Om nom nom
In Korea you can go to cafes where for the low low price of W2000 (£1), they will supply you with a towel and you can go dunk your feet in a tank full of dead-skin eating fish.
Lovely.
Takes a bit of getting used to, but after a while quite nice! Though I did have to put my feet flat on the bottom of the tank ‘cos it was getting too ticklish…
Adapting
It’s amazing how fast you can adapt to living in a totally strange and foreign place…
- Paying for a motel or hostel and being given little more than a sheet to put on the floor to sleep on is completely normal.
- I can eat anything, any size, any shape, with chopsticks. I can dissect food of any kind. On the rare occassion we go for a meal and we’re given a knife and fork, I sometimes have to take a few seconds to remember what to do with them.
- I’ve honed my eye for spotting the smallest piece of meat in my meal, and can whip it out without even thinking about it.
- I can zone out of general lab conversation (in Korean), but my ears prick up as soon as anyone starts calling for me.
- I bow when greeting or saying bye to people, and when thanking people.
- I speak a strange mix of Korean and English to other foreigners. Ballie ballie! (quicky!) Opseyo! (means so much… generally along the lines of “not”).
- Drinking alcohol isn’t the same without gombae! or Korean drinking games (banny banny banny banny… tangbang! tangbang!)
- I accept things with 2 hands, and I give things with my hand that’s not in use on my opposite elbow. It’s a respect thang.
- I speak much more slooooooowly and clearly than I used to. I suspect certain people back home will be thankful for this.
- I eat lunch ridiculously early (11:30), but still eat dinner quite late (6:30pm), which means I can go most of the day without any food. I’m not sure if this is a Korean thing, or specific to where I work.
- I know this is a bad thing, but I don’t hold the door for people. It’s the Korean way…
Jeju Island
Last weekend the other IAESTEs and I went to an island off the south coast of the Korean peninsula, Jeju-do. It’s a very popular honeymoon destination for Koreans and it’s becoming more popular with foreign tourists too. It’s pretty much the Korean version of Hawaii.
We decided that rather that just fly there and back, we would try to get the ship from the mainland to the island. So, we got the train bright and early and travelled to Mokpo, a smallish city in the south-west corner of Korea. From there we got the 6 hour ferry to Jeju. We travelled third class, which meant we all got put in a big room where we had to sit on the floor. A few months ago, before I came here, the idea of sitting on the floor would have been out of the question. It’s just not something we do here. But since I’ve been here, I’ve grown quite fond of the idea. Many restaurants require you to sit on the floor and most of the motels and hostels I’ve stayed in only give you a thin mattress to roll out on the ground to sleep on.
Mokpo
What’s for lunch today…?
Normally there are 2 different menus in the canteen at work, but today there is one.
Why? Translating the menu says that it’s because they “expected to make a lot of rain in a noodle noodle party has changed”.
Priceless. I love you, Google Translate.
Weekend Trip to Gyeongju
This weekend I went on an IAESTE arranged trip to Gyeonju. Gyeongju is situated on the south-east coast of the Korean peninsula. It’s known as the museum without walls due to the sheer amount of old stuff there is within the city. Korea’s history, like many Asian countries, consists of different dynasties and rulers. In the first millennium, the Korea (and parts of what is now China) were ruled by the three consecutive Kingdoms: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. Of these, the Silla kingdom is probably the most important, as it was the first to unify all areas of the peninsula. Gyeongju was the capital city of Silla.
We arrived on Friday evening and checked into our motel, went for a few drinks, had a little wander around the dong and got an earlyish night.
On Saturday morning we began our sight seeing. First stop, the beach. But not any beach, oh no. This beach has some rocks about 200m away from the coast which is a tomb, the tomb of King Munmu.
The Tomb of King Munmu
Then we headed back into the city to do a tour of the Gyeonju National Museum. There was so much stuff to see here. The tour guide who showed us around only took us to a small selection. We did get to sample some tea though, and saw some fascinating Buddhist art, as well as some ancient Korean bling. However, the highlight of the museum was the Emille Bell. This is essentially a giant bell, from a temple, which when struck lightly can be heard 3km away. I’m not sure how true this is though, as we weren’t allowed try.
