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Gotta have my hite.
Just for the record mom, I only had two...at the factory at least. :) Here in Korea, “Membership Training” has a whole new meaning.
Saturday morning, two busses full of 50 Korean and International students headed off to the HITE Factory and to the East Coast Beach for our MT.
After a few hours on the bus, we arrived at The HITE Factory. The HITE is one of Korea’s most popular beers. It is cheap, tastes like water, and gets the job done (just like Soju). We had a grand tour of the Factory, but since it was the weekend it was fairly deserted employee wise. If you would have asked any one the real purpose of the trip, I can guarantee that no one would say, “I really wanted to know how they reused all of those glass bottles we go out of our way to recycle!”
No, no you wouldn’t. The answer would be more like, “So, do we only get to try The HITE, or do we get to have some Stout as well?” The HITE Company has three other beers they make including Stout, which is its dark beer, Exfeel, and Prime.
The tour started out interesting as we had several people fight over who would translate
Lable 'em
This is where the bottles are labled (I think). for the tour guide. No one was feeling confident to stand at the podium and relay the information. By the time the third attemptee listened to the guide with a look of sheer confusion on his face, he simply went with it and confidently transferred to us, “So, today we are going to drink some beer…” He was interrupted by the groups laughter and the tour guide made him sit down. With that we started the film (in English).
It was quite interesting because The HITE image is Purity. It is made with the “purest mountain water” and all of the advertisements portray active sport players who carry the beer around with them in canteens as they carry on with their respective sport. One advertisement in particular showed a dancer who had done really poorly at an audition. The next scene showed him again after he had some HITE beer and this time he did outstanding. At the end of his performance, he leaves the stage cheering and you hear the spokes person say something about how all you need is HITE if you want the confidence to succeed. So basically, if you feel nervous before an interview or
Drink Up...
This was our Party table! audition, just get a little tipsy or drunk. It helps. At least that is HITE’s motto!
So the guide showed us where the beer was made, bottled, washed and labeled. We were also shown where they can the beer.
After the tour, we were lead into a huge glass room and each given a 1000cc class of beer. We were treated to the ultimate gwaja (bar snacks) and given a 30 minute time limit to drink as much as we wished. After some people made it to about 6, it was time to head to the beach.
From that point on, everyone was in a great mood and was easy going.
When we arrived at the villa we found 4 Traditional Korean rooms that were to fit all 50 of us on the third floor of the building. We dropped our stuff and then ran down to the beach. The weather was really grey and most people left their sweaters on, or sat out of the wind. Several of the wild boys took of their cloths and ran into the water. It was freezing from what we could see.
We then started an awesome
game of football. It was the dark shirts against the light shirts. We played for a good hour and let me tell you it is much more difficult on the sand then on the field! The sand was wet from the rain earlier and the rocks were painful (as we were all bear foot). The ball didn’t really bounce on the sand and the sand seemed to grab your feet and keep you from really being able to have control over or maneuver the ball. It was a lot of fun though and us light shirt team won 6 to 4; I even scored one of the goals.
After the game we were all hot and the water looked good, only about 5 of us dared the freezing cold waves. We ran out of the water just as fast as we had run in, but it felt refreshing after the game.
By the time we headed back the rain had started again. We then began to Barbeque under the tent out front, but only about 40 people fit. After 30 minutes of hopeless waiting, we cooked up stairs in the kitchen and had our own party.
Shortly
after dinner, the drinking started, or I guess I should say continued. We started with some crazy group games, one of which was like a giant board game with a die. Here the options included, drinking a shot of Soju, drinking a bottle of Soju or litter or HITE (amongst the group), taking a “love shot,” having a dance party, pretending to be Spiderman and singing a song. It was great for the hour it lasted. Other games included putting lipstick on someone blindfolded and lifting your feet off of the ground (harder it sounds considering that no one was really sober).
After every one was to the point where they could barely speak clearly, we decided to take a late night stroll on the beach and shoot off some fireworks. We looked for shells and then it was here when I began to bond with this amazing Korean girl I had played soccer with and drank with earlier in the evening. We had to fend off some guys that wanted us to drink with them on the beach and the went with the other guys to find a “club.” Needless to say we couldn’t even find a bar
and no had money so it didn’t matter anyway. So we followed the street that was littered with pornographic business cards back to the Villa and on the way luckily found a restroom. We stopped at the many restaurants that were still open and watched the crabs and squid swim around in the outdoor tanks.
When we got back to the villa, I tucked Gabe into bed. He was gone almost at the point of dinnertime and in the morning couldn’t remember past the first game that was played. Then I went into one of the rooms with the girls and some boys and went to sleep. We slept with the blankets on the heated floor, which was miserably hot.
We left the next morning after we cleaned and packed up the few bottles of Soju that were left. The bus ride home went smooth other than the car/bus sickness and we made it back to campus around 1pm.
So, over all the “Member ship Training” was quite enlightening. We learned how to make beer, how to barbeque indoor on the floor, chug beer, and down large amounts of Soju.
I think I am going to
Group Photo
Before The HITE Tour put this one on my résumé.
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srh
non-member comment
damn girl!
why don't you drink some beer or something! keep having fun, but stay out of trouble, because i'm not calling the embassy for you. :) love. srh