"Gangneung-Style" Relief Society Birthday Party!

One of the challenges that I have struggled the most with since moving to Sokcho is feeling like we don't really participate in church. We only attend sacrament meeting and then stick around for lunch after that and since our branch is so small, we don't have extra meetings. Since March 17th is the "birthday" of the Relief Society, our district put together a birthday party. It seemed similar to some of the same activities that I've attended in the States but there were some differences as well.

The first difference was that many of the men showed up from the various branches! This was so strange. At all of the Relief Society activities that I've been to there were only a handful of men and most were only there for a few minutes. It was more like a district meeting than a Relief Society meeting. There still were not more than fifty people or so but it was nice to be around so many Saints again. 

After the customary talks about the Relief Society program and a talk by a man in the district presidency (I think) talking about how he never had to do dishes or housework for 60 years until his wife broke her arm and about the new-found respect he had for her after having to help her out for 6 weeks while it healed, there was a branch talent show. There was usually one person or group of people from each branch that did a couple of acts apiece. Our branch did three traditional Korean songs. Soren and I were not given very much advanced notice so we didn't participate though I did end up taking on the role of photographer/videographer during their performance. Most of it was on another members camera though I did get one and a half videos and a couple pictures on mine before the battery quit.

Yes, this really is most of our branch! There are only four adults missing plus Soren and I. You will also notice that we have two red headed missionaries right now bringing the count of red heads in the branch and that entire building to three. I'm sure that the Koreans were stunned so see so much red hair in all in one place!

 Our Branch President's daughter is visiting for a couple months and speaks English really well. From her I've gathered that the song that they are singing in this video is a traditional fisherman's song. They would sing it while bringing in the nets at the end of the day to keep pace and make the work seem less laborious. Everyone in the audience seemed to enjoy it. All were clapping to keep time and many were singing along by the end. It was really neat to watch.

I couldn't get pictures of the other performances given the lack of a working camera battery but I think that our branch may have had the most crowd involvement. We even had more involvement that he guy that played "Oh Susanna" on the harmonica! :D

The meeting finished of with a yard-sale type fundraiser to help raise money for the district activities. Hyrum somehow left with a container of wooden blocks that someone was selling but gave to him instead. He seems to get free things from Korean quite often though so I really should be too surprised. :) I think that the real steal of the night was the handmade, Korean-style sponge that I got for just under $1! It shaped like awesomeness (read: purple strawberry) but Soren is bound and determined it is an eggplant (less awesome).  I would have gotten a picture but, once again, no camera battery. 

Basically, it was a good way to spend out Saturday afternoon and evening. Since there were some people that spoke pretty good English, we even got to talk to people. Hyrum also found some friends in a couple girls that wanted to play with his blocks! It was good to feel like I was really taking part in something instead of just showing up.

My Korean Food Adventure

The truth is that I basically don't eat Korean food. It's not that I don't like it, I just have a semi-fear of it. Part of the problem is that the time when we first got to Korea was the same time that I started having morning sickness. Until now the thought of Korean food, unless someone orders it for me, has reminded me of that. About the only time I really eat it now is when we go to the linger-longer after church each week except fast Sunday. Even then I eat reservedly. I want to go out and try some restaurants but I wouldn't even be able to order. 

I've noticed that Hyrum and I are just not eating enough vegetables. The kinds that I can find at the grocery stores, that won't require me to sell body parts to fund my shopping, are those that I don't really like or have no idea how to prepare. To fight this, I have started to try to make some of the dishes that I have had that I liked. It's a little tricky but so far it is going well!

I started out with a simple radish dish that turned out to be pretty good! Who would have thought that radishes could taste good?!

My next step was a little more interesting with dak juk, a chicken porridge, and geotjeori, a korean green salad. I made this on a night when Soren was not home but Hyrum and I thought it was pretty good. Sorry that I didn't get a picture of the salad.

Strengthened by good recipes and no morning sickness, I decided that for my third day of Korean cooking I would be a little more adventurous. Enter Kimchi Jjigae, a spicy fermented cabbage stew! I have heard stories about this soup. I can now confirm them. It's delicious! It's spicy! It's kimchi!

  

Seriously though, I had had some at the last linger longer and it was really good. My attempt turned out pretty great as well! Even Hyrum liked it. (Warning: Parents in favor of giving your toddlers bland food, LOOK AWAY!) 

These past three days have really helped get me more comfortable with cooking, and eating, Korean food. Now if only I had people to cook for! :D

Barley and Curly "Bacon"

One of the harder things about living in Korea is being so homesick for "American foods" that we took for granted when at home. You know, things like cheese, salsa, strawberries, bacon, and tortillas. It's true that some of the things that we miss ARE available in Korean stores but many are only available at foreign markets in places like Seoul. Those that are easily found are crazy expensive though. 

Strawberries must have just come into season wherever the stores import them from because we are seeing them appear practically everywhere. At home on a good day I would buy a pound of strawberries for $1 or $1.50. Here the cheapest we have seen them is for about $5.50 a pound! 

We are able to find cheese at the stores as well. Unfortunately it is all the super processed, sliced, Kraft-singles-esque types of cheese and all of the varieties we have tried have been horrible.  Needlessly to say we are always surprised and excited when we find a "Korean" substitute for something that we ate at home.

