Tofu is amazing

Ever since forever I've been wanting to learn how to make soft tofu stew or soondubu jjigae (순두부찌개). So I tried it for the second time today and it was delicious! (The first time I tried it in Florida and was unsuccessful. I now realize that not all tofu are the same and I was using the wrong type of tofu.)

My stepdad loves this dish. I secretly loved when he bought it from H-mart.

New phone, New recipes, New appreciation for Halloween

I've finally joined the touch phone world! I was reluctant and fought it for years, but I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and I'm loving all the fun apps. Sorry, I can't play Words with Friends or Hanging with Friends because there is no Droid app for those games in Korea. I'm learning so much about phone technology with this phone. The best thing about this phone is it has an 8 megapixel camera! So I will probably be posting a lot more pictures :).

Some new recipes I've tried with success:

Spicy rice cake or ddukbokki (떡볶이). It came out well, but I made it wayyy too spicy. Burned my mouth. I'm sure Resa would have loved it. :P

Beef and quail eggs in soy sauce or jangjorim (장조림). It also has garlic, peppers, honey, and kelp. I believe I've had this dish before back home, but I never realized how much I liked it until I bought some from a butcher's shop in Korea. It's sooooo tasty and a new favorite.

 

I was dreading Halloween at work, but the little ones reminded me how much fun Halloween could be. 

Already fighting over a man (*shaking my head). Actually those two girls are always fighting over something.

Alex is feeding Brody one of the ghosts we made out of a dum dum, tape, and tissue.

We made chocolate muffin crumb dirt and sour worms the kids ate.

The little one hanging on my neck is Ted. He's my favorite pre kinder student and I wish my future son will be just like him. He's so sweet and has such personality! He brings me a sticker or candy every morning. He often carries my basket to the classroom when I teach his class. He always tries so hard to read and remember what I teach him. He also tries to punch or molest me at least once a day, but he's 5...all is forgiven after a stern look is returned with a smile and a giggle. He's obviously not afraid of me. I'm in love...sigh.

I was a twin for my Halloween costume. I know, very cheap. LOL. We had matching headbands!

There's my darling again! I <3 Ted.

We had at least 3 different Snow Whites. They were all adorable.

Check out the video below. We had a mummy contest...it was intense.

Longest day and week ever! My desk space hasn't looked this bad at work in a minute.

Fireworks and Crowds

On Saturday, Seoul hosted an International Fireworks Festival in Yeouido Park (next to the Han River and the 63 Building I visited previously). It was the first festival I've been to in Seoul and it was insane. I went with my coworker. Even though we had heard it was going to be super crowded, I don't think we imagined the extent of it (we never found the other coworker we were supposed to meet up with). My coworker, Daniesha, took a video of us lining up to get on the subway on the way to the park (check out her video). We were pushed on just like you see the Japanese have to do on their Tokyo subway! There was nowhere to turn or any space, just bodies. I was laughing so hard I started crying. Ridiculously crowded. We actually got pushed off the train a stop too early because we were too close to the doors and too many people behind us wanted to get off. So we followed the mass of people walking to the park.

There were 3 different fireworks shows, 2 different countries went before Korea. Korea was 최고 - the best! Each show was about 20 minutes or so long. AWESOMENESS!

Many thanks to the best cousins ever, Tina and Resa! This camera rocks!

I love the colors! Can I design fireworks as a career? I think it could be an awesome job. Darn, I just googled it and it starts off with being familiar with chemistry. No thanks.

Check out the heart!

Cultural Differences: USA and Korea, Part 1

This is for Luigia. I promised to describe some of the cultural differences between the USA and Korea. (The pictures have nothing to do with the topic.) So far this is what I've experienced...

I have a great view from my studio and sometimes it rewards me (like the above traditional dancers). Mostly it's just annoying to hear a loud game announcer for an 8am soccer game on Saturdays.

I reward my students with stickers.

I really like the eye stickers because they're interactive.

1. Shoes. (I love shoes, I couldn't help noticing this first.) I immediately noticed all the ladies wearing sandals or heels of some sort in the airport. The few chicas I've seen wearing sneaks were young girls or women about to go hiking. All the ladies have small feet. My size 7.5-8.5 is the largest shoe size.
2. "Excuse me." When do I say it? After a burp, fart, to get around someone in the way? My aunt told me that you say nothing. Just move on (or past). I think there are a couple of phrases you can use to get past someone or get someone's attention, but I've haven't heard them used in public venues.  
3. Even though Koreans stand in line for many things, the subway, hiking trails, etc; they are also infamous for cutting the line with no guilt whatsoever. LOL they're true ballers.  
4. You have to buy specific trash bags for regular trash and food trash (not all food goes in the food trash bag, only what is edible to an animal). Each neighborhood has different prices for the trash bags, which are based on the amount of trash that area produces. Basically, you pay according to how much trash you create. Then you have to sort your trash. I like this. Maybe the US should adopt this method. I read on the Internet that this innovative policy cut 40% of waste in comparison to the pre-policy waste collection (don't quote that statistic though).
5. To get hot water, you have to turn on/off the heat on the hot water heater. This is a great energy saver and probably increases the longevity of the heater.
6. Most Koreans do not have a clothes dryer. Clothes lines and drying racks are the norm. Some people don’t even have a washer. I have a washer/dryer combo, but I rarely use the dryer.
7. All guns are illegal in Korea, unless you’re police or military. So there is less violent crime.
8. No tipping...really! The service overall is wonderful. You get a grumpy or lazy person now and again, but it’s rare. In fact, I’ve heard some business owners take it offensively if you try to tip their workers; they think you believe they don’t pay their workers enough. 
9. No taxes need to be calculated because it's included in the advertised price. You don’t have to add anything or worry about it. However, you can get discounted prices with many merchants when you use cash (this is true in the US too, but only with gas stations). I payed 310,000 Won instead of 340,000 Won for my yoga classes because I payed in cash.
10. Clean subway! I’ve seen ladies not only mopping the subway as we ride, but they actually clean the walls of the subway stations too. And there are clean public restrooms at some of the bigger stations.
11. No need to buy gym membership here (except maybe during the winter) because almost every park has basic mechanical gym equipment. Hiking is a national pastime in Korea. Everyone does it: kids, families, couples, grandpa and grandma, etc.
12. Metric system.
13. It's perfectly acceptable and normal to see a 6 or 7 year old with dyed or permed hair. No, they are not child stars or beauty pageant princesses. Many Koreans' are super obsessed with physical appearance, especially skincare. I thought I was overly concerned with my skin, but I regularly see older ladies walking around with umbrellas and with no rain in the forecast. They want to protect their skin from the sun. Some ladies wear really unattractive, long visors. People of all ages and sexes get plastic surgery because Korea has very cheap plastic surgery.



