Catie: All the pepoples of Korea love their maple food.

[caption id="attachment_202" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="all the pepoples!"]                                                                                                                 [/caption]

We had a pretty good weekend.  We'd meant to go hiking on Saturday up at -- i think this is how it's spelled -- Gyeryongsan National Park.  Which, apparently, is huge and awesome.

Unfortunately, we are not awesome.  And we are lazy on the weekends.

So, instead, we hopped a bus into the big city.  First, we went to HomePlus, which is another huge department store.  There are so many here and they're pretty great because we can find stuff in them to cook at home.  So far, we've been to LotteMart (too expensive), E-Mart (okay prices), Costco (expensive, but they have stuff you can't find anywhere - i.e. cheese, lunchmeat...) and now HomePlus.

They're all basically the same as far as looks and size.  Three giant floors, each devoted to something different, and each of them has some foreign food we want.

HomePlus, though, might be our favorite so far.  We found tons of stuff there.  It was kind of funny.  They have about six or seven different types of spaghetti sauce, Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips, frozen tortillas, tatertots, canned diced tomatoes (an anomaly, it feels like), Hunt's tomato paste and tomato sauce, canned pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans and -- the holy grail -- GREEN BEANS.  They're all french cut, but they have them!  I was amazed.  I thought I wouldn't see another green bean for a year.

We didn't get to go shopping this time, though we did buy green beans, canned corn (they're so obsessed with corn here that their canned corn isn't too awful and the frozen stuff is incredibly expensive) and a can of tomato sauce to make vegetable beef soup.  It ended up tasting great and just like home.

I think people who live in Seoul, or in Daejeon proper probably think we're nuts for being so excited, but we don't find those sorts of things out here in boonies.  We can find some stuff (Lotte actually has alfredo sauce) and we do have tomato paste here, but for one, like, 12 oz. can its almost $4.00, at HomePlus it was $2.00.  So, if we lived somewhere bigger or more heavily populated with foreigners, it would be easier to find stuff like that, but it makes the finding even more exciting.  And it forces us to think more about what we want to make at home, what's affordable, and when we'd rather eat out.

So, HomePlus was a success!  And, even though we didn't go hiking, we did do quite a bit of walking to get there.

Also, we got the picture above from what seemed to be a small impulse fixture of shoes and purses (yes, impulse shoes for... thirty dollars). It's hard to read, so here's a close-up:

[caption id="attachment_207" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="all the pepoples!"][/caption]

Here is what it says in full: "Make up your skin!all the pepople Love your color.Bloom Boom Boom!"

While I do like the pepoples, I really like the Bloom Boom Boom.  It sounds like someone's getting shot or it's a really loud concert.  I don't know, but it's pretty funny.

Also, we say this all the time, but:  Though we do cook a lot of American food, we eat out a lot, too.  It's just that when we're less financially stable (right now), it makes a lot more sense to make a big pot of soup and eat it for dinner twice than to spend that ten dollars to eat once.  A lot of Americans coming to Korea are accused of either hating Korean food or refusing to try it, and we've done neither.  We like it and we like to eat it.  In fact, we'd probably eat a lot more of it if we had the resources.  However, moving forward.

After HomePlus, we went back to the Starbucks right next to our bus stop.  It's at this HUGE mall called The Galleria Time World (kind of an awesome name) that is full of (as far as we can tell, though we haven't explored very far) brand name Designers: Chanel, Gucci, Dior, etc...  I don't know how people afford that stuff, but it's always packed to the gills.

And across the street from The Galleria Tim World is another Starbucks!  So, we get to choose every time we go into town.  But the second one is newer and has phased it's soft chairs out, so we never pick it.  Always the one in Galleria Time World.  Also, the latte we always share, is maybe the best Starbucks latte I have ever had.  Including back at home.  The only thing we can think of is that they have the old, old machines.  The ones before the last old ones that they have in America.  Whatever it is, their lattes are killer.

That was Saturday, totally boring but good.

Sunday was.. weird.  And awkward.

We'd seen somewhere that an Irish movie was playing at The International Center in Daejeon.  And it was free.  And in a part of town we'd never been to.  And we got Colin Farrell and Colin Firth confused, so we thought we might actually like the movie.  Unfortunately, we don't like Colin Farrell at all.. and we love Colin Firth, so the confusion was of a particularly bad sort.

But The Int'l Center does have a very small lending library of English books.  Basically, when you're done living here or done with the books you brought, you can give them to the lending library and then other foreigners can get a membership and check those books out.  There is one shelf of DVDs too, though.. we can download anything we want in minutes, so that's what we usually do.  Ben was very excited about the English books.

The movie was..  well, it was called Intermission, and it was... sort of like a cross between Crash and, I don't know, maybe Love, Actually and then comedy thrown in between violence.  But with a lot less Love, Actually.  It was a real weird mixture.  I was never sure whether I should be horrified or laughing.  In all, we decided to make an effort in future never to confuse The Colins again.  It does not turn out well when we do.  Everyone in the movie dies, and then it's like you're supposed to laugh or something.

I knit a good piece of sock during the crazy though.  And we got to try this Korean Cola (can't remember the name) that was like coke and coffee with the caffeine of a red bull.  It was scary stuff.  If someone ever offers you a drink saying, "You should like to try this, this.. cola.  It is like a Korean kind of Coca Cola."  If anyone ever says that to you, do not do it.  You may not quiver at the mention of the stuff, but you will afterwards when you are suffering caffeine tremors.

The movie was weird, definitely, and very awkward when, once the movie was over and they had us trapped, they tried to commission everyone to commit to some program involving the Korean school system.  All I know is that the paragraph on the flyer they handed out went like this,

"We have performed the multi-cultural educations with many foreign friends to Korean school students for years.  According to that fact, we are currently looking for many friends who were not born in Korea and be glad to share their culture with Korean school students.  We would like you to consider doing it with our teams.  Plus, we'll provide small bonus for your favor."

All very awkward, yes, so.. we sort of just walked out and left without saying goodbye.........

The Int'l Center was on a really cool side of town, though.  To get from the side of the street our bus dropped us at to the side with the center, we had to go through an underground crosswalk.  Which went straight past a mall.  This big hallway underground, with all kinds of people shopping.  It was crazy.  We should have gotten pictures.

