Amanda Takes Off...

I talked to H, one of my language exchange partners, for the first time in almost three months yesterday. He's got a new job, and he's been working on an album, so we haven't met in months. Four, five maybe?

He asked how things were with Good Man and asked how long we'd been dating.

"음, 백일을 했어요." We had our 100 Day Anniversary.

H freaked out. What did we do, where did we go, what did we give each other?

Young Couples (ie under 35-40?) in Korea do this 100 Day Anniversary thing. It is, to put it mildly, A Very Big Deal.

(I think it is especially so with Campus Couples and high schoolers, who also seem to dig the whole "the 14th of every month is a romantic holiday of some sort" thing. Then again, these age groups of couples also dress alike. And I can't handle that.)

Men pressure their girlfriends for sex on this day (I asked Good Man, he said that was true). People get engaged on this day. Movies have been made about 100 Days Anniversary. Expensive gifts (engraved watches, rings) are exchanged on this day. You can send flowers specifically for this day. (Of course, they're just marketed this way.)

At least, this is what I've been told.

Good Man and I did absolutely nothing special for our 100 Days, which happened to fall on Chuseok, the day after my birthday this year. The women I work with think this is a shame. H apparently agrees. "You must find out why you didn't do anything special for 100 days!"

So last night I said to Good Man, "Why didn't we do anything for 100 days?"

He grinned. I poked him. He hugged me, buying time. "Um, because we do something special every single time we're together, so we don't need one day. We have every day."

(I was only teasing him, but poor Good Man... I started asking him questions about 100 Day for this post and he asked if I was upset. "I am not very Koreanized," he said.

"I asked for cheese for my birthday. Don't you think if I wanted to celebrate I would've told you?"

"Oh, OK. Good.")