Wednesday, August 28, 2013

한국 음식

Today's post is about our adventure with Korean food. First as a disclaimer, we really haven't been all that adventurous yet. Baby steps! Almost all of our excursions into Korean cuisine have been accompanied by a guide who could read, speak and understand Korean. Neither one of us is brave enough to order without assistance. Consider it training wheels. Those of you who know Fred know he will try almost anything. His resistance is due to the fact that food here tends to be very spicy. A Korean friend told us that Daegu is known for its spicy food...well, and fried chicken! My fear comes more from concern about what I might be eating than how spicy it might be. I don't like to eat food that resembles the creature from which it came. In other words, I don't like body parts to look like body parts! I especially don't like eyes to be looking up at me from my dinner plate. So maybe this will be the first part of a two part post. Maybe I will update you on our experiences with Korean food again toward the end of our mission. Of course that is making an assumption that we will get a little braver as time goes on.

Korean King meal.
 
A young Korean friend  took us to a very traditional restaurant. We sat on cushions on the floor. You do not order from a menu. They just bring the same food for everyone, with one exception. People of honor (in our case old people) receive a special main dish. The meal begins with lots of appetizers/side dishes. I mean LOTS. The small serving dishes you see are for everyone to share. If you empty one they will bring another with the same amount. The dishes included dried fish, anchovies, kimchi and more. Our special main dish was rice porridge, which had no flavor whatsoever. Oh to be a kid again!



Sister missionaries at Ashley's Buffet.
Beef and Leaf
We took these two missionaries to lunch at the place of their choice. The Korean sister picked her favorite, an American food buffet. It was a very nice place but I think promoting it as an American food buffet is false advertising. I didn't recognize most of the food. The sweet Korean sister put away about 4 full plates of food. She loved it, until she accidentally got something that was super hot. You should have seen her eyes roll back as she frantically waved her hand in front of her mouth. I am so glad we didn't try that dish. If it was that hot for her, we would have cried.  She was fine after downing a few glasses of soda.


This was a very nice downtown restaurant, a Korean barbeque. The Americans have nicknamed these kinds of restaurants beef and leaf. This is also a buffet, except you fill your plates with raw meats, greens and other veggies. You cook your own meat on a small stove in the center of your table. You grill the meat and any veggies you want to include.  When they are done you wrap them in a green leaf (lettuce or mint), spread bean paste on it and dip it in a sauce. They also have rice, bread and some fruit. It's all you can eat and boy did those missionaries eat.


Zone conference! (This is held every six weeks when we meet with missionaries in our area for training) I knew for sure we were in Korea when we were served a delicious meal of bulgogi, kimchi and rice for our lunch. Bulgogi is thin sliced meat, usually beef or pork. It is marinated in pear juice, soy sauce, minced garlic, diced green onions and sesame oil. Then it is grilled. Kimchi is simply raw vegetables (most often cabbage) soaked in salt water and seasoned with spices before fermenting. It is usually served cold. I have tried it several times and like it, though it can be a bit spicy.


Saturday evening was so beautiful and cool. We decided to go for a walk down town. We also decided to bravely order our own dinner from a real Korean restaurant. In a narrow alley behind our apartment complex are several very small places to eat or to order food. So at the end of our walk, we decided to get some take-out close to home. We bravely ordered.... fried chicken. Sorry for the let down. It was quite an experience even then. In fact it was pretty comical. We couldn't read the menu, there were no pictures, the cook didn't speak English and as you know our Korean is less than limited. Finally an English speaking Korean customer came to our rescue. Fifteen minutes later we left with our box of fried chicken and a side of pickled radish.

This is a picture of  a common menu board you see outside restaurants.
Next time we will find a place where we can just point! Baby steps!!






Wednesday, August 21, 2013

"Home is the nicest word there is.”

I love this Laura Ingalls Wilder quote. Today I have home on my mind. Homes of the past and present. Home means so many things, the least of which have anything to do with the house itself. Home is memories, familiarity, safety and more. I love our home in Montana. Over the last six years we temporarily lived elsewhere three times. Each time I wondered how much I would miss my home. The first two times we lived in Colorado. I don't recall missing my home much, if at all. Living here is different. I do miss my home a little. But I also know that a few personal touches help to make a living space a home. Then over time you have experiences and create memories and the house becomes home, even if its temporary. I have been known to say, "Where ever you live. What ever you live in. You have an obligation to make your house a home." I know, I know.... its not necessary to use quotation marks to quote yourself. But really now, who else is going to quote me! Besides it just looks more profound in quotation marks.
We've added a few personal touches to this apartment. We came with two suitcases each and that's what we go home with, so we can't get too carried away with personal touches. More importantly we have had experiences that will become fond memories. So, though I miss our Montana home some days, I can enjoy a sense of home right here in Daegu for now.  Ready for a virtual tour of our home in Korea? I couldn't really get in position to take very good pictures, but hopefully this will give you an idea.

When you get off the elevator, you  see
 our front door. One of the two  apartments
 on this landing. The heart wreath was a surprise
 from two sweet sister missionaries.
The guest bedroom. The curtains cover
the glass wall/sliding door out onto one of
three "ante" rooms.
The little kitchen that could!
I have cooked about 30 meals for others
 here, as of today! Learning to cook in Celsius
 ovens  has been interesting.