And, after the movie, we stopped and got what we thought were steamed buns (I don't think Korea makes them, but they're the best part of China -- like a chewy roll with barbecue pulled pork inside), but ended up being more of a giant mandu (dumpling).  Not the most awesome, but fun to try anyway.  Inside they had ground pork and green onion and maybe some scrambled egg.  They're pretty big, maybe the size of a large mandarin orange, and super oniony, but they were good.

Everything here, really, is either super oniony or super garlicy.  We notice the garlic the most when we go to the grocery store in search of garlic cloves by the milligram and can only find either a giant sack unhusked or a styromfoam platter of maybe 20-30 peeled cloves, shrink wrapped in plastic.  They eat a lot of raw garlic here.  And raw, marinated onions, too.

The mandu place was cute.  It was very tiny, probably ten feet by... 15 feet?  It had two doors, one on either side, and two tables right between the two doors.  It was so tiny that their kitchen was also the dining area with no barrier between the two, so we got to watch them make our mandu while we waited.  Again, we should have taken pictures, but that was a situation where we sure they liked us and didn't want them to be offended, so.. it was better not to take pictures.

On the way back to our bus stop, we came across this poster all about delicious Autumn food at a sort of Starbucks-esque, gourmet little Korean cafe:

[caption id="attachment_205" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="what a colorful autumn table..."][/caption]

Wow, such a colorful autumn table.  There's red food, yellow food.... maple food?

[caption id="attachment_206" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="red food, yellow food.... maple food."][/caption]

Maple food.  My favorite.

They must have thought, "maple" was synonymous with "brown"...?  Which could normally be true.  Except when you're talking about food...

That was our weekend.  Not incredibly exciting unless it's been a month since you last saw green beans!  But it was fun and we got to take the subway once, too.  Always a fun time.

Ben: Navigating the Daejeon

We're still learning how to get around our sprawling city of 1.6 million people (which is a little bit bigger than Boise), but we're getting much better. We've figured out which bus to take to get from our suburb to the main downtown area called Dunsan Dong, which is where all the cool stuff is. It is Blue Bus 301 and it stops about a half block from our house. I made a discovery this weekend, which I am probably way too excited about. It turns out that if you enter in your starting point and destination into the google map of Daejeon, it will tell you which buses to take and where you need to on and off each bus. It's still on in Korean, but it is pretty easy to figure when and where to get off and transfer and such. That combined with some maps that we have found (thanks to socious) and made is making getting around Daejeon must easier.

Here is a map of our neighborhood, so that you can get an idea what is around us.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110857219951873525850.0004751d85afa0edad822&ll=36.429946,127.387282&spn=0.011861,0.003492&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

Here is a link a map of the whole of Daejeon (we live in the small cluster of tags north of the main city):  Greater Daejoen

Hopefully this will help anyone who is trying to visualize where we are and what is around us. Come visit use, we know how to take buses now!

-ben

Catie: Delicious food

Sorry we've not been keeping up with the blog.  I think we've settled in a bit and everything's kind of lost it's shimmer.  Not that we don't like it, we still do.  Everything's just not as shiny, new and exciting.  It's been hard thinking of things to write about.

We've started cooking -- a little.  We've now made spaghetti (eh..), stir-fry twice, and pesto with chicken and vegetables.  Also, pancakes (Bisquick from Costco!), french toast (all the bread here is Texas toast-esque, very thick, perfect for french toast) and we had to make the syrup ourselves with the mapleine we brought.  I would recommend that to travelers.  There is real, live maple syrup here, but, like back home, it's usually real expensive.  And, what at home would cost maybe $8.00, costs $13.00 here.  So, we're very happy with our -- what? maybe $3.00 -- mapleine purchase  that will probably last us until we leave.  Unless we eat a lot of pancakes....  a distinct possibility.

It's been fun figuring out what we can cook here, but it's also been pretty hindered.  In our kitchen, we have one giant wok-like skillet, coated in peeling teflon.  That was left behind by the previous teachers and we plan to replace it in November.  We have one, very tiny aluminum saucepan and one very tiny little aluminum pot.  We have three ladles, one flimsy pancake turner, a whisk, and a wooden spatula.  We have two cutting boards, two forks, and four spoons, plus one pair of wooden bamboo chopsticks and about five pairs of the Korean metal chopsticks.  Then we have our rice cooker (it's awesome -- good rice in a matter of 15 minutes), our gas range top thing, and our lazy toaster oven that barely wants to work at all.  And I mean it only has one job -- heat up to cook things.  Can that really be so hard?

Apparently so since it would rather function as a dehydrator, drying all our food to crunchy ghosts of their former  selves.

We will also be replacing the toaster oven come November as well as purchasing a microwave.  I have very high hopes for our Thanksgiving.

In other news, we are going to the National park to hike on Saturday, so we should have something to say for a change.

- catie

P.S. I have typed most of this post using my left hand and the tip of my ice cream cone with my right hand (what? i have to EAT it... and I have to type -- simple solution!)... so, if there are gross misspellings, know that it is not my lack of intellect (not that inability to spell implies lack of intellect), but rather my phenomenal ability to make do with what is available to me.

Catie: "Poor litte Pekingese needs a loving family.."

[caption id="attachment_180" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="health condition: overall good except eye issue"][/caption]

So, we've been looking for a dog, Ben and I.  What we really want is a Maltese or a Yorkshire Terrier, something small that doesn't shed (Ben has allergies), but that can keep me company during the day and also be fairly easy to travel home with.

In searching, we've read many ads on the internet, most of which contain phrases like, "I got the dog about 6 months ago and now I'm leaving the country, so I'm giving it away!" or, "This dog came from a puppy mill and has 54 broken bones and will need 23 surgeries at 2,000,000 won a piece!"

This dog is sort of in between the two of those, and is being adopted out by some guy in Seoul with 20 dogs in his house... or maybe by his friend, Sylvia.  And, to everyone in Korea who is genuinely concerned about the wellbeing of all the unwanted animals here, we are not making light of the situation.  It's horrible.  But this is FUNNY.  We laughed.  A lot, actually.

