Rapid Fire Story Telling, Excuse the Chaos

Exciting outings and new things have happened to us everyday of our adventure here in South Korea. We have tried new foods, visited the nearby park, we have gone out on the town a couple times, and I almost bought a miniature bunny… We have no routine but school, and do what we can to make sure that everyday is worth writing about. (So far so good seeing how we haven’t had a day to sit down and write =] )

We try and make it out of bed around ten in the morning. We have gotten into the habit of every two or three days venturing down the road to the nearby “Paris Baguette”. I have decided that the best way to describe this chain of restaurant places is as a bakery. They have so many different pastries, treats, sandwiches, and breads. When you walk in, you grab a tray and some tongs, then help yourself. Some of them have places where you can sit and enjoy your food there and some of them do not.

Some of the more interesting foods we have encountered (and tried) were over-sized croquettes that come in three flavors; chicken curry, vegetable, and spicy chicken. The curry is my least favorite but not because it is bad tasting but because the other two types of croquettes are just so darn delicious! They have this asiago bagel with melted cheese on top and cooked in the center of the bagel, YUM. There’s tons of long baguettes that have a variety of toppings e.g. pizza, pineapple, garlic cheese mayonnaise. The garlic cheese mayo was a devious bread. I thought it was only a garlic and cheese topped baguette and it was not until we had made it home that we realized my error -___- Why would they coat the bread with half an inch of orange mayo? Ruiners…

The cheesy bagel is my favorite!

We have tried a variety of their flaky pastries like the pineapple, apple, asai berry, blueberry, and chocolate chip. When we get home we split whatever pastries we have brought home in halves and have a meal while skyping with family. Paris Baguette also offers many flavors of cakes, cupcakes and sandwiches. They have milk bread, corn bread, and soft white bread. Not only that but they sell such gems as their green bean pastry and the veggie bread with corn mayo salad stuffed in the middle (absolutely disgusting). =/

Near our apartment we have two small supermarkets. We frequent these every few days to pick up some little things. We mostly eat dinner at the school (it’s free!) and we haven’t tired of our current breakfast strategy so what food we buy as groceries is limited. We are on a mission for some non-processed non-pre-sliced cheese. They don’t seem to eat cheese in block form and it is more upsetting to me then I thought it would be. There being a lack of cheese was not something I considered before. I guess there’s no cheese because you can’t make cheese from sea animals (the main staple of their diet!). We found some of the spreadable cheese from Laughing Cow that was severely overpriced but I wanted it!!! It tasted extremely good in case you were wondering.

I would like to stop and point out to you that going to the grocery store, at least for the first couple months, is going to be an adventure for us. We aren’t quite sure what we are looking for or even what we are looking at. We don’t know how to ask where something is or read the signs that are there to help direct people to where things are. These little grocery store visits are filled with us finding new things, most of which we DO NOT buy.

They have many dried “snack” items like dried minnows, dried whole fish, dried squid, dried whole squid, dried squid crackers, etc. I do not think I will ever be able to bring myself to eat these items. I cringe away from the clear bags filled with freshly killed squid, fish, and octopus. I am sorry I ever took American grocery stores for granted. They way they keep the seafood aisle smelling fresh whereas here you know the fish have just recently been caught and have been sitting out on these blocks of ice for a couple days. I am sorry I never thanked any of the meat department/ seafood guys for not allowing my future purchases to stare at me while I peruse their sections. I saw a bucket of what appeared to be live baitfish… I just don’t think they were baitfish.

There were many of these bags, = / I shudder merely thinking about them

Live baitfish... Yuck!

We have tried a new melon, experienced banana milk, and sampled a non-refrigerated strawberry yogurt with the consistency of *gag* snot. The nectarines were on sale recently and those were phenomenal. We also found fancy ramen cup of noodle things that were on sale for the equivalent of 50 cents. We couldn’t find lunchmeat because apparently it is not a common part of their diet to eat sandwiches (hence the lack of Subways and Quiznos). I found out that for some of my students, eating a PB and J was a strange concept! That didn’t stop Sean and I from picking up some Skippy peanut butter and some blueberry jelly. We even picked up a thing of honey because Sean had never tried a peanut butter and honey sandwich before! (no worries, he has now =] )

There is a much larger grocery store that is maybe a mile away (if that). We have been there a couple of times and were impressed with the variety of imported “normal” foods. They had Barilla pasta and Classico pasta sauces. They had Philadelphia cream cheese and Tide laundry detergent. We have not spent much time in this particular grocery store and there is still a lot to explore. I am excited to see what we find there.

