My Life: Update

Hey everyone. I realize that over the past couple weeks, I haven't been adding to much on my own personal life.

The truth is, things have settled into a little bit of a rhythm, and I haven't had any big new adventures in awhile. I figured the best way to really keep you up to date on my situation is to continue posting these current event stories.

You can read them and come to your own conclusion. What's important to know, though, is that as I read and hear about these new stories every day, it adds to much of my frustration with the culture here. I'm an open-minded guy, but anyone who has followed this blog regularly knows I face a fair amount of stress here while continuing to adjust to life in such a radically different culture from back home.

Here's a little bit of what I've been up to:

1) Last Saturday, Vicky and I went to Seoul and met with two of her friends. But more importantly, we met with my old college roommate Kevin Gallagher. Kevin and I met at Pitt as we shared a floor of a dorm our freshman year at Pitt. We lived together for the following two years. Sophomore year was spent with 6 guys total in a dorm in the quad. Junior year was a highlight, as seven of us got together to split a house in South Oakland.

I saw Kevin briefly last year. But besides that one time, it's been close to five years since we've seen each other. Go figure that we happen to meet up in Seoul.

2) This weekend was really laid-back and low-key. On Friday, Eli and I had a few drinks and went to 능허대 공원 (Neunghadae Park). The park marks where the coast of Incheon used to be, before much of the sea became reclaimed land and building space. It was once a very important port among trade routes between Korea and other Asian countries.

Anyway, it's nice to have a little bit of green space anywhere in South Korea, which is simply paved everywhere in this northwest corner. I'll post park pictures when I get a nice day to take them. The weather was a bit gloomy last week.

3) Today, Vicky and her sister invited me over for a late lunch/early dinner. They made a traditional Japanese dish. It is very much like a pancake with vegetables, squid, crab and some other things that I don't even know. They also made special traditional 떡볶이 (ddokboki - a common rice cake dish) that was apparently eaten in the time of King Sejong. King Sejong is the man credited with creating Hangul (the Korean alphabet) in 1446 during the Chosun Dynasty. He is so highly regarded here that it's his picture adorning the 만원(10,000 won note).

It was really good. It didn't use the red pepper paste that is most commonly used now. It was made with soy sauce, beef and vegetables. No wonder King Sejong liked it.

4) Here's some great news. I found out Saturday that we get May 4 and 5 off from academy. We were originally getting only May 5 off for Children's Day, a national holiday. But thankfully, our leaders at Jungchul were kind enough to give us the four-day weekend. What a relief!