Love/Hate Relationship

I'm starting to realize that Korea and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship. I try very hard to always be grateful for the opportunity I have to live in a foreign country (hence the love), but there are just days when Korea makes it really hard (thus the hate). Don't get me wrong....aside from my own personal issues (which would largely be the same no matter what city, state, or country I lived in), I've loved living here. But then I encounter some frustrating or annoying thing and start to miss America in a serious way. So Korea, let me count the ways I love/hate you:

Weather
LOVE: Living in a place with discernable seasons again. I missed you, Fall.
HATE: That these seasons include a month of monsoon rains, soul-suckingly hot, humid summers, frigidly cold winters, two months of yellow dust blowing in from Mongolia and only one blissful, beautiful month of autumn. Koreans are the only people crazy enough to want to live here.

Transportation
LOVE: All the excellent means of public transportation even if every subway stop has 12 different entrances and you sometimes have to walk a mile to transfer to another line. But at least the ride is cheap. Taxis are also plentiful and sometimes cheap, depending on the traffic (which can get pretty ridiculous).
HATE: Every Korean person who gets behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. There's a stereotype about Asian drivers for a very, very good reason. It's like all rules of sanity and logic immediately fly out the window when the ingition is turned on and wheels start moving. They don't follow any traffic laws (traffic lights are optional; we've seriously been honked at for stopping at a red light before), they weave in and out of traffic, that's if they acknowledge that there are such things as lanes to begin with and they have no respect for right-of-way or the common sense rules of merging. Throw in tiny streets with lots of blind turns for good measure and it's like playing one insane, never-ending game of bumper cars.

Cuisine
LOVE: Trying new dishes, sampling different cuisine and eating a traditional, non-western diet. I've found some Korean foods that I simply adore like bulgogi, kalbi, moo, and Korean apples.
HATE: SPICINESS. Burning off your taste buds is not always the way to best enjoy your food. Also, these people eat some seriously weird stuff.

Food Markets
LOVE: Getting to browse and purchase interesting items at the Korean markets like fun flavors of gum (my favorite is floral gum), candies, and drinks. They have some interesting produce items but my favorite is the Korean apple. I can't explain it but Korean apples are 12 times better than other run-of-the-mill apples you can get in America. (Honeycrisp apples come close to the Korean apple.) Also, I love, love, love that you can buy whole cloves of garlic that have already been removed from their papery little encasements. I really hate trying to pry garlic out of their skins.
HATE: That even though I (praise the Lord) have access to the commissary and regular American products, I still can't get my hands on many speciality items like gnocchi, exotic or unusual spices, good baking supplies, and a wider range of organic/natural foods. I'd also kill for a decent corn tortilla. I might have to learn how to make them from scratch (like I did with gnocchi).

Garbage
LOVE: Actually, there's not much I love about the Korean way of dealing with garbage, but I do appreciate that their system requires recycling and forces me to be more mindful about the amount of waste I produce.
HATE: In Korea, you pay for your waste. I actually find this to be a smart solution to unncessary waste, but it does create quite a headache. You have to buy two different types of bags: one is a general waste bag (which will cost you in the neighborhood of 500 to 1000 won per bag....think of it as spending $1 per tash bag you throw out.....it starts to add up quick) and the other is a small yellow bag for scraps of food. See, there are no garbage disposals in Korea. Instead, you have a huge trap in your sink which catches all food particles bigger than a grain of rice which must then be emptied into this bag. Since there are just two people in our household, I often don't fill up one of these bags in a day, and it sits around, collecting flies and (if I forget to take it out) fouling up the kitchen. All glass, plastic, paper, and aluminum must be removed from the general waste and separated into individual containers. But really, it's those food bags that really bug me.

Pests
LOVE: No longer being tormented by pillaging ants.....
HATE: .....but instead must deal with all the flies that spontaneously appear in our sinks and food bags.

Door
LOVE: That in addition to our dead bolt, our door also has an automatic lock system so you can open the door just by punching in a code onto a number pad. This is nice for times when I'm just running out for quick errands like throwing out the garbage or going for a run and I don't have to worry about carrying keys with me. I can get in and out of my house with just those codes.
HATE: That everytime the door closes, it automatically locks itself, which is annoying when I'm just stepping out into the hall to get my groceries or bring in our bottles of water. David, who thinks about stuff like this way to much, hates that the hinges are on the outside of the door and not the inside. You also can't really "leave the door open" for visitors unless you prop open the door somehow. And if the door isn't properly closed all the way, it'll start beeping at you. Loudly.

