Those crazy Koreans......

Thought id share a few urban legends/beliefs/weird customs that ive encountered over here lately. Its been a while since ive directly made fun of Koreans on here, as ive generally just been updating with things ive been doing, but im feeling a little sadistic today, so here goes:

1. Koreans believe that if you leave a fan on during the night, with the windows closed, you will die.

Electic fans: Friend or foe??

This is 100% true. I couldnt create something so ridiculous. Korean people are generally VERY smart and logical, but are clearly insane. Its a widely held belief that the majority of people believe in, not just a few Whack-Jobs. In fact, The Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB), a South Korean government-funded public agency, issued a consumer safety alert in 2006 warning that "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was among South Korea's five most common seasonal summer accidents or injuries, according to data they collected. Hence, even the Korean governement believes that "Fan Death" is true. Really?? This should be enough evidence we need to condemn S.Korea to second- or third-world status immediately. The best part of death via fan is the retarded reasoning given as to WHY fans will kill you in your sleep. For example;

- an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside.

- an electric fan chops up all the oxygen particles in the air leaving none to breathe

- The fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide

- That if the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing
- That fans contribute to prolonged asphyxiation due to environmental oxygen displacement or carbon dioxide intoxication.
- That fans contribute to hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature

Never mind that these theories violate the most simple and basic laws of nature, physics or common sense. Koreans take fan death very, very seriously. Search Fan Death in google if u feel like exploring this further. Its worth it.

2. Koreans believe that if you walk in the rain without an unbrella, your hair will fall out

Again, absolutely a belief that the majority of people believe. You will never see a single Korean walking in rain without an umbrella. You actually see many Koreans walking in perfect sunny weather with an unbrella as well but that for another purpose - avoiding a tan (tan is a sign of working outside, working outside = lower class). So yea theres lots of bloody umbrellas over here, and I hate em; such annoying things, but a neccessary evil at times I will admit. Anyway, Ive not taken an umbrella to school a few times and by the end of class i has been raining. Sometimes heavy, sometimes barely at all, but theres always a teacher there to lend me an umbrella. Well lending isnt the right word, more like, forcing me. Ive had teachers run through the school, down stairs, yelling and screaming with an umbrella in their hand, imploring I take it because its slightly drizzling. I think there is an entire room somewhere in each school that is dedicated to houseing umbrellas, and video cameras at all entrances and exits, monitoring if people are leaving the school without one. One day, my students made me buy one when we had a class in town. All we were doing was walking from one store to another about 30 metres away, but they wouldnt let me go outside without one. This myth may actually have a morsel of truth to it - acid rain perhaps?? - but that isnt a uniquely Korean problem.

3. Koreans dont say "goodbye" on the phone, or have a dedicated "sign off".

This one cracks me up because I hear it very often. It doesnt always happen the way I will explain it, but it does more often than not, and happens between people my age and my teachers, so its not a generational thing. They have a greating on the phone " yeoboseoyo", then they talk at a million miles an hour, then comes time to sign off. They go from intense talking, to a short silence. This is followed by a short grunt. Silence. Then a longer grunt. This longer grunt is the sign to hang up. So 2 grunts indicate that its time to hang up. So fricken weird. And its definately a grunt. No audible word is spoken, just the passing off air from deep in the chest. There is a word for goodbye in Korea, a way to say talk to you later, a way to say absolutely anything we can say in English, yet Koreans decide to grunt. It is just so strange. I would really sturggle having a phone conversation in Korean because I wouldnt know the sequence of events that lead to the grunting. Do they say something before hand that initiates the grunting? Does one person start and the next person follow? What if im not finished? So many questions that ill probably never know the answer to.

4. Koreans dont eat the skins of grapes

They peel them off and leave them in a pile next to the bunch. I think the reasoning is fertilizers and pesticides during production, but everyone ive ever know eats the entire grape and there is nothing wrong with them. Well, at least grape skin isnt the reason there is something wrong with them.

There u have it, a few little quirks about my friends and neighbours!!

Things ive eaten more of....................

In the past 5 months than i've eaten my entire life.....

Thought id make a new list of foods ive been eating copious amounts of that are weird, wacky and wonderful.

