Well, another week and plenty of new things to share. Where do I start?
I have decided to attack the Korean language but it is interesting that as I'm pushing my brain to accept new sounds, the language box in my head has opened up and I have rediscovered Bangla, a language that I have not spoken in almost 4 years! Words I have not thought of in so long are popping up as I try to ask questions in stores. It's hilarious! I keep wanting to say panni everytime I think of water whereas the name for water is mul!
I took my first Korean class last Saturday at Sookmyung Women's University located in a very young and hip neighboorhood. The campus is beautiful! The course had started the week before and the four other people in the class (two Canadians, a Japanese and a Hungarian) had already learned the alphabet so I was way behind. But it's a free class once a week and I get to immerse myself for and hour and a half as well as meet new people.
I've also been working hard at home with a book on learning Korean someone gave me and practicing everyday with the Korean teachers at work. They are an immense help and I have set myself a target of understanding 40-50% of Korean by December. In addition, my boss told me about another branch of this company that is opening up a Korean class three times a week for two hours each. He will readjust my schedule next month so that I can attend those classes. They are not too expensive so starting next month, I will be one of the first students in this new program. I'm very excited.
I think that with the book at home, help from Korean teachers at work, a Saturday class and 6 hours of Korean classes per week, things will move forward quickly. I'm already learning how to read and it's going quite well though I don't really know what I'm saying. I can spell my name though! Here is it: ㄹㅔㅇㅣㅌㅏ.
This type of writing is called Hangul (pronounced Hangoul) and was invented by some scholars and scientists in the 15th century at the decree of the Korean king. Before that time, Koreans used Chinese characters. Because Chinese was too difficult and learned only by the rich and intelligent, the Great King Sae Jong ordered a new written language that would be accessible to all. Today, the Korean written language is considered the most logical and the easiest written language to learn in the world. This does not mean that speaking it is easy!To be honest, as I know almost the whole alphabet now, I am able to read signs as I walk to and from work. Last night, on my way back from the store, I kept stopping and deciphering words outloud. A man stopped me and asked me in broken English where I was going. He thought I was lost! When I explained that I was practicing my Korean, he corrected me on one of the signs I was reading and then smiled and walked away.
Anyway, back to Saturday. After my Korean class I met up with Tracie, one of the teachers at my work who is very cool, and we went back to Itaewon (the foreign section of the city) to get myself a cell phone. It was expensive! For a used phone, I had to pay 85,000won which is the equivalent of about 90US dollars. For a new phone the price range is from 200,000-250,000won. Can you imagine! But the technology is incredible here and people now have cell phones that serve as TVs! So I got a cell phone by the Korean brand Sky and then went out for drinks with Tracie.
She took me to Gecko's, where 95% of the people are white or foreign. It was very strange. Only the bartenders and a few women were Korean. There are bouncers at the entrance who only check the IDs of Koreans! I guess they are more concerned with the souls of the Koreans that than of the foreigners. I don't blame them. It was a very odd sensation being there, knowing that I was in Seoul, but feeling like I was in Canada or the States.
On Sunday I met up with Steve, an old friend from those university days who has been living in South Korea for 3 years now. He loves it here and has settled in quite well. Though he's not fluent in the language, he knows all about the food. His mission was to show me some different neighborhoods in Seoul and initiate me to some real Korean food.He took me to a very artsy neighborhood called Insadong and you guys, I swear, I liked Seoul before but I LOVE it now! It is awesome! There are many many shops lining the main street including some well-known franchises like....surprise! Starbucks. But because Insadong is trying to stay as traditional as possible Starbucks is written only in Hangul! Very cool, I should have taken a picture...I only had one roll of film with me so I didn't take a lot of pics, but you get to see a few of them here.
Shopping complex in Insadong/
Centre d'achat a Insadong
There are many beautiful vine-covered restaurants in the little side streets off the main road (which is completely pedestrian by the way) and although there were a few tourists, the people clogging up this neighborhood were predominantly Koreans out on a Sunday afternoon stroll with their families or out buying interesting knick-knacks.
