Something I never expected

One of the most fascinating things about Korean life, is how much of it is influenced by the western world.  You really have to go to specific places to get souviners because in regular stores anything decorative can be found in America.  Most things try to look fancy by having random English writing on it.
Even though I knew about this influence, I was still very surprised by something we saw at a festival a few weeks ago: a jazz saxophone band.

They were pretty good.  Most of the Koreans just sat still, staring, but a few of the older men and women were really getting into it.  I thought the surprise of finding out Korea has saxophone bands was the end of it, and then they started to play "Play that Funky Music, White Boy."  It was awesome!

Traveling to North Korea

Last Saturday, during a visit from Laura and John, we decided to take a tour of our neighbors to the north.  For those of you who may be concerned, we went on a tour that was officially run in accordance with the Joint Security Area (the US and South Korean military run this area together).  We were fully protected by soldiers, and there are tours from both sides almost every day.  Here is some of our protection.

ROK (South Korean) soldier in a modified taekwondo position

The door behind the soldier leads to North Korea.  This guy was tensed and did not move at all the whole time we were in this room.  It was amazing!  Ok, now that you know we were safe, let me start from the beginning of our tour.
We drove about an hour north of Seoul to get to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  To even get close to the DMZ you have to first pass through a checkpoint.  We picked up a couple of US soldiers there.  They briefed us on this history of the Korean War and the area where talks are held.  Then we were able to enter the DMZ.  We had our passports checked at almost every opportunity. 
The DMZ is very beautiful.  Besides the barbed wire and the mine fields, there is not very much built up in it.  If there are still tigers in Korea, they would be there.  There is also a little villages in the DMZ.  The people there do not have to pay taxes and the men do not have to do military service.  The only stipulations are that only women can join the village from the outside.  They have a curfew and some of the fields can only be tended with an armed guard.  The people think its worth living there, and they do get about $85,000 a year tax free.
The first stop was the panmunjon area.  It is where talks are held.  This was the point we could just go over the line in a building and technically be in North Korea.  It was like being in a shark tank and waiting for the sharks to come.  Here is what it looked like:

North Korea.  We went in the blue building on the left.  You can see the line where the color of the gravel changes, and there is a North Korean soldier on the steps.

 This is where the ROK soldiers were standing for protection.  You can't see many North Korean soldiers because they are only there when there are tours on that side.

The next stop was a couple of observation towers.  It was like looking over the edge of the world.  There weren't many trees and there was a large empty town built on the other side to pretend to be just like the one on the South Korean side.  It was built to be fake, a lot of the windows and doors are painted on the buildings.  They also built the largest flag pole in the world in the fake village to be taller than the flag pole on the South Korean side.  I have pictures, but it was a foggy day so you can't see much but the giant flagpole.

Then we went to the last station in South Korea.  It is a huge, modern station that was built with donated money from hopeful South Koreans that someday it will be used to travel from South Korea all the way to Europe. 

The last stop of the tour was a tunnel that the North Koreans had dug under the border.  They never broke through the top, so you have to walk down a steep tunnel into it.  Its hard to stand up straight in it.  They had also painted coal on the walls to say that is was a coal mine, but it rubs right off.  You could walk along it (trying not to bump your head) until you get to the first of three walls built in defense.

It was all very interesting.  Especially the multiple souvenir shops where you can buy North Korean wine, DMZ t-shirts, and lego tanks.  They haven't had any incidents there for 50 years, and they never even stopped the tours for the recent unrest.  It is all very usual and normal for tours to take place at the border, and that was the strangest thing of all.

Cute ROK soldiers.

Ser-bis-sa

Last weekend Riley and I went out to dinner at a small restaurant in the countryside. The countryside here is Korea is really beautiful.  It is also not frequently visited by foreigners, so we stood out a lot.  This means we got a lot of "service" which is pronounced "ser-bis-sa" since there is no "v" or silent "e" in Konglish.  "Service" is a concept that I find very interesting.  Shop owners, restaurant owners, market venders, and pretty much everyone who owns a business give the customers free things and call it "service."  I think its to create a good feeling and have return customers.  Some people will not even buy from a vender that doesn't give them some service.  Some examples are an extra handful of lettace, and few more sticks of glue for a hot glue gun, and not charging for extra food at a resturant.
This brings me back to that restaurant we went to in the countryside.  There were only 3 employees, the owner, her son, and a cook in the back.  Each employee gave us "service" in their own way, mainly due to the fact we were foreigners.  We ordered the house special, the best sam gap sal (Korean barbeque) in Korea.  As service the owner gave us an extra cut of meat, or I should say, fat.  It was the part of the pig belly that was all fat and skin.  This is probably not unusual to those of you who grew up on a farm, but it was strange for us to eat something that we could identify as a female pig.  It wasn't too bad...
Then her son gave us service we were used to, a bottle of coca-cola.  This is very common. 
The last employee in the back gave us something we had never gotten before, scorched rice.  Its a little hard to describe.  When people make a lot of rice, they leave the cooker on a while, just scooping out the middle.  This means the layer on the bottom becomes kind of hard and crispy.  This is traditionally served as dessert in a soup, or you can just snack on it.  So, when we ordered rice to go with out meal, the rice was at its end and the lady in the back decided to give the leftover scorched rice to us.  We had to hide it from the rest of the customers because it was a really nice thing to give and they didn't want other people expecting something similar.  This restaurant gave us the most service of any we have been to before, so we need to go back sometime.  That's how it works.

