Wednesday, September 29, 2010

First Impressions


When I first arrived, I was naive about Korean culture and was not expecting to be impressed with the physical beauty of the country. In some ways this stayed true, however, I was pleasantly surprised in many other ways.

The first thing I noticed as I was riding in a bus from Incheon airport to Seoul was the strange vehicles. In the US, at least where I am from, people love big cars! In Korea they are all about compact cars. A minivan here has been scrunched to half the size making it a mini minivan. The “cool” cars from the movie Italian Job that everyone found cute but inefficient for long drives are a norm here and incredibly convenient on the narrow roads and busy traffic.

The second noticeable difference was the architecture. Instead of A framed houses the buildings either have a flat open roof that is used for drying clothes, gardening, etc. or they have the wave-like Asian roofs. This Asian roof originated in China and are still used today in many Asian countries such as Korea. This building style was a cultural stun to me and when I first saw it in person I found it exotic and completely unique to anything I had seen before. 

The next cultural difference and continuously most apparent in my everyday life is the food. Most of the food is spicy spicy spicy! Before I came to Korea I LOVED spicy food, but now it is more of an addiction and without it, food tastes bland. Typically there is a bowl of rice, kimchi (fermented cabbage, radish, or pickles with red spices), a soup and many side dishes along with a main dish of either fish or meat. The most common ingredients found in all the meals served here are red chile paste, garlic, sesame seed oil, pepper flakes, ginger and soy sauce. Lunch food and more cafeteria style dinners for me tend to be different meats and veggies but all with the same seasonings. However, after escaping school and venturing out to the restaurant world, Korea provides us with some delicious (mashita) meals. Some of my favorites are...

Samgyupsal- slabs of pork that you cut up while cooking on the bbq and eat folded inside lettuce with a chili sauce and any other add-ons you enjoy, such as mushrooms, onions, garlic, sesame oil, etc.



Dakgalbi- Diced chicken with a chili red pepper paste, sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallion, onions, any other veggies and of course dak (Koreas version of rice cakes)

Bibimbop- Literally means "mixed rice" and has rice(obviously) topped with different veggies, chili pepper paste and egg, meat or both. You can eat this hot or cold.


Any Korean BBQ is also great!

Neon Colors: Everything from peoples clothing to billboards, cars, and the streets at night have massive amounts of neon colors. The most spectacular of all is the scene on a busy street after the sun is down. This is a picture of a street in Seoul at night.


K-POP: Short for Korean pop. Think American boy bands of the early 2000's. K-pop is not only popular in Korea but in most East Asian countries. The music has a catchy beat and if you are watching the music video you tend to see some hip hop dancing accompanied by somewhat provocative attire. The most popular bands include names such as Big Bang, Super Junior, DBSK, SS501, Shinee, 2PM and the list goes on and on. Though I'm not a huge fan of k-pop, I admire the excitement the Koreans have for it. Here are some photos-

Big Bang:

Wonder Girls:

I hope you enjoyed the short cultural introduction to my current world.

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