2 Korean culinary arts lessons and a wedding (not mine)
This week has been a lot of fun. I made 김치 (a traditional Korean food served with every meal) on Tuesday, and the Koreans showing me how to make it complimented me on my technique. This wasn't just them being nice either; the other teacher doing it with us was picked on quite a bit (all in good fun). Later that night I went over a friends house for game night and we played a game of Scrabble that started out good and competitive, but we ended up giving a lot of leeway for words and having a silly game. It started when I had a great seven-letter word that wouldn't fit anywhere, so I rearranged it and they let me have "BARTHIEF" to reach a triple word score. Then we started trading letters so we could make cool words, and it went all downhill from there.
Friday night I went out for a friend's bachelor party, which was a lot of fun. There was drinking, a lot of billiards, chatting, dancing, singing, and general merrymaking. At one point they asked for volunteers, so I immediately raised my hand without knowing what I was expected to do. They needed teams, so a couple friends of mine joined me, and it turned out to be a relay race. The first person had to don an apron, run to a chair with three beers, drink one, return, and untie the apron to give to the next person. We had a guy on our team that can actually just pour beer down his throat. Along with our competitiveness, we were a shoe-in. The prize: a free bar t-shirt. The only one among us who didn't yet have a shirt got the booty.
I forgot to set my alarm for Saturday, so I ended up a bit late for my Korean lessons. They went well, and I learned how to describe the events of the previous night in Korean. Here's a little sample from that description, which may interest you. 저는 어제밤에 조이스에서 춤췄어요. This basically means "I danced at Joyce's last night." Unless you are Babelfish, which says it means "Me trillion su from danced yesterday in night."
Later that day I went to a Korean family's house to cook some Korean food. The son was sleepy, so I carried him around the store. I got a lot of strange looks from people that I guess thought it was mine. It was suggested that pictures should be taken to send to family and friends, but I said the fake wedding thing already ran its course and nothing short of the real thing is going to be accepted. I learned how to make Korean pancakes and, since the ingredients are similar, 비빔밥. They turned out really well and tasted good.
Today was one of the best so far. I saw the traditional wedding of the guy from South Africa that we had the party for on Friday. A lot of it I didn't understand, but it was cool and hopefully some of my pictures turned out okay. I got to hang out with a bunch of other foreigners that I hadn't seen in a while, and we had a blast at the lunch reception.
I left early because I already had plans to meet another woman who wanted to show me a place in Masan and then teach me how to make another Korean dish. The really fun part was interacting with her daughter, though. She was energetic and curious, and could speak quite a bit of English. I could even unterstand a bit of her Korean, though she talked fast. Her mom had to translate a lot. I had my little notebooks full of Korean open so I could pull out phrases and such that I couldn't remember, and she wanted to look at them. I let her read some of it, and tried not to let her read what I wrote about Friday night, but I let my guard down at one point and she read it. Her eyes opened wide, she started laughing, and I quickly looked through my book to put together the phrase for "don't tell your mother." This had her in hysterics.
On a more somber note, we went to the March 15th National Cemetery where the high school students who died while protesting the Japanese occupation are remembered. It must be like September 11th where everyone knows the event and no one mentions the year, because I didn't see one anywhere and forgot to ask. It reminded me of the Kent State shootings except that more people were killed or wounded and it was an occupying government with the guns.
The mood was brightened as we made our way to the store and the little girl was telling me how she liked cookies, and wanted to know what kind of cookies I liked. She asked me questions about America and told me about her little dog, whose name sounds so similar to zombie that her friends always think its an undead dog. I told her we have those in my home city of Pittsburgh. They live out in the country, and they showed me their little garden, and the girl showed me her room and dog when we got to their house. A couple of her friends came over, but they were very shy and didn't speak much the entire time. I learned how to make 부대지개, which turned out delicious! It's like a spicy soup with meat, vegetables, and noodles that eats like a meal. The girl was so sad when I had to go home. She invited me back any weekend. Now that I know how to make a few meals, I have to try it on my own sometime. If it turns out alright, I'll have to make dinner for people when I return. It will be exotic and tasty, if I can find ingredients.
Friday night I went out for a friend's bachelor party, which was a lot of fun. There was drinking, a lot of billiards, chatting, dancing, singing, and general merrymaking. At one point they asked for volunteers, so I immediately raised my hand without knowing what I was expected to do. They needed teams, so a couple friends of mine joined me, and it turned out to be a relay race. The first person had to don an apron, run to a chair with three beers, drink one, return, and untie the apron to give to the next person. We had a guy on our team that can actually just pour beer down his throat. Along with our competitiveness, we were a shoe-in. The prize: a free bar t-shirt. The only one among us who didn't yet have a shirt got the booty.
I forgot to set my alarm for Saturday, so I ended up a bit late for my Korean lessons. They went well, and I learned how to describe the events of the previous night in Korean. Here's a little sample from that description, which may interest you. 저는 어제밤에 조이스에서 춤췄어요. This basically means "I danced at Joyce's last night." Unless you are Babelfish, which says it means "Me trillion su from danced yesterday in night."
Later that day I went to a Korean family's house to cook some Korean food. The son was sleepy, so I carried him around the store. I got a lot of strange looks from people that I guess thought it was mine. It was suggested that pictures should be taken to send to family and friends, but I said the fake wedding thing already ran its course and nothing short of the real thing is going to be accepted. I learned how to make Korean pancakes and, since the ingredients are similar, 비빔밥. They turned out really well and tasted good.
Today was one of the best so far. I saw the traditional wedding of the guy from South Africa that we had the party for on Friday. A lot of it I didn't understand, but it was cool and hopefully some of my pictures turned out okay. I got to hang out with a bunch of other foreigners that I hadn't seen in a while, and we had a blast at the lunch reception.
I left early because I already had plans to meet another woman who wanted to show me a place in Masan and then teach me how to make another Korean dish. The really fun part was interacting with her daughter, though. She was energetic and curious, and could speak quite a bit of English. I could even unterstand a bit of her Korean, though she talked fast. Her mom had to translate a lot. I had my little notebooks full of Korean open so I could pull out phrases and such that I couldn't remember, and she wanted to look at them. I let her read some of it, and tried not to let her read what I wrote about Friday night, but I let my guard down at one point and she read it. Her eyes opened wide, she started laughing, and I quickly looked through my book to put together the phrase for "don't tell your mother." This had her in hysterics.
On a more somber note, we went to the March 15th National Cemetery where the high school students who died while protesting the Japanese occupation are remembered. It must be like September 11th where everyone knows the event and no one mentions the year, because I didn't see one anywhere and forgot to ask. It reminded me of the Kent State shootings except that more people were killed or wounded and it was an occupying government with the guns.
The mood was brightened as we made our way to the store and the little girl was telling me how she liked cookies, and wanted to know what kind of cookies I liked. She asked me questions about America and told me about her little dog, whose name sounds so similar to zombie that her friends always think its an undead dog. I told her we have those in my home city of Pittsburgh. They live out in the country, and they showed me their little garden, and the girl showed me her room and dog when we got to their house. A couple of her friends came over, but they were very shy and didn't speak much the entire time. I learned how to make 부대지개, which turned out delicious! It's like a spicy soup with meat, vegetables, and noodles that eats like a meal. The girl was so sad when I had to go home. She invited me back any weekend. Now that I know how to make a few meals, I have to try it on my own sometime. If it turns out alright, I'll have to make dinner for people when I return. It will be exotic and tasty, if I can find ingredients.