One Year in Korea: Looking Back

I stepped off the plane in Korea on October 18th, 2011. Yesterday was October 18th, one year later. I started working at Wonderland on the 19th. It's time to look back, and to look at how things have changed. 

   One year ago, I was absolutely terrified. When I got off the plane, I was okay. Finally, my journey alone was over (my FIRST long journey alone, and my first overseas flight since I was 16), and I would be met at the airport and escorted to my hotel. I wasn't worried about translation or navigation, only about impressing my recruiter and my new boss. I was a little worried that I had received instructions to use a pay phone to call my recruiter from the airport when I arrived, and I would have to exchange my currency (never done that on my own), figure out how to use it, and then figure out the pay phone (when was the last time I used a pay phone?). After much confusion and several attempts, I finally made the call. My recruiter gave me garbled instructions on how to catch the bus to Jecheon. He was not going to meet me at the airport, despite his promise that he would. I experienced my first major language barrier, as I struggled to follow his instructions, and my first sense of betrayal - I had been left on my own. 

   I had a good cry right in the middle of the food court (since I couldn't leave my bags to go to the bathroom, a fact which caused more problems later), then picked myself up, dusted myself off, dried my eyes, and went to buy my ticket. I wandered about for quite awhile with my giant luggage cart before finding the ticket booth. The lady who sold it to me was quite irritated at my inability to count out the correct currency, and I felt both embarrassed and angry. Who expects a foreigner at an airport to know how the currency works? I found that I had missed the first bus and must wait 2 hours for the next one. I would arrive in Jecheon at 11pm. The bus finally came. Rather, 3 buses finally came. Which was the right one? My ticket was almost entirely in Korean, so that was not much help. The bus drivers spoke no English. I saw a girl who looked shy and confused, so I walked over to her and held out my ticket. Hers was the same, and she spoke Korean, so I followed her like a stray puppy. Even when I got on the bus, I was not one hundred percent sure it was the right one. What if I ended up in the middle of nowhere with no phone? I was terrified. 

   On the bus, I was exhausted, but I was afraid to go to sleep. I had been traveling for over 24 hours, and I was afraid that if I fell asleep, I would sleep so heavily that I would miss my stop. So I stared out the window instead. Everything looked strange. The mountains looked too big, too severe, and vaguely threatening. Large flashy buildings stood in small clusters in the middle of vast farmlands, surrounded by the giant mountains. The neon signs in a strange language just made me feel less at home, more unsure, more lost. I felt like I was in another world, not another country. When the bus made its first stop, I thought at first that it was Jecheon. This is Jecheon?? I didn't realize it would be so small. Oh. It's a rest stop. Never mind. I didn't know how much time we had at the stop, so even though I desperately needed to use the restroom, I sat on the bus with my legs crossed, afraid of taking too long and being left behind. 

   Finally, I arrived in Jecheon. I knew it was Jecheon this time, because I had sat up straight when the bus slowed down, intently searching the road signs. Thankfully, Korean road signs always have English. The bosses, Sam and Dean, as well as the recruiter who had failed to meet me earlier, met me as soon as I got  off the bus and took me to my hotel. They took my suitcases and talked to me, and finally I felt a little less alone. When I got to my hotel room, I started to step in, but they laughed and told me to take off my shoes first. They showed me how to use the remote control for the TV, and how to turn the lights on and off, but I forgot all that as soon as they left and had to figure it out again later. The room was too hot, and I never figured out how to fix that. I still felt so very alone and scared. Korea was so strange, and all I wanted was to close my eyes for a minute, open them, and find myself in Macon again. 

   As you may remember from my first blog post in Korea, I felt much better the next morning. Everything was still strange and I was afraid to venture out into the street because everybody stared, but I was more optimistic. But nothing became more normal during my first month there. Everything smelled strange. The weather was strange, changing so quickly throughout the day. The food was strange. The restaurants were, well, scary. And I had very little money. I spent the first three days in my hotel living off the one bucket of fried chicken my boss had helped me order. It was better when I moved into my apartment, but I still lived entirely on school lunches, fried dumplings, frozen pork cutlet I cooked in my broken toaster oven (disgusting, by the way), really disgusting hot dogs, and a few mushrooms. That first month, I was often miserable and scared, and yet I still felt that I was doing quite well, considering the circumstances. I went to school, I did my work, I found food, I survived. Occasionally, I took a walk. I had made it into the country, and I made it through my first month. 

