Since we arrived here in late January, we have discovered that Korea isn't that much different than the States in many respects. We came here thinking we would have all sorts of difficulties finding things like medicines, toiletries, and the like. Gladly, we were mistaken about most of it. HOWEVER, for those of you who are curious as to what we miss about the United States, I'm going to make occasional lists!
Things We Miss
--Friends, family, and the cat (OF COURSE WE MISS YOU!)
--Garbage disposal (not having one in our sink has been mindblowing in a bad way.)
--Potatoes (potatoes here in Korea are sad, grainy, and small. Mashed potatoes are rare and bland, and baked potatoes are a general disappointment.)
--Whole wheat bread (bread isn't as popular here. They have bakeries, but it's difficult to find a good, grainy bread.)
--Cheese (good cheese is hard to come by.)
--Being able to buy OTC drugs in a supermarket without consulting a pharmacist. They don't sell any OTC stuff in the supermarkets. You have to go to a pharmacy and ask a pharmacist for what you need... in Korean or veeeery slow English and pantomime.
--Being able to predict whether someone speaks English or not when you order food-- or anything, for that matter.
--A dryer (supposedly our washing machine has a dryer, but it doesn't work. So we hang all of our clothes now. Mmmmm, starchy towels.)
Well, there you are. I hope you enjoyed our current list. Tune in next time for an updated list on THINGS WE MISS. :)
Monday, May 28, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Weight loss in Korea. HA. Haha.
One topic that I think should be addressed more often by waygooks here in Korea is weight loss. Who has lost weight since hopping over? Who hasn't?
I promise this isn't going to turn into a weight-loss blog. I just think it's an interesting subject. I've had several friends who said they'd lost weight since coming here. To tell the truth, it isn't that hard. For one thing, we aren't driving anymore. We're walking, standing up and trying to maintain our balance in buses or subways, or walking a couple of blocks to hail a cab. There is also something to be said for the physical impact of teaching. We're standing up for most of the day, for one thing. For another, we're constantly being accosted by children.
Seriously, this morning I had two children in my lap (one with her arms around my neck, pulling my hair) and one on each arm. I literally had to pick them up, two by two, and carry them across the room to the gym for stretches.
Twice.
For some reason, these children seem to think that we're a bunch of funny looking jungle gyms. Don't mind me, you're just screaming in my ear and yanking my hair out, little ones...
I digress.
Ben and I have been tossing around the thought of trying to lose weight here in SK for a while now, and though we both have been losing some weight solely by the increase in physical activity and the addition of kimchi (good Lord, the kimchi *blech*) to our diets, we've decided to go a more structured route.
We're using an online resource, but there is one nice thing about doing this in Korea. Produce isn't that expensive, and almost everything is fresh. Much fresher than the produce you get from Walmart that tastes like chemicals and GMOs. You know what I'm talking about! The spinach and carrots we buy here still have a light dusting of dirt! (Naturally, we thoroughly wash them. Can never be too careful.)
Another nice perk of dieting in Korea is that traditional Korean food ain't that bad for ya. Take the kimchi, for example. Once you get past the assault on your senses that this fermented, spicy power food packs, it really isn't that bad. Well, some isn't that bad. Some is actually really very bad. (Again, *blech*.) Sorry, my kimchi-loving friends and readers! It just ain't my thing! But honestly, Koreans and every Korean restaurant serves kimchi as a never-ending side dish, so I'm trying to get used to it. A second popular Korean side-dish is pickled daikon radish, which is really quite tasty in comparison to the kimchi. A little weird and a little sour, but it's crunchy and healthy, and Koreans eat it all the time.
Then there is the great Korean barbecue, which consists of meat cooked by you on a little grill in a restaurant. No carbs in this meal unless requested. Usually, it's just the meat (can be pork or beef... don't know if there are other options as yet), leafy greens (to wrap the meat in), spicy sauces, bean paste, kimchi (so much better if you throw it on the grill, too), garlic cloves, bean sprouts, soup, and a few other unknown pickled vegetable dishes. Probably the unhealthiest part of this meal is the salt on the marinated meat.
One particular downside to dieting in Korea, however, is not knowing WHAT THE HECK THE NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION SAYS ON FOOD BOXES. For a country that has English on signs everywhere, they sure like to keep their food a mystery. Never fear, though! Here are some translations, borrowed from this very helpful message board source.
열량 Calories
탄수와물 Carbs
당류 Sugar
단백질 Protein
지방 Fat
포화지방 Unsat fat
트랜스지방 Trans fat
콜레스테롤 Cholesterol
나트륨 Sodium
칼슘 Calcium
식이셤유 Fiber
Before we found that board, we were Babelfishing everything, trying to get the translation right. Ugh.