Posted by Sylvia

Poor little Pekingese needs a loving family...


Here's her story.

One of regular volunteers from Korean animal group to Asan shelter lives in a house with a lot dogs in a city called Siheung pf Gyunggi Province. Neighbours of course know that he loves anmals & takes good care of 20 something dogs in his house.

Sometime about a month ago, he found this poor pekinges(being called "Pippi" at the moment) at his yard. He made a tour to find her owner in vain. As the door was closed, he could guess that she might have been dumped to his yard. The problem is that her both eyes are not good condition. She has proptosis on her left eye & it already got blind. As there's very rare chance to pull her left eye to where it used go belong, it needs a sergery of extract. It's comforting that the right eye has only a problem of cataract that can be eased with proper meds. He has too many dogs & cats needing enormous care at the moment, he is desperate to find her a better home. It would be nicer to have someone who has some understanding and generosity to accept her eye issue.

Personality : very lovely, friendly, well mingling with other creatures..
Behave : no major issues, bark sometimes but her voice is very small
She also showed a sign of being peepad-trained !! (is she, or isn't she?)
Health condition
-Overall good execept eye issue
-She had a skin desease but it's gone after treatment
-Not spayed
Others : He can arrange a meeting somewhere in Seoul if needed.

Whoever would like to meet her, please contact me at email@address/phone-num-ber. There's an adoption fee of 50,000won that will go to the rescuer to help him continue to rescue animals needing help. Fostering is also welcome..
Thanks!

To read the post and see another (slightly more flattering) picture of the poor little pekingese, you can see it here: Animal Rescue Korea (ARK) And this may only be funny because we have looked at SO many ads, but hopefully you derive as much joy from the A-mazing Kongrish as we did!

We love you all and miss you.

- catie

Ben: Oh the absurdity of Business in Korea

I am actually at work right now, but due to the brilliance of Korean business management I have the time to write a post! On Tuesdays and Thursdays we teach middle school kids from 7pm-10pm. This time period is divided into 40 minute classes (I promise I will write more about my job someday soon). For the last week and a half we haven't had any middle school students, because they are currently taking their huge, nation wide, standardized tests that determines which High school they will be going to. This has led to all sorts of tension between the foreign teachers (I am one of four at this school) and the school's administration. The foreign teachers all figure, that since we have no students, and we have no work to do, there really isn't any sense to making us stick around for three hours.

The school administration disagrees. The last three sessions have been an ever escalating battle between Bryan (the most combative of the foreign teachers) and Nicole (the school's academic administrator, i.e. foreign teacher handler, who ironically speaks the least English of anyone on staff) over whether or not we should be allowed to go home early. I really don't care that much, because I can still write emails and read the news on the web, so it really isn't that bad. Bryan however thinks that we have to go home, we must go home, it is our right to go home if there is no work to do!

Tonight things are even more absurd however. Middle school tests finish up today and tomorrow, so the school told the kids that they could come if they wanted. They have the option to go to more school after they just took tests for two weeks, how fun! It turns out that 6 kids are glutens for punishment and they showed up tonight. That is out of the 90 kids who normally show up.  So now we (the four foreign teachers and the four Korean teachers) are sticking around so that we can all teach these six kids. To make matters even more absurd, we aren't allowed to cover any new material, because than the other kids would be a lesson behind. Finally, to top everything off, I don't teach anyone until my last class of the day, so I have 2 hours and 20 minutes to hang around before I have to go and not teach two kids.  I'm not bitter though, mostly just amused.

-ben

Catie: Korean Barbecue - picture LADEN.

These are the pictures from our trip Friday night to the barbecue place across the street.

Because we were so poor for two weeks, we had almost zero red meat and the first thing I wanted to do when we got paid was have barbecue, because all it is is slabs of uncooked pork, chopped and laid out on a grill in the middle of your table.

[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="a version of the korean barbecue table"][/caption]

This is a version -- a pretty cool one, actually -- of a barbecue table.  In this one, it's a metal table top placed on top of, like, a burn barrel/oil drum?  Sorry the picture is so dark, it makes it hard to tell what's going on.  You can see the hole in the middle of the table with the grill on either side because this one's grill is in pieces, which is also cool.  It's in four pieces of cast iron (something you never find here in cookware), but only the middle two are over the fire underneath, the outside two are over metal underneath and used only to keep things warm.

The box on the table is the sort of box you find at every single restaurant, no matter what kind.  It has these long, metal -- almost sundae -- spoons and flat, metal chopsticks which are quite a trick to get used to.  I'm still dropping mine all the time because they're flat and slippery, though my hands have gotten a lot stronger again.

[caption id="attachment_158" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="our table"][/caption]

This is our table, complete with all food and appetizers.  Here you can also see the copper fan that pulls down from the ceiling to suck the hot air up.

The cool thing about BBQ is that all you have to do is go in and know how to say what kind of meat you want.  So, we went in and said, "dwegee", which is, "pork", and then look all that food.  That's what we ended up with because they just bring you everything.  You automatically get, probably, five to seven side dishes/appetizers.

And they just keep coming.  Every time you think you're done and your table can't even fit anymore, they'll bring out something else and make it fit.

And we took pictures of all those things!  So, lucky you.  Haha.

[caption id="attachment_160" align="alignright" width="300" caption="lettuce leaves for making tiny wraps"][/caption]

You will notice, in some cases, there is not a lot of food left.  That is because we were starving and forgot to take the pictures until it was mostly gone.  Sorry!  Don't think the Koreans are skimpy with food, we're just gluttonous!

You don't have plates or any dishware to yourself at a barbecue restaurant, you just eat straight off the grill with your chopsticks and you're supposed to put the pork into the lettuce leaf like a wrap and eat it.  You can add any of the sides to it, too (we don't know if that's kosher, but it's fun!), so it's like a game of combining and tasting.  It is soooo good.

[caption id="attachment_161" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="red kimchi"][/caption]

Here you have the red kimchi.

Sour, incredibly spicy, tastes almost identical to sauerkraut, but a ton spicier.  I try to take a bite or two every time we go out (you get it as a free appetizer at almost every single restaurant), just because I want to get used to it.  But, so far, it's not my super favorite.  It's an acquired taste.

