A productive -- if crazy -- day

This is my kitchen. I love my kitchen. It's one of my favorite things about this apartment. There's enough counter space to actually make things. The sink is large, there are lots and lots of cabinets. However, today, a war was waged in my kitchen that reduced it to looking like this:

What, you may ask, happened to the once brave and clean expanses of counter top? Where did the shining, empty sink go? I had quite a few adventures in the kitchen today, but I'm happy to say that all of them were quite successful. 

A good deal of what I did today involved stocking up my freezer with individual sized portions that I can just defrost after work. This was my freezer at the start of the day. Nothing terribly exciting. Pretty empty. 

This is what it looks like now. I'm excited!!

First off, I made a concentrate that I can use for broccoli soup. Basically, when I want to eat some, I just have to thaw the concentrate, heat it up and add milk and anything else that I want. My basic "cream of ______" soup recipe doesn't really use measurements. It's all about the ratios. So, you need three parts of chicken or vegetable stock, two parts of your vegetables, and one part of dairy. Your dairy can be milk, cream, half and half, yogurt, sour cream... Anything really. I also partially steamed several servings of broccoli and froze them. Maybe I'll make a stir fry or something out of them later on. 

I also made a base to use for tomato soup. I would just like to point out how neatly this tomato continues the apparent tradition of MASSIVE produce in South Korea. It's as big as my hand, and I have pretty big hands. Since I'm apparently incapable of making soup in small enough quantities for one person to reasonably finish in a few days, freezing it seemed like the only option. In fact, I already have a large container of potato soup left over from my last soup making attempt in the freezer. 

While all of the soup simmering was going on, I baked two and a half pounds of chicken breast, lightly seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper, then I shredded it to be frozen in smaller portions. I'll be able to pull it out and use it in a wide variety of dishes in the future. 

This is one pound of peeled fresh ginger. Apparently, when you peel an entire pound of ginger, the enzyme or whatever inside of the ginger that gives it a pleasant spice transfers itself to your skin in such large quantities that your hands will burn for the next hour, despite repeated hand washing. Just so you know :) I used this to make candied ginger, which was a first for me. 

The candied ginger is in the pot on the left. The pot on the right is Alfredo sauce that I also made to put in the freezer. A note to my future self: Don't ever make two delicate, time-sensitive dishes that both require constant stirring at the same time. 

When I was stirring the ginger in the pot, it was still a liquid. As soon as I turned off the heat and literally rotated to my right to dump the mixture out onto some aluminum foil, it had turned into something that was granulated and solid again. It was pretty amazing. Now I have a lot of candied ginger AND some awesome ginger infused sugar!

A close up of the ginger. It always reminds me of Christmas, somehow. Maybe it's the way the sugar sparkles like lights?

Next up was another new recipe. I'm going to a cookie exchange on Saturday, so I needed 3 dozen cookies. I posted a recipe for some red velvet cream cheese cookies on my facebook last night because they just looked so amazing. Unfortunately, that particular cookie recipe called for a box of red velvet cake mix. Which just doesn't exist in Korea. So I went to bed last night a little sad, as I contemplated my lack of red velvet. This morning, I woke up determined to find a way around this minor setback in my quest for red velvet cookies. I did some googling and found a recipe that I could make pretty easily here. I modified it a little bit, and decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. 

Here we have the finished product: Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oh. My. Word. They were amazingly delicious. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from a cake turned cookie, but whatever my expectations may have been, they were far exceeded. This recipe is definitely going into the notebook where I write all of my favorite recipes and cooking tricks. It might even be my new favorite cookie. 

Finally, I used some of that candied ginger to make ginger molasses cookies. This is an old favorite recipe of mine. I've made them lots of times. But it was exciting to make them with ginger that I'd made myself!

In the middle of this cooking frenzy, I got a text message from my school requesting my presence at a ceremony that evening, so I had to run off and leave my kitchen a complete disaster. This is one of those times I'm thankful that I live alone -- I don't have a roommate to drive crazy with stuff like this! 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Dumpster Diving, Korean Style

One of my friends came over for some tea and cookies tonight. She and I met relatively recently, and this was her first time coming to my apartment. I met her near her bus stop, and then we walked over to my apartment. As we got close, we noticed these giant cabinets that were in the trash area. We stopped to look, and we discovered that they were gorgeous and in really good shape. So, we decided that I should adopt one of them.

