About Me

Originally from Rochester, NY, I packed up my life after graduating college and moved to South Korea in September 2010 to follow my heart and my ambitions. I am currently teaching English as a Second Language in a public middle school in Suwon.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

My Lunch from the Sea

If you know me at all, you are probably shocked and curious about what this blog title means. You see, I've never been much of a seafod person. I'd like to think that it is not because I don't have an open mind about food, but I just never grew up eating seafood. I didn't start eating/liking fish (minus those frozen fishsticks my Mom used to make for dinner when I was a kid) until maybe 6 years ago. I've never been inside a Red Lobster. I've never seen anyone in my family devour clams or oysters. So when I got to Korea and discovered everything from octopus to jellyfish in my food, I was at first nauseated. I remember my first experience with Korean food (not including the few trips to a Korean restaurant in Rochester) was on the plane. Flying on a Korean airline, I was served for dinner bibimbap- a vegetable and rice mix that I could definitely handle. However, it was the pile of sardines- whole sardines, eyes and all-- next to my food that caused my appetite to quickly disappear. As I tried not to look at the tiny fishy eyes that bore into my soul, I watched (attempting not to gawk) at the Korean women sitting next to me, contently devouring spoonfuls of bibimbap with the little fishies. I hardly ate a bite of my food as I realized how different things really were going to be here.

So, with that preface, you'll see how far I've come. I proved to myself that I have officially become desensetized to seafood when I went out for lunch with the ladies from work yesterday. We went to a Japanese restaurant where we must have ordered the lunch special or something because as soon as we sat down, the food just started coming. It was a mild start with some kind of soup. I've learned to stop asking what I'm eating if I'm not sure because usually the answer causes me to put my chopsticks down and gag. So I had some kind of soup (it was white and chunky but didn't taste fishy), then an enormous plate raw fish slices that sat on top of enormous clam shells (around the size of my palm) arrived. Sashimi. A first for me. Considering I was starving and surrounded by Koreans who tend to judge you by how well you can handle spicy food and eat what I usually consider to be gross seafood, I was left with no choice. I put a piece of what I learned later to be tuna on the piece of dried seaweed, wrapped it, and took a bite. So, it wasn't terrible. Actually, I sort of liked it. As I mentally patted myself on the back and wrapped myself a few more, the waitress brought over a plate of fish. A whole fish. Eyes and tail and skin and all. It had been baked with spices and placed on the plate whole. The ladies started just pulling pieces off the fish with their chopsticks, eventually leaving the skeleton and innards exposed. I took a bite of the fish but thought the spices made it too salty and chose not to have anymore. I tried not to look at it too much as the bowl of clams came next. I actually have come to like clams after tasting them in a lunch Nam Teacher ordered for us last week. They aren't as rubbery as I thought they'd be and they actually have a distinctive taste. In other words, they don't taste like the beach smells. So as I happily pulled the clams out of the shells and ate them, I realized how far I had come. 6 months ago that would have totally grossed me out. The meal ended with fried shrimp with dipping sauce and rice, topped with seaweed, sesame seeds, kimchi, and fish eggs. AH. What do I do? The rice looked good. And the fish eggs were too small and fine to pick out with my chopsticks or even with my spoon. So before I thought about too hard I just mixed everything together and took a bite. Again, it wasn't so bad. I finished it. I'M SORRY NEMO!!!!!!!

It wasn't until I was describing this meal to my sister afterwards that I realized that the meal had hardly any vegetables at all. For a girl who likes her veggies, I'm suprised I didn't notice it before. The only vegetables in the meal were the sprouts for the sashimi wraps, a beansprout soup at the end of the meal, and a few slices of cucumber topped with mashed sweet potato (YUM) that garnished the sashimi plate. Unless you count the seaweed, thats all. I can't believe I had a meal entirely of seafood. If I may say so myself, go me!

Now don't worry my friends, you haven't lost me completely. Your beloved squeamish sister, friend, daughter, cousin, blogger (for all you strangers out there who are reading my blog. Are you there?) still marvels in wonder and a suppressed desire to hurl at the whole ocotpus on the styrophom plate covered in plastic wrap that she passes in the meat/fish section of the grocery store. I definitely need more time here before I can conquer THAT edible obstacle. By the way, I had to look up how to spell squeamish. Did anyone else know it's an 'ea' instead of an 'ui?" Who knew?

EDIT 2/18- We went to the same restaurant for lunch today and I luckily had my camera with me! Pics are up on Facebook.


Thats all for now. Thanks for reading (and hopefully not throwing up). To my extra squeamish big sis Andrea, if you made it to the end of this blog entry with all of the contents in your stomach still there, then congratulations :-P.