If any of you are in Korea or planning to come to Korea soon, and you want to diet, don't be discouraged! So far the hardest part (aside from translation) has been figuring out how to categorize the food our cook serves at lunch. Today was a potato/fish-with-bones-still-inside surprise. ............... Yeah, I ate a salad today.
I promise this isn't going to turn into a weight-loss blog. I just think it's an interesting subject. I've had several friends who said they'd lost weight since coming here. To tell the truth, it isn't that hard. For one thing, we aren't driving anymore. We're walking, standing up and trying to maintain our balance in buses or subways, or walking a couple of blocks to hail a cab. There is also something to be said for the physical impact of teaching. We're standing up for most of the day, for one thing. For another, we're constantly being accosted by children.
Seriously, this morning I had two children in my lap (one with her arms around my neck, pulling my hair) and one on each arm. I literally had to pick them up, two by two, and carry them across the room to the gym for stretches.
Twice.
For some reason, these children seem to think that we're a bunch of funny looking jungle gyms. Don't mind me, you're just screaming in my ear and yanking my hair out, little ones...
I digress.
Ben and I have been tossing around the thought of trying to lose weight here in SK for a while now, and though we both have been losing some weight solely by the increase in physical activity and the addition of kimchi (good Lord, the kimchi *blech*) to our diets, we've decided to go a more structured route.
We're using an online resource, but there is one nice thing about doing this in Korea. Produce isn't that expensive, and almost everything is fresh. Much fresher than the produce you get from Walmart that tastes like chemicals and GMOs. You know what I'm talking about! The spinach and carrots we buy here still have a light dusting of dirt! (Naturally, we thoroughly wash them. Can never be too careful.)
Another nice perk of dieting in Korea is that traditional Korean food ain't that bad for ya. Take the kimchi, for example. Once you get past the assault on your senses that this fermented, spicy power food packs, it really isn't that bad. Well, some isn't that bad. Some is actually really very bad. (Again, *blech*.) Sorry, my kimchi-loving friends and readers! It just ain't my thing! But honestly, Koreans and every Korean restaurant serves kimchi as a never-ending side dish, so I'm trying to get used to it. A second popular Korean side-dish is pickled daikon radish, which is really quite tasty in comparison to the kimchi. A little weird and a little sour, but it's crunchy and healthy, and Koreans eat it all the time.
Then there is the great Korean barbecue, which consists of meat cooked by you on a little grill in a restaurant. No carbs in this meal unless requested. Usually, it's just the meat (can be pork or beef... don't know if there are other options as yet), leafy greens (to wrap the meat in), spicy sauces, bean paste, kimchi (so much better if you throw it on the grill, too), garlic cloves, bean sprouts, soup, and a few other unknown pickled vegetable dishes. Probably the unhealthiest part of this meal is the salt on the marinated meat.
One particular downside to dieting in Korea, however, is not knowing WHAT THE HECK THE NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION SAYS ON FOOD BOXES. For a country that has English on signs everywhere, they sure like to keep their food a mystery. Never fear, though! Here are some translations, borrowed from this very helpful message board source.
열량 Calories
탄수와물 Carbs
당류 Sugar
단백질 Protein
지방 Fat
포화지방 Unsat fat
트랜스지방 Trans fat
콜레스테롤 Cholesterol
나트륨 Sodium
칼슘 Calcium
식이셤유 Fiber
Before we found that board, we were Babelfishing everything, trying to get the translation right. Ugh.
If any of you are in Korea or planning to come to Korea soon, and you want to diet, don't be discouraged! So far the hardest part (aside from translation) has been figuring out how to categorize the food our cook serves at lunch. Today was a potato/fish-with-bones-still-inside surprise. ............... Yeah, I ate a salad today.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
That Time We Got Famous in Korea and a List of Gifts
Hello friends, family, and blog readers! Happy May Day! This week is sure to be a fun one, as we are celebrating Children's Day on Friday by hosting "Market Day" at school. Basically, this is a school festival all day with games, candy, and general mayhem. I'm looking forward to it and hope I'm going to be posted in the facepainting room!
Today's blog is going to be devoted to two topics:
(1) The time we were on Korean national television.
(2) The crazy gifts we get because we're waygooks (or foreigners).
Famous in Korea
Two weekends ago, we received a text from our boss asking us to come in for a television interview on a Sunday. A SUNDAY. We have a pretty busy schedule throughout the week, so the idea of coming in on one of our days off was not too appealing. Unfortunately, we let ourselves get guilt tripped into doing the job, so on Sunday we found ourselves back at school. We didn't know a whole lot about what we were going to do, but our boss told us it was just an interview on behalf of one of our better speaking students.
Turns out that we were being interviewed by SBS, one of the major broadcasting companies in Korea (comparable to CBS or NBC). They set us up in funny little "scenes" where we acted like the professional teachers and K, the student, pretended like she had never met us before.
