Ponderings, Wet Drywall and Buffet Lunch

So I've had several ponderings today. A) why does microwaved ketchup make me and the other guy I work with think of the same thing? MEATLOAF! B) If you're wearing panthose that are plain except there are stars that start at the inside knee and go up, why are you going to shoot me and every other guy who looks a "What are you looking at?" glance. I'm pretty sure you can figure it out. That being said (and I find this truly comical) Korea, Gangnam specifically, just had a decency law go into place where women can be fined for skirts and shorts that are too short. THANK GOD! I wasn't sure which one I would break first my neck from turning around quickly or my ankle from not watching where I'm walking. They were doing construction of some sort or another in our office today and so when I got out of my last class before lunch the other two instructors were like "We were thinking we'd go out to lunch today since they're doing construction, would you like to join?" To which I responded "I was kind of looking forward to lunch with the aromatic stylings of wet drywall." They started cracking up, but while I was standing there putting my coat on to go out with them I realized, it's not that bad and it's one of those smells that you don't get to experience that often. Maybe I'm just weird and I need to go back to smelling microwaved ketchup. So we went across from our office to a place called Oktoberfest for lunch today. Apparently the highest level students eat lunch here almost every single day. 5 bucks for an all you can eat buffet which they say there is a different Korean dish for Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, etc etc. Apparently I'm going to need to visit this place on Wednesday because their DeokBokki (떡볶이) has been attested as being delicious. Well after I finished my first plate (to which one of the other instructors looked at it and was like "You're hungry aren't ya?") I was asking the students if I got a new plate or reused, not knowing what the code of conduct was at this restaurant. They said get a new one and I asked what I should do with my old one and they're like there's a tub around the corner and then the student that was telling me was like "Let me take it." The college students have got a lot of class and respect like this. Anyways, I wanted to take his instead so I told him I'd rock/paper/scissors him for it. I won and I told him that it wasn't disrespectful if I took his if I won in rock/paper/scissors. He responded that it was probably the first time in Korean history that the winner of rock/paper/scissors was the one that took the dishes. Some of the things that won me over by this buffet were the all you can eat coleslaw with add your own dressing (pretty typical on the side of pork dishes in Korea), 2 types of rice (white rice and then rice with reds soybeans which is delicious) and then 2 types of kimchi with one of them being the leafy kind of kimchi which you can't find everywhere and I absolutely love that kind when cold. Then kimchi from more of the heart of the cabbage I like it when it is grilled or in a stew, but fresh leafy kimchi is great just with rice.

Lunch Yumminess

So I decided that it was in my best interest to make some mass amounts of food that I could easily pack in some storage containers and then take to work. Denver omelet and my often requested oven roasted potatoes were what popped into my head for some reason. Who knows why, but it has been a delicious 2 days. Today though after warming up the omelet I looked at it and the smell was intoxicating, however the only thing that I could think about was ketchup, Chohula sauce or Pace just something to jazz it up a little. On a side note: SPAM Bacon? Delicious. Idk if that's something that's also available in the states when I get back.

PANTS!!!

I now have enough pants that are dressy for work and thanks to my new alterations lady fit me. I am also becoming more and more excited about these pants for the weirdest of reasons. For example, yesterday I was getting dressed and I realized that my pants have a strip on the inside of the waistband that is similar to the stuff you put under rugs inside your house so you don't bust your butt. At first thought, the inside of pants is a weird place for this. If its not a weird place for you then you figured out what this was for quicker than I did. I was pulling my pants on and I was thinking to myself "what type of person is wearing their slacks so tight that they need something to get more traction on the inside waistband". You can iamgine the humorous pictures inside my head. Then I found out these help keep my shirts from blousing and keep them from making me develop the inevitable "shirt pudge" by the end of the day. This was also coupled with the discovery that double pleated Korean pants are not like the single and double pleated American pants. In American pants whenever there was even one pleat I'd look like I could smuggle and entire Christmas spiral hame down the front of my trousers. So, when my Korean pants arrived and I saw that they had two pleats at first I was a little disappointed, but then I realized that these were more like the flat front slacks that I'd enjoyed in the states only the double pleat gave me more room to use the pockets. Another reason to dance for joy. A final reasons is as Grandma Shannon and Mom will probably atest, I usually don't buy the most normal of clothes. When looking for pants I guess I stuck with this trend and snagged some awesome blue/tan plaids, some spectacular ginghams, and then the more subtle pinstripes. I walked into class one day with my younger class and we were talking about adjectives that describe people and I was giving a sentence where a student had studied a lot for a test and so they had great confidence in their ability to do well on that test and one student turned and volunteered that I also had a lot of confidence for wearing those pants.