Friday, February 11, 2011

The Good, The Bad, and The Korean

Now that I've been here for nearly 5 months, the pros and cons of living in Korea are everyday matters. Many of these things are cultural, while others are just the realities of living in a foreign country. This blog entry is to help my readers understand what some of these are by categorizing these things into What I Miss and What I Don't Miss about home. So here goes, I imagine I'll continue to add things to this list, but for now, here's what I got:

What I Miss
- Speaking the language
- Non-smoking regulations at bars and restaurants and therefore not needing to shower and air out my clothes after any outing.
- Hearing a verbal "excuse me" after an accidental bumping on the street or subway
- Not needing to rely on public transportation
- An oven in my kitchen
- Being able to read labels on the food I buy
- My friends and family
- Available dance classes in my city
- Not getting stared at all the time
- Hearing something besides K-pop music. Anywhere.
- Bread. (whole wheat specifically)
- I didn't know this before, but not knowing how awesome How I Met Your Mother is.
- Milk, yogurt, or juice with an expiration date more than 5 days after you buy it at the store
- Heated bathrooms



What I Don't Miss
- Taxes
- The job hunt
- Living sans salary
- Living in a fairly isolated city- now I'm an hour subway journey away from one of the most bustling cities in Asia
- Enduring an international long-distance relationship
- Struggles with chopstick usage
- Expensive groceries and utility bills
- Paying rent
- Unhelpful staff
- Paying at least $20 anytime I go out for dinner
- Being approached by ass-holey guys at bars who think they're God's gift to women. Korean men are generally very shy so they leave us alone and I can have my girls' nights in peace.
- Having to pay for every little thing at restaurants. Here, you always get free appetizers (if you're eating Korean food) and get unlimited refills of sidedishes.


Well, that's all for now. You might see this list pop up once in a while in later posts so keep your eyes out!

Ta-ta for now!

-Melissa

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Lunar New Year, etc.

I wrote this entry yesterday, February 6th, but due to the recent loss of internet at my apartment (argh), I wasnt able to post until I got to work today, Feb 7.

The Korean school system is officially makes zero sense. It’s Sunday night and after two weeks of “seat warming” at work (aka still having to go into work even though the students aren’t there), the students are finally returning to school tomorrow. They’ve been on vacation since December 30th and they are now coming back after the Lunar New Year, but only for 4 days. Starting on Friday, the students are on “spring vacation” until the beginning of March. When I asked why the students come back only for 4 days, I was told that it was for the 8th graders’ graduation ceremony. Why all the students have to come back for 4 whole days I don’t know, but the strangest part is why they have a separate vacation not even a week after they’ve gotten back from their long winter vacation. When I asked about that, it’s because the school year begins in March. This long winter vacation is like our summer break, I just feel bad for the kids that their long break is in the cold, dark, Korean winter and not in summer. These poor kids. Anyway, the kids are on break again in a few days and I hope I can take some more vacation days off and travel outside of Korea.

So nothing to report about work. I spent most of my “seat warming” time watching ridiculous amounts of How I Met Your Mother and thoroughly enjoying it.

The beginning of February brings a lot to celebrate and commemorate. Everyone was on vacation Wed-Fri for the Lunar New Year (on Feb 3rd), which is a big deal here in Korea. This year is the year of the rabbit, so there are rabbit decorations on storefronts, the TV, etc. In Korea, everyone gains another year at the Lunar New Year, so happy birthday to me! My Korean age is now 23. If you ask Korean their age, you should subtract 1 or 2 years from it to get their real age because they will give you their age that includes Lunar New Year birthdays. For example, all of my 6th graders say they are 14 years old, but they are actually 12 or 13. Val’s Korean age is 27 (since he turned 26 in January).

Also, today, February 6th, is my & Val’s 2 year anniversary. To celebrate, we booked two nights (Wed and Thurs) at a nice hotel in Seoul. We stayed at the Novotel Ambassador Hotel in Gagnam and enjoyed ourselves swimming in the indoor swimming pool, ordering room service, listening to live music in the lounge in the evening, and eating our hearts out at the enormous complimentary breakfast buffet. I was particularly giddy about the bathtub in the hotel room since I don’t have one in my apartment. I made sure to take full advantage of it and took two baths within the course of 45 hours. The hotel burned a bit of a hole in our pockets, but it was worth it. Considering what we had to go through to achieve this milestone in our relationship, it seemed an appropriate way to celebrate. Also, getting away from our apartment and taking time to focus on each other, not to mention living out our fantasy of being a wealthy couple taking a luxurious weekend off at a blingin’ hotel was oddly liberating. We found ourselves acting more like our inner kids rather than our inner bourgeoisie couple for much of the weekend, though, especially at the pool. While all the other adults were doing laps and the kids practicing their breaststrokes at their swimming lesson, we were doing flips and handstands and playing underwater tag. We bought one meal at one of the hotel restaurants and poked (nervous) fun at the outrageous prices for the tiny portions; though I was able devour an absolutely delectable piece of salmon for that outrageous price. After that meal, the rest of our afternoon and evening meals were in Itaewon, the foreigner district nearby, where we ate tacos, subs at Quizzno’s, and bought Pringles and cheap wine to have along with our room service meal we ordered on our last night. What can ya do? We’re just young professionals/students tryin to make a living, ya know? We slept, relaxed, and bathed in style but we ate on a student’s budget. It was perfect.

