In the last week I have been feeling a little uneasy about the cuisine here. My cold has kept me from being able to indulge in the spices in the food that I crave. Yesterday Dr. Yu, my director, invited me to a teacher luncheon at a traditional Korean restaurant. I had no enthusiasm as I haven't found any food to blog home about. My fellow teachers and I took cabs to the restaurant and as I stepped inside to kick off my hemp sanuks at the door, I smelled magic. I did not know what the smell was that was making my mouth salivate but I wanted a taste immediately.
The luncheon it turned out was not only for the western teachers but for the Korean as well, to top it off I met my boss' boss. As Erica and I sat cross legged on the floor with the leather cushion serving as our chairs, the fun was about to begin. They bring a giant pot over and four people share the pot and the table. First they fill the broth with a small amount of mystery meat and then begin chopping up huge fresh pieces of spinach, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, bok choi and many other veggies. Next to our cauldron of crazy is a stack of very thinly sliced sirloin. As we waited paitently for the veggies to cook, we dropped in the beef. From there its a feeding frenzy as Kim, Erica and I took to the Asian stew like pigs at a trough. Everything I was eating had the most incredible flavor with perfect seasoning and spice. I was in Asian food heaven. Oh and did I mention the University pays for these outings?? Of course had we come on our own the three of us would have only paid collectively less than thirty dollars US, I'm really starting to love this country....
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Korea Landing
Okay so I'm finally going to start this blog now that I've gathered my thoughts enough so I don't come off negative and grumpy, because I'm so excited to be here. I landed in Korea on Saturday, my trip was rough on account of my cough but I was really too jacked to be too distraught. Erica, Mark and Jason greeted me at the airport and we went to Seoul so I could get some rest. The hotel we stayed in was my first exposure to this new culture. It was like 100 sq ft and the bed was hard as a rock, I didn't sleep much nor had I slept much the night before because I was packing and busy paying last respects to friends who needed some Scott time. The following day we walked around Seoul saw architecture, rode the subways and basically just got lost in the city. I had no care as to where Mark was leading us I was fascinated in every detail of the city from their lack of driving rules to the mannerisms of the elderly man who was trying to use his umbrella as a bayonet and attack a tree.
My fever and cough were kicking my ass by mid-day so we left for Iksan via KTX and shot home at 200 mph. I was so relieved to be in a decent bed but to be honest, I'm still not sleeping as great as I could be. I woke up around seven the next morn b/c my schedule is way off and I took a walk. My morning walk really freaked me out. I did not realize that Iksan was bigger than the streets I was on so seeing the dirt and filth of the morning calm had me pretty shaken up about what I was doing here. I was worried I had made a mistake. It wouldn't be until I visited the Uni that I began to feel at ease.
For the next couple of days all I could do was worry about being hit by cars on roads 2/3 size of those back home and wipe my tears when I would get a whiff of the open sewer. I went for coffee with Mark and Jason and a man in a car stuck his arm out the window and threw some 50 flyers for a bar on the street, just trash everywhere. I was blown away, I half laughed and just asked, "what the hell was that?!", "advertisement", they replied.
Finally, on Tuesday I visited campus and I met my director, Dr. Yu. The campus was very pretty and much larger than I anticipated. I sat in on two of the classes that I will be taking over and two classes from other teachers. When I sat in on a class of university student and was able to communicate freely with a Korean student I was instantly feeling that I was in the right place. The feeling I get when I'm able to share who I am and understand where this person is going on their journey makes me feel so incredible. This feeling that I am still riding on now as I'm typing is euphoric and addictive. I can hardly wait to have these classes for myself next week.
After my first few days of electrifing culture shock, I came to a very simple realization, I have a barrier between myself and these people, our language. Their food and music and even their religion is different yes but the biggest difference is the language. All in all, they love the same and they laugh and cry the same, we are all human beings and my ability to cross that barrier will be my biggest task and biggest pleasure while I'm here.
My fever and cough were kicking my ass by mid-day so we left for Iksan via KTX and shot home at 200 mph. I was so relieved to be in a decent bed but to be honest, I'm still not sleeping as great as I could be. I woke up around seven the next morn b/c my schedule is way off and I took a walk. My morning walk really freaked me out. I did not realize that Iksan was bigger than the streets I was on so seeing the dirt and filth of the morning calm had me pretty shaken up about what I was doing here. I was worried I had made a mistake. It wouldn't be until I visited the Uni that I began to feel at ease.
For the next couple of days all I could do was worry about being hit by cars on roads 2/3 size of those back home and wipe my tears when I would get a whiff of the open sewer. I went for coffee with Mark and Jason and a man in a car stuck his arm out the window and threw some 50 flyers for a bar on the street, just trash everywhere. I was blown away, I half laughed and just asked, "what the hell was that?!", "advertisement", they replied.
Finally, on Tuesday I visited campus and I met my director, Dr. Yu. The campus was very pretty and much larger than I anticipated. I sat in on two of the classes that I will be taking over and two classes from other teachers. When I sat in on a class of university student and was able to communicate freely with a Korean student I was instantly feeling that I was in the right place. The feeling I get when I'm able to share who I am and understand where this person is going on their journey makes me feel so incredible. This feeling that I am still riding on now as I'm typing is euphoric and addictive. I can hardly wait to have these classes for myself next week.
After my first few days of electrifing culture shock, I came to a very simple realization, I have a barrier between myself and these people, our language. Their food and music and even their religion is different yes but the biggest difference is the language. All in all, they love the same and they laugh and cry the same, we are all human beings and my ability to cross that barrier will be my biggest task and biggest pleasure while I'm here.
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