Homestead

Finally got around to taking some pics of my place. It's an apartment on the second floor of a small apartment complex. I live in Jungang-dong near the downtown Changwon area. I will go take some photos (maybe tonight?) that will show you what downtown looks like. These, I admit, are pretty boring but wanted to post 'em for the fam.


I've heard that most places in Korea don't come with dryers equipped. This is my Korean dryer out on my deck area.


I really like these. They are dried, salted, slices of seaweed. They are good to snack on or work well in other dishes, like bibimbap. Bibimbap, by the way, is super easy to make. One of my favorite new dishes here.


Standard Korean ramen. This particular brand is VERY spicy. Like turn-your-mouth-and-teeth-red spicy.

Individually packaged kimchi from Home Plus. Starting to really like this stuff.



My Korean coffee. Home brewed coffee isn't popular here like it is in the West. We have Starbucks in Changwon but a good latte will cost you around $6. This particular one is a mocha mix you just add to hot water. It's actually pretty good considering it's instant coffee.



View from my apartment deck. It looks really smoggy because of the yellow dust blowing in from China.



Another view from my deck.

My room.

My bathroom. They don't have traditional Western showers here. All of the tiling is curved down towards the drain so you shower in the middle of your bathroom. You wear waterproof bathroom slippers when you're showering in here.



My kitchen. Oh so quaint.


The ondol heating system I explained earlier. Since you have your shoes off whenever you're inside your feet stay surprisingly warm all of the time. You either have your hot water heater on, which by default will heat the floor, or, just turn on the floor heater when you're not using any hot water.

My bed. The mattresses here are SO HARD, it feels like your sleeping on sheet of steel. I'm getting used to it, though. It's actually better on my back I think.

City/downtown shots to come. The cherry blossoms (which are EVERYWHERE), I've been told, are about to bloom here so hopefully I can grab some quality pics of them in the coming weeks.

Korea: first impressions

The people-

Given my few days here I have been blown away by the sheer generosity and kindness of the people I've met. My co-teacher (native Korean speaker who studied English who does complicated translations students may not understand), Lee Seung Mi, has basically become my Korean Mom. She has been bending over backwards to make sure I am adjusting well to my new life. Very, very helpful and I would be completely lost without her help.

All of the teachers eat together in the cafeteria during lunch. After lunch I was approached by a PE teacher, about my age, and instructed to go back behind a storage area for coffee. There were about 5 other teachers back there, all men, standing around smoking and just chewing the fat. They offered me a cigarette and then told me that in Korean culture, sharing a cigarette means you are now friends. I asked one of them where a bike shop was and after saying a bunch of stuff I didn't understand one of them left our little party. 10 minutes later he comes back and hands me a bicycle and keys to the lock. Mine for the year.

The Koreans I've met have been awesome.

The food-



How can you talk about Korean food without mentioning kimchi. It is their staple dish and is served at every single meal. I had a chance to try it a few times before I left and really took a liking to it. Everyone who I've eaten with so far has been pretty impressed with my chopstick ability and my love of spicy food. I think the people here believe that Americans have no tolerance for anything spicy and cannot use chopsticks, I am changing that belief one meal at a time.

Korean cuisine is typically very spicy (a lot of chili sauces with their dishes) so I'm in love with the food here. Rice is a huge staple of all the dishes here and so are vegetables. I think I've eaten more vegetables in the past 4 days than I have in the last 6 months in America. If you want to diet or to lose weight eat Korean food. I haven't seen an overweight person in my city yet and I think a huge part is the diet. No wonder they are the second slimmest nation in the world (America is in the 30s), their diet is super healthy and delicious to boot.

The drink-



Soju, soju, soju, soju. Soju is served at almost all meals outside of work and is pretty damn strong. It's about 40 proof and kind of tastes like watered down vodka but not as bad. It actually compliments a meal quite nicely in my opinion. It is a big no-no to EVER have an empty glass at the table and upon finishing your shot or sip it is immediately refilled by somebody else, never yourself. Korean dinners last a very long time so you can imagine where hours of pounding Soju will get you.

I don't want to sound elitist but the beer here is terrible. Living in Oregon or more specifically Portland will do that to you. I'm starting to think I won't get my hands on a good IPA for quite some time and that scares me. Cass and Hite are the two big ones everyone drinks. I've had warm Olde English or Milwaukee's Beast Ice that tasted better. I'm sticking to Soju.

I had a huge Soju night last night after the welcome party the school threw for me, post coming soon.