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.

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!

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.

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

The teachers only laugh. 

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.

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.

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

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

The sea anemones had a fanciful display. 

Me and my soon-to-be BFF!
With the Scuba in Korea shark dive program, we paid ₩110,000 (about $106) each to suit up and go under with these guys.

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 something 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.

Heading into the Staff Only section on the way to our dive, 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 once I was in the shallow tank, I realized that I wasn't looking forward to breathing underwater and not being able to talk and scream if I needed to.  Yikes!

I don't have any pictures of during the dive, but 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).  When I was finally in the water and breathing fine, I calmed down and got to enjoy everything.  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.

I Locked Myself Out Of My Apartment.

via Wishbone Clever

I came home from the Lotus Lantern parade in Jongno celebrating Buddha's Birthday.  I was exhausted from weeks of sleep deprivation, but I had resolved to be in bed by 11:30.  I had an hour to get ready when I arrived at my door and realized my key was inside my bedroom.  My cell phone had no money on it, and I couldn't call my roommate.  She and all my other friends from the neighborhood were all an hour away at a bar, anyway.  I was sunk.

I'm not gonna lie, I was in self-pitying despair for about an hour.  I tried to get comfortable on my stoop and see if I could hold out for when my roommate got home, but that wasn't working.  I used my iTouch and the internet coming from my apartment to text two of my best friends (Caleb in the States and one of my brothers in Seoul).  They couldn't fix the problem, of course, but talking with them and not having things fixed gave me new drive to find a solution.

It was then that I remembered that Korea has one of the best things for cheap travelers: the jimjilbang.  The Korean bath house offers luxurious pools of different temperatures, showers, skin-sloughing scrubs, saunas, and sleeping mats.

I grabbed some freshly handmade noodle soup from a truck outside before checking myself into the jimjilbang.  I changed my shoes and paid the 8,000 won.  Bleary eyed but satisfied from dinner, I changed into the set of clothes they gave me: large formless t-shirt and loose cropped cotton pants.  I washed my face as best as I could then headed out to the dark common room where people had already curled up for the night.

Laying on my mat with my pillow and using my plaid flannel shirt as a blanket along with the two small towels provided me, I started to relax.  I began to pray, as is a nightly ritual for me.

Within seconds of resting there in prayer, I felt washed over with gratitude and with that shy feeling when you understand just how childishly you'd been acting earlier.  I began to thank God profusely for providing for me everything I need.  He gave me an iTouch to use when I needed people to talk to.  He gave me money to buy a filling and tasty dinner.  He gave me a cheap and safe place to stay.  He even made sure I had my flannel shirt to hold while I slept.  (I feel most comfortable when I have something to hold when I sleep.)  As I looked back on the last two hours, I wondered at how worried and pouty I had been there on my stoop.  I serve ...actually, I am a daughter of the King and Lord of the universe.  Of course He would take care of me.

And that's my story.

Café Pawz: A Korean Dog Cafe

It is true that there is a Korean soup that uses dog meat, but this isn't what a dog cafe is for.  A Korean dog cafe is a place where dog owners and dog lovers can bring their dogs, play with dogs, and enjoy dogs while sipping on over-priced coffee drinks and shakes.

I have a beautiful chocolate lab back home, and I've missed her terribly while I've been over here.  Going to Caffé Pawz in Gangnam helps to alleviate that once in a while.  For the long-time residents of Seoul, this is a place where they can go with their dogs and not have to worry about stares from people on the subway.  I imagine the dogs get antsy inside the city apartments, so an open space like this (even though there isn't grass) must be a welcome change.

As the Bridge Paperzine mentions in their article on pet places around Seoul, the cafe doesn't smell like dog.  There is plenty of space and seating, a concrete floor for easy mess clean up, and plenty of pooches to watch.  Both times I've been, the majority of the dogs were the small toys you see girls toting on the posh streets of Apgujeong, but there are always a couple big fellas which soothe my craving for "real dogs."

There's always a few dogs who want to play with every other dog in the area.  Sometimes they'll just amuse themselves which each other and stay clear from the people.

I stopped in my tracks and gasped when I saw this creature.  (No joke.)  What.  The heck.  Is it?  Ewok + bear + puppy + mouse?

Photo bomber

Just so you know, the dogs will wrangle themselves inside the kitchen area sometimes.  But, if you've been in Korea for a while, you probably don't mind as you've seen worse.  (Urinals in the kitchen, anyone?  Bathroom sink next to the burners?)

If you check it out, let me know how it goes!  And, for you who are in the States, do you think this idea would take off back home?

Caffé Pawz is located at Gangnam-gu Yeoksam-dong 834-8.