Dinner with a side of larve

Sitting on the heated floors, in your socks, drinking soju (potato liquor) and asking "What are those?"
"Ahhhh, they make silk"
Mmmmmmm, good.

Seoul Shopping

Christmas Eve in Korea

Things, as expected, are a little different here. In a country where 50% of the people claim religious affiliation, about 23% are Buddhist, 20% Protestant and 6%Catholic. But there is still Christmas - a national holiday, with the required shopping mall sponsored mechanical full-sized dancing Santa’s, holiday light displays (with everyone taking pictures of them on their cell phones) and endless Christmas songs in English so they are stuck in your head for the rest of the day. George Michael's "Last Christmas" appears to be one of the unfortunate favorites.

But the event itself is quite different. You buy cards, not gifts (except for little kids who happen to like Santa and gifts so they get both). And the day is not spent with your family, but rather with your friends or significant other, and you go out to lunch or dinner, then off to the bars. It's just a day off (except for restaurant and bar staff), which in this hard working culture is greatly appreciated. There is no Christmas trees, Christmas stress, last minute shopping, mall crowds - well, those always exist, worries if you got the right gift, or enough gifts, or you forgot something needed for dinner. All of the holiday stress just doesn't seem to exist. Instead, here on Christmas Eve, we work a normal night, fully prepared to give the students detention for a failing mark, which would require them to stay here at the school until almost midnight. It's mellow and peaceful and there is that one great anticipation hovering in the air. No, it's not about the day off, or the drink. It's the expectation that in one more day the Christmas music will finally stop and I'll actually get to know what Korean music sounds like.

Election Results

As fast as everything is here, election results from todays election were made public by 8 at night. The winner is #2 , as seen on the 12 posters hanging in the streets. Former CEO of Hyundai and Mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak is also one of the richest men in the country and has a criminal-probe facing him for previous fraud charges. But, in a country rife with curruption and fraud charges, maybe it is just fashionable. Or, maybe not.

Yes, it's a real dog, and yes, the ears are dyed pink.

My ears are a little pink, too, but that's from the cold.

What a million people starts to look like

Suwon on Sunday

These are sections of the wall that surrounds the old part of Suwon. Built in 1794 to become the new capitol, the wall now is a 5km long world cultural heritage site. It makes a great Sunday walk except for the ice still on the higher sections which brings back some old winter memories of falling - hard. Alas, though, I didn't.

No means Yes, Again

No, in Korean is pronounced aneio, which sounds almost the same as “ring” in Spanish if you happen to know that word. As luck would have it, though, it is also similar to ano in Slovak, which means yes. Ano is pronounced, “ahhhh, no” as in do you want another glass of wine? Let me think about that. No, I had better not, but in your hesitation you say yes. Yes, on the other hand, is pronounced ne – just one short syllable. No, in Slovak, is nie, pronounced the same as yes in Korean except with a small stutter between the n and ie making the word sound more like “nnn-yeah” in one long syllable. To put it bluntly, no is yes and yes is no.

Walking home from work it started to rain. A woman with an umbrella stopped and asked me if I wanted to share her cover. Well, she said something in Korean and pointed to the umbrella then started to walk with me. I said ne, thinking it means no instead of yes. But, as a true klutz I’m saying yes and pointing to my hat and walking away from her. Hmmmm, I’m confusing myself.

But this is a nice example of just how sharing people are here. That is until they get behind the bulk of metal that are cars and all kindness seems to dissipate. My neighborhood is a jungle of small 4 and 5 story apartments (12 stories seems the norm) and uniquely enough, no two buildings are the same (which is also not the norm as the rest of the apartment blocks look more like the Communist Bloc). In an almost perfect grid, narrow streets separate us from our neighbors and come night cars are parked and double parked and even triple parked so one can barely drive down a road, that are two way. So, if you happen to be going down a road and come across a car driving the other direction, one would logically think that one of the cars would back up. That unfortunately does not seem the case. Here, both cars end up waiting. And waiting. Traffic backs up in both directions making the possibility of backing up near impossible.

On the night I arrived I was in one of these said cars. The oncoming car, which would have only had to back up 50 meters or so, refused, and after a long wait, my driver and I backed up so the other could pull into an extremely narrow driveway. This process required an eight-point turn as the roads are narrow and blocked, and after about five minutes, the car had successfully gotten out of our way so the traffic behind him could back up.

Driving in general is sketchy. Walking across the street is probably the most dangerous thing I will do here. Unless I keep confusing people with my superior language skills, in which case, I have no idea what will be.

A Coffee Drinker in a Green Tea World

When a coffee pot at the GR-mart costs over $100 dollars, you know you might be in trouble. This is not a state of the art espresso machine that grinds your beans before seeping in perfectly heated, filtered water. No, it’s just a Braun 12-cup plastic coffee pot. The ten-cup pot was a cheap $60.

A 100 gram bag of Starbucks coffee is $17. Yes, this means that there is a Starbucks here, located on the 2nd floor of the E-Mart (are you seeing a trend in the way they name their big stores, a.k.a. K or Wal), but it also means that a mug of house coffee is $4 and weak as water. Globalization is disappointing.

My other options are McDonalds and Dunkin Doughnuts. I think I might pass. It may be time to just give in to the green tea. I could save a small fortune in just a weeks time. I could also start eating pork and going to church.

The solution here, so far as it seems, is to regress to my Slovak habits and pick up the fine art of cappuccinos. No, they are not served on silver platters but there is at least a taste of coffee in them. Next to the school is a Paris Baguette, a lovely bakery and coffee house with adequate coffee and an interesting assortment of breads. Like Pea Bread. Yes, a Danish with split pea filling, slightly sweet, slightly gritty, taste acceptability to be determined when my taste buds acclimate. As with the weather, it might take a while.