* = the real translation here is "bit," but in my head it's totally translating to "chomped."
I've been temporarily eaten by midterms, various part-time jobs, and grad school applications. Apologies for the slowing of my updates! I will, in all likelihood, be back within a week, although this next month is arguably going to be the most packed and difficult of my time in Korea thusfar. 화이팅!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
열번 찍어서 안 넘어가는 나무가 없다*
* = A tree hit 10 times will always fall (Korean proverb).
Things I like about South Korea this week:
1) Manicures for approximately $10 / nail salons full of curious Koreans who tell me that my unnaturally large eyes/nose make me highly eligible here and then ask me what Yale is.
2) The Seoul Philharmonic and the many perks that having a bunch of unnies with jobs and big hearts brings (half kidding, I'd love you guys even if you had no jobs - but maybe a little less ^_~).
3) Language partners who are actually really, really nice, normal (stress on the word "normal") people who (for some reason) really seem to like me. Habin = my new besgirlfrien.
4) Curry dalkgalbi (커리 닭갈비). I would have this for dinner 8 days a week were there 8 days in a week.
5) The aforementioned curry dalkgalbi (+ cheese fried rice) is what I'd call an "expensive" dinner at approximately $7.
6) Generous landladies/parents of friends.
7) 추석, the Korean harvest holiday that gave me (my only) vacation this semester.
8) The changing fall weather, which has (with the exception of the worst rainstorm that Seoul has seen in decades last Tuesday) been beautiful and crisp.
9) Cheap clothez!
10) Variety shows translated and posted on the interwebs for my Saturday night amusement.
Things I dislike about South Korea this week:
1) No American-style pizza.
2) No American-style pizza.
3) No American-style pizza. Seriously, the Turks came with their authentic doner kebab, but not a single Italian thought to immigrate here and open a pizza joint?
4) Itaewon (이태원), the foreigner's district. The principal problem is that it is full of foreigners. I never, ever get catcalled on the streets of Seoul except in this god-forsaken place. Redeeming quality is supposedly the abundance of foreign food, but it is overpriced and really inauthentic half of the time. Cinnamon in my mousaka. Really, Santorini's GREEK restaurant?
5) Too. Much. Rain.
6) No express subway lines, i.e. yes, Dana, you will be getting up at 8 tomorrow (or earlier) so you can make your 10:00 appointment in Gangnam.
7) Suffocatingly small living spaces that still manage to cost a pretty penny. How I long to move to Gwanghwamun...
8) No big dogs.
9) "Pay as you go" cell phone plans that leave me with a jaw-droppingly high monthly bill.
10) 13-hour time difference. I miss my friends and family in America ㅠㅠ
Things I like about South Korea this week:
1) Manicures for approximately $10 / nail salons full of curious Koreans who tell me that my unnaturally large eyes/nose make me highly eligible here and then ask me what Yale is.
2) The Seoul Philharmonic and the many perks that having a bunch of unnies with jobs and big hearts brings (half kidding, I'd love you guys even if you had no jobs - but maybe a little less ^_~).
3) Language partners who are actually really, really nice, normal (stress on the word "normal") people who (for some reason) really seem to like me. Habin = my new besgirlfrien.
4) Curry dalkgalbi (커리 닭갈비). I would have this for dinner 8 days a week were there 8 days in a week.
5) The aforementioned curry dalkgalbi (+ cheese fried rice) is what I'd call an "expensive" dinner at approximately $7.
6) Generous landladies/parents of friends.
7) 추석, the Korean harvest holiday that gave me (my only) vacation this semester.
8) The changing fall weather, which has (with the exception of the worst rainstorm that Seoul has seen in decades last Tuesday) been beautiful and crisp.
9) Cheap clothez!
10) Variety shows translated and posted on the interwebs for my Saturday night amusement.
Things I dislike about South Korea this week:
1) No American-style pizza.
2) No American-style pizza.
3) No American-style pizza. Seriously, the Turks came with their authentic doner kebab, but not a single Italian thought to immigrate here and open a pizza joint?
4) Itaewon (이태원), the foreigner's district. The principal problem is that it is full of foreigners. I never, ever get catcalled on the streets of Seoul except in this god-forsaken place. Redeeming quality is supposedly the abundance of foreign food, but it is overpriced and really inauthentic half of the time. Cinnamon in my mousaka. Really, Santorini's GREEK restaurant?
5) Too. Much. Rain.
6) No express subway lines, i.e. yes, Dana, you will be getting up at 8 tomorrow (or earlier) so you can make your 10:00 appointment in Gangnam.
7) Suffocatingly small living spaces that still manage to cost a pretty penny. How I long to move to Gwanghwamun...
8) No big dogs.
9) "Pay as you go" cell phone plans that leave me with a jaw-droppingly high monthly bill.
10) 13-hour time difference. I miss my friends and family in America ㅠㅠ
Saturday, September 18, 2010
우리가 사랑하게됐어*
* = we fell in love. For 혜미 :)
Saturday night blogging after a full
day of wedding-watching, presentation-memorizing, sushi-eating, and endless
conversation. To address the first, congratulations to my beautiful
friend Hyemi Unni! 행복하게 살기를 바랍니다 ^^
Avid readers of my blog (assuming I
have those) will notice a slight change to Dana in Soko v.2's layout -
baddabing, I changed the header. I was going to switch it to the album
shot that SNSD did for their Japanese promotions of "Genie," but
decided that (1) since most of readers don't know who SNSD is (shock!
horror! inconceivable!), it might look a little creepy that I selected a
banner of 9 smokin' hot Korean girls to essentially represent me in the
blogosphere and (2) this is MY blog, not theirs. They have a billion fan
cafes - just cruise on over to soshified.com for more information (I may or may
not be a registered member of this site). Anyway, I decided that the
header will henceforth be a picture that is in some capacity related to Korea
or my time here and will change semi-frequently (especially now that I have
figured out how to use my computer's pre-installed photo editing
program). Ironically, the first picture I have selected was NOT taken in
Korea, but hey, what better example of the harmonious relationship between East
and West? :)
But alas, harmony is not always the
name of the game here - at least not for me. I knew I'd be in for a bit
of a hard time once Unni and all of my other friends left for their various
international destinations, but I had a least a little bit of faith that I
would be fine once I was busier. I also had a fair bit of hope that I
would find friends in my program. I don't want this to sound discouraging
to people considering the year-long Light at Sogang, but it has been really
hard to find people who will relate to your age/experience in this
program. I know that this is a highly personal experience (I think Tyler
and Bob, who were on year-long Lights last year, had plenty of friends in their
classes), but nonetheless it is really striking to me that in my three
semesters now (counting last summer), there has only been ONE AMERICAN FEMALE
in any of my classes. I'm serious. All of the Americans I meet here
are guys, and most of them (or the ones that I have met, at any rate) have followed a similar trajectory - graduate from
college, go teach English in Japan, learn Japanese, come to Korea, learn Korean. And
don't get me wrong - most of them are great people, it's just that I am and
always have been a girly girl who likes gabbing about feelings and gossiping and
getting my nails did and shopping. Just try and get a guy to go with you
for a mani/pedi. I DARE YOU.
p.s. guys are also not big fans of
sappy things and whining, nor are they big on giving out hugs.
