Final Days in Korea

What a whirlwind! My last few weeks in Korea were busy!

Over the course of my 7 weeks in Korea, I spent a lot of time with these ladies. Dr. Yune, a research professor and a sweet and funny woman, made sure to make me feel at home the second I walked in the door at PNU. Despite working insane hours and having children, she made time during the last week to take me to Gwangju on my last full day in Busan. Bora, my supervisor and a lovely lady, and Yesol, a student at PNU, came along too! What fun it was!

Gwangju used to be the capital of Korea and has traditional style houses everywhere, a world heritage site temple, and a park where many of the royals have been buried. Of course, the day started out with a traditional lunch at a place which is famous for its tofu dishes.

The hill in this photo is a royal tomb. It was explained to me that the taller the hill, the more important the person buried there.

We rounded off the day at a coffee shop with a famous dessert that I have seen many places but had not been brave enough to try. Dessert should have chocolate and butter, right? But alas, I gave it a go. And the word I can use to describe it would be: surprising.

Ingredients: coffee on the bottom, shaved ice, milk to be poured over the ice, sweet red beans, rice noodle 'Tteok', green tea ice cream and a small tomato on top. Overall, it had a very sweet flavor but since the elements are definitely not my normal type for dessert, I think I would pass next time.

After leaving Busan, I went up to Seoul to spend my last few days in Korea with Ellen. I am so thankful that she was willing to be busy those days after she got out of work so I could play tourist.

We went up to Namsam park where Ellen goes running with a group. In the middle of the park is the Seoul Tower which beautifully displayed the city at night. We were able to wrangle a photographer for this picture...

We also went to a Korean baseball game that was very rowdy and included cheerleaders. It was a fun and relaxing night.

As a capstone to my Korean adventure, I decided to go on a tour of the demilitarized zone`s (DMZ) third tunnel. The boarder itself is about 4 km wide between the two Koreas.

I am really glad I went on the tour because it gave me such a different perspective into the current unique situation that this country is living in. In discussions with university students about North Korea, it became apparent that the hostility out of the north was normal and part of everyday life. What was not very clear to me until the tour was how there is a strong undercurrent of belief in the unification of the Korean penninsula. To  my tour guide, it was not a matter of 'if' Korea would be united, but 'when'. So many families were broken up as a result of Korea's division and with it came loss and saddness. However there is still hope that one day, families and friends will be together once again.

The spot to look over into N. Korea. All one can see is a village that no one lives in and beautiful countryside.

What a great tour that gives the taste of the historical background and current situation. If anyone goes to Korea, I think this is a must. I met some interesting people on it as well, including three Australians from the Gold Coast. My heart did melt a little bit from hearing the accent all day. :)

Finally, Ellen and I found this little nugget of beauty in the middle of the city. Once a shanty town, now a cool spot during a hot day. You can walk around,  put your feet in the water, maybe read a book.  Or, if you are like a drunk gentelman, take an unexpected swim.

So many adventures in this crazy country. I can`t believe how fast the time went by, but that is what everyone says! It realy is amazing to me how quickly Korea became so normal to me. Not being able to communicate very well, expecting to be lost often, spending lots of time walking/on transportation and being surrounded by people and concrete all of the time. But the best thing about my new normal was seeing the kindness in strangers. The people have such big hearts and a hospitality that is so wondeful for foreingers like me. I have been truly blessed through this experience and can`t help but think God led me to this place for a purpose. We will see what He has in store for me next!

 I am happy that I am now in Japan for a few more days that I don`t have to get back to reality just yet.

More food adventures.

The most comical thing in my adventures in Korea has been this vast difficulty with communication. Not only can I not speak Korean, but my ear for hearing the Hangeul (Korean language) subtleties in pronunciation has my conversation partners laughing and myself half laughing half frustrated as a result. This happened the other day when my boss/co-worker Bora and Dr. Yune (affectionately known as Judy-oh the English names that people choose!) took me to lunch. 

We ate a traditional, and quite yummy, Korean barbecue style lunch.  This consisted of an arrangement of leaves in a variety of shapes, flavors and sizes, a bunch of side dishes, toppings and sauces, and a grill in the middle of the table where paper-thin strips of beef could be grilled. The idea was to take a leaf, drop 1 or 2 strips of beef in, add some green-looking stuff and some sauce, wrap it up tight, and shove the whole thing in your mouth. This is the best way to taste all of the flavor at once. 

