Dried Squid!

Although this snack has become so common place in my everyday life here in Korea, I still have to remember how unusual it truly is! Dried Squid... you can find this delicious snack everywhere and it's served in many different ways. Whether it's dipped in sauces or eaten plain, dried squid can be found in hofs (bars) as snack food, served as an appetizer or side dish (positioned next to kimchi) in a traditional Korean restaurant, or it's even found packaged up in mini shops. It is the jerky of Korea! Many foreigners I've met aren't too fond of this Korean specialty, but I actually really enjoy it, although, I didn't make a particularly appealing facial expression in the picture! It has good flavor and it's really chewy!

First Visit to the Gwangju Orphanage

"The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when they discover that someone else believes in them and is willing to trust them with their friendship." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Steve and Aneta
Since I have been in Korea, I have met some really incredible people including my good friends, Steve and Aneta. Steve is from Scotland and Aneta is from Poland. They are married and have traveled all over for several years now teaching. It is amazing to hear their stories. They both have been inspiring for me, and now, I have even more admiration for them since they've introduced me to the girl's orphanage in downtown Gwangju, which they both visit and fund raise for.

Today, Steve picked me up at my house with his scooter and we adventurously skidded downtown! (It is amazing what motorbikes can get away with! Stop lights are only precautions for most vehicles and aren't taken seriously. There are no laws that inhibit bikes from zooming in and out of traffic. By bus it usually takes an hour to get downtown from my dong, but by bike, it took us only twenty minutes! Wow!) Ha. Anyways...

The residential home we went to houses over seventy girls from toddlers to teenagers. Most of them were abandoned. In South Korea, single mothers have an incredibly difficult time, similar to America several decades ago. Not only does the government not have nominal financial support for this circumstance, but as a whole, society tends to reject single mothers. The attitude is changing as a women's movement is taking place and jobs are becoming more and more available for women, but it is taking time.

In Korean families, sons have been given more privileges than their daughters. Korea, at one time, was one of the most patriarchal countries in Asia. Once ultra sounds came into use the gender gap widened to its peaking point of 116.6 boys to 100 girls in 1990 (in 2005, China had 120 boys to 100 girls).

South Korea has one of the strongest cultural connections to the Confucian religion in the world, therefore men and women have enormous pressures and responsibilities of looking after their family, parents, and grandparents. Often times wives are responsible for taking care of their parents-in-law. I have heard that it can be very difficult with the pressures of pleasing mother-in-laws with cooking and taking care of their sons. My neighbor, Mr. Hwang even told me that most married couples spend National holidays at the husband's parent's house. During Chuseok, I met Mr. Hwang's only brother, but none of his five sisters came to his parent's house.

Although gender roles are changing, today, most Korean women go to University, but they tend to have a lot harder time finding jobs and the pay role is a lot lower in comparison to their male counterparts. Sometimes, married women are told that certain positions would be too strenuous for them and I've heard that women are encouraged to quit their jobs once they become pregnant instead of just taking leave. I feel bad bringing up all these negatives, because of how much I love it here, but it has added challenges to the family dynamic. It is hard to relate being an independent western woman in these situations. Being present at the orphanage was a really meaningful experience.

It was fun spending time with the girls at the orphanage. Normally there is a hour window on Saturdays where people can come visit. A foreigner started this program and now many foreigners visit every week. Today, we made cards. I was impressed by the English vocabulary of many of these girls. They all knew the names of colors, numbers, parts of the body, and could answer simple questions. One girl asked me to help her translate her friend's names from Korean characters into English letters. It was a lot of fun!

Some of the girls are learning to play the piano. I listened to one gal as she site read, I was impressed! The employees are trying their best to help the girls emotionally, but it has to be extremely difficult. Even today, during the hour visit some of the girls had meltdowns. The longing for attention was obvious. A few girls would come sit on my lap, grab my hand, or play with my hair so nonchalantly. Others would just sit next to me and stare with intrigued eyes. The hour felt like fifteen minutes and before I knew it, it was time for us to leave. Volunteering is an interesting concept, because although its giving one's time to help a cause, being involved in the cause changes a person. Love and compassion was written across all the volunteer's faces as we left the building. Those beautiful girls have left a mark on all our hearts and I look forward to visiting again next week!

