USA Kimbap

My wonderful kimbap lady, Son Myung-ai, makes me  incredibly happy.  It has been such a blessing that I have been fortunate enough to cross paths with her and develop this inexplicable bond through both language and cultural barriers.  She is like a Korean mother to me.  She took me shopping through the street market this past weekend, walking hand in hand.  This is very common in Korea, for both men, women & children of all ages to be walking arm in arm or hand in hand.  It is just a physically close & affectionate society (when they aren't barreling past you to get on the bus first).  Anyway, it was just really neat going to this market that I frequent with her and seeing it through her eyes.  I also bought some apples from one of the stands and was given the best apples I have had since arriving in Korea.  The woman went to her special stash, so I think it helped having Son Myung-ai with me.  She also bought me a pair of socks.  Here is a picture of them:

That's what Kimchi is made from.  It's called a Daikon, which is basically an Asian radish.

I spent about 3 hours with her that day, when I specifically went in there for some kimbap, before I went to the grocery store.  After we got back to her shop she wanted to know what I was buying at the store and I told her tortillas and named a few other things.  She wanted to know what 'tortillas' were, so I explained them, and then pulled up google images to show her.  She then wanted to know what I did with them, so I again pulled up images and showed her a few pictures of tortilla wraps.  She smiles and says in a really excited tone of voice, "Ohhhhhh USA Kimbap!!!!".   It tickled me.  I will never be able to make a wrap again, without thinking, "USA kimbap".

Son Myung-ai asked me to tutor someone that goes to her church, for no small amount of money.  I thought about it pretty seriously, but many teachers get fired from their jobs when they are tutoring outside of their contract.  Although Ulsan is about the size of Denver, it has a very small city feel at times, with the strong sense of community.  When I walk down the street in my neighborhood, I am certain the majority of the regular stores I pass and people I see know that I am the teacher at Bangeojin Elementary.  With this in mind, I didn't want to start tutoring and have word get around that I am tutoring this person and run the risk of losing my job this far along in the contract.  Also, not to mention I would like to honor the contract and not be in a position to question my integrity.  When I spoke to Son Myung-ai a few days later, she told me that he has a "big mouth" and she worries for me.  She is also worried because he is single and he wants someone to do many things with and she worries that he will get the wrong idea about me.  With that said, that was my non-existent stint as an English tutor.

"Teacher!!!  White hair!!!" says one of my students today in total shock and amazement.  From there a small crowd of students gathered around my chair each taking a closer look at my head and getting a little too excited for my liking when they kept finding more!   The sad part about this, is that once a week I let a small group of students have one guess at my age, and if they get it right I will give them a piece of candy (I've had to 'pinky swear' on this at least a dozen times).  We've been playing this game for a couple of weeks now and so far nobody has guessed the correct answer.  Right before the white hairs were discovered, I was feeling pretty good about myself as a round of guesses included "23, 18, 25, 22".  After the discovery I noticed an alarmingly drastic difference in the guesses.  Almost immediately, I got "40, 39" and one of the students who guessed "23" then upped her guess to "35", but I don't let them change answers.  I had google translate up at the time of the discovery, and I put in there "korean children gave me white hair".  They laughed and said, "sorry teacher".

I accidentally let a slug loose in my apartment.  I have been eating on some kale for a little over a week and this morning I was getting ready to put some in my eggs.  It was looking a little wilty and then there was this weird black, smooshy thing in the bag, so I decided against using it.   I pulled out the leaves to stick them in the compost container and on closer examination of the bag, realized it was a slug that was hanging onto life.  Being the softy that I am, I put the slug on the kale leaf, in the compost container and thought to carry it outside to set it free and give it a chance at life (yeah, i know....).   I go about cooking my breakfast and the slug is coming to and looking like it was going to make it, but--well, how fast can a slug thats been in my fridge for a week move?  So I decided to finish my morning routine before taking it outside (about 15 minutes). Well, needless to say, the slug was not where I left it or any where in sight.  Who knows....I just hope I don't discover it by stepping on it.    If you've ever wanted inspiration to wash your "pre-washed" vegetables though...

Tid Bits:

I took Son Myung-ai on a virtual tour of the house & street I grew up on and then through Denver as well, using google maps 'street view'.  She was really excited to see it and kept thanking me over and over for sharing this with her.