Food, Flowers, and Living as a Foreigner

Well... it's time for another post, I suppose!  It's tough coming up with new things to write about as life here is becoming normal.  Putting my garbage bag in the street rather than into a garbage can isn't that strange anymore... neither is the general lack of public trash receptacles.  There is an interesting system involving recycling paper products vs. general trash and the separate disposal of food waste but I'm sure that isn't the reason you're reading this right now.  Plus, I'm just a foreigner and I have no idea how it works...

Enough about trash!

One thing that is the same no matter which continent I'm on: mornings suck.

really... has anything good ever happened before 10 am?

The upside: I have an hour break from 9:20 to 10:20!  Hooray!  Most of that is lesson planning, but hey, there's no screaming kids on a computer, so I'll take it! Other than that, once I make it to lunch, I can coast through the day no problem!  We get fed lunch at school, which was a great surprise upon arrival.  I don't have to pack a lunch and I get an authentic Korean meal at least once a day!  What's not to love?

We call the cook emo.  Literally, it translates into "mother's sister" (that'd be an aunt for my slower crowd).  Let me tell you, emo is a fine lady.  She always makes me feel just like everyone else... I mean that in the sense that she only knows Korean, and that's how she talks to me.  It made it a bit difficult for the first week or so.  Once I learned masshiseyo, which means delicious, our relationship hit a whole new level.  Now emo hand feeds me kimchi and mandoo on a regular basis (not a joke, it happens).  

Masshiseyo!

This is a pretty typical lunch.  I'd bet my salary that 4/5 days we have both rice and soup.  The other day, just rice.  Other than that, there's 3 side dishes any given day.  One is usually some form of kimchi, which if you don't know, is spicy fermented cabbage.  It can also be made in the radish variety, which is my favorite.  The next side dish is a protein, either egg, tofu, or some meat.  The last side dish is a grab bag.  Sometimes its like what you see here... some kind of dried fish delight... other days it's little dried minnows that still have eyes!  Even yet, other days its dried seaweed wrap, which is actually a delicious salty snack.  Overall, lunch gets an A+ in Bradley Teacher's book.

Lets see... 

what have I done lately....

Well, we went to the Daegu Arboretum, which was great!  Its been rare to find a place where it's only nature, no white buildings.  I'll just throw some pictures up rather than blubbering on about it:

Crossing the river!  This is where I get to run, by the way!  Aren't you jealous?

We walked past this on the walk.  Neat!

cheeeeeese

There's a lot of neat landscaping.

The Daegu Arboretum is a great place to get away if you need to, so I'll definitely be going back.  

I've also kept up with my resolution to cook more:

ddakbokki

Ddakbokki is a very popular dish here.  You can buy it from street vendors for really cheap.  It's known for being spicy.  All thats in it is some cabbage, onions, carrots, ddak (rice cake), fish cake, and some good ol' fashioned gojuchang (spicy korean paste).

These... I did not make.  But they remain delicious nonetheless. 

and as with anything, peanut butter only improves the situation.

just a quick meal we threw together.

Ok, I've entertained you with pictures and stories, so now it's time for me to bore you with my thoughts.

Korea... oh, Korea.  

It's good here.  I feel as if I could go back in time to 60's or 70's America, it would be similar.  You know... when people could leave their houses unlocked at night...  When common sense ruled.  

Speaking of... I almost fell victim to a common sense smackdown the other day.  I was riding my bike down the sidewalk towards a cross street.  Just as I would in America, I peeked behind me to see if anybody was going to be turning and to check if I should stop.  There was indeed a car, yet my American brain told me: "Hey, this guy can clearly see that I'm intending to cross this street.  I'm on a bike.  He wouldn't hit a guy on a bike. I'm going for it."

And so I almost broke my face on the front of a hyundai...

Now, you'd want to think that he should stop for me, the pedestrian, but he's probably using his common sense: "Hey, this guy on the bike...  He just looked right at me.  He knows I'm crossing.  He doesn't look that stupid... he wouldn't pedal out in front of 2 tons of steel."  

Lesson learned: if it can kill you, don't bike in front of it.

One of the biggest things I've noticed is how Koreans take care of their bodies.  They are active.  They walk.  They move.  Every park has machines that the public can exercise on.  Now... this is amazing: they get used!  The one exception I've seen to this is that most Korean men smoke.  A lot.  I don't mind... It's better than obesity if you ask me.

Korea is going through an economical boom right now. There have been so many changes in the past decade alone.  Back then, there wasn't as big of a western influence.  Now, you can go to a department store and pick up a pair of Calvin Klein jeans, get a big mac, and drive home in your Chevy if you really 

want to.  Heck, we've even seen a Ferrari!

I wonder how this boom is going to affect the country.  Every car I see driving down the street was new in the last 5 years.  The side streets were not built with traffic in mind.  What I mean is, any street that isn't a main thoroughfare is only wide enough for one car.

Right now, its common to maybe have one car per family.  Definitely not more, but maybe one.  What happens when more people can start affording cars?  Where will they drive? 

This is all just observations from a waygookin who's only been here one month... so I wouldn't put much weight on them, but its all I've got right now...  

To all of those praying for me: Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  You are awesome, and your prayers are working.  

I like to play this game I like to call "Getting lost in Korea".  Its a single player game.  I play by leaving my apartment and walking one direction or another until I don't recognize anything.  Subways and busses are tools in this game, and a fun twist is to spot the top of a building far away and try and navigate to that building.  Bonus points if its after 2am.

The point of the game is to think, to get away, and to experience more of God's creation.  I find myself wondering why I don't do more of this when I'm at home.  Why do I live each stage of my life as if it were only preparation for "real life".  Why is it only when we're on some great adventure that we choose to improve ourselves?  Why does there need to be a problem for there to be change?  

I challenge you to get out... live like what you're doing right now is the most exciting thing you've done, because I can tell you that if you live your life in anticipation for the next exciting thing, you're going to find most of your life seems wasted.  This is real life.  LIVE IT.

"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien

Peace, love and all that other stuff.

Brad