Reverse CS

I arrived back in the US on Wednesday afternoon. Since summer of 2009, I've spent a total of 3 weeks in the US. Not a lot of time = a lot of reverse culture shock. Things that make you say whoa.

Food. Yogurt containers are HUGE here. Eggs are sold in cartons of 12, not 10. My hand fits in the Pringles can. What happened to the Princeton McDonalds? TWO DRIVE THRUS? Whoa. Why are there no rolls of toilet paper sitting on tables? Where is the water dispenser? The cashier handed me my change with her left hand! Why am I the only one who bows? Princeton has an Italian restaurant? Surprising. It sucks. Not surprising. No one pushes me. No one stares at me. As I pass by, children don't say "foreigner! HI!"

But home is good. This week I

-ate pumpkin shaped Reeses

-carved a jack-o-lantern

-watched the WORLD SERIES, stupid Cardinals, but still, American baseball is SO much better than Korean baseball.

-went to Wal Mart

-dried my clothes without using a drying rack

-went to the post office and did not have to use any explanatory gestures or a note written by my coworkers explaining what I needed

-ate apple cider donuts

-went to an apple orchard

-inhaled deliciously fresh air

-FALL COLORS! Perfection!

-ate sausage

-cuddled with my cats

-drove a car

Before coming home, I went to Istanbul for a few days. LOVE IT AND LOVE MY AWESOME HOSTESS. I am trying to post pictures on Facebook now, and I will post about it here sometime. Right now, I am not sans computer, so it makes all that stuff a bit hard.

Oh Korea, I want to eat kimchi jjigae, ride the subway, and walk around in blissful oblivion. But home is super sweet, and I am beyond excited for Thanksgiving. Bring on the turkey.

miracle food

In the past 17 months, anyone who has worked with me, talked to me, or read my blog knows that my immune system does not do Korea. New germs and 40+hours a week with kids, and I didn't stand a chance. No amount of hand washing could change that.

A few months ago, I realized I hadn't gotten sick in a while. I had started taking large doses of vitamin C, and Allegra pills when I would feel a new round of sickness coming on. And after a year of getting sick every 4-5 weeks, I know all of the signs. So when I woke up last week with a tiny itch in my throat, I knew what was coming. I went to the pharmacy to get Allegra, upped my vitamin C intake, and kept my fingers crossed. When I woke up yesterday, I knew I had lost this round. In addition to a terrible sore throat, my head hurt, my nose was runny, my chest hurt. I failed.

I had a lot of time to think yesterday, as I spent most of my day in bed drinking peppermint tea. I thought, how is this possible? I don't work with kids anymore. IT'S NOT FAIR. Then I realized, about the time I stopped getting sick every month was also the time I seriously increased the amount of kimchi I was eating.

Kimchi is to Korean food what baguettes are to French people, or nasty boiled things are to English people. I think it's kind of like meatloaf, in that there is a huge variety, and everyone's own mom makes it best (speaking of, Mom-I'm having dreams of your delicious meatloaf!) While there is much debate about the best kimchi, one thing that is for certain, this is a super food with super health benefits.

The last 7 months at work, I forced myself to eat several large pieces for lunch every day, despite the kitchen lady's kimchi being less than palatable. It's good for keeping one's weight in check. It's packed with vitamins and good bacteria. It prevents certain lady problems that I won't mention to keep my male readers from squirming uncomfortably. Some studies even say it prevents cancer.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, where I am living now has countless delicious restaurants, none of them serving Korean food. Since leaving work, my kimchi intake has drastically dropped. And I remembered another very important benefit of kimchi, it's awesome for the immune system. So now as I lay here, with yet another round of the Korean crud (and it's a bad one this time), I'm wishing I would have been more diligent about eating kimchi daily. Perhaps then I would not be spending my last 5 Korea days in bed, feeling like someone was sitting on my chest while hitting my head with a baseball bat.

Friends, eat your kimchi.

Is this what happened to the Sunnis and Shiites?

My stance on religion-live a good life, be compassionate, pray and don't judge. There are so many beliefs in the world, each one claiming to be the one true way to a happy afterlife. Many of them believe everyone else is damned. I don't think God (higher being, by whatever name) feels that way.

A few months ago I went to a movie. After it finished, we were walking among a crowd of fellow movie patrons across a plaza to find a cab, when a two Korean girls stopped us. Evangelism is rampant in Korea, and I could tell right away that we were about to get an earful about some religion. Evangelists annoy me. But unfortunately, I was with my boyfriend, whose mother was a Christian missionary, and he is very devout. I thought to myself please, just let them be from a similar Christian church. They can talk about how cool they think God is, high five, and we can be on our way.

