Charpie's Travels

On my way from the subway station to my apartment, I picked up a cookies 'n cream ice cream bar. I'd never done that before. Now that I know they cost 500 ₩  ($0.43 USD), it won't be so easy to bypass them.  I was greeted by an elderly stranger when I exited the convenience store.  "Oh good! Hi!" he waved. "Hello," I smiled and waved back. And then he turned an addressed the preschool-aged boy beside him. "악수. 악수!" he instructed, pushing him toward me. The little boy looked up at me, jaw open, and stuck out his hand for me to shake. I don't imagine he was overly impressed with me, but  his grandfather was pretty proud of him, and  I walked home with a big, cheesy grin. Also, the cookies 'n cream bar was pretty fabulous.

We ate lunch outside in front of the coffee shop that gets a decent chunk of my income. I had tuna bibimbap . Like most rice dishes, this one is supposed to be eaten with a spoon. I was too lazy, however, to pull out chopsticks AND a spoon. A few minutes into my lunch, one of the baristas came outside, stuck a small plastic spoon in my bowl, and returned to her work.  When I arrived in my first grade class, quiet Shiyoo proudly held out her shiny, gray fingertips for me to see. She used her break wisely to color them with her pencil. Jason did the same but clearly forgot about it. He didn't make it ten minutes before his cheeks and nose were varying shades of pencil gray. 

Kindergarten Phonics dealt with phonographs today. I want to know how many adults even know what a phonograph is. For one question, we were supposed to find words containing "ell". Elizabeth, my quietest girl, raised her hand rather quickly. Her word? Hell. Judging by the smile on her face afterward, I'd say she was pretty pleased with herself for that answer. My fourth graders wanted to open a window because they were all hot. I protested because I was cold.  Hanna and Kevin pulled out their coats, draped them over my shoulders, pulled the hoods over my head, and even buttoned them around my neck so as to keep them from falling off. No one ever got around to opening a window. At least then we all roasted together. One of the mothers bought smoothies for all the teachers today. Just for the record, that's a lot of smoothie. I happened to get a tomato smoothie. It was more bizarre than last week's "fruit salad" (tangerines, sunflower seeds, grape to...

The Good - Sleeping later than 8am - Church - Lunch in Buddha's Belly - Three variations of rice in one day - Post-lunch vanilla frappe - Pre-dinner caramel macchiato The Bad - No unni visit today - Complainer Quota exceeded - Watching drunk man collapse after being kicked out of restaurant The Stellar - Coconut beef curry - Coat-free temperatures - Clear blue sky - Exploring downtown with Bethel - Dinner with Amy - Mouse (rat?) scurrying through floor-seating restaurant - Being given a rose - Hearing two people say "shimmy" in one day

I went down to the kimbap shop for lunch. For a little while, I had the place to myself. I picked a spot along the wall and tried to interpret more of the massive wall menu while I waited for my food.  For a few minutes today, I didn't feel half a world away from Minnesota. Sure, I was eating ramen and kimchi with chopsticks, but public radio was playing. After that was "Kiss From a Rose." When you're sitting with your back to the world, listening to Seal and National Public Radio, it's harder to remember that you're sitting in Asia.  And then I stood up to leave and discovered the restaurant was now full of blue-jacketed Korean men. I waited for the shop worker to finish rolling a kimbap, paid my 4,000 won, and mumbled "gam-sa-ham-ni-da" on my way out the door. Yep. I'm still in Korea. (And I love it.)

For Valentine's Day, my fabulous parents sent me a box of chocolate-covered potato chips. Someone brought me the package during class (my mail is sent to work), and my pre-kinders were beyond excited about it. Grace ran around shaking the box as hard as she possibly could. I promised them that, if they finished their work quickly, we'd open my mail. Maybe this just shows how little I know about Korean kids, but I really expected them to be grossed out by potato chips dipped in chocolate. Even after they begged to try them, I still expected someone to spit out their chip. Not the case. The first word they uttered after tasting the chips was "delicious!" I walked into class after a three-day weekend and my kids were still bitter that I hadn't given them each more than one chip. "Teacher, you are not good," Diana announced. "You do not share your chips." I promised to bring these kids a treat for some class-wide accomplishment. I made the...