They copied me one day and put them on their faces and eyeglasses. I love the silliness ;)

14. Traffic rules are considered only suggestions by cars most of the time. Almost every taxi cab I've been a passenger in has run a red light. Mopeds and similar vehicles never follow traffic rules, they ride on the road, sidewalk, run red lights, anything they want. I don't think it's as bad as other countries (for example, Peru was nuts!), but it's still different from the US. I read somewhere on the Internet that Korea has the highest number of car accidents in the world...not sure if this is true though.
15. Koreans LOVE to work. They become very dedicated to their companies. It's not unusual to be expected to work on a weekend with no complaints. No one takes a sick day unless they're completely incapacitated and in the hospital. You better return to work with a doctor's note. Coming to work sick is considered to be showing your commitment to your company and to your fellow coworkers who will have to pick up your work (therefore you're probably more likely to get a promotion). 

Naksansa, Seoraksan, Jumunjinsa

I had a three day weekend for Foundation Day this past weekend. Foundation Day is a national holiday in Korea and it celebrates the mythological origin of Korea. I decided to visit literally one of the biggest attractions in Korea. I'd been wanting to do this ever since I realized why my favorite Korean restaurant in Northern Virginia is named Seorak Garden.

First we hung out at Naksan Beach. It was the first time I saw pine trees at the beach.

Naksan Beach is on the west coast of Korea, which is where the best beaches are supposed to be because they're blue and much clearer than the east coast beaches. Naksan Beach had really big waves because the water is very deep.

I made new friends, Laura and Lia, who took this fun photo. 

Right next to the beach was a Buddhist temple. Can't remember the name, but it had beautiful views of the sea.

There were several fountains like this one of fresh mountain water. I tried some and it tasted clean, nothing spectacular though.

I guess every temple has to have some kind of water feature.

Traditional Korean building designs are beautiful.

And everything is handmade and handpainted.

I learned the Nazi's copied the Buddhist symbol for peace and made it into the swastika.

This temple was more like a complex. There were a lot of buildings and pathways.

Afterward, I bought toasted dried squid and dried fish, both of which I hadn't had in awhile. It was just as chewy and yummy as I remembered. 

We ate a late lunch, I ordered a variation of one of my favorite seafood dishes - raw squid mixed with rice, vegetables, and hot sauce. Also known as hwedubbap (회덮밥). It was so fresh tasting because the cook fished the squid straight from the tank in front of our table.

Sunday, we went to Seorak Mountain! I believe it's the largest and most well-known mountain in Korea.

Beautiful waterscapes and landscapes left and right. I took so many photos.

AFT - apparently it's a tourist acronym for Another Farting Temple. Well, I'm still enjoying them. The same fellow hiker that told me about AFT said Buddhist temples are all tucked away in Korea (in mountains or at beaches) because originally Buddhism was not well accepted in Korea. Other Asian countries often have as many temples in the cities as they do in the country, but Korea is different.

About halfway up.

My sore legs are in payment for these beautiful Kodak moments.

We were hiking up the Ulsan Boulder trail. If you look closely, there were many rock climbers too, which was amazing because those boulders were really smooth. They were using the crevices of the rock to climb up.

Toward the end of the trail there was a mad number of people on the trail and we had to form lines. Traffic while hiking!

I was actually happy for once in traffic, maybe because I wasn't confined to a vehicle.

We made it to the top!!!!

You can't escape the couple's traditions in Korea even many thousands of meters up in a mountain. Each lock represents a couple that climbed the mountain together and it means that their relationship will last forever. They carve or write messages on their locks. So adorable!

Next day, we went to an even better beach called Jumunjin Beach. The water was more shallow and the waves more reasonable. I could see through the clear water and I was looooving it. <3

I went on a Zipline! I couldn't believe how much fun it was! I can't wait to do it again! 

Couples and families dress alike in Korea. I used to think my mom was weird for buying us matching shoes or clothes, but now it makes sense. Sorry mom, I'll wear matching outfits with you, but only in Korea. LOL

Our final meal before we returned to Seoul was fresh sea snails or whelk (골뱅이). I love whelk. Yumyum.