They handed him a survey to fill out, asking him if he had ever heard of God the Mother.

Crap.

I scanned the premises, hoping to find a bench. This was going to take a while.

The Korean girls, members of the Church of God quoted Bible verses that supported their belief in God the Mother. My boyfriend responded back with Bible verses refuting their claims. I wished I would have gotten a smaller size movie soda or had hit up the bathroom on our way out. I also wished that people realized with certain issues, religion being first on that list, it's pointless to debate, because people will not change their minds, especially while arguing on the sidewalk following an evening showing of Cowboys & Aliens.

I finally pulled him away, and proceeded to remind him to be open minded and understanding to others' points of view. Especially because they are all Christians.

I kind of forgot about that incident, until today. I was walking down the sidewalk, doing a few errands, when I was stopped by two Korean women (who spoke zero English), and one guy who was...not Korean. But that's as much as I know. My brain to mouth filter was turned on, and my initial reaction of "ugh, leave me alone" was kept inside my head. They were more members of the Church of God. They have upgraded now, and rather than handing me a piece of paper with Bible verses about God the Mother, they handed me a little tablet computer thing and asked if I had time to watch a short movie.

Time? I'm unemployed. I've got nothing but time. I humored them. I watched. Then, trying to avoid talking at great lengths to them, I politely told them that I had already spoken with some other members of their church. They asked me what I thought about God the Mother. I told them it was something I had never heard of before then, and I thought it was a very interesting interpretation of the Bible. They asked me if I believed in it, or if they changed my mind. Still trying to be polite, I said that I did go home and read about it a bit. Only a minor lie, I actually went home and googled their church, thought "whoa, cult!"and then forgot about it when I clicked on a link on their wikipedia page (those darn blue words! they are the reason I can never finish reading anything on wikipedia). Then they again asked me what I thought about it. I said again that it was an interesting interpretation of the Bible, and told them my views on religion, and said even within the Christian church there are different beliefs, and that until we die, we will never know the truth. While reading their wikipedia page in August, I learned that this church believes the founder of their church, is/was (I think he died) the second coming of Christ, and his wife is God the Mother.

I forgot that tidbit. The guy kindly reminded me, when he said "Our church has seen the second coming of Christ. He told us we are right." Uh huh.

A few years ago, following a raid on their compound, I remember watching an interview with some of the Yearning for Zion wives. They dressed like Dr. Quinn, but it was the way they talked that really struck me. They were monotone and soft spoken. "We love our life. We want to live this way. Our husband is good to us. We have a good life" Nothing about their words seemed sincere. They were completely brainwashed. This guy's way of speaking was exactly the same.

He went on to say in his brainwashed/abducted by aliens voice that all the churches that worship on Sundays are doing it wrong, and that we should be worshiping on Saturdays. He also said that we were sinning for celebrating Easter and Christmas. He said God does not hear the messages from churches that worship on Sundays. I told him that God knows everything that happens all the time, even this conversation, which was happening on a Friday. Then he said that when (wait a second, I thought they had already seen the second coming) Christ comes back, he will set us all straight. So I told him that being concerned with the days of the week is for humans, and when God comes back, he will deal with the bigger problems of the world, not irrelevant details caused by different interpretations and translations of the Bible.

He opened up his Bible, and started pointing to random passages that he claimed proved the Sabbath is supposed to be on Saturday (not my point, my point was it doesn't matter to God what Sabbath day you keep!), and he told me it "wasn't an interpretation or a translation, this is God's original language" To which I said "Umm, your Bible is in English. The Bible was first written in Hebrew...or some language that WAS NOT ENGLISH. Clearly, you have a translation" THEN, it got really good when he started saying that Satan has been using the Roman Catholic Church as a vessel to do his work. And it was because of the RCC that churches started worshiping on Sundays, not Saturdays, and that was the work of the devil.

Really? That is Satan's master plan? "Ahhh, I've got it! This will really stick it to God!" Suddenly hell seems less scary.

He kept on saying that Satan works through the Catholic Church to this day. Finally, I had to interrupt him, and say that I am Catholic. And I reminded him that Catholics are also Christians. Then I started laughing. I feel slightly bad for laughing at his beliefs, but since he clearly had no problem being outright insulting to mine, I don't really feel that bad. He tried to once again open up his Bible and show me proof that the devil is using the Catholic Church to do his dirty deeds, but I just couldn't take it anymore. I once again interrupted him, and said "No more. We are done" and I walked away. It's really the only way you can end conversation with an evangelist.

