South Korea

HIYA!

I've finally made peanut butter. It's real easy and it tastes good. Just like the stuff in stores. I was thinking to buy peanut butter from the US - through the mail - because I really like it, and it's a useful food for the way I like to eat. Then I saw a peanut butter maker online. Thought, "Ah, now I've got it. I'll just make my own. Much cheaper and everything." Then I saw a recipe that said you can use a blender. I've read this many times but the times I've tried it it never worked. I've never wanted to use additional oil though. This time I broke down and added the 1 teaspoon of oil that the recipe said to use. So I did. One cup of peanuts and one teaspoon of oil. Blend away. Comes out peanut butter. Actually, it's not real real easy. It's gooey and the peanuts don't blend so very easily. At least not in the tiny blender I used. Anway, I won't buy a peanut butter maker anytime soon.

Korean food, for the most part, is okay with me. But I prefer to eat the way I've been eating for quite a few years. Mostly raw. I find the food to be very spicy. Not spicy hot so much as very very full of flavor. It's so, so, so, rich, I guess. I don't know really how to explain what I don't like so much.

There are some wonderful foods that I eat fairly often. There are these little buckwheat pancakes that the lady who sells them on the street rolls us with some shredded Giant Japanese Radish, a bit of sesame oil, some sesame seeds, and some soy sauce. MMMM. I once went to a vegetarian restaurant and had a potato pancake. Also really really yummy. I want to learn to make these things so I can make them at home. I've steamed potatoes and sweet potatoes, next I'll steam some pumpkin because I love all these foods steamed.

I have lunch at the temple every Sunday. It's organic and vegan. Tastes okay for the most part. There's this little pancake thing that they put vegetables in that I like.

Fruit is really expensive here so these foods help keep the cost of fruit down. Just yesterday though I got a really good bargain on a box of grapes. A 5 kg box. I will let you figure how many pounds that works out to. About 12 pounds?! Yeah, must be. Wow. I gave away a bunch to my boss and the rest I'll eat up in a few days. They're not organic, nor is most of the fruit that I buy here, but in Thailand I learned to wash produce using a bit of baking soda and water. Let the produce sit in the solution for 20 minutes then rinse well. So I always do that.

I just bought some vegetables yesterday at the fresh outside market not far from the school. It's a kind of mallow. Very nice. And cheap. Might be organic even. But I still wash it. Many Koreans, it seems, don't know this. I got some seeds from a friend at the temple and planted them yesterday. She said I could plant them now. But I read on the internet last night that they're a summer vegetable. That's in the US. So I don't know how well they'll do over winter here.

First day of rain we've had in a long time. I'll go out and plant some vegetables that I dug up from the temple. Wild vegetables that I ate a lot of in Thailand. Koreans don't know it, just like Thais don't know it. But we ate it a lot when I lived at the temple in the north of Thailand.

This is all for now.

Ah, I got some organic vegetarian kimchi from the people at the temple and I eat it often. I like kimchi pretty well. I want to learn to make it. They'll make it later this fall. I'll help.

And the landlord's son gave me some of the Korean miso that they've made for their own use. A lot. I like it okay but doubt that I'll eat it all up in the one year I'll be here. My boss says it's "proven" to be good for your health! Something about cancer, I think he said.

Troy.

HIYA!

The tilde means "fairly". I don't suppose I'll ever lead a strictly conventional life. Views and beliefs and such are too different. But this life here ain't so bad. I've got lots of free time, I've got plenty of comfort, freedom, enough money, friends and other things I need to live a fairly satisfying life. I don't want to live like this forever though.

I would like to devote myself much more to growing plants, to landscape, and other idealist things that interest me. But I expect to realize those things more once I find a place to live.

There are lots of positive things about living like this. I listen to music that I like. I eat food that I like. I plant vegetables that I like. I am learning language which I've always enjoyed doing. I'm going to start doing yoga as soon as the DVDs arrive. I'm glad to have a group to meditate with regularly and be a part of the temple community.

I contribute things to the little community there that I feel they appreciate. I talk with the little kids who speak English (incredibly well for their young ages), introduce them to wild edible plants that they know nothing about yet which are all around them, I am always in a really good mood there and it shows, I'm sure. I smile and laugh often. I am polite with the people there yet not so polite that we feel distant from each other. At least I don't feel distant from them.