The guys from Ben's work, Bryan and Aaron, like to grill it and eat it in their lettuce wraps.

Sorry some of the pictures are blurry!  We are not generally amazing photographers.

[caption id="attachment_162" align="alignright" width="300" caption="white kimchi"][/caption]

This is white kimchi.

Again, just like sauerkraut, but waaay less spicy.  If you get up close you can see a little red pepper, but I think maybe they use white pepper too?  Hard to say.

It's not bad.  I like sauerkraut on things, I think I'll just need to adjust to eating it plain.

I do like the white kimchi a little better because it's not so spicy.

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="red bean paste sauce -- YUM."][/caption]

This is our FAVORITE.

We think, from talking to Bryan, that it's a sauce made from fermented red beans.  It tastes like that is probably true.

Whatever though, it is AWESOME.  So, so good.

As you may notice... it is all gone.

Now you know why.

[caption id="attachment_165" align="alignright" width="300" caption="onion green salad"][/caption]

Ben's not so keen on this salad (it's pretty durn spicy), but I like it pretty well.

All it is..  is onion greens.  For a while, I thought it was just green onions, but I'm sure now that it's just the greens from fully developed onions.  It tastes a little milder than green onions.

There's a sort of sweet and sour -- again, incredibly spicy -- sauce over the top.  It tastes sort of like... maybe Catalina dressing?  Only spicy and a little more sour.

It's good if you like onions.  It's the only real oniony thing I'll a significant amount of.

[caption id="attachment_166" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="more onions!"][/caption]

This is a pretty common way to see onions done -- around our dong (neighborhood) at least.  I have to confess I didn't try them, not being a super huge fan of raw, marinated onions.  But I think they're just marinated in some sort of garlic?  Maybe some oil?  Ben said they were good, just very strong.

[caption id="attachment_167" align="alignright" width="300" caption="green... flat things?"][/caption]

This, we did not try.

No, we are probably not adventurous enough.

But, keep in mind, that whatever this is -- I'm pretty convinced it's these weird, long, turnip things we see at the market -- it comes in many colors and we are done trying it.

It came green this time.  We hadn't seen green before.  So, it was probably vinegary?  Most things are.  But we're not sure.

It was a very lovely shade of green, however.

[caption id="attachment_168" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="perhaps some seaweed"][/caption]

Again, we did not try it (we sound like truly bad travelers!), it's just... that once you try barbecue side dishes once, you come to realize that they'll probably all be heavily salted, and either very vinegary, or very spicy, or both.

So, you get a little done, and a little more choosy.

This is probably seaweed.  Which doesn't taste bad, I'm sure.  We were just hungry, focused on pork, and weren't feeling as adventurous.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="alignright" width="300" caption="garlic sesame oil"][/caption]

Another dipping sauce.

This is probably sesame oil, infused with garlic.

It is incredibly delicious.  You can dip your meat in here (or the red bean -- or both) before wrapping it in lettuce.  It's seriously awesome.

[caption id="attachment_170" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="jalapenos?"][/caption]

This super cute little dish used to have garlic in it along side these green peppers, but one of the most delicious-est things to do with your barbecue, is grill the garlic and put it in with your pork as a wrap.  Some sesame oil, some red bean.  It's good.

So, it's just the green peppers, which looked like spicy, green peppers.  And after all the other spice, these were another that we didn't try.

[caption id="attachment_171" align="alignright" width="300" caption="sort of a meso soup"][/caption]

This soup reminded us both of meso.

Those chunks are tofu and the broth tastes a lot like the meso soup you'd get with sushi or something.  Salty, not quite as fermented-ish, but good.

Ben loved it.  And it was good, not my super favorite, but he ate a bunch of it.

[caption id="attachment_172" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="custard"][/caption]

This was a very bland, unsalted, un-anything-ed custard.

It was also pretty watery.

But it seemed like the lady brought it out for us especially (probably not, it's just hard to tell), so we tried to make a point of trying it.  Definitely not bad at all, just boring.

Our dong is really tiny and we are two of four foreigners living in it (the other two being Bryan and Aaron -- neither of whom really ever go out).  We may be the only four caucasian people living on this side of town, period.  It's a little hard to tell.  But people are usually either really nice or really not nice, right off the bat.  And part of being really nice can sometimes mean bringing you special food.  Which is often scary.  But you eat it anyway.  Because at least someone is being nice.

And that is the Korean Barbecue experience.

Sorry it was so long!  I don't like long posts, I know they can get boring.  But there are just so many THINGS.

You should all come visit us and we'll take you for barbecue!  It's our favorite.

- catie

Ben: The Thoughtful E-Mart

Catie: VIDEO!! of Costco

Okay, so we JUST got back from Costco and we are too tired for a real Costco post, so we give you:

The videos of our Costco purchases!

There were many more things we saw there that we could not purchase, but these were the essentials.

The video is in two parts because it's taken with my tiny camera and it only takes, like, one minute videos.

Catie: Korean Barbecue!

Catie: The Korean Bathroom

[caption id="attachment_112" align="aligncenter" width="369" caption="no bathtub, no shower stall"][/caption]

There are "western" bathrooms in Korea in the more upscale apartments, probably more common in Seoul, and bigger cities with more westerners. For the most part, though, there are bathrooms like ours (though ours is pretty big comparitively).

The main difference between the two is the lack of bathtub or shower stall.  In the picture below, you can see the little cradle thing that we're able to hook the shower head into on the wall.  However, our shower head (as well as all those we've seen so far), tends to shoot straight out at the mirror, instead of down...  So, we just keep it off the wall.  The whole bathroom is usually tiled, as it's assumed it will get wet, and there's a drain in the middle of the floor (ours is hidden by our pallets).

Our bathroom is big enough that we were able to put a shower curtain up to cordon off the toilet and medicine cabinet.  That's also really nice because then we can hang our towels behind the curtain, too, instead of outside the bathroom, and they stay dry.  Plus, our shower curtain reads, "heart full time when i see you it calms my heart you are my most precious treasure," just like that.  And then, "have a nice time".  We got the shower curtain, because in the picture at the store, the shower curtain said, "have a nice tim," and we thought it was funny.  But I guess they got a spell check between printing the label and the last batch of curtains.  Either way, I think it's funny.

