Laundry, as an Art Form

Some would say that, at times, I have been know to be particular about my clothes and how they are laundered. Well, any notions of how I felt laundry should be done is out the window here in Korea.

There are a few primary obstacles we face, number one being that our machine is in Korean and I made the mistake of having Nick get this how-to lesson from Tim. We don't entirely know what all these buttons do...

Another primary obstacle to successful laundering is that we DO NOT HAVE A DRYER. This is why I relate the act of doing laundry to an art form. As you can see here, once washed, clothes must be arranged ever so meticulously for optimal drying.

Before the purchase of fabric softener, we also had a slight issue with the hard water. Socks should not be able to do this on their own.

No need to exfoliate. Wearing stiff socks does the trick.

One benefit that has come out of our laundering experiences is that Nick had the chance to be a valuable handyman last weekend. Basically, how the water hooks up to the washing machine is the most illogical system one could think up - the hose is secured to the non-threaded faucet by only a few screws.

Smooth metal + blunt screws + water pressure = disaster. Once the machine stopped filling, the pressure built up and sent the hose flying off, creating an unwanted water display in our kitchen. However, this was no challenge for my handy husband! Equipped with nothing more than a nail clippers, he went to work and saved his matron in distress. Awww. Photographed here is his workmanship.

That hole was already there.

For reference, this is the faucet to outlet proximity while the water works were taking place.

Love isn't Cheap

I just wanted to briefly share that the main pitfall to date of Korea is that I can't find (good) cheese easily. However, where you can find it... she isn't cheap.  

'Oh cheese, how I love the'

That's about $5.00 USD for less than 8oz of cheesy goodness.

Korean Dish No. 1

Japchae

After an afternoon long hike in the mountains of Mokpo, Nick and I were left famished. We had planned to put together a simple dinner of either frozen Korean noodly soupy stuff or warm up pasta leftovers... neither of which really lit my fire.

Suddenly, inspiration struck and the next thing I knew I was sifting through Korean recipes online. Starving already, it only took a moment to make my selection and, with my IPad in tow for moral support, off to Lotte Super I went to buy the necessities.

tanggun - carrots
nokssaegui yangp'a - green onion
hayan sake yangp'a - white onion
shigumch'i - spinach
posot - mushrooms
manal - garlic
daangmyun - rice noodles
soegogi -beef

... Add some sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, ground pepper and sesame seeds to garnish and you have Japchae. It is basically a Korean style stir fry and it was oh so delicious!

For your taste buds I have provided a few teasers. Enjoy.

Look! Mushrooms. Family, you should be proud.

Delicious beef simmering away.

I call this, a success.

The Apartment

Nick was gracious enough to set up a brief introduction of our moving adventure. Now I am here to provide a few more details.
 
On Saturday our Co-Director, Tim, picked us up from the hotel in his smallish Kia SUV with his uber adorable 10 month old daughter. What about moving doesn't scream baby?? Besides thinking that her car seat was some type of modern torture device and being a little freaked out by the two strange white people, Elise wasn't too much trouble at all. Tim, however, didn't think to take the baby accoutrements out of the car before leaving home... He also forgot to put shoes on Elise... But who’s really counting the number of mistakes a new father makes ;) Anyways, where was I? Ah yes, long enough story short, Tim ended up using a cell phone car charger to safely secure our only possessions into the back of the car for the short journey to our apartment.

And here she is!

The Master Suite (note the window, which looks into the hallway - and yes, those are bars)

The Luxury Kitchen/Laundry Room, image 1

The Luxury Kitchen/Laundry Room, image 2

The Grand View (the only exterior window in the place)

The Regal Sitting Room

The Stately Restroom, image 1

The Stately Restroom, image 2

Now, don't be all judgmental right off the bat. She has some hidden charm that comes out after you get to know her... But to be fair... She also has some demon-like qualities we could already live without.

For example, our relatively new refrigerator randomly hums so loud I have been close to ripping my ears off just to make the sound go away. And for those of you out there who like hot water AND heat at the same time... I'm sorry, but Korea may not be for you. Since our heat is radiant through hot water running under the flooring, we have to push a button to direct the water from the tank to either the sink/shower or to the floor for heat.

And don't get me started on the washing machine! That alone is worthy of its own post, so stay tuned for that.

