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Dae-Wang Am

King Munmu, the 30th King of the Shilla Dynasty, achieved the unification of the countries of the Korean peninsula in AD 688. The King used to express his desire to become a dragon after his death to protect his kingdom from enemies. When the king died he was buried under a great rock in the East Sea in accordance with his will and transformed into the guardian dragon of the kingdom. People, therefore, call the rock ‘Dae-Wang Am’ meaning ‘The Rock of the Great King’.  It is located in Gyongju, South Korea. Meanwhile, the spirit of the Queen also became a guardian dragon of the kingdom after she died since she could not forget her husband’s noble will. Later the dragon flew to Ulsan and submerged herself under this rock to protect the East Sea. People also began to call this rock ‘Dae-Wang Am’ and it is said that seaweed does not grow around this rock because of the dragon.

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If there is one thing an expat can appreciate, it’s returning “home” for a visit.

However, after being away for more than a year in one of the world’s healthiest countries, we were more than a little shocked at the sites we saw when were stateside for three weeks in September 2010 last year.

Don’t get me wrong, Griffin and I appreciate good food, and both acknowledge that we have some pounds we’d like to drop, but it’s so disheartening to see the health of America declining so rapidly.

In Korea, on the other hand, you’ll be hard pressed to find an obese person anywhere.  As the origin of the world’s leading martial art, Tae Kwon Do, along with all the beautiful and well used-hiking trails, exercise is made a priority here.

So is healthy food.  Vegetables, fresh and ripe, garner every table at every meal.  We were surprised and happy to learn that a Korean national food, Kimchi, is listed in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) top five healthiest foods.

Kimchi, that spicy, fermented, national treasure, is eaten three times a day by most Koreans.  According to the WHO, this vegetable and red pepper paste based food is high in fiber, but low in calories, and makes up for 80% of your daily need of Vitamin C and Carotene.  It’s also rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B₁), riboflavin (B₂), calcium, and iron, and contains a number of healthy bacteria.  In addition, it’s extremely good for your immune system and has been proven to fight off viruses and infections.

We’ve often wondered about the process of making Kimchi, and after more than a year, we finally got to experience it first hand.

Thanks to the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education, we were sent to a one day “Kimchi School” at the Onggi Festival in Ulsan.

There, we were assigned a helper, and given all the ingredients and tools we needed.  We were surprised that it is such a hands-on process.

After mixing some oil, ground red pepper and garlic together with some chopped onions and radish, we painstakingly smoothed the mixture between each leaf of a special cabbage plant.  Our helper then rolled and wrapped our edible artwork into a picture perfect breeding ground for the helpful bacteria that will ferment the dish and give it the tangy flavor it needs, along with the added nutritional factors Kimchi is known for.  The plants were carefully set into our handy clay pot, and we were told to set them outside for about three days to let them age a little before bringing them in to refrigerate.

We each made three Kimchi cabbages.  (One of which was donated to a local nursing home by each participant.)  This took us about an hour once we got underway.  However, we’ve been told that Korean women make Kimchi only once per year.  I have no idea how long that would take, but I know Americans should give it a try!

Thanks, Korea, for making the world a healthier place, one spicy cabbage leaf at a time.

Paragliding was so much fun and we were glad to share the experience with our friends Helmut and Celina.  We hope you can get an idea of what it is like and enjoy it along with us in the video.

Thank you to Oh Su Hyun for helping us be able to do this!

How To Make One Yourself

To make your our video similar to this one, go to pummelvision.com as you may have guessed from the video.  There you can pull pictures from Flickr, Facebook, Dropbox and a few others.  You’l have to authorize pummelvision to allow access to the account you choose and then also let it know if you want to publish to Vimeo or YouTube, so you can instantly link it to anyone on Twitter, Facebook, etc. After that, put in your email address and wait a few hours to a couple days and pummelvision will email you when your video is ready.

Bonus Video!

Griffin has been taking pictures every couple of days and posting them to his Facebook account.  Here is a video of all of them.  These are taken and edited on an iPhone.  Enjoy!

View Ulsan, South Korea in a larger map

An-yang-ha-se-yo!

As we have begun to adjust to life in Korea, we thought it would be fun to tell you a little more about the customs and culture here in our new home. Check back often as we will update periodically with the interesting finds we make here.

Today, we wanted to tell you about Korean food.  If you’ve never been to a Korean restaurant, you’re missing out!

First, you should know about the three staples of a Korean diet: Kimchi, Rice, and Soup.  All three of these items are eaten for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Kimchi is… and acquired taste.  =)  There are many different types of Kimchi, but mostly it consists of either cubed radish or cabbage leaves, smothered in a distinctive, spicy red paste.  Seriouly… three meals a day.

