Shangers

I ventured beyond the borders of South Korea for the 2nd time since I arrived in late March this past weekend. Interestingly, or maybe not, it was the first time I ventured beyond South Korea's borders and actually into another country (the first time was when I went to the DMZ and went out ff South Korea and into No Man's Land). This other country was "jung-guk" - China - and played host to me while I met an old, smarter, and, incredibly, shorter friend, Clancy (Or "Clancy of the Overflow" as Kezza would put it). He had spent 3 weeks in China and on the Friday before I arrived, just finished a University subject via a University exchange program. So, unsurprisingly, it was time to party, and cram as much of Shanghai into a 44 hr window as possible. I would just like to point out that no matter what else happened, I was overjoyed that I wasnt thrown into jail, injured and then woken up in a hospital, or denied re-entry to Korea. Based on this, the holiday was a success.

I arrived at about 6.30 in the evening after a suprisingly good flight with Eastern China Airlines. All the North North-Western Independent Rural China Airlines flight were booked so I had to go East China and was pleasently suprised to recieved a meal and 2 beers in a short 1hr 20 min flight (screw you Jetstar with your miniature packet of mixed nuts and shot of coke). I caught the metro to the closest stop to Clancy's uni, which was about 25 stops away, and took about an hour and a half. Brutal. I was also introduced to something I wasnt expecting that I would see quite often - people openly picking their nose. Probably counted it 3 times on the train and a handful of times the rest of the trip. Cant say i condone that behavior. Once I was off the train, and onto the street for my first real look of China, I was overwhelmed with the amount of people, bikes, motor bikes and cars that were in front of me. Mostly bikes and motorbikes though, as every piece of concrete seemed to be crammed with with one of them and I swear there was about 1000 of them parked side-by-side in an impromptu car-park, well, bike-park, that was only the length of one side of a block. Incredible. I then tried to get a taxi, which proved to be harder than trying to get one at 3 am in Sydney with a group of 4 guys. 20 minutes, and a long, long walk later, i found one and met up with Clancy. Post-exam celebrations were in full-throttle by the time I arrived at the dorms. About 254 people were crammed into a single dorm room, which I figure is skill you acquire if you spend enough time in Shanghai. I managed to find someone else's alcohol to drink as we kicked into maybe the strangest drinking game ever. The game works by playing Roxanne by the Police and when lyrics say "Roxanne" the boys drink, and when lyrics say "Put on the Red Light", the girls drink. Sounds fun enough, and starts off slowly, but "Roxanne" is followed by "Put on the red light" something like 27 times in a 3 minute span. They are also often repeated in groups of 4 or more in rapid succession. So unless you have a mini keg by your side, you will surely run out of alcohol and you need to be able to drink as quickly as Bob Hawke to keep up with every turn. Regardless of the practicality, it is a drinking game, which means everyone is a winner. We kicked on to a bar that night which was 80 Yuan ($11 or $12) for unlimited alcohol (with return of your cup for each drink.... brilliant idea by the way) but felt far, far to familiar to me. I swear id been there before but I though it was on Darlinghurst road in Sydney. It was so completely packed with foreigners that even the people that looked Asian were actually foreigners (Australians of Chinese descent). Everything about it, from the dancefloor, to the Djs, to the massive D***heads, reminded me of Oz and was very un-Chinese. Either way, it was a cracking night.


