"The World's ...Second Best cookie" Recipe

I went dancing this weekend with some of my fantastic co-teachers. It was a blast.  It was really the first time that I had spent time with a couple of them outside of school.  Your relationship with someone at work and outside of work is always a little different. It was nice to let loose a bit and get to know some of these lovely ladies a little better. I'm really starting to love them.

My co-teachers and I: On the far right is Shi On (I call her Sean).  I teach the 6th Grade with Sean. Next to her with the head band is Jella (my main co-teacher). She is the one who has been so great to help me get settled in these last few weeks.  She and I teach the 5th Grade. The woman standing and the woman next to me are teachers at the elementary school, but not English teachers.

As a side note: I made a social observation.  I found that Korean guys actually dance at clubs (I know, ladies, go figure!) and Korean women actually dance less. When dancing, the women move their bodies more conservatively than say.. in the States. I don't think I'd ever find a Korean woman "bootie poppin'" or "moving her body like a cyclone" or "dropping it to the floor."

Anyway, to show my gratitude, I was hoping to make cookies and bring them in for my co-teachers tomorrow at school.  I started by searching the internet for "the world's best cookie" recipe. What I really wanted was to shock and awe them with awesome baking skills. .. yeah.. I'm not sure I'll achieve "the world's best baker" status in the eyes of my Korean co-workers.

I'm going to do what we all have become so adapted at.. pointing the finger. Honestly, this time, it wasn't my fault. I was lucky to find the basic items necessary to make cookies (some of which I had to use baking substitutes), much less find the "secret ingredients."  One recipe said that the secret ingredient in the "world's best chocolate chip" recipe is instant pudding.  Hmm..I would have never thought of that. But do you think that Korea has instant pudding? Of course not. Nor could I find butter ((!) only the staple to American cooking and baking! I hardly know what to do!), or brown sugar, or vanilla extract.

My ingredients: The flour had a cookie in the picture so I knew that one was a safe bet. I couldn't find chocolate chip morsels so I cut up dark chocolate Hersey's Kisses. And I'm not sure that the sugar on the right is actually brown sugar. 

I have never seen powered vanilla before.. but I used it!

A few other kinks: the metric system. It's not an entirely huge deal thanks to Google. Just do a general search and you can find what 350 degrees Fahrenheit is in degrees Celsius; but I also had no measuring cup. I couldn't find one and even if I could it would be using a unit of measurement in the metric system. . which is like reading Arabic for me. I still don't understand what people mean when they tell me the predicted temperature for the weekend in degrees Celsius. Come on U.S.A! You are doing your students a disservice by sticking to this outdated American system. I don't know how to bake, or approximate the temperature, or give directions using distances in another country! This is a problem.

I worked with what I had. Added a little of this and a little of that. My cereal bowl served as my measuring cup for the evening. And here you have it...  

The end result: Lets just say that they probably won't be entered into "the world's best cookie" competition, but all things considering, I think they're pretty tasty!

 

Pen Pals

I think we all remember the time in elementary school when our teacher broke out the U.S. or World map and told us that we would start writing letters to kids our age from ____ (as she pointed to another area on the map). It was an exciting time. I worked so hard at perfecting my letters... each "t" had a perfect little hook, each "I" had absolutely perpendicular lines, a heart placed next to my name... a sign of girly sisterhood. I anticipated receiving a letter like a kid anticipates finding the goodies that Santa has brought on Christmas day.

Okay..so maybe I had a uniquely exciting experience writing to my pen pal. I understand if not everyone shared the same enthusiasm. But being as how it was for me, I've gladly brought this tradition from the dredges of my childhood to share with my kids here in Korea.  I teach 4th, 5th, and 6th grade English so I've had to modify the activity a bit. Their English is not bad, but it's not quite advanced enough to write to kids their age in the States. Instead, they write letters to me. I'm the school-wide pen pal. I realize that doesn't sound incredibly thrilling, but I think the kids (or the ones that participate.. it's optional) still really enjoy it.