I maintain email contact with several people in Thailand. Hi Nuch!
I listen to Democracy Now! online as well as National Public Radio. I'm happy to get news and feel that these two give me a breadth and variety that are adequate for now.

This is enough, huh?
Troy.

HIYA!

Finally did it. Downloaded some pictures. Glad to have it done. They're in my photo gallery, somewhere. Hunt it down and you'll see three pictures from this museum. The 4th and 5th of October were holidays and so we were off. The boss' daughter's family came down from the Seoul area for a visit. She wanted to go see the Africa Museum so her daughter could get some exposure to Africa. The girl's about a year old but I suppose there was some sort of impact on her life. Especially the music at the end. What a performance.

When we arrived at the museum, the first thing we went in to see was a lot of murals and huge photograph copies. I noticed that absolutely every picture was a picture of the "bizarre" tribal folk of Africa. Guys and maybe a few women wearing this and that hanging from this or hanging from that, piercing this and piercing that. It's all fine that these pictures were shown. It occured to me though that if someone didn't know any better, they'd think that this was Africa. Sure, it's part of Africa. But there's so much more to the continent. I've hardly been to the continent myself, but, hey, just listening to the news, you know there are cities there too. In fact, I feel pretty confident to say that most people in Africa weren't represented here at all except to say in that there was a similarity in skin color. Some of the pictures and other representations were neat in themselves. It's just the overall portrait of "This is Africa" that I suppose many people walk away with. The "bizarre" part of the world.

We ended the visit with a music show. The performers were great. So I thanked them afterwards. Really enthusiastic and seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing. But it was in the tiniest of rooms and the energy and volume that they created was way too much for the room. I mentioned afterwards that they should play outside. A Korean staff guy said they sometimes do play outside.

I enjoyed the performance mostly for the enthusiasm that they expressed both in their beating the drums, in their voices, in their bodies, and on their faces. Smiling and laughing and just really seeming like they honestly enjoyed what they were doing. They beat the drums a lot, sang a lot, and danced a little. But like probably every other performance it was really just that. A performance. There was no context. Well, the Korean lady may have explained a bit about the songs but, that could hardly suffice for a real understanding of the whole thing. Singing, dancing, playing the drums. All of this has a context. A cultural context. And, for me, unless the setting is in the context, it means nothing to me. Sure, pretty girls may dance around on a stage with charming dance moves, dressed up in beautifully adorned clothing ("costumes") but ... so what?!

Four people performed. Three guys and a lady. The lady is attractive and also seemed to have a good time. So visually, she added to my enjoyment of the show.

It was a good trip because I made a little connection with probably everybody from Africa who lives on this island. From Cameroon, I think. They all live and work at the museum.

Troy.

HIYA!

It's Sunday 4:30 pm. I'm here at school with my boss and the president of a company that my boss translates things for. My boss asked me to come in. I'm thinking that my boss wasn't honest with me regarding this. I swear he told me we'd go somewhere.

Well, he wanted me to work. To check his translation. Maybe I misunderstood what he said when he asked me to come in, but anyway, I'm here and, it's turning out quite nice for me.

The company produces a liquid used on shrimp ponds. It's organic, made from herbs and microorganisms. Bacteria.

After finishing, I told my boss that this is just the sort of thing that I've been looking for to use in my garden. After my boss translated a question or two for me, the president said he'd give me some. A liter, I think.

He says to use half a liter per 20 liters of tap water. Let it sit overnight, then water the garden with it in the morning. Need to let it sit overnight so the chemicals in the water will settle to the bottom.

Now wait a minute! I thought the tap water was safe to drink. I've been drinking roughly two liters a day. If it's not safe for the garden, how could it be safe for people?! I haven't yet asked.

Didn't get the liquid fertilizer that I wanted yesterday but if this is just as good or better, then, great. If I get a liter bottle, I'll use half of it, as the president says, then mix the other half with brown sugar for 10 days to boost the amount of bacteria, then maintain a supply so I won't have to buy the stuff again in the future.

I put some wild plant seeds in the garden this morning, I then watered the garden well. There are lots and lots of seeds sprouting. Some of them look like brassicas. This is a family of plants. Cabbages and kales and such. If I'm not mistaken. That would make lots of sense here in Korea since people eat so much cabbage, chinese cabbage, and other brassicas.

The president said I could plant seeds 2 or 3 days after watering with the liquid that his company makes. I may dilute it even more than he suggested because there are so many tiny sprouts coming up. I don't want to kill them. We'll see. Maybe I'll try watering a small spot and see what happens.