[caption id="attachment_113" align="alignright" width="225" caption="I should have hung the shower head for the picture, but I wasn't thinking. Can you sort of see it?"][/caption]

On the floor, we have those pallet-looking things to keep people from having to step on the floor.  Since you take your shoes off when you come into a Korean home (it's just a good idea after seeing the streets -- and what's done in the streets), you wear slippers around the house -- clean slippers.  And you don't want to get them gross.  So, you can have pallets, like we do, or shower shoes like those pink ones (so cute!).  Most shower shoes are made with holes in their soles so they don't fill with water.  Mine cost 2,000 won, which is less than $2.00.  Rock on.  But since we got pallets, they're my veranda shoes.  I just put them in the picture because they're so cute.

The pallets are also nice if you have a slightly slow drain (like ours is sometimes) and water pools around it -- gross!  The pallets lift you up off the ground so you're not in the grossness.

Moving on.

Because the whole bathroom is the shower, they've had to be creative about how they store things in the bathroom.  The medicine cabinet is plastic, so it's immune.  There's generally no wood in bathrooms (apart from pallets which can be picked up, cleaned, and eventually easily replaced) for the obvious reason that wood holds mold, bacteria, etc..  You can't really tell, but our toilet paper holder is plastic, too, and has a flap that moves up and down to keep the water off.

Another thing I think is cool, is that they have all these hooks and things for the bathroom, like our towel hook, that are all stuck to the wall with suction cups.  Some come with hard, plastic, industrial strength stickers that you put on the wall where you want to suction the hook, and then you press the cup to the sticker and then twist a little knob which sucks the cup out a little and creates a seriously strong suction.  It's kind of hard to explain, it took me a little while to even figure out what I was supposed to do.  But, once one the hooks is on the wall, it's really on there until you unscrew it.

Also, there's no bathtub ledge  or built in little shelves anywhere, so you get these little shelves that suction to the wall, too.  We have one, but it's not in the pictures.

We don't have a bathroom fan because our apartment is older, so we keep the tiny window open to help dry things out and vent steam.  Hopefully that will still work in cold weather.

And I think the only other thing is that there's a threshold about 4-5 inches high at the door to keep the water in.  Probably in case your drain is blocked, or if you have a sick one like we do.

That, my friends, is a Korean bathroom.  And, let me tell you, it may seem annoying, but once you get used to it, it's kind of awesome.  There's so little bathroom cleaning to do (not that it would make any difference in our creepy bathroom!), you just spray things down with the shower head and it all drains.

Seriously.  Awesome.

Soon, I will run out of rooms in the house and then you will be free of my explaining posts.  Regarding the house anyway.

- catie

Catie: Funny Kongrish and Engrish

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="475" caption="where you can be as naughty as you want?.... !"][/caption]

Kongrish, a short name for the funny, nonsensical English translations that Koreans come up with is one of the best parts of being here.

We're going to start taking pictures of what we see, it just seems we haven't had the camera on us often enough lately.

Until then.. check these out:

- Ask the Expat: Common English Mistakes Made By Koreans - Read the comments on it, too, you will laugh.

- Eat Your Kimchi: Someone Please Translate This For Me! - Make sure to be checking out the videos with all their posts.  It's the best part.

- www.engrish.com - The good old standby, always a wealth of A-mazing English at engrish.com.

Oh!  And FYI, we're going to Costco and possibly a Korean McDonalds (we hear they have shrimp burgers?) on Saturday, after we get paid, so expect a full report soon after!  We're excited!

- catie

Catie: Chuseok!

[caption id="attachment_84" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="our chuseok gift"][/caption]

This was our Chuseok (Chew-sock) gift.  Two shampoos, two conditioners, one body wash, two bars of soap and six -- yes, count them, six -- tubes of toothpaste.

I'd heard the Korean's were big on dental health (Korean Toothbrushing, from eatyourkimchi.com), but seriously.  Six tubes of toothpaste?  I don't even know if we can brush our teeth enough to use up that much toothpaste in a year.

The set is pretty awesome though.  My favorite is the bottle that doesn't say anything but DAMAGE.  Our best guess is either that it's a bottle of certain demise, or a bottle of intense conditioner for very damaged hair.  Most likely the latter, though we do enjoy hypothesizing what sorts of damage such a small bottle could do...

[caption id="attachment_89" align="alignright" width="145" caption="DAMAGE!! -- not so reassuring..."][/caption]

So, around Chuseok time, all the stores sell these sets.  There are ones like this, with beauty products, some with tea and little tea pots, coffee and cups,  and then there are the scary ones with hard alcohol, like jack daniels and scotch, and there are SPAM Chuseok sets.  With up to 6 cans of different types of SPAM (they like to mix meats -- more on that later).  Apparently, though, SPAM sets are considered a little low brow.  I just think it's hysterical that they sell a set of spam at all.

Did we ever explain Chuseok?  I can't remember.  It's a harvest festival that's considered, "The Korean Thanksgiving", by foreigners and it is bo-ring.

Not to Koreans, obviously.  They get presents, they get traditional Korean food, they get to clean the graves of their ancestors.  All very enviable things.  And we got a present.  We got the shampoo.  Thankfully, without having to clean any graves.

It's just boring because.. you know how in America, if you find out that someone doesn't have a place to go on a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas, you ask them to come to your house?  You know?  Even if you don't like them very well, because otherwise you'll be afraid that someday when you're alone on a major holiday, no one will invite you over (maybe that's just me..).  Well, in Korea, most people aren't too big on including foreigners in holidays or traditions.  You get included if you're married in and.. that's about it.

So, on Chuseok, most foreigners are sunk.  This year, it was on Saturday, so naturally, everything was closed from Thursday until Monday.  That makes sense.  Sure.

No, it does not.

It's probably because we're from a capitalist society that I'm so outraged, and that makes me feel bad.  Because, capitalism.. seems gluttonous and everything.  But I still like places to be open!  Even on Christmas Eve!  And, therefore, even on Chuseok Eve, and especially on the two days following Chuseok!!

