So I’m from Europe and went on a business trip to South Korea. I haven’t been dating much but installed a dating app thinking why the hell not. Anyway, I matched with one woman and we start talking and it gets deep quickly and after a couple of days she gets impatient that I didn’t suggest to meet up so she suggests it. We meet up in a Korean sashimi restaurant and I talk most of the time - I guess because she is self conscious of her English - but she listens actively and it’s really nice.
Once we’re done we stand up, she gets her coat and I walk to the counter to pay (you don’t pay at the table in Korea). Suddenly I realize she somehow already payed! I low key panic, it’s the first date and I’m supposed to pay, what is going on? Korea, what are you doing, what is going on? I try to explain to her that this is not how it’s supposed to be but she just brushes it off and we go out for coffee (which I pay, this is another custom in Korea that if one pays for the food, the other pays for the coffee afterwards) and for a long romantic walk by the river.
Anyway, this was four years ago and last months was our wedding and our son is 22 moth old and we and her daughter all live as a happy little family here in Korea.
You are a very lucky guy to have someone like her. We’re happy to hear everything turned out well.
I don’t know if this counts since me and my BF were still kids on our first date, but we both came from different cultures (me being indigenous Pacific Islander and Kiwi and him being Malagasy) and we had to play spin-the-salt-shaker to see who would pay. I was salty about having to pay.