Walking
LOVE: That Koreans are a very mobile people (and that the women seriously hike up mountains in heels. Better them than me, I say). They walk everywhere and don't mind tackling a long set of stairs. However, Korea would fail on every level of the American Disabilities Act because there are very few ramps, escalators or evelators most places.
HATE: That even though Koreans are great walkers, they have no awareness for others on the sidewalk with them. They drift from side to side (kind of like how they drive), making it nearly impossible to get around them and never watch where they are going. Korea has even launched this whole "advanced civilization" campaign to encourage Koreans to walk on the right side of the sidewalk, follow traffic laws, and basically act like a well-behaved people. They even went so far as to put arrows in every subway station (on the stairs, pathways, escalators and more) marking the correct direction and pathway to follow but even this has apparently proven too difficult for them to master given the number of people I run into even though I am following the recommended flow of traffic.

Shopping
LOVE: That you can buy just about anything you want in Korea if you know where to go and get a pretty great deal on it (if you know how to haggle in Korean, which I don't, so this doesn't apply to me). From Namdaemun to Dongdaemun to the wholesale flower market, Koreans are a people who love to shop. If you can't find what you want, chances are that you can find someone who can make it custom-made.
HATE: That I will never be able to purchase an item of clothing or a pair of shoes from 95% of the stores here. Now, Korea has some interesting fashions (mostly because they seem to think that any article of clothing will go with any other article of clothing regardless of color, material, or style) but I have seen some adorably feminine dresses and cute shoes that I wouldn't mind buying. If you happen to be larger than an American size 4, however, you are simply too big for Korean clothing. See, Korean men (I'd like to blame only the men but it's probably not all their fault) like their women to look like prebupescent thirteen-year old girls with no discernable breasts, hips or curves. The clothing stores perpetuate this by refusing to sale larger sizes. If you even step foot into some of these stores, the sales associates will immediately shake their heads and say, "No size for you!" and shoo you unceremoniously out of the door. (I've never had this happen to me personally because I haven't wanted to step foot in these stores, but I've heard this tale again and again from many, many women.) Shoes are similar. I have on occasion seen a size 250 shoe (about a size 8.5 US size) but nothing larger. There are Korean women out there who don't fit the female mold and I often wonder where they go to buy their clothes. I know that there are some stores that specialize in 큰옷 (kun-ot) or "big clothes" (doesn't that make you feel good about yourself?), but other women who've shopped at these stores say that they aren't really for sizes 6-16 but for overweight women. So, apparently you either have to teeney tiny or obese to clothe yourself in Korea. Online shopping is my friend now.

Cell Phones
LOVE: That Korean cell phone plans are cheap, cheap, cheap. Koreans love their technology.
HATE: That I still haven't figured out my phone because most of it is in Korean (even though it's on the English setting). Plus, unless your phone is turned off, it won't automatically go to the voicemail if you don't pick up your phone so you kinda just have to hope that someone will pick up their phone or you have to be annoying and keep calling them until they do pick up. Also, before my actual alarm goes off, a woman first says, "It's such and such time. Time to get up!" but it's in Korean so it doesn't do me much good and I've gotten very, very sick of that woman's voice. The last thing I want to wake up to is someone yelling at me in a foreign language.

Oh, it's definitely a love/hate relationship. But most of the time, it's love.

My New Hobby

Lately, I've been feeling the need to have a creative outlet. Unfortunately, most of the creative outlets I'd like to do require money. Photography is on the top of my list but the cost of a really nice digital SLR camera and an editing program like Photoshop is a little out of my price range right now. [You know, I can buy a bunch of little items and drop a $100 no problem, but I have a hard time buying any one item that costs more than $50. Anyone else have this problem?] I'd also love to take up sewing again, but again, I have a hard time investing the $100-$200 in a nice but simple machine when I haven't sewn in 10 years.

A few months ago, some of the women in my ward decided to start a knitting group for those who knew how to knit, those who wanted to improve their skills and those who wanted to learn. Well, I didn't have much of a desire to actually learn how to knit but I really needed some friends so I decided to join the group for the social aspect. However, in the process of gaining 4 great friends, I also learned how to knit.