It was a little awkward, but not terribly heavy. We walked it up the two hills that are between the trash area and my apartment. This is when the problems started. You see, the hallway in my apartment building is a little bit narrow. And there is a set of stairs and a corner you have to turn before you get to my apartment door. We had a few problems getting it all around there.

We were most of the way up the stairs, and starting to figure out how to twist and turn the cabinet to get it to fit around the corner and into the door when my landlord comes out of his apartment and asks what we're doing. At least, I think that's what he asked. He doesn't speak any English, and I was too busy trying to balance a wardrobe on the steps to give too much thought to Korean translation.

My landlord is pretty cool though. He squeezed past the wardrobe, up the steps and helped my friend and I get it into the apartment. It was quite hilarious, I'm sure... Two blonde haired women and an old Korean man trying to communicate with motions, grunts and random Korean words that we all threw out there, balancing a wardrobe up the stairs and around the corner. Thankfully, we finally got it into my living room. That's where it is sitting now. Just kinda hanging out. I think I need to move some furniture in my spare room to make it fit, but this is really good.

There are no closets in Korean apartments, so you need a wardrobe type thing. I have one, but it's a bit sketchy, and really, really tiny. This one is at least twice the size of my current wardrobe, and it is much, much prettier! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the old one... In the meantime, I have this sitting in the middle of my living room, and a great story about dumpster diving and furniture moving in Korea ;)

Walking Home

I was on the bus, on my way home from work tonight, and I was chatting with my friend Martha. Martha is one of my "back home" friends, and her days are starting just as mine are ending. So it works rather conveniently, and we chat just about every work day. I tried a new way to come home tonight, and at one point, I realized I was on a bus and I had absolutely no clue where I was... Finally, I recognized one of the announcements about a stop, and was able to make it back with no problems.

Martha was right there with me during this whole process, and got a bit of a play by play as I got lost and found again. So when I finally exited the bus, she inquired how far I had to walk to get home. I thought that I'd snap a few pictures of my walk from this particular bus stop back to my apartment. I apologize for the really terrible picture quality. I had books and bread in my hands, and it was dark out.

This is where the bus drops me off. Well, it actually drops me off on the other side of the street, but you get the general idea ;) 

Next, I take a right at the fruit stand. Yes, that is actually fruit and produce, even though you really can't see it. These produce stands are EVERYWHERE in Seoul. The prices are usually quite good, and the produce is quite fresh. 

Looming ahead is the "tunnel of doom". When I went to look at the apartment, the previous tenant went to great lengths to assure me that it wasn't too creepy/scary, and I shouldn't take this apartment off of my list just because of the tunnel. I actually kinda like it. It's nice and echo-y and mysterious!

After the tunnel come the never-ending-stairs. Ok. They really aren't that bad, especially not compared to some of the subway stairs, or all of the stairs I climb at work. But sometimes it feels like there are a lot of them ;)

Past the tunnel is this intersection. My neighborhood is quite quiet, but there are two major tunnels that run under the mountain that merge onto a highway here. Traffic can get a bit heavy sometimes. 

This is the road that I turn onto to get to my apartment. We're almost there! Just one more turn and one more hill. 

This is the final turn/hill combo to get to my place. When I first moved here, I hated this hill... But after walking up and down it multiple times a day, and comparing it with the mountain I climb at work, we are becoming old friends and it isn't such a big deal anymore ;) I do really appreciate how much green there is around my building. The ajumma all have their little vegetable gardens and pots. 

This is my actual building, shot at a funny angle so you couldn't read the address plate on it ;)

Just inside the door, you see all of these stairs. My landlord lives in the basement apartment, and I live on the "2nd" floor. Really, it's just up that tiny flight of stairs to the first landing. 

Finally, we reach my front door. For some reason, it is very hobbit-esque to me. Maybe it's the green and gold. Who knows. But I'm usually quite happy to make it back here!

All said and done, from the bus stop to my apartment door, it is about a 5 minute walk. There's another bus stop that is about a minute away from my apartment (down by the exercise park) that I use when I go to work. When I come back, that bus isn't as convenient, so I've been exploring a number of options to get home again. 

Welcome to my humble abode!

As of this afternoon, I will have been back in Korea for one week. It has been a crazy week, full of unpacking, job orientation, trying to learn new bus routes, and adjusting to a new time zone. Thankfully, the jet lag has been really really easy to handle this time around. I suppose it's making up for how terrible it was in the States.

