North Korea

Many of you know the news about North Korea and South Korea and are very concerned about my safety here. All I ask is that you try not to worry too much. I understand that it is human nature to worry about things but I do not feel threatened at the moment. I receive updates from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on the current events occurring right now so I will know what to do if the time calls for it. I have also put Aunt Cathy down as my emergency contact with the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, so she will receive updates in case of an emergency to keep everyone updated. I will also try and stay in contact with everyone more often so you all know that I am doing well. However, I am still very busy, so the key words are I will try. In addition to not worrying, I ask that you will pray for peace between North and South Korea. If you have any questions or concerns talk to me on Facebook, by email, by Kakaotalk if you have it, or just leave a comment and I will respond as soon as I can! I hope you all have a lovely Easter! And do not forget to pray for peace please!! Thank you!! :)

Gyeongbokgung Palace!

Here is a picture of Gyeongbokgung Palace! It is an interesting location in Seoul because I would have pictured it to be in the middle of a more rural area, but it is surrounded by the busy city life of Seoul. I have not had the chance to go inside yet though. We arrived too late and did not realize that you have to buy your ticket an hour before the palace closes. It was sad but we ended up having fun in Insadong with shopping and eating Poop bread. I will be going back soon though! Hopefully with my roommates!! :)

That is my friend Lauren from Central eating Poop bread in Insadong!! It is not really poop, Aunt Donna!!!! :) It is bread that is filled with a red bean paste and the bread is in the shape of poop! 

White Day!

White Day is a holiday in Korea that is celebrated on March 14th, which is exactly one month after Valentine's Day. In Korea it is traditional for the girls to buy the boys chocolates on Valentine's Day and then on White Day it is the boys turn to buy candy for the girls. I was not here on Valentine's Day so I had nobody to buy chocolate for but I was here for White Day and got candy from some of my friends! They are  so nice!! :)

Blogging

I would like to apologize for not updating my blog. I have been very busy and the University has given me more tasks than I was originally told about when deciding to study abroad here. Therefore, there may be times when I am unable to update for certain periods of time, so all I am asking for is for everyone to please stay patient. Thank you.

Bulgogi!

My next picture is of Bulgogi! There are a few different ways Bulgogi which is beef and there are a few different ways it can be served. The first picture is of Bulgogi Jjigae which is like a beef stew in a broth. It was pretty good! It was also served with rice and of course, what is a Korean dish without a little bit of Kimchi on the side!? Kimchi is served with every dish in Korea! The people here are very proud of there Kimchi!!

Bulgogi Jjigae:

Bulgogi:

Here is more Bulgogi (pictured above), but it is spicy Bulgogi. In the center of the dish is a pepper sauce to mix in with the beef and the vegetables on top! You can mix in a little bit or a lot depending on how spicy you like it! This dish is my favorite thing that I have eaten in Korea so far. Once it was all mixed up I took a piece of lettace and put some of that Bulgogi and vegetable mixture in the middle with some rice and rolled it up like a lettace wrap. It was so yummy!

Side dishes:

When you go to a restaurant in Korea you have a main dish and rice but you always get side dishes as well! These are all side dishes that were served with the Bulgogi! Bottom left was jellyfish, which was an awkward texture, above the jellyfish are vegetables, above the vegetables were vegetable pancakes, then there were anchovies to the right of the pancakes, underneath the anchovies, we had pickled radish, some type of  sauce, raw garlic, and then the famous Kimchi that is served with everything!

Ham...my worst nightmare

They eat a lot of ham here... I tried Korean Oreos and banana milk though! They were great!

Korean Toast!

So everyone has been waiting to see some pictures of my adventures in Korea so I am going to start by posting some pictures of the many different types of food that I have been eating for the past week. So, here is my first food posting!

Korean Toast:

The above picture is of Korean toast! I went out to lunch with my roommates to the Issac for some toast! Now when they said we were going to get toast I thought of toasted bread with butter, because that is how I like to eat it in America! Korean toast is more like a sandwich with toasted bread. The toast that I ate was actually called Pizza Toast, which had pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and pickles on it. It was so tasty! The pickles part might sound weird but Koreans always eat pickles with pizza and other foods that have a lot of cheese on it, because they eat cheese so infrequently that they actually have a harder time digesting it than Americans do since Americans eat cheese all of the time. It was an interesting fact to learn! So if you ever go to a pizza place in Korea, your pizza will most likely be served with a side of pickles, but if you do not like them you do not have to eat them!