Mmmm soup

I figured it has been quite some time since there's been a soup post. This is a new one that I borrowed bits and pieces from several restaurants that I enjoy their food.  Rice cakes, hard boiled egg, red and black pepper and then to make it just extra tasty, pan fried SPAM.  Mmmmm fills me up. 

It's still chilly outside at times, but I have noticed it starting to get a little warmer over the past few days.  The weird thing I find about the weather is I'm not the one complaining about it being cold.  Seoul residents and people from northern US states complain that it's cold while wearing a jacket.  I'm in a sweater and I'm kind of too warm in my opinion.  Seems like a kid from Texas shouldn't be as accustomed to the coldness.  Then again I do bitch and complain about the temperature when I get done with my morning run.  And I did refuse to sign up for any races until it was spring again.  So maybe it's just a later in the day thing after my blood has been pumping for a while.  The mystery shall continue I guess. 

A happy early St Patty's Day to all of those I love and all the others that read this.  :-)

Thanksgiving in March

Figured out some things that I'm thankful for this week: My family. And now for the reasons that I'm thankful for in Korea: Korea is becoming a technopolis if not already. This is a good thing and a bad thing. The reason it's a good thing right now is it allows me to visit one of the several thousand PC rooms scattered around the cities of this peninsula, quickly download Skype and catch up with everyone back home as my computers are in the shop. At my new job I've had to start wearing big boy clothes. This would be awesome except I've skated past on wearing my church jeans the past 15 months. So when I was planning my clothing I was trying on all my slacks and quickly was discovering that they weren't exactly fitting. Well after I had to stoop to the level of hemming a pair of pants with paperclips and tightly cinching a belt just so they'd stay up I decided to invest in some new pants. The arrived unhemmed and so I ventured out to find an alterations place. After work on Monday I went walking around with my pants and finally stumbled across a nice small shop with a lady and a sewing machine. I showed her the pants, she measured my length and then told me to come back in an hour and a half. Now, this was 7:30pm and that would mean that she's finishing my pants at 9:00pm and would still be open. God Bless her! Then to top it all off, it was only 5 bucks for the work that got finished in a night. Finally, as if that wasn't enough, I went by to see her today because I needed a button restitched onto one of my jackets because my Suncheon lady hadn't done it when I asked her to do it when she was dry cleaning it. Anywho, I took my jacket by after work today and she looked at it and then pointed to a bench for me to take a seat. I watched only a couple of minutes of a Modern Family episode on my tablet and then she was done. Not only that but she refused payment pointing to my pants and saying something in Korean to the extent that we were golden. Oh how I love her and she will always be getting to my pants first. Getting acclimated after my first week teaching at my new job. I love the fact that the students thank me after each class. AWESOME!!! They also care enough to argue with me over a 70 on their midterm that they took last Friday. Even better is today I got feedback from my academic manager that she's getting feedback from the students that they are appreciating the increased pace that changed between the previous instructor and myself. Evidentally going from 5 miles an hour then to 20 and now going through lessons at 60 was a good transition for the students. They're adjusting well and I have an awesome feeling about this group of students.