Anyway, the point is (in my own
personal opinion) that the Sogang program, which requires an insane amount of
proactivity to begin with (and that's just for dealing with classes), also
requires one to be proactive if they wish to build connections with those
around them and make solid friendships. This might mean reaching beyond
the confines of Sogang's KLEC and getting a little creative. For example,
I started browsing the language exchange message boards on both Sogang and
Ewha's websites, sent out a couple of messages, and got a positive response
from a senior girl at Ewha named Habin, whom I am now meeting on Monday at
2pm. From our very limited text message conversations, she seems nice and
friendly, and it's my hope that she'll be able to connect me to a wider circle
of Korean friends. That's essentially how I got so connected to the Seoul
Philharmonic, of which many musicians have become irreplaceable friends of mine
here - so let's hope that pattern repeats itself here.
It's worth noting in print (because as
I once said, I blog because therapy's pricey, yo) that:
1) There are people in this country who
care about me, love me, and will be there for me if I reach out to them.
The ladies from the Seoul Phil, Unni's parents, and assorted friends from here
and there have made that very clear. If only the tragedy (part sarcasm)
of loneliness didn't obscure that very definite reality so often.
2) I am capable of enjoying my time
here, even if it requires more effort than it did at Yale.
3) I am not a person who should live
alone, and therefore have decided that roommates, like them or not, are an
essential part of feeling connected to something tenuous. I know this is
a risky idea and that happiness should come from within and blah blah blah, but
I don't see why the two are mutually exclusive to begin with. This single-occupant
studio apartment will be, I hope, the last one I call home.
4) I am not forgotten about by those
who are on the other side of the world, even though the lack of regular or easy
communication can sometimes make it feel that way.
I hope you didn't read that.
Anyway, we will muse now on happier topics, bulleted for your convenience.
- REAL sushi. Despite being a regular at Miya's, Sushi-on-Chapel, and Gourmet Heaven (fushi ftw!), I've never had real sushi - I mean the kind that is not a maki roll, the kind that's basically just a sliver of raw fish on a lump of wasabi-coated rice. Having had it today (meal generously provided by Unni's parents, who may be the nicest people in all of Seoul - see below for reasons, beyond the whole letting-me-crash-at-their-place-for-3-weeks deal), I am not sure that I am totally cut out for it. I don't care it this makes me unclassy or uncultured - pass that maki roll stuffed with avocado and fried crab meat. As a side note, if I hear one more Japanese person bitch about how spicy Korean food is, I'm going to cram a fistful of wasabi up their nose. How can they complain when wasabi is nothing but flavorless death to one's taste buds by being too mother effing spicy?? Seriously, I think wasabi is one of the most disgusting food products ever created and I think it in no way enhances the taste of anything, especially not raw fish. All it tastes like is an inhalation of fire. I would rather eat a tablespoon of 고추장, spicy red pepper paste, then have anything flavored with even a hint of wasabi.
- Korean pears. Next week is one of Korea's biggest holidays, 추석 (Chuseok), which is essentially Korean Thanksgiving. Celebrated around the time of the harvest, it is typically a time for families to gather and pay respects to one's ancestors. As I understand it, this requires (much like American Thanksgiving) a hefty amount of food - and food is getting a bit more expensive here, as a typhoon recently wiped out a whole bunch of fruit crops (example: apples are now 2 for about $10. wtfno). Anyway, after dinner with Unni's parents today, they gave me three Korean pears, and since these are typical of foods for Chuseok (I think?), I don't even want to think about how much this would have cost. They also gave me a huge-ass box of what appears to be extremely high-quality seaweed. I attracted a bit of attention on the subway ride home with all of this food. I do not understand how these people are so nice. What are they getting out of it in return?? Am I that striking of a conversationalist? Do they think I will stop being nice to Jung Min Unni if they don't buy me things? Obviously not, so they must just be the nicest people on the planet. Also, I don't know if you have ever seen a Korean pear, but they are (no exaggeration) the size of my face. The bag containing the 3 of them easily weighs 7-8 pounds. Don't believe me? Well, you'll just have to take it at face-value, because Blogger is being atrocious and not letting me upload the image of my face obstructed by a pear that I purposefully took FOR THIS BLOG.
- Glasses in 20. You know, it really is ridiculous that glasses in America are so expensive - the last pair that I purchased was over $150, and it was from the insurance bin at Lenscrafters. They were so poorly made the in under 2 years, the lenses were irrevocably scratched and the ear grips had come unscrewed twice. Well, I will never (okay probably not never) buy another pair of glasses in the States because glasses here are mega-cheap and ready in about as much time as it takes for your food to come out at a Greek diner. I got a brand new pair of really nice glasses, ready in 20 minutes - price breakdown: frames, 20,000 KRW (~$17), lenses 30,000 KRW (~$27). Total = $44. What. And it was only that expensive because I did not opt for the cheapest frames and lenses. Had I done that, the glasses would have been $14. Please pinch me. The only problem is that they don't correct for my rather severe astigmatism (sorry, I do not know that word in Korean), but since I really only use my glasses as a backup to my contacts/around the house, this is not a problem at all. KOREA. FOR. THE. WIN.
- I am starting to think a bit more seriously about my future in this country, and am wondering (just wondering! don't start panicking!) what it might be like to do a graduate program in this country. I've already pitched the idea to the all-knowing Korea expert conveniently located in the Light Fellowship office and picked up some application information from Ewha Womans University regarding their grad school of international studies, but have some serious consideration to do. More on this story as it develops (and don't start panicking!).
To my Korean readers (in case I don't manage to post before Tuesday), 추석 즐겁게 보내기를 바랍니다!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
와플 파이*
* = waffle pie. Not a song, but all I can think about right now. See below.
In lieu of going out to get the cream-filled toasted waffle drizzled with caramel syrup (all for less than $1!) that I would do terrible things to have right now, a blog post. Less delicious, more nutritious. Sigh.
So Level 5 progresses, and its honestly not the Amityville-esque horror that I was anticipating. Really, success in the level comes down to one thing and one thing only, and that is how much you put into it. If you diligently put at least 2 hours a day towards previewing the next lesson and reviewing today's, class will be so much easier and your teacher won't eat you. Not that she would anyway, but I'm still kind of terrified of Park Jin Hee Sunsaengnim. I cannot in any way gauge what she thinks about me or anyone in our class. She might very well hate all of us, but that's probably not true because she puts "good job" panda bear stamps on our homework, and a truly cold-hearted person probably wouldn't even own a stamp like that anyway. I have heard that although she's brutal at the onset, she's one of the best teachers at Sogang, which is probably why she's teaching the most difficult level. I am actually genuinely looking forward to seeing how things unfold here.
In other news, I came across a rather startling realization, or rather, have gradually realized something to be true in the past couple of days. It's a hard truth to swallow, so I'll just come out and say it: I'm actually getting somewhat competent in Korean.
This is not in any way, shape, or form bragging. Actually, it's kind of a scary thing to think of, because (and I don't know if this is true for other Fellows/people who have come to live in Korea) I got very used to the "oh, no, there's no way I can do that" attitude, and because I have so many beautifully kind Korean friends, it was only too easy to get them to generously help or outright do things for me. In other words, my usual reaction if something comes up that I have to deal with is..."JUNG MIN UNNI. HELP."