Which brings me back to my original point, why does this church (and it's not the only one) find it necessary to stand on the sidewalk in the rain, and argue with someone (me) who shares the same principle beliefs? We are all Christian. And I'm not saying Christianity is the one true religion. We won't know the truth until we die. So until then, just be nice. Worship how (if) you see fit. Don't judge those who do it differently. Love people.

crystal ball!

I share with you, a look into my future!

Fall fall fall. It's making me want to bake, however my baking plans are usually foiled by a lack of available ingredients. I consider fall to be applesauce cake season. Make this, you won't be disappointed, especially if you frost it with this caramel frosting recipe invented by my mega talented/awesome mom.

Easy Apple Snack Cake

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup oatmeal

1 cup flour

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup water

1 egg

3/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup chopped raisins

1/4 cup chopped nuts

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Heat oven to 350. Grease 8x8x2 pan. Measure all ingredients into large bowl. Beat on low speed for 1 minute. Stop and scrape bowl. Beat 2 1/2 minutes longer on high speed, scraping bowl 3 times. Pour batter into pan. Bake 50 minutes or until center springs back when pressed lightly with finger.

Frosting

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Bring to a boil, stir 1 minute on low boil. Cool slightly. Heat 1 tablespoon of milk and add to the brown sugar mix. Stir until smooth, and beat in enough powdered sugar to be spreadable.

Despite fall being apple baking season, I make this cake all year round. It's never not delicious. I've been wanting to make it for several months now, but applesauce is proving to be a most difficult ingredient to get here. So the other day, after getting nothing from four foreign food grocery stores, I decided to make apple bread instead. I don't have a grater, food processor, or even decent knife to chop the apples with. But, I do have my (victory!!) blender. So I put the apples in that. It pureed them rather that chopping. But, meh, the bread came out ok. The consistency was kind of sort of a little bit like applesauce. Perhaps a substitute? Or I could wait until I am home, two weeks from today...

Korea's been kicking me with awkward experience after awkward experience recently. I need a break and some 100% English. Does that even make sense? I don't really know. I don't speak much English anymore.

bar is low

I have those days when I feel like the words come so easily to me. That never happens in the precoffee part of the day. So please before proceeding, lower your expecations. I shouldn't really even be writing anything. But I am scared of losing my few yet faithful readers if I don't keep the words coming. Also, in an effort to save money, I recently switched to instant coffee. Barf, but way cheaper. And I kind of doubt how much caffeine that actually has in it, because it sure doesn't feel like much.

So today starts week two of unemployment. It is nice, kind of. I've always been an early riser. I love mornings. I love sunrises. I love the calm. I love that first sip of (noninstant) coffee. However, in my week of unemployment, I've already found myself sleeping until 10-10:30. I'm not sure what caused this change, and so quickly. However, I do know that next week when I return to school to fill in for a few days, waking up at 7:30 again will be rough.

Last year, I started volunteering with a big group here in Seoul. They have a few different opportunities to volunteer-soup kitchens, passing out food to homeless people in the train stations, working at an orphanage, and volunteer teaching. I worked at the orphanage a time or two, but I didn't find it overly satisfying. It's not actually an orphanage. All of the kids living there have at least one parent who is alive, though for whatever reason they can't take care of the kids anymore. But the families are still very much a part of the kids' lives, and many of them spend every weekend with their families. Plus, the kids were older, and really didn't seem to care much that we were there, and just really only wanted to watch tv. So mainly the volunteering I did was teaching on Saturdays at kind of a youth center type place. However, last month, the group sent out a message on FB, saying they were starting work at another orphanage, right here in Seoul (the other one was about two hours outside of Seoul). I thought ok, I'll try this one. It turned out to be a great experience, and I hope if I return to Korea next year, they are still volunteering there. There are about 50 kids at this orphanage. The youngest was 4 months old. They are all orphans, with no family. The kids were beyond excited to have contact with different people, and they were all starved for attention. It was really interesting to see the difference in behavior between the kids at the two orphanages. While it's clear the kids at the home two hours outside of Seoul don't have great family lives, they do at least have some family life. But the kids at the orphanage in Seoul have no family life. They spend the vast majority of their lives playing with other orphans, and it shows. They were wild. But they were so precious. Adoption inside Korea is not common, and I remember reading somewhere that because of the declining birth rate, as well as the possibility of an identity crisis or something, international adoptions are now pretty uncommon here as well. So these kids will most likely spend their entire childhood at this orphanage. Sad. But look at their sweet angel faces!

As I've said many times, I love Seoul. However, with over 10 million people living in the city itself, and another 15 (?) million people living in the surrounding areas, there are times it gets to be a bit much, and fresh air and a lower population density is needed. So last weekend I took a trip to Hyeri Art Village. I went to Hyeri in January, when it was so cold just the thought of getting out of the car to look around was enough to make a person cry. So last weekend was a nice change. It was a picture perfect fall day, minus the fall colorst. And it was a great escape from Seoul.