But, whatev.  It's over.  And we're not genuinely upset.  We're still totally in the Korea honeymoon phase, loving it here, even when nothing's open and we're hungry.  Because the Family Mart (convenience store) was open, so we got some bowl noodles and gim-bap (more of a kim-bob sort of pronunciation.. or a cross between the two.. hard to describe.), which is a lot like sushi in that it's white rice wrapped in seaweed, but in the middle they put cooked meats.  Like ham and tuna and crab.  Like I said, they like to mix meats a lot here.  It doesn't seem like we do a lot of that in the US.  But they're all bold and nonchalant about it, selling weird sandwiches called, "Ham Tuna Potato sandwich" and "Pork Crab Meat Sandwich".

It was a good Chuseok.

Check out AsktheExpat's blog:  Chuseok Gifts and the Foreigner Experience.  He's one of my favorite blogs since getting here and he has way better (and probably more upbeat) information on Chuseok.  It's interesting.

His blog and eatyourkimchi are my most favorites.  They're probably not as awesome unless you actually need the information in order to be able to wash your clothes, turn on your stove, figure out what that weird thing is a convenience store, etc.. but we like 'em.

More later, for now.. I need to go find more food.  The constant journey.

- catie

Catie: HappinessChurch

[caption id="attachment_77" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="we are here. in daejeon, which was formerly spelled, T-A-E-J-E-O-N. but now it's not. okay."][/caption]

When Ben was looking for jobs in Korea, we were thinking a lot about where we wanted to live: big city or small city?  And what sorts of resources and transportation we would have access to.  We were also -- sort of -- thinking about whether or not there would be familiar food available, because so many people in the onlines told us there would be absolutely none.

And let me just give a quick disclaimer:  We have been eating Korean food!  We are just super poor (and have been pretty much since we arrived) until tomorrow.  Which makes things difficult.  When you have a certain amount of money allotted for each meal, with no groceries at home to cook, and you are in a foreign country, knowing nothing of what tastes good and what is mostly squid tentacles and onion greens with fire-hot red pepper sauce.. you have to be careful.  One wrong move and you've got scary food in front of you with no backup plan.  You just have to skip that meal.  So, we haven't been eating familiar foods because we are afraid of Korean food -- what we've tried so far has been real good -- we're just afraid of running out of money at the moment.  We will be posting many delicious Korean food excerpts once we get paid.  Rest assured.

Now, moving forward.  We moved to Daejeon (the fifth largest city in Korea), knowing the

[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignright" width="300" caption="delicious spaghetti -- yum!"][/caption]

transportation was good, that the cost of living was significantly lower than that of Seoul (the only reason we aren't living in Seoul), and thinking it would very likely be impossible to find familiar food outside of Costco.

Well, as stated earlier, everyone on the internet lies.

And this is our proof!

Look at that delicious food (assuming the red, wormy stuff is ground beef -- the jury's out on that until we taste it)!  And we bought it all at the Dream Mart, which is.. maybe three blocks from our apartment?

They sell everything important.  Peanut butter, jelly, bread (only white though - eh.), everything for spaghetti, and.. we just found grated mozzarella the other day!  Real cheese.  Not the, "processed cheese food product" american cheese, or whatever it's called -- which is mostly all they have here.

So, tonight, we get to have delicious spaghetti.

[caption id="attachment_79" align="alignright" width="300" caption="happinesschurch!"][/caption]

In closing, I give you.. happinesschurch.

I don't know if you can read it.

But it says, "HappinessChurch". What kind of a church is HappinessChurch?  I do not know, but it sounds pretty sweet to me.


It was left in our apartment by the previous couple who taught at Ben's school and we think it warrants a little blog recognition.  It's over our bedroom door.


Who knows where it came from.  but it's shiny, gold and it makes me laugh.

- catie

Ben: Law School Personal Statements

Let me just preface this post by saying that it really doesn't have much to do with Korea, except for the fact that I am in Korea writing it.  In the long ordeal of applying for law school, there are many hopes necessary to jump through, including:

• Law School Application


• LSAT Score


• Law School Data Assembly Report


• Resume


• Letters of Recommendation


• And finally, a 2-3 page Personal Statement

Much like the personal statements many of us wrote for undergraduate, law school personal statements are the type of vague, non-bragging bragging. In all honesty, the personal statement is proving to be the most difficult component of the application process for me. While the LSAT was tedious to study for, it was also fairly undemanding. Test memorization I can do, personal statements are suspiciously similar to creative writing, or perhaps non-fiction fiction. This is about as far from my area of writing strength and comfort as it is possible to get. Reports, essays, and boring papers I can handle with ease, but there is something about creative writing that freezes my blood and makes my brain go blank. Hence the reason I am writing here instead of my personal statement!

Catie: Why you should heart your American washer.

Did we tell you this heap of junk finally works?  Because it does and we are so glad.

[caption id="attachment_48" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="the heap of junk"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_49" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="translated panel"][/caption]

And now, a lesson in washing clothes, the Korean way:

This is the panel (and the problem) that we had to work with. However, with the help of many web searches (eatyourkimchi.com -- that site has been our lifesaver) we were able to translate the important words.

Our friends, Brian and Aaron (they work with Ben) told us what to do with the buttons and it turns out if we just stay completely away from the left side of the panel, it's super easy.

This winged creature...

[caption id="attachment_50" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="the winged creature"][/caption]

....is our drying rack.

That's our veranda, too. You can see the floor to ceiling windows behind the rack that open to circulate air. A lot of people bring their racks up to their roof and dry them there. But since we arrived, the air's gotten a lot dryer, so our clothes have been getting dry a lot faster.

Another funny thing is that the washing machines here don't have the middle piece that agitates...

[caption id="attachment_59" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="no agitator?"][/caption]

...so we have to bag all our clothes in these giant lingerie bags so they won't mash up. The lack of an agitator has been known to tangle my long sleeved shirts into looooong sleeved shirts when bags spontatneously open mid-cycle (they have these little elastic stoppers to keep them from opening, but we're going to have to start safety pinning them because the elastic's either not working, or we don't know how it's supposed to work).

Now we just have to tackle the problem of the tripped electrical breaker.

It keeps popping whenever we have the washer going with anything else plugged in, stopping our wash cycle every 10 minutes so that it keeps starting over and over and washes our clothes to a linty pulp.