I'll admit that the idea of pen pals was not uniquely my idea. It started the first week here when a  few kids, eager to practice their English and to get to know the new native English teacher wrote me letters. For ESL learners (English as a Second Language) their are 4 components to learning a second language: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Reading and listening are kind of like input learning skills.  Kids tend to pick these skills up first.  Speaking and writing are output skills and typically come last because they require that students create language.  Between the two output skills, I've found that with a lot of my kids its easier for them to write because speaking takes quite a bit of confidence. Plus, once you say a word or a phrase, its out there and there's no time for them to correct themselves.Writing letters takes away the stress of talking to me one on one AND it gives the kids who really want to practice a chance to read and write.

I've told all of the kids to call me Jessica (it's easier for them to say than Jessie), but some call me "Jessica Teacher" because in Korean they address their teachers as "_(teacher's last name)__teacher"

You'll notice that some of them give themselves English names. The privileged kids go to an English academy that encourages them to do so.

This girls English is very good, but she is not actually in my school. She goes to the neighboring middle school and is the sister of one of the boys who writes to me.

I've loved the letters that I've gotten so far. They're all so cute. Sometimes I get pretty stationary or suckers (!) or chocolate (!!) (these kids have me pegged) or pretty colored pens and paper. It's been so much fun. I try to make my letters just as fun.. which for me has meant learning how to fold my letters into paper cranes (that took a bit of finagling) or putting Disney princess or hello kitty stickers across the page. I need to buy some candy to attach to the letters. What can I say? I want them to write and I've always been partial to bribery!

Very Cute Stationary

Another Corner of Korea

I went to the Jinju Lantern Festival last Saturday. If you exclude orientation, it was my first time venturing out of the city since I arrived, in whats going on, 3 weeks ago. Wow, three weeks. My fellow, yet more experienced, English teachers would laugh at this revelation. Some of them have been in Korea over a year or more now.  Forgive me, but 3 weeks feels like a long time. Strangely, it also feels like it's gone by quickly.

Jinju is a much smaller town than Daejeon. At about 330k, it's a forth of the size. Every year the city of Jinju and it's visitors display hundreds of lanterns on the river and in the air to commemorate the souls lost during the Imjin War, a period of Japanese occupation.  The story goes that lanterns were sent down the river or flown in the air as military signaling and as a way for family members to communicate their safety to one another.

I was expecting numerous pretty little paper lanterns... something like the Chinese lanterns that you decorate your dorm room with. What I found was something completely different.  They were numerous, but little they were not.  These lanterns were larger than life sized sculptures... and so intricate and colorful.. truly beautiful.  I touched a few; the material felt like a weather resistant cloth. No candles, all bulbs. Ahh the beauty of modern technology. The threat of burning the city to the ground is now greatly reduced.

Now there was a multitude of the pretty little paper lanterns.  Admittedly, this was my favorite part of the festival.  (Carolyn, I know what you're thinking. No making fun!). My sister teases me about the undeniable fact that I am (as naive as this might sound) a romantic. Go ahead, hand me my rose colored glasses. I like them, thank you! ;) Here's the truth: I like going to fairs, less for the guy they shoot from a canon into a ring of fire, and more for the way fairs make me feel.. I need to have fair food, the Farris wheel, and someone to ride it with.  I love the time leading up to Christmas... more than Christmas day itself. I habitually make every holiday a big deal.  My family would eat out on Thanksgiving if I didn't insist that we stay home. They humor me. The Jinju Lantern festival was no exception. I enjoyed seeing the large lanterns, but I could have spent the entire time in the section devoted to the small hand crafted lanterns. 

As I said, this was the Jinju Lantern FESTIVAL.  I think the concept of a festival is pretty universal.  It goes without saying that the food follows this rule. Festival food is festival food everywhere.. but maybe with a twist. The key: can we say, "fried food?" There was comfort in seeing that Koreans do as we do. Festival food = regular food that has been battered and deep fried.  I had fried Japchae (a Korean noodle dish).  Some other similarities: chintzy fair games that reward you with cheap prizes, unnecessary fees.. for example we had to pay a one way ticket every time we wanted to cross the bridge over the river.

In its own right, this festival was unique in many ways. For one, a Buddhist Temple on the mountain over looked the city.  There were many traditional Korean dance performances and an interesting selection of food. One vendor was selling ice cream and ...  cooked silk worm larvae right next to each other. I suppose you could put some larvae on your ice cream as a topping. I tried the ice cream and left the "toppings" for the next customer.  Someone in the group I traveled with said that he had tried them before and that they tasted like dirt... hmmm. I'll pass.

