Seoul Living: 우리집에 모기가 정말많습니다!!!

There are few things in life that YuhChic hates, much less considers total enemy. On the top of this short list is the mosquito. Indeed, much to my horror, 우리집에 모기가 정말많습니다!!! ---> There are a lot of mosquitoes in my house!!!

I only recently found out how to say this in Korean (and another student asked if anyone else was having mosquito problems), so I brought it up to my language teacher during the break at class today. To my horror, she informed me that the mosquitoes have been quite newsworthy lately.

The Dong-A Ilbo: Korea’s Mosquitoes Still Problem Despite Chilly Weather.

I hate mosquitoes. And global warming.

Nosh: Buddhist Temple Cuisine, Korean Tea Party, and Kimchi-making, too!

One of the temples at the Bongeunsa Temple complex in Seoul.

There are some really neat perks to being a "foreigner"...although, technically, the Koreans seem to distinguish specifically between "Chinese", "Japanese", and "foreigner" (i.e., not East Asian). I guess I fit somewhere in between Chinese and foreigner.

Last week, there was a "foreigners" only event called "All That Is Temple Food - Cooking and Meditation," sponsored by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism and the Society for Traditional Temple Food Preservation at Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul. The night before the temple cuisine event, I had been to a pretty spectacular fundraiser for the NGO where I work and experienced the awesomeness of Korean planned events. The temple cuisine experience was no different - an already great event made extra good by the face that it was completely free! :)

One of our excellent guides during the day shows us around the temple grounds and explains the story of Buddha, as demonstrated on pictures around the temples.

So what is "temple cuisine" anyway? Obviously, I'm no expert on Buddhism or temple cuisine, but here is my attempt to explain briefly:

You may know that followers of the Buddhist faith are (or should be) vegetarians, not eating animals or animal products to respect life. Korea's (and probably other Buddhist countries') traditional temple cuisine obviously incorporates this vegetarianism, but also the fact that one's food must nourish the mind and spirit on the journey towards truth and Nirvana. Temple food takes into consideration the contributions of the environment/nature and, well, everything.

The event began with a morning lecture on Buddhism and some chanting, led by a really cheery, English-speaking Korean monk (who also served as translator for the other monks during the day - I'm sad I didn't catch his name!). Mind you, I was a little afraid that it would degrade into a "Let's recruit foreigners to be Buddhists!" session and I was going to end up with a shaved head and dressed in robes at the end of it all, but it didn't (hey, I've had some scarring experiences at fundamentalist churches before...). In fact, the morning lecture was really useful in informing us about the importance of tea ceremonies and eating as a way of meditation. Food meditation?!? How fascinating...!

Our host monks explaining to us the health benefits of our lunch. The female monk on the right is one of Korea's experts on temple cuisine.

Yeah, so the idea of "food meditation" sounds silly, but think about what meditation is - it's basically concentrating your physical and mental focus on one thing. In order to reach enlightenment, Buddhists have to meditate as much as possible...so what better way to multi-task than to meditate while eating?!?

The highlight of the day was the wholly unexpected and really lovely free meal that the temple provided for us. Wow! We even got to practice a bit of food meditation - eating in silence while savoring our food for forty bites per mouthful. Actually, it was a really neat experience. If you get a chance, try it! Not only does it allow you to savor the flavors of the food, but you really start thinking about all sorts of stuff (the consistency of the food, how your jaw moves as you chew, the muscle movements in your esophagus as you swallow, etc.).

Given the sacred nature of the day, it seems wrong to say this, but the following is a shameless demonstration of food porn (as so often utilized by Zen Kimchi).

Quite a spread! This isn't even the whole table!

Delicious kimbap, which is sort of like Korean sushi (sans the fish).

Lotus leaf rice (yeonnip bap) - one of my favorites in Chinese dim sum, but the temple cuisine version is neither salty or meaty.

An incredible soup that is supposed to capture the flavors of autumn. It certainly tasted like it!

Lotus roots pickled and naturally sweetened...in pomegranate juice?

A red rice porridge. Looks like red bean, but it wasn't sweet. Yummy!

At forty bites per mouthful, it took a little while to finish my plate. It was a deliciously long meal!

Obviously, meat and animal products are forbidden in temple cuisine, so it's pretty healthy stuff. All the ingredients are natural, so temple food does not contain any processed sugar, either. I also learned that there are five forbidden foods in Buddhism: onion, garlic, and leek (actually, three kinds of leek to make the forbidden foods = 5). Eating these foods raw stirs anger, and eating them cooked arouses sexual desire. Hmmm! Interesting! But anger and sexual misconduct are, of course, also forbidden by Buddha's teachings, so none of onion, garlic, or leek in temple cuisine thanks! This must be difficult, given the fact that Koreans eat garlic by bagful (really!).




