Kimchi for Breakfast!

It was a momentous occasion when I woke up one morning and felt ready to have my first Kimchi Breakfast. This is one of the things we westerners in Korea just can't get over: that Koreans would favour Kimchi and rice for breakfast over a myriad of other options: cereal, yoghurt, fried eggs and bacon, toast and jam....etc.
Oh well.

So I decided to try it. Kang, one of my co-teachers, had brought us some Kimchi his wife had very kindly made for us. I think she was worried about us not having kimchi as we have not learned how to make it ourselves, and the shop-bought variety is often imported from China (!) and generally not thought of as being good enough for consumption. And a home without is Kimchi is...well, not quite a home.


So...last Sunday I cooked up some rice, got hold of some seaweed sheets to accompany the rice and hauled out the kimchi. I had fun! But I concluded that I did still prefer cereal, yoghurt, fried eggs and bacon, toast and jam....etc.
At least now I know.

Photographic and video evidence below for your enjoyment.

The box of kimchi which was kindly given to us by the wife of one of my co-teachers.
That's a lot of kimchi.

digging in...

Black Blood!

Yesterday I had my first experience of traditional Korean medicine - more specifically Korean hand acupuncture, which is also referred to as Koryo Hand Therapy. It was an interesting experience indeed!
But first, I must explain why I was in need of such treatment.

Two nights ago I had the most terrible stomach cramps and indigestion: I think it stemmed from eating too much rice cake.
How ironic, as just a few months ago I couldn't bring myself to eat the rubbery stuff, never mind enjoy it and indulge in it, and now I have reached the stage where appear to have over-indulged!
Too much doesn't really mean I pigged out too badly: I had about four pieces of it (One piece is about the size of a small kiwi). According to Kang, my co-teacher at the high school, this isn't really much (they love the stuff after all and are forever gorging themselves on it!) And their digestive systems are of course accustomed to it!
So I am not surprised that my digestive system went hay-wire: you may recall my earlier descriptions of rice cake: "I have decided that my least favourite 'Korean-favourite' is the rubbery rice-cake thing I wrote about the other day. It is so rubbery and tastes funny - they love it though and I think I will just have to get used to it."

The offending cake. I will be steering clear of this lot for a while!

So it would seem that my taste buds have got used to it but my gut hasn't!
Due, I presume, to the extremely rubbery and dense nature of this treat, and the fact that I ate more than usual of it, it got jammed in my digestive tract somewhere.
Man what terrible pain I was in! This was compounded by the fact that I had done some rigorous stomach exercises the day before and any movement which affected my abdominal area was excruciating. Anyway, I look some pills and eventually managed to get to sleep.
I woke up the next morning feeling a bit better, but after cycling to school the pain was back. Lucy, my middle school co-teacher, asked what was wrong and I explained, sheepishly, how I had indigestion from eating too much rice cake!

Anyway, she is very caring and I think enjoys the semi-mother-like role she plays in my life, so she whisked me off to the school nurse for some acupuncture: I was all game as the pills I had taken had not had the desired effect and I figured that Korean medicine might just be the ticket to deal with too much of the nation's favourite cake!

So Ju-Ju (the school nurse's English nickname) had me sit on the bed and proceeded to hit the top of my arm with some force. She then whipped out one of those auto-pricking type machines, like the ones they use to test your blood iron levels before you donate blood.
She flicked the side of my little finger quite hard a few times then pricked it. It wasn't really that sore but my blood came squirting out and she and Lucy both went 'ooooh'. Apparently the fact that the blood squirted out so viciously and the fact that it was black (i.e. very dark) means that my digestive system was very out of balance. 'Black blood is very dangerous' Cathy, another co-teacher, told me later. Anyway, so Ju-Ju then squeezed and squirted more blood out with a tissue and then she did the same to another finger on that hand and then to the same two fingers on the other hand.
Afterwards I was given a Korean herbal drink which I had to 'chew' before I swallowed it - chewing on a liquid is a strange feeling!

So that was my acupuncture experience. I actually really felt quite 'cleansed' by the experience and for a few hours before lunch I felt quite a bit better but eating a bit of food got the cramps going again. Anyway, I was brought some Maesil tea, made from a kind of green apricot, which is also meant to help with indigestion.

This experience has highlighted the generosity and caring nature of my colleagues to me: they were all very concerned about my well-being and all offered advice. To someone else this may well have come across as interfering and irritating but I will openly admit that I enjoy attention when I am feeling unwell and it all made me feel a lot better!
Ju-Ju was so kind and attentive and she offered her 'bleeding services' to me anytime - next time I have one of those monster headaches I will definitely head over for some more 'Sooji Chim'.