The whole filming process took about an hour, and the spot aired on national television at 7:30am the following Tuesday. Here is the spot in full below:
So on Tuesday, all of our students told us they saw us on television (they were fairly impressed). Apparently even a lot of our students' moms called the school to tell our boss that we "looked nice" on television. But was that the end of our fame? Oh, no. On the way down the escalator to the subway station at home, an old man shouted at us ("HEY!") and waved. He then gave us a giant thumbs up. So yes. We are now officially famous in Korea.
Let's Give the Waygooks a Gift!
I mentioned in my last post how an old man on the subway gave us candy. Well, this isn't the only gift we've received since getting to Korea. Almost every week we get something or other from our students or the kids' parents just for being teachers-- candy, fruit, cake, cookies, juice, coffee, etc. These are normal gifts.
Funnier to talk about, however, are the gifts we get from complete strangers (or bare acquaintances) on the merit that we are waygooks, or foreigners. Below is a list of the gifts we have received so far (and I imagine this list will continue to grow!).
1. Candy from a total stranger on the subway. We threw it away. It was old man candy.
2. Candy from a convenience store owner near our school. He calls us his "friends" and often throws in a pack of gummy bears or M&Ms for free when we stop by.
3. Nachos at a beer garden. Granted, we were with a friend of the server's at the time.
4. Shot of spiced rum from a bartender. Again, we were with a friend of the owner/bartender. And he took a shot with us.
5. 2 eggs in a plastic sack from our bus driver on the way home from work. We had gotten up to indicate we were getting off the next stop. He asked us "Oria?" (Ori Station?) to pretty much verify that we knew what we were doing. When we said "Neh," (Yes), he held out a sack to me, nodding and smiling. Inside were two eggs. We thanked him and smiled. And proceeded to throw away the eggs once we got home. Sorry, bus driver. We still follow the "don't take candy from strangers" rule, and I think that rule extends to eggs, too. Besides... they were eggs.
Today's blog is going to be devoted to two topics:
(1) The time we were on Korean national television.
(2) The crazy gifts we get because we're waygooks (or foreigners).
Famous in Korea
Two weekends ago, we received a text from our boss asking us to come in for a television interview on a Sunday. A SUNDAY. We have a pretty busy schedule throughout the week, so the idea of coming in on one of our days off was not too appealing. Unfortunately, we let ourselves get guilt tripped into doing the job, so on Sunday we found ourselves back at school. We didn't know a whole lot about what we were going to do, but our boss told us it was just an interview on behalf of one of our better speaking students.
Turns out that we were being interviewed by SBS, one of the major broadcasting companies in Korea (comparable to CBS or NBC). They set us up in funny little "scenes" where we acted like the professional teachers and K, the student, pretended like she had never met us before.
The whole filming process took about an hour, and the spot aired on national television at 7:30am the following Tuesday. Here is the spot in full below:
So on Tuesday, all of our students told us they saw us on television (they were fairly impressed). Apparently even a lot of our students' moms called the school to tell our boss that we "looked nice" on television. But was that the end of our fame? Oh, no. On the way down the escalator to the subway station at home, an old man shouted at us ("HEY!") and waved. He then gave us a giant thumbs up. So yes. We are now officially famous in Korea.
Let's Give the Waygooks a Gift!
I mentioned in my last post how an old man on the subway gave us candy. Well, this isn't the only gift we've received since getting to Korea. Almost every week we get something or other from our students or the kids' parents just for being teachers-- candy, fruit, cake, cookies, juice, coffee, etc. These are normal gifts.
Funnier to talk about, however, are the gifts we get from complete strangers (or bare acquaintances) on the merit that we are waygooks, or foreigners. Below is a list of the gifts we have received so far (and I imagine this list will continue to grow!).
1. Candy from a total stranger on the subway. We threw it away. It was old man candy.
2. Candy from a convenience store owner near our school. He calls us his "friends" and often throws in a pack of gummy bears or M&Ms for free when we stop by.
3. Nachos at a beer garden. Granted, we were with a friend of the server's at the time.
4. Shot of spiced rum from a bartender. Again, we were with a friend of the owner/bartender. And he took a shot with us.
5. 2 eggs in a plastic sack from our bus driver on the way home from work. We had gotten up to indicate we were getting off the next stop. He asked us "Oria?" (Ori Station?) to pretty much verify that we knew what we were doing. When we said "Neh," (Yes), he held out a sack to me, nodding and smiling. Inside were two eggs. We thanked him and smiled. And proceeded to throw away the eggs once we got home. Sorry, bus driver. We still follow the "don't take candy from strangers" rule, and I think that rule extends to eggs, too. Besides... they were eggs.
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