Two Firsts

Last night I experienced two firsts. The first first was experienced mostly due to current sickness; I have another cold. It’s called a jimjilbong. Iowa and even Kansas City would do well to have one or more of these especially in the winter. A jimjilbong is basically a bathhouse. They have gender-specific areas containing several saunas, each set at varying temperatures and several pools, also set at varying temperatures. These jimjilbongs are usually open 24 hours, and so they also have these rows of little hotbeds that people sleep in.

My friend and I went first to the saunas. I wanted to sweat this thing out, so we went into one first, I think it was the 36C sauna. That wasn’t working fast enough, so we transferred to the 60C sauna and that did the trick. The first sauna had stone floors where we just sat and talked. The second had thousands of little pebbles as its floor, and there we sat, talked and sweat like whatever sweats a lot.

Next, we made our way through the big, open stone-floored common area where even whole families were sitting, eating snacks, talking, lounging in their provided sauna clothes, and we headed to the baths. I forget the order of different temperatures we plunged into, but this was quite relaxing and refreshing, especially having sat in a sauna for at least thirty minutes, all the while drenched in my own toxins.

After the baths we showered. It was great. Everything you need, which isn’t much, is provided: towels, sauna clothes and lockers with a key for your clothes, shoes, belongings, etc. I brought my own soap, but you can even buy little sample-sized items at the jimjilbong if you’d like. Will I go again? For sure; maybe even tonight.

My second first doesn’t demand as much description: I took a taxi home after the jimjilbong. Buses don’t run past 11PM, so unless I wanted to lose all that I’d gained in experiencing the jimjilbong and walk in the freezing cold on ice-clad sidewalks (Korea seems not to enact a snow removal system), I needed to take a taxi.

Taxis are very cheap here, so I never hesitate in that way, but there’s still that language barrier. Oh well, got over that, asked the driver if he could take me to Sinchang-dong (my neighborhood), he nodded, we tried to talk to each other during the 3-minute ride, I said, yogi (here) and he dropped me off within 1/4 of a block from my apartment having only racked up 2200 won for my fare (equivalent to 2 US dollars).

That’s it. I’m excited I’ve experienced both of those things now, and I feel empowered to do them again.

Christmas Eve

On a rare occasion do I get to see the sunset

The following are pics of a path I often hike or run. This was the walk I took on Christmas Eve as referred to in a previous post.

This is a very typical scene in Korea--an outdoor gym--in the hills, mountains and along footpaths even in the city

Christmas Party at School

Pre-party pose

Korean school party not complete without a quiz

Holding up their answers

Meals Pic Post

The 2 kinds of juk I referred to in earlier post

Samgyetang; a meal referred to in earlier post

Samgyetang meal with coworker

Meal of bibimbap

Soup before bibimbap; that brown part that looks like meat is actually cooked blood

One of the sides during bibimbap meal; I love garlic and what I thought was some other sea veggie; turns out it was the garlic stems (loved it)

Christmas Continued

Many of you know by now that I didn’t stop in Tokyo but I continued on to Kansas City for my vacation last week. If you read my post right before this one, you knew I was going to Japan and I even posted it just a couple hours before arriving there, but it was only for a layover on my way to where my heart feels most at home: Kansas City.

What great pleasure I experienced as I was picked up at the airport on the evening of the longest Christmas day ever (considering my time change in flight) by my parents, younger sister and her son. They then taxied me to some friends’ house where I surprised and caused quite a stir among their traditional Christmas gathering. They didn’t seem disturbed in the least. These same ones I spent Christmas with last year upon returning from the Netherlands. What a joy it was.

Next, it was a very short 36 hours with my parents, sister and nephew; enjoyable nonetheless.

Then, I spent a packed week of reuniting with my closest friends who continue in their faithfulness on the wall in the house of prayer in Kansas City, including a bit of time at our (IHOP-KC’s) annual conference called onething. Space doesn’t allow for what emotions were stirred in my person during that time. Of course, it was too short, but it was enough to refresh me, maintain the longing that I have for my family and friends and even increase the excitement I have to return for my next visit in the fall of 2011. That visit, however, will not be a surprise, so let’s start scheduling some time together!

Here are some pictures to catch us up on this past month…

Fuzzy pic, but sister, me and nephew (donning my coat) upon my arrival in KC

Some of my faves; the first group I surprised

 

Christmas 2010

I just got done taking one of the most pleasant walks in my past four months here in a city that doesn’t seem to be shutting down to rest for the holidays like so many other cities I’m familiar with. I needed to get out and move my legs. I didn’t run this morning because there was a cold in the air I haven’t yet felt here in Korea and the wind was already bitterly blowing, though it hadn’t been predicted to start till tonight. So, after the last four days of delectable lunches with my boss, her family and another coworker (the library teacher), I felt the need to move about.

