At my table, a Korean teacher was sitting across from me. She asked, “How do you like the food.” I was like, “Ahhhh…Yesterday was better.” First of all, there was no meat. =[ The egg quiche was the saving grace of the lunch, but everything else fell short. Beansprout soup with tofu; Lame. Rice noodles; boring. Let me shovel my face with white rice…*sigh*…oh well, they can’t all be homeruns.

Beansprout soup
rice
kimchi
noodles
egg quiche

Today’s lunch was AWEsome. As I stood in line, I glanced at the students’ plates. I spotted beef, and said to myself “Ahsahh!” I was pleased to find rolls, which we’ve never had in the cafeteria before. One of the teachers, ahead of me, took the last one, but he decided to give it to me. A gesture like that will earn you ‘Mers’ points. It was good except that the majority of Korean bread is always sweet. Unless it is cake, don’t put sugar in my wheaty bread. Nevertheless, it was still a roll, and I grabbed a second one, once the tray was restocked.

beef and vegetables
White rice + beef + veggies = bulgogi dopebap
kimchi
celery and seeweed soup = yummy
spicy crunchy vegetable thing = not good

I was a little excited about about the meat of the day. It was chicken in a spicy sauce. However, upon further inspection, I saw that it was still on the bone. I hate trying to use chopsticks and gnaw meat off the bone. Bones in general turn me off. Additionally, I got a little spicy sauce on my white shirt. =[ On the plus side the chicken was really tender. Vegetable pancakes are always awesome, made with egg and veggies. Beansprouts in soup or on their own are terrible. They have no flavor and just waste space.

Duck Galbi (chicken on the bone)
Vegetable pancakes
Kimchi
Beansprout and tofu soup
White Rice

Today’s lunch set the bar pretty high for the week. I get the most excited to see a beef entree. Today, it was mini franks and I went balistic. I had to go back for seconds. The soup was also good. Dukk, glutinous rice, by itself is usually doughy and nasty, but in this soup, it tasted divine. It was cut into slices like a potato, and it was soggy and creamy. Yum.

Egg Beef soup with Dukk
Kimchi
White Rice
Mini Franks w/ pepper and soy sauce
Soaked Cucumbers

This is Mr Chin. He’s one of my school ambassadors (of sorts). He lives in the same apartment as I do, and he takes me to school each morning. He’s helped me out with my rice cooker and setting up the internet. He’s a decent tennis player, and his English is so so. His family lives in Seoul, and he goes back most weekends.

This weekend, he told me that he was going to his cousin’s house. His family was getting together to make winter kimchi. I’ve heard the “making kimchi” stories before, so I thought I’d ask, “How many cabbages are you going to use?” His answer caught me off guard. “Maybe 100,” he said! Whoa. Can you imagine 100 cabbages laying around for kimchi making.

In retrospect, it seems reasonable. They were going to make kimchi stock for 4 sides of his family. This kimchi stock is meant to last all winter. And, once the kimchi is made, it doesn’t occupy that much space. They wash and soak all of the leaves in brine. They slather the leaves with kimchi sauce and lay the leaves flat in a ceramic pot. It’s all compressed so that there is no air between the leaves or in the pot. So, 100 cabbages isn’t that much when you think about it. Still, I need a picture of 100 cabbages.

This is Mr Ryou. He is one of the Korean English teachers, and probably one of the cooler teachers in general. He dresses nice and could be perceived as being very serious. But, he likes to joke around and have fun. He grew up in Anseong, and he has three kids. They youngest is 5, and his wife is going back to school to be a kindergarten teacher. He likes to tell me how much I remind him of his nephew.

Saturday, he invited me to dinner with his family. He picked me up at 5:30, and we went back to his home. He has a relatively large condo, and I think each kid has their own room.

He showed me his alcohol collection, and after first glance, I thought to myself, “Shit. I didn’t bring a gift.” I should have brought a wine or something. He had a lot of scotches. (Though, they weren’t open.) He had a Chinese moonshine and a North Korean wine. He picked out one of the common Korean wines for us to drink, and we, also, sampled a ginseng soju mix.

He and his wife prepared a scrumptious dinner for me. They set up a table top grill and cooked galbi. It was very similar to your typical “Korean grill”. He showed me the 3 ways to eat the galbi. You can either use the vegetables and side dishes with a cabbage leaf to build a meat snacker or you can just dip the galbi in sesame oil. The humdinger of the night came from these tiny hard boiled eggs. He said that they were boiled in water and soy sauce. It gave the eggs a dark color and salty flavor. Very yum!

After the galbi, he let me try some of his dwoenjong cheekeh (soybean soup), and he made kimchi fried rice. He used the leftover rice, kimchi, vegetables, some galbi, and threw it on the grill. He mixed it all together and let the moisture evaporate for 10 minutes. My belly was very pleased and bloated after this.

