This bit of graffiti really tickled my fancy for some reason.
The box and the letter.
A little shaken up, but good to eat.
I got a package of chocolates from Korea today—the chocolate Monica made. There was a letter from her daughter that said Monica had made these for me before she passed away. Posthumous bonbons, so delicious, I cried when I opened the box—the note and it’s contents might have had something to do with it too.
“I read your blog post today…You know so much about my Mom, her plan, her dreams…I printed it out and put it next to her picture…I translated it into Korean in case of difficult words which she would not know.”
It’s kind of an odd feeling to know when these are gone, there will be no more. I can say definitively this is the last time I will have these chocolates. How often can you say that about something? When do you know, without a doubt, whatever it is you are doing or eating or hearing will be the final call? It’s pretty rare I think and makes eating them a little bitter sweet. But mostly sweet.
Even some months after being home, my Korean experience continues to grow and evolve.
(via fuckyeahkrnfood)
I just realized that my birthday is in like, four days? All I want is to eat galmegi sal and kimchi then have a Cass power hour, stay out until six at NB, and get into fights with cab drivers in Gangnam. Instead, I will probably end up at the Olive Garden with my mom.
I found a pretty legit Korean place not too far from my house a couple nights ago. The kimchi was good and I heard authentic Korean people saying “yeh, yeh” on several occasions. It was pretty reassuring, I have to say. Korean meals. They fuck most countries dinners pretty aggressively. Like prison style. Don’t drop the kochoojong.
And Happy Birthday to Ms. All Over. Still not sure about that name. Is it Slavic? Word.
This is tak-dong-jib. Chicken assholes.
Uh, I believe I ordered the large Coke?
You know, I really should have cut my hair while I was in Seoul. I’m glad I was able to go the whole year, though, because some how I find that a worthwhile goal.
And a Motorhead shirt to boot. Jesus. I stand behind the shirt, but the hair is one hundred pounds of hessian mess.
And not surprisingly, I thought the chicken butts were pretty delicious.
Face of the Day | Asian Correspondent
The caption reads, “69-year old Cha Sa-sun, who famously took the driver’s license exam 950 times before passing, took the wheel at a driving hagwon in Jeollabuk-do at the end of last year.” So don’t get down on yourself if you failed say 3 times. You’re still 947 tries away from being on par with this lovely ahjima.
I can remember hearing about this lady months and months ago when I was still in Seoul.
They enjoy the test taking over there, that’s for sure.
Korean lulz of the day: my director thinks I'm fat.
jgh2:
I had to get another health checkup today because my health checkup last week was just a drug test. So they weighed me, lol.
Right afterwards my director was like, “It’s OK, you can lose the weight quickly in Korea, Americans eat a lot of food.”
I think I’m supposed to be offended, but the cultural difference from America - where a boss could be fired for saying such a thing! - really just made me lol.
The thing about this country is, if you don’t just laugh it off, and instead expect everything to be the way it is back home, you will be disappointed. It’s a completely different culture!
So she got me some “weight loss tea” on the way back. Hopefully it dosen’t contain ephedra. Haha.
“The thing about this country is, if you don’t just laugh it off, and instead expect everything to be the way it is back home, you will be disappointed. It’s a completely different culture!”
This is really important. I’m really glad that you have such an open mind after being there for such a short time. Many people are there for much longer and still don’t get it. You seem to be adjusting very well!
To be overweight in Korea must be a nightmare. I remember when Jared, who is not fat at all, was going to start working for a new elementary school and our director told him to get a hair cut (reasonable), to buy a suit (less reasonable) and to lose some weight (totally unreasonable). In the states, that is a goddamn winning lottery ticket. You can retire on the kind of money that will bring in. There was a time in class when a particularly annoying and most likely insane older woman was telling me about how in Korea, when a girl is fat they call her “raddish calves”—i can’t remember the word she used—and the pointed to a girl who couldn’t have been more than 17 or 18 and said “like her”. Bear in mind, the radishes in Korean are of the enormous daikon variety. Think of an eggplant, like the size of, well, your calf. There was also the time I showed a picture of my friend passed out with a flower pot over his head. Never mind he was asleep on a porch with a giant bowl for growing house plants resting on top his log-sawing cranium, all they said was, “he’s so fat!”. I can remember spending an entire lunch explaining to one of my female co-workers that if I told a girl in the states she was chubby, I’d likely end up getting a wrap in the mouth. To her, it just meant cute. There was another time I saw what had to be the most over weight person in Korea sitting on the subway. He was surrounded by elderly hikers who I could have sworn were planning a trek up his north face.