   Everything is different now. The strange smells are mostly gone. When I do catch a whiff of something odd, it still doesn't seem entirely out of place. The mountains are friendly now, not threatening. The clusters of buildings in the middle of farmlands are comforting when I'm coming back from Seoul - it means I'm closer to home. Because my home is in Korea. It's only temporary, and I can't speak the language, so I still run into awkward situations and I'm still occasionally nervous, but it's home nonetheless. I eat well, sleep well, work well, and live well. I have routines. I have an ordinary life. Go to work, make money, eat dinner, do something fun, sleep. On the weekends, I relax or take small trips. When I can, I go to church. Everything is normal. And that's the wonderful thing about living in another country. It changed my perception. Having homes on opposite sides of the world changed what I classify as "normal." Korean signs are normal. Korean soup is normal. Korean faces are normal. Speaking Korean is normal. 

   I am so glad I came here. I am also so glad that I was so terrified when I arrived. I have felt safer living here than anywhere else I've ever lived, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to adapt. People are friendly, and life is good. Korea hasn't changed, but I have. 

Introduction to Korean Food Stuffs

Some of you ask me occasionally whether I've eaten anything that squirmed, wiggled, or crawled off my plate. When I tell you I haven’t, you think I must be either starving myself or eating only in American-style restaurants. While I’ve certainly come close to eating things that were recently squirming or wriggling, and I have averted my eyes while live octopi were having their little legs chopped off with a huge knife in a food truck on the street where I live, I have also eaten much Korean food that Americans would love if they ever had a chance to try it. Unfortunately, the fact that much of it is cooked by the customers on their own table means that you will probably never see the authentic food in America. Therefore, I would like to introduce you to some Korean food, and watch your eyes grow green with envy. Muahaha. 

Gimbap 김밥

Gimbap is similar to sushi, in that it consists of various ingredients and rice rolled in sheets of dried seaweed. However, it is different from sushi in that it is usually filled with radish, carrots, other vegetables, ham, egg, and crab rather than various types of fish. Sometimes it has tuna, beef, pork, or cheese added. It is a very common Korean snack that can be found by walking 5 minutes in any direction from any location, and costs about a dollar per 8-ish inch long roll. Will loves it. I go through phases of liking it, but it’s, um, kind of... too big for my mouth.        

:-( <----- sad face :-o <----- with small mouth

Galbi 갈비

Galbi was the first truly delicious food I ate in Korea. I will miss it so much when I go home. Galbi is known as Korean barbecue in the United States. It is pork or beef (more commonly pork, because beef is very expensive, which I will discuss in another post soon) that is marinated in a special sauce, and cooked on a metal grate over a huge burning coal that is set in a stone bowl or a metal recess in the table. When the meat is cooked, you put the meat, a small dollop of samjang (to be explained later), some some vegetables (such as grilled garlic, onions, and gimchi) with some rice into a lettuce leaf and/or a sesame leaf. Shove the huge wrap into your (hopefully) giant mouth, and it is delicious. Unfortunately, while almost everything in Korea is small, apparently mouth capacity is not.

Samjang 쌈장

Samjang is a paste made from soybean paste, red chili paste, sesame oil, green onions, and garlic. It is used as a dipping sauce for galbi and bulgogi before wrapping the meat in lettuce, and as a dipping sauce for raw garlic and green peppers as an appetizer. It’s salty and quite delicious. 

Soju 소주

When you eat galbi, unless you are deathly ill or you actually like beer, you must accompany it with a clear liquor called soju. Will describes soju as a smoother, lighter vodka. Other Americans sometimes describe it as bad vodka. I describe as vodka, but delicious instead of disgusting. Its alcohol content is usually around 22%, so it’s not nearly as strong as any other liquor I’ve ever had. Soju has an interesting quality. By itself, its flavor is not very exciting. Some might describe it as bland; I describe it as neutral. However, eaten with the right foods, it enhances, and is enhanced by, the taste of the food. As an accompaniment to gamjatang (which I will introduce next) or galbi, it makes the meat taste more flavorful and, well, meatier, while the meat makes the soju taste fresher. Soju is also excellent in cocktails. Also, it’s very cheap. Very, very cheap. 

Our first real dining out experience in Korea. 

Gamjatang 감자탕

Gamjatang is translated as “potato stew,” but to me it’s all about the pork. Gamjatang is a thick, spicy soup cooked on the table in front of you. It consists of spicy red broth, thick wheat noodles, potatoes, sesame leaves, other vegetables, and huge meaty chunks of pork spine. It is perfect for a cold, snowy winter evening, or a dreary, rainy, autumn evening. I want to learn to make this soup for special snow day dinners. To eat the soup, you pick the meat off the bone with chopsticks and a spoon, and dip the meat in a special yellow wasabi sauce, which is totally different from regular wasabi and is extremely delicious. Then you eat the vegetables in the broth. The soup has a nice, slow spice that doesn’t kill you right away, but slowly builds up. If you are still hungry after, you can order bokkeumbap, which is fried rice made in the leftover broth in the bowl the soup was cooked in. 

