Five Words a Day

Well that was a bit optimistic. I'm learning, on average, a saying of five or six words every two days. Days when I hike or just spend with my English friends usually equal zero new words. That being said I'm able to get by much easier than I was at first. I can request no pork or no chicken, I can ask someone how to get somewhere, how much something costs, and what time it is. I can kind of understand what people are saying. I'm pretty sure that I overheard an older man say "I wish that the English teachers would all go home", while glaring at me on the subway.

I need to step this goal up a bit. I'm become so caught up in going out and "doing" things that I'm falling behind. To stay on track I'm going to stop reading all books except my language books for the next week(which is going to be hard as someone just lent me Kingdom Com and Northhanger Abbey). I'm also going to devote thirty minutes to studying Korean a day. By next month I should be back on track!

Goals

Since I have been in Korea for an entire month it makes sense to write several blog entries regarding where I'm at in terms of meeting my goals. The first goal was to embrace Korean food. So how am I doing? Well, I've embraced Korean food in the sense that I eat it every day. I've tried to have an open mind about it and I have found many dishes that I absolutely love. I have discovered a passion for rice doughnuts (they are my kryptonyte and my achilles heel). I also enjoy Kimchi (fermented veggies covered in red pepper paste), Gimbap(like sushi rolls but with pork or veggies inside), Galbi (BBqed pork or beef wrapped in mint leaves), and Bibimbap which is a bowl of rice topped with fresh seasoned veggies, red pepper paste, minced beef, and a fried egg. On a side note Bibimbap is supposed to contain the five principal colors of Korean Buddhism.

While I'm glad that I'm enjoying some dishes and am proud that I'm trying everything that gets placed in front of me, I have discovered that are many Korean dishes that I just don't get. Namely, I have trouble with the gratitous amounts of Octipus and squid I'm supposed to consume. Naki Bokkeum is a dish that just repulses me. A live baby Octupus gets it's tenacles chopped off while it slowly stirfrys to death atop a tray of salad. You can practically hear it cry.

I'm equally grossed out by Beonddegi. This dish smells so bad that I'm surprised it doesn't breach some sort of international law. It's fried silkworm larvae. These little guys burst when you put them in your mouth and release a grimy yellow pus. Yum.

Octpi Tenacles are the most dangerous of the street vending meat I've come across, I haven't tried this yet because..well because it seems like a pretty stupid thing to put into your mouth. It is basically giant still wriggling, uncooked Octipi tenacles. According to my co-teacher, there are a few deaths each year because the tenacles make a last bid for freedom causing suffocation. Like a chicken with it's head cut off...only in your mouth.

It's hard to say where I am with this goal. I give myself points for trying and demerit points for being too scared to try some dishes. In the next months I'm going to try and be more adventureous and open minded with Korean food.

Hiking Photos

Lazy Blogger

I've been out doing so much that I haven't had time to write about it. Which is okay. Sometimes while I'm rock climbing and snapping pictures with my handheld technology and trying to take videos I feel like I'm missing out on the actual experience itself. Same goes with writing about Korea all the time. I inevitably feel like I'm missing out on Korea because I spent so much time in front of my moniter venting about it. I don't have time tonight to update everyone on the goings on, just that I've had an awesome couple of days rock climbing with Mr.Kim and friends. I'm off to search for a baguette(wish me luck)!

p.s-Happy birthday mom!

I hate formatting

The last post looks weird. I have no idea how to fix it. I blame my PC.

Because We Can't Understand

I

I sometime get frustrated. I mean miming all day gets exhausting, but I feel proud that I'm making an effort, too many expat teachers make comments like "Man, Korean culture is weird, look how hard they're trying to be normal". Cultures that we can't communicate with fully are cultures that we can't even begin to understand and appreciate. I feel like most expats feel superior to Koreans because we have English, but Koreans have such a wonderful rich culture that has many more subtlies than English. I guess that what I'm trying to express in this non flowing rant is that Koreans have a hugely rich culture that many expats aren't even trying to get to know. My co-teacher explained to me that Koreans even have emotions that those in the Western world know nothing about. These emotions have no English translations and Scarlett(my co-teacher) thinks that they are concepts English people might not even fully be able to understand.

