The Korean Food Culture

When I first arrived to Korea, I was surprised and honored by how the kids at school gave me some of their food after knowing me for only 5 minutes.  They'd share their candies, chips, and other snacks during break time as if I was already in the group.

I've since found out that, they weren't just being nice, they were being Korean.  Everyone shares food with each other.  If you're out picnicking on the hiking trail, you'll let the folks on the nearest blanket have some of your chicken.  In class, while we ask nicely, your food is my food, and mine is yours.  In a beautiful free for all, the individual snacks are spread among the group.  One girl will open up her chip bag and ritualistically dole out the 3 chips per person.  She might keep a few extra for herself, but everyone gets more or less a fair share.

I see this easiest at dinner out in the restaurants.  My friends and I will go out for samgyeopsal or for galbi, and the restaurant will bring out the main dish on a large pan.  We all pull from this pan with our chopsticks and share everything as a family.  We usually don't even have our own plates, and when I do happen to get one, I usually don't use it or I forget I have it.  The food just goes from the pot to my mouth.

They call this "family style," but this way of eating shows a closer-knit sharing than I have even with my American family back home.  We'll bring out the large dishes, but we'll pull from those and take the food to our plates before munching down.  Korea's style took some getting used to, I admit to that, but now, not only do I find the philosophy endearing, I prefer it this way.

And, no, I don't worry about germs at all anymore.  I'll be wary of what foods the kids give me because I don't know when their grimy hands were last washed, but at the big people table, we put our spoons into the same soup bowls and sometimes drink from the same cup.

And I love it.

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Check out this post for a look inside a Korean galbi restaurant!

Elegance Class Goes On A Field Trip: Rose Garden

My preschool class took a field trip to the rose garden at Seoul Grand Park at the beginning of June.  Never have I seen so many beautiful and well kept roses.  The girls enjoyed being near the pretty flowers, and Ryan had a blast, too.  Because I found them infinitely more interesting than the roses, here are some pictures of my kids!

On the way

We took a short tram ride to get to the garden.

My wild bunch

Most of my girls say their favorite animal is a rabbit.  They stayed at this mini zoo for a while.

As out of focus as it is (she was jumping up at me), this is my favorite picture of Sophia.

Teasing the pigs usually doesn't end well.

Mixed emotions on the opposite side of the fence

The pig remains dignified.

And trouble.
Marie teacher safely rescued the sweater, but not before tears were spilled by the wearer.

Judy found a bee.

Lunch time

Laughing with Bridget Teacher

The boys

It was a really long gummy worm.

The teachers only laugh. 

Judy and I tried to smile against the sunshine.

And we're back on the tram to go home.

Student of the Hour: Daniel (First Grade)

One of my students in first grade made me smile a lot today when I was grading his work.

His name is Daniel, and he is going places.

To illustrate "wisdom," he crafted this sentence:

My mom has brilliant wisdom.

No one writes sentences like this.  Simon was a close second with "Solomon is wisdom king," but only Daniel uses perfect grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation 98% of the time.

He also made this masterpiece of writing for homework.

Daniel's words are in red.
With more than two words per picture and an exclamation point for each, you know he's heading for an A.

Shark Diving at the Busan Aquarium

Here's what I'm going to call a photo tour of the Busan aquarium and the adventures my two friends and I had there.

Needy little critters

That's right, these are not Beluga whales (as I thought when I first saw these signs).  They're finless porpoises, and you can save them by keeping off the grass.

I like the icy fishy smell that accompanies penguin tanks.

This one little otter was the only one awake.  He walked all over his snoozing friends and amused us with his lonely energy.

You could pay to have a ride on this glass bottom boat.  It road over the shark tank I would dive in later.  How strange, right?  A boat in an aquarium.

Giant Japanese spider crabs have always freaked me out a little.  They were included in my Dangerous Creatures CD-Rom encyclopedia.  They always looked so unearthly and creepy.  Maybe even dangerous.  I'm sure you can see how this one's just edging to rip the kid's face off.