One of my favorite winter breakfasts is oatmeal and bacon. Both of those items are basically on our "unattainable" list here in Korea...until now! We have found that pressed barley is a passable substitute for oatmeal. It is slightly more dense and is missing a little of the nutty flavor of oatmeal but it is 1/5 of the cost! Yay!! "Bacon" is our other new discovery this week. Here, our equivalent is sold in little, semi-frozen curls. (I don't know what the Korean use for curly strips of pork is, but it looks fun.) I wish that I had a picture of the semi-frozen curls but, alas, mine have all defrosted and slumped together.Hyrum and I tried some today with some sauteed greens and mushrooms and except for the missing smokey flavor I wouldn't have known the difference! While these curls are still rather expensive, as ALL meat here is, it still comes out at half the cost of an equivalent weight of bacon.

The longer we are here, the easier it is to find a taste of "home" in the Korean stores with the occasional help from places that ship internationally like iherb.com. Some things like Macaroni and cheese and enchiladas will probably have to wait until we are back in the US but  until then barley and curly "bacon" may just help me on the days I am homesick the most.

As it is related to the whole "bacon" discovery, I would like to mention what an amazing son I have. I mentioned that I made sauteed greens and mushrooms for lunch today. What I didn't say was that it did not turn out good...at all. I made it for lunch because I knew that with mushrooms and onion in it Soren would not eat it. I, on the other hand, like onions and mushrooms.  I didn't even finish my serving. Hyrum however powered through it and left only a few pieces of mushroom behind! How many people can say that their 15 month old like mushrooms and swiss chard?! Most struggle with things like carrots. Not Hyrum though! As long as the pieces are manageable in size and texture, he is game. It's pretty amazing! Hopefully this next one follows in his brothers footsteps! I guess that that is the end of my "mommy moment" for now.

Korean Adventure: Phase Two

In the middle of November we moved to Sokcho, South Korea. It's a little sea-side city of about 84,000 people in north-eastern South Korea. We have the East Sea on one side, mountains on another, and a lake in the middle. There doesn't seem to be too much going on here but what we have seen of the city, especially that along the coast is pretty. There are a few things to see here too and since the city is rather small they are all within walking distance from the apartment, though it may be a long walk. I don't have any pictures yet but I will try to remedy that soon.

Halloween

 Since Korea doesn't celebrate Halloween, the only Halloween thing we did this year was to attend our branch's  Fall Festival. All of the American kids were dressed up and none of the Korean kids were. It was funny to see. I decided last minute to dress Hyrum up and chose for him an octopus costume.

He enjoyed having such fun things so close to him. He enjoyed it so much in fact that by the end of the night he was a hexapus!

He's One!

October 7th was Hyrum's 1st birthday! It's hard to believe that it has already been that long. Already he is walking and trying to talk. He doesn't have any real words yet but boy does he have some strong opinions about things. He also likes to pick toys up and put them in things. Drawers, cups, plastic containers, all are great for toys! He's even got two more teeth for a total of six!

We were sad that our family was not able to celebrate his birthday with us. I guess being in Korea does that. 

Spaghetti and Cheese! Hyrums Favorites!

We also had Birthday Brownies!

I may be a bad influence on him. He REALLY like chocolate!

I'm pretty sure he enjoyed his day!

Jinju Lanterns (part two)

After all of the fun of getting to Jinju and getting a hotel we got to get the real fun started. The Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival, or Jinju Lantern Festival, is one of the best festivals in South Korea according to the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. It celebrates the two battles that took place there during the Imjin War. The significance of the lanterns is that they represent a successful tactic used against the Japanese to keep them from crossing the river during battle.

In the last post, I mentioned the difference between seeing the lanterns during the day and at night. As we walked from the train station to the hotel, we saw flower lanterns floating on the river.

After we left the hotel room to see the festival those flower lanterns were lit up, as well as the bridge. It changed the entire scene.

Since we didn't have much time we decided to just jump in and see all that we could instead of trying to find specific exhibits. We started out on the river bank closest to our hotel and worked our way toward the fortress. This turned out to be a good choice because it turned out that there were tons of different exhibits there. So many that we spent around two hours just in there and didn't manage to see everything!

The first lanterns within the gates of the fortress were these neat trees and birds. 

What really surprised me was that Soren asked to take a picture with me. Pleasantly surprised but still surprised! 

Now if only Hyrum had been looking in the right direction!

The first major exhibit reflected the nature of the festival. The fortress was "staffed" with lanterns. There were guards posted around to keep us tourists in line and soldiers fighting on the grass.

Soldiers fighting on horseback

A cart to carry away tourists...I mean prisoners. :D

Soldiers lining the steps

Again Soren surprised me by asking for a picture!

 Another of the exhibits was a display of Korean life. It showed many of the traditional tasks that would be performed both in and out of the home.

 We also got to see King Benjamen!!

Aside form all of the lanterns we were also able to see a lot of the old fortress and some cultural dancing.

The tactic that this festival celebrates is how the Koreans used lanterns to light the river so that the Japanese could not cross unnoticed at night. To commemorate this the river is filled with large decorative lanterns for the length of the festival. We only got to see a few of them since we only had one night.

The view down the river

The other major theme of the festival is hope and wishing. We took part in two of the wishing activities. The first activity was to take part in building lanterns made of wishes. Visitors write their wishes on strips of a plastic-like cloth and glue it to a metal frame.  We helped make the green chicken.

We sat down to eat some pineapple and this was the first English wish I could see.

Our green chicken!

One of the other wish lanterns, a brown bull.

A blue snake wish lantern.

The other wish activity we participated in was the floating wish lanterns. Visitors purchase floating lanterns with a candle inside and write their wishes on papers that are then taped to the outside.

Our lantern!

Our wish!

In the next three photos, our lantern is in the bottom right corner.

Floating down the river!

There it goes!

We had a great time and would have loved to stay longer. Alas, Saturdays are only so long.