Baking, resurrected?

UPDATE: Our friends have moved into a place. This place has an oven--small, but quite functional. STAY TUNED, PEOPLE. Things may be looking up for my lonely sweet tooth......

Things I Miss Making.

I love to cook. It's super satisfying for me to make a meal that I really enjoy. Even better is getting to eat it with people I care about.

My brother posing with one of our victims this past Thanksgiving.

I also love to bake. Having a funny, little, camping-style stove-range with two burners is a real space saver in my tiny apartment. Sadly, with no oven, baking is out of the question. Cakes in Korea are a little different. I'm no science girl, so I'm not quite sure what gives cake it's "pizazz".. maybe it's the baking powder... possibly the butter. Eggs? Either way, I search for most cake-making supplies, and aside from not seeing any baking powder (which I couldn't spot written in Korean if it were kicking me in the face), I haven't noticed any unavailable ingredients. Flour, check. Eggs, milk, sugar, check. Vanilla, check. On down the list, everything's here, but the cakes... well, they don't taste the same. They have this spongey, tasteless quality that brings tears to my eyes every time a birthday rolls around. The chocolate ones are particularly nasty, and I suspect fake chocolate substitute is to blame.

Instead of cake, I actually prefer their lightly sweetened "bek sol ki"..a.k.a: white snow rice cakes. They're these dense, non-gelatinous rice cakes--super filling, and like the name suggests, made of white rice. Absolutely delicious.

bek sol ki

Their cake decorating is spectacular, but for those of you who bake, you'll know what I mean when I say everything tastes like the fat has been substituted with applesauce. While healthier, I'm sure, I miss a good old buttercream-covered, artery-clogging confection.

Looks nice from the outside, eh? Can't judge a book by it's cover....?

In light of this, I thought I'd post some of my previous creations and cry myself to sleep while I dream of each of them melting in my mouth.

Strawberry rhubarb pie.

Iced lemon cookies (painted with food coloring), garnished with a white chocolate bird (also painted with food coloring).

Stollen for Christmas

A cake for my sister-in-law's baby shower.

My gingerbread friends, complete with Pervert and Cop.

I'll give you something to cry about.

It's potty time.

I've lucked out living in a highly modern area where I am rarely forced to use the little squatty toilet hole-in-the-floor situations, unless I am desperate in a subway station. That mentioned, I am simply thankful there are bathrooms in the subway available to use at ALL. Also worth mentioning is they lack the used needles and scary characters that littered public restrooms in New York. However, I am not immune to the ever-so-present "used toilet paper in the trashcan" situation.

The Japanese anime show "Unko-san"... about poop characters who like kimchi. uh oh! i smell a fight...

My main problem with the korean bathrooms, aside from the fact that mine has a washing machine in it--along with no sink, is this mysterious "weak plumbing" that can't accomodate simple toilet paper being flushed. Possibly people flush their garbage to avoid the cost and mess of disposing of it, hence weakening the plumbing (this theory made possible by my friend who had the pleasure of her bathroom overflowing with toothpicks and a variety of other strange objects from the tenants above). Possibly the city grew so fast that the plumbing couldn't be refurbished as they built, but i'm sorry... i must have missed the memo. With some of the most killer buildings, excellent subways, supa fast trains and ritziest shit around, one would think i could be spared the sight and smell of a soiled pile of toilet tissue from the fashionistas with whom i share bathrooms around here. MA GAHHH.

You see these beautiful girls, dressed to the nines, wearing outfits that probably cost more than some people's houses, and you try to imagine them making the decision to opt-out of the flush, and instead, tossing it next to the toilet for the following person to enjoy. It's a nearly impossible image to envision, but obviously, it's a reality, because I see it.. EVERYWHERE I GO. From the nicest restaurants, to the lowliest coffee shop bathrooms; it's just everywhere. At some point i got violently angry about being exposed to this, and now... i just take a breath, squint my eyes to blur my surroundings, and piss like the wind.

Hey, poop is cute.

This, this I won't miss.

Bits and Tids

Well, it's getting to that point. I have a lot of things to tell everyone, but not enough to post them individually... plus, time's been whizzing by, and I haven't exactly kept up here. I've been sifting through pictures to see what's blog-worthy, and I've noticed I have a lot of weird videos and funny tidbits of stories, so i'll go with that.