I'm ready to plant in one part of the garden. There are two main parts to this garden. They are connected by a long walkway which is wide enough to plant a strip of vegetables and still have enough room to walk.

I collected more wild plant seeds today. Found a tomatillo plant with mature seeds. No, I found two! Got lots of seeds from these plants. There's a black nightshade plant not too far from the apt. I've eaten the seeds, the ripe black ones only, in Thailand. Delicious.

Lots and lots of dandelion around. I've got lots of the seeds in the garden. Purslane. There's a beautiful plant not far from the temple that I'm watching. When the seed pods start opening up, I'll get those seeds. This plant is in a disturbed area, right next to the road, wedged in between the asphalt and a cement wall. Growing out of a little crack in the road. I'm always amazed that the most beautiful of plants (what we call "weeds") can grow so nicely in such places. But I'd never eat the plants themselves. Not so close to the road.

And later tonight, after meditation at the temple, I'll get 15 or 20 "weeds" from just in front of the temple. This is the most wonderful plant. I have eaten tons of it in Thailand. Most Thais don't know it, most Koreans don't know it. I haven't met anyone who knows its name or will even say they've seen it before.

I've asked a university professor if he can help me find someone at his university who knows wild plants. Someone in the Botany Dept should know. Or at least know of someone, who might know of someone, who might know of someone, who ...! But he still hasn't contacted me. I'll try elsewhere.

I'll plant some real vegetable seeds later this week.

I really hope to get some pictures of this garden, and other things, on this blog. I just saw a little while ago a camera box in my boss' office. We'll see if it's digital. If it is, I think I'll snap click snap click and snap click. Then paste paste paste.

There's another part of the garden. Just as big as the part I've already started. I haven't done anything with this other part yet. I will after I feel like I have more time and feel like I'm ready in other ways.

Troy.

HIYA!

Boy, had I gone to Japan, I would not have nearly the communication difficulties I now have. Oftentimes here I hear and see Japanese writing. More often than Japanese writing I see Chinese writing, which is similar enough to Japanese that I fairly often understand the meaning. I occasionally speak Japanese with people. Usually older people who were required to learn Japanese when Japan colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945. (Lots of things happened all over the world in 1945.) I feel funny though because it's a language they were "forced" to learn, and with all the enmity these days that many Koreans feel for Japan, for me to speak it with the older ones feels funny. But there have been a couple of times when I haven't been the one to introduce the Japanese language into the conversation. One time I asked some teenage girls directions to the airport. One of them spoke a fair amount of Japanese. More than English. We used Japanese to get my directions. Worked well. I remembered lots. More every day.

Sometimes I see something written in Korean and say to myself that the word is the same as in Japanese just spelled in Korean. A few days ago I was walking home, past a parking lot where you can park your vehicle, apparently, for free. The sign said, in Korean letters, mu ryo. In Japanese this is "free". I suppose it's the same in Korean. And there have been other instances like this.

A language book I bought just today is good for Japanese and English speakers. The vocabulary is written in Korean, English, and Japanese. YES! I'm able to brush up on Japanese vocabulary! Very nice.

I've decided to really get an understanding of this language. It'll be so helpful in daily life to understand Korean. And, a bit deeper than that, it'll be a way to tweek how I see the world. I understand that Koreans express themselves in very different ways than we do in English. More feeling-expressive than thought-expressive. These are my own terms. I don't know really how others say this difference. To learn how to express feelings differently than the way I've learned to up to this point in life seems a valuable thing to do.

I've got an iPod that broke a while back. So I couldn't do anything at all with it. I tried so many of the troubleshooting tips that I got sick of it and finally brought it to a shop. My boss brought me to an Apple repair center. They said they'd replace it for free if they determined that I didn't damage it. It'd be ready Monday, October 9th, they said. They called that day and said they'd replace it. They called again on Thursday and said I could go pick up the new one. I was gonna go today, Saturday, but couldn't get there in time so I'll go next week. I wanna use it for language study. Listen again and again and again to recorded conversations in my textbook. I listen to people talk, which is sort of enjoyable. But I don't understand but a few words here and there. Gets a little old after a little while. It's a neat way of meditation though. Just pure listening! You can do the same with listening to foreign language songs with singing. Never mind the meaning. The voice is another instrument.

Troy.