Unfortunately we found out they have no Mac and Cheese… We asked if they had pasta and cheese (which was a challenge in itself) and they said yes. The lady helping us walked us over to the pasta, pointed at it and then walked us over to the small processed cheese section, and pointed at that… We tried explaining we wanted it together. The lady squinched up her face in a slightly grossed out face and flashed us the popular hand gesture for an exaggerated no, both arms crossed over one another in a big “X”. All I could think was “You eat dried crunchy squid lady, don’t you judge me for my mac and cheese!”

In Korea in order to help encourage people to bring their own shopping bags it costs about a penny a bag to get plastic bags from the grocery store. Even though the extra cost is not much we do try and bring our grocery bags with us when we do venture out to go shopping.

There is a rather large company in Korea called “Lotte” pronounced Lot-the. The little supermarkets are called “Lotte-supers” and the big grocery store is called “Lotte- Mart”. The Lotte Mart is on the bottom of a four (?) story building that is a department store of sorts also referred to as the “Lotte-mart” or “Lotte-Department Store”. Instead of Burger King they have a popular chain of restaurants that are called “Lotterias” pronounced like Lot-ter-ee-ahs. We tried the chain out and it is actually not so bad.

We tried out the normal burgers, the burgers made from “Hanwoo” or Korean cattle, the processed squid rings (instead of onion rings), fried cheese sticks, and a “European” burger with olives, bell peppers, fried cheese patty and special sauce. I did not realize it had such an extensive filling but it tasted really good!

One of the mornings we took a nice long walk to a very very large park near our house. We did not have any time to walk around the whole park but we did go over to the lotus pond. We had been told that the lotus pond was in bloom and worth going to look at it. It was absolutely amazing!

The lotus pond was half covered in giant lotus plants. The plants look like an oversized water lily with an exquisite looking pink flower. They fall over one another as they engulf the surface of the pond so gracefully fighting for sunlight.

My camera was absolutely loving the scenery, taking beautiful shots of the flowers showing off and the dragonflies darting every which way. We had a great time walking around the pond and across the bridge. The bridge was a suspension bridge, it went right through the lotus plants, close enough to touch them if we had wanted to. It was a treat to find out that we were in walking distance of such a pretty place. I look forward to many visits here and to watching the pond change over time and through the seasons.

There is a coffee shop by our house that sells delicious coffee and has an assortment of entertainment. There are a variety of magazines, books, and … a couple of old school children’s games. One of which I remember from when I was a kid, the alligator. He has a all these teeth you have to push in, trying to get every tooth pushed down. But one of the teeth is a trigger tooth, if you hit it he tries to chomp your finger off! I play this every time we go into the place. I know, shameless.

One morning before work we out and we bought plants. We wanted to have them for our small 6 inch balcony, to bring life to our window. We adventured to the nearest plant store and spent close to forty minutes talking with the woman at the store. It was rough trying to explain how we needed plants for our little balcony that wouldn’t get too big, need too much love, or need a lot of sun or a lot of shade. We eventually got the plants picked out, got them potted into pots that would fit in the allotted space and figured out how many days could go by without watering them. The lady was a trooper for putting up with our hectic, frantic acting and diagram drawing escapade. We walked out with three plants and they look great on our window sill.

On a funnier side note as Sean was arranging his hanging plant on the railing he managed to accidently drop it… Ooops. I was looking right at him as the plant plummeted to the ground, he turned to face me with such a devastated look we immediately rushed downstairs and walked it back to the plant lady. She got us a new pot for the poor thing. The plant didn’t seem to be injured so we took it home and hung it more carefully outside. Being the horrible person I am, I laughed a number of times during this tragedy. It really was quite comical from an outsiders’ point of view. 

