Regarding Food

    Living in one of the largest cities in the world has many benefits.  One being the amazing food that you can find.  I was really unsure how I was going to like Korean food.  I, for one, do not like cabbage.  And one of the staples of all the meals here has kimchi, pickled cabbage or other pickled things, as a side.  However, everything that I have tried has been amazing!
   On my plane ride over, I decided to be brave and try the Korean meals instead of the typical western style airplane food.  My first Korean meal was something called bimbibab.  It was a crazy mixing of meat, vegetables, kimchi, spicy pepper paste, and rice.  You pretty much mix everything together and enjoy!  It was so good that it made me brave enough to try out the second Korean meal, 9 hours later in the plane ride,  of spicy octopus.  I was nervous to try, but I ended up loving it and quickly ate it all up.
   Since the plane ride, I have been exposed to so many different Korean dishes.  On hot days, you should try some naengmyeon, a cold buckwheat noodle soup, which cools you down and fills you up.  Its really funny to get a soup that you eat with ice floating around in your bowl.  If you are not too hungry, get some kimbap, they're kind of like sushi but with different fillings, and they'll fill you up a little. 
   My favorite meal to get is the Korean BBQ.  The BBQ here is not something that you can just get to go.  It is a sit-down meal found pretty much at any corner of Seoul where you do all the cooking yourself.  You get a small grill in the middle of the table where your raw meat is placed, and you cook it while you chat away with your friends.  Around the grill are things like kimchi (of course!), rice, lettuce, onions in a brown sauce, spicy red pepper sauce, and garlic.  Each place is different and you will find that some places will have some ingredients while others may have different ones.  The best way, I find, to eat everything is to wrap every little bit in a lettuce leaf.  I have a picture on the side of all the different bowls you get a one of these meals.  Sometimes you don't have any room on the table for a drink!
    Not all the food here looks amazing.  The snacks that the kids bring into class look less than appetizing.  The smell of the dried squid will probably keep me away from the stuff forever.  They usually have chips and things that are flavored with some sort of sea creature.  You can buy eggs from some animal that the kids love.  I've even seen one kids squeeze out all the juice from the egg that was left over in the package.  Yuck!  Luckily they still have lots of candy, so I'm not too worried about having to try any of the super processed fishy snacks.
    Korean food isn't the only thing to eat here though.  You can easily get pizza, hamburgers, donuts, and any other ethnic food you could think of.  These types of food do tend to be more expensive though.  It is usually best to eat the Korean food.

Crazy Person or Celebrity?

Well things are still a bit crazy here.  I am Still sleeping on the floor, still working like crazy and still have no idea how to speak Korean.  I have, however, have had plenty of time to notice all the stares that I'm getting every single time I go out.  It just makes me wonder if they are thinking "who is that crazy person walking down the street?" or "Didn't I just see them in a movie?".
   Everyday on my walk to work, I notice all the people staring at me as I walk by.  Is there some big stain on my shirt?  No.  Maybe my hair is a mess?  Nope.  Its just the fact that I am living in a part of town that doesn't have too many foreigners.  As a minority here, I find that I have to get used to the sometimes awkwardly long stares that I get from random people on the street, bus, subway and apartment window (probably the most awkward when you are just lying there trying to get to bed).  Its also a little frustrating when you are trying to help your students prepare for their big presentation that day and all they want to do is look at your arm hair. 
   Its not all bad though.  I'll get many waves and hellos, especially from children, as I'm walking down the street.  Or someone on the subway will stop and have a chat with you about living in Korea.  I'll also get the guy at the 7/11 who has trained himself to speak two phrases "thank you" and "would you like a bag?".  Usually I'm buying a drink or a candy bar, so I'm thinking why would I need a bag.  But those are probably the only two phrases that he knows and would probably say the same thing on the street if I asked him for directions.  So I'll politely say no and move on.
   Work has finally slowed down and I have a three day weekend because of Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving.  I've finally ventured out of my work-only zone I've been in and finally have started to explore the city.  I'll save all that fun for next time though.