For now, anyway, my favorite restaurant in Seoul is an Indian place. I went again with some coworkers tonight. This restaurant has the music, the decor, floor seating, and even an Indian movie running on one of the walls. (The Korean employees seemed out of place at first, but now they fit right in.) The samosas can't compete with anything made by a De (or Charpie) or Mohinani, but I still get unnecessarily excited about them. Same goes for the naan.  I ordered milk tea this time. It was also super, though its super-ness had less to do with its taste and more to do with what it makes me think about. I haven't been homesick yet...not even close really. But if any one thing in Korea can possibly make me homesick, it's gonna be the milk tea. At the same time I'm thinking of my favorite people in Minnesota and Texas, and I find myself wishing I could stop by Kerala for an afternoon cup of Molly's amazing tea.

My school has a birthday party each month. This week, we had the birthday party for December students. One of my girls has a December birthday. However, before and after her birthday, she is still six years old. In this country, the day you are born you are one year old. Your age changes on Lunar New Year. Typically everyone celebrates together, but we had to stay in our classrooms this time (swine flu fears). Conveniently, the birthday party happened during the class that I enjoy the least. Georgia lives about a few hours south of me in Jeonju. Friday after school, I took the subway to the Express Bus Terminal and then rode 2 ½ on the bus. This little trip was my first time (1) on the subway alone, (2) on a bus of any sort, (3) nearly buying a ticket for the wrong city, (4) attempting to use a pay phone, (5) ordering a Dunkin’ Donuts espresso beverage, (6) watching 2 ½ hours of completely Korean TV, (7) seeing snow in Korea (all weekend long!), (8) having enough internet to use Sky...

It's been nearly three weeks. How about we just start with what went on the first week of Life Korea? I took almost no photos the first few days, so you're stuck with words. Day One I left Minneapolis at 7:45 Tuesday morning (US time) and arrived in Seoul at 5:30pm Wednesday (Korea time). Only when we were taxiing to the gate did I realize the man next to me thought I was coming to do a year of military duty in Seoul. I couldn't decide which of us would feel stupider if I corrected him, so I refrained. Never knew I looked like military.... Eddie picked me up from the airport and drove me to my school. While I was getting an introduction to the school, Eddie left. This was slightly disconcerting until I learned he moved my suitcases to someone else's car before driving away. By now it was at least 8:00pm. Boss took everyone still at the school out to dinner. At this particular restaurant, they bring out the food and you cook it yourself. I don't know what...

Fact #25 American chains in South Korea include McDonald's, Wendy's, Hard Rock Cafe, and Planet Hollywood.

Fact #12 We tried Korean rice cakes recently. They are nothing like American cake. And also nothing like an American rice cakes (you know...those round, crunchy, cardboard-tasting things).  Actually, I'm not sure how to describe the taste of the rice cake I ate. The sweetest part was the soybean flour coating, which was not sweet at all. Maybe...try removing the salt from a lump of green playdough. Then make it softer and more gummy. That's similar to how this tasted.  I need to try one in a year and see if it still tastes like saltless, gummy playdough. (borrowed from  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Korean_rice_cake-Tteok-Gyeongdan-02.jpg )

Fact #10 Kimchi is served with every meal. What is it?

I ate fern tonight. It was one of the many ingredients in my bibimbap . We also enjoyed kimchi, pickled radish, peppers, onions, pickled potato, mushrooms, seaweed, carrots, bean sprouts (pickled and not), and rice cakes coated in soybean flour. I'm beginning to think Koreans eat more vegetables in one meal than I touch in a couple weeks. So I'm attempting to acclimate before I move. While browsing the menu, we stumbled upon a fun typo (sorry it's blurry).  "Yakki Kyoja - Japanese style fried dumping"

Fact #3 For Korean meals, utensils consist of a spoon and chopsticks.  If eating with an elderly person, wait for them to pick up a spoon or chopsticks before you do the same. Never hold your spoon while using your chopsticks.  When either utensil is not in use, belongs on the table (not on a dish). Rice is to be eaten with your spoon. While it is acceptable to pick up your rice bowl in China or Japan, when eating in Korea, leave the bowl on the table.