The first week of February also brings the anniversary of a much more somber event. February 7th marks the 5 year anniversary of the death of a high school classmate and friend, Benny, who took his own life. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already. Looking at my life the past 5 years, what I’ve done and what I’m doing right now, it just makes me sad to think about everything Benny missed out on. He was such a bright and unique spirit whose enthusiasm and smile were contagious. I hate to think about what he was never able to accomplish, and how much pain his death still brings to his family, friends, and classmates. That’s all I really have to say right now. I just thought it’d be wrong to not mention him during this time.

Bringing the mood of this entry back up is the year and a half birthday of my beautiful niece, Natalie, on February 5th. I got to Skype with her (well, more like watch her play and run around in all her adorableness) before Val and I left for our anniversary celebration in Seoul and it made my day. Happy half birthday Natalie! While we’re on the subject of birthdays, I can’t leave out the birthdays of 2 of my college gals Lauren and Catherine, on Feb 5th and 6th, respectively. Happy Birfday!

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. Saturday afternoon I had a pancake party with Blythe and Michelle to celebrate us all turning one year older at Lunar New Year/I had a huge unopened bag of pancake mix/who needs an occasion for pancakes? We made chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes and drank mamosas and caught up with each other. Today, Sunday, I decided to attempt to make Ja Jang Myun, a dish that we love to go out and get at the Chinese restaurant down the road. A huge bowl of Ja Jang Myun (noodles with black bean sauce, veggies, and pork) usually costs 5,000 won (about 6 bucks) and it’s always a treat. Wanting to try something new and to have something special to eat on our actual anniversary, I looked up the recipe online and bought ingredients. The only thing I had trouble finding at the store was cornstarch, an ingredient listed on the recipe that came from an American recipe website. It didn’t occur to me that cornstarch might not be available here since unlike most food consumed in the U.S., Korean food does not consist of a lot of corn. The only starch available was potato starch, so I got that instead and it worked fine. There’s an example of a difference you don’t think about until you get to a foreign country. The Ja Jang Myun final product was OK. It definitely didn’t taste like the restaurant one, but it wasn’t bad for the first attempt. I was glad to have tried to made a new dish and now I have tons of leftovers which I froze for later. Yay!

During my low-key weeks at work, I decided to start following through with my New Years Resolution of learning Korean. I can now read and write Hanguel (Korean), but right now it’s just like how I am with Hebrew. Thanks to years of Hebrew school, I can read Hebrew but I have no idea what I’m reading. So once I get the reading and writing down spat I’m going to start learning vocabulary. I’m getting better and better every day since I have lots of opportunities to practice. I proudly announced to my family that and I’m learning a new vocabulary word a day (to which my sister replied, “just like Natalie!”). Hey now. Korean is hard. I’m taking baby steps (no pun intended). So far, I know how to say,
• Hello, goodbye, yes, no
• thank you (kamshaminda/komapsomida/kumawo) –depends on who you’re talking to/the situation
• it does not exist, it’s not here (a very helpful phrase, actually) (opseyo)
• It’s OK (kincheneyo)- also very useful
• foreigner (waygook)
• old man (adjoshi) and old woman (ajouma) –respectful phrases that you use to address an old man or woman
• friend (chingu)
• boy, girl (namja, ohja)- so namja chingu is boyfriend, ohja chingu is girlfriend
• I would like (_________ juseyo)
• Station (yuk)
• Police station (kyon chal so) – this one I know because my apartment is near a police station and to get home in a taxi I tell the driver the name of the station)
• Teacher (sunsaenim)
• Middle school (cho hakyo)
• Bus (buseh)
• Taxi (taxshi)
* It's cold (choowohyo)- very useful also!
• I’m full (pebulo/pebuloyo)
• Eat well (chow moh kashamida), I ate well (chow moh kaysamida)- like “bon appetite”
• Earring (ki-gori)
• Relax (Iwah) – I learned this from yoga
• Forehead (Imahn)-also from yoga

I’d say it’s a pretty impressive list. And it’s quite helpful to have some vocabulary now and I feel a little better being around by myself now that I can at least read the bus signs or write out names of places I need to go if I’m lost. And now that I understand the Korean language better, I can find I can also learn more words faster. So maybe soon I can beat Natalie’s rate of one word a day!

Speaking of yoga (the last couple words on my list reminded me), my yoga teacher is SO sweet and bought me a bracelet. When I arrived at class last week she brought me a small, wrapped box and inside was a bracelet with wooden beads and a slight aroma. My yoga teacher, remember, who doesn’t speak English, managed to tell me that they are Indian beads and the perfume is “good for health”, a phrase I hear Koreans say a lot, especially women. Spicy food: “good for health”, eating live octopus (my friend Melodie did it once): “good for health”, fresh air “good for health”. Hah. Anyway, I was so humbled that my teacher bought me a gift. She is so sweet. I only have a few more sessions left with her but I think I’m going to sign up for another one. It was a bargain and I always feel great after.

I finally have my camera back so soon I will upload pics from the past week onto Facebook so y’all can see them. Thinking of many of my family and friends in the Midwest and East Coast who are buried under feet of snow! That’s all, folks!

Cheers,
Mel