Meals: The first of what spontaneously became four (now five because I’m typing this out after having written yesterday) meals together was samgyetang. This is a very popular and common dish here. My boss said it’s usually eaten twice a year “for health”; once in the summer and once in the fall. Wait, maybe once in the winter and once in the spring? I forget. Either way, it consists of a whole young chicken (per person) that is stuffed with rice, jujubes, chestnuts and ginseng. This whole thing is boiled in a broth of onions and other veggies and served in a stone bowl. Very tasty.

Meal number two was juk. Juk is best summed up in either saying stew or porridge or thick soup. We had two kinds, one of which was made with a seed in the same family as the sesame seed called perilla. It’s like a black sesame. That one contained rice-based dough balls and the other soup thing contained rice-based dough strips. Both were good but neither will I rush back to.

My favorite, still, and probably one of the most common meals upon which we imbibed this past week was bibimbap. It seems most places I’ve had bibimbap, it’s always accompanied by the best sides, japche being one of them, which is also a personal favorite (sweet potato-based noodles stir-fried with veggies). [We ate that again tonight, which signifies the 5th meal]

Last but not least, pizza. The Korean-style pizza has actually grown on me. The only reason we even had pizza was because it was part of our Christmas Eve party at my academy (hogwon). This needs no description; the pizza that is. The party, however… Well, I don’t know how to describe that. It was really quite simple. Maybe I’ll post some of the videos my director’s husband took (check my Facebook in the future).

Now, let me go back to exaclty one week ago when I attended (if you can call it attendance) my first Korean wedding… Wait. Look for that in a separate blog I guess. That deserves a page all its own.

And now onto Christmas. I can’t say I saw it coming. NOt only have I heard fronm other foreigners in the area, but Koreans have much to prove of their Christmas spirit. It’s a little bit mnaifest in few of the coffee shops, but other than that…

Many have asked what I’ll be doing and my answer is pretty vague, mostly because I still don’t really know. As of tonight, though, I have a flight to Japan, so I’ll spend at least a little bit of time in Tokyo. [I'm actually in the Incheon (Seoul) Airport right now as I type this out, so please don't expect pictures until later. I'll post pics of my meals and the wedding]

From there it’s being left to where the Wind will take me. But right now and for the next few hours of Christmas Eve, I’m sitting in a warm coffee shop, sipping on a vanilla latte, reading some and maybe even napping a bit. [What ended up taking place after that was slightly altered. I went for that 5th meal with my boss and her husband before they took me to the bus terminal where a bus then brought me where I am now]

So merry Christmas and a happy new year! Surely I’ll update with a follow-up post soon.

Weekend Excursions With the Fam

Last Sunday I went with my director and her family to Sunchang. Don’t ask me, Ms. Directional, where the heck it was, but it was very enjoyable. It tends to be a hotspot to which Koreans go to walk through the mountains gazing all the while at the changing colors of the leaves. I’m told that the leaves in the south begin to change first and then continues northward. In the fall the Koreans follow the changes weekend by weekend.

Not only was the scenery beautiful, but so was the fresh, mountain air, the increase of heart rate, the great conversation (I define a great conversation by how little speaking is necessary; plus there’s somewhat of a language barrier) and quality time with my boss. Oh, and the food; they took me to a traditional Korean restaurant when we returned to Gwangju (after we had already had plenty of little snacks along the way). I would be telling all the names of these things, but I don’t remember (and they all sound the same anyway).

This Sunday I joined them again to make a trip south to a cypress tree forest. The cypress trees were brought over from Japan and they’re beautiful. I won’t have pictures of those for a bit as my camera is still being held hostage by my director’s husband as he’s printing a bunch from the previous Sunday. Thank you for you patience.

We stopped first in a neighborhood in South Gwangju to pick up some of their family friends and then made our way to the forest. We hiked some, took lots of pictures, conversed, snacked and then onto a village-like town nearby for a great meal; a meal what I’d always considered as most typically Korean according to outward appearance. We bought our own meat at a local butcher (lots of beef and scallops and, well, someone’s small intestines, but I didn’t eat those) and then found a restaurant that provided all the typical side dishes and assortment of veggies, mushrooms and garlic for grilling. Let’s just say I haven’t hoarded garlic that much in a very long time, maybe ever. I may very well have eaten a total of 6-8 cloves with no hesitation whatsoever! Yum.

After our late lunch (or early dinner?), we strolled along a great fishing beach about a 10-minute drive away from the restaurant. That may have been a favorite part of my day today (not to mention the meal or the nice nap I had in the car on the way back to Gwangju, which was about a 1.5-hour drive). I’m feeling very much at home with my director and her family. I’m grateful.

Here’s a scattering of pictures. I may or may not put captions to them, so just enjoy what you see and remember that these are all from one week ago. I have so many, so keep in mind these few give you only a glimpse. Today’s pictures of the fishing beach and the cypress forest will come soon.

My director down the hallway of the traditional restaurant