K is for Kim-chi: March 2013

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

SPRING!!!!!!!!

Spring was practically here a few days ago.

And then its arrival became even more apparent.

And now?

Well, it's here.

No more words needed.

The Beginning.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Foiled Again

"K" really is for kimchi.

Kimchi is everywhere.

Mmm-- a delicious bowl of baked spaghetti. I was so excited to see this in the cafeteria today. Mmm-- tomato sauce. Garlic bread.

Imagine my surprise when the ticket said "Spaghetti & Spicy." Thankfully, it wasn't too spicy. But if you look closely, you can see pieces of cabbage sticking out underneath that deceiving cheese.

Fooled by Korean Italian again.

Which reminds me.

I never showed you the first time we ate "Italian" food here.

Pizza with salad on top.

Sort of pizza. Still no tomato sauce.

Tastes like fried rice/fajita meat mix. With egg.

Cold spaghetti noodles and salad.

Oddly enough, the "American food" sloppy joes I had once had a more tomato/Italian like sauce on them than sloppy joe like. You take what you can get here. (I miss salty (not sweet or spicy) foods!)

This is it for salty so far. Addicting as potato chips!

Funny Things on Korean T-Shirts

When looking at T-shirts with English writing on them in Korea, one expects a few errors and oddities. Things like "Los York New Angeles," "Welcome to the Jungle Baby,"and "JUNK."

But there are always a few surprises...

First, let's start with the more mild examples.

What?!

Wasn't expecting this! But Korean's are obviously biased, as there was no U of M shirt. Still fun to see something from home!

Oh look, it's a name tag T-shirt. No name tag required. Easy to remember people's names if we all did this. (Especially Korean names, which are hard to remember.) Too bad Bon isn't a name in English that I'm aware of.

I'm not really sure who "Bon" is. Certainly not my roommate, who was kind enough to model.

And here is another example of a seemingly arbitrary use of English. Perhaps some hipster influence?

Because everyone wants mustaches on their shirt.

And there's nothing quite so attractive as a man with a caterpillar lip.

And then there's T-shirts like these...

Sure, you might be able to find a snarky T-shirt like this at a flea market in the U.S., but it's still funnier in Korea.

"You don't need bigger boobs. You need to read better books."

Not entirely certain on the interpretation of the correlation of these two.

... a commentary on South Korea's plastic surgery culture?

... a commentary on pop culture in general?

...Let's just title it: *Nerd Angst*.

Because boobs and books are obviously related.

But this one just takes the cake.

You know, in case you like to wear your theological views on your T-shirt.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Better Late than Never

International Students HANST 2013

First, a word of thanks to the girl who made this post possible. Thanks, Miree, for taking most of the following photos and posting them on Facebook. (Thanks to all the others whose photos I stole, as well...)

The following are pictures from our first week at Handong, called HANST -- Handong Student Training.

First, some pictures of the International Teams HANST!

And here are a few of us waiting to head out for the day.

Enjoying a Korean meal.

Yay pizza!

(Korean pizza... Made with sweet potato instead of tomato sauce... Not bad, depending on the toppings... This time bulgogi (sweet, marinated beef) and ham and potato pizzas.)

More food.

Sawako's birthday!

Team B!

Holding the Korean flag we drew from memory, even explaining the symbols.

Waiting, in one of several lecture/orientation things, to be zapped by the loud click in the translator device.

That's a lot of freshmen.

Oh, you know, just showing us all the talented clubs at Handong.

Kpop dancing! (There were female groups, too, but no pictures. But trust me when I say they danced pretty well. And in case you haven't seen a kpop dance before... I'll include a video.)