The Mystery Dish

I first saw the dish in my hall on Monday morning. It was on the floor next to the apartment a few doors down. I assumed someone had ordered take-out to their apartment and left the dish outside to be picked up. This is a common phenomenon in Korean take out. A restaurant, usually one in your building, will deliver food to your door on non-disposable dishes and then come a few hours later to pick it up. It's basically apartment complex room service.

On Tuesday morning, the dish had moved back to my side of the hall and beside the apartment next door. I was confused why it was still there and wondered if someone had left a friend a gift that they hadn't notice.

When I came home Tuesday afternoon, the dish was closer to my door than it had been in the morning. How sweet, I though! Someone had finally realized that there was a waegook (foreigner) living in the building and had dropped off a 'Welcome to the Office-Tel' gift. When I looked at it more closely, I realized that it was basically left-overs in a large metal bow wrapped in a plastic bag. Hmm...

Wednesday morning, I opened my door to go to school and practically tripped over the thing. I kicked it aside and pushed it further to my other neighbour's door in the hopes that they would do something with it. Wednesday night I came home and it was in front of my door again.

This morning, it was back to resting between my door and my neighbour's door. I figured that the toddlers who run screaming up and down the hall at 11:00pm each night had crashed in to it and moved it the few inches. I hoped that it would be gone by the time I got home in the evening.

When I came home this evening, it was... surprise, surprise, still there. It's got a few more days of enjoying the hall until I go door to door to find it's owner... or move it to the other end of the hall...