Anyunghaseyo!

Hello from South Korea! I have been here for just over two weeks and it has been a great experience so far. Thank you so much to those of you who have been checking in with me—it really means a lot! Because I don’t start teaching until Monday, August 17th, I have had plenty of time over the past couple of weeks to relax and to get acclimated to life in Korea. I still don’t think it has hit me that I actually live here, though … it feels more like a vacation.

I’ve met so many new people and experienced so many new things since I’ve been here, but because I can’t cover everything in one post, I’ve listed 6 highlights—or kind of general themes—that will hopefully give you a picture of what my life in Korea has been like.

1. Family, family and more family

My mother’s father is the oldest of seven children, so I have more aunts, uncles and cousins in Korea than I could have ever imagined. They are all so incredibly generous to me, and even though I can’t speak to most of them because my Korean is so terrible, they have all really gone out of their way to make me feel welcomed and completely at home. And they have definitely succeeded—having such a great family so close by has really helped me feel much more at home in Korea than I would have otherwise.

It is also really great to be around people who speak so intimately of my mother—the way that only someone who has watched a person grown up can do. I didn’t realize until I got here that I had been missing out on that. I’d been around plenty of people who talked about how my dad had been when he was younger, but never my mom. And it is obvious from the way that they all talk just how much they adore her—which is lucky for me, because they seem to view me as an extension of her. Everyone I meet from the family says that I have her forehead, her voice and her smiling face, and it is assumed that because my mom is very smart and can sing well that I must also be brilliant with a great singing voice. Unfortunately neither of those things are true, but I’m trying not to spoil the illusion for them just yet… :-P

2. The West Sea

My town, Ansan, is located just south of the west side of Seoul. It’s a great location for me, because I have very convenient access to Seoul via subway (there is a station virtually on my doorstep), and I am also very close to the west coast of Korea. I love the big city vibrancy of Seoul, but I also really enjoy the quiet beauty and slower pace of the West Sea.

The West Sea is one of those rare and special places where you can watch the sun both rise and set over the ocean. There are both sand and pebble beaches, and even now in the busy season, it is not overly crowded. The beaches are populated mainly by families and couples having picnics, cooking Korean barbeque and playing in the water. Many of the women wear big floppy hats and huge sunglasses to protect themselves from the sun, which I think is completely adorable. Men—and occasionally women—with fishing poles can be spotted on just about every beach, but on the pebble beaches you can also find men and women with little picks and shovels gathering small crabs, clams and other shellfish for dinner. As for me, I enjoy just walking along the water, going swimming in the sea, and eating my fill of sashimi (like sushi without the rice).

I have yet to figure out how I can make a day trip of it without spending a ton of money on a driver—the bus system still intimidates me a little bit—but it is definitely close enough to visit for just a day, and I think that getting away periodically will be an important way for me to be able to rejuvenate myself over the next year.

3. Korean pop music

Those of my friends who love good music—and by that I mean music by talented artists who take their craft seriously—are constantly giving me a hard time about my own poor musical taste. What can I say? I love bubble gum pop songs that hearken back to the boy band era of the nineties… and lucky for me, so do many Koreans! Below I’ve posted for your listening pleasure a sampling of youtube links to songs from some of the most popular groups that you might hear on the radio, on TV, or playing in nearly every store in Seoul and Ansan.

These two groups, 2PM and Big Bang, are the top two boy bands in Korea-- I think one of them was the winner of Korean Idol, but I can't remember which...
2PM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUgReo37ECw&feature=fvst
Big Bang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzCbEdtNbJ0

This group, Girls Generation, is like Korea's version of the Pussycat Dolls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Hihsm405E

And here's my personal favorite... a song called "I Don't Care" by girl group 2NE1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve-Z3RBR_84

4. Soju

Soju is Korea’s favorite alcoholic drink, made of fermented rice or sweet potatoes, and many Koreans claim that it is good for your health. Any time I am invited out to lunch or dinner my host orders soju. Anytime I have spent the day in nature, enjoying the outdoors with a native Korean, we have paused to enjoy a little glass of soju. Because I am new to the drink, I am usually given a very weak mul cocktail, which is about 2/3 water and 1/3 alcohol. When it's watered down like this, it is sweet, but taken much stronger it is a little reminiscent of rubbing alcohol. And I’m a complete wimp when it comes to the taste of alcohol—I like fruity, girly drinks—so it’s pretty amazing that I have been able to keep the soju down each time. As a matter of fact, I’m even beginning to enjoy it, especially when eating Korean barbeque, seafood or other spicy foods. I’m really going to have to learn to discern when it is okay to turn down a drink without being rude, though, because if I continue to accept soju every time it is offered, I’m not sure how long my poor liver will be able to hold up!

5. Go-Stop

Go-Stop was described to me both as Korean poker and a popular Korean family game. The game is played using hwa-tu , tiny little cards with colorful pictures of plants, animals, and outdoor scenes. I had a set of hwa-tu when I was younger but never knew what to do with them. My sister and I would make up rules that were nothing like the actual game and definitely nowhere near as fun. The basic premise of Go-Stop is to match cards, collect as many sets of two as you can and end up with a combination of cards that adds up to three or more points. The pictures on each set of four cards do not match exactly, but instead have some design in common that links them, some of which are difficult to recognize for someone like me who is new to the game. Normally you bet when playing, but when I learned I played with two 14 year old girls, and we just played for fun. It’s a good thing too, because I would have lost a ton of money. I’ve never been much of a card game kind of girl unless you count Uno and Go Fish, but I really had a lot of fun learning to play this game. I am planning on getting my own hwa-tu, and you can bet that if you come to visit me I will be teaching you how to play.

6. Kimchi

You knew I had to mention it. Kimchi is a Korean staple, served with every meal. It was also a staple in my house growing up—we even ate it on pizza—so before coming here I considered myself a relative kimchi expert. It turns out, however, that I am in fact utterly ignorant when it comes to the wide and diverse world of kimchi. Since being here I have learned that there are far more types of kimchi than I would have ever thought possible; it seems like I am being introduced to a new type at just about every meal. I have one Korean cookbook that lists over 200 kinds. I suppose it’s a good thing that there are so many varieties, though, since kimchi was ranked by Health magazine as one of the healthiest foods in the world. I have been told that it even helps prevent cancer, so I guess you can really never get enough!

~*~*~

All in all, I am having a really great time so far. There have been challenges—mostly due to my terrible lack of knowledge when it comes to the Korean language—but no more than you might expect when coming to work in a new country for the first time. I will continue to update my blog, and hopefully I will be able to include some photos with my posts in the future. I don’t have a camera yet because I never replaced the one that was stolen in Jordan last summer, but I plan to buy one with my first paycheck so you will have something a little more interesting to look at than just words on a page! I love and miss you all—be sure to keep in touch and keep me updated on your lives as well…




P.S. Yesterday was my mom’s birthday in the U.S. (13 hour time difference)—so just wanted to say happy birthday again, Mom! I love you and miss you so much, and I hope you had an absolutely fantastic day!! XOXOX