Jjimdak 찜닭

Jjimdak is made of chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, thick rice cake noodles, dumplings, and clear noodles boiled in a sweet, very spicy, soy-based sauce. It originated in Andong, and is considered blue-collar worker food, since it is very cheap. In fact, Will and I can eat a huge dish of jjimdak for about $7 each. It is, however, extremely delicious, and there is a restaurant with a nice atmosphere near our apartment. 

Bulgogi 불고기

Bulgogi is one of the most delicious Korean foods. It is thin slices of beef cooked in broth with vegetables such as mushrooms, onions, carrots, and some Korean vegetables I can’t identify. Sometimes clear sweet potato noodles are added. These are especially delicious because they absorb the juice and all you taste is the broth. You eat bulgogi with rice, and you can also roll it up in a lettuce leaf with samjang, just like galbi. I prefer it just with the rice. Traditional bulgogi is cooked in a large metal bowl set into the table over a gas range, just like gamjatang. Bulgogi is very expensive now, because Korea has banned American beef because all American beef has mad cow disease. More on Korean myths in a later post. On a side note, large Korean meals such as galbi and bulgogi are served with a large spread of small side dishes, such as gimchi, yellow or white pickled radish, green vegetables in a spicy sauce, potato pancakes, raw garlic, etc. You can see all the dishes in the second picture below, which captures the remains of one of our school dinners.

 

Korean Chicken 치킨

Much like gimbap, if you walk down the street for 5 minutes in any direction, you will inevitably pass a chicken restaurant. These restaurants typically specialize in fried chicken, but offer some other types of chicken as well. Their fried chicken is sometimes very similar to southern fried chicken, but, well, often better. Sorry to say it, but the best southern fried chicken I ever had was not in the American South, but in South Korea. However, if you see a restaurant that says "Mexican Chicken" and has a picture of a guy in a sombrero, do not expect anything other than plain old Korean fried chicken. There is nothing Mexican about it. Other types of chicken include spicy roast chicken, plain roast chicken (sometimes with onions and rice cake), and fried chicken in soy sauce. Chicken restaurants almost always advertise their beer as well as their chicken. Fried chicken occasionally serves as take out food for families, but is more often merely an accompaniment to large amounts of beer or soju. Social drinking is extremely popular in Korea. Did I mention that you can buy a bottle of soju in any convenience store for less than a dollar? 

Roast chicken from a restaurant owned by a co-teacher's husband. The white stuff is rice cake. 

Other Korean Foods

When people ask me about Korean food, one of the first things they ask me is whether I like gimchi. The answer is most definitely no. For those who don’t know, gimchi is fermented cabbage covered in red pepper paste. Supposedly, the more you eat gimchi, the more it grows on you. I wouldn’t know. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make myself eat it more than the first few days I was in Korea. 

Another popular Korean food is bibimbap. Bibimbap consists of rice, mixed vegetables (usually arranged by color on top of the rice in a bowl), sesame oil, red pepper paste, and a fried egg. Sometimes a small amount of beef, pork, or raw beef is added. When the bibimbap comes in a hot stone bowl, it is called dolsot bibimbap, and the egg on top is raw, but cooks as you stir it against the hot bowl. Many dishes in Korea come in hot stone bowls or on hot plates. Will is extremely fond of bibimbap, but due to my dislike for the stringy texture of Korean vegetables, I am not a big fan... usually. On a couple of occasions, I’ve enjoyed it very much. 

Koreans are quite fond of seafood. They serve soups with shellfish, fried rice with shrimp, and octopus cooked in a variety of ways. Since I avoid all seafood, and especially the types mentioned above, I can’t comment on the taste. I do know that Will does not enjoy the octopus. When Will and I vacationed in Namhae, an island off the southern coast of Korea, we encountered many restaurants that specialize in raw fish. Since I’m not big on seafood anyway, we decided to opt for cooked fish. It came with head and eyes intact, as pictured below, but I managed to eat a bit and found it rather delicious. 

It's staring at me, plotting its revenge.

Korean Restaurant Customs

1. In many Korean restaurants, you sit on cushions on the floor. I find it socially relaxing and physically stiffening. 

2. Service. My favorite Konglish word is "suh-bee-suh." That means "service," which means free. Lots of restaurants will give you free food... just because. They like you. Or they want you to come back. Or you have pretty hair. Or something. I've gotten free dumplings, free fresh pineapple juice, and Will has gotten a free large bowl of bibimbap. 

