On The Delight of Kalbi
On the first weekend that we were feeling better, Will and I decided to go to a kalbi restaurant. Kalbi is a very interesting and amazingly delicious food. You go to a restaurant and you sit on the floor (at least we did) and there's a low table and they bring out a huge bowl with coals in it and a grill and set it in the middle of the table underneath this metal chimney. Then they bring you seasoned raw pork and a bunch of sides, including some greens in a delicious spicy dressing, onions (if you ask for them), sliced garlic, this amazing sweet corn, steamed egg, soup, and a few more. They also bring you lettuce leaves and a red sauce with lots of garlic in it. You cook the meat on the grill yourself, in small pieces, and you can also throw the garlic and onions on the grill. You then put some of the red sauce on one of the lettuce leaves, put meat and some vegetables on it, wrap it up, and eat it. It is an explosion of flavor in your mouth that I cannot begin to describe. This meal is often accompanied by Soju, which is a clear, very inexpensive but surprisingly delicious Korean liquor. A meal for 2, plus an entire bottle of Soju, costs 22,000 won, which is about $20. Not bad at all.
On the Horrors of Subways, Stairs, Duffel Bags, and Korean Hotels
Will and I took our first trip to Seoul this weekend. Saturday morning we took the 2-hour train ride with a couple of other foreign teachers. We ate lunch with the other teachers, and then decided to go off on our own and find a hotel. We took some time to figure out the Korean subway system, which is quite simple, but still a subway system and still Korean, so it was confusing at first. When we go to our stop, we already had aching knees from all the stairs in the train station and subway stations we had had to climb. We followed the directions given to us by one of the other teachers... and could not find our hotel. A few miles later, we finally found it, but were told that we could not check in until 8pm. That meant we were stuck carrying our luggage for about 4 more hours. As we were already tired and sore, we were a bit cranky, but it was nothing that a few antics in a nearby Starbucks couldn't solve.
A Stroll Down Nostalgia Lane... Which Looks Surprisingly Like a Dark Korean Alley
Since we couldn't check into our hotel, we decided to take a trip to Hannam Village in Itaewon. Hannam Village is the military post where Will used to live 11 years ago when his mom was in the army. After I bought a red hat from a street vendor, we walked down some dark, narrow, back streets that Will remembered going down as a kid. We managed to avoid being run over by cars and scooters, and eventually got to see the building where he lived, but they wouldn't let us enter the base because Will's I.D. card expired when he turned 22 in August. We were sad we couldn't enter the post, but quite happy to be in Seoul and decidedly less cranky than earlier.
On International Cuisine
Exhausted and hungry, we decided to go to a Turkish restaurant. Aren't cities delightful? We ate wonderful kebabs, the most amazing pita bread, and absolutely delightful Turkish coffee and Turkish Delight. Soooo good. And Will even learned to say 'Thank you' in Turkish (which I will not write here as I have absolutely no idea how to spell it).
On Discovering My Native Language
To make a very long story slightly less long, we successfully checked into our hotel after 8, watched a total lunar eclipse, and went to sleep exhausted and sore. The next day we made our way to St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, headquarters of the Orthodox Metropolis in Korea.
Walking into that church was an interesting sensation. First of all, it was very different to walk into a room full of Koreans and realize instantly that I had something very important in common with each and every one of them - the Orthodox faith. Second, despite the fact that the service was in Korean and I understood very little of it, I was overwhelmed by the feeling of familiarity. I recognized the music, the smells, the gestures, and the icons, and I started to tear up. After thinking a bit I realized why: I had just heard my native language for the first time in 2 months. No, Korean is not my native language, but the gestures, smells, music, and sights of the liturgy are. As the room filled with Koreans, Americans, and Romanians, I realized that we all spoke the same language.
After the service we were invited to a Korean lunch in the Parish Hall. We sat with other English speakers, who made me feel at home and invited me to sing in the choir (which is absolutely beautiful, by the way). I'm very happy with my visit to that church, and I plan to go again at Christmas and at least once a month from now on.
After lunch Will and I sat with the priests (one of whom was from Seoul, and one of whom was visiting from another province) and talked about teaching. Father Jeremy said that the most important thing about teaching children is to love them. Father Athanasios told us that the church disagrees with how much children are pushed to study, and that brings me to my next topic.
What children? Here we have only future university students and successful professionals!
Korean children study a bit more than American children do. Actually a lot more. Actually a ridiculous amount more. The children we teach go to public school in the morning, then to a private school, then to us, then to another private school. They are in school from the morning until 8-10pm, and THEN they do their homework. Sometimes when I get frustrated with the children, I remember how long they've been in school and I transfer my frustration to the Korean system of education. It is always important to make learning fun for kids, but it is especially important here, when the children pretty much spend their whole lives in school. I want to teach them well because I want their time in school to be worth it, but I also want to give them a break. I want to let them rest, let them play. Anytime I feel I've combined play with a lesson, I feel that I've done my job.
On Being in Korea
I gave a lot of students speaking tests a couple of weeks ago and I'd like to write about what I learned from that, but we have another one coming up in a couple weeks, so I think I'll wait and combine them.
To summarize the past couple of weeks, I think now that Will's here and now that I'm finally getting well, I'm starting to do what I really came here to do. I'm discovering new foods, observing the culture, meeting new people, seeing new places. And I have to say... I absolutely love it.