Things are going well with the new job so far. I'm trying to finish learning the online system, in all of its multi-faceted glory, and writing a syllabus for a storytelling class I'm teaching, but other than that, I'm ready for classes to start on Friday.

I don't know that I'd say I'm settled in to my new apartment yet, because things are still really new, and I'm still trying to figure out which light switch does what, and which way to turn the faucets to change the water temperature, and all of that stuff... But I'm at least unpacked, which is a glorious thing! So, without further ado, here is a video tour of my new apartment! Sorry it's a little twist during the first part. I am filming on my iPhone, and I can't ever tell what direction things are going to go once they're done!

I can go up to the rooftop as well. My landlord uses it for storage, so it is rather crowded, but there are a few places to sit. The view is lovely from up there. 

All in all, I think I'm going to quite enjoy living here!

The End is the Beginning

Way back in the day when I was studying music history, I remember this little song. It is from the Medieval period, and it's called "Ma fin est mon commencement" which translates into "my end is my beginning". What made this song so unique was that it was a perfect mirror image, so it was like you listened to the first half of the song, then you listened to it backwards. It's a pretty cool little song -- check it out!

I kinda feel like that song right now. Things are winding down at KBU. I'm done teaching. My office is basically cleaned out. I have to make one more trip to drop off the keys to my apartment and print my plane ticket. It's been a rough year there. Hopefully we were able to help make things a little better, and it won't be that bad for the next group of people. Despite it all though, I did love my students.

KBU is a small school. I've had just over 10% of the total student body flow in and out of my classroom in the past year. Whenever I walk anywhere on campus, I see students that I know. Even the students I've never taught know me, and they generally try to speak some English. When I go to the cafeteria, there are students who will bring their lunch over and eat with me. I sometimes get texts or emails from students that are really sweet. I've definitely had a good group of kids this past year, and I will miss them a lot.

I'm moving to my new apartment in the morning, so I'm in the middle of packing and cleaning. I never thought I'd say it, but I've grown rather fond of my little shoebox apartment. It will be strange to come back from America to a new place. These four walls have seen a lot in the past year.

At the same time, I'm already gearing up for my new job when I get back. I've been getting a flurry of emails from my director, TAs and colleagues. I've had to learn how to navigate the online portal system that is entirely in Korean. I'm looking over textbooks and beginning to think about how I want to run my classroom.

I'm packing everything up, which reminds me of doing the exact same thing just about a year ago when I was preparing to come to Korea for the first time. It's so strange, because Korea is familiar now, and it's home. But when I come back, it will be to a new neighborhood and new job. I'll have to learn the finer points of public transportation all over again. I'll have to navigate a new set of office politics. Only it won't be as overwhelming as it was last year, because there is an underlying sense of familiarity to it.

So. In a few days, I'll fly back to America, and I'll spend time with friends and family, do a bit of road tripping, eat lots of good food and generally make merry. Then I'll get on a plane for a very long flight and come back to the Incheon International Airport. It will be a little bit of an end, and in all the same ways, it will be a little bit of a beginning.

Maybe I'll have more time to process the entirety of this year when I'm on the plane, or in America. Or maybe I won't. Because even though there are lots of ends and lots of beginnings, I'm still in the middle of this Korean adventure. But for now, I need to go finish packing so I can move to Haebangcheon in the morning.

Apartment Hunting Begins and Ends

I wrote last week about getting ready to start apartment hunting. Based on stories I'd heard from other people who had gone apartment hunting, I was expecting quite the ordeal. There were several factors that gave rise to this expectation.

Most schools that hire native English teachers in Korea provide housing for their teachers. If they don't provide housing, they provide a housing subsidy for you to go find your own apartment. With this in mind, I'd been scoping out apartments in a certain price range. I started to get more details of the new contract, and I realized that this particular school doesn't provide any housing assistance. It's still a phenomenal job, there's just no housing.

The apartment I live in now is nice enough. It's safe, relatively quiet (most of the time...), modern enough, there are no mold or cockroach problems, etc. It's just really, really tiny and really, really far away from everything. I was really looking forward to moving closer to my friends and finding an apartment that was big enough to do some entertaining.

In fact, I had a whole wish list of things that would be amazing to find in an apartment. In no particular order, I wanted to have a separate bedroom and living room area, a kitchen that was big enough to actually cook in, a quiet neighborhood, a safe neighborhood, something that was accessible to public transportation, a balcony and/or rooftop access, something that came with the major appliances (not always the case in Korea...) and something that came with a bed, since my current school owns the bed I sleep in now. That was quite the list. I knew my chances of finding all of that together were pretty much zilch, but that was the wish list.