I think we've fixed it by making sure everything's unplugged before we wash though. It hasn't done it in a while. And we should be moving soon anyway, to a newer place, so hopefully that won't be such a problem then.

And that's your lesson on The Korean Washing Machine. Probably boring, sorry... I'm just so excited it's working now!

-catie

No more chaos! Or... a different sort.

We finally got our washing machine figured out!

The things we've learned.

When you are poor, do not know the national language of the country you are occupying, and are stuck in your apartment, it is best to knit socks.

(They're done!  See?  I'm so happy with them, they fit better than the other pair I knit for myself and they're super warm, not so long that they bunch up.. I think I'll be making more like these.)

Also a good skill to acquire once the nights get really cold.  And they have.

Someone told us today that Korean winters are very dry (it's been very dry the past four or five days) and pretty temperate.

Which is not what we read on the internet...

Although, so far, we've found that it's inadvisable to listen to internet advice regarding Korea.  At all.  (Probably a useful life lesson overall)

Upon moving here, we have found the following:

- You can purchase almost anything in Korea -- including most food items.  The only exception being deodorant, which is not impossible to find, but is difficult to find and $20.00/stick once you do find it.

- Most people who will take the time to spend hours online making lists of what you should and should not bring to Korea are the sort of people who would rather spend hours online complaining than go taste the awesome local food (not counting Lotteria), get to know the local grocery store (there's a pretty funny Western section), or make friends.

- Dave's ESL Cafe.. not the best introduction to Korea if you're coming here with a level head, expecting the unexpected and planning to go with the flow and enjoy yourself.  It is the best, however, if you want to complain, gripe, and wallow over Reese's peanut butter cups.

Really, we've found out quite a few things.  But those have bowled us over the most.  We could have packed more clothes!

Other foreigners coming to Korea:  Please do not go to Dave's ESL Cafe.  They will have you pack a down comforter and lug a ton of oatmeal.

Not nice.

We didn't pack a down comforter.  But it was highly suggested.

Anyway, other things we've come to find:

- Not all bowl noodles are delicious. So, pick your favorites.

- Is it calamari if the suction cups are still attached?  Oh, well, it's still delicious.

- Chicken (takkogi) on a stick -- amazing.

- Corn Flight is not the same as Corn Flakes.

- That butter that won't melt no matter what you do is actually Korean Margarine.  Stay away from Korean Corn Margarine.  The butter is $4.00/cup but it's also worth it.  It will actually melt, a nice quality to find in butter.

- The local grocery store is cheaper than the convenience store (this is true in America too, so I don't know why we didn't realize it sooner..) and the local grocery store is also cheaper than the Lotte (Loht-tay) Mart, which is cool because of it's sparkly new things and it's three levels (they have these big conveyer belt ramps that your cart is magnetized to stick to and they take you to the second and third floors!), but not worth the price.  Although they do have bagels...

We've learned lots of other stuff, too, but the list would get too long and my bowl noodles are getting cold.  They're spicy beef flavored and they are awesome.  Look. >>>>>

Ben: Skippy!

I have no idea how much peanut butter I ate while I was in China, but I do know the amount was somewhere around very very very very very much peanut butter (as most of my students would say). Anyways, Catie and I were very excited to find exotic Skippy Extra Crunch Peanut butter at the local Dream Mart grocery store. Since this product had clearly travel far from the decadent West where it was created, we were going to wait until pay day to indulge ourselves. However, on reconsideration we decided that PB and J sammies sounded delicious. For the reasonable price of 6500 won we purchased our peanut butter, and adding some bread and jam we headed home. The bread was a bit dry, but the peanut butter and jam were amazing, and we even had potato chips to go along with the sammies.*

*Official Disclaimer: While our last two posts have involved western foods, we have been eating plenty of Korean foods too (gotta love the ramyun [Korean for, "ramen"] cup noodles) which I'm sure we'll post on soon.

Catie: The things we've learned.

When you are poor, do not know the national language of the country you are occupying, and are stuck in your apartment, it is best to knit socks.

(They're done!  See?  I'm so happy with them, they fit better than the other pair I knit for myself and they're super warm, not so long that they bunch up.. I think I'll be making more like these.)

Also a good skill to acquire once the nights get really cold.  And they have.

Someone told us today that Korean winters are very dry (it's been very dry the past four or five days) and pretty temperate.

Which is not what we read on the internet...

Although, so far, we've found that it's inadvisable to listen to internet advice regarding Korea.  At all.  (Probably a useful life lesson overall)

Upon moving here, we have found the following:

- You can purchase almost anything in Korea -- including most food items.  The only exception being deodorant, which is not impossible to find, but is difficult to find and $20.00/stick once you do find it.

- Most people who will take the time to spend hours online making lists of what you should and should not bring to Korea are the sort of people who would rather spend hours online complaining than go taste the awesome local food (not counting Lotteria), get to know the local grocery store (there's a pretty funny Western section), or make friends.

- Dave's ESL Cafe.. not the best introduction to Korea if you're coming here with a level head, expecting the unexpected and planning to go with the flow and enjoy yourself.  It is the best, however, if you want to complain, gripe, and wallow over Reese's peanut butter cups.

Really, we've found out quite a few things.  But those have bowled us over the most.  We could have packed more clothes!

Other foreigners coming to Korea:  Please do not go to Dave's ESL Cafe.  They will have you pack a down comforter and lug a ton of oatmeal.

Not nice.

We didn't pack a down comforter.  But it was highly suggested.

Anyway, other things we've come to find:

- Not all bowl noodles are delicious. So, pick your favorites.

- Is it calamari if the suction cups are still attached?  Oh, well, it's still delicious.

- Chicken (takkogi) on a stick -- amazing.

- Corn Flight is not the same as Corn Flakes.

- That butter that won't melt no matter what you do is actually Korean Margarine.  Stay away from Korean Corn Margarine.  The butter is $4.00/cup but it's also worth it.  It will actually melt, a nice quality to find in butter.

