I've been Androided over. Then once they were done I got a healthy dose of Korean culture added.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
STREET FOOD, “MY” WAFFLE LADY, AND OMG AMERICAN CANDY!!!
Yes I still exist and yes this is finally a written update instead of just photos and captions. Although there will probably be more of those in the future seeing as how easy they are to upload from my tablet.
Been experimenting at home with new foods and absolutely love this new combo of noodles, soup and spiciness that I’ve come up with for myself (See former picture for a photographic representation). It all stemmed basically from my Christmas gift from Santa of a Tofu marinating plasticware with a sealable top (and seal it it does as I really toss this stuff around to get a good blend). I then saw some red and green Asian peppers at the market the other day that looked absolutely delectable and these were finely sliced and added to both the soup broth and to the bin to marinate the Tofu. I purchased a garlic press this weekend for the financial sum of 1,500\ which basically is a buck fifty and what a difference it has made in food prep. It’s one less thing I have to slice when I can just as easily throw it into the thing and have garlic mash to add to anything and everything to my heart’s content (which you might be able to guess from an earlier post is a lot of foods). I’ve also been steaming these wonderfully delectable dumplings (a big Korean staple) and then I turn around and pan fry them with some sesame oil and soy sauce to be topped by a mix of sautéed green onions/peppers/sesame seeds/garlic with a splash of sweet chili sauce on top. Mmmmm now that I wrote that I’m definitely making some tonight. I was iffy before because we ordered in today for work and I ate too much (show of hands who’s shocked) and there were a couple of times during class that I thought I’d be teaching while holding the trashcan.
I’ve also been exploring Korean street foods. There are street vendors everywhere here and it first stemmed from me taking an alternate route to work (had to stop by the atm to get money to purchase a cell phone) and I saw a cart that sold waffles. Heck ya I thought. Then I saw the sign that it was only a dollar and I got even more excited. Then this little lady took a dollop of whip cream and spread on one side and a squirt of honey all over the other and folded it in half. I was in heaven. Mmmm. The next day I routed myself by this corner and she was gone. The audacity. I then walked a different way to work the following day and that’s when I met “My” waffle lady. Her whip cream has strawberries mixed in with it. The first day I got the usual. When I saw her the very next day she had a smile and I got extra honey and extra whip cream. The third day in a row I saw her she said “thank you” instead of the Korean word for Goodbye (a nice goodbye not a get the hell out) after I had said thank you. The fourth day I made the effort to learn delicious as I had already been responding with 1 and thank you in Korean. That day she had learned and practiced Hello in anticipation for me. I was saddened though when on Saturday she wasn’t opened. Everyone deserves a day off so I thought that I’d see her today, Monday, but no such luck. Maybe she’s the sole person in Korea that celebrates MLK day. Her cart isn’t on the sidewalk so I don’t think she has to move it as even when it is closed it’s on her corner which makes me happy.
When I haven’t stopped at her cart, usually when running multiple errands or like today when sadly she wasn’t opened, my first waffle lady is back with her husband. He makes these small little dough dumplings that are delicious and filled with this red bean paste. They’re not sweet like the waffle, but also not overly savory, a perfect union of the two sides. The first day I stopped there he gave me an extra, however today when I went there I only got the 6 for a dollar because he was busy and could sell the others I guess. There are still plenty of other options in the realm of Korean street food and I definitely look forward to exploring them further. J
Lastly, I got my Christmas care package from my folks last week later in the week. It was great because I got it on a break during my Friday class and so I was looking through it and I decided that I would share a little of the candy that I had been sent. Their response was hilarious. OMG AMERICAN CANDY!!! Haha it made me laugh because at the grocery store right next to school they sell Snickers and Starburst so idk what the deal is.
***Random Thoughts***
I had some more interesting bar food. This was at a bar where a couple of us went out with the boss last week for chicken and beer and then progressed into the nightclub upstairs (not connected to the chicken and beer restaurant just conveniently upstairs). There we had this marvelously wonderful dish that was a saltine cracker, a slice of ham, a slice of kiwi, a slice of banana, and a slice of a cherry tomato. I know what you’re thinking, but IT WORKS. I probably ate more than my allotment of them, but they’re addicting.
My bank lady cracks me up. I never got this much attention when I’d go see Pizza at Randolph Brooks. Then again I wasn’t the “single” foreigner that comes in there to see her. I specify single because the couple that works in the branch with us was at the bank with me one time and he didn’t get the overly helpful service that I got. The branch manager even makes it a point that after he says the Korean greeting, that I respond to in Korean, he gives me a wave and a HI. But back to the bank lady, who I think every time I try to do something, there’s always a reason to “come back tomorrow”. I don’t mind because it’s between “my” waffle lady and work and on the way and fits perfectly into my city exploring time.