Ni-hao CHINA!

During the winter vacation, I took a trip to Beijing, China!! I'm still in the process of blogging about the experience. Check it out at... http://lizardbeijing.blogspot.com/

교회 Kyo Hwae: My Church Family

My church
The Hwang Family
Christmas Eve

즐거운 크리쓰마쓰, Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas

Walking in a winter wonder land...."

Downtown Gwangju with my good friends, Jenni and Laura. They love Christmas songs as much as I do, so we combined all our music and sang Christmas songs wherever we went (Kathy, I hooked Jenni on the Band aid Christmas song! ha!) Oh, it was a blast! Down the streets, Korean people would wish us a "Melly Chlistmasu" (Merry Christmas, but "l" and "r" are very difficult to pronounce). Our first snow lasted five days! It was awesome and kids here LOVE it! They loved it so much, they would bring snow balls to class to show me! It was hard to teach because of all the energy, but I adored their excitement and we had a lot of fun playing in the snow after class. The classes loved learning Christmas songs such as, "Feliz Navidad", "We wish you a Merry Christmas", "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer", "Jingle bells", "Silent Night", and many others. Many of these songs have been translated into Korean so they already knew the tune. It was so much fun!
At our school's Christmas party, some of the kids dressed up and wore santa hats, red, and other Christmas stuff. I about lost it when Seong Hoon came in dressed as Santa! Mesmerized by "Home Alone 2".
After church on Sundays, we would have a snow fight! The twins in blue are so cute. These adorable little boys would come up to me when I had a snowball and say "chusayo" (please give me!). How could I refuse?!
The Christmas tree, Sophia and I decorated at school.

Christmas time without family was very difficult, but I am so fortunate to have many loved ones here. It was such an eye-opener spending christmas outside of the US. Koreans only started celebrating Christmas about thirty years ago and it still isn't a huge holiday here. It was hard to explain how big it is back home with family and traditions. To North Americans, it isn't one day, but a season.
On December 24th, our school had a huge Christmas party. We sang Christmas songs, ate sweet tteokbokgi, played games, gave away awards and certificates, and watched the fun "Home Alone 2" movie. Sophia made the tteokbokgi. Basically, it is rice cake pieces mixed into a red pepper sauce that has been sweetened by brown sugar and corn syrup. It was pretty good, but such a unique taste to me.
In the evening, Jenni and I went to mass at my church down the street. It was so fun! Everyone got up and sang their favorite Christmas songs. Jenni and I sang "Joy to the World" in English. After mass we ate food (rice cake, sweet potato dishes, tangerines,...) and then we had an intense snowball fight. I'll never forget the surprise on the kid's faces when Jenni chased them down with snowballs. They never expected that and after awhile, all ended up wanting to be her allies, ha ha!!!
Christmas day was spent with a few other foreigners in Sangmu. It was so international with friends from Canada, Israel, Germany, Scotland, Poland, and the US. It was awesome hearing how everyone traditionally celebrated the holidays. Christmas is so amazing!!!

"Some people weave burlap into the fabric of our lives, and some weave gold thread. Both contribute to make the whole picture beautiful and unique." -Anonymous

Jjimjilbangs: One of my favorite things about Korea

"Give your stress wings and let it fly away." ~Carin Hartness


Jjimjilbangs (찜질방), translation is "steam rooms," are large, gender-segregated public bathhouses. They are fantastic, affordable, and honestly, one of my favorite places to visit here in Korea! Who doesn't like to pamper yourself all day in a comfortable, social, stress-free environment (especially, since it has been snowing for the past five days!!!). Included in the jjimjilbang's gender-segregated areas are pools of various temperatures (cold, medium, hot, extremely hot), bathing areas, and saunas. There are also unisex areas with ondol heated flooring for sleeping and lounging, and several types of saunas of various temperatures.

