A First Glance at Korea

Mountains and high rise apartments, two important aspects of the Korean landscape.



THE FOOD: An extremely important aspect of the Korean cultural landscape...


Shrimp wrapped in some sort of wheat breading covered in a sugary glaze with maraschino cherries on top. The shrimp were cooked with their shells, legs, eyes, etc. still intact and you're intended to eat them like that in one or two bites. The other seafood in the background is still intimidating, but not that intimidating!

"What D'You Want on YOUR Tombstone?!?"
Does Dominos Pizza know that their Korean branch stores are selling pizza with shrimp, squid, corn, pumpkin, avocado, onion, bell pepper, partially cooked chunk-cheese, and some sort of salad dressing like substance on them all at once?!? Some of you may wonder if it was any good, to which I'll say this: Some bites were, some bites weren't. It varied bite to bite!

This is a hot plate of potatoes on top of ketchup but inderneath two or three types of cheese with undercooked bacon rolled in the center. This is food to eat with your friends over beer.

Koreans have a very strange interpretation of sushi--they slather it in a variety of sweet mayonaise-esque sauces that, to my mind, diminish the quality of its taste greatly, even if they do look interesting.

Clam or Oyster soup with noodles and unpeeled shrimp. Kinda gross, but I have a feeling dad would have loved it. I probably ate 12-14 of those molluscs. Korean peer-pressure from your bosses to enjoy their traditional foods is a powerful force, even if they don't strictly insist on it!

One of the higher-ups in the company enjoying his seafood. We're all sitting on the floor.

Another of the company bosses at the soup dinner, also seated on the floor.

A girl I knew from up in Nowon who I went back to visit last week, Won Sun-ui.

Sun cooks the kalbi over the hot coals.


Crab-tofu jjigae. Who wants it?


Sun sure does!

Sun and one of her friends at Dragon Bar.

The three of us.


THE PEOPLE: Often found near the food...

Our old coworker, PK, with his girlfriend, Miyun.


Brian Gessler and Jang Yujung, the owner of Club Psycho at Anyang-yok.


Matt in the background with me and Jang Yujung doing the Lee Mario (리 마리ㅗ) thing at her bar, Club Psycho.


Matt and Sandra at the elementary school English department teacher's lounge, which is much more modern than ours at the middle school! Sandra is going back to Texas soon, but she's coming back to teach in Seoul after a few months I think.

Grace from the elementary school English department.

Me doing the 리 마리ㅗ thing with a coworker at the company dinner.

Brian at the company dinner, doing the 리 말ㅣㅗ thing. The company owner and his wife are in the background.

Diane at the company dinner, with soju and maekju.

Two coworkers at the company dinner, after extreme amounts of soju. The guy on the right calls me "Younger Brother" in Korean. The guy on the left helped me find a TV after it became clear that the company was not going to provide one, in spite of the contract's clear wording.

Eun!
Eun is awesome, we talk about Korean politics at work. She has travelled in Israel/Palestine and is unusually informed about global politics as well as the domestic variety.


SEOUL:

A very tall building at the COEX Mall/Korean World Trade Center. This is actually south of the Han river and pretty far from either neighborhood I've lived in.

I used to walk by this place everyday in Joongae-dong.

Eunhaing Sakeori! A major intersection in Joongae-dong, less than a block from my old apartment.

A small river crossing in Joongae-dong. The skyline of apartment complex monstrosities is extremely common.

This is the building that my first hakwon, EG Hospital Language Academy, was located in.

My second apartment in Seoul was directly across from this building, near Eunhaing Sakeori.

Motorcycles are used for everything from pizza delivery to light transport.

Nothing kickstarts the famous Korean appetite like pictures of raw meat! Actually, I just noticed tha tthere is no raw meat really pictured here, but there was on other parts of the restaurant's exterior. You can see it all the time when they are advertising food!

The batting cages in Nowon.

For punching.


For kicking.

At Eunhaing Sakeori.

In a taxi, which has been referred to as "Korean Street Racing."

A soldier in his uniform and a few other people at a crosswalk in Nowon.

Lotte Department Store. This place is HUGE. There is a food court on the 9th floor with some very nice restaurants and a cinema on the top floor. The rest is devoted to rampant consumerism.

The subway goes above the street here in Nowon.

THE SCULPTURES/STATUES:


I think this one's about a family being consumed by the bird but in a last effort throwing their baby to freedom and a better life through slavish amounts of extracurricular education. It's the Korean way!

A lot of these sculptures focus on a two parent/one child family theme.

ANYANG-SI: My current home.

A view from the Elementary School section of our hakwon on the 5th floor.


My home is about a 20 minute walk or so back between these buildings and those mountains in the distance.


The subway train approaches at Beomgye-yok.

The subway exit at Beomgye-yok on a Saturday night.

One day it snowed very hard. My apartment building is straight ahead and two the left in the distance.

Cha is cold...

Hakwon-ga (Hakwon Street) is blasted with snow. Just across the street on the left side is the building that includes my hakwon's middle school department, my primary department there, although I also teach at the elementary school occassionally and also to the high-schoolers on the weekends. Those are both in different buildings.

Exiting the street underpass.

Across the street from my apartment.

An out of commission fountain across the street from my apartment. It will probably open up again in the spring or summer.

Looking down the street from in front of my apartment building.

THE FASHION: Because it's unique.

Have you ever seen a Korean with blue hair? No?
Now you have!

"Glamour, Spunky Girl - Second Thoughts Are Best"
...sage advice. (I guess)

"Long Adoration - Tolerant & Generous - Propagating"

"Just for you - Want a friend...Get a puppy!"
Adding an either extremely cute or extremely creepy and potentially offensive edge to these words is the fact that the hood on this thing has puppy ears attached! Usually, women try to avoid self-applying a dog-identity to themselves, I'm pretty sure!

This guy directs traffic at Lotte Department Store in Nowon...

After the car follows his hand signals, he bows to them...

And the girl in pink has a loudspeaker and is announcing his directions the whole time. She also bows. I really should have a shot a video of this whole practice because it was highly amusing!