I think this is a fascinating branch of alternative medicine which I would like to make the most of while I am here. Below is a chart of the hand which is used to treat afflictions of different parts of the body. If you'd like to read more about Koryo Hand Therapy have a look at the website http://www.koryohandtherapy.com/

P.S. 'Blogger' is driving me slightly mad: I can't seem to get the text in this post to the same colour as that in the others, and as much as I try I can't get rid if the 'Arial' font. So please forgove my inconsistent post layout and formatting! I try!

Images of Spring - Sangju is looking suprisingly pretty and friendly!

Spring has made its way into our apartment as well!

These are pics from my bike ride to school...a beautiful avenue of cherry blossoms...they only lasted about 10 days though which is sad!

I went on a hike with the 'women teachers club' from my middle school last week. The English teachers couldn't make it so I was a bit apprehensive about not being able to communicate with my other colleagues but we had a great time!

6 months in Korea

Many hats make a party!

We have reached our first major milestone in Korea!

We feel this is quite an achievement: our first few months in Korea were quite tough and there were quite a few instances where we wanted to throw in the towel...but here we are halfway through our 1 year contract and we're doing surprisingly well! So well, in fact, that we might just stay another year! This is of course not to say that we are absolutely ecstatic and feel like Korea is our new home (not at all in fact!) but life here has taken on a comfortable routine and we have got used to many of the bizarre aspects of life in Korea! We keep reminding ourselves that we are MILLIONAIRES every month anew... and that our jobs in Korea are opening up many opportunities to us that we would otherwise not have. Who else can say that they have actually eaten REAL Kimchi? Who else can say that they've been to a REAL noraebang? Who else can say that they have to change their shoes at school AND at the gym!

Anyway, the point is we are getting on just fine. The 'injection' of new foreign teachers into Sangju has also been fun...we had an AMAZING party to celebrate our 6 month anniversary with Korea last weekend. Our little apartmnet was full to the brim with people speaking English, eating, drinking and having a good time, it was quite something: the first real house party we've had in Sangju!

Our NET (Native English Teacher) numbers have more than doubled over the last two months. When Jules and I first arrived in this little city, we were only 7 public school native teachers in total. There were some other hagwon (academy) teachers around but we felt rather isolated, to say the least. Anyway, so in the last few weeks our numbers have increased to about 20! Yiipppeee! More friends, and more importantly, we can now start CHOOSING our frieds - and not just be friends by default, what a luxury (Do you realise how ridiculouc that is??)

Another plus of having all these new teachers around is that, as Jules puts it, we have now 'graduated' from being 'newbies' to being 'oldies': quite a pleasant feeling. We are now the ones dishing out advice and coming up with phrases like 'don't worry about x you'll get used to it' 'oh, really? that happened? oh well, that's Korea for you!'

So here are some pics of our highly successful "6 Months in Korea Hat Party"...some of you might recodnise them from facebook but here they are anyway. (We told our friends that hat parties are a South African tradition...it's ridiculous what lies one can get away with in the name of culture and cultural exchange :))

James and Barbara: our first ever friends in Sangju - very special people and without them we'd have felt even more lost and lonely

Jess and Nawaal: Nawaal is one of the new teachers. She's from Cape Town, yeyyy! Some more South Africans!! She's a sweeties and hass the cape accent down to a tee....'takes me home' everytime I hear it!

Devon, Jess and Kimberly. Devon's been here a month longer than us. She's from the US and we've had some good times with her. Kim's also from the US and is a newbie. The two of them have the real 'gift of the gab' (is it a gift???) and can talk the hindleg off many a donkey - they make me seem like a very quiet littel mouse!

Kelsey, Barbara and Jules. Kelsey is also new and can also talk (no surprsie then...she's also American)! She's quite a character: she studied fashion design but it was wearing her out (funny one!) so she's come to Korea...won't be long til the Koreans wear her out!!

Brad, Jules and Kelsey. (Told you she's a nutter!) anyway, Brad is an old faithful and has just finished his first contract. He's just gone home for his 2 weeks vacation and is coming back for more!

Jules and Devon...these two have that funny love-hate relationship...

The night would've not been complete without a visit to the noraebang (singing room). We traipsed off to 'World Cup' noraebang, one of our favourites in town - we are friendly with the son of the owner who turns out to be involved with the Korean mafia...and they have cool wigs and masks!
A great time was had by all...with loads of beer and loads of singing: on and off key!! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...