Like the posts above make clear, things are way different over there. To comment on someone’s physical appearance, height, weight, whatever, is totally accepted.
Monica
I came home tonight to an e-mail telling me one of my students had died. In the course of a year, I had quite a lot of students in my charge. Some were immediately forgettable, some I think of now and then. Others left an indelible mark on me and my life. That was Monica. A truly special woman. For seven months she was in my early afternoon Monday, Wednesday and Friday class. And every time I saw her, I knew Monica would deliver. I think I talked before about how in each class, there was at least one student I could count on to get me out of a tight spot. That was Monica, in spades. Yet she was so much more than even that. Questions about cultural oddities , advise about Korean women, whatever it was, Monica was a load bearing vertebrae in the backbone of my Korean experience.
Monica was enthusiastic and full of life. Her desire to learn English—and determination to have fun while doing so—was almost transcendent. She brought so much joy and positive energy into every bit, of every lesson, the whole class couldn’t help but be uplifted in her world. She was a leader amongst the students for all the right reasons. Despite any shortcomings I had as a teacher, Monica loved me. She was the one who went to the director of my school and let it be known that her, along with the entire class, would stop coming to the hagwon if I was not their teacher at the end of each session. The last e-mail she sent me, maybe a month and a half ago, said how they spend most of each class “singing your praises.” The hahoe masks she bought me are on my family’s mantle. She was loyal and generous in a way that cannot be explained or overstated.
More often than not, she came to class with a gift of some kind. Many students brought things, but Monica ratcheted it up from the typical drink or pre-packaged sweets most people went for. Home made cookies and sweets and bulgogi sandwhiches. Pie, like a whole pie, that she made just for me. And chocolate. Oh my, the chocolate. Monica loved to make truffles and dreamed of opening up her own chocolate making business. She visited Belgium and brought back recipes she discovered. Look back on previous posts and you’ll see that I am not waxing nostalgic or being overtly sentimental when I say she made the BEST chocolates I have ever eaten. White chocolate with green tea filling. Dark chocolate with whiskey in the middle. She brought them by the dozen and on those days, I could scarcely make it through class without eating a few while the students worked.
She set up private lessons between me and her daughter, with whom I became very good friends. When I started reading the e-mail Scarlet sent me this evening, news of her mothers passing was the last thing I expected to hear. She wasn’t old, not in bad health. She was vibrant and happy. She liked to drink beer and eat kalbi and could do both in high volume, able to keep up with any Korean man I know. I don’t really know what happened, but she died suddenly, 10 days before Christmas. They buried her far away from Seoul, on her familie’s small hillside plot. Inside the coffin, Scarlet and her sister placed Monica’s English book “so she can study in heaven”.
Wherever she is now, I know that place is filled with the most mouth watering chocolates on this plane of existence—or any other. She is there, speaking fluent English the way she always wanted and making that place, whatever it is, immeasurably better, with her laugh, her smile and her love.
Rest in peace, Monica. And saranghae.
So yesterday I went to what can only be described as the single greatest place with four walls and a ceiling in the world. It was a very swanky restaurant; one of those three-forks-next-to-your-plate kind of places, and it was a buffet
And here is a link to Jared’s blog. he post more often than Jordan does, but the subject matter is more varied. From his experiences in Korea to random philosophical musings. I wrote quite a lot about both of these fellows, but this is a good way to to get a closer look at who both of them are.
As I run, the river widens and the highways withdraw to either side. The towering appartment blocks, so familiar to me now, rise in full view behind them, like the columns of a massive cathedral with the roof blown off.
Here is a link to Jordans blog. I should have left one up a long time ago. He doesn’t post very often, but has been killing it lately. His last three or so posts have been extraordinarily well written.
If you want a quick intro to Korean culture and name brands and everything… watch this video. I can’t stop watching it. If you’re coming to Korea, familiarize yourself with everything in this song, thought it doesn’t really matter ‘cause you’ll figure it all out when you get here anyway.
this seriously sums up my daily life, thank you myra!!!!
THEY DIDN’T MENTION STARCRAFT WTF
I couldn’t stop laughing.
I’m glad that yellow dust, fan death, Choco-Boy, four seasons, kai bai bo, Pizza School, and ondol got their well-deserved mentions.
They did in fact mention Star Craft. I saw a Lotteria sign, but never heard them say it. Paris Baguettes absence was a bit conspicuous. A few things aside, this sums it all up. And I thought I was going to have to write a book to do that.