All in all, it was a nice weekend. I enjoyed seeing another corner of Korea.

Jinju Lantern Festival: Overlooking the river and the floating lanterns

I'm the year of the Dragon. Of the larger lanterns, I liked the dragons the best.

The small hand crafted lantern section. If I had had more time I would have made one to hang. Let let you do it for free!

A fire breathing lantern!

The inside of the Buddhist Temple that overlooks Jinju

Silk worm larvae, anyone?

Actively Proactive

The other day a friend of mine told me that I have to be proactive to survive living in such a big city in a foreign country. He was referring to making friends here in Daejeon and, more specifically, when making plans. I understand that this is especially important during this period that I like to call my own personal communication limbo.  I don't have a phone so I don't have, god forbid, texting! (If you know me well then you know that I've never been one to drink the "texting cool aid"). But bless Jesus, I do have the internet. And what would I do without it?? I've become a skyping, facebooking, blogging, instant messaging junkie, which (undeniably) has always been true (to a degree), but has amplified since I've been in Korea. Type Type Type. The tip tap strike of the keys has become the soundtrack to my life these past 2 weeks. In all seriousness, it's my only mode of communication because I live alone and I'm the only native English speaker in my school. So, yes, I agree, you do have to be proactive to survive in a foreign country, but I believe in more ways than one.

I've been walking in larger concentric circles about my neighborhood... if you could call it that. Daejeon has over 1.4 million people and I live in the heart of the city in an area near its "new downtown."  It's not your quiet residential neighborhood.  I'm slowly getting my bearrings. I'm not a person who can look at a map and understand the layout. I need to see it, walk it.  Plus, it gives me something to do during the week, which hasn't been entirely action packed.  Survival 101 in a large city in a foreign country: keep busy doing something, whether that be going for a run, teaching myself korean, going for a walk, having dinner with friends, cooking, blogging, reading, talking with friends, or going shopping. It's different during the weekends where I have the time to get out of the city and do something, but during the week my antidote to impending boredom and possibly homesickness is constant motion.

Today I tried to go for, what has become, my daily run in the park by city hall. What I found was rehearsal for the 2010 World Archery Festival.  I watched for a minute as 10 Korean boys practiced their routines in colorful robes. I opted for a walk around the city instead. I suppose I could have run on the side walks and I sometimes do, but I get looks for that.  I've got my neighborhood pretty well mapped out. Crispy Creme, check! My co-teacher, Jella, calls it, "The Crispy," which I find incredibly cute and very funny. Dunkin' Doughnuts, check! McDonald's, check! Fellas, if you've been searching for the "Sexy Bar" and have yet to find it, lucky for you, I now know where that is too. KFC, check! All my essentials are right around the corner ;)

I think on my next venture I'll take the metro to another area of the city and see where that lands me.

Thank You Vania!!

The photos here are beautiful and artistically captured.. and they are also not mine. My camera battery was out of service the week of orientation and the day that we went to Gyeongbokdung Palace and to the Nanta Performance. Vania Lanas was sweet enough to let me use her photos to show all of you. Thanks Vania!

These are photos are from inside Gyeongbok Palace. Gyongbok Palace, located in Korea's capital city, Seoul, was built more than six centuries ago; though parts of it have been destroyed and reconstructed. The picture at the top was the King's residence.

Military inside the castle preparing for the G-20 Summit meeting that will be held in Seoul in November of this year. Korea will be the first non-G8 member to host a G-20 Summit meeting.

Traditional Korean drum used to create Samulnori, traditional Korean music.

Our orientation leaders told us that Nanta means to make a mess. The performance was something like a cooking show meets stomp the yard meets an eurythmic  beat.

