to try.
A question came up about whether I would prefer a woman to ask me out on a first date or if I would prefer to ask them out. There is a tradition in Korea that by default whoever invites the person out must pay. Of course there are also traditions about the oldest paying, but the basic rule is that whoever invited the other out is the one paying.
When I was in college these kind of things just happened. I'm not sure who invited who, but we just seemed to click. It was kind of a Thumper thing. No one really asked anyone and we just got together naturally.
Thumper gif courtesy of media.tenor.com
As I got older i found that some things need to be a little more formal. That dates consisted of more than just natural reaction but could be mutually consented planned out adventures.
The few times girls asked me out didn't really work out. One was an Italian girl who was too forward so I threw away the number. Still I can imagine what kind of mess that would have been if I had called her. Another was my lab partner. Later she became the head of the department. Anyway, when a girl asks you out first, it is always easier to say yes when you are hungry. It might be true that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. In college a Korean girl was very bold and just came up and said, "I want to take you out to eat sushi and share the evening together."
She was the first Korean person I met in my life and it seems she spoke my language well. I just followed her instantly. I really didn't know anything about Korea at that time except for what I saw on the M.A.S.H. television program. She taught me a lot about Korean that night and although nothing much came out of our first date I still remember her and the seed of Korea was planted in my brain. She was different and more sincere, but at the time I wasn't ready for any relationship. It was another Korean person that I would meet and spend my life with, not her.
Years later I was in Korea and I noticed one shy graduate student who had been helping that Spring Semester was trying to say something. I knew she couldn't get it out of her mouth so I said,
"I think you have more to say. Let's talk about it on the Seoul Tower tomorrow afternoon." It wasn't exactly our first date. We had been on a rafting trip together, but mostly she was so shy to say anything. This time she wasn't. She said to meet at 3pm.
I took her up to the top of the tower and we looked out at the world below us. We had a sketch drawn of the two of us and laughed. Then it was getting close to dinner and I invited her to eat at the revolving restaurant below the tower.
She said the revolving tower prices were revolting and she wanted something more comfortable. I didn't want to argue with her so we took a taxi to my favorite Italian restaurant. She is not sure today what she ordered, but she loved it and then after dinner we danced in the candle lit garden.
Somehow all of our dates after that always ended up dancing in nature. We were dancing in the moonlight or dancing in the rain or dancing outside on the soft grass. Neither of us can dance well, but when somehow it just seems to be the nest course after the meal. As shy as she is, she doesn't mind dancing. I guess we will dance under the moon until we are a hundred and two.
This post was a response the the weekend engagement prompt. All pictures and the story are my own 