I think it really helped that I had no burning desire to learn how to knit, otherwise I probably would have quit after the first week. I'm such a perfectionist that I prevent myself from trying new things because I hate to fail or to not have things come out perfectly. (Cooking/baking is different for me. While I want things to look beautiful and taste great, I don't feel as bad throwing out my mistakes or just eating the not-so-great products and trying again. Perhaps it's because my failures never stick around long enough to haunt me. Not like those few pages of scrapbooking I once attempted......) Anyway, I really didn't care how my first few knitting swatches looked so I just kept plugging away.

Plus, I knew I had access to lots of great yarn. Dongdaemun market is a crafty person's dream. It's two massive buildings filled floor to ceiling with absolutely everything you could possibly want: thread, fabrics, needles, yarn, ribbon, buttons, zippers, lace, fur, and more. You want it, they have it there. And all the yarn there is high quality. So a combination of good materials and good company impelled me to learn how to knit and I'm quite surprised at how much I enjoy doing it. I like having something to do with my hands, especially when I'm just sitting around watching TV. Plus, I just love the feeling of creating something with my own two hands.

I even bought myself this adorable knitting basket. It's the perfect size for my knitting supplies. Plus the cover is handy in keeping Suyom away from my balls of yarn.

I love how it opens up to reveal all the beautiful yarns. Of course, I've now spent probably more than $100 on yarns now (see what I mean about buying a lot of little things?) so I can't fit all my yarn into the basket but I have at least a skein of each color. Most of my yarn is 100% wool, though I did buy a beautiful pink mohair, for when I get really good, and a skein of gray acrylic to practice with.

See all my fun yarn? The orange and rust colored yarn is a present for my sister. I got a great deal on the rust-colored yarn (less than $10 for four skeins of 100 grams each) but the orange was a bit more costly. Of course, Suyom went and attacked one of the orange balls. The ball looks a little mangled, but the yarn is still in tact, thankfully. (What do you think, Cassy? I really need to mail them to you!)

I'm still just learning the basics right now and working on small and easy projects like scarves and hats, but I hope to become more advanced in time. I'm also trying to teach myself how to crotchet. While I like knitting, I prefer the patterns you can create by crotcheting.

This is my very first completed project: a scarf for David. I started knitting it with the gray acrylic just for fun and ended up finishing it. David really needed a scarf.....he has absolutely no winter clothes because he's never lived anywhere where it snows. Now I'm working on a black scarf and a black hat as well. I'm slow, but I'm getting better. Hopefully soon I can share more of my creations with you.

Navy Day Ball

On October 17, David and I went to the Navy Day Ball held at the Seoul Hyatt Hotel to celebrate the Navy's 234th birthday. The Hyatt is a beautiful hotel and has an amazing view of Seoul and it was fun to be there for such a formal event.

I've only been to two Navy parties, but they always have ice sculptures. Which David loves for reasons I won't get into here.

Here's another ice sculpture with a massive cake. The cake, sadly, was not that great. The food, however, was fantastic, but I'll get to that later.

Before the ceremonies started and dinner was served, they had cocktails (which we did not enjoy) and traditional Korean dancers. The dress this woman is wearing is called a hanbok and it's the traditional clothing of Korea. They come in beautiful bright colors and I'd like to buy one before we leave.

He's David wearing his dress blues (though it's really black so I don't know why they call them "blue") with his cute little medals. You know, the higher the honor, the more the medal costs which seems a little lame to me. Mostly because we had to buy all the medals and they weren't cheap.

Here we are in front of the ice sculpture. Unfortunately most of the photos came out a bit blurry because of the low lighting in the grand ballroom.

Here's the grand ballroom. The curtains opened up to a glass wall that showed a fountain outside. It was pretty cool. Once we got into the ballroom, they did a whole military ceremony including the posting of colors, ringing bells for officers, and singing of the national anthem (both Korea's and America's) and then speakers. Luckily, the speeches were brief but then we did a toasting ceremony that took forever. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if there had actually been wine in my glass instead of water.

But then we got to eat.

And I forgave them the ridiculously long toasting ceremony. Because the food was amazing. And delicious. I wish I could eat food like that every day. Someday I will. And because I feel the need to make everyone else jealous over the meal we enjoyed and because the menu was printed in our program (which I still have), this was our dinner:

Salad - Vinaigrette Marinated Scallops with Asparagus Spears, Tomato Tartare and Parsley Oil [I'd never had scallops before but they're everyone's favorite seafood on Top Chef so I thought I'd give them a try and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them. And the tomato tartare was light and tangy. Tomatoes are really hit or miss for me and these were perfect.]

