White Day

Yesterday, March 14^th, was White Day in South Korea.  It is a holiday where men who are in a relationship are supposed to give chocolate to women.  It is similar to the Valentine’s Day we celebrate in the states.  On Valentine’s Day here, the women give candy and presents to the men in their lives, so White Day (exactly one month later) is the men’s turn to give the gifts, usually chocolate.  We have heard there are different types of chocolate for the seriousness of the relationship.  Mainly the gift giving signifies that the man or woman is “the only one” for the gift giver.

Apparently there is also Black day, observed another month later on April 14th, where singles that didn’t celebrate Valentine’s day or White day have their turn.  They dress up in all black, and eat Jajangmyeon, a noodle dish with black sauce.  This is done in groups, and celebrates being single.

Here I am anticipating White day Saturday night.  We saw signs and candy everywhere.

I wish my White Day gift was one of the adorable bunnies a man was selling in the subway Friday night, but I’ll settle for some chocolate for now.   

Maybe Ryan will consider a bunny for St. Patrick’s Day?

Clothes that fit, MAC make-up and a shower curtain at last

  Imagine my horror when I realized that up until this point in my life, I hadn’t been to the world’s largest mall.  It’s called Shinsegae (Shin-say-ge), and just happens to be located in our new city. 

When I heard that two of the teachers at my school planned to go to this undoubtedly wonderful place, I asked if I could tag along.  The cab ride was only a few minutes and then there we were.  Not one, but actually two malls next door to each other.  

We went to the smaller one first, where the other teachers got some (MAC) make-up.  A bit more spendy than at home, but at least available.  The other stores on the bottom floor were Gucci, Louis Viutton, Burberry, Chanel, etc. You get the idea. Unlike most malls, Shinsegae is basically one big department store, with different sections for stores.  There is no common hallway area, you just walk through one big store but smaller ones are inside.

On the next floor, there were a few more upscale stores and many Western brands mixed in with Korean brands.  Here, there is still Adidas and Nike, Puma, North Face, and Fila appears to have made a comeback as well.  Most Korean sizes are very small, probably because overweight people are very few.  I found a store with western sizes and bought my first two shirts here.

There was a beautiful spa on the first floor of the bigger mall, which I’d love to go to soon.  (Let’s get paid first!)  The top floors of both neighboring malls are movie theaters, which is apparently, the only place you have to wait in Busan.  I say that because here, there is no concept of a line.  They just don’t use lines.  Ryan and I were shocked when we were waiting behind someone to pay for groceries, and an innocent looking elderly man stepped right in front of our cart with his items. 

“Did he just cut us?” Ryan quietly asked me. 

It was pretty funny.  Then we started noticing more people not obeying the “rules of the line”, that we so strictly abide by in the US.  One more thing we will have to get used to.

Anyway, back to the movie theater…

Since no one would actually wait in line unless forced to do so, you take a number and once it’s called you go to the desk.  Then you pick your seats on a computer screen, and are printed out tickets specifically for those seats.  Pretty cool actually, because then one person doesn’t have to rush in and save seats, and everyone knows exactly where they will be sitting.

The movies were all recent, American movies, which have Korean subtitles.  We want to see Johnny Depp in "Alice in Wonderland" there soon.

After I was given a lesson on the movie theater, we went to the basement level of the second mall, which had a huge store.  It was comparable to a Target, but with more food.  (YES!)  They also had home goods, electronics and even clothes.  Of course they had lots of kimchi.

  

 I got us a few pillows for the couch, a small rug, and some other random items to make our apartment more like home.  (Pictures soon!)  This included a shower curtain.   In Korea, shower curtains are not used, so water gets everywhere.  Many apartments don’t even have bathtubs, but luckily ours does.  Most just have a removable shower head, often over the sink.  There is a drain in the floor and slippers at the door to avoid slipping.   I had pretty much accepted my bathroom the way it was, until a co-worker who had just switched apartments told me she planned on getting one for her new place.  We found rods and curtains at the store there.  So nice!  Who knew that a shower curtain could make someone so happy.

Kimbap, Spine Soup, Daelkgobi, Bondegi and Samgyeopsal (aka our adventures with Korean food)

  Outside of Costco pizza, and although there is a McDonald’s within walking distance of our school and apartment, (and it just so happens to be open 24 hours and also delivers!) we have been trying to be adventurous and embrace the local food.  There is lots of it.  On every corner there are little restaurants and shops bustling with couples and families enjoying a bite to eat. 

Kimbap

Kimbap restaurants are quite prevalent, and one right around the corner from the school has been frequented on five or six occasions now.  Each time we go, Ryan tries to pick out something more adventurous and unique than the last time.  Meanwhile, I point to the Korean letters and tell the woman, “gawgee anio” which means, “no meat.”  Then I just hope that whatever arrives for me is filled with squid and not beef.  Squid being something by the way, I never thought I would have hoped for.  The Kimbap place we have been going to also happens to have cheez-eee ram-e-yon (cheese ramen), which is basically the spiciest ramen soup I’ve ever had, with a slice of processed American cheese dropped into it.  In my opinion, not quite worthy of all the hype it had been given, but at least satisfying and worth the 2,500 won (around $2.00) I paid for it.  They also have su-pa-ghetti, which I just can’t bring myself to try.  The picture they have on the wall of the plate looks like canned tomato paste on overcooked spaghetti but we’ll see if I get desperate enough for pasta.
Here I am with a spicy tofu and seafood soup called sundu bujjigae, often eaten after a meal and is served with rice, which you put into the soup once there is room in the bowl.

Spine Soup

Last Friday, to celebrate the two of us and the other new teacher beginning at the school, and also to send off the three teachers we replaced, all the staff from school went to dinner.  Here we are sitting on the floor at a long table, as it is custom do to in many restaurants here.