 But enough complaining already! Nick and I are really enjoying our new place. Amy and Liam, whose positions/apartment we took over, left us with a nice set up. Besides a few things we want to get for more personal enjoyment or need, we have all the essentials already here. Pots, pans, silverware, dishes, clothes rack, extra storage bins, laundry soap, toilet paper.... And the lists goes on and on!

At the end of the day, it feels great to finally be unpacked and have a place to call home... However, we have yet to decipher that damn rice maker! We have used it a number of times already, but feel we got lucky with an edible end product.

Mmmm, rice

I spared no expenses. (Hold on to yer butts)

So we're in our apartment now - we're home. It has been an exciting journey, but we finally had to leave the hotel we were staying in (and say goodbye to the ladies' badminton practice held in our motel's parking lot) to move to a place we can call home. Our apartment is situated on the sixth floor of some building that looks like a lot of other buildings in the city. Coming out of the elevator we are the first apartment - which, naturally, has its pros and cons. For example, we don't have to walk down the long hallway to get to our apartment; on the flipside, every time someone walks by our apartment the automatic lights in the hall turn on (and light leaks into our bedroom). Oh, well.

Our place was an empty, barren, desolate landscape with wallpaper everywhere. Well, it may not be that bad, but I like to be dramatic, sometimes. (Of course, once I get some dinosaur wallpaper on each wall, this is going to be one kick-Jurassic apartment!) Once we got into our apartment, we set our bags down, got some information from our Co-Director, Tim, and then got busy. Becky, of course, went straight to work trying to make the place look like home - by unpacking our fresh, new pillows.



I immediately went to work trying to decipher the cryptic language of the rice-cooker, so we could get some lunch cooking. Dictionary? Check. Rice-cooker in a foreign language? Check. A 10kg bag of white rice? Check. Luckily, two fresh eggs were left in the fridge from the previous tenants, Amy and Liam, so we were able to add a little substance to the rice. Here are the before and after pictures, just so you can feel like you were in the apartment with us (if you have 3D glasses, now would be the time to use them).

Becky started getting our new bed situated - but the only problem is the sheets we lugged around with us all the way from Minnesota don't quite fit the bed...

...but it looks fine, right!? Exhausted, we made some ramen noodles, got a pitcher (1600ml plastic bottle) of beer, and relaxed. Here is Becky's ramen relaxation station:


As for me? Becky said I don't get to eat dinner or drink beer until this blog post is done, so...it's done.



P.S. For some of you, the following image means nothing. For others, it means everything. Read it and weep.

The Bidet Encounter

For the anonymity of parties involved, the names of people and places may have been altered.

On an undisclosed day, at an undisclosed cafe, a young woman by the name of... Bernadette... Yeah, Bernadette, needed to use the restroom to wash her hands before lunch was served. Upon entering the small single size restroom, Bernadette began to wash her hands when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. The toilet.

Along one side of the toilet, little pin sized lights were blinking away, just calling for her immediate attention. Now, Bernadette isn't stupid, she knew just looking at the thing that she was definitely dealing with a bidet here. The trouble was, Bernadette had never been in the presence of a bidet before and that, paired with her often uncontrollable curiosity, was a recipe for trouble.

'Just one little push of a button, what harm could that possibly cause?', Bernadette thought to herself as the buttons continued to blink away. 'Well, I clearly can't read Korean yet to know what this one says, but the little icon next to it looks like it may be some kind of heating effect... I'll push that one! Here goes nothing... Oh look, something is moving. Oh please, please, don't do what I think you're goin... AAAHHHHHH, no, no, no!'

At this point, blazing hot water began to spray from a little tube with such remarkable force that, after narrowly missing Bernadette's nose, it began to spray the wall nearly four feet away... In utter panic, she began to press the button again and again, hoping it would stop but to no avail. Button after button she made every attempt to remedy her actions as the water quickly began to puddle at her feet. But still, this machine of witchcraft was not showing any signs of stopping anytime soon. 'I'll close the lid! Brilliant idea,' she
thought! But the water only hit the lid and seeped out the cracks. 'Seriously? You've got to be kidding me,' Bernadette fumed.

Finally, a stroke of genius came to her! Bernadette followed the cord coming from the bidet to the power outlet and quickly pulled the plug on this nightmare.

Now, as Bernadette's shoes slopped around in a large puddle of water, she faced the challenge of cleaning up her silly mess. To spare our thousands of readers on the details of this, let's just say that it took an ample amount of paper towels and a little creativity before Bernadette was able to quietly exit the restroom and return to her table. Fortunately for her, nobody was anxiously awaiting their turn.

