My fourth week in Korea started off with a visit to the local 짐질방 jimchilbang. And it was a very nice 짐질방 indeed! 짐질방 at minimum is a community sauna or hot spring but usually they're much more. I've been to two including the one earlier this week and between them I've seen 짐질방 include a restaurant, exercise club, game room, massage therapy, TVs, live performance, haircutting, a floor to sleep on, and a cold room to sit in after the hot sauna. The one this week was special because they have giant ceramic huts of different temperatures as hot rooms. They look kind of like hobbit cabins with small doors you duck through to enter. The entire family comes, and on Sunday there were lots of kids having fun racing back and forth through the crowd. Boiled eggs are a traditional treat to eat in the jimjilbang, likely because in a natural 짐질방 the eggs would cook in the near boiling temperatures where the hot spring comes out of the earth while you bathe downstream where the water is cooler. I did not verify this on Naver or Wikipedia...
After 짐질방, my housemate and our coworker introduced me to a new favorite dish called 감자탕 Kamcha tang or "potato soup".
By chance, I ended up having this dish three times this week and each time it included lots of pork spinal bones and maybe one potato. As with many Korean dishes the meal is a process and includes a series of steps of adding things to the cooking basin in the center of the table. My favorite add-in are the potato noodles.
For Christmas Day, I went on a bike ride with the Director of Songdo KEMTI, Dr. 유. I took my folding bike on the subway to meet him. The day started off as an unusually warm and sunny. But by night fall, after many hours riding, my toes were frozen!
A very nice place we stopped to visit was 선유도 Seonyudo, which is on an island in the middle of the Han river. It is a water treatment facility converted into a park in 2002. Many of the old structures have been left to form walkways, waterfalls and garden beds. It is a popular place for teenagers to take photos of themselves dressed up as anime characters.
View Larger Map
After my second-ever meal of 감자탕 we went to Technomart to buy a cell phone for me. Purchasing a cell phone plan in Korea is not entirely straight-forward in Korea, even for Koreans. For foreigners, there are even more hurdles. Of the six different cell phone vendors I spoke with, all gave different requirements and plans available for me. I heard everything from "you are not eligible to buy phone service" to "you can get the plan you want". Of course I chose the plan I wanted, which is KTF.
A funny thing about my cell phone is that it supports video phone calls and has a built-in pinhole camera that transmits an image of your face. I have not seen anyone use this feature yet and I'm not sure if I have (or want) access.
I purchased a bluetooth headset to use with my phone so I can talk while riding on my bike more safely.
I have decided studying from Korean language textbooks is more effective than watching Korean TV. The books are better for me at this stage in building basic vocabulary and grammar. I remain impressed with the educational aspect of Korean TV and how even the biggest broadcasting companies compete with EBS for viewers interested in culture and language programming. I also enjoy watching Korean language cartoons like 아따맘마.
The unseasonably warm weather ended on New Years Eve and it was very cold. I went for dinner with my coworker 재혁 and we ate 해물탕 Haemul Tang (seafood soup), which was very delicious and different for me. It arrived as a large basin filled with very large shellfish of various species, some fish and a live octopus. The covered basin then cooked at your table. With this method you take no chances to ensure fresh octopus.
After dinner we went to a couple bars. Another one of our coworkers came to meet us and we toasted the new year with excellent 마고리 Makoli. 마고리 is a traditional rice wine and famous for giving those who drink it a headache the next day. Luckily, I was spared that particular problem and perhaps this is a sign for good luck in 2008! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Here are Korean language corrections from my earlier posts:
Not 이 면박, but 이 명박
Not 갈비당, but 갈비탕
Not 소주와 삽엽살, but 소주와 삼겹살
Not 진짜은 이어도가있어요, but 진짜이어도가 있어요
Not 고주창, but 고추장
Monday, December 31, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Week 3
One photo is Songdo 송도 central park during the day. The other is a different nearby park in Songdo.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I will be in Korea far from my family in Montana. Luckily, I got to see them less than one month ago and I'll see them again in March. For Christmas Day, a company holiday, I may go to Seoul to see the lights. Christmas is a bigger deal in Korea than I thought and widely celebrated.
Based on a question I received, I thought I'd mention something about my Kimchee refrigerator: Kimchee is traditionally made in the winter by burying clay pots filled with the prepared ingredients for slow, cold fermentation. A kimchee refrigerator (2-8C) is designed to mimic the cold temperatures necessary to allow proper fermentation. Kimchee does not ferment when frozen and if fermented at elevated temperatures, bad tasting microbial flora can flourish and ruin the batch. I believe the main microbe is a lactobacteria. It's so cool how people utilized microbiology thousands of years ago without even understanding what a microbe was.
