Almost halfway there

So I arrived here in late August, which means that as of now mid-February, I've been here about five and a half months. During lunch, I was thinking about the Koreanisms I've adopted, which I'd like to share with you.



1. Hair

If any of you are my Facebook friends or have Skyped with me recently, you know I've cut my hair Korean-style, that is, I've gotten bangs. I love my Korean bangs! When I walk around town I really do feel like I fit in a little bit better, although I'm probably deluding myself.


2. Clothes

I've had an easier time finding clothes here than I would have thought. Of course, I can't find t-shirts, comfy pants, or shoes to save my life, but I've lucked out in one important way... well, two important ways. One - Korean fashion tends toward big, baggy sweaters/tops, which means of course that they fit me! Two - Koreans love leggings and tights, and I have been converted. Especially thermal leggings! Did you know you can buy leggings with fleecy insides? Because I like them even better than jeans. They're really comfortable and so warm. Although I have to be careful because sometimes leggings that are meant to fit Koreans like to only go down slightly below my knees as opposed to my ankles. However, this can be solved with smart shopping.



3. My newfound love for rice

I love rice. I eat rice literally every day. If I don't eat rice, I feel weird and will crave rice. It's so much better than the rice at home. This stuff is sticky and therefore very easy to eat with chopsticks. At school I get white rice, purplish rice (with beans or something), rice with sweet potatoes, and more kinds that I can't even describe. Rice goes with everything! You can dip it in soup, eat it with kimchi, mix it with tuna, put a sunnyside up egg on it... you name it, you can put rice with it.


I even eat rice for breakfast, that is how Korean I am. Yes, if I am too lazy to make eggs I just heat up rice and eat it with seaweed. And chopsticks. With my morning coffee.


4. My newfound love for seaweed

Earlier this year, for Chuseok back in November, my principal gave me a box of seaweed as a present. That box sat untouched in my pantry for about a month before I finally decided to try it. Let me tell you, SEAWEED IS AWESOME. This particular seaweed is toasted and salted and perfect with rice and some soy sauce. I sprinkle soy sauce into my rice, pick up a chunk with my chopsticks, and then wrap it up in seaweed. I eat this for breakfast and dinner all the time. I'm still not crazy about seaweed soup, but this stuff is fantastic. My principal just popped in to wish me a happy New Year (lunar New Year is coming up) and give me... wait for it... SEVEN packages of seaweed! I'm completely stoked. This is what living in Korea has done to me. Luckily, I googled it and apparently seaweed is really good for you and full of trace minerals and stuff. The salt can't be so great, but it's basically salty, toasted vegetables!


5. I miss Korean food

When I go away on the weekends or on a trip, I miss Korean food. If I eat Western food all weekend, I can't wait to get back and get some kimbap or something. (Kimbap is like Korean sushi.) I love kimbap so much, and it's so cheap it's ridiculous.


6. The way I eat food

Even the way I eat food is more Korean. I'm typically a pretty picky eater, especially with meat. Koreans are seriously less fastidious about preparing their food than Westerns. What I mean by this is that they don't care about deboning things or cutting off the fat. Every time I get fish it's basically just the whole fish, minus scales, plopped on my plate or in my soup. You have to use your chopsticks and dig through organs, spines, bones, the works. You even eat the fish skin! In seafood soup there's often these miniature shrimp that you eat whole. Yes, you just pop the whole thing in your mouth... eyes, feelers, crunchy shell and all. I tend to avoid those though, they're not tasty. Today at lunch we had seafood soup, and there were crab legs and body parts all in it, and it was the first time I could bring myself to eat it like the Koreans do: you just put the leg in your mouth and attempt to suck out the meat by gnawing on the leg like a drumstick, sort of. Next time you eat crab, try it. Just grab a leg and chomp down. Also try eating a whole fish with only chopsticks, yet managing to not swallow fish bones.


Korean barbeque is delicious, but like I said, cutting the fat off meat isn't high on a Korean's list of priorities. When we go out for meals it's really nice because the other teachers will put pieces of meat onto my plate, but this means that I have to eat them or be rude. Often the pieces are 50% meat, 50% pure fat. Sometimes even pieces of gristle. I kind of just choke them down in the name of politeness. Back in the States I would literally never eat such fatty meat, but here it's just so typical that I don't even notice it.

7. It doesn't seem weird to not have a separate shower

Korean bathrooms don't have a separate room for the shower. The shower nozzle is attached near the sink, and you just shower right there. I'm actually a pretty big fan of this setup because it means cleaning the bathroom is easier since everything can be hosed down with the shower nozzle. A negative is when the nozzle gets out of hand and your toilet paper gets soaked.

8. I don't expect toilet paper in any bathrooms

In the West I'd be deeply irritated if I went to use a public restroom and there wasn't any toilet paper, but in Asia they maintain a firm BYOTP policy. I'm genuinely pleased when I pop into a restroom to find toilet paper in the stall, and I consider it my lucky day if that particular stall contains both a Western toilet AND toilet paper.

9. Giving and accepting items with two hands is second nature

In Korea it's rude to accept or give something with only one hand (especially the left hand). Even when my students take scissors or a piece of paper from me, they always do it with both hands, sometimes even with small head bow as well. The bow is usually reserved for actual gifts though, like if I give them candy or something. I think it's very cute and interesting that even my most badly behaved students still are very respectful of anything I give them. You can tell that it's a deep-seated cultural thing.

10. You can (and will) find anything and everything on your pizza

Corn, sweet potato, spaghetti, honey mustard... you name it, it's been on a pizza I've had in Korea. Corn especially is the worst culprit. I'm of the opinion that a lot of Korean restaurants just don't really understand Western food. They understand the individual components, but then they choose to put these components together in any which way. As a Westerner, sweet potatoes and pizza do not go together, but Koreans find this in no way unusual.