To start dinner, there was lots of Soju, Korean beer, and side dishes.  Luckily the side dishes here are largely vegetarian which helps.  There are cabbage salads, usually with a 1000 Island or sweet creamy kiwi dressing, radishes or melon soup to cut the inevitable heat of most dishes, dried fish or fish cakes, and always, kimchi. 

Then there was the stew.  Made of pork spine, spices, and vegetables.

The waiters let the meat and broth simmer in a pot atop a burner on the table for awhile and brought out many veggies, some noodles and chiles that we could put in at our discretion.

At the school director’s request, they made me my own vegetarian stew, how sweet!  It was really good too.

After dinner one of the Korean teachers came back with an ice cream cone for everyone!  My kind of dessert.  The night was filled with many new foods and tastes, and lots of Soju.  We later went across the street to a bar and had some more drinks.  We also tried a cold fruit salad with some yogurt.  It was really good.  If only I could figure out how to order that for us when we went out…

Close to Mexican in Korea (daelkgobi)

There seems to a shortage of Mexican food here, or if it does exist, we don’t know where to find it.  There is a place near our apartment claiming to have Mexican food, but the pictures in the window resemble chicken wings with some white rice.  Hmmmm.

Our first week here we went to Seomyeon, a busy area with many restaurants, bars and shops, and were taken to a chicken and rice joint (different from the imitation Mexican place) serving daelkgobi.  Again there were large burners in the middle of the tables, and the waiters brought out steaming pots filled with meat, veggies, rice, and rice patties.  You could even add cheese, which of course, we did!  After trying with no success to order the rice dish with chicken on the side, I said to just forget it and decided I’d eat around the chicken.  We went back a week later and were able to get it just fine with no chicken.  Better late than never right?  We also added extra cheese and it was delicious!  Very spicy but extremely good. 

 

 Samgypseal

We (mainly Ryan) also had the opportunity to try another traditional Korean food, Samgyeopsal.  It is thinly sliced meat, comparable to bacon.  There is a grill in the middle of the table where you place the meat and some veggies (even kimchi if you wish to do so).  

There are many dipping sauces and a variety of salads and accompaniments.  Since all I ate the night we went was rice (bap) my share was 1,000 won (less than $1.00).  Ryan owed less than 7,000 (about $6.00) won and he was sufficiently stuffed.  Here is the (almost) finished product.  Once the meat is cooked you wrap it up with lettuce leaves and vegetables.

Bondegi…

After hitting a few bars last Saturday, and on our way to another, we noticed a food stand lined with large pots.  The teachers we were out with explained that it was Bondegi, silk  worm larvae.  The silk is spun out the silk worm cocoons, and the bug that’s left inside is served up in a paper cup.

For some reason that I’m still not sure of, Ryan decided to try them out.  I think you will agree this was his most adventurous bout with food yet.  

Since we both love to eat, there will be much more talk of food I’m sure.  Another foreign teacher recommended a Korean restaurant which is completely vegetarian which we hope to try soon!

Costco = Lifesaver

On our second day here, we didn’t have to be at the school until two.  We wanted to get out of our hotel and explore our new home.  Another delightful bit to the “love” motel was that we couldn’t figure out how to turn down the heated floors.  They were scorching.  If we knew anything about the metric system we might be able to put an estimate on how scorching, but we are still trying to learn the conversions.  Basically, our entire room was HOT.  We tried each of the mystery knobs at least three times, but it still felt like we were entering the tropics whenever we returned home.  Despite the cold and rainy weather, both opening a window and even sporadic use of the air conditioning was required.  Very ironic in the winter.  Anyway, the only place that we knew of within walking distance that we knew we wanted to check out right away (at least without help from the other teachers at the school) was Costco.  Since that initial trip we have made a second trip, so here are some of the pictures from what we found on our delightful outings.  We were almost disappointed in the fact that we would be able to get so many amenities of home.  

 

Some things were much different….

 

  

And many were the same.

 

Newman’s brand!

And pesto sauce! 

Same wines as home, but much pricier.

And of course, Soju.  A very popular drink in Korea, it’s similar to vodka but much more watered down.  It’s still about 20% alcohol, and has the tendency to sneak up on you.  More about our first encounter with that later….  In the meantime, here is me with a 2 Liter of the stuff.  I would need some help with that much for sure.

 

But the best part of all, drum roll please…………CHEESE!  And Tillamook at that!  I can’t even describe how happy I am about this discovery.  A little spendy for Babybel at 19490 won (just under $20).  But well worth it after a few months of withdrawls, I’m sure.

And of course, the deli.  No different from the Costco at home, minus the language!  For our second meal in Korea, pizza and smoothies seemed to be a good bet, as we could at least point to it while ordering.  

  Our lunch for the day...

Sort of pitiful considering all the great local food that undoubtedly surrounded us, but we are still learning, and vowed that while it’s useful, we won’t rely on Costco for everything :)

The "Love" Motel

As promised, here are more details on our accommodations when we first arrived in Busan. The director of our school was the only one who could communicate with the woman at the front desk. The woman insisted we leave our room key whenever we left the room which was not exactly what I wanted to do, but when in Rome I guess... She was always looking at us a bit strangely, and when Ryan knocked on the mirrored windows to get the key back (while reaching over a box of condoms placed there) she would try to talk to us in Korean... obviously to no avail at this point. I think she was surprised that we had stayed multiple nights, as most guests we were told by the other foreign teachers at the school, rent the room hourly. If you know what I mean. It was only when we were sans bags and took the stairs coming home on the second night when we noticed it. Bright pink and glowing it immediately caught our eyes. "What is that?" I said. Upon closer inspection I noticed that it was in fact, a vending machine. But it wasn't just any vending machine... See below for a good laugh!