I feel like I have not had a lot of time to write, but now I have some time and had a great day yesterday, so I think I will give you a bit of the mundane existence living in a foreign country...
So I woke up, and due to the fact the Michigan hockey season ended the day before (this calls for a moment of silence...
...
...
... moment over), I went for a quick run prior to watching the Chicago Fire season opener via an internet stream. It was a great game. Chicago owned play. They solidly handled all the Union's attacks and looked dangerous moving forward. Promising start to the season. 1-0 victory!
After Skyping with Scotty prior to his departure to the backwoods of Virginia (good luck), I headed to Seoul. I was visiting Insadong again, the traditional market area, to find a gift for Kim's birthday. The guidebook I have talked about a restaurant that served 만두국 (manduguk - dumpling soup). The book talked up the homemade 만두 (mandu - dumplings) and this dish is one of my usuals at Korean restaurants. So I walked up and down the street several times looking for it without luck. While doing this, there were large numbers of students walking around in clumps with signs about the Nuclear Summit. I was stopped by several groups to get pictures taken with me. I didn't ask why, but I thought "what the heck? They need the picture for something and I have nothing better to do so I can pause for a picture." So I posed for a few, smiled and chatted with them for a minute. Right when I was about to give up, I decide to turn up an alley, the restaurant was right there! Unfortunately, it was not my favorite 만두국, but it was pretty good. Dumplings were above average, but the broth was less than thrilling. They did have some side dishes that were phenomenal including a pasta salad and some other noodle things.
After my meal I wandered around looking for a museum that I never found, so I went to a Buddhist Temple as a back up. It was a beautiful compound, but it was kind of intimidating. The art and GIANT Buddhas were really fantastic, but the problem was I did not know what I could or could not do without insulting or offending someone. Therefore I just walked around the compound, looked inside buildings and kept my distance from any statue or monument.
From there I went to the Chabbad House to visit the Rabbi and talk Passover. We sat and talked for a while about what is good and not good to eat, where the rules come from, the stories, and a number of other Jewish things. As we were finishing up, he asked if I would like to wrap tefillin. Never having done so before, I decided to give it a try. I enjoyed it, quite an experience. He even lent me a set to take with so I can try wrapping at home and see how I like it.
As I unwrapped, a few other people came in looking for Kosher for Passover food. When introducing ourselves, I found out that they ALSO LIVE IN BUNDANG! THERE ARE OTHER JEWS IN MY TOWN! It was a really cool feeling to know I am not the only one in the city. They live a few neighborhoods over, but still in the same place. We talked, shopped and exchanged information. Great to find new people in my town. Also, while shopping, I bought a thing of Hammentashen so I have gotten my fix from Purim.
Since Obama and all these other people were in town for a Nuclear conference, Police were everywhere! I saw what must have been a staging area that had at least 200 cops in partial riot gear. Very interesting. More police than I have ever seen in the country. They were on every corner.
View from the road looking north in Seoul. The mountain looked so great in between the buildings.
Walking back to the bus I looked to see the crescent moon and two stars showing in the dark night. Picture turned out nicely.
This one was from today, not my Seoul adventure. Christina, one of my first graders, started to play with the shoebox she brought in for our in class project. She set it like that and started pretending it was a computer. It was WAY TOO CUTE!
No comments:
Post a Comment