"Koreanized"

Vacation is over and the new school year is back in swing. Even though I am so happy and thankful for all of the vacation I had the past few months, I am happy to be back at school and re-establish a routine. I have now been in Korea for 7 months and am now on my second semester of teaching. Each month that pasts I am feel like I am being “Koreanized” and I am loving it! I can say that this is my second home and will always be a special place in my heart. What do you mean you are being “Koreanized”, you ask well let me tell you….

Back home                                         

Food: Never would I eat Seafood unless it was deep fried and I couldn't taste it. I didn't like canned tuna, cooked plain/ or hard boiled eggs, and could not stand kimchi.

In Korea (After 7 Months)

Food: Seafood is part of my daily diet. It is in everything, so there was really no way of getting around it. I actually enjoy eating fish now but am still getting used to the slabs of raw fish I get at teacher’s dinner. (I have had this three times and each time it gets a little bit better.) I had my first can of tuna for dinner the other day and it was actually delicious. I will be purchasing more cans of tuna later down the road. Eggs are an important food source for me. I make a lot of breakfast foods at home because it is the only thing that is fast and western that I can find in my town. I have cooked them in every possible way and they are all delicious. Kimchi is still my least favorite food… I don’t know if it is a food I can ever like. But we will see during my one year mark.

Cooking: Back home cooking is easy, you can get any ingredient you want without having to search very hard.  Back home there are regular, organic, Asian, Latino, and many other kinds of supermarkets in one city.

 Cooking: Cooking in Korea has been difficult. I have learnt to get very creative and to really cook from scratch. In my little town, I cannot find western food so I have learnt to use what they have and turn it into a westernized meal. I have been learning how to buy at the farmers markets and using fruits and veggies that are in season. I have really been enjoying cooking more organically and will try to continue this back home.

Coffee:  I am a coffee addict/ snob and yes, I admit it. I loved my special “toddy” coffee and of course loved my Dutch Bros and Starbucks.

Coffee: Coffee grounds are super expensive here and not very common so the coffee that I have grown to love is the instant coffees that come in a package with cream and sugar in it. It is the one thing that I keep stocked up in my house. 

TV: I never used to watch much TV. I had my certain shows that I enjoyed and kept updated on but other than that I didn't really watch it very often.

TV:  I think at one point you could have called me an addict. Haha I am getting better now that the weather is warming up and I am doing more things around town. I started watching all the “it” shows that everyone kept talking about on Facebook, so I thought I would check them out and it didn't take long where I was watching whole seasons in a few days. I will justify it this way > It is my only way to relax and to listen to English and to feel like I am home.

  

Shopping: I am sorry to all my friends who had to go shopping with me… I understand that I was not very fun to go shopping with because I was so indecisive and would walk around the whole mall twice and leave with nothing.

Shopping: Even though it is still kind of difficult to go shopping for clothes because I am not the “Korean size”. I think Korea and I were made for each other. There are probably as many cute accessories stores as there are Starbucks in Oregon. Haha And you know me, I love me some bows and flowers!

Exercise: Well, there is not much to say in this column. I was too lazy to work out and me and bikes never worked well together so back home I never made time for this.

Exercise: There is no excuse for anyone here. There are exercise equipment’s in the parks. But, in the beginning being lazy still won and I didn't want people to stare at the crazy foreigner trying to work out. Haha But I found a dance class in my town that I absolutely love! I love all the older ladies that are in my class and love that we dance to Maroon 5, Brittney Spears, and K-pop. It is really the best. Afterwards, I sometime stay for the aerobics/ boot camp class but the lady who run the class is a terrifying drill sergeant so I try to get out that class. 

Church: Back home, I could attend many different English speaking churches within my 

town. I did not have to travel very long to get to my destination. It was nice.

Churches: The church that I attend is about 2 hours away from my town. It is the one of the closest churches to me. I absolutely love my church in Korea and love the people. God has blessed me with a wonderful community to worship and fellowship with. There is a wide variety of people from North America, South Africa, Philippines, Korea, etc…. It is an amazing experience to worship with believers of all nations.  

Language: Language has always kind of been difficult for me. Yes, even English, so knowing that I was moving to Korea I had no idea how I was going to be able to communicate.

Language: No, I do not know Korean yet but I am working on it. I have started a Korean class and am slowly learning how to read Hangeul. I have learnt enough to get through the last 7 months but I really need to begin to learn a lot more to feel more comfortable living here in Korea.

Don't worry friends I will not return to America a completely different person, I will just return more Asian! *^0^* And you all know how I have always wanted to be more Asian. So it is perfect. So to sum it up.... I love Korea!