I think that that's slowly changing as I watch my friends carry out the interactions that I was too afraid to do and realize that I very well could have done that myself. Or, in the absence of friends to help (damnit America, stole all my peeps), having to do things myself that originally caused me a serious amount of stress but turned out to be completely no big deal in the end. Examples include, but are not limited to: (1) ordering takeout from my favorite 죽 restaurant, (2) calling my landlady to fix my cracked shower head (which not only resulted in me getting a new shower head installed for free, but also a plate of watermelon and a bag of chips from my landlady for no apparent reason - I mean, I was the one who accidentally cracked the shower head in the first place, so...yeah, that was surprising), (3) returning defective purchases to stores. To elaborate on the last one, I purchased a fabulous navy blue fall jacket at my favorite store near Ewha (I've become a regular - seriously, I'm all buddy-buddy with the two girls that work there, who have honestly got their hustle down so well that I can't help but buy something every time I walk in) and didn't notice until I got home and tried it on again that one of the pockets was sewn in backwards. I couldn't even make this stuff up, could I? Anyway, since I am a person who pretty much perpetually has her hands stuffed into jacket pockets, but also a person who rarely complains or returns things even in America, this presented a conundrum. Eventually, I decided that I should go to the store and ask for an exchange (given my relationship with the store, I figured this would be no problem), but my Korean abilities of course stopped me. I tried to figure out some way around this, and of course my first order of business was to send a ridiculous text message to Unni's internet phone that read, "How do you say, 'the pocket is sewn in backwards' in Korean?" But by this point, it was already almost 2am in America, Unni was surely asleep, and I feared that if I waited too long to make the exchange, they wouldn't have any other jackets left (it's quite a tiny store). So I did the only thing I could do: I went myself and bumbled through an explanation of what was wrong with the coat and it was fine. Of course it was fine. Granted, my explanation was probably not the most eloquent, but I was understood just fine and one of the workers gladly gave me a new jacket after personally checking to make sure that the pockets on this one weren't defective. I walked out of the store smiling wider than I probably have all week, and it was only partially due to how much I love this jacket.
I suppose this means an end to all or most of my pathetic insistence of incompetence here. Probably not totally; I mean, I am in no way claiming that I can do whatever I want with my oh-so-fly Korean skillz, because like it or not, I'm still only "intermediate" by Sogang standards. But I think I'm okay doing the daily life thing, which at this point, is good enough for me.
Other developments of late:
1) Due to the aforementioned workload, I've been spending ungodly amounts of time in coffee shops, but I've recently discovered that my body is highly, highly sensitive to caffeine. It took me a while to realize this because I'm not a coffee drinker and spent the better part of the summer drinking smoothies or frapaccino-esque beverages that contain more flavored syrup than anything else, but with the cooler evenings, I've started to drink lattes and espresso. Consequently, I have become something of an insomniac. If I have a cup of coffee, even a latte or something that hasn't got more than a shot of the stuff in it, I can't fall asleep until 4-5am at the earliest. Seriously, one night this week I was up til 6am totally wide-eyed. It was a disaster. So now I've got to figure out a way to reconcile the fact that I find it really difficult to concentrate on work in my tiny apartment and can no longer drink caffeinated beverages after 3pm, unless I decide to party all night long. Looks like a lot of hot cocoa is in my future?
2) Not included in my Light Fellowship budget is money to indulge my intense desire for gym membership, which is actually ridiculously expensive here (~$50 a month is considered cheap. WTF). While I haven't completely ruled out purchasing a membership, I decided that I should try my hand at exercising the free way, which would be...running. If you know me well, you'll know that I abhor running above all other forms of exercise, but I am cheap and running is free, so...there you go. The only price I pay here is a hefty amount of personal strain and embarrassment: the strain from being so inept at running that I'm huffing and puffing after a 12-minute mile, the embarrassment from the fact that NOBODY EXERCISES OUTDOORS in this country. Originally, I planned to go out to the Han River to run, but since this involves a subway ride longer than 15 minutes, I ditched it in favor of the running tracks available at both Yonsei and Ewha Universities, both within walking distance of my apartment. The tracks are fine except that both have their...problems, for lack of a better word. The track at Yonsei, for example, is a legit quarter mile track, but I have yet to see a single female exercising on or near it. The only people who are even around there are dudes playing on the soccer field the track encircles. As an American, I obvs draw attention to myself for sticking out, but I stick out doubly as an American female in shorts, a tshirt, and track sneakers. Now, this could be resolved nicely at Ewha, since it's a woman's university, but the track is pathetically small and unkept because women in Korea don't work out, they just don't eat. I can never be sure how far I've run because it is definitely not a quarter mile, and my only companions on this track are (no joke) grandma-aged woman who come to exercise there and gossip. Clearly, it's a huge dilemma, almost as big as the fact that I mother effing hate running to begin with. The things I'll do to not be a fatass...
Anyway, I realized that I've taken like, a pathetic number of pictures in this country, so I'll make an effort to upload more. Perhaps I'll start tomorrow; I've been given a complimentary ticket to tomorrow night's Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra concert in Seocho-gu (thank you Jungran Unni ^__^), so if I can smuggle in my camera, maybe I'll be able to post some shots of my beautiful orchestra unnies in action.
Out.
In lieu of going out to get the cream-filled toasted waffle drizzled with caramel syrup (all for less than $1!) that I would do terrible things to have right now, a blog post. Less delicious, more nutritious. Sigh.
So Level 5 progresses, and its honestly not the Amityville-esque horror that I was anticipating. Really, success in the level comes down to one thing and one thing only, and that is how much you put into it. If you diligently put at least 2 hours a day towards previewing the next lesson and reviewing today's, class will be so much easier and your teacher won't eat you. Not that she would anyway, but I'm still kind of terrified of Park Jin Hee Sunsaengnim. I cannot in any way gauge what she thinks about me or anyone in our class. She might very well hate all of us, but that's probably not true because she puts "good job" panda bear stamps on our homework, and a truly cold-hearted person probably wouldn't even own a stamp like that anyway. I have heard that although she's brutal at the onset, she's one of the best teachers at Sogang, which is probably why she's teaching the most difficult level. I am actually genuinely looking forward to seeing how things unfold here.
In other news, I came across a rather startling realization, or rather, have gradually realized something to be true in the past couple of days. It's a hard truth to swallow, so I'll just come out and say it: I'm actually getting somewhat competent in Korean.
This is not in any way, shape, or form bragging. Actually, it's kind of a scary thing to think of, because (and I don't know if this is true for other Fellows/people who have come to live in Korea) I got very used to the "oh, no, there's no way I can do that" attitude, and because I have so many beautifully kind Korean friends, it was only too easy to get them to generously help or outright do things for me. In other words, my usual reaction if something comes up that I have to deal with is..."JUNG MIN UNNI. HELP."