Walking to school SLAYS me when I get to witness the salesmen at the car dealerships doing their morning, team-building warm-up:

No shame, no humiliation, just dedication to the cause. That's pride, baby. Stretching and limbering up on display for the morning commuters.

Let's see... ahhh yes. The Underwear Incident at the Lantern Festival Parade...

So, it's a nice afternoon at a wholesome event. I am wearing a dress--shocker, I know, but I was feeling festive. There are ajumas, monks, and little children everywhere, along with culture-seeking foreigners, eager to catch a glimpse of traditional dance and beautiful lanterns on this all-holiest of Buddha's birthday celebrations.

Jogyesa Temple in Insadong

Canopy of lanterns around the temple

There's a parade of thousands of lanterns that goes through Insadong (an artsy/traditional shopping area which is full of temples). We want to see said parade. We can't, because the aggressive old ladies are snagging lawnchairs like they're going out of style.

An amazing lantern float from the back as it passed by

We see a large group of people atop a cement wall with a grate. We decide to join them. Two of my girlfriends are also wearing dresses, by the way. The performances are underway, and we are enjoying our new found view. I am holding a delicate little, paper lotus-lantern... and a can of beer. Suddenly a breeze catches my skirt. This breeze becomes a violent updraft from, yes that's right, the SUBWAY grate we are standing on. Dresses blow nearly over our heads. I desperately grab at mine, disregarding my lantern and beer, which tango a bit with each other in my hands as I try to spare everyone around me from a full shot of my ass. The beer won, and the lantern, well, he never made it further than that subway grate. My friends and I let out these horrendous shrieks--as, I'm assuming, ANYONE with their dress blowing ALL the way up to their eyeballs might--and along comes an old, dirty foreign guy: "Let em go, girls, don't be shy!"... as he snaps numerous photos with his long zoom lens.

Brilliant. Your welcome, Lantern Festival. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

What else. Oh--how about that time I saw the drunk guy in a business suit passed out in the subway like a homeless person? Here, I took a picture:

I'd also like to bless you with this wonderful shot of my brother I snagged while skyping. He'll appreciate that I put him on here, I'm sure:

Cheorwon Wildlife Preserve

Last weekend, I had the amazing opportunity to tag along with a friend of mine and a top falconer to Cheorwon Wildlife Preserve.

The cannibal hawk who ate his friend; here he's hanging out on the edge of the coffee table while Sang cleans his area on the patio.

Actually, first we hung out at said falconer's apartment with a hawk, who apparently EATEN his hawk-friend earlier that week. Not a super friendly bird, to say the least. After hanging out with this bird-cannibal in an apartment, I decided that a little more space for viewing *maybe even flying* would be pretty nice.

How ELSE do you transport a hawk?

Gorgeous mountains.

We left in the morning and drove out of Seoul, north to Cheorwon. They say it's the closest city to the North Korean border that people can visit--about 10 km away. There are mountains all around the city of Seoul, but once you get out a ways, they're just everywhere--and fully visible instead of peeking over buildings and bridges.

Smells of manure in the rice paddies and the sights of little strip malls enlivened the three-ish hour long drive. We got out there, and it looked like a strange zoo or something: big cylindrical cages, and the sounds of screeching birds.

The center basically focuses on birds of prey--BIG birds… like Snow Vultures who fly south from Mongolia and get stuck here with a variety of injuries. The Snow Vultures can't be re-released into the wild as far as I know--they won't make it once they've been in contact with humans.

Snow Vultures... approximately 3+ feet tall.

A Crane with an injured leg.

An intimidating walk to the vet's room with an eagle loose in the hallway. She was no tiny bird.

Piercing black eyes watched your EVERY move. She's a pretty clever bird.

Large and small owls were there, as well as an amazing crane and a big eagle. It was pretty amazing, but not nearly as cool as actually getting to take one of the owls out and feed him.

Reg and I getting ready to eat.

Feeding "Reginald", or "Reg" for short, entailed cutting up some dead chicks and putting them in a little hip-pack that you wear like a belt, taking him out in a big field, dropping him off, walking down a ways, and holding out the gloved hand while calling "illewah" to him. Then, he'd take off and swoop low to the ground, and gingerly land on your arm! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. He was very gentle, and a bit heavy. He wasn't a small bird by any stretch. He would screech and snuggle against Rachael, who regularly trains him. He's a pretty cool guy. I might be a bit in love.