N Korea

Many people have asked us about the reports of N Korea being upset, and worrying about the eruption of round II of the Korean War.  Therefore I am going to allay your fears

1) North Korean's aren't stupid

Many people worry that N Korea is not smart enough to realize what trouble they would be in if they attacked the South--but they know.  We normally like to portray our enemies as crazy idiots in order to make ourselves feel better.  This allows us to feel less worried about them winning, and it also allows us to be less merciful when dealing with them.  However, it would be wrong to say that Kim Jeong Eun is stupid.  He might be young, but he has managed to rule as a dictator (or at least pretend to rule) for a year without getting killed.  He also received his education in Swizerland, so he knows we aren't joking, and that N Korea would quickly lose (cease to exist), although it would be absolutely awful for both sides.

2) China doesn't want war & they don't like N Korea

We may not be comfortable with China, and China might not be comfortable with us, but this time around, China does not want N Korea to get into a war for several reasons.  First, China does not want a war on its border, with 10 refugees sure to flee to China.  They already see N Korean's as a social problem (they way many Americans see Mexicans), so they do not want any more N Koreans in China.  Second. China knows that N Korea would lose, resulting in a unified Korea.  The unified Korea would naturally fall under the American sphere of influence, and would still contain numerous US bases, except, that now there is no N Korea to act as a buffer for the American threat.

The Chinese also find North Korea an embarrassment.  The Chinese people are even free to insult the N Korean government (this is a big deal because there is no freedom of speech in China).  They call Kim Jeong Eun "The third fat Kim," because his dad and grandad were also fat while their people were starving.

3) We have anti missile technology

Our anti-missile missiles might only be 90% accurate, but we can shoot 2 and be 99% accurate.

4) You can't even mail a nuke from N Korea

Mail doesn't really travel between N and S Korea. May be they could get Seoul with a cannon-nuke assuming they can make them that small.

5) S Korea doesn't want war

If there were a war, South Korea would probably lose millions of people as causalities.  This is because Seoul is less than 30 miles from the border, and has lots of cannons filled with bio and chemical weapons pointed at it.   Luckily, we are not in Seoul.

6) S Korea has a potentially angry big brother

Lets face it, if N Korea nuked anyone, we would have no problem wiping them out.  Russia and China don't support them, so there would be no consequences if we did.  The South Koreans call us their older brother, and they say that when older brother is angry it's like coming home to a house where the gas has been leaking for several hours.


And that is why there won't be a war.  The US and S Korean governments have both made a point that this is a paper tiger, and that no one should be worried.  The only reason we are sending weapons is to appease the voters.  We also want to keep the N Koreans thinking that their threats are taken seriously, so they don't try and prove that they are serious.  That would be bad.

Hopefully you have stopped worrying.

-Riley and Margaret

This is a American made video that is essentially fake N Korean propaganda it may be funny depending on your sense of humor: Adventures of Kim Jeong Un

Back in South Korea

We just returned from a wonderful trip to the US where we saw lots and lots of friends and family.  I talked so much my throat got sore!  Besides being big and all the food tasting like butter, there were two other things about America that really stood out this time.  The first was the diversity of faces.  I kept wanting to just stare at all the people I met.  This would have been a little strange and creepy, so just glanced around a lot.  There are so many shapes and colors of people's faces!  I know I did not notice them before I left for Korea, but I miss the diversity and the fact that people treat you relatively equal (compared to Korea where across a lawn yesterday we were spied out as different by a pre-school class and they yelled out "hello" to us). 
The next thing about America that hit us this visit was the news media.  We knew what was going on with North Korea before we left, but we didn't realize how sensational it was being portrayed on the news.  No wonder people were concerned!  Over here, no one really cares too much about what is going on.  No one thinks that North Korea will attack at all.  Like the BBC said, the farther away you get from South Korea, the worse the news gets about North Korea.
Now we are back in our tiny apartment (which feels big to us) and life is back to normal.  We have already had our kimchi!