Han: “Han” is a negative emotional state caused by something outside the individual’s direct control. It is a way for Korean society to make peace with the humiliating injustices they have suffered as the perpetual younger brother of Asian nations around them, particularly Japan and China. One example that was given how Koreans were forced to send their wives to be with Chinese soldiers during times the Chinese were at war. “Han” was a way to internalize emotions without resorting to violence or hatred, which also binds them as a society. It is the suffering of injustice in silence.

Here's a quote about Han that I stole from a friend's facebook account.

"But more exactly, what is 'han'? One scholar calls it a 'feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong -- all these combined' (Nam-dong:55-72 quoted in Yoo:221).

Cheong: “Cheong” is a positive emotion which can be likened to “love”. But it is a culturally significant term which describes Korea. Koreans are extremely shy at first, but once they have shared experience with someone, they feel bonded (note how collective “han” can bring about “cheong”, the same way two people fall in love after being trapped in an elevator for two 3 days). This explains how a Korean will always talk about “our country’, “”our family”, or even “our wife”, instead of using the pronoun “my”.

These are two little nuts of Korean culture that will crack open Korean behavior for an expat.

Sport's Day and Saturday

I love"Sport's Day". In the morning the kids dressed up in brightly colored costumes and performed folk dances, they banged on traditional drums, and they performed impressive martial arts in perfect unision. In the afternoon the kids played soccer and ran relay races. I felt pretty sick all day but the sight of these little kids playing an intense world class game of soccer made me feel ten times better. There was a lot of cheating going on and I gave out half a dozen yellow cards. Man I miss playing on a soccer team! When I get back to Canada I'm going to get back into organized sports. There were more spectators watching primary school sports day then there was at the both the Legion Track and Field Nationals and the Canada Games. It was pretty impressive. I cancelled my trip to Busan because I haven't felt one hundred percent and so yesterday(Saturday) I just spent the day in Seoul doing various relaxed activities. I jumped on the train at eight and went to see a palace near city hall. None of my new friends are morning people, which is something that really works out for me, because I get to choose what I want to do on weekend mornings. So on Saturday morning I went to the palace(which is beautiful) and then to the nearby Rodin gallery.

At noon I met up with Dave, Bonnie, Kelly, and Callie and we checked out the 63 building. It's the fifth highest building in Asia and for twenty dollars we went to an Imax movie, an aquariam, and an art gallery(which was on the top floor). The Imax was hilarous, we thought we were seeing a documentry about the Nile, instead it was a weird Korean manga film. Our headphones had an english button, but a lot had to be lost in the translation because the movie didn't make a ton of sense. We spent the entire hour bent over in our seats hysterically laughing over the weird broken english and odd nonsensical plot. The aquariam was amazing. There were dolphins, seals, otters, and way too many snakes. The art gallery was just okay. I prefer to do galleries by myself because I don't like to be influenced by other people's reactions to the art. There were some original Warhol's though, which was kind of cool.

Then we went to Itaweon which is the Western section of Seoul. It was dirty and marked by tons of ciggerette smoking and beer guzzling foreignors, Macdonalds resteraunts, and Dunkin Donuts. At first I was skeptical and was doubtful that there was anything worth seeing in this part of Seoul. It's near the American soldier base and is where the off duty soldiers basically go to get drunk. However Dave changed my mind when he showed me an English bookstore(one of the few in Korea) and I tried really hard not to blow my savings. I bought two new comic books(Angel and Amazing X-Men) and a piece of nonfiction entitled God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. I'm usually a DC girl and have been convinced that DC is far superior to Marvel comics but I lately I've felt like branching into Marvel territory. I'm also trying to read more nonfiction, I sometimes feel like that the fiction I read is the literary equilvent of a happy meal so I'm trying to challenge my brain a little.

After the bookstore(Dave bought Superman Red Son) we went to a middle eastern resteraunt, where I had a shwarma, a glass of white wine, and hummous. After weeks of meals that have consisted of fish broths, squid, burning hot kimchi, and rice this meal was the best thing ever. We were so appreciative of the food that we couldn't even make conversation. Afterwards Dave and Bonnie suggested going to this weird little ice-cream shop where customers create their own icecream by picking out flavors and toppings and blending them together. It was the perfect ending to an already great day.

Today the kids from Seoul are coming to visit me and we're going to check out my neighborhood. Tomorrow(Monday) I have to work, but Tuesday is a holiday and we're going on a hike with Mr. Kim. Supposedly this hike will involve a ton of rope work and rappeling-I'm looking forward to it.