Earlier this week we had the office holiday party and it was lots of fun! We ate at a buffet place called Sea House... king crab legs, raw fish, exotic fresh fruits, pizza, pumpkin porridge and all sorts of other Korean style things to eat. We had Suntory whisky which I had never tried before. It was very smooth... a really nice texture on the tongue. Then a group of us went off to the 노래방 norebang (kareoke). An even smaller group stayed out for 소주 and broiled eel. Didn't make it home that night and paid for it the next day! Good thing it was Korean national election day and a company holiday for me. The winner of the election, Lee Myun-bak 이면박 won by a wide margin. His ads were definitely best and hopefully he is successful.
Speaking of success, this week featured a notable success for a local company. Celltrion announced they got US FDA OK to make Bristol-Myers' Orencia.
Something I discovered with the voltage change between the US (110V) and Korea (220V) is that my shaver that had become sluggish in the US now buzzes away happily with the new voltage. Hmmmm....
Correction from an earlier blog: I overestimated 송도 construction details. Only one of the new towers being constructed will be 65 stories tall. The others will be large, but less.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Week 2
This week was quite productive as I obtained my alien certification card from immigration, opened up a Korean bank account, did a tour of a big chunk of Incheon by bicycle and knocked out the first important chunk of work at KEMTI. Plus, I finally made it to Chinatown.Here's a map of the ride that took me to Chinatown and the location of my language school near City Hall that starts next month.
In Chinatown, I ate at a restaurant called Song 송.
I had mapo tofu and it was excellent! What's a little strange to me about Incheon Chinatown is that seems by my first observation to be exclusively upscale and decidedly touristy. The restaurant served Korean side dishes and I don't think any of the diners were Chinese... all Korean. I wonder where the Chinese folks go for reasonably priced fare?
In Chinatown I also visited the 100 year anniversary monument for the US/Korea treaty established in 1882. It's located in a park on the top of the hill above Chinatown.
An exciting new project I'm working on as a volunteer is helping the 2009 Expo with their PR. As someone who has strong opinions about city planning and urbanization in general, I hope I can help make a difference in the new city I live in. One of the primary goals of the 2009 Expo is the showcasing of Incheon's intelligent, high density urban planning. I am very much a proponent of urbanization as an alternative to suburban sprawl. The focus on alternative transportation options and open space in the development here is excellent! To learn more about Inchon city visit here.
To learn more about the international cooperation program, and the host of my upcoming Korean language class visit here.
The construction activities here are phenomenal. Incheon is constructing a 22km dual tower suspension bridge from where I live in Songdo to the airport. It'll probably have begun long after and be completed long before the new SF Bay Bridge.
Gale and Posco are currently constructing four 65 story buildings a few blocks from my apartment and office. The plan is to build the world's tallest building a few years down the road nearby as well. This website has a live webcam of the construction.
There was big oil spill earlier this week about 2 hours south of where I live. It has totally wiped out the fishing industry along the shoreline in that area and lots of volunteers are arriving to help. I'd like to help too but not sure if I'd be more of a distraction than effective help with my poor Korean skills and being so new to everything here.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200712/200712140016.html
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200712/200712140016.html
It may take more than a decade before the oyster beds recover from this terrible event.
This link take you to an oyster ranch I am looking forward to visiting but it is probably one of those affected by the spill:
I have not watched TV on a regular basis in 25 years. Prior to that, I was a TV junkie-kid. Now, I'm being drawn in once again. Korean TV is refreshing to me. Educational TV is big and EBS has at least two channels. Turn on the TV at any given time and you can learn English, mathematics, Korean or Chinese. I enjoy having two Chinese stations and at least one Japanese station to watch. I'm starting to learn so many new things about Asia.
Included in this post are some photos of the central park in Songdo at night. It's very lovely for winter and futuristic looking, don't you think?
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Week One in Korea
I arrived at Incheon on Sunday, Dec 2 after a long day flying from Kalispell, Montana. I was there to visit my family before moving here to Korea. My new apartment mate 최병길, picked me up from the airport and together we drove to our home in Songdo 송도 http://english.incheonexpo2009.com/info/news.html?db=eng_news&mari_mode=view@view&no=508. We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant of 갈비당 before arriving at the apartment. 병길 had moved into the place a week before I arrived. The apartment is new, somewhat furnished, large and nice. We each have our own bathroom. There's a stove, kimchi refrigerator, upright refrigerator and a very long balcony that includes a built-in planter bed and hose for watering. It's a ten minute walk to work. 병길 and I both work for a private Korean company called Korea Environment and Merchandise Testing Institute http://english.kemti.org/.
Songdo is much more developed than when I saw it over a year ago when I came on my own to tour Celltrion and inquire about the possibility of working there. There are new office buildings, research facilities, corner stores and shops.
We live on the fourth floor of a 1o story apartment building. What is so cool though, is our deck faces the tops of the pine trees, a sight we'd miss if any higher. They are so beautiful in the morning when the orange light from the rising sun illuminates them in profile.
