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Published: November 7th 2006
What's the first thing you notice?
How does a fire not happen with the powerlines? Seriously. The houses look like legos glued to the mountain. Love that.Sorry again for the span of time between these.
Chuseok is the one of the biggest holidays in Korea and it's celebrated from the night before until the day after. This year, it was October 5th, 6th and 7th. Since I myself don't know enough about this holiday to give an accurate summary...I found this site and it has a better explaination than I could give. (http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=2)
We were invited to my friend Eun Mi's (pronounced N Me) house on friday to have a traditional dinner and meet her family. After meeting in the subway and a short taxi ride, we had come upon some of the most narrow streets I have seen. I took a picture, but I didn't quite know what made me do so. Something I couldnt figure out caught my attention to capture it on camera. I didn't even notice until I was going over them on my computer. The powerlines. Normally, this wouldn't even phase me at home, but there is one main line from the poles and 457 wires connected in a tangled, intertwined frenzy at...each...pole. There is no way everyone using the electricity is paying for it nor keeping track of whos
The street Eun Mi's house is on
Yep, mirrors are flipped in. That means they like their cars, lol. It's definitely more narrow than in the picture. wire is whos. Now let's contemplate this for a second....say if one were to keep track of this "organized disaster", how would they go about collecting money? Is the whole thing on one person's bill? Does anyone rememember where someone would open a bill, do an overexaggerated gasp, mutter a child's name and faint on the stupid verizon (or whatever it was) commercial a while back? In this case, would they mutter an entire neighborhood worth of people's names then faint?
Anyway, when we were about a block from her house, she said her family was very traditional, her house was on the smaller side and gave a quick summary of all the people she lived with. I got the impression that she was almost embarassed because her family wasn't "cool" enough for us. I giggled inside and told her not to worry about it. Welcome to every person's worry under the age of 35 in America....haha.
Upon entering the alley where her house is located, the narrow-ness didn't really hit me until I saw cars parked on the side. Narrow like flip-in-your-rear-view-mirrors-if-you-are-attached-to-them and let-everyone-out-of-the-car-before-you-park-as-close-to-the-wall-as-humanly-possible kind of narrow. Dead serious. It was barely enough room to have another car
Her house
The steps to her house. Im sure the plants are gorgeous in the spring. drive down these roads. If they do attempt this challenge at all, they drive like its January-with-black-ice-on-the-ground slow. Openeing the gate and walking up two short flights of stairs lined with all sorts of flowers and plants in pots we arrive at her door, gorgeous may I add. We took off our shoes and entered her humble abode.
Now excuse the lack of pictures of her house. I have known Eun Mi for quite a while now and I knew she wouldn't have a problem with it, but due to the fact that her mother, father, brother, uncle, aunt and grandfather lived in the same house, I think it would've been a little...akward.
They were so facinated with the two of us and even though they could speak very little english, they stared at us every moment they could and upon catching their eyes, smiled. Her brother spoke nothing but "hi" or another basic phrase and was so embarassed when we said hi back he smiled and ran off to his room. We felt bad for him, but the dude was like 18. It was cute but I think the fact that we obviously understood him speaking another language,
The front door
You take your shoes off here and step onto the heated floor. I loved the etching on the glass sliding door. he was blown away that we said something back.
As Eun Mi showed us her room and the rest of the house, it didn't seem weird at all. We had to keep in mind that we were in Korea after all. Her room wasn't very big, but enough to fit her belongings, a "bed" and a desk. Her closet wasn't really the typical space behind a door in a wall. It was more like a rack you would find at a department store kind of thing against the wall. She said she has more clothes than what was out....every season her family takes all of the clothes out of their rooms and puts them in their storage room (another bedroom they dont use) and get that season's clothes from each of their section if you will. Not a bad idea now that I think of it.
