Authentic Countryside Experience

Preface: Last weekend Chris and I went on an Authentic Countryside Experience with the other members of my studio. That was about all I knew about, and trying to find out more only got me a schedule completely in Korean. Chris got it translated at work, and it listed activities like "harvest experience," "water play with float device and swim," and (best of all) "make special memories on a summer night and snacks."

It took us five hours in a 10 person mini van to get there (traffic-- should have taken two), but that's the boring part. We finally arrived, to find we were sharing our authentic experience with about 300 other Koreans. Which we should have guessed, that's how everything here seems to be. After some lunch of various spicy fermented things (quite tasty, despite that appealing description I just gave), we began the activities. It was organized quite like summer camp, our group when around to different stations, to try out an authentic countryside activity. We even had apathetic teenagers leading us around.

The first activity was fishing with our hands. We followed the group out to the stream, where little sections maybe 40'x40' were separated of with low fence. Then the teen can with a bucket and dropped 3 humongous trout (or something) into the water. Then we all groped around trying to catch it, which was the easy part, then hold onto it long enough to get it back in the bucket. Now, the water was only about 8 inches deep, and the fishy are squirmy so most of the time they would flop out onto the rocks. As you can imagine, this isn't very good for their stamina, and pretty soon they were not so much of a challenge to catch. I looked in the bucket after we'd got them all, and one was floating upside down. I think a few organizations in the States would have a problem if we tried to pull this off their (ahem, PeTA).
After the fishing we pushed ourselves around on rafts with sticks. The rafts were quite authentic, two layers of bamboo strapped together around Styrofoam. This was fun until the other students (masters and PhD students, just to clarify) starting playing king of the raft, all of the rafts, and I got pushed off into about 2 feet of water on top off rocks. But this was soon followed up by eating strips of raw fish (presumably not the same ones we just exploited in the stream) with kimchi and makgeolli (fermented rice wine). Next we picked some potatoes, or dug them I guess, out of some green houses. We took them to the river—yes, the same river—and peeled the potatoes with river rocks. Teen-guide rinsed them off with some hopefully more sanitary water, we pulverized them with cheese grater contraptions, then mixed in some green onions and fried them up on big cast iron woks. These potato pancakes, pajeon, are one of my favorite Korean dishes. Ours were okay but a little soggy. While we were eating the professor passed around cups of whiskey and everybody drank more makgeolli until it was time for the rest of dinner, strips of meat on the grill (daeji bulgogi, I think). We wrapped these in lettuce with some spicy red soybean sauce (which is sooooo good), in the typical Korean fashion. And of course plenty more kimchi, makgeolli, and Hite (cheap Korean beer). After dinner there was even more drinking, and talking, and (for me) avoiding a drunken Korean too obviously hitting on me. Chris and I fell asleep early… he’d been on duty all night the day before… and I just sleep a lot.
The next morning consisted of breakfast and rice cake making. Breakfast included a potent fish dish that too closely resembled the trout from yesterday. Rice cakes in Korean cuisine can either be a starchy addition to stews or dokbokki (basically just rice cakes in spicy red sauce), or a dessert. The word “cake” might be a little deceiving here—they are not so much cakes as mashed rice in a cylinder or ball shape. The dessert ones are a little softer and dusted with a semisweet powder that reminds me of the crumbs on top of shoefly pie. I was told the powder is ground soybeans. Making of rice cakes is pretty much what you would imagine: pounding cooked rice until it’s a sticky dough, then cutting it up into small pieces and rolling it in soy powder. So we got to practice our mallet swinging and eat some sticky, ricey, soy-milky snacks.
That’s a brief overview of the weekend. There was also some mud bathing, which Chris and I tried mostly to avoid. Lots of moths, fire building under the house, etc. etc. Today some of the students told me they too thought the trip was a little weird. The professor asked me if we had something similar in the US. Maybe summer camp meets Williamsburg plus some Amish watching and Saturday night in State College?

Korean people #2

Another quagmire about Korean people: are they polite or rude?

Its hard to say, really. Just when you've about decided one way, someone surprises you. Old women will push you out of the way to get on the bus, when you were ahead of them in line. Taxis won't stop to pick you up. A bus driver will give you an irritated look, as if you are holding up his day by getting on his bus. And then an old man will smile and give up his seat for you. Or a woman will walk out of her way to give you directions.

One thing is sure, Koreans love children. My friend has an adorable blond son about 3, who figured this out and uses it to his advantage. Often when they rode a crowded subway, someone would get up to offer them a seat. And sometimes, older people sitting around him would offer him a little snack (they'd probably be arrested in the States). My friend's son, being the intelligent cunning young child that he his, has started walking up and down the car whenever they ride, looking at everyone with his cute little eyes until someone gives him a seat or snack. "I'm so hungry!" he exclaims. My friend offers him snacks from her purse, but these obviously are not as exciting as snacks from strangers. And, most of the time, it works.

Pictures!!!

