The Look

In Korea, things are all about presentation. They love to make things look so beautiful and well-put together. When you get a pizza to go, they put it in a box and wrap it with a ribbon bow to keep it shut.

Just check out this fruit in the grocery store.

They look like they should have cute little faces painted on them!

Also, notice that a honeydew melon is 17,000 won. That's about $17 US! Fruit is sooo expensive over here. I definitely take advantage of fresh fruit when I am at a restaurant with a buffet or salad bar.

~Leslie

"Good for Health"

I just had a breakthrough.

It was sooner than I expected, actually.

What is it, you ask?

I voluntarily ate kimchi with my meal tonight.

Kimchi, if you did not know, is basically the national food of Korea. It is a spicy red peppery side dish of fermented vegetables, most often cabbage (though it is also known to be made with radish or cucumber). If you go into ANY restaurant in Korea, unless it is McDonald's or something, you will be brought a couple of side dishes of kimchi. Koreans also like to say "kimchi" when they take photos just as Americans will say "cheese." Read about kimchi here.

I do not enjoy cabbage. I don't like coleslaw. I don't eat fried cabbage and sausage as my husband craves sometimes. I might tolerate a little bit of fresh cabbage in a salad now and then, but I will never purposely eat the stuff. Especially fermented cabbage. I never have before. That is, until tonight.

Koreans have a way of trying to eat extremely healthily. They have a phrase here that they use over and over when asked why they might eat or drink something--"It's good for health." I promise you, every Korean partakes of something simply because it is "good for health." In our writing classes, we try to correct this grammatical error when the students use that phrase. We tell them to say instead, "It is healthy," or "It is good for one's health." We have a lady from the Pulmuone company who delivers "health-juice" (as we affectionately refer to it in our office) each day to people who order a month's supply. My Korean co-worker that sits next to me has been receiving a little green pack every day with her heath juice for a while. Some days it is carrot juice, some days aloe vera juice, other days maybe broccoli juice, and so on. One type of juice simply says "Beauty" on it. She drinks it because it is good for health, even though it tastes disgusting. I have tried the free samples. However, last week I discovered that she sells Pomegranate juice. I decided I needed to order some of my own health juice, since it actually tastes good. I couldn't help it. It's good for health! So now, I receive my daily dose of Pulmuone juice for 40,000 won (about $40) a month. I am so jumping on the bandwagon of good health.

(Sorry for my digression. I didn't brainstorm before I wrote this blog post, as I tell my students they must ALWAYS do before writing something, and this is a prime example why. My goal was to tell you about kimchi and I ended up talking about beauty juice. That's called "prefacing," in case you didn't know that, and I do that quite often. Ask my husband or anyone who knows me well. I always feel the need to give the background information before I actually get to my main point. I guess it's the teacher in me, always trying to build schema!)

So anyhow, tonight I had a break for dinner at about 8:15, while everyone else was in class. I decided to walk down to the Orange Place (that's what we call it--just a little typical Korean restaurant, kind of like a diner--they have pretty much standard Korean foods and it's very cheap--and their sign is orange). I ordered my usual bowl of bibimbap (steamed rice with a mixture of vegetables on top and a fried egg w/sesame seeds).

I have never eaten at this place by myself, so tonight I decided to sit at the wall/bar type seats so I wouldn't take up a whole table. I have to add that a Korean guy came over to talk to me as soon as I walked in, and just kept talking for about 10 minutes about who knows what. His English was difficult to understand, but he just kept talking! It was tiresome I tell you. I gathered that he is Korean but he lives in Japan and is here for a few months on business. Couldn't really determine what he did, but he was nice, so I talked as much as I could for the few minutes. Anyway, I sat down and the ajumma brought me my food, plus a bowl of soup, plus the sides of kimchi and radish. I took a bite of bibimbap, a sip of soup, and then a piece of kimchi! Then I continued, and KEPT eating the kimchi! It was like I was the host body for a Korean soul, doing something beyond my control, and I just let it happen (by the way, I am reading Stephenie Meyer's sci-fi book, The Host, right now, so that was sort of a reference to that)! I couldn't believe it. Everyone told me that it was an acquired taste (definitely) and that after a while I would actually want to eat kimchi with my meals. Michael already eats it pretty often, but not me. I usually won't even try it, unless it's a completely new kind. I seriously thought it would take me a year or so before I warmed up to it. How about not even 3 months?? I am amazing myself.

Haha, I guess I have been brainwashed by the Korean thought that you should eat foods that are good for you, even if you don't enjoy the taste. Tonight, I didn't even mind it! Also, there is a lot of research that supposedly points to the fact that kimchi can aid in digestion and help prevent colon cancer, which I am at a higher risk for because of my colon disease (ulcerative colitis). I've been dealing with a flare-up of sorts, so maybe subconsciously I am hoping that eating kimchi will help with that. Whatever the reason, I am totally bewildered. I just spent my entire break time at work typing this blog post before my next class because I didn't want to forget about it!!