I think that that's slowly changing as I watch my friends carry out the interactions that I was too afraid to do and realize that I very well could have done that myself. Or, in the absence of friends to help (damnit America, stole all my peeps), having to do things myself that originally caused me a serious amount of stress but turned out to be completely no big deal in the end. Examples include, but are not limited to: (1) ordering takeout from my favorite 죽 restaurant, (2) calling my landlady to fix my cracked shower head (which not only resulted in me getting a new shower head installed for free, but also a plate of watermelon and a bag of chips from my landlady for no apparent reason - I mean, I was the one who accidentally cracked the shower head in the first place, so...yeah, that was surprising), (3) returning defective purchases to stores. To elaborate on the last one, I purchased a fabulous navy blue fall jacket at my favorite store near Ewha (I've become a regular - seriously, I'm all buddy-buddy with the two girls that work there, who have honestly got their hustle down so well that I can't help but buy something every time I walk in) and didn't notice until I got home and tried it on again that one of the pockets was sewn in backwards. I couldn't even make this stuff up, could I? Anyway, since I am a person who pretty much perpetually has her hands stuffed into jacket pockets, but also a person who rarely complains or returns things even in America, this presented a conundrum. Eventually, I decided that I should go to the store and ask for an exchange (given my relationship with the store, I figured this would be no problem), but my Korean abilities of course stopped me. I tried to figure out some way around this, and of course my first order of business was to send a ridiculous text message to Unni's internet phone that read, "How do you say, 'the pocket is sewn in backwards' in Korean?" But by this point, it was already almost 2am in America, Unni was surely asleep, and I feared that if I waited too long to make the exchange, they wouldn't have any other jackets left (it's quite a tiny store). So I did the only thing I could do: I went myself and bumbled through an explanation of what was wrong with the coat and it was fine. Of course it was fine. Granted, my explanation was probably not the most eloquent, but I was understood just fine and one of the workers gladly gave me a new jacket after personally checking to make sure that the pockets on this one weren't defective. I walked out of the store smiling wider than I probably have all week, and it was only partially due to how much I love this jacket.
I suppose this means an end to all or most of my pathetic insistence of incompetence here. Probably not totally; I mean, I am in no way claiming that I can do whatever I want with my oh-so-fly Korean skillz, because like it or not, I'm still only "intermediate" by Sogang standards. But I think I'm okay doing the daily life thing, which at this point, is good enough for me.
Other developments of late:
1) Due to the aforementioned workload, I've been spending ungodly amounts of time in coffee shops, but I've recently discovered that my body is highly, highly sensitive to caffeine. It took me a while to realize this because I'm not a coffee drinker and spent the better part of the summer drinking smoothies or frapaccino-esque beverages that contain more flavored syrup than anything else, but with the cooler evenings, I've started to drink lattes and espresso. Consequently, I have become something of an insomniac. If I have a cup of coffee, even a latte or something that hasn't got more than a shot of the stuff in it, I can't fall asleep until 4-5am at the earliest. Seriously, one night this week I was up til 6am totally wide-eyed. It was a disaster. So now I've got to figure out a way to reconcile the fact that I find it really difficult to concentrate on work in my tiny apartment and can no longer drink caffeinated beverages after 3pm, unless I decide to party all night long. Looks like a lot of hot cocoa is in my future?
2) Not included in my Light Fellowship budget is money to indulge my intense desire for gym membership, which is actually ridiculously expensive here (~$50 a month is considered cheap. WTF). While I haven't completely ruled out purchasing a membership, I decided that I should try my hand at exercising the free way, which would be...running. If you know me well, you'll know that I abhor running above all other forms of exercise, but I am cheap and running is free, so...there you go. The only price I pay here is a hefty amount of personal strain and embarrassment: the strain from being so inept at running that I'm huffing and puffing after a 12-minute mile, the embarrassment from the fact that NOBODY EXERCISES OUTDOORS in this country. Originally, I planned to go out to the Han River to run, but since this involves a subway ride longer than 15 minutes, I ditched it in favor of the running tracks available at both Yonsei and Ewha Universities, both within walking distance of my apartment. The tracks are fine except that both have their...problems, for lack of a better word. The track at Yonsei, for example, is a legit quarter mile track, but I have yet to see a single female exercising on or near it. The only people who are even around there are dudes playing on the soccer field the track encircles. As an American, I obvs draw attention to myself for sticking out, but I stick out doubly as an American female in shorts, a tshirt, and track sneakers. Now, this could be resolved nicely at Ewha, since it's a woman's university, but the track is pathetically small and unkept because women in Korea don't work out, they just don't eat. I can never be sure how far I've run because it is definitely not a quarter mile, and my only companions on this track are (no joke) grandma-aged woman who come to exercise there and gossip. Clearly, it's a huge dilemma, almost as big as the fact that I mother effing hate running to begin with. The things I'll do to not be a fatass...
Anyway, I realized that I've taken like, a pathetic number of pictures in this country, so I'll make an effort to upload more. Perhaps I'll start tomorrow; I've been given a complimentary ticket to tomorrow night's Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra concert in Seocho-gu (thank you Jungran Unni ^__^), so if I can smuggle in my camera, maybe I'll be able to post some shots of my beautiful orchestra unnies in action.
Out.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
너는 내일을 살고, 나는 오늘을 살아*
* = you live tomorrow, I live today. One of my favorites - Younha, "Broke Up Today."
I never thought I would be terribly grateful to see the end of any school vacation, but it was almost with relief that I started my fall semester on Wednesday. Not that I wasn't grateful for the opportunity to rest up and relax a bit after finals, but the combination of all of my friends leaving and having absolutely (and I mean ABSOLUTELY) nothing to do was a bit much. Also, the weather has been atrocious (it has rained every day for about 4 weeks now; we had a typhoon yesterday that was so strong that the winds woke me up at 5am), which kind of ruled out any sort of exploring or outdoor activity that I could have partaken in. I developed a kind of cabin-fever induced depression from spending upwards of 10 hours a day in my rinky-dinky apartment. It almost boiled down to hysterical searches for illegal movie-hosting websites just so I would have something to do for 2 hours (movies watched: Ratatouille, Legally Blonde, Wedding Crashers). Fortunately, I have been gloriously lifted out of my funk because (1) school started and now I am busy again, (2) divine providence has sent more musicians to be my friends, and (3) the internet phone connection to Jung Min Unni is amazing. Let us take some time to briefly elaborate on these fantastic developments
1) School. Having successfully completed Level 4 (by the way, prospective Sogang students can find my final report here - you'll need a Yale NetID to log-in and see it, sorry other readers!), I am now a student in Level 5. I quote a past Fellow in referring to this as the "dreaded Level 5," so called because it is supposedly the most difficult level at Sogang. Having only been in class for 2 days, it is already pretty obvious to me why it has earned this reputation. The jump between Levels 4 and 5 is enormous. I'm not saying that it's impossible to handle - but it definitely, definitely, definitely will require more time and dedication to perform well. Whereas in Levels 1-4 the textbooks were accompanied by an English supplement that explained all grammar patters and defined all vocabulary in English, the Level 5 supplement is...all in Korean. This includes all definitions, explanations, and example sentences. When I first saw this, a number of colorful expletives came to mind, but it's actually not so bad - it just requires more intimate time spent with your electronic dictionary/cellphone dictionary/the AMAZING Eng-Kor dictionary available on www.naver.kr. The speaking class is also largely focused on reading, which is new; I am terrible at reading, and so I am simultaneously grateful for the extra practice and terrified that my teacher will out me in front of the whole class for being abysmal at it. Speaking of my teacher, she herself is mildly terrifying; I think I can count the number of smiles she's cracked so far on one hand. Additionally, she speaks faster than any teacher I have ever encountered at Sogang, my other Level 5 teachers included. This is probably going to be extremely beneficial to my listening, but it also means I break into something of a cold sweat whenever she talks. It's cool - I understand her, it just requires a great deal more ATP (I don't know why I just referenced AP biology). Rather hilariously, on the first day of class she gave a rather thorough self-introduction in the last 2 minutes of class; she didn't preface it with anything, she just kind of jumped in and was like, "My name is Park JinHee, I'm 34 years old, I'm not married, but I have a boyfriend, he's a foreigner and he's not in Korea right now, I've been teaching here for 5 years." And then she left. Okay.