Steve introduced me to a Korean candy called Yot (pronounced with an aspirated t) which is made with pumpkin. It is really good and reminiscent of nougat. Very sweet though.
There are many types of Yot and in these pictures you see two kinds, but I only tasted the milky looking kind. The man at the stand was slowly manipulating the yot between his hands to soften it up for cutting (I'm imagining). There was a nice crowd around him, foreigners and Koreans alike.
After we left that neighborhood we went to Pagoda Park. It is located downtown and is dedicated to the Independence Korea declared from Japan in the 15th century. Statues dating back from that period grace this walled park where many older men spend afternoons in the shade of this little spot of greenery full of the memories of people long gone. When I return there I will take pictures and add it here.We continued walking and ended up in a section where there used to be an old canal that held stagnant water and let off a terrible odor. Seoul's mayor decided to renovate the canal and there was apparently a lot of protest to this as people didn't want money spent on such a thing. Today it is called Chungyechan a highly appreciated oasis boasting clear trickling water with flat stones laid across the water every once in a while so that you can cross sides. There are little waterfalls and lots of plants growing along the water and the atmosphere is that of freshness, peace and it is a great walk that stretches for a while through downtown Seoul. People have told me to return there at night to see it lit up.
By this time, Steve and I were hungry and he promised me some good traditional Korean food so I was very excited because apart from the Toengang Tchigae, I had not had any real Korean food. Steve took me to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant (that I will never be able to find again!) in an alleyway where there must have been 20 other little holes-in-the-wall. It was great! We sat down to bossam, a Korean dish consisting of boiled pork cut in slices that you eat wrapped in a raw lettuce or cabbage leaf.Imagine this meal... You have a very large plate with hot boiled sliced pork, next to that is tamudji kimchi (pickled radish) in a chili sauce covered with fresh oysters. You should take a leaf of lettuce or cabbage, dab on some bossam sauce (which consists of miniature shrimp in a chili paste, add some samjang as well (a sweet and slightly spicy red pepper sauce with some kind of bean in it), you can add a slice of garlic to the mix (readily provided among the dishes on the table) then you add the slice of pork, a little bit of kimchi and one or two oysters, you wrap the leaf in a roll and bite! It's delicious, though the oysters can give it a bit of a strange taste. Besides that main dish you also get kimchi dishes of cubed savory radish, sweet pickles and beansprout. Beansprout kimchi is yummy. In this particular restaurant, though it is not common, they served a soup called gamjatang, which is a soup that can either mean potato (gamja) or meaty bones. We had the latter. They basically put this soup with the vegetables in it on a gas burner on your table and you can heat it and cook the vegetables the way you want it. It's very tasty. In addition, we had keranchim, a type of egg souffle which is very light and tasty but made with little to no spices. This is cooked in a kind of cast-iron pot and served in it. And last but not least we were served puchingjae, which is a kind of vegetable pancake which is fried with green onions, carrots etc... it was very tasty too. So this is what is so interesting. There were two of us. Steve ordered bossam and we ended up with a feast that we were both unable to finish.
Steve went one step further and ordered soju, a popular Korean alcohol made originally from rice with additional ingredients such as wheat, tapioca, barley and sweet potato. If you've had sake, it is reminiscent of that though it is drunk cold. The initial taste is almost tasteless, actually. After you have swallowed it, however, it has a rather sweet aftertaste combined with a very strong sense of alcohol. Not bad, all in all.
Beautiful windows in shopping complex in Insadong/ Fenetres decoratives dans le centre d'achat a Insadong
As we were leaving the restaurant our waitress came up to me and pointed to my hair said some ending with pama. I turned to Steve who explained that she wanted to know whether my hair was permed. I looked around and there were about 5 other waitresses waiting to see what kind of answer I was going to give, as though my response was either going to win them or lose them 5,000won. When I said that it was natural, she thanked me and turned back to her colleagues. It was pretty funny! They must have had a bet going! I'm glad I could provide some entertainment!
So those were the highlights of last week. This weekend I hope to go explore another section of the city.
I'll keep you updated!
L
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