- FISH BONES: Most fish meals have bones still in them. Even the "fillets" are bound to have bones, grilled fish are not deboned at all (they are simply flavoured and cooked and you pick away at the meat with your chopsticks. Im not very good at this) and even the fish I get in my soup at school has bones all through it. The bones range from entire spines to small thin ribs. Ive come to realise that if you want to remove all the bones you need to remain at your table for at least 3 hours and you need the hands of a heart surgeon, so ive basically given up on that. If the bone is thinner than my little finger, I just swallow them. Well not that big actually, but more like ill eat everything except the spine. Havent choked badly yet so I think ill keep up with this rule. My favourite moment in fish bones has already been explained previously on the blog but I will quickly re-hash; I had one meal with 2 fish dishes. One dish was ENTIRE fish deep fried (the fish were small poddy mullet/white bait looking fish covered in batter. the deep frying managed to soften the bones in this) and another was the same fish in a casserole. The bones in this fish, however, were not softened, so i had avoid the bones and pick at the meat. In one fish I could get maybe a teaspoon of meat. Lots of work for little payoff.

- GREEN CHILLIES: I have also detailed my hijinks related to green chillies. They are a very popular side dish over here. Typically eaten by just dumping the end of it into some nice dipping sauce and chowing down. Can be eaten by adding it with other stuff, but most just take it down in3 or 4 bites. I dont mind them, as most arent hot. The long and thin ones are what u need to look out for, and are probably the hottest thing ive had over here. Ive given my teachers a good laugh by eating the hot ones a few times.



- GARLIC: Lots of garlic at a barbecue. Most incredibly, many people can eat them straight, or with a small amount of dipping sauce. I find the weird heat/strong burst of flavour too much to handle, but if you grill them on the same plate as your beef or pork and cook them a bit, they are bloody awesome. We arent talking about thin slices or finely chopped garlic either, more like the size of your thumb. Such as above

- BEANSPROUTS: One of my absolute favourite side dishes. Best eaten at a barbecue where you grill them, much like the garlic (and kimchi also), on the plate where the meat is. Bloody fantastic. Comes in 2 varieties, plain and with red pepper sauce - ill take either but with the red pepper sauce they are amazing.



- EEL: Yes thats right Eel. Many many eel resturants in town. As a meat, its fine, nothing too distinct about it, sort of fishy. This is one fish where u know you wont be getting bones. Basically the guts and the spine is removed and then the remaining meat is chopped into pieces 2 to 3 cm long. The pieces then flatten out when they are grilled so your left with pieces of meat just smaller than a credit card. Im always amazed at how much meat you can get from these guys because u can see them swimming in the tanks out the front of the store and they are very thin and small. They look more like sea snakes than morey eels. The most popular piece of the eel is the tail which is said to be good for "stamina". Two points; 1. Stamina does not refer to the type of stamina required to run a marathon. 2. I think ive heard of every food in Korea as being good for stamina. Whether its dog, kimchi, tofu, coffee or water. Everything is good for stamina. Regardless, Eel may be the animal with the highest concentration of "stamina" in its meat as far as I understand it. The picture below is accurate size of the eel, but we dont have it in the "runny" sauce and it is cooked far more. It looks for more appetizing than this



- HARDBOILED EGGS: I remember when it was Easter over here I walked into school and was greeted, not with a chocolate egg, but a hard-boiled egg, and think what the hell is wrong with these people. Not wanting to be rude I decided to eat it, and that was after the eternity it took to figure out how to peel it properly (id never done it before, give me a break). I was literally expecting to throw it back up, but it went down quite well. I had been converted. Vendors on the side of the road sell hard boiled eggs, its a common morning tea snack at school and in resturants some places have quail eggs as a side dish . Ive even taken to them so well that ive hard-boiled my OWN batch of eggs to snack on many times. Thats right i hard boil my own eggs.

- RICE: I think it safe to say that ive tripled my life entire output since ive been here, and ive always eaten rice back home. I havent had rice before 11 in the morning yet, if or when I do it ill officially be Koreanised. Ive also not made it once at home. I figure that if I ever feel like eating rice, ill just go to ANY building with a roof nearby and they will have some for me. I also dont wont to burn out on it, so if I limit myself to lunch and resturants, I shouldnt get sick of it. I still get amazed by the things that are made from rice over here. Rice wine (not pleasant but drinkable), rice deserts (the rice machine is dumped with boiling water and then the resulting goo is put in a bowl and served), rice sweet ice tea (probably the worst thing thats been in my mouth since ive been here) are just the tip of the iceberg.

Cant wait to take the brothers and sister out to dinner here.... especially u macka