As you probably know, Koreans, like in a lot of Asian countries, still use chopsticks.  In the words of Jerry Seinfeild, “They’ve seen the fork.  They know about the fork.”  However, these are not the chopsticks you might see at P.F. Changs.  These chopsticks are metal and flat and very difficult to grasp.  (I used to think I was pretty good with chopsticks until I came here.)  So, eating is always a fun endeavor.

Along with the three constants you will find at any Korean table, you will also see several side dishes.  These can be anything from extremely small, garlic roasted tiny fish (complete with head and eyes), to bean sprouts in spicy sauce.   There is usually some sort of meat, though we may not recognize it because of the shape or the spicy sauce.  You  may also notice that a lot of things here can be described as spicy.   We have yet to taste dog, but plan to try it pretty soon.

Griffin and I have decided that it would be a good idea to try at least one new Korean dish each week.  My co-teacher has said he is  happy to make recommendations.

Now that you have eaten your spicy meal it’s time to discard your leftovers.  That’s right, if you didn’t eat it just go ahead and put it in your soup.  That’s what everyone does here for easy discard.

You may have noticed that I did not mention drinks.  Here in Korea, it is customary to wait until you finish your meal before you have a drink.  In our schools, the water coolers are actually outside the cafeteria and you pick up a cup on your way out.  This is difficult for me given the spicy foods.  The cups are always tiny and we have wondered how Koreans don’t become dehydrated during the day.

After your meal, don’t forget your toothbrush.  We quickly noticed that most of the students and staff members keep a toothbrush and toothpaste at school and quickly dash off to the restroom to brush their teeth after lunch.  In an effort to fit in, we went right out and bought spare toothbrushes and toothpastes to keep at our respective schools!

At home we keep our food pretty Western.  We do purchase some Korean food and definitely try new recipes, however you will find hotdogs and sandwich dressings in our apartment on any given day.  Unfortunately, the Korean version of saurkraut is… Kimchi!  We won’t be putting that on our hotdogs!

Check back soon for more updates about our assimilation into Korean cultures.

Valerie and Griffin

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A lot of people have asked us about what our house is like, so we put together this video to show you our two bedroom apartment. There is a 3:30 version and a 2 min version with the same tour, just one is sped up.  Hope you Enjoy the tour!

Valerie and Griffin

Tour of Our House in Ulsan, South Korea from Valerie & Griffin Stewart on Vimeo.

The grand tour of our nice, new apartment in South Korea.

Griffin’s Favorite Feature: The Cool Door Lock

Valerie’s Favorite Feature: SVU on the TV every Tuesday at 9PM

Quick Tour of Our House in Ulsan, South Korea from Valerie & Griffin Stewart on Vimeo.

Same content as longer version, just sped up. Hope you can read fast!;-)

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An-yang-ha-se-yo! (Hello!)

We arrived safely in South Korea on September 18th (still the 17th in the U.S.). We were immediately taken to meet the teachers at Hyundai Chungun Middle School where I will be teaching for the next 12 months. We had a meeting with the principal which consisted of everyone speaking in Korean for about 5 minutes, then asking us a question in English, then continuing to talk about us in Korean. From there, we were taken to a hotel since our apartment was not yet ready. We were able to meet with the teachers we are replacing, which was very helpful. Jason and Kristen are from Oregon and had been the first native English speakers in their respective schools since several years ago, so they had already pioneered everything for us and were a great help. Griffin teaches at Hyundai Middle school, which is about a 15 minute walk from my school.
You will notice a familiar name associated with both schools, Hyundai. Hyundai’s main headquarters is right here in Ulsan. With the ship-building company, as well as offshore engineering and Hyundai Motor Company, roughly 30,000 employees pour into the city for work each day. This company truly stretches for miles and you can easily see its influence here. Most people realize that without the company, Ulsan’s economy would be drastically different.
We were finally able to move into our apartment on Wednesday, the 23rd, and we have slowly been settling in, trying to find a space for everything. We feel blessed that our apartment is much bigger than Kristen and Jason’s, however, it is still very small. As our very first home together, though, we are so excited! We have both begun teaching and are very happy with our students. The students here go to school from 8:30am until 4:30pm and then go to a private school, or Hagwan, from 5:00pm until about 10:00pm. They also go to school on Saturdays, although we are excused from teaching on the weekends.
We haven’t had a real opportunity to do much exploring, but hope to change that soon. We will definitely keep you updated!
Until then, An-yang-hik-ye-se-yo… (I think that’s it!)

Valerie and Griffin

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