It actually is quite tasty, and one of my favorite meals I've had here. But Bora, being the sweet lady she is, decided to teach me the name of the leaf meal. It's called "Ssam". Which is different than the number 3, which is "sam". However to my ear, they sounded exactly the same. Bora tried to say that "sam" is a softer sound where "ssam" is a much harder/assertive sound. When I later tried to tell my host father what I ate for lunch, I could tell I was saying it wrong because he had a look of confusion plastered on his face for a good 30 seconds before I finally conveyed my lunch menu. Needless to say, I am still very confused. 

 After that filling meal, we also ate some bibimpap. This one had sprouts, rice, leeks, and then you added a hot stew of some sort of meat, spices and mushrooms. It was tasty, and not too hot since the lovely ladies requested it to be toned down for the foreigner..

Another hugely popular dish with my host family is the traditional Korean pancake/pizza. Whatever they wish to call it, it is neither pizza nor a pancake. But it is a fairly simply snack to put together, so we often times have it at dinner. It is made with flour, leeks, a little water and an egg. If you are in favor of seafood, squid is oftentimes added for a little extra flavor. Especially at my house because NaHyun LOOOVES seafood in all shapes and sizes.

This is it:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZaJMlnIBxZ6kPeHOfZ0AEuKqS5Ke3gIBXm-rlXw1P36qE5B1DnyTEV-EBx6RfwUX2JTuY56i6lBc0uYzizF8sbNSHr43NfySdfH_v6cBXZdchWHAdKMi9yc0np-Y8FEfwmJ1Pg1C7V5A/s400/korean+green+onion+pancake.JPG

Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Ellen up in Seoul this past weekend. It was a great one! Filled with fun times and lots of Korean cultural history. One surprising turn of events was meeting a Korean Ph.D. student who is in the midst of her dissertation research in Korea but is studying at Michigan State. We had a fun conversation since it's not everyday you meet someone on the other side of the world that lives in the same town you did last summer.

Since my post is about food, one of the most delicious meals I've had was at a lovely restaurant that also had   the food cooked in front of you. This one had a large skillet filled with cabbage, noodles, other veggies and chicken all mixed in a somewhat spicy curry sauce. We accidentally ordered 2 servings which looked like a small mountain of food. I'm not sure what it was, the lateness of our meal (3pm), the hours of walking, or just great appetites, but we downed that baby with no problems. Looking forward to eating some of that again when I go back up in a couple of weeks!

As for me, my life remains busy, exciting and relaxing all at the same time. This weekend is particularly eventful as I am heading off to Jeju-do, the Hawaii of Korea. I am looking forward to this so much! It's the first place I've gone by myself and there are lots of things to do! Check out their website if you want to feel jealous.

Also, a shout out to my sister and brother-in-law as they have just become brand new parents! Santiago Paul was born about a week ago and he is the cutest thing I have seen since that CNN distraction video of the baby elephant cuddling with a boy. Sigh. Can't wait to meet you little guy.

Loves and hugs from Korea. 

Daily Korean food

My lovely friend Ellen has encouraged me to post my food adventures on my blog for all to see how interesting and different the food has been here. I think she has found my meal mishaps to be slightly comical; maybe you will to.

I have had the pleasure of cooking and eating kimpap (kim-bob) for a late breakfast before our hike around the Temple last week. I can describe it as Korean sushi: a square of dried seaweed with rice, crab, egg, fish, cucumber and a yellow pickled vegetable wrapped up in a roll. This was quite good but was rather filling.


How to make: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/07/how-to-make-kimbap-korean-sushi-recipe.html

When we were at the temple (on a different day), we ate a traditional Bibimpap (bi-bim-bob) Korean style lunch by sitting on the floor. This dish is a mix of vegetables in a large stone bowl with rice. Once it is served, you stir it up with a spoon and eat. Although the rice is sticky enough to use chopsticks, it is proper to use a spoon. There is a Korean hot sauce that you add, but I stay clear of that since the outside temperature is already hot enough for me to handle.


http://www.alittlepinetree.com/?bizz_menu=dol-sot-bibimbap

Sometimes my host mom brings me snacks. (Actually it seems like she is feeding me all of the time!) Here is what traditional Korean bread looks like. It is green and is the consistency of bread dough when its thawed from the freezer. Then its tossed in some sort of sweet flour. Although chewy, the flavor is tasty. And many Koreans love tea, so of course tea joins the platter!