Listening class has been replaced with a video class in which we watch 5-10 minutes of a Korean drama per day and then talk about how none of us understood any of it. I will inform the masses of progress if I ever make any.
2) New Friendz! So after Jung Min Unni left, I moped around for a day and a half and then decided I had to make more Korean friends. Fortunately, I have some contacts that she left me as well as my dear friends from the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, who have been very, very good to me. They invited me out to dinner on Tuesday, where I was given a sort of group therapy session on being alone in a foreign country, but it was lovely to see their concern and to know that they care about me and my well-being. One girl, a cellist (am I destined to just find cellists?) named Jungran has been exceptionally, exceptionally nice - she used to live alone in Paris, so I guess she knows what it's like to have to completely build a new life from scratch. She's made an extra effort to call me and include me in things and introduce me to people, and I'm honestly too grateful for words. Especially because I am definitely NOT cool enough to be hanging out with her - she's the associate principal cellist of the Seoul Phil, is kind of a big deal (seriously - she's pretty famous here!), speaks perfect French, English, and Korean, is super fashionable, and has tons of friends. I don't know why, but it always surprises me when people think I am interesting enough to be deemed hang-out-worthy, especially musicians who are 3+ years older than me. What will they do when they find out that I'm actually a huge loser??
I'm also trying to make more friends at Sogang (am I a snob for always ditching the school peeps to hang out with my Korean friends?). Interestingly enough, I have not met a SINGLE WHITE AMERICAN GIRL in any of my classes at Sogang - all of the Americans are dudes. We'll see how this goes.
3) Old Friendz! For the interested masses, Jung Min Unni arrived safely at Yale. She called me last night and it was so nice to hear her voice and to talk to her (even if it was at 2:30am). I realize that I am far luckier and far more blessed than I often think I am, and I am lucky to have a best friend who reminds me of that. The amazingness that is technology literally puts her at just a phone call away (from my Korean cell! I don't even have to use Skype!), and we're planning fun things for my November trip. Looks like I might actually get to go to a Yale Philharmonia Concert (throwback!) AND the Yale-Harvard Game! If you will be there too, let me know (I'm looking at you, Zehra Hirji!)
On the subject of the Yale Phil, I counted on my trusty Google Calendar, and if I was correct, I attended 27 concerts at Yale last year - 6 Yale Phil concerts, a handful of afternoon/evening chamber concerts, something like 10-15 degree recitals, and the Yale Cellos show. For a non-musician who knows nothing about music and can only recognize one piece that was played out of all the pieces played in in all of those concerts (holla Schubert Trout Quintet!), that is borderline absurd. I loves it. Beeteedubs, I'm probs going to a trumpet recital tomorrow and a Seoul Phil show next week. Yup.
I probably could ramble on for longer, but it's late here and I ought to go to bed; I'm a little sick with a sore throat, and since I was up late chatting and up early listening to a typhoon yesterday, I best be sleeping.
I never thought I would be terribly grateful to see the end of any school vacation, but it was almost with relief that I started my fall semester on Wednesday. Not that I wasn't grateful for the opportunity to rest up and relax a bit after finals, but the combination of all of my friends leaving and having absolutely (and I mean ABSOLUTELY) nothing to do was a bit much. Also, the weather has been atrocious (it has rained every day for about 4 weeks now; we had a typhoon yesterday that was so strong that the winds woke me up at 5am), which kind of ruled out any sort of exploring or outdoor activity that I could have partaken in. I developed a kind of cabin-fever induced depression from spending upwards of 10 hours a day in my rinky-dinky apartment. It almost boiled down to hysterical searches for illegal movie-hosting websites just so I would have something to do for 2 hours (movies watched: Ratatouille, Legally Blonde, Wedding Crashers). Fortunately, I have been gloriously lifted out of my funk because (1) school started and now I am busy again, (2) divine providence has sent more musicians to be my friends, and (3) the internet phone connection to Jung Min Unni is amazing. Let us take some time to briefly elaborate on these fantastic developments
1) School. Having successfully completed Level 4 (by the way, prospective Sogang students can find my final report here - you'll need a Yale NetID to log-in and see it, sorry other readers!), I am now a student in Level 5. I quote a past Fellow in referring to this as the "dreaded Level 5," so called because it is supposedly the most difficult level at Sogang. Having only been in class for 2 days, it is already pretty obvious to me why it has earned this reputation. The jump between Levels 4 and 5 is enormous. I'm not saying that it's impossible to handle - but it definitely, definitely, definitely will require more time and dedication to perform well. Whereas in Levels 1-4 the textbooks were accompanied by an English supplement that explained all grammar patters and defined all vocabulary in English, the Level 5 supplement is...all in Korean. This includes all definitions, explanations, and example sentences. When I first saw this, a number of colorful expletives came to mind, but it's actually not so bad - it just requires more intimate time spent with your electronic dictionary/cellphone dictionary/the AMAZING Eng-Kor dictionary available on www.naver.kr. The speaking class is also largely focused on reading, which is new; I am terrible at reading, and so I am simultaneously grateful for the extra practice and terrified that my teacher will out me in front of the whole class for being abysmal at it. Speaking of my teacher, she herself is mildly terrifying; I think I can count the number of smiles she's cracked so far on one hand. Additionally, she speaks faster than any teacher I have ever encountered at Sogang, my other Level 5 teachers included. This is probably going to be extremely beneficial to my listening, but it also means I break into something of a cold sweat whenever she talks. It's cool - I understand her, it just requires a great deal more ATP (I don't know why I just referenced AP biology). Rather hilariously, on the first day of class she gave a rather thorough self-introduction in the last 2 minutes of class; she didn't preface it with anything, she just kind of jumped in and was like, "My name is Park JinHee, I'm 34 years old, I'm not married, but I have a boyfriend, he's a foreigner and he's not in Korea right now, I've been teaching here for 5 years." And then she left. Okay.
Listening class has been replaced with a video class in which we watch 5-10 minutes of a Korean drama per day and then talk about how none of us understood any of it. I will inform the masses of progress if I ever make any.
2) New Friendz! So after Jung Min Unni left, I moped around for a day and a half and then decided I had to make more Korean friends. Fortunately, I have some contacts that she left me as well as my dear friends from the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, who have been very, very good to me. They invited me out to dinner on Tuesday, where I was given a sort of group therapy session on being alone in a foreign country, but it was lovely to see their concern and to know that they care about me and my well-being. One girl, a cellist (am I destined to just find cellists?) named Jungran has been exceptionally, exceptionally nice - she used to live alone in Paris, so I guess she knows what it's like to have to completely build a new life from scratch. She's made an extra effort to call me and include me in things and introduce me to people, and I'm honestly too grateful for words. Especially because I am definitely NOT cool enough to be hanging out with her - she's the associate principal cellist of the Seoul Phil, is kind of a big deal (seriously - she's pretty famous here!), speaks perfect French, English, and Korean, is super fashionable, and has tons of friends. I don't know why, but it always surprises me when people think I am interesting enough to be deemed hang-out-worthy, especially musicians who are 3+ years older than me. What will they do when they find out that I'm actually a huge loser??
I'm also trying to make more friends at Sogang (am I a snob for always ditching the school peeps to hang out with my Korean friends?). Interestingly enough, I have not met a SINGLE WHITE AMERICAN GIRL in any of my classes at Sogang - all of the Americans are dudes. We'll see how this goes.