Then I found out about the lack of housing assistance, and my priority list quickly shifted to this. 1) be in a safe neighborhood and 2) be in my price range. Most of the realtors I'd been talking to were still telling me that I was starting to look too early (about 15 days before I wanted to move) so I'd started looking on the local Craigslist website. I found one apartment and it was in my price range, so I went to look at it. It was pretty terrible. I'd found another apartment that seemed a little bit nicer, but I was having a really hard time reaching the guy who had listed the place.

Finally, after four days he called me back and one of my friends and I went to see the place. I was blown away by it. Not only was it affordable and in a safe neighborhood, it had literally every single item on my first list. Two bedrooms, a huge kitchen with a pantry, a living room area that comes with some furniture that matches my decorating scheme... There's even a bed.

My friend and I went to lunch after we'd looked at the place, and on principle, I decided to wait and think for a few hours before I decided to take it. Neither of us saw anything to be really concerned about, so later that afternoon, I officially said I'd take it! I'll start moving my stuff over before I come back to America, so I can come back to the new apartment and not have to worry about moving when I get back.

So, that's how apartment hunting turned out in Korea. It was actually easier than when I've gone apartment hunting in America. I'm really thankful to have it all taken care of, and I'm especially thankful that God provided such an amazing apartment for me to move into!! I'll definitely post pictures once I get them, but it will probably be early September by the time I get back from America and get settled into it enough to make everything presentable. So stay tuned!

The Secret Phase of Culture Shock

Normal life has been moving along here in Seoul. I finished teaching my normal semester classes, I turned all of my grades in, I planned all of my summer English camps. These are all normal things that normal teachers do all over the world. I've been doing my normal church activities, shopping at my normal grocery stores and going to normal restaurants and coffee shops with friends. Life is full, but relatively boring at the moment. I consider this to be quite an accomplishment.

Most places seem to agree that there are four stages of culture shock when you move to a new country. There is the honeymoon phase where everything seems wonderful and amazing. This can last anywhere between 2 weeks and 3-4 months.

One day, reality intrudes on the honeymoon phase, and you realize that you're living in a place where everything is different, and you don't really understand it. This is called the negotiation phase. It is often characterized by feelings of anxiety, frustration and sometimes anger. It can start anywhere between 3-6 months into your stay. This is usually the point where people get bitter and turn into haters. Unfortunately, some people never leave this stage. 

After the negotiation phase comes the adjustment phase. This is where you become more comfortable with life, and things start to seem more normal. Most people have figured out enough of the culture to know how to navigate basic situations and they start to rebuild some confidence and lose the anxiety and frustration. You don't go back to the honeymoon phase, but life becomes much easier to deal with. 

The last stage is for long-term expats, and it is the mastery phase. This is when you learn the host culture language and culture well enough to fully participate in it. You don't lose the aspects of your home culture, but you reach a stage where you are fully fluent in both cultures. 

My experience with culture shock wasn't exactly textbook. My honeymoon stage lasted about two hours. I kept switching back and forth between negotiation and adjustment for a really long time. I've been in Korea for a little over 10 months now. I'm doing a lot of things that are pretty normal. There are still plenty of things about Korea that I don't understand, and my Korean is still pretty terrible, but for now, this country is home. This giant, massive, sprawling metropolis has somehow turned into my city. 

However, there is one phase of this whole living abroad thing that wasn't covered by the traditional definitions of culture shock. That would be the phase where you are suddenly going out on your own to rent property in your own name and fill it with your own furniture without anyone from a school or employer looking over your  shoulder or providing basic things. Even though I've lived here for almost a year and navigated through a lot of culture shock, this still kinda freaks me out for some reason. It feels so much more permanent than moving into a school provided apartment furnished with school provided stuff.

This is when it hits me-- I really do have a life in a foreign country, and it really is a real, functioning, adult life. This isn't some extended vacation. It isn't a dream. This isn't even strange anymore. But at some level, it still feels like I'm on the outside looking in. 