This "ante" room runs the length of the
apartment bordering the guest room, our
bedroom and the living room. At the far end is a
 garden room We can open up the wall
in the living room and make it much bigger.









 
The room off the kitchen. It has a washer, a clothes drying rack which raises and lowers with a remote control and an extra oven. It also has two refrigerated kimchee drawers which we use for produce.
***mystery device????








Our office. 2 desks & glass wall/sliding
door to a room with an extra fridge & freezer.
 The fridge full of soft drinks for visitors.


 


Looking through the living room into
the kitchen/dining area. You can see
 another glass wall/sliding door. It also leads
to an  "ante" room. Note the wallpaper-
all the rage here.









Our bedroom. To the left is a glass
 wall/window that looks out onto our small
 indoor garden. To the right is a walk
through closet/dressing room then a bath.






 











That's it.  A glimpse into our home away from home. We express our gratitude every day for the favorable circumstances we have been provided. For the next 16 months we will have experiences that will create the memories of a life time!

***the mystery device is a foot pedal that operates the kitchen faucet. No kidding. I just press down with my foot and the water pours out. I love it! I want to take it home!






Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Sanctuary

 Fred took us on another amazing adventure Monday. We finished our morning "chores" and had a full day without any specific assignments. So with some free time, and a desire to see more of this amazing place -he got out a map of Daegu, found Apsan Park, and said let's go! So off we went.
Side note: Fred is an amazing navigator. He can look at a map and know exactly which way to go. Believe me that's not easy here. I am very grateful he is willing to drive because I have made a solemn vow never to drive in Korea. For our safety and those of everyone on the road! Besides that, its really hard to drive with your eyes closed- which is what I do when the traffic gets scary.

Pressured air house to blow the sand
off your shoes . Brilliant!

Oh how I loved this adventure. We found a beautiful forested park, an oasis in the middle of this huge city. It was a bit of a hike, but well worth the effort. A small part of the path was rock, the rest was well groomed dirt. I loved the smell of pine and the crunch of mountain soil under my feet. I loved the chirping birds and the canopy of green above. It was a sanctuary to me. Something about this beautiful environment is restorative, calming and invigorating all at the same time.  After a hike of about a mile, we came to a cable car station. For 8,000 won each ($8) we could ride even farther up the mountain. The panoramic view was breath taking. The stark difference between the city and the park was obvious. The feeling of being in a sanctuary was magnified even more. We spent about thirty minutes up top before riding the cable car back down. As we hiked down to our car, I felt such a sense of gratitude. Being close to God's creations in their natural state draws me closer to the Creator.
Even the outhouse had an
Asian flare.

I have been thinking about our need for sanctuary, an escape from the sometimes chaotic world around us. We crave relief from the constant noise and intrusion. We can find sanctuary in beautiful natural environments, in our churches or other places of worship. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we often find sanctuary in our temples. Yet, sometimes it is not possible to retreat to such places. So we need to make our homes sanctuaries. Places of respite. Places of love, peace, service and devotion to God. Making our home a sanctuary can bless our lives, and we can share that peace as we invite others in.














Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Great Imposter

During our first few days here we noticed red swastikas in windows or on signs during our morning walks. We found it a curiosity and also a little unsettling. So a couple of weeks ago we asked our friends in our Korean class if they knew what that was about. They explained it was a symbol used by Buddhists. I had somehow missed that bit of history, but it certainly peaked my interest. So I did a little Internet search to see what I could find. I read several entries and they were all very similar. I have cut and pasted a little of the entry from Wikipedia below.
 The swastika dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization as well as the Mediterranean Classical Antiquity. Swastikas have also been used in various other ancient civilizations around the world including China, Japan, Korea, India, Nepal and Southern Europe. It remains widely used in Indian religions, specifically in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism… The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika…  The swastika literally means "to be good". Or another translation can be made… "being with higher self".



I was amazed. I had no idea that the swastika had originally represented something of beauty. Something desirable. Then later we came across this beautiful Buddhist temple as we were walking to the market.  There on its fence was a red swastika. I suddenly looked at this symbol with a different perspective.

How could something beautiful and spiritual become the icon for the vilest of human atrocities? The answer lies in a fundamental truth, Evil is the Great Imposter! Had Hitler created a flag with images of emaciated Jews or the horrors of the gas chambers, no right minded person would have followed him. So he did what evil always does. He took something of worth and twisted it. He took a symbol of goodness and rotated it slightly then led his armies to unthinkable acts of genocide.  Oh how we must watch and avoid this Great Imposter. Evil comes in subtleties. It snares those who are not watchful and careful by twisting truth and goodness until many people are fooled. Until they have become so focused on the fraudulent version they can no longer recognize the goodness in the  authentic version.  Evil thrives in darkness, it can not bear the light of truth. Darkness and light can not co-exist. They can not be in the same place at the same time, for the light always casts out the darkness. Our safety is found in the light. Some people call it our conscience. It is the light of Christ. A gift given to all of God's children. When the light of Christ opens our understanding, evil retreats. Let us all turn to the light of Christ. Let us cast out that Great Imposter.


The world needs us to stand up for truth and to bravely shine its light on those who promote evil.  Let's reclaim our symbols of good. Let's honor truth, cherish our families, nourish charity, in short let us follow Christ.





.