Emille Bell
After the museum, we went across the road to the site of a royal palace and a beautiful lotus pond, Anapji. The pond was reconstructed in 1974-5, and many relics were found, most of which are now in the museum. At this time of year though, the pond is stunning, with lotus flowers in bloom as far as the eye can see.
Gongju
Last weekend I went with some of the other IAESTEs to Gongju. Gongju was the capital of one of the ancient provinces of Korea, Baekje, and so is steeped in history. The city is scattered with all sorts of attractions, though the two main sights are the fortress and the tomb of King Muryeong, which was a major archeological find when workers discovered it by accident in the 1970s.
Anyway, some pictures!
Nore-bang!
I really, really, really love this place. I think it’s almost impossible to not have a good time here.
Last night, after spending a few hours drinking soju bombs (건배!) we went to a nore-bang. In Korea, bang just means room. There’s loads of different bangs – PC bangs (for gamers), DVD bangs (with a screen, sofa and DVD player) and nore-bangs (literally “sing room”, a room with a karaoke machine and flashing lights). We snuck in some of our own drinks and settled down to a night of singing.
I’m not normally a huge fan of karaoke, my limited experience of it being in gay bars and the only people taking part are serious X Factor wannabes. Nore-bangs are fun though, because it’s a single room with friends, so you don’t have to worry too much about making an idiot of yourself. The soju helps too, of course…
Expo Park
In 1993, Daejeon (then called Taejŏn) held the international exposition. 17 years on, the site is still in use and it’s called Expo Park. It’s one of the must-do attractions in Daejeon, so this weekend Sofie and I decided to go and take a look.
Frankly, it’s a little bit bizarre. We arrived (after caught in one of the heaviest rainstorms I’ve probably ever been in), and were confronted by the ticket desk. From what we could make out, you could buy a ticket to see 3 of the attractions for 7000 won. Hmm… why would anyone want to do that, when the cost of an individual attraction is only 2000 won? Anyway, we decided not to pay and went exploring instead. First stop, the Tower of Great Light. Based on a traditional Korean observatory, apparently.
The signage at the bottom of the tower said that first you would be taken to the middle floor (that round bit in the middle), and then you could climb the stairs to the top. We took the elevator to the middle bit, had a look around and then tried to find the stairs up but alas there were none. Apparently you can’t go to the top any more.
Noms, Korean Stylee
Settle down class. Today’s lesson is going to be about Korean food.
It seems like there are two different types of Korean food – one you get in the canteen, and one you get out in restaurants. Most of my Korean culinary experience comes from the former, so I’m not sure how accurate a portrayal of Korean cuisine this will be. But I’m going to blog about it anyway.
Food from the canteen can be categorized into one of a few different things:
- Salty water with things floating in it.
- Mashed up fish/meat/vegetables/fruit/tofu formed into perfect geometric shapes.
- Jelly. It’s best not to probe further into what this “jelly” contains, so I haven’t.
- Kimchi.
- Rice. With every meal, and in copious amounts.
Though that doesn’t sound too appealing, some of it is actually quite nice. The typical Korean canteen meal is a buffet style affair, where you choose one menu (not sure why we have to do this, as I always mix-and-match anyway), then proceed to the food trolleys and fill your tray up with whatever you like. I’m getting pretty good at figuring out what has meat in it, but it’s still a little tricky sometimes. General rule: if you don’t know what it is, it’s probably best to steer clear.
Kimchi is probably my favourite bit of canteen food. It’s a traditional Korean dish, and you get it with almost every meal. It can be made out of a variety of vegetables, though from what I’ve eaten, the most popular seems to be baechu (Chinese cabbage). The cabbage is then spiced, seasoned and fermented. Yep, I know that sounds quite vile, but it’s actually very tasty. And don’t even get me started on kimchi pancakes… mmm… *drools*
Koreanisation (via Coffee Helps)
I love this post from fellow Northern Irish-now-in-Daejeon blogger Hails. It’s strange how even after 2 weeks, I can relate to almost all of these little Korean quirks…
via Coffee Helps