Soup - Roasted Corn with Crab and Jalapeno Fritter, Cilantro and Fresh Cream [The soup was rich and creamy but not my favorite thing, mostly because I couldn't wait for the main course.]

Intermezzo - Champagne and Strawberry Sorbet [Yum!]

Main Course - There were 3 options available and I chose the Grilled Beef Tenderloin with roasted pork belly, herb crusted vegetables and port wine demi-glaze while David had the Oven Baked Seabass with Green Beans, Sweet Potato Cake and Orange Butter Sauce. [As far as the protein was concerned, I liked David's seabass more than my beef and pork but we ended up splitting them anyway. I did think my vegetables were better than David's. If the meal faltered at all, it was in the main course. While still good, it could have been better but it is really hard to cook for that many people..]

Dessert - Lemon Breton with Mascarpone Vanilla Cream and Apricot Honey Sauce [While I'm generally wary of desserts without chocolate, this was actually quite delicious and a perfect way to end the meal.]

See? So happy after such a delicious meal. Afterwards, there was dancing but they never played a slow song so David and I didn't get up to dance. (I was not about to bust a move in my 5-inch heels.)


As I was snapping some pictures, this guy jumped into the photograph with David. He was the guest speaker at the ceremony and he is the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, meaning that is the most senior enlisted member in the entire U.S. Navy. See those yellow stripes on his sleeve? Each stripe represents 4 years of service. He has seven. And David has one. Ha! He was a very congenial man and told some funny stories.

All in all, it was a great night and we had fun. It'll probably be the only Navy Ball we attend (since the tickets are rather expensive and David only plans to be in the Navy for 2 more years) but it was fun to be around so many other sailors. Given the nature of David's job, where he works primarily on land and not out at sea on ships or submarines and he often works at joint commands (hence why we are currently stationed at an Army command and not a Navy base), we don't get to interact with a lot of other sailors and it was nice to be in their company. Go Navy!

Goals

I've been meaning to update the blog for some time (and I do have several things to write about) but in the meantime, I thought I'd finally publish this post I wrote back in September. I totally forgot that I had written it and I think it would help to see it on the blog (since I often re-read prior entries because this serves as a journal more than my real journal that I never write in) and to open it up for comment. I take so much encouragement from the comments that my friends (you guys) write. I wrote this two months ago and yet I still have hardly done anything to move forward with these plans. If it's out there for all the world to see, then maybe I'll actually have the courage to do something about it. I'm weird like that. :-)

I've been feeling rather low the last few weeks, a triple combination of cultural shock finally kicking in, homesickness, and lack of employment that rendered me a Very Unpleasant Person to be around. I had a good talk with David (unsurprisingly, he's the communicator in the family) and he helped me realize a few things. It seems rather pathetic to describe this as an epiphany (since it seems so ridiculously obvious now) but I finally realized that I needed to set some goals in my life.

For the last, oh, 20 years of my life, I've been completely focused on school and I always had some goal to achieve. Pass that test. Get into college. Finish the semester. Get an A on my research paper. Get a degree. Even when I took a year off after graduating from BYU, it was with the express purpose to study for the GRE, get some work experience, and apply for grad school. And then I went to grad school and had tons more goals to fulfill: be awesome (check), get an internship at the Smithsonian (check), see as much of D.C. as possible (check), and get a masters (check). Going to graduate school had been a long-term goal of mine since high school. So what happens once you've obtained your biggest goal?

Well, if you are me, you get married and move to a tropical island. This really wasn't the greatest career move on my part (seeing as how Hawaii had about 5 museums) but it was not the wrong life decision. But I still floundered for the first six months of our marriage, in part because I had lost my direction. My whole world had turned upside down and I didn't have anything to ground me to who I was. My goal was simply to find a job and when I couldn't even accomplish that, it felt like I'd just wasted a lot of time and money to get two degrees and I'd lost my whole identity (literally....I kept forgetting that my last name had changed too). Eventually, I found a groove for myself and set my sights on trying to be a better wife (still working on that one) and preparing for our big move to Korea. [In hindsight, I'm now very grateful for only finding part-time work in Hawaii. It allowed David and me to spend a lot of time together, which we had not enjoyed during our two year long-distance relationship and which we would not have enjoyed had I found full-time work.]