3) Old Friendz! For the interested masses, Jung Min Unni arrived safely at Yale. She called me last night and it was so nice to hear her voice and to talk to her (even if it was at 2:30am). I realize that I am far luckier and far more blessed than I often think I am, and I am lucky to have a best friend who reminds me of that. The amazingness that is technology literally puts her at just a phone call away (from my Korean cell! I don't even have to use Skype!), and we're planning fun things for my November trip. Looks like I might actually get to go to a Yale Philharmonia Concert (throwback!) AND the Yale-Harvard Game! If you will be there too, let me know (I'm looking at you, Zehra Hirji!)
On the subject of the Yale Phil, I counted on my trusty Google Calendar, and if I was correct, I attended 27 concerts at Yale last year - 6 Yale Phil concerts, a handful of afternoon/evening chamber concerts, something like 10-15 degree recitals, and the Yale Cellos show. For a non-musician who knows nothing about music and can only recognize one piece that was played out of all the pieces played in in all of those concerts (holla Schubert Trout Quintet!), that is borderline absurd. I loves it. Beeteedubs, I'm probs going to a trumpet recital tomorrow and a Seoul Phil show next week. Yup.
I probably could ramble on for longer, but it's late here and I ought to go to bed; I'm a little sick with a sore throat, and since I was up late chatting and up early listening to a typhoon yesterday, I best be sleeping.
Friday, August 27, 2010
난 너에게*
* = from me to you. Davichi, 2010.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging with a brief...uh, I don't know what this is.
Today, my best friend left to go back to America. She's currently been on a plane for about 5 hours. Without her, Korea will be a very different place. Without being overly presumptuous, I think I can say that Yale will be a very different place (for her) without me, so we're both going to have a bit of adjusting to do. But there's consolation; there's my planned trip in November (we're going to Woodbury Commons! for some reason, all Koreans know and fantasize about visiting this place), the fact that she has an internet phone that enables me to text and call her directly from my Korean cell phone (technology for the win!), and the knowledge that no matter where we are or what happens, the way we feel won't change. That sounds kind of ridiculous in English, but Korean speakers will often say in consolation, "내 마음 알지?" which literally translates to, "You know my heart, right?" or more accurately, "You know how I feel, right?" What I mean to say, I guess (queen of eloquence right here) is that we will always have great love, respect, and feelings of deep friendship for the other. A couple of thousand miles and a few months can never change that. 언니, 난 언니의 마음 알아. 언니 나의 마음 알지?? ㅋㅋ
Because this post can't just be a cheesy mess, I'll add something...uh...less cheesy? Anyway, because Unni has been so busy this week, she hasn't had time to see me or to say goodbye, so her parents, because they are the epitome of AWESOME, invited me to come out to the airport to see her off there. Her flight was at 11, so they told me to be there by 9am. To which I respond: what's 9am? Because I have been sleeping so much this break that I haven't woken up - at all - before noon. But I will do anything for Unni, lucky girl, so I decided to get up at 6:45am (I planned to take an airport shuttle from outside of the Hyundai Dept Store and didn't want to chance it - in order to be there by 9, I'd have to be on a shuttle by 8:15 at the absolute latest). I set an alarm and purposefully put it on the loudest setting - AND STILL MANAGED TO COMPLETELY SLEEP THROUGH IT. It actually seems as though I turned it off in my sleep. Now, this of course has a very good explanation - I didn't hear it (nor do I remember hearing it) because I wasextremely extremely drunk last night having some fun with friends and got home at 4am late. Ahem. Anyway, I somehow miraculously woke up at 7:45am. I shot out of bed like a bullet. I have never, ever moved that quickly, I don't think. Within 5 minutes, I was dressed and had applied a semi-full face of makeup (I only kind of looked as hungover as I currently feel). I dragged my shoes outside and flew out the door, sprinting noisily to the bus stop in shoes that one should never run in. I'd been to that bus stop before and knew vaguely where it was, but was too impatient to wait at the cross walk to go correctly to it (it's located in the middle of a giant multi-lane, two-way street - ah, city life), so I illegally jaywalked across 4 lanes and then (here's the kicker) jumped the fence that separates the bus stop and the highway. Would I have done such things for anyone but Unni? Or a better question, would I have done such things had I not still been slightly buzzed? Or a better question still, would any of these things have been necessary if I had not been inebriated and HEARD MY ALARM WHEN IT WENT OFF? Eh, maybe.
Anyway, my sprint paid off and I was on an airport shuttle by 8:05 and on my way to Incheon. The trip only takes about 45 minutes from Sinchon, so I was more than on time - I got there before Unni and her parents by about 10 minutes. They were easy to spot when they arrived, courtesy of Unni's giant blue cello case. I thought we wouldn't be able to spend very much time together, but we actually got to spend a full hour - her parents let me wait with them on line for check-in, and because airports are sloooow, we obvs had a lot of time to chat. Her boyfriend came, too, and it was actually a lot of fun for a morning spent at an airport terminal waiting to say goodbye to your best friend After check-in, we had some drinks (non-alcoholic) with her parents and then she was off to great wide open (okay, so Yale is not that mysterious). Of course, Iwas the only one who cried like a baby, but what can I say - I'm definitely a crier, and I don't think that's gonna change. Having sent their daughter off numerous times before, Unni's parents were totally fine, and so I looked mildly crazy to onlookers - even at an airport, whitey still sticks out. Anyway, we waved and waved until the giant blue cello case was no longer visible, and then her parents drove me home (but not before buying me two sandwiches and a cream puff that my omghungovergonnavomit self really didn't need - gotta love Korean parents).
I can't wait until I see the blue cello case and its owner again. Safe trip, 언니, 먼곳에 있어도 우리 사랑 변치않을거야. I love you.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled blogging with a brief...uh, I don't know what this is.
Today, my best friend left to go back to America. She's currently been on a plane for about 5 hours. Without her, Korea will be a very different place. Without being overly presumptuous, I think I can say that Yale will be a very different place (for her) without me, so we're both going to have a bit of adjusting to do. But there's consolation; there's my planned trip in November (we're going to Woodbury Commons! for some reason, all Koreans know and fantasize about visiting this place), the fact that she has an internet phone that enables me to text and call her directly from my Korean cell phone (technology for the win!), and the knowledge that no matter where we are or what happens, the way we feel won't change. That sounds kind of ridiculous in English, but Korean speakers will often say in consolation, "내 마음 알지?" which literally translates to, "You know my heart, right?" or more accurately, "You know how I feel, right?" What I mean to say, I guess (queen of eloquence right here) is that we will always have great love, respect, and feelings of deep friendship for the other. A couple of thousand miles and a few months can never change that. 언니, 난 언니의 마음 알아. 언니 나의 마음 알지?? ㅋㅋ
언니, 사랑해
Because this post can't just be a cheesy mess, I'll add something...uh...less cheesy? Anyway, because Unni has been so busy this week, she hasn't had time to see me or to say goodbye, so her parents, because they are the epitome of AWESOME, invited me to come out to the airport to see her off there. Her flight was at 11, so they told me to be there by 9am. To which I respond: what's 9am? Because I have been sleeping so much this break that I haven't woken up - at all - before noon. But I will do anything for Unni, lucky girl, so I decided to get up at 6:45am (I planned to take an airport shuttle from outside of the Hyundai Dept Store and didn't want to chance it - in order to be there by 9, I'd have to be on a shuttle by 8:15 at the absolute latest). I set an alarm and purposefully put it on the loudest setting - AND STILL MANAGED TO COMPLETELY SLEEP THROUGH IT. It actually seems as though I turned it off in my sleep. Now, this of course has a very good explanation - I didn't hear it (nor do I remember hearing it) because I was
Anyway, my sprint paid off and I was on an airport shuttle by 8:05 and on my way to Incheon. The trip only takes about 45 minutes from Sinchon, so I was more than on time - I got there before Unni and her parents by about 10 minutes. They were easy to spot when they arrived, courtesy of Unni's giant blue cello case. I thought we wouldn't be able to spend very much time together, but we actually got to spend a full hour - her parents let me wait with them on line for check-in, and because airports are sloooow, we obvs had a lot of time to chat. Her boyfriend came, too, and it was actually a lot of fun for a morning spent at an airport terminal waiting to say goodbye to your best friend After check-in, we had some drinks (non-alcoholic) with her parents and then she was off to great wide open (okay, so Yale is not that mysterious). Of course, I
I can't wait until I see the blue cello case and its owner again. Safe trip, 언니, 먼곳에 있어도 우리 사랑 변치않을거야. I love you.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
넌 나의 구원*
* = you are my salvation; from Epik High's One
An update! And so soon - look who's making up for lost time!
