Sunday, September 30, 2007

Back to the Daily Grind

The past couple days have been soo busy (hence, no time for blogging). I had a great time over the holiday, but came back to a FULL plate at the institute. On Friday I had classes as normal and presented a 25 minute talk on Emotional Health in the evening.

This was my first time presenting to a large group in public. I've of course made mini-presenations at work and in college, but I was still a bit nervous. But, I got through it and will keep on improving each time I do it. I think this aspect of the job will be very helpful to me in the long-run.

Here are a couple photos of my Chuseok vacation. On a side note, the traffic hype was just that-hype. The traffic was nowhere CLOSE to East Coast Thanksgiving traffic.








Traditional Korean performers at Neverland.




Me eating Songpyeon!



Part of a traditional Chuseok Meal-- (clockwise) The top dish is Dduk, a Korean desert filled with black beans. The second dish is Songpyeon (see my last blog), and the last dish is bu chim gae, my favorite out of the group.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Happy Chuseok!


I was so excited when my 10am English class ended today!!! I feel like I'm back in school (well, I am). The eleven o-clock hour marked the beginning of my first vacation in Korea. The real freedom comes tomorrow afternoon at 11am, when I finish my weekend duties, but I'm done with classes until Thursday morning! The reason for my vacation... Chuseok.

Chuseok (also called Hangawi) is a holiday of thanksgiving that falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Korean lunar calendar. Similar to our American Thanksgiving, it is a time for families to gather and to eat special food. Families also use this time to offer gifts of food to their ancestors at their family grave sites. Christians in Korea also go to grave sites, but only offer their respects.

I've heard that EVERYONE goes to visit their families over Chuseok and the highways are basically one big traffic-jam. I'm hoping that this isn't true, because I'm headed to celebrate with my "Korean family" -i.e. my American, Canadian and British friends in Seoul. But, at least I'll be heading the opposite direction of the majority of people. (Around one-fifth of the population lives in Seoul and will hopefully be driving out of the city.)

Back to the subject at hand...

I'm including a recipe for one of the traditional Chuseok dishes, just in case you'd also like to celebrate a bit of Chuseok with me.

Songpyeon: traditional Chuseok rice cakes

Ingredients:
-3 cups freshly powdered rice flour (Make sure that salt is added when the rice gets powdered at the mill.)
-1/2 cup sugar water
-sesame oil
-salt
-pine needles

Filling options:
-mung beans
-green beans
-sesame seeds
-jujubes
-chestnuts
-squash
-pumpkin

Directions:

1. Rub rice powder with hands and pass through a sieve (I think a normal flour sifter would work).

2. Mix the powder with boiling water sweetened at the ratio of one part sugar to six parts water. Knead and let the dough stand wrapped in a wet cloth.

3. Make a ball out a small piece of the dough and shape it into a circle in the palm of your hand and fill with filling and mold it into shape. (Squeeze the dough to eliminate air from the filling to prevent the cake from opening during steaming.) Usually one cup of rice powder will yield eight pieces of songpyeon.

4. Spread pine needles and well rinsed and drained and on the bottom of the steamer. Place the songpyeon on pine needles and steam for 40 minutes. If pine needles are not available and use a piece of cloth.

5. When the songpyeon is cooked, rinse and brush with sesame oil and salt. Or add 1/2 tablespoon salt and 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil to 2 cups water and rinse songpyeon in it.

Note: I adopted this recipe from “A Korean Mother`s Cooking Notes” by Chang Sun-young, (Ewha Womans University Press).

The yummy fruit, pictured above, is from a street vendor in Itaewon, the American Ghetto of Seoul.

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Photo Blog II-- My Neighborhood



This Pagoda is the perfect place to read! It's really close to my apartment and school.



An upclose shot of the Pagoda.




May 18 Memorial Park highlights the violent suppression of a popular uprising of Gwangju from May 18 to May 27, 1980. It is simply called 5.18 by South Koreans. For the period of Chun Doo-hwan's reign, the incident was denounced as a rebellion inspired by Communist sympathisers. But after civil rule was reinstated, the incident received recognition as an effort to restore democracy from military rule. The government made a formal apology for the incident, and a national cemetery was established for the victims. (Thank you Wikipedia)




This photo was taken on my street. Now I know how the food gets so hot.




I haven't see a single family home since I've been in Kwangju. In fact, I've only see a few in Korea. A majority of the city lives in apartment buildings similar to these.




This is the school where I teach (i.e. basically live). The second, third and fourth floors are ours.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Food!



I've been slow to update the blog in the past week because I started a new class on Monday. Details are coming about that later, I'd rather talk about food now.

Pictured here is one of my favorite Korean dishes--Kimbap. This particular variety is the vegetarian version complete with yellow pickled radish (it's not as odd as it sounds), cucumber, pickled cabbage, a carrot and fried egg rolled in white rice and seaweed.

I had been warned and prepared for the hot and spicy foods in Korea (think Kimchi), but was not prepared for the high food prices. Many said.. "food is soooo cheap in Korea." Well, they were very wrong.

I went to the grocery store last Friday and bought: jelly, broccoli, soy sauce, two small onions, potatoes, a small packet of walnuts, chocolate, ziplock bags, a bottle of soda, a couple packets of miso and seaweed soup and a plastic container. The grand total of my shopping trip was 50,000 won (this would be about $53).

On the other hand, going out to eat is REALLY CHEAP. For example, buying a role of Kimbap at one of the hundreds (I'm not exaggerating) of local restaurants is only one won. I've also bought a meal that has lasted me for three lunches for only three won.

I don't understand the cheaper dining prices--if food is so expensive in the store, you would think restaurant prices would be worse. (Of course.. I do get supply and demand, but it just feels so odd). Either way, I'll enjoy my Kimbap.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Seoul Picture Blog



The view from my temporary flat.





JANG-GO (a traditional drum) lesson at Chong Dong Theater, a famous traditional art center.





My first real Korean meal





Many of the shops stay open late in Seoul. I took this photograph at 10pm.




Kyung-Hee University Library

Monday, September 3, 2007

My First Day as a Teacher

I had to wake up at 5:40am this morning (mom and dad are loving this I'm sure) in order to be ready for my 6:45am meeting and 7am class. It's now 9:16 pm and I just finished my last class. It's been a long day! Disclaimer: I did not teach continuously, but did work with 7 children's classes and three adult (hour-long) classes. I'm tired. Need I say more?

Ok, really.. I was a bit nervous going into the day, but my students are very eager to learn, friendly and forgiving of this brand new teacher.

I also ate my first meal by myself. I wimped out and bought pizza. (a shopping trip is coming tomorrow) I'm going to try to cook Korean style for at least half of my meals.. Um.. I'll see how that goes.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Home at last?

Our orientation period finished last night and I'm at my official home for the rest of the year--Kwangju, S. Korea. Haven't heard of it? Neither have I, but it is a beautiful part of the country with lots of natural beauty and historical relics. Check out my new home at http://eng.gjcity.net/main.jsp.

I will miss all the other teachers from the orientation, but I did come to teach, and that is happening tomorrow! I'm a bit nervous and don't know what to expect, but I think it will go well.

I still need to unpack, take a quick stroll around my neighborhood and finish my lesson plans for tomorrow... Eeeks