The next morning we went into town for a big Chinese lunch. It was at a very highly rated YumCha restaurant, apparently, and was bloody amazing. We sat at the biggest circular table known to man which required carrier pigeons to communicate with people on the other side of the table. The table had a rotating glass top that allowed you to slide the awesome food around the table. A little bit of everything was eaten - duck, pork, dumplings, tea - and it was fantastic. Unfortunately though, it didn't quite stack up to the $7 sweet and sour pork at my old bar, the "Dugout". That's some REAL Chinese food there. Of course, that's completely bogus, and I was really stoked to get a proper Chinese meal while I was there. By this point a theme was emerging during the trip - "I need some water". It wasn't just me, but many people in general, always seemed to be looking for water. It started coming home from the night before, then in the morning, and then at the restaurant, where they seemed to forget everyone's water, even after repeated pleas. This all stems from the fact that you cannot drink any water from a tap, and the uni was isolated from any shops. So something that is usually so readily available, and absolutely vital for life, was now a scarce and extremely valuable resource. It was a surreal feeling, knowing that right here, right now, i need water, but there is none. It doesn't seem like that should be a problem one should encounter in this millennium. From food, I went for a walk downtown with Clancy and his mate Nick. I knew I wouldnt be able to do much in Shanghai in only a day, so I figured if I walked around downtown for a few hours, I can atleast say that I did something and saw some of the city. It was well worth it. We walked from the main downtown station we walked a fair distance to the river. On the way, we walked through a park where we saw the most peculiar sight ever. About 200 or so older men and women "advertising" there children for marriage. That is what is happening in the picture above. Her bits of paper in front of her are telling of her looks, dimensions, skills, etc (by the way, if there is no picture of the child thats a pretty big red-flag). The ages of their children are in the 25-35 area, but of course, no one of that age is anywhere in the park, its entirely made up of old people, selling or looking for partners for their children. Crazy. The entire walk to the river - and the entire city for that matter - has 30-40 story buildings on every single block. Its hard to tell where "downtown" is because it all looks like downtown. The big, beautiful, and sometimes ugly, buildings are juxtaposed (first time ive every successfully used this word in a sentence) with the conditions of the street. Look up and its 1st world, or even better than 1st world (future world???), and look around u on the street and its 3rd world. Roads are 30 times more dangerous than Korea, beggars everywhere, dirty streets. Wasnt super impressed with this aspect of China. The skyline from the one side of the river across to the other is pretty darn awesome. The strange looking orange tower I actually think is really cool, but not as cool as the bottle opener shaped one. We grabbed a beer at a nearby rooftop bar while the sun was going down which was one of the highlights of the trip. I did find it difficult keeping up with the conversation of the Law students - Chinese foreign policy, the theories of Malthaus and Co and Global Politics arent exactly my strong points. I kept trying to talk about my fantasy football team and why cabbage kimchi is better than radish kimchi, but it didnt elicit much interest.

We headed back into the city as darkness fell and the city just exploded with lights. Never seen so much fluoro, neon, and any other form of bright colours in my life. Street level, underground, and above you, its just a bombardment of lights. Crazy. Another beer followed at a swanky Morrocan style bar once our eyes adjusted to light and were able to find it. Back to the dorms but not before a quick meal at a small, local restaurant. Not a word was spoken by the restaurant people - this was a common theme of the weekend; not a single Chinese person could speak a single word of English. I thought Koreans couldn't speak English at first, but they sound like Barak Obama compared to the Chinese. The waitress ordered for us thankfully and it turned out to be really, really tasty, so we were happy with the outcome. I was also overwhelmed when we received the water for our table. I poured it into my cup and noticed that steam was coming out of it. A little weird to be sure, but I heard that water was heated up in China to kill the bugs in it, and it would maybe be a little warm. But this wasnt just warm, this was almost boiling water. I wondered what the hell was up with this and Clancy said you never drink anything not from a bottle that isn't boiling. So I ate my rice and beef with boiling water. WEIRD (couldnt they cool it down first????) The rest of the night involved......... wait for it....... yes, thats right ..... Drinking. What a suprise. Went to a place inhabited with a few more Chinese, that was really nice, cheap and had personal service to our table. Was quite impressed. This was followed by going to a club right next door called the "Bunker" which was just how it sounds. As you enter the club, you walk through a long, thin and small tunnel into a dark room with a low ceiling, which was the dance floor, and continued into other small, bombshelter-type rooms where you could sit. Very cool place with good music and a unique feeling. Topped the night off very, very nicely.

Unfortunately my trip ended too soon as I had to make my way to the airport from 11 in the morning. I got some Subway for the first time in 9 months (another one of the highlight moments) and jumped on a Maglev train (Maglev are the fastest train on Earth) which travelled at 300 kms/h to the airport.

An awesome weekend to be sure!

Some more vistors

I was fortunate enough to have a couple of visitors come and stay a week with me recently. My yeo~dong~saeng (little sister) and her namja~chin~gu (boyfriend) spent a few days with me in the now frigid Jinju, and then we spent the weekend in Busan. Brittny and Geoff got to see how I live my life, which pretty much goes like this; get off school, eat BBQ, drink beer and soju, then go to bed. Repeat Monday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, don't go to bed. Sunday, rest. I was most impressed with Britt and Geoff's ability to pick up parts of the language. I know that they will be saying "Yea" "Yeo~gi~yo" and "Kam~sa~ham~ni~da" for a long time to come. I look forward to having Korean conversations with them when I go home. It was a great week which went like this....... By the way, none of these photos are mine - I regrettably did not take my camera anywhere and relied on Britt and Geoff to take photos for me.

