Korean eating habits

Now that I've been "in country" for almost two weeks now, let me break down for you some of the typical Korean eating habits:

- a friend who has been here before warned the Americans that the Koreans would not drink anything with their lunch - and that's true. They eat their entire meal without having anything to drink (almost like my friend ZWalk did back in high school). Then, after the meal, they go to these little water machines and "drink" a cup of water. At first, I thought it was so strange that they had only this little, tiny drink after lunch (at least ZWalk was saving himself a delicious Sprite for after lunch). But now I've learned (thanks to my Korean friend S.) that they are not drinking the water after lunch - nope, they are washing their mouth out. To get rid of the pepper flakes. And she wasn't kidding - I hadn't noticed before, but everyone standing around the water machine with their "drink" is swishing the water around in their mouth, washing out the gunk. Weird.

- No matter what Koreans eat, they regard the rice as the "meal." Case in point: you can gorge yourself on Korean bar-b-q (bulgogi, for example) for an hour while eating pickled vegetables, soups, and kimchi by the boatloads, but that's not the meal. No, the "meal" is the little bowl of rice that you get after eating all your meat and sides. To review: Rice = meal. Copious quantities of meat, pickled vegetables, soups, and everything else = not your meal. To say this is different from the American perspective of "Meat above all else" would be an understatement.

- Korean men eat really fast. Almost as fast as I eat! I wondered why, but now it all makes sense: every Korean man must do military service. And in the military, you only get 1-2 minutes to eat, so you learn to eat fast or you starve. Thus, wherever you go, you see these ex-Army guys shoveling their food in like it might disappear at any second. But since I've never been in the Army, I really have no excuse for eating fast. I'm just a pig.

- Koreans love ice cream - I just ate some green tea, blueberry, and corn ice cream for dessert. Yes, corn ice cream (not bad!). Given my penchant for the frozen stuff, I may fit in yet...

- Finally, props to my man James for finally finding something to eat that wasn't named Popeye's. Maybe now he won't have to rely on his mad game with the Korean ladies to find something to eat.

Smokin' in the boys' room

Teacher don't you fill me
Up with your rules
Everybody knows that
Smoking ain't allowed in school!!!

- Motley Crue

There are No Smoking signs posted everywhere in Korea, but the spirit Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx lives on! I was in the bathroom at school when some random guy came in, went in a stall, and started making a clicking noise. Was that a lighter, I thought? Sure enough, my nose was tingled by the acrid stench of cigarrette smoke.

Sweet. Smoking in the boys' room.

Actually, a buddy already in Korea warned me this might happen, but I was still taken aback.

The Rough Life...

So far, life in Korea has been pretty tough on me. For example, after my week of wining, dining, and sightseeing thanks to the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, I finally got to my lab last Friday. At last, I was going to have to settle down and do some actual work!

Or, maybe not - because I arrived just in time to attend the lab's annual retreat! Yes, after one afternoon spent in lab, I went along with everyone to Danyang, famous both for being in the middle of nowhere and for hot springs.

We listened to a few science talks, ate some traditional Korean foods (these people are big on soup, not so big on drinking water), and stayed in a sweet hotel, where I finally experienced sleeping like a Korean: on the floor. Surprisingly, quite comfortable (and good for the back, I'm told).

And we fulfilled the whole "Asian tourists on a bus" stereotype, by trekking around to a ginormous Buddhist temple, Cheondong cave, and a weird pagoda on top of a mountain. Lots of pictures with the V sign were had.

And finally, I visited Aquaworld, the only indoor water park in Korea. Complete with "hydro zet" and "basher wall system", whatever those might be.

Other notes from the weekend:

- Koreans love wearing clothes with English on them, but I'm not sure if everyone understands what their shirts say. Case in point, the woman I saw on Sunday with A-cup breasts wearing a shirt that said, "I see you've already met the twins." I thought it impolite to take a picture, so you'll have to imagine.

- Speaking of English, can I interest you in some:

(I'm entitled to make fun, since my Korean is perfect. Take, for example, this weekend, when I was playing a drinking game with my labmates. At the start of this game, you are supposed to yell "shijak," meaning start. I, however, insisted on yelling "shikdang," which means food. "Food! Food!" They must have just thought I was hungry...)

- The concept of "going Dutch" has not made it to Korea. Instead, it's the responsibility of the oldest or most senior member at dinner to pick up the check! Needless to say, I have been loving this - I haven't bought a meal yet! This is despite of the fact that I'm actually older than some of my labmates, because the rule doesn't seem to apply to foreigners. Before certain people start accusing me of being cheap (it's happened before - you know who you are), I have forcibly tried to pay on several occasions, only to have my money refused over and over again. In the meantime, I'll just keep on trying to pay, and enjoying it if they don't let me...

- And on the topic of food, during the trip to Danyang, we stopped for food at a Korean rest stop. Since I didn't recognize anything on the menu, I just picked something random. And then I became very confused during lunch, because everyone seemed overly concerned about me: "Is it okay? Are you sure? If you don't like it, we can get you something else, etc. etc..." Turns out, I had unknowingly ordered the spiciest thing on the menu, and they were all worried that the white man couldn't handle it - but I am proud to say I slurped every last noodle and downed every last bit of random, pickled vegetable (it's very unlike me to not join the clean plate club). I am white man, hear me roar!

Skype me!

Despite my prejudice against the Luxemburgish, those people have finally proved themselves good for something: Skype.

I'm by no means computer illiterate, but I'm certainly not a computer wizard either. And yet I was able to install Skype, grab a random 16,500 won microphone, and make a call back to the States within minutes. And now I can keep in touch with back home for the low, low price of 2.5 cents/minute.

This doesn't come as news to the computer guys out there that have been taking advantage of Skype for a while, but I'm still awed. Freakin' amazing. Nice work, Luxembourg!

Far from home

Three cities I've visited in the past year, and suddenly I find myself far from all of them. And far from all that is "normal." That's right: Korea. Seoul. 연셔 대학교!!!

I'll keep you all up to date on the mundane, bizarre, and downright boring goings-on of my life in the far East, but for now I'll leave you with these small, hot gumnuggets of wisdom about life in the world's largest K-town:

- you can watch TV on your mobile phone. And Americans are so excited about downloading Desperate Housewives to our iPods? Get real.

- Outback steakhouse is the most popular American chain restaurant. Bloomin' onion and everything. Yum.

- the urinals here are all automatic. What's so strange about that, you ask? Well, the flushing begins when you *start* peeing, not when you stop. It's like they're cleaning up from the last guy so that you can leave a fresh mark on the urinal.

- there are lots of Asian people here. Who'd've guessed?