I arrived in Korea thinking everything would be different and that I'd easily find work. Three months later [now five], I find myself in the exact some position I was in Hawaii. And now, FINALLY, I've realized that just "finding a job" is not a good enough goal and thinking that I'd "like to do that someday" is not enough of a motivation to actually go DO something because, let's face it, I'm kinda lazy. But I love to do lists. I like checking things off when they've been accomplished. And to make new long(er)-term goals for myself, I need to write them down. And I feel like putting my goals down not just paper, but sharing it with all my friends, it will make this goals all the more real to me and force me to DO something about them.

So here's a list of some of the goals I've set for myself. I'd like to at least be on my way to accomplishing these goals before we leave Korea, but I recognize that living in Korea may be a detriment to their completion. Just go with it. (In no particular order.)

1. Find a job: There's a few jobs out there that I'd really love to have and I grow less inclined to take a job for the sole purpose of having a job. Ultimately, I'd love to find a job that either uses my education and skills or that allows me to become a better educator (either by teaching English or at the base schools). I mostly want a job so that I can save up enough money to pay off my student loans for the 2-3 years after David gets out of the military. He wants to go to graduate school and start his own business, and I don't want my student loans to be an added burden for him during that time.

2. Get a teaching certificate: Even though I just ranted about the public school system, I've been thinking more and more of getting a teaching certificate. It allows me an added option for work (should we need a second income). I've always wanted to be a teacher, I just thought it would be as a university professor after earning my Ph.D. I'm not dismissing that option either, but I think this is more realistic and I'd have a greater chance of truly impacting a student's life while they are in high school. The big problem, of course, is that certification varies by state and since I have no idea what state we'll live in after Korea, I have no idea where to go to earn this certification.

3. Take the Praxis exam: This pairs up with #2. The Praxis exam (there are multiple parts) are a series of test you take to test your general knowledge to become a teacher and you're subject specific knowledge to teach your chosen subject. I've taken a few practice exams and have yet to miss a question. It's not really rocket science.

4. Sign up for education classes: Until I can get a clearer sense of where to get this certification, I plan on signing up for some education classes through BYU's Independent Study courses online. These courses may or may not transfer to a certification program in the future, but either way, I'll be back in school (I miss school a lot) and will still be able to learn valuable things about educational theories and child development that will be helpful regardless of whether I'm teaching my own children or someone else's. I know I can receive money through the military spouse's tuition assistance program, I just have to figure out how to sign up for it.

5. Learn Korean: We're going to be here for 2 years and I'd feel like a hypocrite if I didn't at least learn to carry on a basic conversation in Korean since I dislike people who live in America for any extended period of time who don't try to learn English. I'd need to do a lot more study on my own but I also signed up for a free Korean class that is taught on base. The first opening was in December.

6. Know Seoul: After 2 years in D.C., I'd walked that entire city a million times over and I knew the subway system like the back of my hand. I love feeling like I've really discovered a place and seen what it has to offer. I still have regrets about not being more proactive and seeing more things in Utah, Monterey and Hawaii.

7. See Asia: I want to see as much of Korea and the rest of Asia as we possibly can in the next two years. We're planning our first trip for this January to go to Taiwan (David hasn't been back since his mission). From the way David talks, I think we'll spend most of our time there eating. Also on my list (in order of importance) are trips to China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong, the Phillippines, Vietnam, and New Zealand (if we can swing it). Obviously, I don't think we'll be able to visit all these places, but if I can see at least China and Japan, I'll be somewhat mollified.

8. Culinary school: I don't really think I'll be able to do this here, but I'd love to take some cooking classes to hone my skills more. I don't really want to get a full-blown culinary degree, but I'd like to stop being just a decent cook and become an actual chef. (The distinctive being, in my mind, that a good cook can follow a recipe well while a chef can create her own recipes.) I'd really love to know the fundamental basics of cooking (beyond what I already know) and improve my knife skills and palate. I'm a little obsessed with food right now--not just eating it-- but learning all about nutrition, whole foods, healthy recipes, etc.

9. Become a parent: No, I'm not pregnant. No, I don't know when I will get pregnant. But there are two things that I've always known about myself: 1) that I need to be a teacher, in whatever capacity I can be and 2) that I need to be a mother. I certainly haven't taken the most direct route to get there, but the point is, I'm figuring out how to get there.