Riley's Beard Experiment

The "grad student/living in the woods" look

Last month, we had a discussion with some of our foreigner and Korean friends about why Koreans do not grow beards.  This came up because our Korean-American friend grew a massive beard and gets strange looks from other people.  People say Koreans don't have beards because they can't grow them, but we know this isn't true because every Korean drama set in the ancient times, as well as the famous Koreans on their money, all have beards.  The Koreans dressed up in historical clothes "guarding" the palace in Seoul even put on fake facial hair to look the part!

See, Koreans used to have nice beards! (and cool hats)

So why is it Koreans today rarely have beards?  We have heard two reasons:

1) Communists wear beards.  This was from an older Korean that said during the war, any North Korean left in South Korea had to live in the mountains to hide.  As everybody knows, living in the mountains causes you to grow a beard.  Thus, anyone with a beard was assumed to have come from the mountains and be a communist.

2) Girls think beards are dirty.  This may have come from the above reason originally, but the bottom line is Korean girls think guys with beards are dirty.

In light of this discovery, Riley decided to grow a beard to see people's reactions.  It so happened we attended a dinner where many of our friends we hadn't seen in a while gathered and saw Riley's beard for the first time.  The Koreans said "wow" and most at least said they liked it (some were being polite I think, but a couple of them watch too much American tv).  The foreigners didn't seem to notice much, except for one group.  All of our Chinese friends told him to shave.  One of our friend's first reaction was "have you not left the house all week?" 
In short, the experiment was a success!  We also discovered that Riley cannot pull off an Asian beard.  Alas, the beard and long hair had to come off due to a presentation this week, so Riley is back to normal.

Yummy stuff

Before I get into the delicious food we have found in Korea, I want to note some of the foods that did not get on either list.  This past week we had raw salmon, sea cucumber, jellyfish, and raw beef.  It wasn't horrible, so it doesn't make the nasty list.  However, they don't quite make the yummy list either.  Now for the yummy stuff...

Kimchi김치

The national food here is kimchi (fermented cabbage), and it is eaten at every meal, and Koreans love it about 3x as much as North Carolinians love their barbecue.   But when I first tasted it, it tasted rotten (probably because its fermented.)  But now I love it almost as much as NC barbecue.

Sam-gyahp-sal 삼겹살=Giant bacon stuff of paradise

This is probably my favorite food in Korea.  It is part food and part experience.  Because it is hard to sue people in Korea (both a good thing and a bad thing), resturaunts have little grills at the tables, so you can grill your own food just the way you like it.  It's like giant bacon!!!  I love bacon, but as an American I think bigger is better, so giant bacon is awesome.  It's also a balanced meal, so it's delicious and nutritious.  You grill it with onions and garlic, and when you are done grilling it, you cut it into little squares, and you take a square, and dip it in sauce, and put it inside a piece of lettuce, and add onion bean sprout and/or kimchi, and pop it in your mouth, and it is gooood.

Someone's pictures from a Samgyeopsal resturaunt 

I love you giant bacon!!!

Bibimbap 비빔밥 (Boiled rice) /Dolsotbab 돌솥밥 (StoneBowlRice) /Things with lots of side dishes

Rice with mixed vegitables is another one of our favorite Korean foods.  We don't eat it as much as Samgyapsal (giant bacon) or kimchi stew, but we do like it.   The first time we had this stuff, we were given a raw egg in a little bowl.  We were eating with Dr Yim (our boss), and we were wondering if we had come to Korea with a crazy man who eats raw eggs straight, but he and his wife showed us that you mix the egg with the rice, and the rice is so hot that it cooks the egg on the spot.  A traditional thing to do after the meal is to scrape the burnt rice out of the bottom of the stone bowl and eat it because it is crunchy and delicious.  I know it sounds strange, but don't knock it until you try it!

A resturaunt in Gongju

Mandu 만두 (Dumplings)

These are dumplings and they are delicious!  You can have them steamed or fried, and they can be filled with Kimchi or meat and onions, and they can be bite-sized or huge!  They are hard to make from scratch, but if we buy the wrapping at the store they're not hard to make at home--but the mandu lady makes the best ones, so we always get ours from her dumpling shop.  We found the shop during our first month in Korea, and the dumpling lady was always very gracious with all of Margaret's pointing and squeaking.  (Ironically all that pointing and squeaking that Margaret does, has come in very handy here in Korea when we don't know how to put things into words.)

The red ones are Kimchi and the green ones are onion.  Yum!

Kimbab--김밥--Literally translated as RiceSeaweed

This is one of the cheapest meals you can get in Korea.  In America, you'd probably call it a California Roll, but its not sushi here!  And if you call it Japanese, you will lose your talking privileges!  Its basically the Asian version of a ham sandwich with rice and seaweed wrapped around ham, cheese, egg, and random vegetables.  On field trips with Koreans we always eat it for breakfast.  Our favorite type is the triangle kimbab, which we buy at the convenience store for 80 cents a bab.

The Kim in kimbab is the green seaweed.  The bab in kimbab means rice.