Bicycles for rent! Koreans ride bikes about as well as they drive. Look out.

No clue what they are advertising here...

Hyeri is full of random museums. My favorites are the kimchi pot museum, and this one, the musical instrument museum. Most of the artifacts in the museum are labeled with at least the country of origin. Sadly, this had nothing, so it was left to one's imagination. My guess is not Europe.

Here's another artifact from the musical instrument museum. As the tag says, this is a damar from Mongolia. Google "damar" to learn why you should always be nice to Mongolians.

I made a snuggle friend at Hyeri!

As I said before, the day trip to Hyeri was a perfect escape. Then, there are the times when the MUST GET AWAY FROM SEOUL AND ITS RESIDENTS plans backfire, because all 25 million people living here have the same idea. This was the case with last week's trip to Namiseom Island. Namiseom is a small island in the Han River (I think, if not that, than some other Korean sounding body of water) about an hour train ride outside of Seoul. The area was absolutely stunningly beautiful, at least I think it was. My view was more than slightly blocked by a sea of ajumma visors. Crowds of Koreans stress me out because pushing is as much a part of Korean culture as kimchi and plastic surgery. I try so hard not to take it personally, but having someone two hand push me is something I will never get used to. I was able to get a few pictures that weren't completely overrun with people.

My ipod camera doesn't do this justice. It was on the walk to Namiseom, so beautiful and calm.

It's hard to tell because there is nothing to compare it to in the picture, but this is the biggest spider I have ever seen. It was about the size of my palm. Eliza, this snap is for you! Enjoy!

The island had a strange alcohol bottle/can decoration theme. It was a cool kind of recycling, but seemed a bit out of place. Here are slightly melted soju bottles in glass. Welcome to nature, Korea style.

Ahhhhhh! This is actually very misleading. In order to properly represent the day, there needs to be old people pushing others out of their way, screaming children, and Korean girls wearing 4 inch heals, trying out 15 different poses while their purse holding boyfriends snap pictures of them. Oh Korea, I love you.

A new favorite Korean food! This is dak galbi, a specialty of the region. It is chicken, cabbage, rice cake, and sweet potato stir fried together with the magical Korean red pepper sauce that makes all Korean food taste slightly the same/burny/delicious. This is right after it was brought to our table, before it had really started cooking. I don't have an after picture because I was too busy eating. I don't understand why Korean food is not more popular in the US, because let me tell you, it is deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious! I'm not sure what I am going to do a week from Friday, when it is so brutally ripped from my life.

Speaking of, a week from Friday I am flying to Istanbul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh heck yes! I've dreamed of Istanbul since bachelorette Ali took her gang of suitors there on season 6 of The Bachelorette. Should I be ashamed of that? Nah. I'm awesome. More importantly, I get to be reunited with the person who got me through 15 months of France nonsense. No joke, sans Anya, I would have been back in Illinois probably in October of 2008. And I am so stoked!

The coolest!

WHAT...a whirlwind!

Chelsea Lately, anyone? Anyone?

But seriously, the last few weeks have floooooooown by. Suddenly it's October. I'm coming home in October. Whoa whoa whoa.

And just like that, I'm unemployed. Although, I guess my unemployment does not official start until tomorrow because today is a holiday of some sort. But I miss my kiddies already.

For those of you who happened to read my blog between the hours of 7 am and 7pm (Korea time) on Friday, you noticed I posted a blog about the debacle that was me moving out of my apartment. However, despite the fact I do stand by what I wrote, my school still owes me about $4,000, so I need to watch my mouth until that money is safely in my bank account. For any interested parties, I did save what I wrote and am happy to send it to you via email. :-)

But, I am now moved out of my apartment. I miss my little space. I miss my real shower. I miss the delicious Korean food in the 'hood. Itaewon is not known for having great Korean food. Also, there is no pizza school close by. Come on Itaewon, get it together. And now, this is my life. I have some sorting to do.

The last few weekends have been busy ones, which is good. I went to the wedding of a Nigerian and a Canadian last weekend. It was interesting. Obviously, the wedding took place in Korea, and neither of them are Korean, so there wasn't a lot of family there. The thing that stood out most, which I guess is a Nigerian tradition, is to shower the couple with money while they have their first dance. The dance lasted about 4 songs, and the ground was literally covered with money the entire time. Friends of the couple would collect it and put it in bags, then more people would come and start throwing money at them.

More things to say, but no motivation to write. I'll finish later. I have nothing but time on my hands now. I think this is going to get really boring really fast. Someone, please hire me.