How to Eat Like Elaine in Korea Part 2: Random Stuff I Have Eaten

Instead of instructional, this post will be a series of photos of stuff I have eaten. Delicious stuff. Mostly Korean stuff too!! 

So that one blog I read was wrong. Instead of being afraid of cats, Koreans put really adorable ones in my coffee!

Korean barbecue with my coworkers! All you can eat!

A little later in the cooking process. So delicious. 

This is the pencil case of one of my students. To be fair, I think they mean the other Washington, but I still got really excited. For the record, I did not eat it. I just had to put this picture in. 

Kimbap: my favorite Korean food. Well, one of them anyway. I have been subsisting almost solely off of this stuff. Kim means seaweed, bap means rice. I prefer the tuna variety. It's like a tuna sandwich in a roll. Two things I love! It's $2.50 a roll and there is a great place right underneath where I work. 

This stuff is 10% juice, 90% sparkling water. It's the best thing I have ever tasted. 

Koreans LOVE weird stuff on their pizza. Brendan, I think you could really get into this. 

You read that right: Balsalmic Steak Organic Pizza. Like I said, weird. Fortunately, this pizza place makes a mean Hawaiian (with corn!) for pretty cheap. Unfortunately, it's right across the street from my house. 

This is my new friend Ali. Guess where she's from! OHIO! We tried the sushi place around the corner from my house. They had really enticing pictures on the outside of the restaurant. (That's how I decide where to eat here. I can't read things, so I base all decisions on the quality of the pictures.) We nailed it with this place. All this for $10 a person. And this was only the beginning. 

A better view of our sashimi delights.  

This was our whole spread. Sashimi, noodles, tempura (eaten), clam soup AND a tiny bi bim bap with roe of some kind. AMAZING. So cheap. We will be doing this on a regular basis. 

One of the best parts: we got our own private dining room. Again, so cheap. So awesome. 

Ok, until next time, faithful readers. 

P.S. Happy Birthday, Diane!!

More photos!!

These are the rest of the pictures from Gyeongbok Palace. I think the last few are my favorite. I love the ones that show the ancient palace and modern Korea in the same shot. I think it says a lot about Korea, a place that is buzzing with technology, but still so traditional in so many ways. Enjoy!

Gyeongbokgong and the One Month Mark!

One month?! But how did this happen?! 

Well, I can't believe it. It's already been a month!! Things are settling down around here. I finally have internet in my apartment. And I have a phone! It's been a game changer. So far it has been much easier to keep in touch with people at home. It has not, however, made me a more faithful blogger. This is my attempt to change that. 

I am getting more comfortable at work and every day is a little better. It's nice to feel like I know what I'm doing. Well, at least for the most part. I'm starting to build relationships with my students, which is great. It was difficult coming in the middle of the term and replacing a teacher that the kids really liked. Today we had the first round of a speech contest. It was so cute!! It was fun to hear the students do something other than listen and repeat. There is some room for creativity in the classroom, but not much. I'm learning more about them everyday.

From here on out I'll just put some pictures with captions of what I've been up to for the last couple of weeks. I think that's better anyway. Here we go!!

You would think that of all places, this would mean something else. 

 

A Korean pizza place. They have all kinds of crazy pizza toppings (look for a pizza related food post in the future).  I just like the motto. 

The view from the coffee shop in Dongtan where I did a lot of interneting before the glorious internet came straight into my house. This is around the corner from work.  

That is me!! Remember me!? I'm standing with my Chinese horoscope symbol, the pig. 1983!! 

My friend Lauren, from training, and I at Gyeongbokgong. It's a big palace in the center of Seoul. The rest of the pictures are from that Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. I need to do this more often, or use smaller pictures or something because this took forever!!! 

The entrance to the palace. I love the juxtaposition of the palace and the city behind it. 

Something nice, also at the palace. 

The entrance to the palace, looking out from inside. Check it out. I give you what only the royals could see. Well, the royals and anyone with 3,000 won. 

OMG!! I am standing next to the guard!!

Looking the other direction from the entrance. That direction being in. 

The main part of the palace. 

The beautiful painted ceiling in the palace. For the most part the inside was kind of uneventful, so I don't think I'll put up any pictures. The ones I did take were not as good as I would have liked. 

There I am again!! 

These paintings were my favorite part. 

I have more pictures but the internet is being uncooperative and I'm tired. I'll post more soon. Katrina won't let me wait so long between blog posts. You can all thank her. Also, Lauren (who by the way is from Gig Harbor) informed that when she went back to take pictures of the cherry blossoms, she realized we missed a pretty big section of the palace. Whoops. For the record, there was a folk museum and we got really distracted. Anyway, I've got a ton more pictures, so check back soon! 

How to eat like Elaine in Korea, Part 1: Cheese Ramen

 First things first. Buy this ramen. Buy the hot one! You won't be sorry. I have a sneaking suspicion that with the Korean population in Seattle, you won't have a hard time finding it.

 Put the little mushroom packet in the water. Make the water boil!!

 Add the noodles and the flavors. (I know, you're thinking, Elaine, I've made ramen before. But it's about to get crazy, I promise!)

Break an egg into the pot of boiling noodles and mix it up!! (You have no idea how difficult it was to try to do this and take a picture.)

Now you need American cheese. I have chosen this off brand Korean cheese. We are missing one crucial part of the instructions! If you are going to make cheese ramen, you have to say it like a Korean: Cheese-uh ramen.

Put your cooked ramen in a bowl and add that delicious slice of fake cheese!

Let it get allllll melty and mix it around. MMMMMMMM.

Now it should look like this. The cheese-uh makes the hot not so bad and it is so delicious. 

Finally, if you want the real Elaine in Korea experience, enjoy your cheese-uh ramen while watching old episodes of The Office. That Michael Scott, what a character!! And Pam and Jim!! It's wonderful. 

Full disclosure: I overcooked the noodles this time (and added a little too much water), but I'm not going to take all of these pictures again. It doubled my ramen making time. Also, I got some of the ramen on my white shirt. Why I didn't see that coming, I'll never know. Ok, I think that sums up all of my ramen related embarrassing personal confessions.