- The local grocery store is cheaper than the convenience store (this is true in America too, so I don't know why we didn't realize it sooner..) and the local grocery store is also cheaper than the Lotte (Loht-tay) Mart, which is cool because of it's sparkly new things and it's three levels (they have these big conveyer belt ramps that your cart is magnetized to stick to and they take you to the second and third floors!), but not worth the price.  Although they do have bagels...

We've learned lots of other stuff, too, but the list would get too long and my bowl noodles are getting cold.  They're spicy beef flavored and they are awesome.  Look.

Who Sells the Cheesiest Cheeseburger?

Pictures, as promised.

This is a small portion of the open air market at the end of our block.  On this side of the street, older women bring their vegetables to sell and spread them out in bowls and collanders on top of tarps and blankets and you can buy them (though only in large quantities, as I discovered) and on the other side of the street, there are two big, covered tunnels full of vendors selling raw meat, eggs, more vegetables, all kinds of things.

My favorite is the cooler full of skinny, plucked chickens! :)

It's really nice though and the produce is amazing.  Before I knew it was buy-in-bulk only, we got The Best eggs and potatoes.  Seriously, it was really good.

To the right is our stove, which I think is really cute (if inconveniently not located above an oven).  And it's gas, which is awesome.  It takes a little effort to light, but it's not hard.  You just have to think differently here, since everything's not about convenience, it's more about function.

The stove was a wreck when we arrived, completely slathered in grease, which would have been okay.  If this country sold anything close to a proper degreaser.

Oh, well, a lot of dishsoap later and most everything is clean.

And these little treasures are terrifying.

The drinks are about three inches tall and.. we aren't sure if they were made of rice or not.  The little cake is undoubtedly made of rice.  We got it on Wednesday, I think, so it may have been a mung bean cake for Cheusok, which was yesterday.

Cheusok is Korean Thanksgiving, a harvest celebration where everyone goes to their grandparents' house and eats traditional Korean food.

All that meant for us was that only the Lotteria was open for food.

The Lotteria is a block and a half from our house and, when we found it the other day, we were really excited because they have (what appear to be) cheeseburgers.  And... I guess you couldn't say that they weren't cheeseburgers because weren't exactly not.. cheeseburgers.

Side note: When you've experienced asian culture for a period of time greater than a couple of weeks or so, you come to find that things, food especially, are not what they appear.  So, it is best to alter your expectations accordingly.

We are poor right now, so we picked one of the cheaper things on the menu, what looked like a simple cheeseburger.  It said, "cheeseburger", right next to it, leading us to believe....

This is what it was:

A hamburger bun with nacho cheese, a heavily salted, ground pork patty, a slice of american cheese, dark green pickles, lettuce and ketchup.

So, really... I mean, technically, it was a cheeseburger.  After all, they went quite well out of their way to make it very.. cheesy...  but I don't think I have to tell you that the combination of nacho cheese, ground pork and ketchup was not a good one.

Even still, we already knew going in that it would probably be a pretty hilarious experience.  And it was.  And now, when we want a cheeseburger, we will look for a McDonalds.

Though Lotteria did have good fries.  And decent ketchup, not too sweet.

In parting, this is my newest project.  A pair of Noro Stripey Socks:

That's just the beginning, I have the first sock done now and am almost done with the second.  They've been fast and it's already starting to get cold at night, so I've been wearing my other pair of wool socks nonstop.  It'll be nice to have a switch-out pair.

Catie: Who Sells the Cheesiest Cheeseburger?

Pictures, as promised.

This is a small portion of the open air market at the end of our block. On this side of the street, older women bring their vegetables to sell and spread them out in bowls and collanders on top of tarps and blankets and you can buy them (though only in large quantities, as I discovered) and on the other side of the street, there are two big, covered tunnels full of vendors selling raw meat, eggs, more vegetables, all kinds of things.

My favorite is the cooler full of skinny, plucked chickens!

It's really nice though and the produce is amazing. Before I knew it was buy-in-bulk only, we got The Best eggs and potatoes. Seriously, it was really good.

To the right is our stove, which I think is really cute (if inconveniently not located above an oven). And it's gas, which is awesome. It takes a little effort to light, but it's not hard. You just have to think differently here, since everything's not about convenience, it's more about function.

The stove was a wreck when we arrived, completely slathered in grease, which would have been okay. If this country sold anything close to a proper degreaser.

Oh, well, a lot of dishsoap later and most everything is clean.

[caption id="attachment_31" align="alignleft" width="239" caption="Yogurt? Cake?"][/caption]

And these little treasures are terrifying.

The drinks are about three inches tall and.. we aren't sure if they were made of rice or not. The little cake is undoubtedly made of rice. We got it on Wednesday, I think, so it may have been a mung bean cake for Cheusok, which was yesterday.

Cheusok is Korean Thanksgiving, a harvest celebration where everyone goes to their grandparents' house and eats traditional Korean food.

All that meant for us was that only the Lotteria was open for food.

The Lotteria is a block and a half from our house and, when we found it the other day, we were really excited because they have (what appear to be) cheeseburgers. And... I guess you couldn't say that they weren't cheeseburgers because weren't exactly not.. cheeseburgers.

Side note: When you've experienced asian culture for a period of time greater than a couple of weeks or so, you come to find that things, food especially, are not what they appear. So, it is best to alter your expectations accordingly.

We are poor right now, so we picked one of the cheaper things on the menu, what looked like a simple cheeseburger. It said, "cheeseburger", right next to it, leading us to believe....

This is what it was:

A hamburger bun with nacho cheese, a heavily salted, ground pork patty, a slice of american cheese, dark green pickles, lettuce and ketchup.

So, really... I mean, technically, it was a cheeseburger. After all, they went quite well out of their way to make it very.. cheesy... but I don't think I have to tell you that the combination of nacho cheese, ground pork and ketchup was not a good one.

Even still, we already knew going in that it would probably be a pretty hilarious experience. And it was. And now, when we want a cheeseburger, we will look for a McDonalds.

Though Lotteria did have good fries. And decent ketchup, not too sweet.

In parting, this is my newest project. A pair of Noro Stripey Socks:

That's just the beginning, I have the first sock done now and am almost done with the second. They've been fast and it's already starting to get cold at night, so I've been wearing my other pair of wool socks nonstop. It'll be nice to have a switch-out pair.