A Day with my Adoptive Fam

Friday nights the past two weeks have been spent going to Sam's (aforementioned buddy from previous blog posts) pool and darts hangout up near where he lives. This Friday we went out and around afterwards for a few more beers and then he invited me to come stay in his guest room so I could meet his wife and his 8-month old the next morning (or later that morning as the invitation came at 6 in the am). Had a great time browsing their Costco for some things for my fridge. Found Butter Lettuce and so I'm going to have some delicious salads and sandwiches this week. Got a big six-pack of canned chicken breast which made me laugh, because it's the same 6-pack that I remember Grandma Davis buying. Then we proceeded back to his place where we picked up his wife and son for a walk around their local park and then went back to the pool/dart bar to show off the baby and his wife to the owners that he's really good friends with. Had some spicy wheat noodles before we headed up to the bar and his son was asleep when we went in and we went at a perfect time because as soon as we grabbed a table, there all of a sudden was a 7 person deep line. The baby woke up during lunch because the restaurant was bustling with noise and he just got this huge excited look on his face whenever he looked around and saw all the food. It was quite funny as the table then had to be rearranged so that wandering hands didn't have anything to grab. The baby is still a little tempermental and cries whenever Sam tries to hold him without the mom being close. The baby and I were having some fun smiling and laughing for a bit and Sam was getting a little frustrated with me, and I explained to him that between kids, dogs and old people I can have a million friends in the world. It's the just that middle group of people that I don't exactly get along with. A quick train ride home and I was sleeping in my own bed Saturday night. Other highlights of being out with them: His wife looks at me and tells him in Korean that I'm evidently skinnier than she had pictured me. He asked her to explain and she said that with the amount of cooking that I do that I would be chubbier or at the very least have a bit of pudge. He explained that as much as I run I also thoroughly enjoy running as well. While we were walking I was talking (so yes 2 things at once) and I walked dead into the roof of an electrical breaker that was overhanging part of the trail. So there we were on a nice afternoon walk and my head starts bleeding. All good and no need for stitches though, it was just a minor cut. On the car ride they were discussing English names for there son as Sam wants to raise him as bilingual as possible. There were throwing around the ideas and I don't remember them all but James was tossed out by him as a suggestion. I said that got my approval. The two I threw out were Benjamin as it gives you lots of options for nicknames and abbreviations. The last one I threw out was Alexander. Originally for the same reason as Benjamin, but then I started to think about the historical significance of Alexander and how his last name has king ties as well. So having the name of an emperor and the last name of a king as well as the stress of Korean parental expectations on you as the first male son. Freddie Mercury and David Bowie said it best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rye8aOP4oUc. The last thing is all the childrens songs they were playing were the English ones I remember growing up. However, there is one considerable difference. There are new extended verses for most of the songs. The one that made me smile was "Do you know the muffin man?" which I remember being the one Mom sang the most for me. I didn't know there was more than just the original verse. There's a "Yes I know the muffin man" verse followed by "now two of us know the muffin man" and this keeps going until all four kids sing "Now all of us know the muffin man". I'm thinking that with the advent of CD's came a need for these extended verses as kids have their favorite songs so hitting repeat on a CD player is quite easy, but if this was the child's favorite song and there was only one verse, a 30 minute drive in a car and I'd already be considering careening off the side of a mountain. I can only imagine what life must've been like for parents with tape players and having to hit rewind if you wanted the same desired effect. Mom's story of me being little and Scott and Jeff having to be in the car with the mind-numbing songs all the way to Chicago to visit Betsy and Mal.

Subway Mishaps

So some recent adventures when riding the subway, or the sardine can as it could so affectionately be referred to as. Yesterday, I was riding home and it was jam-packed and it shifted in a start-stop motion that sent a domino effect off five people in front of me that led to be needing to take a small step backwards. Unfortunately, as small as a step this was, it placed the heel of my boot right into the toe of a poor 40's-something that was behind me. It was tragic and just a series of unfortunate events, however she had this "Good Lord you ass!" grimace on her face. Then this morning on the way to work the subways were extra packed, probably easily correlated to the fact that it was raining this morning. I decided that the first subway that came by I wasn't daring enough to get on. Simple math: The subway is already at capacity. 3 people get on. Of course 15 people should be able to get on right? Evidently that's how math works in planet morning commute dreamland. I got on the second one, but was so packed in that my tablet was playing Burn Notice out of the hood of the jacket in front of me. Very interesting ride in. Very interesting. :-)