Got my cell phone and it is beautifully simply. It was a little feminine at first from the previous used with these fruity opening tones whenever you’d slide the lid open or birds and flowers and butterflies on the wallpaper, but I toned it down a little, found some ordinary basic ringtones and silenced all the other nonsensical noises (who really needs a noise when they’re pressing keys?) and I love it. Then again now the trouble lies within the fact that I have a cell phone and I need to remember I have a cell phone so people can get ahold of me. Otherwise it turns into a Grandpa Shannon cellphone and only he can get away with that and still be loved. J
Saturday, January 14, 2012
My Work Street @ Night
Korean cities are all abuzz and aglow at night with led lights and flashing signs everywhere (evidently neon lights are very last century). Our work street is no exception. I love looking at the lights on my walk home.
My Apartment Building.
Fun little playscape out front, and on the right side of that is a small cabbage garden that is fun to look at on my way to work.
Pictures of My Apartment Windows.
The one on the right is home to my Snoopy holiday sun catchers. The one on the left is usually closed due to it being above my sweater chair and next to my "closet". The one on the right though lights up the entire apartment and provides more than adequate lighting.
Last Night's Dinner Came out Fantastic
Cooked my wheat vermicelli noodles then lightly pan-fried them in a mix of soybean oil, soy sauce and sesame oil. Then added them to the bowl to be toped by a wonderful broth full of garlic, green onions, Asian red peppers, spicy pan-fried tofu, toasted sesame seeds, mmmmmm delicious.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Garlicification, Bowling Ball Graveyard, and Casino/Call Center Dilemma
What has been happening? Has 2012 brought anything new to anyone else? A little bit of this and a little bit of that, and a good amount of work in between. Since my last blog I finally received my Alien Registration Card (aka Green Card) after 3 weeks of waiting. Normal processing time was told to the branch manager and me to be 3 weeks, but then again reflecting upon it nothing about trying to get over here and also with the whole working in Korea process has taken the “normal processing time”.
I’ve continued my explorations with noodle soups. Most recently I’ve been playing around with different methods of cooking the tofu. It has turned out quite delicious as “Santa” brought me a cool Tupperware type container with a built in strainer that holds the tofu and allows it to marinate in the fridge. I cooked a massive amount of soup the other night and this was the perfect application for the broth as the tofu really soaked up a great deal of the flavor. With that and fine cubing it before throwing it in a pan with some oil I’ve managed to get a crust that forms on it before tossing it in soy and garlic. Right here I should mention that Koreans eat a lot of garlic. I thought Italians loved garlic, but they just love it to season tomatoes and other things. Koreans will grill garlic and eat it cloves at a time. I really enjoy this because the garlic loses a great deal of its abrasive qualities and becomes quite savory. To explain further how much Koreans enjoy their garlic, there is a special Garlic Whopper from Burger King available over here that is the only thing advertised on TV. Haha. Back to the soup when the garlic get’s tossed in a hot pan with just a light soy sauce it almost gives the garlic this roasted quality that begins to remind me of the roasted garlic goodies that Macaroni grill puts in the saucers for bread dipping.
The problem I’ve faced however is I’ve had so much broth though that I needed to figure out a type of noodle that I liked that I could just buy the noodles and then add it to the broth. I knew that I liked udon noodles, but udon noodles lend themselves to a one serving function and aren’t like what I was thinking of such as spaghetti back home where you buy a big bag of it and it lasts you for a month or so. Then I saw at the store that their wheat noodles for a good size bag were on for buy one get one free and this made me pleasantly happy and I think the girl at the register knew it too. That coupled with the 3 boxes of Danish butter cookies (think the ones in the blue tins at Walgreens) which were buy 2 for 90 cents a piece and get one free, and the Sprite that I got for a class reward I think the total was 6 dollars approximately. I couldn’t understand what the checkout lady said, but the way she was smiling I could tell that she was duly impressed with the savings
We went bowling the other night from work and what an interesting excursion it was. First of all we arrive at the bowling alley which was in the basement of a building so it looked like you’d expect a bowling alley to look, which made me happy. However, they didn’t call themselves a bowling alley, although that’s all they offered, rather they were a health club and they were none too pleased about the backpacks full of beer that we had brought in and the Korean lady that appeared to own or manage the lanes proceeded to voice her displeasure to one of the guys I work with. He didn’t communicate exactly what she said, but we did get the impression she wasn’t nice about it. The balls were definitely not nice. This bowling alley is where bowling balls go to die. There were chips, scrapes and gashes out of these balls and all the holes were odd sizes. I never claimed to have big hands, but I would suspect in a country where I’m pretty averaged sized that things like bowling balls would fit me, however these balls were drilled from Sasquatch to bowl with. We played three games, but my hand was pretty torn up after the first one so the scores continued to steadily decline, therefore our first game of great success that looked like our team would easily win two out of three led to our team paying for the bowling outing, which for eight people and three games a piece came out to what 4 people at 2 games a piece would be back in the states so not a catastrophic deal. We however didn’t let the lady completely ruin our fun as there were long breaks in between frames where we went out to the garage to drink beer. Dinner afterwards was delicious as well. I think dinners where we go and it is more a communal family style dinner are always more fun. This one was a soup in a cast iron pot on the burner at our table and it is always fun to have the people fry rice after you’re done eating the soup in the same pot to soak up the last remnants of flavor and the little burnt specks are like little pockets of flavor heaven
