Seoul Food et al.

Yeah, I know. You thought this blog had breathed its last back on March 4th; well you can call me Dr Frankenstein.

Some of you may have seen or heard that my brother took a business trip eastward that -- by some serendipitous chance -- allowed him a 24 hour layover in Seoul.  It was brief, but we managed to: get our grill on at a barbeque joint (sensational), visit one bar with an alien spaceship theme (wack), another themed like the belly of an old wooden ship (awesome), put on our boogy shoes at a night club, went to the top of a huge tower with a panoramic view of Seoul, ate bebimbop, and visited a 400 year old palace. I'm pretty sure we made the most of our time. On my way to Seoul I was feeling adventurous and tried tsun-dae, which is a sausage made out of congealed blood, and guess what? It tastes exactly like it does in that nightmare you're going to have about the words "congealed blood". So there actually are some foods here I don't like, but there are far more foods that I can't seem to get enough of.

1. Dukbokki (duck bo key) is a bunch of thumb-sized rice cakes in a red chili sauce. Filling, delicious, and affordable.

2. Gim bop is pickled vegetables, carrots, spinach, and a meat -- typically tuna, beef, or crab -- wrapped in rice and then a thin layer of seaweed and then cut into pieces like a sushi roll. I can eat infinity rolls of gim bop so we kind of broke up a couple weeks ago, I needed some space.

3. Mondu is a boiled or steamed dumpling. On the inside there is a concoction of minced meat, tofu, green onions, garlic and ginger. My go-to freezer food.

4. Kimchi is cabbage rubbed down with a Korean chili powder and fermented for a few days in some spicy water. It's really just a side dish, but kimchi soup and kimchi/meat bebimbop are both great entrees.

5. Chicken Wings (Chih ken weengz) are the wings from a domesticated flightless bird. They aren't quite as big here but the meat seems to fall right off the bone. Chicken is a good fall back choice, but Koreans love it.

6. Jjajungmyeon is a salty soybean sauce with carrots, peas and other vegetables in it, served over noodles.  I have half a mind to not even finish this post right now and go eat jjajungmyeon, to give you an idea of its awesomeness. Myeon means noodle. Jjajungbop is the same sauce over rice (bop=rice) but it's not nearly as good.

I could keep going but I think the top six (not necessarily in the order I listed them) should keep you all satiated for the time being.

I attended and partook in an open mic night in a bar across town, and needless to say it was refreshing to have an audience again.  I organized an open mic night at an establishment just a stone's throw away from where I live, and while there were a sufficient number of attendees the turnout for musicians was far less than ideal: I wound up playing about 7 songs because there were only about 3 of us who got up.

In other news, my school has topped my list of Most Useless Excursions by taking all of the kindergarten classes on a field trip to an art museum. I don't know if they were expecting kids to gain some new insights on juxtaposition in modern art or if they just straight up have no idea how a child's mind works, but to be fair those students needed some time outside of school. I'm planning to make a return trip soon because I spent most of my time making sure none of my kids were going to break/touch/lick anything.  While we waited for the buses to pick us up we stood near a railing overlooking a pathway below; one of my more "interesting" students decided to take advantage of this location by running up to the edge and yelling "YYEEAAAAHHHH!!!" every time a new group of people walked by.  Excellently, most of the groups were college students who were all too ready for a unified cry in return followed by hearty laughs.  I pretended to tell him to stop but in complete honesty I couldn't get enough of it.

Cherry blossom season just started and it is stunning.  Tomorrow I'm going to take my camera to work because on my walk to work I walk down a street lined with those bad boys and it really is an amazing sight.  It makes me wonder why my curriculum has me teaching students about dandelions right now. Really? Dandelions? The crappiest flower to ever exist in the history of multi-celled organisms is our focus when during the same month there is a dumbfounding explosion of beauty all over the country. Maybe this will all make sense when I'm writing textbooks all day and I'm bitter because I don't have enough time to go enjoy the cherry blossoms myself. Until then, the people who authored my curriculum are a bunch of stinkers.

Alright, that's what I have to say. I wish you all well, and I hope to hear from you soon!

