Korea Me #7

yesterday my sister and I were in Starbucks (yes there are plenty of American things here) waiting for her husband to bring her a drink when this Asian looking guy stops and starts speaking to us in an American accent. Apparently he's from Atlanta, doesn't speak any Korean, and he was so happy to see some Americans. My sister gave him some advice for surviving the subway since apparently he got lost 5 times....which hey, I can't blame him...if it wasn't for my sister I probably would've gotten lost at least once by now.

Even more pictures....

The other links are still good and the second set of pictures has some new ones but there's a third here now....

I deleted all the picture links

Korea Me #6

Saturday was my 20th birthday. I had fun; we went to an area called Insadong. It's just a bunch of shops and some places to eat and such. I had galbi for the second time. I like galbi :) you cook it yourself at your table on a grill like thing in the middle of the table. (we had pork galbi) anyway, after it's cooked you take a piece of meat and put it on a lettuce leaf with rice and whatever else you want there are things like garlic, onion, bean paste, etc.....then you wrap it up in the leaf and eat it.....I spent a ton of money and bought some souvenirs and I even bought a few for some people at home. My sister even bought me a pretty necklace since it was birthday.

This week we are cleaning up the classrooms at the school since the last day of school was last Friday. It's not that interesting, but it has to be done. We have also begun packing things in my sister's apartment. It won't be much longer now and we'll be on the plane bound for Florida. I am loving it here though, don't get me wrong I miss home....but I'm really enjoying myself


I put some more pictures up so check them out use the old links still

oh and my brother-in-law got his blackbelt in case you didn't see those pics :) I'm so proud of him :)

Pictures...

use the old picture link to see where I added more pictures to the first album....they only hold 60 so when I filled that one up I had to start over...this link and the last one take you to two separate sets of pictures

I deleted the link

I deleted the link

Korea Me #5

I've had some Korean food now...I was actually here a few days before I ever had any. My first meal in Korea was at a McDonald's where I ordered the same exact thing I would have ordered at home. The next few were at my sister's house where we of course cooked American food, though we did have Korean ramen for lunch the first full day I was here. Some of you know my love for Korean ramen, but of course since I'd had that before I already knew I loved it. Tuesday I had tonkas which is basically a type of fried pork with an almost B-B-Q like sauce that you dip it in and rice. I stayed away from a vegetable-rice mix that was wrapped in seaweed; I think it was called kimbop and I also have avoided kimchee which is a dish they apparently eat with just about everything made from so oddly prepared cabbage. At least it's odd in my American opinion. To each his own, I may try it before I leave but some things take courage...lol......I've also tried bolgolgi which is a seasoned beef and vegetable thing. More Korean food to come but that's just the basics of what I've had so far.....

I'm in love with this little place called Happy Ria it's just this little snack store a block away from the school my sister teaches in. This lady makes fruit drinks and various snacks fresh and it's mostly little kids that go there. I'm addicted to this Kiwi drink she makes. Basically it's a whole kiwi ice and a little bit of kiwi syrup blended together so good.....it's 1300 won which makes it about $1.30 though that's not exact. I could go there everyday

Meguk: cultural differences

Meguk is what they call Americans over here. I am therefore a Meguk. In the US you don't think anything of it when you meet someone of another race than yourself (unless you've got some odd problem you need to deal with). Today when I was riding the subway sitting between my sister and her husband, and I looked up from my book I noticed something that to me was odd. Three Korean children staring at us as if we were the oddest thing they had ever seen. Not in a bad way, mind you, just in a curious way. I smiled at one of the little boys and he hid behind his mother a little. My sister said that's happed before and I found it kind of humorous. When you get out of the tourist areas and stuff and into the real city you may be the first American a child like that sees, or in my case the first white person.

Note: have you ever noticed how weird a person speaking another language fluently sounds when you have no idea what they're saying? now think of this, we sound just as weird to them....