Week o' Lunches :: Day 5

And last but not least, last Friday's lunch:

picture from my school's website

A. kimchi
B. sauteed veggies (mushrooms, bok chey, and maybe some spinach)
C. chicken curry
D. rice
E. udon noodles soup (the squares are odang)

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Have I ever  blogged about odang before?  It is a popular food in Korea.  Basically (as I understand it) they take all of the parts of the fish you don't want to eat and grind it up very fine powder.  Then they make a paste out of it and cook it.  Thus odang.  (I found this and this about odang).  I find it quite funny that Koreans call odeng, "o-dang".  Whenever I see that we are eating odang for lunch I think to myself, "Oh dang". Really ya'll, I have no idea what all is in odang, but all I can think when I am eating it is, "fish eyes, fish brains, fish intestines, fish skin....".  It is fascinating to me how much Koreans like odang.  It is sold from the street venders here and it goes like hotcakes (or should I say fishcakes?).

Thanks for following along with my week of lunches!  Next up, my newly invented pizza!

Week o' Lunches :: Day 4 {the one when I was convinced that I was eating a tree}

Last Thursday's lunch:

picture is from my school's website

A. radish kimchi

B. boiled burdock (ya'll, I have never eaten burdock before, but it looks, tastes, and smells like tree bark.  I am serious.  I really thought I was eating sauteed wood.  But you can google burdock.  Once I learned the role of burdock in velcro, I forgave it for tasting like wood.)

C. octopus + rice cake + vegetables (it may sound exotic to eat octopus for lunch, but it is not...it's quite chewy)

D. black rice

E. tofu + vegetables + beef soup

Week o' Lunches :: Day 3

Wednesdays are my favorite school-lunch day.  For some reason, the school lunch ladies out-do themselves on Wednesdays.  On Wednesdays, we have curry and rice, or fried rice, and even sometimes bimimbap!

Last Wednesday's Lunch:

picture from my school's website

A. cucumber kimchi

B. watermelon (the Koreans I eat with, swallow their watermelon seeds)

C. chicken wings in some type of sauce (have you tried to take on chicken wings with chopsticks?)

D. kimchi fried rice

E. I am not exactly sure on this soup, Google Translate called it Oil Rich Smile, which I am pretty sure I am is wrong.  I call it tofu, mushroom, and other vegetables soup in my brain.  

Week o' Lunches :: Day 2

Lunch from last Tuesday:

Picture from my school's website

A: slices of zucchini sauteed with mushrooms
B: kimchi
C: bits of pork and hard-boiled quail eggs (this is one of my favorite things to eat for school lunch!)
D: rice
E: vegetable and marsh snail soup (you can not really see the snails in this picture, but believe me, they were in there)

Week o' Lunches :: Day 1

I thought you might be interested in seeing what I eat for school lunch every day for a week.

Here is last Monday's lunch:

Photo from my school's website

A: kimchi
B: sauteed mushrooms and bok choy (you can google it)
C: a mixture of pork ribs (with the bone left in them), potatoes, carrots, and some garlic in some type of sauce
D: rice (specifically with bits of corn in it)
E: squid soup with some pieces of radish and green things

Priceless Saturday

Train Ticket to Busan and back: 12,600 won ($10.87 in US dollars)

Subway Pass from train station to friend's apartment and back: 2,800 won ($2.42)

Posed

Getting to see Katelyn one last time before she has Baby H.:  Priceless!

Candid

Adios Corea!

I did not know until I looked it up that Korea in Spanish is Corea.  Interesting.  I did feel proud of myself because I was able to recall that Corea del Sur is how to say South Korea.

Another trip was to made to the post office yesterday.  I am pretty sure that the postal people love us.  Especially when I pack the box too heavy.  And we get to purchase yet again another box.  I do have to say we are pretty consistent in our mailing of stuff.  The first time we sent 29.64 kg (65lbs) to America and this time it was 29.98 kg (66lbs).  I have a feeling we are going to have at least another 100lbs to mail.  Where did it all come from?  At least it is only $1.25 per pound to mail.

Moving on... (pun intended)

I do not remember when I came to this conclusion, but I am sure it was only a few months after moving to Korea.

Kai-bai-bo* solves every problem or conflict in Korea.


Two students are arguing over {insert something that children argue over}.  Kai-bai-bo it out kiddos.  So they do.  And this is the best part, it completely dissipates the situation.  I feel like kids in America would still be arguing over it.  But kids in Korea think that kai-bai-bo solves everything.

Which means they love me when I teach them Rock-Paper-Math.  Unlike my students in America who rolled their eyes.

Occasionally you even see adults playing kai-bai-bo.

* I guess I should explain that kai-bai-bo is short for kawi-bawi-bo.  Kawi = scissors  bawi= rock and bo = cloth (paper).  The kiddos are very adamant that it is not rock-paper-scissors, but rather, rock-scissors-paper.  After being here almost two years, they still correct me when I say, "Play rock-paper-scissors."  "No, Alreesuh-teacher.  It is rock-scissor-paper."  And every time I tell them that I am an America and in America the order is different.  I put in the same category as them saying, "nice to meet you" two years later as well.  Here is an informative blog post/video.

