I have been writing this post over the course of the last couple of days. When it gets long, then I send it to you all. Anyway, I am doing wonderfully! I love it here! I am finding food much easier and liking almost everything they put in front of me. I have learned like five ways to say no meat, and it’s working! (Sort of!) I had no idea that ramen noodles (like we eat at home) are really what people eat here. Every type of noodle, rice, or dumpling is here! I’ve had purple rice, yellow rice, brown rice, red rice, white rice, orange rice, jasmine rice, etc. Noodles follow same thing... I’ve eaten at least 4 different types of noodles. I have come to like pickled radishes (which I otherwise would NEVER have touched), quail eggs (tastes like regular eggs, just smaller), octopus (although very chewy), and lots of seaweed. I feel like the little mermaid with all this seaweed! Everything is either spicy or bland... so I am choosing spicy. There are no salt and pepper shakers on the tables and no ketchup in most places...you have to just eat food as it comes to you. Also, you can go in the market and get a full meal by trying all the samples!!! You know my cheap butt has made that a habit. (It’s...uhh...also a good way to..uhh..try Korean food?)
I have learned that there are some major offenses. One such offense is walking in someone’s house/living space with your shoes on. MAJOR NO NO! I noticed this when the hotel concierge brought my bags to my room, took his shoes off, and then went inside with a bag, came back out, put his shoes on, got the second bag, and took them off again to enter into the room. He tried to explain to me but I didn’t understand. I later left my shoes in the room by my bed when i left for work. When I returned, the housekeeping staff had taken my shoes out of the room and put them in the foyer of my room. I did it myself today and I got a smiley face note! I am learning! Another offense is not bowing when bowed to. I just copy other people so I’ve been okay. But people find it rude and disrespectful if you don’t return the bow and may not clean your room, provide breakfast, etc. J Another thing is doing anything that may ruin someone’s ‘kibun’- there is no English equivalent but it basically means their disposition. You should always try to be positive and help others maintain face. Koreans are really superficial and appearances mean everything. So, in a restaurant, the owner/cooks watch you. If you say you don’t like something out right, it injures their kibun. So instead you say: Wow, the juice is excellent! So is the kimchi. I had so much that I can’t eat the pudkim.’ They know you don’t like it, but they imagine that no one else knows. Funny to me.
If you are trying here, people will be so nice to you. They help you with directions (although if they don’t know they will make something up to save face). At one restaurant, the owner brought us a sample of everything on the menu (made without meat) so that we can learn what things are. We ate so much, we practically rolled home!
The only negative so far is the weather- it is hotter than the inner thighs of a fat chick in the sahara wearing leather pants! You walk outside and you are wet with sweat. I go jogging at 6:30am and it is already 88-90 degrees outside. The mid day highs have been hovering around 110-115. And my retarded butt has been walking everywhere. Water is free, tastes good, and is available everywhere. We have been taking advantage of that. It’s my goal in life to find a positive in every ‘negative’ so here it is: the more you deal with weather, the more calories you can burn! Ahhaaa!!
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