My friend Ocean


































Bike trip to the edge (of NK)








Ocean's boyfriend Danny (we gave him that name...can't remember his real one)

Korea-- summary

I feel like I don't have as many exciting stories now as when i first got to Korea, possibly because everything seems more normal now. Bizzarre English signs are really just-- usual. Okay some of them are still funny-- like the banner posted on campus, "FREE ENGLISH TALKING" and a building I noticed today "WORLD BEST STEM CELL COMPANY."

I think sometimes about how I would describe Korea- or, Seoul-- to someone. Its quite western, sort of. It has all our fast food comforts (though most dishes have a slight kimchi twang). There are stores that look comfortingly like Wal Mart on the inside. The cars they drive look the same as the cars we drive*. They dress about the same, sort of. I've never seen a Korean woman wearing ripped jeans or burkenstocks, and I've never seen an American over the age of 6 wearing sparkly heart hose (or a man wearing a sparly lilac tie, or anyone wear tulle or more than 3 neon colors at once... am I showing fashion-bias here?).

But just when you get to thinking Koreans arenot really that different from us Amurricuns, you find out something really bizzarre and you don't know what to think. Like, a friend being mistaken for a wh*** because she's wearing a spaghetti strap shirt, while Korean women parade around in almost-too-short-to-be-called-skirts and no one bats an eye. Also, Korea has a TV show where foreign women who speak Korean wear neon leggings (I know they didn't pick those out themselves), talk about cute Korean guys, and every once in a while get up and dance. On the other hand, is that really any stranger than watching people dress up to sing and dance in front of a berating panel, or watching fat people run around, or spouses tell each other they've been cheating on national TV?

There are alot of other cultural things I don't understand or see the merit of, but a friend of mine predicted that in a few decades things are going to look very different in Korea as the older generation passes and the younger one, with more Western values, emerges. And is that really good or not?


*Clarification: The cars look the same to the untrained eye. Husband is keenly aware of the Korean cars' differences and, in his mind, shortcomings. But really they're about the same.

Job Search

With 1/52 of a year left until I'm effectively done with classes, its time to start looking for a job. This process is hindered by the facts that... A) because of an agreement between the US and ROK about military spouses, I'm not allowed to work in Korea. B) They speak Korean in Korea. C) The post offers a limited number of positions, most of which go to Koreans and none which involved any of the skills I acquired in college.

One job posting I did find that I'm qualifies for: "Defense Army Commissary Sales Store Technician." Job description: Operating an electronic check out system to record unit prices, proper accounts, purchase totals, surcharge, and change due. Determine proper prices by unit marking, price scanning, or reference to price lists. Accept cash or other negotiable instruments according to established procedures. Aka, grocery cashier.

We'll see.

return!

To start out this returning post, I'll answer some common questions I got while in the States about life in Korea:

1. Is it summer in Korea now?

Answer: No. Korea is north of the equator, about the same latitude as Pennsylvania, and has a similar climate.

2. Do you live in North Korea or South Korea?

Answer: South. They do not allow people with blond hair and blue eyes into North Korea. Except Diane Sawyer. They do not, actually, allow anyone into North Korea. (okay, I only got this question once).

3. Is Korea a third world country?

Answer: No. South Koreans are very wealthy. I cannot afford their clothes. They own some household name businesses like Samsung, Kia, and LG. The average home is much smaller than in the US, but that's probably because they have 49 million people in a country somewhere between the sizes of Indiana and Kentucky.

4. Why are US troops in South Korea?

Because shortly after Korea was freed from Japan in World War II, North Korea claimed sovereignty over the whole peninsula by a god-leader, and invaded Seoul. The US came and fought alongside the Koreans for three years, until they came to a cease fire. Technically they are still at war. Do the South Koreans still need us there? I don't know. But the North Koreans have the 4th largest army in the world (according to a National Geographic documentary I found on youtube), are test launching "experimental satellites," may have undiscovered tunnels under the DMZ, and learn from childhood to desire the reunification of Korea under Pyongyang. So maybe we're better safe than sorry.

5. Do you get to see much of your husband?

Yes! We live together and he works regular hours, most of the time.

6. Do you miss American food?

No, but only because I buy groceries on base, where I can get almost any American food I want. If that were not the case, I freaking would miss American food. Most Korean food is extremely garlicy, fish saucey, and often fermented. But I like it in moderation (and when it doesn't smell like fish). I've yet to find an American candy that the Korean students in my studio haven't heard of. They even know what Girl Scout Cookies are, which I can't figure out because none of them have been to the US. I did leave a Fresca in the fridge once, which some of them found and are now in love with.

power plant park

Yesterday I went on a field trip to a landfill-turned park and power plant. These tubes go into the landfill and extract the methane, which is converted to electricity. Koreans love parks. Even on a Monday afternoon, their were people everywhere. I guess when you don't have very much open space, you appreciate it more. Or maybe there's a really high unemployment rate.