Off he hops to wait for us to walk down a ways and call him again.

SEXY.

Snuggles for his girlfriend :)

I got to see the vets working on a crow and the eagle… removing bandages, checking wounds, and redressing injuries. The owner took everyone out to lunch, and Sang (the falconer) spent it busting my balls, trying to convince me I should ask one of the volunteers when he escaped from North Korea. Then the owner suggested they all start a band, and I could design their posters. Good times. I'll definitely be going back, if for nothing else, to draw the birds--they're gorgeous, and many are nearly as big as me.

So, basically it was the best day of my life. Sunny and gorgeous, at about 70 degrees, surrounded by mountains in every direction, with a huge owl landing on my arm to eat a dead chick out of my hand. Yes please.

A bit more about the center:

Cheorwon Wildlife Rescue.. about 2 1/2-3 hours outside Seoul.. 10 km from North Korea. Run by the owner and a few vets, they mostly function on volunteers. They have birds of prey--and some other wild animals-- who come to them with a variety of injuries, are nursed to health and re-released into the wild if possible.

Edibles

You're in the grocery store. All of the apples are the same size. They are all neatly waxed and shined, lined up with their little produce stickers, and each time one gets a decent enough bruise, it is whisked away to the place fruit goes to die by a produce department employee and replaced by a fresh specimen.

Not the case in my area of Seoul. I've been pleasantly surprised by the variety in the shapes/sizes/levels of ripeness of most of the produce here. While I'm used to avoiding a piece of fruit with a soft spot, I see many people who are more than happy to choose whatever's available instead of rummaging through to find the perfect, fake-looking piece of fruit to buy.

Produce

Spinach.

Biggest mushrooms ever. They're so dense, they never shrink down when you cook them!

Onions are interesting… these strange little veins (almost like rogue roots) grow up and inbetween the "scale leaves," or layers, of the onion.

Tangerines are VERY small, not far off from the size of a golf ball; most likely they are the size nature intended them to be. Plus, they are the MOST delicious tangerines I've ever eaten. EVER. I actually didn't consider myself a fan of them at ALL until coming to Korea. Jeju Island is famous for their tangerines--it's like Korea's Hawaii off the coast in the south of the peninsula.

Produce lasts a long time upon arriving home. Strawberries don't spoil and mold nearly overnight. Oranges are hard to peel… the skins are not intensely thick like a protective leather suit of ARMOR for the fruit beneath, but rather a thin, aromatic, healthy skin that has obviously not been pumped full of growth enhancers. Everything seems so flavorful and fresh.

Refrigeration

Fish for sale.

Octopus.

Refrigeration is… existent, but not neurotic. I'm now convinced the West may have a slight obsession with refrigeration. Think about it. I walk around and see fresh fish--without any ice or salt--sitting in bins on the sidewalk. I buy it, I cook it, I eat it, and I live to see another day. People in the States get food poisoning from vegetable soup that's been refrigerated too soon after it's been prepared. Hm. Interesting. Possibly it's the fact that we're constantly refrigerating and warming (and repeat) our food, that we're experiencing such ridiculous amounts of food-born illnesses in our very own homes? Not that salmonella doesn't exist here, but I haven't seen an epidemic or anything. My coteacher brings a hardboiled egg to school daily. Sometimes she doesn't eat it until the following day, but by God, that egg sits right on her desk in the classroom. No refrigerator. She hasn't died yet.

There are fish tanks outside many of the restaurants with your future dinner swimming around as a scrumptious preview from the sidewalk. The grocery stores sell crabs, salted fish, whole octopus and other interesting varieties of seafood. It's a real refresher from Ohio's selection of "white fish", salmon, and shrimp. I'll give New York a pass on lame food selection; there are plenty of interesting things to choose from--produce, fish or otherwise--but this is simply due to the demand from so many cultures residing in the city.

Freshly juiced apples at Trunk Cafe near my apartment. DELICIOUS.

Food has been a really fun experience for me over here. Anyone who knows me well is very aware of my own personal love-affair with food… eating is like a social event to me; sustenance is just a perk. Lucky for me, eating is a communal activity in Korea. Rarely do you spot a lone-diner grabbing a quick bite. People order to share. My friends and I happen to eat a lot of galbi (cabbage, meat, etc, usually with a red pepper paste, prepared in the middle of the table…noodles can be added) and barbeque (either pork or beef grilled in the center of the table--sometimes on a stone slab, wrapped in lettuce leaves with spicy raw onions and garlic, and a little sesame oil salt with red bean paste..ahhhhhhhh so good). Either of these would be… challenging to eat by yourself--and quite lonely, considering half of your time is spent cooking the food together, and the other half eating.