Monday went exactly the way I described above. Introduce the newbies to the BBQ, then get drunk. We drank at a place called "700 Beer", where you are required to drink 700 beers before you leave. Or maybe the beers come in 700 ml glasses. Im not sure. Either way, after about an hour, it felt like id drank 700 beers. We then broke out the Soju which got everyone's seal of approval, and as a result, I don't remember anything from that point on. It also meant some crazy headaches the next day.

Wednesday was, well, the same. Get off school, have BBQ at the best place in Jinju I know, then meet up with the gang for drinks in Go West. The BBQ has pieces of pork belly as thick as a dictionary, but also comes with hamburger steak, which is like being served sushi and baked beans in the same meal. Brings the good meal down a touch. Regardless, good dinner, B&G got to try KimchiJiggae, and I wasn't hungover for work the next day! Yay!

Thursday was a highlight - Karaoke!!!! At the very homely Wine Bar, we assembled a good group for some mid-week No-rae-bang. After clearing out the venue 10 minutes after arriving, we got things started. Brittny and Geoff were treated to some all-time great performances by yours truly - Livin on a Prayer (Bon Jovi) and Tribute (Tenacious D) - which I know intimidated and scared them more than they already were. How could they possibly follow an act like that?? Brittny told me that she couldnt believe that we could do this sober, "you actually do it for entertainment" I believe I heard. So they both increased their alcohol intake to try and ready themselves. About 2-2.5 hours later, after the bar was almost double-handedly drank dry, and the local foreigners had began to scrape the bottom of the song barrel like "Barbie Girl" and "The Macarena", Brittny and Geoff stepped up to the mike and belted out the classic "Do-wa-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do". I was a witness to the performance - confident, emotional, and out-of-key - just like all good karaoke should be. Once the first song was out of the way, the flood gates opened, and we were all drowning in Brittny and Geoff's singing. A great night!

Friday saw us travel down to Busan for the weekend. We first found a night love motel, which had; a) the world's biggest beds (they would not fit in my entire house in Jinju) b) "buisiness" cards of local woman at the door, in the elevator, bathroom, fridge and next to the bed c) various creams, lotion and potions available for use (including "men's desenitising cream"). After this joyous expreience we did what all visitors to Busan do - eat Mexican food at the Fuzzy Navel!! Classic Busan and Classic Korea. With full bellys, we got in a taxi, ready to clean out the local casino of everything they had. I told the taxi where to go - Ca~ji~no - and he proceeded to drive us 10 seconds around the next corner and stop. Easily the shortest taxi ride of my life. An entertaining night of gambling ensued - my night was like a rollercoaster that got stuck upside down on the loop-the-loop - a bit of a disaster at one point, but turned out pretty good. Only annoying part of the casino was the free drinks. How do you complain about free drink? When there is no visible bar to buy your own drinks and you have to wait 20 minutes for your free drinks which are no bigger than a shot glass, you'd would probably prefer paying the $2.50 for a pint.

Saturday saw us go for a hike. Yes, a hike. Not my 1st choice of activity during the winter, but it turned out to be a really fun day. We started at a temple called Beo-mo-sa, and I think I can safely say at this point that ive seen all the best temples in Korea, and the rest are 99% the same. This one was the same. We then went directly vertical up the hill from the temple. Ice picks and ropes were needed at one point to navigate the trecherous landscape, and at one point, I thought we would be turning around. That was about 2 minutes into it. "When we get to the top we can just get a taxi", said Brittny. I replied "Are you high?". Last time I checked, there isnt a taxi rank at the top of mountains. Once we reached the plataeu, the walk became far more enjoyable and scenic and gave awesome views of the city. By the end, I almost wanted to keep going, but we had walked almost 6 kms and my knees were hurting, so it was probably for the best that we called an end to it. We then met a couple of friends at a University district in the City. We started off with a steak dinner - a very welcome meal after a long day and about 5 months without a steak - and then proceeded to drink the night away. A highlight was Gwang-al-li and part of town right on the beach, with a huge bridge in the background, and plenty of places to party. A really cool place to hangout.




The next day we were too tired and hungover to do anything other than go home. So that's what we did. Back in Jinju, we had a last supper of Pork Belly, Beef and Lamb, and called it a holiday.

Thanks so much Geoff and Britt for dropping in. I had an awesome time, I hope you did as well. If you ever have a craving for kimchi, your always welcome back.