All and all, a lesson was learned.

The common bidet.

Pepero Day

빼빼로!

Each November 11 here in Korea is similar to Valentine's Day. Much like in the West, this day is centered around, you guessed it, chocolate. However, unlike the West, Koreans didn't care to hide behind the name of some saint - so they called it like they saw it - and Pepero Day day was born.

Pepero is a cookie stick, often like a thinly rolled waffle, dipped in chocolate. They come in as many as ten different flavors ranging from original and peanut to lemon and cheese. The significance around the holiday is that a handful Peperos look like the number 11. So 11/11 screams holiday celebration! We are anticipating that next year, 11/11/11, is going to be madness.

Our day at school on the eleventh was filled with little ones hopped up on, sugar giving out dozens of Peperos to each other, but mostly to us teachers. Since Nick and I are new and have yet to meet all the students, our loot pile was not nearly as large as the other teachers but we still made out quite handsomely. The kids were so cute when they gave them to us - Koreans will hand things to one another with two hands as a sign of respect and bow their heads slightly - and being that we are new and sort of strange to them, they would giggle uncontrollably and quickly walk away.

Our Pepero pile.

Our Temporary Home

First of all, Nick and I want to apologize for taking so long to get our first blog posts up. It took us a little while to get our internet situated - but have no fear, things will be more regular from here on out!

View from our window.

 We have arrived to our destination city and have begun to acclimate to our new lives here in Korea. Being that we are taking over both the jobs and apartment of another couple, we have a weird transition period before they leave. This means that we are living in a motel for a total of two weeks before we are able to move into our apartment.

Prior to arrival, we heard plenty of interesting stories of what the Koreans call, Love Motels. They get their name because traditionally Koreans live at home until they marry and move into a new home with their husband or wife - so the only reason people would have to stay at a motel would be to do the whoopy.

But no need to worry, we were very pleased to find our room to be very clean, more spacious, and have less mirrors in strange places than we expected. We are also located right behind the building that our school is in, so for now it has been easy to not get lost.

On Friday or Saturday we will move into our apartment and really look forward to unpacking and truly begin to settle in.

Our temporary home.

Becky thought it would be a fantastic idea for me to write this entry. I am not quite sure why she thought that would be a good idea, but it means I can take a break from all of the packing and organizing. Sold. So, rather than entertain you with our packing stories, I think it would be beneficial to enlighten you with stories of Korea.

Many, many years ago, a child was born on a mountain, and defeated a Tyrannosaurus rex in a fight to the death. This child, naturally, was none other than the world famous action star Kim Jong-il! (Please note that I did not photograph our Kim Jong-il - rather, I obtained this via a satellite image, I think). You may know all about our hero's world-class golf skills - according to the World Tribune, our hero shot a 38 under par on his first golf outing, and "routinely shoots three or four holes-in-one per round"! I digress...

Becky and I will be headed to Korea to assist Kim Jong-il in training the Korean troops to become Americans. Through proper disguise and the correct language abilities, the Korean troops will be able to infiltrate any part of the world with ease - and assisting them is our mission. I have also been requisitioned to assist in producing and directing a North Korean edition of Top Gun, which has been given the working title Top Gun-il. Naturally, our hero Kim Jong-il will play the protagonist Maverick, I will play the role of Goose, and Val Kilmer is set to reprise his role as Iceman. Meg Ryan has also committed to make a cameo appearance as Goose's wife.

And then I woke up...

But in all seriousness, most of that is not true. If we were moving to North Korea, I am quite sure all of those events would unfold, including Meg Ryan and Tom Sizemore making cameo appearances in Top Gun-il. Alas, that probably will not happen, because we are moving to a part of South Korea that is quite far south from North Korea. the lucky city? Mokpo, a town of roughly 250,000 people (+ 2).

We will be spending the next twelve months teeching South Korean children too lern goode inglish, or something. Our classes run after school for the children - 3:40pm to 9:40pm. This will give us the opportunity to sleep in a little, explore/run errands during the day and then head to class. Plus, we'll be able to talk to you easier this way - 8pm central is 10am Korean time, so we can wake up, have breakfast and have a chit-chat as you unwind from your long day.

But honestly, the only reason I am going to Mokpo is to visit the Mokpo Natural History Museum (but don't tell that to Becky!)