It's also a bit crazy trying to navigate through the Korean rental system. I'm hoping to move sometime between July 25th and August 1st. That's 19 days away from today. I've been looking around online and talking with some realtors, and they are all telling me that it's simply too early to start looking for an apartment. I keep asking when it would be a good time to start looking, and they keep telling me that I should start looking maybe two weeks before I want to move. I think that finding an apartment and moving will be a grand adventure. Stay tuned for more updates on all of that!

In the meantime, life is kinda boring. It's kinda normal. Shortly after I move I'll be back in America for a few weeks to visit, then it's back to Seoul to start a new adventure at a new apartment and a new school - both as a professor and a student. Hopefully that doesn't mean I have to start the cultural transitions all over again ;)

Packing and Assorted Pictures

When I went back to America, I didn't have too much time to pack stuff here in Korea. I pretty much threw in a few outfits, and went. I did have enough mental energy to think through the fact that I'd probably be doing some shopping while I was Stateside, so I brought two empty suitcases with me. When I came back to Korea, they were most certainly NOT empty.

What kinds of things might a Midwestern expat in Korea want to stock up on, you might ask? Well, here in full color is the answer. Yes, I did actually manage to fit all of that into suitcases. It was something of an ordeal. If you don't believe me, just ask my dad. He hates my packing adventures ;)

This is the grand overview is all of the non-clothes items I bought to take back with me. 

'

Believe it or not, I haven't been able to find any gummy snacks or body spritz in Korea. So, I made sure I had plenty of both!

Yes, that is a red waffle iron. Yes, it does make heart shaped waffles. Yes, it was in the valentine's day clearance. Yes, I will have to transform the electricity before I can use it in Korea. Yes, it is TOTALLY worth it ;)

Thankfully, all of the boxes of mix fit into one of my carryons, and I didn't have to factor them into the weight restrictions at all. It would have been unfortunate if I did have to weigh all of them. 

That plastic thing with a handle is for transporting various baked goods around on the subway. I'm hoping that it will make it significantly easier.

Here is one reason why America is a great country. Do you see those Dr. Seuss books? Dr. Seuss is a WONDERFUL tool for teaching English. Each one of those books was only $5 each! It was pretty exciting!

Possibly the most ridiculous purchases I made, a pillow and a memory foam mattress pad. Bedding in Korea is quite different from Western bedding, and it has proven to be quite uncomfortable. It was a major major pain to get this stuff back to Seoul with me, but it has been totally worth it!

In other news, I got to spend a lovely valentine's day with my friends Sarah, Sarah and Wei Wei. It was quite interesting having three Sarahs in one house, but at least it was easy for Wei Wei to get our attention! Whenever she called for any of us, we were all paying attention to her!

Note the two lovely vases of roses. One of them came from Sarah K's parents in Indy, and one of them came from Wei Wei's boyfriend in Morocco. We were a very international household. 

Dinner is served!

Hello Wei Wei!

Christmas ornaments

I got a new camera a few weeks ago, but between finals and being sick, I haven't had time to play with it. I pulled it out tonight and messed around with some of the settings. I rather liked the way these three turned out. They are some of my favorite Christmas ornaments that I brought with me from America.

These two are part of a set that I made when I was much younger than I am now. I have four of them here with me. I think there might have originally been six, but some of them didn't survive through the years. 

This is actually the first ornament that I remember getting. It has been my favorite for as long as I can remember. My dancers are missing a few appendages, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it. It reminds me of all of those Christmases I spent going to the nutcracker. 

From Seoul With Love

Every family has their Christmas traditions. There are several from my family that stand out in my mind, but there is only one of them that I currently have the resources to recreate in my apartment in Seoul.

Peanut butter fudge. As a kid, I remember my mother would make this for the family Christmas dinners. It was also a special treat when we would watch movies. There are several recipes I inherited from my mother that absolutely cannot be improved upon. Peanut butter fudge is one of those. She so closely guarded the fudge making that I wasn't allowed to try my hand at it until I was nearly 12 years old. And then, I only tried it without her knowledge to make some for a surprise birthday party for her.

The fudge maker gets special priviledges in our household. You see, when you finish making the fudge, this is what you have left.

All of that wonderful, fudgy goodness left in the pan. Once it cools down a bit, the person who made the fudge got to scrape the pan. There were always accusations that certain people would go out of their way to leave extra fudge in the pan for their own private consumption.

Since I am currently the only person residing in this household, I didn't have to fight anyone for the fudge in the pan. It was a bit dissapointing.

The only thing missing was a nice, cold glass of milk. Just like my momma taught me ;-)