Fish soup, and Anju (side dishes that accompany alcohol).

Barbeque.

Don't forget the street food, but… that's for another post. I have a whole other fascination with the boiled silkworm larvae they serve at festivals. They look… pretty gross. The smell is …horrendous, to say the least. Take a look: http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1128363813052649549MbOwAI

On that note, I'm hungry. Off to find something to eat in my tiny mini-fridge.

Culture Shock

SHOCK—Synonyms stagger, astound, stupefy. Shock, startle, paralyze, stun suggest a sudden, sharp surprise that affects one somewhat like a blow.Shock suggests a strong blow, as it were, to one's nerves, sentiments, sense of decency, etc.: The onlookers were shocked by the accident. Startle implies the sharp surprise of sudden fright: to be startled by a loud noise. Paralyze implies such a complete shock as to render one temporarily helpless: paralyzed with fear. Stun implies such a shock as bewilders or stupefies: stunned by the realization of an unpleasant truth.

About a week ago, I went shopping alone in Express Bus Terminal, and while trying to buy a scarf, had the joyous experience of being ridiculed *to my face* by two snot-nosed, waif-thin, teenage shop girls. Needless to say, I didn't buy the scarf.

Upon leaving the store, I felt fairly….angry. My insecurities were through the roof, and it felt like I was walking around naked with every set of eyes burning holes right through me. I took a few deep breaths, and gave myself a hypothetical slap across the face. 'Get it together, man! Don't freak out! They're teenagers. The same b*tches you'd run into at a boutique in your own country any day of the week. Don't go all "Carrie" on the entire country.'

After that, I started thinking a lot about culture shock--what it is, why people experience it, and if it's coming for me…

I recently had a conversation with a close friend about the timing of culture shock… she read a lot about it, and said that many people's honeymoon period with a new country fades at about month 4 or 5, and then homesickness and culture shock can set in. I've read more about exile, myself. While the two are related, the major difference I've gathered is exile is a permanent state of alienation, with a total inability to return to one's own idea of "normal", while culture shock is a fleeting adjustment stage.

I took a look at wikipedia to gather a cocktail-length summation of culture shock. As usual, they have it broken down and organized into a neat, little wiki-package:

▪ Some people find it impossible to accept the foreign culture and integrate. They isolate themselves from the host country's environment, which they come to perceive as hostile, withdraw into a ghetto and see return to their own culture as the only way out. These Rejectors also have the greatest problems re-integrating back home after return. Approximately 60% of expatriates behave in this way.

▪ Some people integrate fully and take on all parts of the host culture while losing their original identity. They normally remain in the host country forever. Approximately 10% of expatriates belong to this group of Adopters.

▪ Some people manage to adapt the aspects of the host culture they see as positive, while keeping some of their own and creating their unique blend. They have no major problems returning home or relocating elsewhere. Approximately 30% of expatriates are these so-called Cosmopolitans.

As an American, you learn to dissect your own culture while you're existing in it. You criticize it, debate it, laugh at it, deny it, claim that you don't even have a culture… no legit history, no grand legacy of kings and queens, just a variety of exiled Europeans plopping down their flag and claiming the land for themselves.

Being here isn't so different from being in any major city. Seoul is highly modern and fairly westernized. I can walk down the street and order a latte from a variety of coffee shops. I can take a subway. I can eat a hamburger. I can buy peanut butter. But really, when you're removed from your culture, you become very aware that you've had one all along.

This is not America.

I'm fascinated with the way people make little clans for themselves when they're alone...like a pseudo-family… i did it in new york, and now here. The act of surrounding yourself with people who care about you…the urge to create tribes is an inherent compulsion of man. People who would never be compatible become like siblings while abroad. I've been very lucky to find some friends who really ARE a good match for me, no matter where I am living.

I like this city, the culture, and the food, even if it's not my own. I miss my family and friends, but I enjoy this experience. I feel wiser for it. All that said, I went to a different store, bought myself the same scarf from a much nicer shop girl, and had a great evening with some very fun people.

Natalie: 1, Culture Shock: 0.