In addition to the lovely meal, we foreigners were also treated to a traditional tea ceremony. Actually, it was much less formal than a Japanese Tea Ceremony, so, by contrast, it was almost a tea party! Again, the monks were great and took time to explain to us how to brew tea, hold our cups, etc.

A volunteer from the temple congregation, dressed in a traditional Korean hanbok, helps brew the tea.

Korean tea cakes. Not exactly crumpets, but way cooler! The red and green cakes are made of sweet beans, but the yellow is a very expensive cake made from compressed tree pollen! I'm surprised I didn't break out in hay fever when I ate it!

More tea cakes - this time, the glutinous rice variety.

Ready to smear!

We got a free book, The Korean Way of Tea, along with a box of (very expensive!!!) lotus tea for our participation in the day, but another free giveaway was kimchi that we got to make ourselves! And, of course, by "make ourselves", I mean that the hard-working monks and congregation volunteers salted the kimchi, prepared the red pickling sauce (no garlic and sweetened naturally with persimmon!), and dealt with all of the cleanup associated while all we foreigners did was slather the sauce all over the kimchi.

Voilà! It's takes college educated skill to smear Napa cabbage with red sauce, you know....yeah, the Gladlock container was free, too.

Temple cuisine has stayed the same for a long time, so in a way it's really one of the truly "traditional" foods of Korea, eaten before hot peppers and Mickey Dees came to the peninsula. It was really a pleasure to learn more about it and Buddhism, which is really an interesting philosophy and religion. If only I didn't like chicken so much and think that mosquitoes deserve to be destroyed (I'm sorry, Buddha). I hope others will be able to attend the same event next year, too. In fact, if you visit Korea in the future, you might consider temple stay to get the full experience!

Seoul Living: The irony of being "away"

You can't escape it.

Chalk it up to globalization, but it is harder and harder to fully leave home behind, as evidenced by this cafe, which is - ironically! - just steps away from my language school.

One of the evident things about Seoul is that it is absolutely packed with Western (specifically, US) chain restaurants. Starbucks is here in a big way, but so are Dunkin Donuts, Krispy Kreme, Ruby Tuesday, Outback Steakhouse, Bennigans, Papa Johns and any other western chain you can think of...and within a one mile radius if you live where I do!

Good news for Americans: you can get a fat ass with that cup of coffee anywhere you go! (side of chocolate munchkins to go, please)

There is also a fascination with Italian pasta, pizza, and especially French bakeries that seems a bit weird, too. Or, maybe it's just the many Korean shops and chains that have French words in the title. Anyhoo, I hear Tous Les Jours Bakery and Paris Baguette aren't bad, despite the Korean penchance to make every thing they eat a little sweet (or, as the Koreans say, "sweety" :).

I'll eat enough McDonalds abroad to make up for my avoidance of it at home.

But the Korean twist on Western menu items is often what's really fun. McDonalds in Korea has the typical Big Mac and chicken nuggets, but also has a "spicy" menu that tries to incorporate the hot red pepper flavor that Koreans love. There's also the bulgogi burger, as well as a shrimp burger. I think McDonalds got rid of the kimchi burger, but maybe I can still go to Lotteria to try it out. Lotteria is the local Korean competitor to Mickey Dee's, and it sure looks a heck of a lot tastier. I can try the shrimp or squid burgers while I'm at it.

I've determined that eating localized versions of Western food is sometimes as fun as trying the local eats. I mean, the tomato sauce might be oddly sugary, but when are you going to get squid on your pizza again? I'll look forward to that.

Seoul Living: Waiting all year to beg for free stuff

What are all these kids in blue doing? Begging for free food!

Apparently, it's a tradition during the Ko-Yon Games, when Yonsei University and Korea University - two private universities in Seoul - compete in a bunch of athletic contest to test their famous rivalry. This year, KU apparently won most of the matches (which are in baseball and soccer, amongst a few other sports), but no one seemed to care. On Saturday night, gangs of students in Yonsei blue and KU crimson took to the streets, parking themselves in front of restaurants and bars, singing and chanting for food, booze, anything free. I gotta say, I heard some pretty impressive chants (along with coordinated dances). I hope those kids got something out of it.

But begging for free stuff only once out of the year? Come on, that's what everyday American college life is about!!!