3. Don't wait for the waiter/waitress to look at you, because he/she won't. You must push a button to get their attention. That seems rude to us, but it's perfectly normal here. 

4. Even if a restaurant doesn't offer "service" foods, you can still get "free" food. Any restaurant you go to will give you some sort of appetizer, whether it's gimchi, radish, pickles, salad, or about 10 dishes of vegetables. Additionally, you can sometimes get refills on certain ingredients. For example, when eating gamjatang or bulgogi, if you want more noodles, they are free. Only the meat costs more. 

American Food in Korea

You can find quite a bit of American food in Korea, but I will comment only on the American food that is part of Korean daily life. 

1. Pizza. Pizza is everywhere. However, they put weird things on pizza. Like potatoes. And sweet potatoes. And corn. And ribs. And weird sauces on top of the cheese.

2. Garlic bread. You can buy garlic bread from your local French bakery. There is one on every street. The weird thing is that the garlic bread always has sugar on top. 

3. Pickles. Pickles come with everything. With pizza. With spaghetti. Pickles are Korea’s go-to cheap restaurant free appetizer, especially in restaurants where the food is not strictly Korean.

4. Waffles. The waffles in Korea are amazing, and they have fancy coffee shops that serve waffles topped with fruit, ice cream or gelato, and whipped cream everywhere. Best. Waffles. Ever. 

5. Steak. Steak in Korea is expensive (about $30 for a small steak and some vegetables), but every kid lists it among their very favorite foods. That’s because it’s so freaking good. You pay a lot, because all American cows are mad (as everyone knows), but the presentation and taste are excellent. I offer proof in the picture below. 

6. Coffee. Coffee did not originate in America (and neither did pizza), but it IS an American staple. Korea is known for its tea, but they certainly like their coffee. Or do they? The coffee they drink is about as far from what we consider coffee as Lipton orange pekoe blend is from traditional Korean tea. They drink little packets of sweet, creamy (not real cream) instant coffee. It tastes quite disgusting at first, but becomes addicting as long as you cease to think of it as coffee, and just think “sweet warm drink.” Koreans also love fancy lattes and cappuccinos, and I must say, their coffee shops are the best. If you go to Korea, skip Starbucks (says the girl who goes to Starbucks every time she’s in Seoul), and try the smaller places. So good. However, Koreans also like coffee in cans and bottles from the gas station. Once again, you must NOT think of these as coffee if they are to be tolerable. 

The best coffee always has a platinum aroma. Not a gold aroma, or a silver aroma, but a platinum aroma. 

7. American food chains. You think everything’s the same, but there are subtle changes. The picture below speaks for itself. 

In other news...

In other news, Will taught a special class in August and September to prepare Jecheon's top English students for a national competition. The competition is called the Ban Gi Moon competition, and it is named after the current Secretary-General of the United Nations. The competition is quite elite - the students have to take several rigorous tests to qualify to compete, and many do not pass. The ones who do, speak near-perfect English. Will taught an extremely difficult course in public speaking and writing on subjects of national and world importance. It was hard work for him, as well as the students, since he had to write his own textbook and didn't leave work until 9pm. 

However, we just heard that one of his students won first place, and another of his students won fourth place. This is out of the 100 students who were selected from about a thousand to actually compete. Both students get to take an all-expenses-paid trip to D.C. and to NYC to see the UN, and the first place winner gets to have lunch with Ban Gi Moon himself. Exciting, right? So now Will is known as the best teacher ever. 

By the way, the two students are 12 and 10 years old, respectively. And they talked about politics and wrote college level essays. Korea is impressive.

Chuseok (추석) Holiday

Chuseok is a Korean holiday a bit similar to our Thanksgiving. It's a Fall harvest holiday, with a large meal, many traditions, and visits to one's hometown and one's ancestor's burial mounds. For Chuseok, our kindergarten classes participated in the traditional art of making Songpyeon, Korean rice cake. To make Songpyeon, you encase sweet potato, beans, or other similar ingredients in glutinous rice flour, then steam it with pine needles. Ours tasted really gross to me and Will, but it was fun.

 

We got 5 days off from school (Sat - Wed), so we decided to go to Danyang, which is about 40 min. away. There we went to Gosu Caves (1.7km walkway through the 5km cave), and walked through Sobaeksan National Park (one of the most beautiful parks in Korea). It. Was. Gorgeous. I love Korea in the Fall, and I love the Chuseok holiday!

Oh yeah, and I baked stuff. That's always fun.