COEX Aquarium

For our trip of the week, David and I went to the COEX Mall, Asia's largest underground shopping structure on Tuesday. There were lots of fun stores--including a Zara, TGIFriday's, Coldstones, and more--and even, oddly enough, an Aquarium. Being the lover all creatures great and small, I wanted to go through the Aquarium and David obliged me in my request. [We realized, in the course of our visit, that of all the attractions that we have attended together, zoos and aquariums ranks the highest, just behind museums. What can I say? Before deciding to be a historian/curator, my two other dream jobs were to be a marine biologist or a zoologist. I feel at home among the animals.]

Unfortunately for every other aquarium that I visit, however, I volunteered at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a year and every other aquarium simply pales in comparison. The COEX Aquarium was actually pretty decent given its size, location and hokey decor but I always leave an aquarium like that wishing the animals could have bigger enclosures and that the effort to educate rather than entertain the public was greater.

But enough of that, here's the animals!

We watched the penguin feeding though it was all in Korean. The woman kept saying penguin as "pengy" which just sounded odd. Also, why are penguins so darn cute?

Leafy seahorses tangled up with one another.

Some igaunas hanging out on the turtles backs. I loved the turtles' reflection in the water.

A glowing piranha.

Jellyfish.

Such simple, yet fascinating creatures.

They did have a large tank with one of those undersea tunnels that are always so popular at aquariums.

Crazy fish!

And some colorful fish.

And a two-headed turtle! Ah, those freaks of nature.

Though I got a bigger kick out of the horrid English translation of the sign. Go ahead, enlarge it and try not to laugh.

You remember this building? From our trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace?

Well there was a replica inside the aquarium with a pond full of koi.

I'll finish off the post with a photograph of a king crab (there's just one....the other is a reflection). These dudes just creeped the heck out of me. Ugh. Same with the eels, but I refused to take a picture of those. I hear the zoo here in Seoul is pretty good. I'll have to go check it out soon too.

Bulgogi at Home

There are a lot of Korean dishes I could do without--kimchi, I'm looking at you--but I love bulgogi oh so very much. It's absolutely delicious and, I discovered today, super easy to make. There are two different types of bulgogi typically served in restaurants: 1) the kind that is boiled in a delicious broth and 2) the kind that is marinated and cooked over an open flame. [Fun fact: Bulgogi means "fire meat" not because it is spicy but because of how it's cooked.] I'm still on the hunt for a bulgogi broth recipe, but today I attempted a marinated bulgogi to great success. I think it captures the essence and delicious flavors of bulgogi. Anyone playing along at home can replicate this dish with no problem.

After looking at several recipes, I decided to base my meal off this recipe from Savory Sweet Life. I'll be honest, I can't make a dish if I can't see what it should look like and I pick a lot of recipes because of the food photography over any other consideration. But moving on.....

Step One- Cut the meat. Luckily, the Commissary here sells meat that is already thinly sliced and perfect for bulgogi. If you don't have that option at your local grocery store, you can buy a rib-eye or sirloin steak (1-1.5 pounds) and cut it yourself across the grain in paper thin slices. Apparently, partially freezing it beforehand makes it easier to slice.

Step Two- Prepare the marinade, as follows:

1/3 cup of soy sauce [Several recipes explicitly recommended buying Korean soy sauce for better quality and taste. I dutifully visited the market and bought a bottle of the real deal (instead of using my low sodium Kikkoman sauce) but I wish I had stuck with the low sodium option. The finished product was just a tad too salty.]

3 Tablespoons white sugar

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 green onions including the white parts, finely sliced into small pieces

1 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes [I use just a pinch because I don't like too much spice.]

2 pinches of black pepper

*optional 1/4 tsp. of ginger, finely minced [I didn't put this in this time, but I think I will next time.]

Whisk all the ingredients together in a medium bowl.

[Several recipes also recommend using a pureed kiwi, Fuji apple or Asian pear in the recipe to help tenderize the meat and add additional sweetness to the meat. I want to try this next time as well, probably with the kiwi. Bulgogi done well has a sweetness and a lightness about it that really delights the tongue. I report back on the success of this endeavor the next time I make bulgogi.]