My classes have been evolving nicely as I’ve grown to expect more from the students, and they’ve responded appropriately. I finally had students in my younger classes that got 100’s on their review quizzes from the previous class and rightfully so I had a stamp with an owl on it that says “Who is #1?” that they received. Their responses to my stamps have provided great entertainment for me. I use different one everyday in their writing journals and they’ve caught on to that and try to guess which one will be used for the day and also they’ve begun to notice that a smiley face on a quiz means you took it and didn’t do that great and awesome performances (above a 70) are rewarded with worded stamps such as “good work”, “super” and “nice job”. I’ve reserved my “great progress” stamp for their writing books because they are in fact making progress. I’ve stressed not using the same words, such as like or good, over and over again and a few of the students are dabbling in word and sentence play that is showing great results. I’m grading their revisions currently, but there have been a couple that I think I’m going to establish a writing success wall and post some of their works that should be commended as I think this will lead to a more concentrated effort by the other students
Last, but certainly not least, my older students. They don’t get the stamps because they’re too cool for stamps. Not that I blame them, but I’m glad it works for my younger students. With my older students I’ve enjoyed the conversations that we’ve had within the structure of the classes based on the given topics. With one level the topic last week was allergies and different theories to explain the rise in allergies. There wasn’t a great deal of detail given to the treatment of allergies, but the specific explanations of why people are sick more of the time and why they are more people and children with allergies in today’s world than those generations of the past was something interesting to discuss. This week’s topic with this class in particular is the connection between religion and environmentalism and I’m particularly excited to see how this has developed as the final project wasn’t something that I particularly thought assessed their understanding of the topic and what it meant and I changed it up a little. The other older group had an equally interesting topic their last class as it involved Native Americans (the book stated Native Indians but I had to clear it up that it meant Native Americans as here in Korean when Indians are mentioned the thought goes to the actual country instead of primitive Americans). I was super excited as the topic mainly focused on the Black Hills conflict and two of my favorite Native Americans, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The final project at the end of class also got me to thinking. It was about teams and team mascots and the Native American debate. Now before I begin the prelude to the final project was a small listening lecture that brought up some excellent thinking points I’ll mention, but it did also mention that a survey of Native Americans showed that over 70% aren’t offended by the teams in question. It did however get the students along with me thinking with “Why are these acceptable?” One example it gave is would a basketball team named the New York Jews be culturally accepted or would people be outraged? What about the Atlanta Blackmen? If these names cause such outrage then why don’t the Redskins or the Indians? Reflecting on their project however they were charged with picking any sport and picking a mascot for a team of a city of their choosing (making a new mascot) and explain why this particular mascot is a good choice, what does it embody, and what does it represent. I did think about the debates recently concerning the license plates and Buffalo Soldiers and also the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy and how ridiculously butt hurt people get about flags and meanings. First of all the flag that everyone get’s uptight about isn’t even the flag that was of the Confederacy. We’ve bastardized history to the point where we think Custer was a hero and that the “rebel” flag that individuals wave and sport on their trucks represents a country that supported slavery. In fact it is a specific unit’s battle flag that was a significant force during the civil war. The actual “star and bars” that represents the Confederate States of America is actually quite reminiscent of the original Betsy Ross flag of the US with only 3 bars instead of the thirteen originals. That’s why there isn’t a Johnny Rebel flag hanging outside the Texas Capital. Maybe if the logos of the particular organization mentioned before would change it’s flag to one that is more historically correct and appropriate, people wouldn’t be so sore over it because they in turn wouldn’t even know what it is.
***Random Thoughts***
After getting my green card I went to the bank yesterday and opened an account. It was pretty painless. However it was nice because she was able to correctly pronounce Byron and needed no assistance (so why is it so hard for Americans?). She kept asking me because of the way that names are on forms and cards if my first name was Byron or Roscoe. I explained to her that Byron was my first name and she goes “Oh so your last name is Roscoe Davis?” I don’t know if I was fully successful at explaining to her that Roscoe was a middle name, but we both got a smile and a chuckle out of when she was processing my forms and she says “you know you look like that guy. Ummm the one from TV. Steve Jobs.” Haha. I don’t know exactly what it is, but the kids seem to consistently say the same thing so maybe to Koreans I do look like him
Watched the Fiesta Bowl and couldn’t be happier. When that field goal was missed in the final seconds of regulation by Stanford I knew that Weeden could wrap it up for the Pokes.
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