I swear I was trying my darnedest not to make eye contact when they were looking for two people to go on stage. Of course they had to pick me! I'm eating soup here. I got unofficially married on the show.  That's why I'm wearing the get up. It was an arranged marriage. It didn't end well. ;)

Celebrity Status

In the eyes of my new Korean students, I have reached idol status.. Korean Idol, that is. To them, I am in the rankings with their favorite K-Pop, 2NE1 or Bigbang singer. (I've found that Korea has a pretty strong music industry that is called K-Pop. check out the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAJ6Xk9bnew&feature=channel

On a regular day the cutest children you have ever seen run up to me, giggling and covering their faces with mocked embarrassment saying, "Hello" "Hey" "HI!" There's pointing and staring. I've even had 2 girls ask for my signature (that's how they phrased it in English, by the way. Go figure!) A little boy brought a letter in to me that he had written in English AND one from his older sister who is in a neighboring Middle school.

I'd be flatly lying if I didn't say that I am smitten by their adoration and charmed by those big doe eyes looking up at me in class every day.

It must be a ploy. These children have figured us sappy foreigners out!: Cover them with adoration and you are king. And boy, are they ever right; but who am I to deny them?? It goes something like this. "It's time for a lesson class! No, we can't play a game today.".. And then... they kill you with those big doe eyes. "Oh Alright... We can play a game instead."

I am not the first westerner they've ever seen, but for many of them I am the first or one of the first that they see and talk to on a regular basis. I speculate that to them I come from a country that has represented opportunity, and possibility, and wealth, and power (though, I'm not sure about half of those these days) that I carry a little of that status. That, tied in with the simple fact that like any child they have a natural curiosity about anything that is new or foreign. Again, this is just speculation.

I have to wonder, though, where the fascination comes from. The children are not the only ones to stare. The teachers stare, the guy on the street corner stares, the woman on the metro maintains a gaze for a half second too long. I realize I'm about 5 inches taller than the average woman over here, but even that doesn't seem to explain why every other foreign teacher here receives the same attention. It's a mystery to me and one that I'll leave open on the books for further social investigation.

An American Acquaintance with Korean Food

 As requested, I've added some photos of the things I've attempted to cook while I've been here. Those kimchi dumplings above, try not to be too impressed. I got those in the frozen food section. haha

If you've ever lived abroad (or even if you haven't) you probably know what I mean when I say that the first day in a foreign grocery store is like trying to put a complicated new toy together using a foreign instruction manual. That being, you will probably recognize MOST of the pieces (though there are a few.. wow, where does that go?), but it still feels impossible to navigate until you've played with it long enough to get your bearings.

Today was my first run to the grocery store. I was there for an hour and left with 1 bag of groceries. I paced the aisles: inspecting, identifying, comparing prices, trying to familiarize myself with the goods.

That may sound silly to you, but food is so much apart of a culture that it's easy to take for granted how strongly we identify with a particular cuisine. You might be thinking that you don't have a particular cuisine that you're partial to (as I did), but I'm here to tell you that you do. Because the fact is that even if you eat "ethnic food" you probably don't cook with authentic food, using authentic brands that are written in another language.

I have to play a game with myself. I have to decide, first, how adventurous I'm going to be and, second, how I'm going to find foods that resemble foods from home so that I can cook them.

Today, I decided to go for it. I was a little adventurous. If I wanted to, I could have walked out with Korea's version of corn flakes, yogurt, noodles, bread, peanut butter, jelly, milk, and some fruit and vegetables and called it a day (all of which I did buy), but I tried to grab some Korean items too.

So here's some of the Korean items that I threw in the mix:
*Frozen Kimchi dumplings (so I'm not making my own, but still Korean). If I haven't explained Kimchi yet, it's cabbage that sits to ferment and is spiced with chili peppers and other spices. It's a staple to every Korean's diet. Supposedly most Koreans have 2 refrigerators: one holds kimchi and the other is for everything else.
*Dried Shrimp: I still haven't figured out how I'm going to eat this one, but I had to try it.
*Soybean Oil: a vegetable oil equivalent.
*Chili Pepper Paste: This is their salt and pepper. It's used a lot for seasoning.
*Rice: a must

Tonight was also my first night cooking. You can tell me what you think, but I give myself a 6 for effort. I'm a little limited on cooking supplies and I only have a stove top and a toaster oven, so keep that in mind. I heated some rice that I seasoned with chili pepper paste and topped with some cooked carrots and onions. Two hard boiled eggs on the side. Not bad. It's "American Introduces Itself to Korean."