Step Three- Cut 1/4 of a medium yellow onion, halved and sliced into medium moon shaped slivers. Add the beef and onion to the bowl of marinade and massage the marinade into each slice of beef. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (More is always better when it comes to marinating.)

Step Four- After the beef has marinated long enough, you can pan fry the meat. Place a few slices of beef in single layers and completely flat on a hot oiled frying pan and fry each side until cooked. Or you could do it my way, and just throw it all in there and cook it up like a stir fry. Comes out tasting just as good and it takes about 10 minutes.

Step Five- Serve bulgogi with rice (bap), sides, and lettuce for wrapping, if you so desire. And enjoy!

See? Super quick and easy. And so tasty!

I added enokitake mushrooms to David's bulgogi because he loves the little fungi. I'm not such a fan of mushrooms. And for those looking for a good carrot recipe, I used this recipe for Glazed Mini Carrots from EatingWell.com. Another quick and tasty recipe from my favorite recipe resource.

Now my friends. I've proven it can be done. Go forth and make good Korean food!

Gyeongbokgung

Last weekend, David and I finally sat down and wrote out a list of all the places we want to visit in Seoul, in Korea (day or weekend trips), and in Asia (longer trips). We've been in Korea 4 months and have sadly not seen a whole lot yet, on account of David's busy work schedule and our mutual lack of motivation. [Admittedly, I'm quite a homebody. I love to see new things and travel but most nights I'm content just to stay in.] On Monday, we forced ourselves to go and visit one of the items on our list: Gyeongbokgung Palace.

We'd previously visited Changdeokgung Palace (and honestly, if you've been to one Korean palace, you've seen all you need to see of Joseon era Korean architecture) but I'm a sucker for architecture, so we went anyway. I have to say that I loved Gyeongbokgung Palace so much more than Changdeokgung. For one, we were allowed to wander on our own through the many sections of the palace complex; at Changdeokgung, we had to stay with a large guided group. But mostly, Gyeongbokgung just felt more visually stunning to me. There were some extraordinarily beautiful spots in the palace and just a feeling of greater peace and beauty there.

So a brief history before the barrage of photographs: Gyeongbokgung, which means "a prayer for great bliss for the king" was originally built in 1395, at the very beginning of the Joseon Dynasty and served as the main palace until the Japanese burned it to the ground in 1592. It was rebuilt in 1867 but it was demolished by the Japanese again in 1915. (To say that Koreans despise the Japanese would be an understatement.) The current palace complex has been under restoration since 1990 and is nearly complete. You can obviously tell which are the newer sections of the palace (most of which are unpainted), but they've done a remarkable job of restoring the palace.

This is Heungryemun, the entrance to the palace complex and the gate protecting the main throne hall. At certain times of the day, Korean re-enactors recreate the ceremony of the changing of the guard, which we were able to see a little of.

This is Geunjeongjeong, the main throne hall of Gyeongbokgung. Your place in society determined what pathway you were allowed to take to reach the throne hall. Only the emperor could walk down the center footpath.

From another angle.

Inside the throne hall.

And the gorgeous ceiling.

There were lots of fun animal statues all throughout the palace complex. This, I believe, is Baekho, the guardian of the west.

This, according to my guide book, is either a rat or a rabbit. Doesn't really look like either to me (which is why I can't tell which it's supposed to be).

And on the stairs leading up to the library and reception hall for foreign envoys are what look like dragons and tigers. I mean, I have a picture guide to all the statues, but I swear they don't look a thing like the animal they are meant to portray. Except the rooster, but only because it's the only bird.

Like I said, I love architecture and architectural elements. Indulge me for a moment.

I'm a big fan of columns. I love the way they photograph.

Love the doors and colors. The lock is particularly interesting on this door.

The side of the throne hall as seen through a doorway.

The colors and curves of Korean architecture.

Willow trees. They're just plain cool.

I couldn't decide which shot I liked more. So you get both.
This is Gyeonghoeru Pavilion where the king threw lavish banquets and parties. It sits on an island in the middle of a man-made pond.

This was my favorite spot in the palace complex. This is Hyangwonjeong, a tiny building on an islet surrounding by beautiful trees and a pond full of fish. Unfortunately, this also stands in front of the queen's living quarters where Empress Myeongseong was assassinated by the Japanese in 1895.

Still pretty though.

I hope we'll get out a lot more and I can report back on our findings. And if things ever get boring, there's always the Seoul Museum of Chicken Art.....