We finished dinner and hung out for the rest of the evening. He and his wife like to watch Korean dramas, so I sat quietly and tried to make sense of the dialog. Regardless if I could understand it, I’m sure it still would have sucked. We munched on pears, nectarines, and persimmons the rest of the night.

Today, I went out and bought a Korean scotch for him. Again, I don’t know if he likes scotch, but he has many bottles. I wanted to buy some Baileys, maybe his wife would enjoy that, but I couldn’t find any. To be honest, I bought this scotch, because it came with these nice glasses that I’m going to keep. =) I think he already had a bottle of this scotch, so maybe he wont mind opening one of them.

“It is a day of supreme importance to a Korean person’s academic life. It’s pressure filled and determines one’s future path, which some see as unfair. Many other countries spread out final exams over a week or two so that a person’s testing is not dependent on one day,’’ said Gavin Farrell, a Canadian living in Seoul.

Some 590,000 high school seniors and graduates took the College Scholastic Ability Test at nearly 1,000 schools across the nation starting at 8:40 a.m.

Many parents remained outside even after their children entered the test venue, some praying for their children’s success in the life-decision test. Temples and churches across the country were packed with mothers praying for their children.

…

The professor, who has been here for 14 years, said that the state exam is overestimated and unfairly decides the future of an individual.

“We, foreigners, can’t imagine deciding all our life at age 17, but the test dictates which university I go to, which then dictates my adult opportunities because everything comes down to one test day, one day in your life,’’ he said. “It is chicken and egg problem; Schools rate the test because students have no other lives and students have no other lives because of the test.

Full Article: The Korean Times

So, I ended up not doing what I planned on Pepero Day. Over the weekend, I was going to buy pepero at E-Mart or Lotte for some of the good students. But since I went to Daegu, I didn’t get around to it. I was going to go on Monday, but then I went out to dinner with some of the younger teachers.

Excuses, I know. I could have just gone to 7-11 and bought some boxes, but I didn’t. I should lose cool points.

Pepero day was pretty mild at the school. Or maybe it just wasn’t visually present in my classroom, because there aren’t that many girls at my school. Two girls gave me pepero. But I had the feeling that their Mom’s must have told them to do it for all the teachers. Meh…you don’t look a gift pepero in the mouth…?

Today, is a bit more odd. It’s the day after Pepero Day, and I’ve been told that, tomorrow, the 3rd year students are going to the University for a day of tests. Therefore, I will have no classes. However, two Korean teachers have came to me with gifts, and I dont know why. One of the gifts is a traditional dukk cake w/ red beans and the other is a snack pack of candy. (I never thought I’d say this, but dukk and red beans are tasting tastier and tastier!) Maybe they are giving these out to all their students and decided to include me.

And here are some tangerines. They’re being sold everywhere, so I guess it’s the season.

I told my students, “Wow, you are all wearing Adidas sandals!” (Actually, I’m aware that they’re not really Adidas. I have a pair of sandals that I bought at E-Mart. They have the iconic 3 stripes, but they have ‘Korea’ engraved in the rubber. They’re deliberate knock-offs and everybody wears them.) One cheeky student spoke up, “No, he wearing Samdidas sandals,” which got a laugh out of the class. ‘Sam’ is the Korean word for 3, so they’re 3-didas sandals. It’s kinda like Joakleys and the students get a kick out of it.

The main reason was to get my desktop PC. One of my friends was gracious enough to hold it for me, even though I was uncertain about returning to Korea. I brought it back to my apartment stuffed in my suitcase. The worst part in transit was bringing it on the bus from Pyeongtaek to Anseong. I had to jam my suitcase in the seat and struggle to hold onto it when the bus jerked around. I think I gave the other passengers an amusing show.

I gained some insight in the homebrewing in Korea project, which I plan to embark on. I learned that my friend had actually taken part in brewing his own beer. He had ordered the same kit that I intend to order. He brewed a brown ale, and he gave me some tips on what to do and how to use the equipment.

We went out for lunch and dinner, and I learned that restaurants, next to or in a butchery, are scrumptious! It would make sense, no? I ate some of the most tender and delicious cow meat that I’ve ever had in Korea. It was juicy, bloody, and you could cook it to your liking. I’m sure they, literally, cut it straight off the cow.

Lastly, I have a better idea of how to get around the city and what buses to use. Pyeongtaek is the closest “major” city near me, and it’s not that far away. It took maybe 25-30 minutes with all the stops. I got to see some parts of the city, and I know how to get to the train and bus station. The Saemeul and Mugungwha trains stop in Pyeongtaek, and they provide access from Seoul down to Busan. I’ve asked many people what there is to do in Anseong, and I’ve never heard a good answer. I have hope of finding something special here, but nevertheless, I know how to get away, too.