Mirrors call for self portraits.  I should have waited until the jellyfish were posing, too, though.

What's scarier than giant Japanese spider crabs?
Octopi.
Just a little lower n the scary scale than great whites and megaladons, but definitely worse than giant clams and stone fish.

The puffer fish and other guys seemed to be having a good time.

I wrote a mini report on the lion fish in elementary school.  They're venomous but so fly.

I was impressed by the Busan aquarium's charming exhibits.

Sea robins are ugly.
In my opinion.

The sea anemones had a fanciful display. 

Me and my soon-to-be BFF!
With the Scuba in Korea shark dive program, we paid 110,00 each to suit up and go under with these guys.

This is the inside of the shark tank tunnel.

This was the gimpy shark of the crew.  You can see how his body is bent.  That's not because he's getting his groove on.

Inflatable pets were available for purchase at the trinket shops inside the aquarium.

I love rays.
My favorite animal is the manta ray, and the hammerhead shark is second.  Being around these guys was a dream come true.

We love each other.We got to swim with leopard sharks, sand tiger sharks, spotted eagle rays, black ___ rays, giant grouper, white tipped reef sharks, black tipped reef sharks, leopard sharks, and behind partitions were finless porpoises,  green sea turtles, and a beautiful hammerhead.

Again, isn't this just a cool idea for an exhibit?

I don't know what kind of fish this is, but he sure was pretty, and he was kind enough to hold perfectly still for a picture.

Heading into the Staff Only section, we saw this giant sea horse.  He looks fake, doesn't he?  How wild!

Suited up for the dive!
We had a skill practicing time in a shallow part of a tank.  We worked on putting in our regulators, taking them out underwater and putting them back in, using the diving signals, and not being afraid with this whole breathing-underwater thing.  The thought of swimming with sharks hadn't scared me once this whole time, but in the shallow tank, I realized that I was not looking forward to breathing underwater and not being able to talk and scream if I needed to.  Yikes!

This my friend Lindsay and I after our dive, happy and exhilarated.
Everything was completely fine!  None of the animals touched me (and we weren't allowed to touch them).  It was neat finally being in the water and breathing fine.  It was cool having the other aquarium-goers taking pictures and lighting up when I waved the peace sign at them.  But my favorite part was sitting on the bottom of the tank and soaking everything in.  Getting to look up and see the animals floating and flying, it was so peaceful and so free.  I had no idea it would be so lovely and restful.  This makes me want to try diving in the real waters.

These are the shark teeth we found.  We were allowed and encouraged to look for them in the tank and to pick up as many as we found.  Our guide, Michael, said that my friend Lindsay was like the shark teeth whisperer.  She found 5!  I found one.

I'm so glad I went, guys!  While in Busan, we also hit up Haeundae Beach, New Philly Church's Seaside campus, some American style food, and a sweet hostel called Indy House.  It was a cool time and it was great to get out of the big city, but my favorite time was resting in the shark tank.  No pressure, no responsibility, just pure wonder and peace.

Plastic Surgery And Me

 These are some of the ads I see 3 times a week on my way home from church.

Needless to say, we've got some interesting priorities here in Seoul.  The pressure to be with someone and the pressure to be beautiful took me by surprise when I came, but I was pretty sure I'd be fine dealing with it.  I had a boyfriend already, I thought cosmetic plastic surgery was stupid, and I thought I was okay-looking anyway.

Ten months later, and I actually asked my boyfriend, "I'm... okay... without plastic surgery... right?"  Specifically, I asked if I was okay without a boob job.

And I was serious.

So, thank you, Korea, for chipping away at this part of my self confidence and for helping me get so much better at comparing my skin, my shapes, and my proportions to photoshopped, nipped, and tucked young girls.  It's been a real thrill.

These larger than life (and lovelier than life) faces glow from their frames on the walls heading down to the Sin Bundang Line in Gangnam station.

It really is this accepted and almost expected in Korean society.  Be beautiful, and be this kind of beautiful.