What's actually even cooler was that, despite the (thousands of?) students in the streets, it was so very friendly between the two schools. No fights! No riots, sir! My friend, Pat, was in the Notre Dame marching band and once mentioned to me that Michigan fans used to throw broken beer bottles at them. None of this here. The Yonsei-KU rivalry is big, but it was neat to see that all the students were just really having a good time, both amongst their own schoolmates and the others'. We gotta get more non-violent happy energy (over the violent type!) going back in the US and Europe!


It seemed that most of the student gangs were really groups of kids from the same academic department. This was delightfully nerdy at times, as evidenced by this awesome varsity jacket. I love it...and am reminded of my varsity band jacket that I proudly wore in high school.

Uh, did I really just admit that?

Lest I make the Koreans seem too stereotypically, well, Asian (in the American definition of the stereoptype), the night of the "Let's beg for free food" gangs was also the same night as Seoul's Cyon B-Boy Competition in my neighborhood (Cyon is a Korean phone brand by LG Electronics) . Korean hip hop culture! Who woulda thunk it? More surprising, however, is how cool Korean hip hop (specifically, b-boy) culture is. Really, it's not the "Oh my gosh, these guys are so lame" attempts to replicate hip hop. The only slightly lame part was when the Cyon executive came out to present the 1st place prize. A suit amongst a bunch of b-boys. Amusing.

Korean b-boys are apparently some of the best in the world...I guess they are skinnier so they, er, spin faster? Anyways, the competition was really entertaining. You know, for all the people taking videos at the event, there wasn't one video that I could find online! This is the closest I could get, and these guys weren't even as half as good as the actual competition finalists! Still, it's an entertaining bit about Korean life that you probably didn't know about before.

The more you know...

Seoul Living: Most powerful toothpaste ever

A few days have passed in Seoul. I'm getting settled, including purchasing full-sized toiletries. Like toothpaste.

Oh, look, I found a brand that looks pretty good!



Hey, what's that say in the corner there?



Whoa! Where was this when I needed it during first year of college?!?

Sorry. I promise I won't make my blog posts too much about poking fun at Engrish. I can only imagine what I sound like when speaking another language...and the Koreans are trying hard! I just found this one too good to not share. :)

Anyhoo, things are plugging along! I've found a place to live (moving in Wednesday!) and Seoul is great...not least of all because there is food EVERYWHERE. I love it.

More soon!

Switzerland (Suisse - Schweiz - Svizzera - Svizra): Just like a postcard...

Geneva's glorious Jet d'Eau by sunset.

Ah, yes. Yet another retroactive post.

It seems a bit odd that I spent 4 months in Switzerland and didn't really blog about it at all. Honestly, there is so much and yet so little to say about this country. That's not to sound perjorative! What I mean is that one's stereotypes about Switzerland - clean, orderly, full of chocolate, watches, and secure banking - are not unfounded. At the same time, there are subtleties about the country that make it more complex than an outsider could ever imagine.

I lived in Francophone Switzerland, or, as those "in the know" call it, Suisse Romande. Most of my time was spent in Geneva (Genève), although I actually lived in small villages just outside of the city. Still, I got to brush up my French...and realize how very badly I speak it!

Swiss Independence: From Moola to the UN (until 2002, anyway)
Although it is smack-dab in the middle of Europe and the crossroads of three very distinct cultures (French, German, and Italian), Switzerland has usually walked its own road in history. Some may call it "independent", others say "isolated", but what's sure is that the Swiss are an interesting lot! Is it the four official languages (German, French, Italian, Romansch...and English, which should probably be the unofficial fifth language)? Or maybe it's the conscript army in which all "on-call" able-bodied men can keep their machine guns at home? Or the fact that the country didn't join the United Nations until 2002, despite Geneva being the European headquarters of the UN?

It shouldn't be surprising, then, that Swiss are also not in the European Union. Most people don't know that Switzerland uses the noble Swiss Franc (usually denoted "CHF") instead of the Euro. It's about 1CHF=US$0.70. This exchange rate sorta makes Americans feel better when they buy stuff, because it means that the Swiss Franc price paid is usually less than one thinks. Unfortunately, this joy does not last long, because everything is wicked expensive in Switzerland. Sigh. Small victories, people...small victories!


Swiss food: Cheese - No longer an enemy

Best rösti ever.