Most jjimjilbangs are open 24 hours and are a popular weekend getaway for Korean families and friends. If you are traveling to another city, it is best to look for a jjimjilbang to stay at. For an overnight stay, you are given clean clothes and either a bunk bed or a sleeping mat. In the sauna unisex section, there is the main area where people can sleep, relax, eat, and socialize and there are the various sauna rooms. My favorite room is the hot pebble room where you lay on the floor covered with smooth, warm pebbles. It feels so incredible! There are also the cold room, the medium temperature room, and the "sweat lodge" type room. The other day this room was 96 degrees Fahrenheit. I loved it! The sauna rooms remind me of the inside of a Navajo Hogan due to their shape (rounded ceilings), smell (earthy smell), heated stoves, and materials in which they are made out of. "Hwangto" or yellow earth (similar to adobe) used to be one of the main materials for Korean houses back in the day. It's expensive now, but jjimjillbangs use the material because supposedly it is good for the skin. The yellow dirt has infrared rays and when you come into contact with it, your skin relaxes and the toxins are discharged from the body. Ok, the bathing areas are so great and truly an amazing Korean cultural experience! There you can find mothers spending time with their young kids, children playing in the water (the other day two little girls offered me "tea" from their pretend tea party), friends giggling away, grandmothers admiring the generations below, and so many other beautiful and loving interactions. I can only imagine what it must have been like long ago in many different countries (Rome, Japan, Finnland ...) where people publicly bathed all the time.

In Korean culture, there isn't a concept of personal space because of how many people there are and how close everyone lives. Therefore in the jjimjilbangs, everyone washes each other's backs, children play with bubbles as mother's scrub them squeaky clean, friends giggle and catch up on life, and everyone shares soaps, face masks (green tea, mud ... , mint...there are so many kinds), and several other products. If you want, you can pay extra to have the sauna's staff give you messages, pedicures, manicures, and if you are really brave, a full body,"Helga's house of pain" type, intense scrub! Yikes!!!! I still haven't been able to tempt that!

Did I mention that in the women's and men's separated sections of the jjimjilbangs that everyone is naked! This is surprising to me, because as a whole, the Korean culture is very conservative. You won't even see women wearing tangtops in the summer time! Being naked can take a minute to get used to, especially, because being a foreigner you attract attention anyways. But personally, I think it is so healthy to accept and love your body. I just think it is so cool how open these women are (I don't know if it is the same on the men's side). Their relationships grow closer as they spend hours in these timeless, non-conflicted environments. I love it and it's something I wish was back in the states.

"We are just women who admire and really know each other. We allow each other to have weaknesses the public doesn't allow us to have." ~Lisa Minelli Mum and Woman's Body painted by Pan Yuliang

Recycling in Sinchang-dong

"If you feel you are too small to make a difference, go to sleep with a mosquito in the room." ~ Author Unknown

This is my grocery bag! Recycling... hmmm.... some may say it's not a big deal or that it takes too much effort. I have been called hippie for suggesting to recycle, which hurts. Do people really know what a hippie is and why is it a negative connotation? I can't say that I am a hippie; I am me and, in any case, I don't think anyone should be classified so distinctly. We are all individuals and whether we belong to a certain social group, career, religion, or any other group, we are still separated by our own experience, personality, and beliefs.
Back to recycling... is it truly that much more work to recycle? Why recycle? Well, ...why not? It is such an inspiration to walk outside my apartment and find bins for everything: plastics, plastic bags, cardboard, glass, aluminum, and paper. I can literally recycle almost everything and it's free! My trash only goes out every two or three weeks in a small pink bag, in Sinchangdong (the part of Gwangju where I live; I can't say it is the same everywhere else in Gwangju) we buy specific garbage bags. It is so awesome! Yes, there is still a littering problem here, but I love the fact that recycling is so doable and it's catching on! In a culture where social status and respect is a priority, no one wants to be seen doing anything that will "de-face" or embarrass themselves. Therefore, if the idea that littering shows a lack of social grace strongly takes hold, I think recycling in Korea will truly be effective!
The people that sort recycling are the adjimas (grandmothers) that live in the neighborhood. They also tend to the gardens throughout the area. My dear friend, Jenni will admit they are a bit intimidating and fussy! Let me tell ya, they will yell at you if you don't do it right! But, they are still great! Overall, I just wish people would change their perspective on recycling. When you make it a habbit, its really not that big of a deal. Like Jack Johnson says..."Three is the magic number... reduce, reuse, recycle!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGc0PqKBnno