빼빼로 데이 - Pepero Day

Its been a while since ive updated, so its time to make up for that by telling you about what happens in Korea on the eleventh of November. Instead of paying our respect to war veterens, observing a minute of silence, and generally having a thoughtful, humble day, Koreans enjoy giving chocolate covered sticks of cookie to one another. These things are called 빼빼로 or we might know them as "pocky"s



I told my teachers about what we do in Australia on this day and I found it amusing that they had to tell me that unlike thanksgiving or korea day or other important days in Korea, Pepero Day IS NOT a traditional Korean holiday! I was shocked! You mean that people buying candy for each other is just a genius marketing campaign and has nothing to do with the Fabric of Korea?? It literally is just a day designed to make people buy as many of these things as possible, and it bloody well works.

So this is an important day in the life of a teacher as you get a definitive answer as too just how popular you are. If you get none, you pretty much know for sure that your kids hate you. But if you cant fit them all in your bag before you go home, its a good indication. Im happy to report that i was somewhere in between of the two extremes, leaning a little more to the good side. I would rate it as sufficiently popular.

Lex's Trip

So I was lucky enough to have my nuna (Older sister) Alexa come over to visit me recently. It was great to see her and a member of the family for the first time in six months (yeah thats right im 6 months in, halfway through the contract). We had a great time as I got to see parts of Korea I hadnt seen before, eat barbeque most nights and have someone tell me they are impressed with my crappy Korean. I thought id post alot of photos of what happened and give a few details of some of the interesting parts of the trip.

As mentioned earlier, i loved being able to eat BBQ most nights. Over here, if you go to a BBQ alone, you still need to buy 2 servings of meat, so they are essentially made for more than 1 person. So even though its the best thing to eat here, I dont get to eat it often enough. Its also considered pretty weird to eat alone anywhere in this country, so it was good to eat out and not have people staring at me more than they usually do. She loved the whole BBQ experience, which involves all the side dishes and cooking it yourself (unless you look either retarded or foreign, in which case, it can sympathetically be cooked for you). Also because it had meat, and many meals over here dont have meat, which Lex aint a fan of. I did enjoy her commenting on how impressed (read: disgusted and shocked) she was that I can eat pretty much anything put in front of me. Another favourite of hers was Shabu Shabu which is a big pan of boiling water with stock in which mushrooms, veges and meat is placed. This is then followed with noodles. This is again chased with rice for desert. A massive meal but bloody awesome.



A highlight of the trip was the DMZ - Demilitarised Zone. This is the border between North and South Korea. It is the most heavily fortified and guarded border on Earth. The USO tour we embarked upon took as to the area where N and S Korea stand face to face with each other. It is completely eerie and scary the whole situation. At one point we were inside a building that extends into N.Korea, thereby meaning that you are actually standing in N.Korea. The only place on Earth where it is safe to do so. If you attempted to walk out the door that enters into the North, a scarily intense S. Korean (below) would prevent you from doing so. And with good reason. This guy by the way may have been a manniquin as he didnt move a cm, looked like he was made of some sort of thick synthetic material and dint appear to breathe. I assume he would have stopped us but im not entirely sure he could move. One of the more interesting and scary parts of the day was visiting one of the underground tunnels that the North have digged in an attempt to sneak into the South. 4 have been discovered in about 30 years and we walk through one that reached a few hundred metres into the south. The Border between the 2 countries is over 200 kms long. What are the chances there is another undetected tunnel along the border thats already halfway to Seoul?? 50%? 75%? 100%? How many are there?? Downright frightening.




While Lex was in town, Jinju had its annual "Lantern" festival on the Nam River. It is annual, however wasnt held last year because of swine flu. Basically, the lanterns are massive sculptures of random things floating on the river and lit up at night. Some of the lanterns seem to follow a theme of Korea and Korean History and the Jinju castle, and some of them really dont, for example, Santa Claus, a picture of some guy running the 100 metres in 9.99 seconds, and a Tiger with wings. Over 100 of these things stretch along about 1 km of the river near downtown. Quite pretty I must say. The river is also lined with stalls, food, shops, games and places to drink for about 2 kms. So its a pretty happening and cool event. It is also where I was finally introduced to bondeggi which is silkworm larvae. Ive been waiting to eat these things since I came because they have a reputation for being famously terrible. They definately lived up to the hype. Im sure Alexa has already thrown up in her mouth after reading the name and remembering the smell. The smell carries in the open air for over 30 metres. The smell compares closely to my ice hockey gear if I threw it the boot of the car after a game, then drove around for a few years in the desert to intensify the smell, then opened the boot and shoved my nose in a sock. Brutal.