We have ventured out to do a little more active activities like bowling, pocketball, and an indoor pellet gun range. Bowling was very normal, there are strikes, spares, and the same number of pins. The bowling balls are still labeled in pounds, not kilograms! The hardest part of the whole adventure was the unforeseen but so obvious problem of what shoe size we were… Luckily the man working the counter had a general idea of what shoe size we should be, I ended up wearing a 250 while Sean was a 285.  The other two notable differences were the differences in the finger hole size and position, much smaller and further apart. The second difference being the small crowd of Korean kids who watched us play and cheered whenever we had a turn. They didn’t stick around for long but it was funny to watch them watch us.

Pocketball is actually just eight ball pool. Billiards is popular and it isn’t difficult to find places to go and play at. We went with our friends Liz and Tamna. We found a place to play quickly and everything seemed pretty normal. The first notable difference was that some of the tables had what appeared to be a pink ball on the table. Tamna let me know this was a game called “nine ball”. I am not sure if this game is played globally but I have not ever seen it before. Also everyone in the joint seemed to be wearing a glove. I was extremely intimidated until I found out that everyone gets a glove! Once I had the glove on my hand I felt like a professional… It’s a shame that professionalism did not translate into my pool skills, I could barely hold my own that night. I will say that wearing a skirt out was not a good idea when going to play pocketball but they equipped us with these neat aprons so that we wouldn’t accidently flash anyone. All in all it was a good night.

The indoor shooting range happened rather abruptly. One of the nights we were walking around after a night out to dinner, Liz showed us this small fair-like target shooting. It was with little BB’s and you only get a certain amount of shots to win a certain amount of coupons, which in turn could win you prizes! I had my eye set on a white carrot (which I later found out was actually a radish). It seemed like a reasonable amount of coupons that I could win, maybe Sean would lend me some, but it was doable. Well… It did not take me long to realize that I was no good at this game and that I would never ever win my carrot/ radish. Each turn gives you about 25 shots and is only 2,000 won (about a $1.80) but I could not even reach the minimum point requirement for a single coupon. It was very upsetting. Anyways, I’ll have my white radish before the year is out, it is just going to take me longer than expected.

I will end this post with the adorable almost pet of mine, miniature rabbit. They were so cute and soft and I loved them. Sean wouldn’t let me have one but they were so cute and soft and I loved them!!!! I was taken completely by surprise as a cranky Korean man was selling them out of a small plastic crate on the side of the road. I couldn’t resist. I was down on the ground cradling one before I knew what was happening. I wanted Sean to snap a picture of me with one of them and wouldn't you know it, the guy knew two words of English, "No Pictures!" -____- We took some secretly anyways. It had been so long since I had been given the chance to hold and love any fuzzy critters… They were less than 20 bucks and could’ve easily fit in my shirt pocket. My heart breaks just thinking about them!

It happens when I stop being busy, the hurt and the sadness of missing my family, friends, and pets. It sneaks up on me as I lay down to sleep or if I let my mind wander in a slow moment. If I am not careful my mind rushes into fantasies of breathing in the sweet smell of herbal essences and freshly churned dirt that only the crick of my dogs’ necks smell like. Of having my sister climbing up me, holding me to her in an embrace that only one sister can give another. I hum the song “Butterfly Kisses” to myself when I can’t sleep like my Papa did for me when I was younger, I can hear him telling me good night and reminding me how much he loves me. Without even trying I can see my mom waving me towards her inviting me to dance with her crazily across our kitchen floor to “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” as the smell of her dinner cooking fills my nostrils. I miss my family a lot and I know it is only a year until I see them again but at times it feels like a lifetime.

I am halfway around the world with my boyfriend (who has showed himself to be one of my very best friends as well) and we are getting to know one another on a level so above anything we have experienced before. I am experiencing a different culture, a different way of living, and doing my best to keep my head above water with the language barrier. I can safely say I could not have picked a better companion for this journey and my life. He does more than he knows for me and I love him for it!

Well enough with the sentimental purging, more updates about my students and my summer vacation to Seoul will be coming up next.

Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.

- Anonymous