Can you two step?

There is a little piece of the South here in Seoul, South Korea. It is a place that we call “Country Bar.” I wasn’t even sure of its real name for the longest time because that is what everyone seems to call it. Country bar is in Itaewon (a district of Seoul) which is known for its foreigners. This is the place you find good Mexican food, Outback Steakhouse, western bars or clubs, and other “tastes like home” restaurants. Of course, this is where you will find a bar that plays nothing but good old southern country music all night long.

When you walk into country bar you immediately take notice to all the American’s inside. There are very few Korean’s besides the few that work there. So as an American who walks into most Korean places and is the minority, I fit in just fine here with all my American comrades! There is a huge American military presence here as most of the boys two-stepping are in the army or marines. For this reason on week nights the bar is usually empty as military curfew is very early, but on weekends the curfew is 1am so the boys get to shine their cowboy boots and put them to work on Friday nights!

This is where my story starts. This week we decided to make an appearance at country bar although it was a weeknight as we were already in Itaewon. Being right up the street and feeling like we wanted to do a little line dancing, we headed up to our favorite country hang out. (who am I kidding….the ONLY country hang out!) Sure enough, we walked in and we were the only one’s there! We had the whole bar and dance floor to ourselves. So naturally we got to know the staff pretty well being the only ones there. By staff I mean the ONE Korean bartender. Now this woman is a 60-something Korean woman, strict as can be, and I guess she likes country music. Through our conversation I asked her if I could make a “NC playlist” on the computer so we could have our favorite songs play. She of course said yes so I proceeded to but a little Carrie Underwood, Tim Mcgraw and Miranda Lambert mix together.  By request from one of my good friends I also played “She thinks my Tractors Sexy” by Kenny Chesney and tried very hard to remember a country line dance that another friend had taught us. The Korean bartender laughed at us, and said when we come back she will get someone to teach us how to dance to country music. We laughed and kept dancing the night away.

Come Friday night, we decided to head back over to country bar and see if our favorite bartender was working. We walked through a group of soldiers on the way in and sat at the bar waving to our friend, the Korean bartender! We asked her what we should call her, and she said Kim, so we chatted a little with Kim and checked out the scene. It was pretty full, mostly with soldiers with cowboy hats on who kept two-stepping with pretty ladies on the dance floor.  Kim smiled at the dancers and muttered something under her breath and called over a young cowboy who looked about 15 years old! Now, you can’t enlist at 15 so I’m going to venture a guess that he was 18, but either way he had a baby face and could not keep off the dance floor! We heard her say to this cowboy something about teaching a two-step in broken English and then she pointed to us. Before we knew it he was by our side asking us if we were ready to learn how to country dance! He went over to the computer to set up some good songs, and then grabbed my friend’s hand. She was totally embarrassed but ended up doing great as he spun her around the dance floor. I was next, and I’m not going to lie, I was so excited to learn! We have gone to Country bar many times and have never been the girls on the dance floor dancing the right way to country music, so I felt like this was my golden opportunity to convert to a TRUE country dancer. Not a ‘hips shaking to the music’ kind of dancer, like a true two stepping fool to Garth Brooks or Blake Shelton.

After I finished stomping my boots on the dance floor to Carrie Underwood I went and sat down with my friend again. A slow song came on, which I swear went on for like 6 minutes and Kim was getting annoyed. She kept saying “TOO LONG, TOO LONG.” She waved over the other man who works the computer, who doesn’t look 15 he looks more like 35, and he wears it well. But he was not changing the music like Kim wanted. She looked at me and said “you do, Sexy song!” I said “What?” and then my friend started singing “She thinks my tractors sexy.” I gave her a quizzical look and she pointed at the computer and said “GO GO!” I was a little nervous either the 15 year old or 35 year old would get mad at me touching their computer, but I went ahead and put on my “NC Playlist” anyway beginning with Kenny Chesney. Everyone started singing all the words and it was a big hit! The older guy ran over to the computer realizing someone had touched it and began to change my playlist. He was a little territorial if you ask me, but I knew my playlist was a hit and Kim gave me the green light! I was told later he was not changing it he was ‘fixing it.’ But if it ain’t broke…..

The 15 year old asked me for another dance. As he spun me around he proceeded to tell me that him and the other guy don’t actually work at Country bar, they just help “Mama” with the music.  “Who is Mama?” I asked him, trying not to start laughing. He pointed to Kim and said he loves to help her out and he calls her Mama. I decided at that point I would call him ‘youngin’, and the older guy the ‘old man’ so I could talk about them without any confusion. Before we knew it “Proud to be an American” came on and I looked at my friend and we knew what was coming. The bar went in an uproar of tone deaf soldiers singing their hearts out! We totally joined them and were laughing and smiling with these patriotic cowboys. But as it ended, things got serious.

All the cowboys turned to the Rebel flag and the American flag, standing as still as a statue, as the national anthem came over the speakers. Now, even though I know that this happens every Friday at 12pm, it still takes me by surprise. I hurried to my feet and put my hand over my heart and tried not to laugh. Don’t get me wrong, I love the USA, but there’s something so bizarre about taking that moment to honor your country at 12pm on a Friday night, in Seoul Korea, surrounded by cowboys. Me and my friend smiled and looked at each other, and knew it was time to go. The boys get a little rowdy after their anthem comes on, so we wanted to end the night on a good note! What better way than to leave a bar with the national anthem stuck in your head? J We said goodbye to Youngin and Kim, promising to come back soon, and found our way back to reality as we walked back onto the streets of Seoul. But we were not walking out empty-handed, we had a new skill to add to our resume; two steppin.