And when one does not have a backyard in the city for a barbecue, you simply have one indoors! Here we are about to enjoy a Korean-style sitting-on-the-floor meal where we grab things off of the grill with chopsticks. Since Koreans love meat (as a recently-turned vegetarian, I was a little disheartened), it was the focal point of this meal. The meat is a similar cut to bacon, just a lot thicker. Scrumptious, but I think my arteries cried a little. Other veggies made it onto the grill including mushrooms, potatoes and onions. I asked to throw on my yellow bell pepper (grilled peppers are my favorite) last minute. I'm so glad I did!

Yesterday had a lovely start before a morning showing of Fast and Furious 6 of anchovy stew with rice and seaweed squares. Despite my willingness to try a bit of squid last week, I was a little dubious of starting out a day with fish at 9:30 in the morning. So rice and seaweed it was with some orange slices to wash it down.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/03/seriously-asian-anchovy-stock-korean-seafood-soup-base.html

The food adventures are endless! I did take comfort food yesterday in baking some banana muffins with Min-ju. I think they were a big hit! Today wasn't as crazy, with a nice Japanese style curry and rice for lunch with some friends from university and a banana smoothie for an afternoon snack! Koreans have made what they call "juice" to a perfection! (I think it is just milk and a fruit mixed together, but they do it so well!)

Pap=rice. So much rice in Korea! And if rice wasn't enough for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there is always snack time! My host mom made some fried sugar rice for me today that was very delicious. Throw some oil into a pan, add cooked rice, flip it over then at the last moment add some sugar to both sides. Viola! A sweet and easy snack!

A lot of time here is spent on food. However the water is something else entirely to comment on. I am not sure why, but all of the water at restaurants and offices are flavored. Not with lemon or cucumber, but with barley, persimmon, green tea, etc. Plain water really isn't an option unless you drink it from a bottle. I suppose it's something I'm used to now. Apple juice almost seems to strong now!

That's all for now. I'll post some more awesome things later. 

Happy eating!

First Week on the Job

Over the past week, I have become more settled into life here and have begun my "Conversation Classes." So far, I have six classes that range from one student in attendance to four students. I meet with them for one hour to discuss a wide-range of topics that the students have selected. Most of them are education majors, but I do have a mix of undergraduate and graduate students. These classes have been really informal but I hope still beneficial for my students as a means to practice English conversation in a relaxed environment.

The weather has been beautiful here. Sunshine almost everyday, who can complain? One of my classes was even outside today! I hear that the temperature is supposed to only get hotter from now on so my already somewhat sweaty 15 minute hikes up the mountain to my office may need to be rethought...

Today I had an interesting and challenging lunch. Every Tuesday and Friday, some of the people from the CTL take me out to lunch (they say to practice English, but I know its because they think that I am alone too much) at a little Asian food restaurant next to campus called Asian Moon. One thing that is a little different about eating out is that usually several dishes are ordered to share with the whole table; today this meant a shared salad and a dish of fried pork on sprouts. Then we each ordered a noodle dish for ourselves. Well long story short, I was the entertainment for the meal because I had to somehow eat the very long noodles using only chopsticks and a spoon. Let me just say that my skills with chopsticks are shaky at best. The graduate student who is kind of in charge of me, Bo-ra, also had long noodles so I tried to mimic her motions to eat them as gracefully as I could. First scoop up the noodles with the chopsticks, set on the spoon, and eat. Well, somehow that was just way too difficult for me and it took me at least 4 times longer to finish my meal. They even took pictures and decided that noodles were a big mistake for lunch because of the level of chopstick proficiency it required. I think next week we are going to the Italian restaurant right next door out of pity. Hopefully there I can prove my competency...

Changing subjects, last weekend was a super awesome weekend! Ms. Ellen, a fresh MACIE graduate, new Korean English teacher and one of the coolest ladies, came to Busan over the weekend! I was so happy to see a familiar face! She met some other English teachers here as well who have been in Korea for varying lengths of time. I joined the group for a day of kayaking, Indian food, fireworks and a girls night out. Since it was raining all day Sunday, we all decided a day of relaxation and catching a movie sounded perfect. We ended up grabbing some cheese popcorn and catching a showing of The Great Gatsby. I think the earlier version of the film was better, but I did enjoy it overall. (They do have American/English movies here but of course there are Korean subtitles on the bottom) It was great seeing Ellen and for me to know that a friend is going through similar things as we both settle into our new lives in Korea. 

As I look forward to a weekend of relaxation, shopping and the beach, I think about my fellow MACIE heading off to Japan. Best of luck Geoff!! Also, my lovely and (I hear) very pregnant sister Leah is expecting her first son with husband Ron any day now! So excited for them but sad that I will not be there to greet him.   Can't wait for you to meet cool Aunt Chelsea little one! 

