Lets see...If I were in Kansas right now I would be curled up on the old sofa in the living room of mom and dad's house, being warmed by the fire in the fireplace, and stuffing my face with goat cheese mashed potatoes, turkey, mom's sweet potato casserole, green beans, and apple pie. . . . . well, actually, being that its six o'clock in the morning in Kansas, I would probably be snuggled up in my bed.
Today however, I woke up as usual at 7:30 am, ate some frosted flakes with some delicious whole milk, went to work at 9:30, had kimchi soup, rice with black beans, and hard boiled eggs in some sort of brown sauce for lunch, got off at 4:00, went for a run, went to the grocery store and now here I sit...on the heated floor of my apartment watching Heros episodes, eating the chocolates that I brought from home alongside Korean waffle wafers and glass number two of a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon.......
Hey, it may be different, but don't knock it till you try it. All I need is my family and my friends sitting here alongside me and I would be good to go. Geeze, there are a ton of commas in that run on sentence. I feel no remorse. Deal with it.
Hang on, I just finished glass number two...
So I guess...I should talk about the smells now. Well, they range from phenomenal to gut-wrenchingly awful. From spicy and exotic to month old baby diaper. The variation is just amazing. On the wonderful side would be the maddening smell of cooking fish and fresh vegetables in the various soups we have every day for lunch at the school. On my walk to my bus stop after work every day I can smell bulgogi (barbecued beef dish) and Bibimbap (a popular rice, vegetable, and egg dish) coming from the restaurant across the street and "fish cakes" (a molded and fried fish shaped pastry filled with a sweetened black bean paste) being sold by in little stands by vendors on the side of the streets. Three for a thousand Korean Won (or one dollar). You can't beat that. On the terrible side would be the smell of rotting vegetables. For a country that is so obsessed with recycling, the smell of the compost that they save permeates the city like their fear of the swine flu virus. The city is just too compact to handle all of the smells in one place. When I am running along the Tongbok river, about two miles outside of the city, not only do I smell those vegetables, but I hit the smell of a dairy factory. Mmmmm...manure. Imagine that while running. Also, do you know how when you run/work out, you sort of burp a little? Does that sound gross? I just mean that my body is being jostled a lot by running and I end up burping a little bit during the first part of my run....when I was living in the states I was burping the taste of pasta or the banana I always ate pre-run. Here - well its fish-in-red-sauce-taste or spicy kimchi taste. Yummy. I like a lot of Korean food going down - not so much coming up.
okay, okay. I know I am getting gross, and I should stop now. I will leave you all with one more random fact.
Large bath towels. Koreans don't have them. My roommate told me where I would be able to find one at the huge supermarket in town where they cater to the Americans who live on the military base but I had the choice between green and blue. Two options. Seriously. I asked my director at the school why this was, and she explained that Korean people think that smaller hand towels are easier to wash. So they dry with them.... until my shower tonight I have been drying off with a towel that is the slightly larger than a dishtowel. I can't wait to break this bad boy in.
Happy Thanksgiving! If you can figure out a way to send me a piece of pie, please do so.
I love you all, I miss you all.
Anne
read it. YUMMY! thanks anne
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