Before 9 AM on Monday I went into the office and was introduced to about 30 employees or so. Something a bit unusual about our office is that we take off our shoes and wear slippers in the office, a measure to reduce the risk of contamination. It's kind of nice and gives a more casual and relaxed feeling for the employees. Our dress code is also not as strict as I expected, coming from Berkeley, CA to Korea. That afternoon, I went to the headquarters in Seoul 서울and met a number of senior management officers including the President and Vice President. I wore my suit of course.
That evening, I went out for 소주 와 삼엽살 with a bunch of the guys from work. Then we had to go get a beer. I was exhausted by the time I got home!
진짜은이어도가 있어요. I had seen a very strange but interesting movie from 1977, which seems to be doing the Korean film festival circuit in the US, called "Iodo" 이어도 a couple weeks before I left for Korea at San Francisco State University. I was surprised to discover 이어도 is a real place and a submerged island visible only during storms with high waves. This is why the legend says that if you see it, you won't return. http://ieodo.nori.go.kr/eng/intro2_4.asp
In the mornings I get up early and watch EBS, Korean PBS, in my effort to learn Korean. What I've discovered is that Korean for Thai Speakers and Hanja for Korean School Children is very helpful. English for Koreans is not, because the Korean teachers speak way too fast and write too sloppily for me to read. I especially like the Hanja program and learning Chinese characters is important to understanding Korean.
The home I lived in before I came to Korea is in West Oakland, California. Compared to Oakland, 송도 is safe and clean. Little kids are sometimes running around at night unaccompanied with no concern. But watch out crossing the street, there's no rule to stop at a red light when making a right turn!
The rest of the week was about getting settled in, getting my computer at work set up, a trip to E-Mart, finding key merchants like the hardware store and the bicycle shop, getting my folding bicycle reassembled, a trip to the immigration office to apply for my resident card, and figuring out where the recycling goes. My only complaint is I'm getting tired of 고주장 in every meal. But I will have to get used to that. But speaking of food, it has been generally quite good. I do enjoy Korean food. Saturday night, after getting my bike assembled, I attempted to find Incheon Chinatown. http://www.ichinatown.or.kr/ I'm not used to riding in this cold weather and my toes were freezing before I found it. I need to wear my heavy socks next time. I had to retreat but I will try again soon.
Songdo is much more developed than when I saw it over a year ago when I came on my own to tour Celltrion and inquire about the possibility of working there. There are new office buildings, research facilities, corner stores and shops.
We live on the fourth floor of a 1o story apartment building. What is so cool though, is our deck faces the tops of the pine trees, a sight we'd miss if any higher. They are so beautiful in the morning when the orange light from the rising sun illuminates them in profile.
Before 9 AM on Monday I went into the office and was introduced to about 30 employees or so. Something a bit unusual about our office is that we take off our shoes and wear slippers in the office, a measure to reduce the risk of contamination. It's kind of nice and gives a more casual and relaxed feeling for the employees. Our dress code is also not as strict as I expected, coming from Berkeley, CA to Korea. That afternoon, I went to the headquarters in Seoul 서울and met a number of senior management officers including the President and Vice President. I wore my suit of course.
That evening, I went out for 소주 와 삼엽살 with a bunch of the guys from work. Then we had to go get a beer. I was exhausted by the time I got home!
진짜은이어도가 있어요. I had seen a very strange but interesting movie from 1977, which seems to be doing the Korean film festival circuit in the US, called "Iodo" 이어도 a couple weeks before I left for Korea at San Francisco State University. I was surprised to discover 이어도 is a real place and a submerged island visible only during storms with high waves. This is why the legend says that if you see it, you won't return. http://ieodo.nori.go.kr/eng/intro2_4.asp
In the mornings I get up early and watch EBS, Korean PBS, in my effort to learn Korean. What I've discovered is that Korean for Thai Speakers and Hanja for Korean School Children is very helpful. English for Koreans is not, because the Korean teachers speak way too fast and write too sloppily for me to read. I especially like the Hanja program and learning Chinese characters is important to understanding Korean.
The home I lived in before I came to Korea is in West Oakland, California. Compared to Oakland, 송도 is safe and clean. Little kids are sometimes running around at night unaccompanied with no concern. But watch out crossing the street, there's no rule to stop at a red light when making a right turn!
The rest of the week was about getting settled in, getting my computer at work set up, a trip to E-Mart, finding key merchants like the hardware store and the bicycle shop, getting my folding bicycle reassembled, a trip to the immigration office to apply for my resident card, and figuring out where the recycling goes. My only complaint is I'm getting tired of 고주장 in every meal. But I will have to get used to that. But speaking of food, it has been generally quite good. I do enjoy Korean food. Saturday night, after getting my bike assembled, I attempted to find Incheon Chinatown. http://www.ichinatown.or.kr/ I'm not used to riding in this cold weather and my toes were freezing before I found it. I need to wear my heavy socks next time. I had to retreat but I will try again soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
