It has become tradition for the new TA (that's the technical word for Abe's job--stands for Technical Assistant) and his family to host a meal for their group. KAI, and I'm assuming most of the workplaces, are a tight-knit group of people, so the Koreans like to meet the families of the American employees.
There are 30 people in Abe's group. I had to prepare a meal for them, which is so much harder when the food at the grocery store is vastly different than I am used to. Are you wondering if it was stressful? Yes. The answer is yes. Especially because the Tighes had just hosted their welcome meal a few weeks before and the food and entertainment was on point.
I wanted to make something that said, "We're from Texas." I decided on Frito Pie. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I couldn't find Frito chips anywhere over here. I found them on Amazon and Ebay for relatively cheap, but the shipping was outrageous. By outrageous, I mean a couple hundred dollars. And I needed canned tomatoes and tomato sauce for the chili part. Once again, no where to be found in the stores. Linda's son came from Texas to visit before our party, so he was kind enough to pack 6 bags of Fritos in his suitcase for us. I also found tomato sauce on GMarket, which is the Korean Amazon.
The Koreans love to have fun, so we got some gag gifts to play Left, Right and Center. Daisy helped me get the prizes ready.
And she prepared the door.
Here was our spread.
I made Texas Sheet Cake cookies.
For pregame snacks I bought Cheetos, thinking that was pretty American. Wrong. I think I may have mentioned that Koreans are not into dessert so much, but they love to make everything sweet. Including Cheetos.
I made pralines as a take home treat because that is also very Tex-Mex.
The house is ready to party! Bring on the engineers!
At first I told everyone where the drinks were and to help themselves. Then I realized what a social faux pas that was; you don't pour yourself a drink, but the host usually does it. As I poured Soju and Cass for everyone (Soju is some kind of alcohol, and Cass is a popular beer), one of the men taught me why they mix the two. If you put a shot of Soju in first, the Cass does not get a foamy head on it. You learn something every day!
Finally time to eat.
I was a little scared they would really dislike it. Frito Pie (chili on a bed of Frito corn chips, topped with cheese and sour cream and peppers) is way different than kimchee, bap (rice) and kim (seaweed). I think they liked it well enough. Several went back for seconds.
Let's get ready to rumble!
Daisy was the first to win. She took the best gift of a Starbucks gift card because she knew which box it was in. However, she gave it to her friends Susie.
Chul Ho won a back scratcher.
Dr. Lee, the head of the lab, is opening his prize.
Sunglass mustache!
At work they have company-wide stretching twice a day, and they all know that Abe likes to work out so Abe's choice of exercise gifts made sense. Min Gyu won an arm band thing.
Daisy won multiple times.
Shim Ho Jin won a finger exerciser. He is Abe's new counterpart.
Young Rok eagerly opened his gift, to find...
WD40.
Jeon Hyun was Abe's first counterpart for a few months. He took Abe around on the weekends since he was here without out us. He really hates bees, so Abe bought this bug killer with him in mind.
Mr. Kno enjoyed loving on my little doggy.
The game playing got intense.
Winner winner, chicken dinner.
The guy in the back is Kibeom. He is the also one of the big guys at work, and he happens to be the one who taught me how to pour Soju. So glad everyone had a good time at our TA party! So glad it's done!
[September 19]
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