Gavin and Beth in the Land of the Morning Calm: First weekend with pictures.

Note: From now on we will be colour coding our entries to make them more legible. Gavin is green and Beth is purple. Black is the hive-mind.

Hey everyone, Gavin here. First off, a note about my new food habits. I have so far eaten a jellyfish salad, dried squid, fried herring, raw whitefish (all in one meal) and mussels and fake crab in a soup. So far I have positive reviews of the herring, raw fish and, surprisingly, the jellyfish. Jellyfish salad is kind of sweet and a little bit tangy – like a fruit. A fruit of the sea.

It would be hard being straight veggie here, although not impossible, but for whatever reason, the attitudes that I’ve encountered up ‘til now about even having a fish-inclusive diet range from skeptical to something like incredulity. I don’t think these responses have tonnes to do with food availability, but more to do with taste and the possibility that having me along for the ride might limit the amount of pork and beef that arrives at the table, or that I might create some bad feelings surround whatever does. Anywho, I’ll be attempting to clean and prepare a whole fish tonight for dinner. We’ll let you know how that goes along with a recipe if all goes well. If not, we’ll be in hospital getting our throats deboned.

Gavin breaking in our new kitchen with eggs and homefries.

Good morning! Due to jet lag I’ve become quite the morning person. It started with waking up at 4:30, then 5:30, and today it was 6:30, although I managed to stay in bed until 7. Gavin doesn’t seem to have been affected by the time change in the least- he has slept soundly through the night since day one.

Yesterday we tackled the grocery store, with modest success. The “Lotte Mart” I mentioned in the last posting has a big grocery section on the bottom level that pretty much looks like a Loblaws. The differences are that there are tonnes of samples to try, even of prepared foods like stir-fry mixes that they make in front of you. We picked up some bananas, a loaf of bread (which in hindsight was a mistake since we don’t have a toaster or an oven or anything to make sandwiches with yet), chocolate digestive cookies called “Diget,” etc. Figuring out how to cook like a Korean is going to take some time and research I think. All the foreign teachers swear that it is cheaper to go out for all your meals, but we met a South African guy named Greg who assured us this is not true. You have to take advantage of the markets and maybe learn some new techniques, so I think this will be our plan.

Along the sidewalks are these ladies who sell produce out of baskets and we’d noticed one of them selling red peppers on our way to the store. As expected hers were much cheaper than those at “Lotte Mart,” so we bought some from her and she threw in an extra one free of charge. I think that bodes well for the big market.

The temple

Later on we went to Haeundae, which is the most popular beach area, and met up with Sophie, a friend from Montreal who’s teaching in Ulsan, and some of her teacher friends (including another Gavin). We grossly underestimated the time it would take to get there and were 30 mins late. But at least we discovered the subway is easy to use and very comfortable. They were hanging out at the bus station drinking this milky looking rice wine I have yet to encounter, so we didn’t have to feel too bad for our tardiness.

The reason for the outing was to visit a temple on the outskirts of the city. I think it is called Haedong Yonggunsa and it’s unique in Korea due to being right on the ocean. The most amazing part for me was the deafening sound of cicadas in the trees. It was loud to the point that conversation was difficult. The temple itself was kind of neat but hard to really absorb amid the throngs of Korean tourists. At one point we were walking up a path and a little crab sidled out from under a rock and scurried along beside us.
After our temple trip we headed back into the busier part of Haeundae for some food. After a brief squabble about where to dine we went to an ex-pat resto-bar called The Wolfhound. There we learned that when you’re in Korea it is in your best interests to go to a Korean restaurant. I had a grilled cheese (either a Kraft slice or Cheese Whiz) served with 6 fries. Beth fared little better with her BLT. Having shat on the ‘Hound, I was a necessary learning experience and would have happened sooner or later. Also, I’d like to point out how weird it is to be in a restaurant with people smoking. It brought back memories of The Only circa 2004. Oh, and if you’re ever in Korea and are faced with ordering either Hite or Cass beer, take the Cass.

The trip to the grocery store and the long journeys to and from the temple really took it out of me (and Gavin too I think), so when we got home we quickly picked up some stuff from “Lotte Mart” and headed home to watch the latest Weeds episode and fall asleep. Here are a few more pictures from the temple.