And yes, sometimes Ian and I joke that people decide who to vote for and which laws to pass by playing kai-bai-bo.

This picture of me, Na Kyeong, and Ji Young does not have anything to do with playing kai-bai-bo, I just like it!

Clearly, we disagree Ms. Nagy

I think it is important that you read this article first (the title of the post is: Why I Believe Marriage Shouldn't Be Allowed Before Age 25).  I am writing this blog post in direct response to what Ms. Nagy has written.

Well, respectfully, I disagree.

First and foremost, I would like to express that my heart breaks for you, Ms. Nagy.  As in, I read a few other posts you have written (this one and this one) and I was seriously almost crying.  But I am at work right now and bawling my eyes out for someone I had never met in my life before did not seem quite doable.  But oh sista, I am so sorry for you.  I do not want to say this in a cold or harsh way, but Ms. Nagy, you need Jesus.  He won't make you happy all the time.  But He will be the best thing that ever happens in your life.  I promise.

Secondly, (sorry to the English High School teachers that are inwardly groaning right now, but it seemed like a good word) trying to suggest a law about what age you can marry is foolish.  If you read some of the comments of the blog post that Ms. Nagy wrote, you will quickly see that there are a plethora of counterexamples.  I do not need to list anymore here.  I do have concern that if a government would make a law stating that you can only marry after a certain age (say 25), that the rate of co-habitation before marriage would increase.  This concerns me greatly as co-habituation (in my humble opinion) is not healthy and studies show that co-habitation before marriage leads to a higher divorce rates.  

Thirdly, I sense that this is an underlying idea to Ms. Nagy's post.  If you wait until you are 25 to get married, then you won't get divorced.  If you discover yourself before you get married, then you won't get divorced.  It seems that she holds the idea that if you x, y, and z before you get married, then your marriage is divorce-proof.  Sadly, I found this underlying idea in a book I saw advertised recently.  (I guess I should say, that I could be wrong.  Maybe neither one of the individuals holds this view and I made it up in my mind.)  Here is what I have observed: divorce-proofing your marriage is not so much what you do before you get married (although those choices factor in) it is more what you do day-in and day-out of your married life.  It really saddens me that people are worrying about divorce-proofing marriages.  

It is like suggesting that we go swimming and then worrying about drown-proofing our time in the pool.  Why don't we just focus on swimming?  In my experience, it is really fun (both marriage and swimming).  Of course, you (we) need to guard against the foxes, but if your concern before you get married is about getting divorced, you might want to take some serious time to reflect on that. 

I believe, Ms. Nagy, that the purpose of marriage is to bring glory to God.  I guess you got confused or missed the memo and thought it was about personal happiness or discovering yourself.  (For the record, I think getting married young helped me to discover myself.)  But it is not.  It is not about puppy-love lasting forever.  It is acknowledging that I am a broken sinner, as is my husband, and yet God can bring something beautiful and worthy of glorifying His name out of our union.  That is amazing and humbling to me.

And no, I don't believe that unicorns or fairies exist.  I do believe that God is faithful and He will continue to sustain my marriage for many, many years to come.

Just sayin'...

Annyeonghi-gyeseyo Dae Han Minguk

Anneyeonghigyeseyo is good-bye (somewhat formally) in Korean when you are the person leaving and the other person is staying.

Dae Han Minguk is Korean for Republic of Korea. 

So it has come time to say good-bye to Korea. 

We mailed 29.64 kg (that is, 65 pounds) of stuff (winter clothes mostly) to America today.  It is happening.  We are moving.  To America.  I am not quite sure how I feel (nervous - yes, sad - yes, excited - yes, all three mixed together - yes), nevertheless it is happening.

There will be a lot of things that I will miss about life in Korea.  One of them is:

Delivery food with real plates

When we moved here, I noticed a lot of dishes outside of people's apartment doors with food still on them.  I thought weird.  Now I know.  When you order food here (with the exception of pizza or fried chicken), it is delivered on real (not disposable) plates, bowl, and silverware.  It is so nice.  And then when you are done, you set everything outside the door it was delivered to.  The delivery boys/men/women/whomever come by later and pick up the dishes.  It is a great system.  I am going to miss it in America.  Not to mention the amazingly inexpensive delivery service. 

This was back in Aug. 2010, when we were learning how to say, "annyeonghamshinka". 

Happy 2nd Anniversary!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of us!  I love my husband!  And I love being married to him!  Yeah for 2 years of marriage.  I hope there are a lot more to come!  

And Ian is...

...making chocolate chip cookie dough again.  Is there anything more delicious than chocolate chip cookie dough?

Time for me to go find a spoon  :-)

Happy June, ya'll!