Here are just a couple of other pics from Korea; one is of a massive temple in Seoul, the other one of the nicer beaches in the country Sangju Silver Sand Beach.

Was great to see you Lex!!!

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

Ajumma Party

Just a quickish update for the moment. Had a classic weekend, although a tad bittersweet. It was the last weekend for a couple of people so we sent them out the best way possible. Definately sucks to say goodbye to people, especially good people, but I guess thats gonna happen continuously while im over here so I better get used to it. As a final send off we had a dress up party, something ive been keen for for a long time. Ironically, the theme of the party was the same as what I would have dressed up as if I could have chose anything; Ajummas (and Ajushis). I will use another website to define them;

Ajumma (아줌마) : A term used to address an adult female individual of married age and/or runs a business or restaurant. The word is used to call older women when in a restaurant or simply when getting a person's attention, but it is best to only call older women this as women of a somewhat younger age may not think of themselves as ajummas yet, especially if they are in their 30s and maybe even early 40s.

An "Ajushi" is the male equivalent.

Now your probably thinking what the hell is so special about dressing up as a middle aged woman. Thats a great question. Well, youve seen the definition, now ill tell you about the stereotype. What I know an ajumma as is a crazy and old woman. Not in their 30's, usually 50 or older, and completely nuts. They turn from complete hunchbacks capable of moving no faster than 14 cm/min, and able to make all walking traffic on the entire path screech to a standstill, to athletes capable of Usain Bolt-like speed as they run for a bus carrying an inflatable swimming pool full of cabbage and green peppers, all the while throwing elbows at anyone in a 5 metre radius. These woman seem to enjoy hurling abuse at anyone that can hear them - foreigner or otherwise - and seem to follow less than stringent hygeine practices. Did I mention they have hunchbacks. Im not joking. Parallel to the ground. They spend a large portion of the day at the market chopping the skin off garlic or shuking the stuff out of clams and oysters so they have their backs down low to the ground to help them, so I guess years of acumulation of led to a back that is no longer straight (havent these people heard of tables?? makes things much easier). It all add to the charm. But I guess the biggest stand out feature of the Ajumma is her clothers. An absolute plethora of tacky floral prints, flouro and mismatching colours. At least the pants or shirt MUST contain 14 different colours, and the fashion conscious ajumma, or the practical one, will wear long sleeves (cooling long sleeves), maybe a mask (i dont know why), and usually gloves. Also vital, and maybe the signature piece of clothing, is the visor, which has minimum dimensions of 1 metre long by 80 cms wide. These things are huge. They make sunbreros look like the little hat that jewish people wear. Again, more terrible colours the better. All in all, the Ajumma is just a standout feature of Korean society and one that gives you great unintentional entertainment everytime you see them.

So now you know why it was so vital that we dressed up as middle aged women. Actually, that whole paragraph was just a cover so that we could dress up as middle aged women and get away with it. In any case, we got about 30 or 40 people dressed to the 9's as Ajummas, most outfits costing about $20 bucks. Pretty cheap for the end result, escpecailly considering some shops were selling shirt for $80!! Im not kidding. These are in crappy little markets too, not in real shops. The $20 layout looks more attractive when u consider the fact that the pants are damn comfy so most people will be wearing them again when winter rolls around. My costume cost about $10 more for the acessories - mask, gloves, weird shoe things - and was a smash hit. Recieved multiple best dressed nominations. Bugger it, I WAS the best dressed there. Did recieve some criticism for some percieved "matching" of colours, but while it may look like there was some matching, I think it is still damn ugly which was the purpose in the first place. And really, when does pink and purple ever look good or ever meant to match?? Drunkedness was achieved via Soju Punch, and I have to say Mum, I think my mates stole your punch recipe because it tasted exactly the same as yours. Soooooo bloody good. It transported me back to home for a while...... and then after a few hours transported me to the toilet a few times. No that didnt happen I held myself together but cant say the same for everyone else - the Soju makes people go nuts and when it is in something that tastes good, allowing everyone to drink it as quickly as possible, its 100% garenteed to get at least 5 people in trouble with their boyfriends/girlfriends or to start randomly breakking things. Gotta love Soju. And Ajumma partys.

So here are some photos from the night, enjoy!!