Monster Chicken Day, and more

I was teaching my little ones about American Thanksgiving and all that goes with it. "And we eat mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, and turkey..." My mouth began to water, despite their confused looks. ("Teacher...math potato?") They demanded to know what a turkey is, so I drew one on the board. It was met with silence for about five seconds, until a brave one in the back clarified. "Alli-sam...turkey is...monster chicken?" Yes. Yes it is. It's been a month for celebrating. Today, we had our best interpretation of Thanksgiving dinner at Hannah and Michelle's apartment. It consisted of fresh apple pie, homemade jalepeno poppers, and math potatoes with gravy, creatively rendered from ox tail drippings. "After all, what's Thanksgiving without a little traditional ox tail?" Hannah commented. Indeed. It went down well enough though with several glasses of red wine.

Ellen's last day in Korea

I also turned 24 last week. A big thank you to all those who sent me cards and best wishes across the world! I really appreciate it. The Thanksgiving Crew and I went out to celebrate in Seoul, and ended up playing street carnival games and riding a virtual reality magic carpet ride, complete with 3D goggles. We also found what may have been the last and only two cans of Dr. Pepper in Korea at this hole-in-the-wall market. They were completely flat, all the carbonation having departed long ago, and the can was still the old solid maroon color, not the swanky new two-toned one. We couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong until I spotted the copyright date on the can: 1998. I suppose it would be safer to stick to the local soda option, Milkis. As you may have discerned, that is milk soda. It's better than it sounds.

Just before my birthday, I sent Ellen off to India for Yoga school. We had a really nice last day in Seoul, taking care of our Christmas shopping at the market and eating samgyetang, which is a chicken and ginseng soup with supposed healing properties. It's no Campbells chicken soup, either. There's a WHOLE chicken in each bowl! Ellen made a friend. And, while on the topic of food, I got to help the women in my hapkido class make kimchi recently.

kimchi making

hot peppers ready for kimchi

Have we talked about kimchi? Kimchi is the traditional food of Korea. It's pickled cabbage (sometimes radishes) mixed with hot peppers. This, too, is better than it sounds. Now, at least. When I first got here I was fairly offended by it, but then this weird thing happens like four months in and you start to just crave it. Then you start to be able to judge its quality, and you can be properly offended if you go to a restaurant and they serve you the crappy kimchi because they figure you're a foreigner and won't notice. That's when you know you're going to make it here. Anyway, I was mostly a mule on kimchi day, hauling 500 pounds of wet cabbage up several flights of stairs to the kimchi room. It was right after class, so I was dressed in my hapkido suit. I have never felt so Korean!

earning my red belt

And finally, I'm pleased to announce that I got my red belt last week. It's so pretty! Almost a pity that I'll only get to wear it for three weeks because I'm taking my BLACK BELT test in December! So I've been training pretty hard these last few weeks in preparation for that. Cross your fingers for me. See you in December!

Monster Chicken Day, and more

Seoul, South Korea