I guess I really am becoming Korean. :)

~Leslie

Sunrise, sunrise...

Two weeks ago we had our Summer Vacation at work--we got 3 whole days off!  Ah, the life of a hagwon teacher...so, anyhow, we decided to take a trip to the beach on the east coast.  We heard from several people that the east coast beaches are nicer (mostly because they are on the Japan side as opposed to the China side--less pollution), and one of my Korean co-workers told me about a nice beach that is not usually as crowded as the more popular ones, but was supposed to be nice, so I decided to do a little investigating.  I discovered this article that tells about Jeongdongjin Beach.  Read it for a little background knowledge (building schema--that's my job!).  The train station in Jeongdongjin is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the closest train station to the beach in the world.  If you know me very well, you know I love to take photos of fun and silly things (I don't always have the best memories of things, so I try to take a lot of pictures, and then when I look at my photo albums the memories come floating back to me). After reading the article, I just KNEW that we had to go there for our vacation!  So, we decided that we would pack ahead of time so that we could leave work Tuesday evening and go straight to Seoul to the train station, which would take us on the sunrise train to Jeongdongjin.  The train (1661) left Seoul at 9:50 pm and was scheduled to arrive at Jeongdongjin at 4:08 am.  This way we didn't have to pay for a night in a hotel, and we could get to the beach in time to watch the sun rise!  I was very excited, because growing up in San Diego on the west coast, I was able to go to the beach often and watch the sun set.  However, I never got to see the sun RISE over the ocean there since the sun rises in the east...so I was really looking forward to it.  I love a good sunrise.  The last really good sunrise I remember seeing was in 2004 when Amber and I drove to the Grand Canyon overnight so that we would get there as the sun was rising--it was magnificent!  

We rode the train and didn't get much sleep.  You would think an overnight train would be conducive to sleeping, but they left the overhead lights on the entire time, and all of the passengers were really noisy.  Needless to say, when we got to our stop, we were pretty tired.  So, if we look haggard, excuse that. :)

So, here are the photos from the first part of our trip to the coast and the sunrise.  We took lots of other pictures at the beach and our fun hotel, etc. but those will come in a later post.  Just enjoy the beauty of the sunrise on the East Sea/Sea of Japan/Pacific Ocean!

~Leslie

Go here to view more photos from our trip on Shutterfly.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Acsm7hq5bOWLi4

Soggy Suwon Soccer

I have decided that I am habitually late as a blogger, but that's okay I guess.  What is the rush, anyway?  I guess its just that I forget things between the time that they happen and the time that I post about them.  Oh well!  

So, one of the things we have done in Korea that we have really enjoyed is attending a Korean Soccer game.  For Michael's birthday I bought tickets to go to a game, and the first one we were able to go to was July 20th.  Well, the weather had been forecasting RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN, and most of the seating is not covered, so we almost decided not to go.  However, one of Michael's co-workers (MikeT) was going to be leaving Korea very soon and wanted to go to one last game before he left, so we went ahead and joined him.  Let's just say it was a torrential monsoon of an evening!  :)  It started pouring about an hour before the game and did not let up for maybe 3 days!  But it was worth it.

Here is a side view of World Cup Stadium (from when the World Cup was held here, obviously).

There are a lot of cool sculptures and other types of art on the front lawn, before the stadium, such as this gigantic soccer ball.  It was raining so hard that we did not stop to take photos of the others.

Michael's umbrella matches the soccer ball!

When I was still dry.  Well, I didn't get too wet because I...

...bought a HUGE Suwon poncho type thing for 25,000 won!  It was soo massive, but it certainly kept me pretty dry.  I think all 3 of us could have fit inside the thing.

Here is the colorful stadium, before the game began.  Notice the Koreans in their cheap ponchos for 2,000 won.  I never did find those ones.

Just look at that rain!!

Blue Storm!

Soccer players on the big screen.

Michael is a little wet here.  This is still before the game actually begun.

My poncho even has a built-in visor!!

This was one of our favorite songs that we sang.  Part of the experience of a Korean soccer game is that they pretty much sing and chant the ENTIRE game.  It was so much fun!  It wasn't annoying chants like girl's softball games (I always HATED how they'd go, "eh, batta, batta, ehh" and other stupid things--one reason why I never wanted to play softball), but rather fun fight songs and such.  I might try to upload some of my videos onto here as well.

I found it amusing that someone was waving a HUMONGOUS Che Guevara flag...not sure why Koreans would care...

Hot Roasted Squid...the preferred snack at Korean soccer games.  Along with ramyun!  I passed on that and found an ice cream cone.

Michael, however, opted for the rubbery squid snacks.  Yum!

On the field...

...So Suwon lost to Seongnam, 0-1, but overall it was a really fun experience!  For less than $10, you can't beat it!  We've decided we're going to try to go to all the rest of the games this season, so hopefully the next one will be a little more dry. 

After the game...Mike and Michael...drenched, but oh so happy!

~Leslie