Sure, I tried Swiss food! As previous readers I know, there's nothing I don't like to eat (or, at least I haven't found it yet) so of course I shall say that Swiss cuisines is delicious, even if I'm a bit of a cheese hater in the States. Fondue is excellent, but a bit overkill if you find staring down a pot of cheese mixed with booze (white wine) tough (and, believe me, it's tough!). Raclette, however, is a cheesy delight. It consists of raclette cheese that is melted slowly and served over boiled potatoes and pickled pearl onions and gherkins. Yum.

By far my favorite traditional Swiss dish, however, is Rösti. Okay, so it's basically hash browns. BUT it's jazzed up! You can get it a lot of different ways - from plain to topped with all sorts of veggies or even fruit. I like rösti campagnard (country-style), with cheese, ham, and a fried egg on top (yeah, so you've figured out through my food posts that I like things with fried eggs on top...so sue me!). You could say I'm a bit of a rösti connoisseur by now.

I definitely grew to have a greater appreciation for cheese over the summer. I always have a great fondness of cheese that I eat a lot of while I'm traveling and living abroad. So my triumvirate of cheeses shall always remain: camembert (thanks, Bordeaux!), emmental (a.k.a. Swiss cheese), and Gruyère. I guess I can no longer call myself a cheese hater! Julie, aren't you proud?!?!

Real-life postcards

A pretty nifty castle here, Château Chillon in Montreux is the postcard perfect scene for Switzerland.

Sometimes, though, the high cost of living nearly seems worth it, because Switzerland must truly be one of the most beautiful places in Europe, if not the world. The mountains and the great outdoors rule, and some places can't help but scream "Heidi Land". Armed with my trusty half-price train card, I did as much traveling around Switzerland as was possible on the weekend, while keeping a budget. I hit nearly every major corner of the country (exceptions: Lake Constance, which is the country's northeast border with Germany, and the southern border with Italy).

Here are just a few of the glorious sights I was lucky enough to see this summer:

After a climb up the Gornergrat Mountain near Zermatt, we get to see the Gornergrat Glacier. Pretty spiffy, eh?

The view of the Aletsh Glacier is spectacular from the equally impressive Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe and destination of one of the most incredible railway journeys ever.

The quaint Swiss countryside (complete and, indeed, replete with dairy cows) is alive and well in Gruyères.

A short jaunt from my guesthouse led me to beautiful Lake Stadz (Laj da Staz in Romansch) in St. Moritz.

The triumvirate of the Lauterbrunnen valley - a view of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau massifs from Mürren, one of my favorite places in Switzerland.

In Mürren lives one of the coolest restaurant couples ever - Mr. Tham and his wife, Ruth. Good food, great people (Singaporean and Malaysian to boot!)! Mr. Tham used to be a five-star Chinese chef in Zürich but ran away to the mountains to escape the rat race (and get good skiing in the winter!). Shameless plug: visit Tham's Snacks and Drinks if you're ever in Mürren!

You can see some more pictures of my excellent time in Switzerland here.

Swiss Issues (Can I say "swissues"?)
Switzerland's isolation/independence was largely aided by the prevalence of mountains in the country, but that was really in a time when mountains were really hard to climb, doggone it!, and there was not much technological means to overcome the physical and social barriers between countries.

Not so today. Like much of the rest of Europe, one of the major swissues (hee) of the day is that of immigration, both documented and undocumented. As I understand it, Swiss citizenship is alot like Maslow's self-actualization or the One Ring - it's pretty tough to get. There is some contention that "outside" cultures may be breaking down Swiss identity (er, whatever that means), but this gets to be a touchy subject when it comes to using physical appearance to identify threats to Swiss-ness.

One of the biggest controversies when I was in Switzerland was this little sign here, which is plastered all over Switzerland:


Interpret as you will, but I think the graffiti on the sign is probably a hint for you. I won't go on too much, as this article from the UK newspaper, The Independent, does a great job explaining the issue in detail (plus, I am trying to get you to read something intelligent instead this blog...). It's pretty interesting stuff! And quite indicative of a lot of the social pains that Switzerland - and Western Europe at large - is experiencing these days.


In the end...
...can I really complain that it was awful living in an ideologically isolationist, I'm-going-to-go-broke-because-I-want-to-eat, force-me-to-eat-your-darn-tasty-hash-browns, maybe-kinda-sorta-racist country? Nope. I really enjoyed living in Switzerland. The mountain air was delightful (especially now that I'm choking in Seoul and will likely be suffocating from pollution in Beijing), Evian-like water flowed straight from the taps, and the country's dedication to green living was awesome. I really wish we had parts of this in the US.

I don't think I'll miss everything closing at 7 PM and on Sunday, though. Or being broke. :)

Merci, Suisse!