Jack

March 4, Awesometown

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, but I have many things to tell you all since my last post.  This past Tuesday, all of the kindergarten classes had graduation because the Korean school year runs from March to February. Only two classes (red and green) moved on to primary school -- the rest stay at SLP. It was very much a hectic ceremony for the teachers because each class performed a song, got dressed up (there were fish, Aladdins and Jasmines, and other indiscernible characters), put back into their uniform, and finally each graduate in the two classes gave a memorized speech; all the while the teachers are dealing with no holds barred pandemonium in the back room as we managed (tried to manage?) what might as well have been a room filled with greased up piglets.  But it only lasted a couple hours, which was good because apparently the previous year it went on ad nauseum with every student giving a speech and each class doing a skit that none of them remembered. And then my boss took all the teachers out to dinner, at which we seemingly bought the entire menu (so good).

The next day we didn't have class until the afternoon with our older students, so we got to sleep in. The following day was Korea's independence day (from Japan) so we had the day off. That was Thursday. You all still with me? Okay, good. On Independence Day I went downtown (shin-nae in Korean) to meet a bunch of other foreign teachers for a scavenger hunt in which we had to take pictures of, among other things: a team member eating silk worm larvae (beondaegi), a suggestive sounding store name (Teeney Weenie), a Korean with a ridiculous outfit (so easy), and a team member holding a Korean baby (which everyone completed).

On Saturday I went to the first Steelers game of the season -- which is the local soccer/football club -- and then got my first Korean barbecue with a slew of other Westerners who were at the game. Unfortunately, we lost to the visiting team 1-0 but I've been told that last year we made semi-finals. The team is called the Steelers because there is a huge steel mill in Pohang thats directly across the water from Buk-gu beach (Pohang is located around a bay) and at night the mill has all sorts of multicolored lights that give fireworks enthusiasts and nighttime beach goers something to look at.  Which reminds me, you can buy fireworks everywhere! If anyone tells you Pohang is not a fun place, they are telling you something opposite of the truth.

In other news I searched far and wide for a pool table with pockets, walking for hours using various individuals' well intended but completely inaccurate directions.  The odd thing is that I can't take out the trash without stumbling over 2 or 3 different pool halls, I even live across the street from one! But upon closer inspection almost none have a table with pockets in it because everyone is playing carom pool, in which the object is to strike strike two other balls with your cue ball. Right when I was about to give up I saw a sticker of a full rack of numbered spheres only a few hundred yards (as the crow flies) from my apartment.  The guy who runs the joint is all smiles and likes giving me a free soda every time I go.  Such a chill homey.

I've started teaching and although the kids are great and the other teachers are quite helpful, The scheduling and all of the different books I use at different times is rather confusing.  But I certainly haven't given up and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon enough.  Its off to bed with me now though, but I'll post again as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and email me if you have any questions! jpoconnor1@loyola.edu

Anyung,
Jack

February 22: Day One

After a 30 hour journey and a 5 hour nap, I woke up at 8 am today to do a little exploring (as I am wont to do). The hagwon (private school) director had said that she would pick me up at 11 am to take me to school so I could get some extra sleep, but I wasn't tired and since I didn't know where the school was I had little else to do but get familiar with my surroundings.  Shortly into my first Jackventure in the land of indoor barbecues someone called me by name, which took me by surprise to say the least; it turned out to be two of the foreign teachers at my school, one of whom I had been in brief contact with before my departure.  So I followed them to school and shadowed a few different teachers for the day: I'll be doing this until March 2nd when I get my own classes.  The school is mostly kindergarten to 3rd grade level students, and they are certainly both vivacious and inquisitive.  I was called "Huge Jack Teecha", "Jack with the Beanstalk", "grandpa", and "Wayne Rooney" all on my first day!

There are storefronts pretty much everywhere that I have seen in this city, a good sign of competition in a growing economy. Some of the teachers who have been here for a while showed me to a giant international supermarket, a cupcake shop -- which really isn't my scene, but is pretty cool if you're into that kind of thing -- and a bebimbap shop. Bebimbap is meat, seasoned vegetables, and an egg on top. You throw some rice on that piece, take your tools (chopsticks) and get all Genghis Khan on it until its mixed up to your satisfaction. Then you eat it.

Well, that's pretty much it for Day One! I'm sure I won't be able to write every day but I'll do my best to put in between two and four entries every week. Oh yeah and there will be pictures! Hopefully lots! Thanks for reading everyone, I'll be back soon.

Action Jackson