Well, the official reason I'm updating today is because I have to (obviously) recount the tale of how Yonsei Severance Hospital charged me upwards of $300 to tell me that I have no food allergy. The unofficial would be to sing the glories of Korean street food. All in due time.
First up, My Very First Trip to the Hospital (Korean style):
Actually, it was not my first trip; it was more like my 4th or 5th, but this was the first time I've ever had a significant medical procedure done in this country, if you call an allergy skin test a "medical procedure," which is debatable - it's not like I got an appendectomy or a nose job (wait for it, kids! I'm saving up my money!). Anyway, if you have no idea why I needed to get an allergy test done, refer to this post for my near-death experience (literally) and let us begin.
So about three weeks ago, the combined powers of Jung Min Unni and her mom managed to get me an allergy consultation at Yonsei Severance Hospital, a giant hospital rather obviously affiliated with Yonsei University that is located just a short 10 minute walk from my apartment. I was told that there was no need for me to speak Korean, as the doctor and nurse were fine with English; I later realized that Yonsei's staff clearly operates with a generous definition of what "fine with English" means, because neither of them were conversant enough to get everything across without my help in Korean. In any case, the end result of the consultation was that the doctor ordered an allergy skin test, and why the consultation was necessary, beyond sucking $50 out of my wallet, for this obvious conclusion is still beyond me.
The actual test was scheduled for today at 1:40, and I got there right on time - only to be told that they wouldn't start my test until I paid first at the International Clinic. Okay, because I was really going to try and dodge the check. Thanks, Yonsei. Anyway, after paying an absurd amount for the first visit, I went ahead and called my insurance company tobeg politely ask if they could provide coverage despite "allergy" not being listed as part of my benefits. They said that they were partnered with Yonsei Severance and so coverage was a definite possibility - they'd open a case for me and would call the hospital to see what they could do. Well, I discovered they probably weren't able to do much - the asshole at the International Clinic who takes payment told me that the insurance company couldn't guarantee payment, and so I had to pay for the whole thing up front. 345,000 won (~$300). I was so pissed I wanted to cry. I took the receipt and kind of told the guy that this was bullshit, but of course that usually gets people nowhere, and I am no exception. I'll be filing a claim for reimbursement and hopefully that will work out.
Payment issues aside, I decided to come prepared for this visit by bringing along Yoonhee Unni, a dear friend of mine who is also a cellist from the Yale School of Music, to translate (yes, for the record, the only Korean people who like me are musicians. Michelle Cho is the obvious exception, but she might have played piano at some point like all other Asian children. Or maybe she doesn't actually like me). Yoonhee Unni has translated before, so I felt like she'd be pretty helpful in working between the doctor/nurse and me - IF THEY WOULD LET HER INTO THE ROOM. Despite my near-begging, the nurse adamantly refused to let her into the testing room with me (which was just a portion of a room closed off with a curtain, goddammit!). I was extremely pissed off, especially because the nurse - who tried hard, I'll give her that - couldn't even properly tell me which articles of clothing I needed to take off. She could have told me in Korean, but at that point, I was so frustrated with the whole process that I refused to use anything but English. I'm kind of a brat.
But why did I have to take ANY articles of clothing off? In my (limited) experience, allergy skin tests are usually performed on the arm, no? Well, turns out that despite my insistence at the consultation that I wanted/needed to be tested for a seafood and shellfish allergy, the doctor for some reason ordered a complete test for all food allergies. I stole a glance at the medical sheet for this and was mildly horrified to discover that they planned to test me for 63 different allergies. What the WHAT? To state the obvs, my arm wasn't big enough for 63 tests. Both arms wouldn't have even been enough. So they drew a bunch of tic-tac-toe boards on my back and tested me there. 63 pricks in the back = nothankyou.
15 minutes of waiting for the test results and another 20 minutes of waiting for the damn doctor to tell me the test results (they couldn't have just done it right then and there?), I was informed that I tested negative for every single food allergy, all shellfish and fish included. Pause for sigh of relief, but a tempered sigh of relief due to the outrageous cost of the whole ordeal. The doctor said that it's possible that I'm allergic to a food additive - MSG or something like it - which could have been present on the shrimp or in some seasoning that I ate when I had the initial reaction. His only other alternative was to test for an allergy to antibiotics, because I was on an antibiotic to treat a sinus infection when I had the reaction. I declined to schedule a test for this, because (1) I'm fairly sure I'm not allergic to any antibiotic (I had already been taking it for 3 days prior to my near-death experience, so I think if I was allergic, something should have happened beforehand) and (2) unless I am guaranteed up-front coverage or am POSITIVE about getting a reimbursement, I am not paying for any further tests at Yonsei. Given that I'll probably be making a trip to the US in November (details to follow), I could always just get tested there if I really felt like it. The antibiotic test, as I was told, is a bit different because it's an eating test and not a skin test - and it takes all day. You start in the morning, eat an antibiotic, wait 2 hours. Eat another, wait 2 hours. Repeat. Repeat. No thanks.
Anyway, I did get to spend time with Yoonhee Unni, which was great because she, too, is going back to America this weekend (whyyyyyyy), and I was given the green light to go out and eat a sushi smorgasbord if I so chose, so I guess this ordeal was kind of necessary and kind of a good thing.
Wait, did I just say I was given the green light to go eat fish again (after a horrifying 3 months of making all of my friends work around my stupid and actually non-existent dietary restriction)? Oh, I did - so naturally, my first meal was - 포장마차 음식 (po-jang-ma-cha food)!!! Also known as Korean street food.
Now, before you freak out that Daddy's baby girl is eating poisonous street crap...don't. Korea is not India. Seoul is not Calcutta. Korean street food is totally safe and absolutely mother effing delicious, SO MUCH MORE so than anything served in A-muh-rica. It's served at little street carts called 포장마차 (po-jang-ma-cha), and typical offerings include 떡볶이 (ddeokbokki, fat rice cakes in spicy sauce), fish cake, dumplings, 순대 (soon-dae, Korean stuffed sausages), and other assorted fried goodies. Because fish cake and a lot of the fried offerings contain fish (even ddeokbokki is cooked and served with fish cake), I haven't been able to eat at a single one all summer. Knife in my heart. Buuuut because I was told by official authorities that I can eat fish til the cows come home, I decided that my first meal must naturally be these delicacies of which I was so long deprived. That, and these street carts are popular for people eating alone, which...yeah.