Love and hugs!

 Wisteria tree path

 Orchestra concert at the temple

 All lit up for the festival!

This was on Na-hyun's plate. She LOVES squid (an 8 year old loves squid!) I did try some of the non-tenticly part but wasn't daring enough to try this part for fear it would crawl back out of my stomach.

I have been quite busy as my host family has been showing me around town! Here are a few pictures to capture what I've been up to.

Beomeosa Temple situated on Geumjeongsan Mountain: 

My host sisters Min-ju and Na-Hyun:

 A view of part of Busan:

Haeundae Beach: 

 A looking point over part of the city and ocean:

 A different beach that we also went to...

 A traditional Korean market:

 This is what a typical building looks like:

 Site of the APEC SUMMIT 2005 - Busan Korea meeting. It is a gorgeous structure with outstanding views of the ocean.

 Finally, me with my host mom.

I have started to settle in and have begun to navigate things on my own. The subway system is fairly self-explanatory and the stops have English character translations, allowing me to follow. However, the bus is an entirely a different matter...

Today I am just taking it easy, getting my bearings and trying to gather materials for working at the university soon! I think tonight my host family is taking me somewhere to show me a new part of Busan. It is so nice to have them to show me around. I would have never seen as much so far if it had not been for them!

I have made it safely to Busan after quite a long flight. Two very nice women from PNU picked me up at the airport last night with a sign that said "Hello Chelsea, Welcome to Korea!" and brought me to my host families apartment complex. They are all very sweet and the language barrier has made communication interesting and funny.

I crawled into bed in the guest room last night, which is so warmly decorated in a pink fairy fashion, only to look up and see stars on my ceiling. I like my new room!

I have not felt very nervous up until now, maybe that is because I haven't really thought far ahead to what is coming during my time here. But I'll have to start doing that soon! Today my host dad, Young-Wook, is going to bring me around to PNU, the subway, the supermarket, etc. to show me around. Perhaps the time is coming that I will feel overwhelmed!

Thanks for all the well-wishes! Post soon.

Chels

It's hard to believe that this week marks the end of my first year in grad school studying Cross-Cultural and International Education! Its been quite a wonderful year; I've been blessed with new friends, awesome professors and the opportunity to get back into learning about things that are so incredibly fascinating! It's so easy to forget how much I love studying new things.

Some of my research projects in my program have been on the effects of international education exchanges on identity construction, specifically of global citizenship identity, in undergraduate students. It's been a really fascinating endeavor and furthers my belief in the power of promoting peace and awareness through intercultural exchange. In a recent article that my professor gave me during my research pursuit entitled "Global Seeing," William Gaudelli wrote: "If we can learn to more fully see the world, rather than to consume it or be consumed by its spectacle, then we can see the beauty that exists in the world and in each other. And we can learn to aspire towards greater intimacy with our everyday others while opening ourselves to the possibility of being more fully with those we encounter on our many journeys."...a beautiful sentiment not only for those we meet in international contexts, but with those we meet everyday. Scholars like these make me smile on a Tuesday night.

 In my own international education journey, I am excited to say that in a week I will be embarking on another travel adventure! This time around I will be completing an internship at Pusan National University (http://www.pusan.ac.kr/) in Busan, South Korea for the months of May and June. I will be working with faculty and students in the Center of Teaching and Learning on English presentations and writing. Thanks to my academic advisor, I will be staying with a Korean host family (her sister, brother-in-law, and two daughters)during my time there, giving me a taste of Korean culture and daily life. In July I am super excited to have the chance to visit Tokyo for 10 days to catch up with some Japanese friends I met while at Hope. I welcome suggestions on places to visit in Tokyo!

This internship couldn't have been soon enough! Recently I have felt a sense of "cabin fever" and itching to go overseas again. Perhaps its studying cross-cultural education, being part of a program that is composed of 80% Peace Corps returnees, or maybe because its been 3 years since I lived in Australia. Needless to say, I am fully looking forward to it. There's just something about going to explore a new place, people, and culture that is just so enticing! Thoughts and prayers for safe travels are always welcomed. If you have a funny cross-cultural story of traveling overseas that you may think would cheer me up on an overwhelming day (which I'm sure will be many, my Korean consists of one word!), send it to me! My email is chelsea.vaneck@gmail.com.

Wishing everyone a relaxing and lovely summer!

Cheers, Chelsea