Germans and Sweet Potato

2008. 10. 14

A group of german travel agents arrived Korea a couple of days ago and has been on a trip in Korea. And Oh's company sponsors some of their legs of trip by taking them out to lunch at a luxurious local Galbi place, paying for admission fee to a local temple, car rent, etc. Since Oh has been soley responsible for championing the trip as a liason, he needed to go out and treat them Korean cuisine earlier today.

The rationale of this pro-bono lunch is to lure more Germans to Korea. Last year, only hundres of Germans visited. So, this trip was organized to give German tour agents thinking about devising tour products encomassing Gyeonggido a peek at what this province can offer to German people.

Anyways, around lunch time, Oh left the office for the lunch and arrived the restaurant. Since he represented entire Gyeonggido, he needed to look watchable and kept fixing his hair and clothes. Soon, a bus arrvied and threw up 5 Germans and 1 Korean tour guide. Shaking hands with each one of them, Oh thought that this is not going to bad lunch.

Sitting next to the acting sales manager, who has been in Korea 8 times already, at Korean Air in Fruakfurt, Germany, Oh began to ask questions and answer some inquiries as to general tourism in Korea. They ate Galbi, talked, laughed and dealt with awkward silence and pauses. Not too bad, Oh was thinking. After lunch, Oh handed over the brochures and the maps to the guests for which they were delightful. Lastly, taking care of all the charge, Oh ushered the Germans out of the place and said good bye to them.

Oh thought that although they are going to stay only a couple of days, the impression that Oh, the city and locals put them under can decide whether more Germans will come to Korea or not. Not particularily patriotic, but some kind of pride he was feeling about his job.


And later, Oh got a box of sweet potatoes he ordered the other day. This is for his wokrout. He needs to carb up for a bit. Well, chicken breast would've been far nicer, but it is not like chickens are going anywhere.

But the devliery guy Oh could not understand. Walking into the office, the delivery guy called out Oh's name and hurled the box on the floor, saying "Here are the sweet potatoes you ordered, Mr. Oh!" And my team members all cracked up at it. The delivery guy who came to our office everyday, never does expose the category of the itmes that we placed an order for. But why me? Some kind of hazing for a newbie?

Anyways, we got a lot of kick out of it. :)