Anyway. There are street carts everywhere, and most offer the same things, so I picked one whose rice cakes looked to my liking and settled in for a very, very satisfying platter of ddeokbokki. Up until today, I've only been able to eat ddeokbokki at certain types of restaurants that prepare it on the table for you (as in it's not been pre-cooked in a giant vat and then dished out). If it's made to order, I could tell them to leave the fish cake out. But restaurant ddeokbokki is almost never as good as the street variety, and those fat spicy rice cakes that I consumed today were some of the best I've ever had. And the cost? ~$1.50. BAM
But after paying the very nice ajumma and taking my leave from this particular street cart, I decided I was still hungry. I wandered around a bit until I found another, and this time ordered pan-fried dumplings. For the same price of $1.50, I was expecting maybe 5 or so, but the ajumma gave me over 10, I think - and then generously slathered them in spicy ddeokbokki sauce. I ate them rather animalistically. It was glorious. I walked away with lips burning from all that red pepper paste and a very happy stomach. So it wasn't the healthiest of meals, but it was a wonderful way to celebrate emancipation from dietary restriction.
Although I'll probably never eat shrimp again for as long as I live. Blame it on the Garcia effect.
*POST SCRIPT
This made my entire day. Seriously. Watch it even if you don't give a sh*t about the Ground Zero Mosque.
An update! And so soon - look who's making up for lost time!
Well, the official reason I'm updating today is because I have to (obviously) recount the tale of how Yonsei Severance Hospital charged me upwards of $300 to tell me that I have no food allergy. The unofficial would be to sing the glories of Korean street food. All in due time.
First up, My Very First Trip to the Hospital (Korean style):
Actually, it was not my first trip; it was more like my 4th or 5th, but this was the first time I've ever had a significant medical procedure done in this country, if you call an allergy skin test a "medical procedure," which is debatable - it's not like I got an appendectomy or a nose job (wait for it, kids! I'm saving up my money!). Anyway, if you have no idea why I needed to get an allergy test done, refer to this post for my near-death experience (literally) and let us begin.
So about three weeks ago, the combined powers of Jung Min Unni and her mom managed to get me an allergy consultation at Yonsei Severance Hospital, a giant hospital rather obviously affiliated with Yonsei University that is located just a short 10 minute walk from my apartment. I was told that there was no need for me to speak Korean, as the doctor and nurse were fine with English; I later realized that Yonsei's staff clearly operates with a generous definition of what "fine with English" means, because neither of them were conversant enough to get everything across without my help in Korean. In any case, the end result of the consultation was that the doctor ordered an allergy skin test, and why the consultation was necessary, beyond sucking $50 out of my wallet, for this obvious conclusion is still beyond me.
The actual test was scheduled for today at 1:40, and I got there right on time - only to be told that they wouldn't start my test until I paid first at the International Clinic. Okay, because I was really going to try and dodge the check. Thanks, Yonsei. Anyway, after paying an absurd amount for the first visit, I went ahead and called my insurance company to
Payment issues aside, I decided to come prepared for this visit by bringing along Yoonhee Unni, a dear friend of mine who is also a cellist from the Yale School of Music, to translate (yes, for the record, the only Korean people who like me are musicians. Michelle Cho is the obvious exception, but she might have played piano at some point like all other Asian children. Or maybe she doesn't actually like me). Yoonhee Unni has translated before, so I felt like she'd be pretty helpful in working between the doctor/nurse and me - IF THEY WOULD LET HER INTO THE ROOM. Despite my near-begging, the nurse adamantly refused to let her into the testing room with me (which was just a portion of a room closed off with a curtain, goddammit!). I was extremely pissed off, especially because the nurse - who tried hard, I'll give her that - couldn't even properly tell me which articles of clothing I needed to take off. She could have told me in Korean, but at that point, I was so frustrated with the whole process that I refused to use anything but English. I'm kind of a brat.
But why did I have to take ANY articles of clothing off? In my (limited) experience, allergy skin tests are usually performed on the arm, no? Well, turns out that despite my insistence at the consultation that I wanted/needed to be tested for a seafood and shellfish allergy, the doctor for some reason ordered a complete test for all food allergies. I stole a glance at the medical sheet for this and was mildly horrified to discover that they planned to test me for 63 different allergies. What the WHAT? To state the obvs, my arm wasn't big enough for 63 tests. Both arms wouldn't have even been enough. So they drew a bunch of tic-tac-toe boards on my back and tested me there. 63 pricks in the back = nothankyou.
15 minutes of waiting for the test results and another 20 minutes of waiting for the damn doctor to tell me the test results (they couldn't have just done it right then and there?), I was informed that I tested negative for every single food allergy, all shellfish and fish included. Pause for sigh of relief, but a tempered sigh of relief due to the outrageous cost of the whole ordeal. The doctor said that it's possible that I'm allergic to a food additive - MSG or something like it - which could have been present on the shrimp or in some seasoning that I ate when I had the initial reaction. His only other alternative was to test for an allergy to antibiotics, because I was on an antibiotic to treat a sinus infection when I had the reaction. I declined to schedule a test for this, because (1) I'm fairly sure I'm not allergic to any antibiotic (I had already been taking it for 3 days prior to my near-death experience, so I think if I was allergic, something should have happened beforehand) and (2) unless I am guaranteed up-front coverage or am POSITIVE about getting a reimbursement, I am not paying for any further tests at Yonsei. Given that I'll probably be making a trip to the US in November (details to follow), I could always just get tested there if I really felt like it. The antibiotic test, as I was told, is a bit different because it's an eating test and not a skin test - and it takes all day. You start in the morning, eat an antibiotic, wait 2 hours. Eat another, wait 2 hours. Repeat. Repeat. No thanks.
Anyway, I did get to spend time with Yoonhee Unni, which was great because she, too, is going back to America this weekend (whyyyyyyy), and I was given the green light to go out and eat a sushi smorgasbord if I so chose, so I guess this ordeal was kind of necessary and kind of a good thing.
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| I don't own this photo, but NOMS. This is what it looks like. |
Anyway. There are street carts everywhere, and most offer the same things, so I picked one whose rice cakes looked to my liking and settled in for a very, very satisfying platter of ddeokbokki. Up until today, I've only been able to eat ddeokbokki at certain types of restaurants that prepare it on the table for you (as in it's not been pre-cooked in a giant vat and then dished out). If it's made to order, I could tell them to leave the fish cake out. But restaurant ddeokbokki is almost never as good as the street variety, and those fat spicy rice cakes that I consumed today were some of the best I've ever had. And the cost? ~$1.50. BAM
But after paying the very nice ajumma and taking my leave from this particular street cart, I decided I was still hungry. I wandered around a bit until I found another, and this time ordered pan-fried dumplings. For the same price of $1.50, I was expecting maybe 5 or so, but the ajumma gave me over 10, I think - and then generously slathered them in spicy ddeokbokki sauce. I ate them rather animalistically. It was glorious. I walked away with lips burning from all that red pepper paste and a very happy stomach. So it wasn't the healthiest of meals, but it was a wonderful way to celebrate emancipation from dietary restriction.
Although I'll probably never eat shrimp again for as long as I live. Blame it on the Garcia effect.
*POST SCRIPT
This made my entire day. Seriously. Watch it even if you don't give a sh*t about the Ground Zero Mosque.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The Parent Company Trap | ||||
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