Her "bed" really wasn't. There was a quilt like object where a mattress would be and underneath I assume some kind of foam or padding. I wasn't about to go and unmake her covers, lol, to find out. This situation was set up in each bedroom as well. Sounds kind of primative
Some houses around hers
I promise their house wasn't nearly as tacky as those ones with the skunk stripes. I guess the word would be, but with heated floors underneath, it's not bad. We have heated floors in our dorm rooms here too....wow...its not even considered cold here yet and I'm already to attached to leave it and want them in my house later on in life.
Ok, back on topic yet again.....her living room. Not the most modern, but who cares, it works for the rest of the house we saw. Two couches facing each other with a coffee table in the middle and a tv at the end. The couches were very smushy. As I sat down...I really sat down. Definitely didn't realized I was probably only several inches from sitting on the ground, lol. Renee and I laughed, but not to much because her grandfather followed us everywhere out of pure facination. Eun-Mi told us even though he couldn't say a damn thing in English, he's not going to follow us around because he's a creepy stalker guy, but rather because he hasn't seen many non-Koreans in his life. We thought this was cute too....we had a fan. I wish I could remember his name or get a picture even more so because I didn't
The rooftop
This was worth braving the steps...yes, that bad. even know what to think other than how can an old person be so damn adorable. Frail wasn't even the word. The entire time I was there, I was hoping he wouldn't pick up anything because if so, he would drop it..with his arm still attached, just sitting there on the floor. Yes....that frail.
Her mother and father brought out a table with dishes upon dishes piled on it. They must have had a diameter of 3 inches or so..seriously like 25 different ones. Each one had somthing different in it too. Everything from the "smells like ten kinds of ass" Kimchi Holly is so fond of...lol...to the noodles with vegetables that we love, to the concoctions even I wouldn't begin to try to pronounce. She explained everything to us and if it had any significance to the holiday. After observing our options, Renee and I stuck with our normals...rice...Japchae...Galbi...and more rice. I was very content until I hear "I dare you to eat that funk" from Renee out of the corner of her mouth. Looking up I notice there is this plastic looking, not sure if its moldy or not, funk covered in the red sauce that seemed
The rooftop again
Definitely looks like Legos. to take over Korea. Ok, no big deal...its spicy...I like anything really spicy...and it will cover the taste if its bad, right? I asked Eun Mi what this concoction was. Its freeze dried pollack, fish, that's Kimchi-ized. Ok, still not thinking its too bad...I like fish...but its funk was giving me doubts. not allowing myself to smell it before hand, I take off the smallest piece my chopsticks would allow me, I closed my eyes and stuck out my tongue just enough to make contact. The texture made me shudder. Damn. Renee had stopped eating by now to watch this montage. I almost told someone to get her the damn popcorn already.
As I so daringliy put the funk in my mouth, I felt every muscle in my chest contract. There was no way I could do any dry heaves in front of everyone. So what do I do? Fill my cup of water and stare at the ceiling and drink it until its empty. I felt the urge to just project everything I had ever ate in my life across the room. As the funk disintegrated in my mouth, I could feel the tears clouding my eyes. This was
Eun Mi
One my my favorite Koreans. I lived with her over the summer and she loved Melvin and Kane just as much as I did. no longer a simple dare, it was a competition with my stomach. I'm a good sport, and I love food, so I was not going to let the world's worst funk get the best of me, haha. Just refilled my cup of water and forced it down. I can say that Renee was flagged with dares for quite some time. Love her to death, but you can't fight the flag my friend, lol. I made it a known fact that I was going to get in touch with Fear Factor and suggest they send me a check for putting my health at risk because that was funk with a capital F.
After I was done and had eaten 45 pounds of rice to get the funky taste out of my mouth, I was telling Eun Mi that I loved the view from a window I was looking out of. She showed us one even better. The roof. We walked up some of the shaftiest steps I have ever done so in my life and I've walked a lot of steps. Outside of course. Maybe twelve inches or so wide and a "railing" that only I only saw that served
::Shudders::
The funk pots on her roof. The sun apparently "cooks" whatever is inside them. Every single Korean house has these. They are very traditional. once purpose. If you were to lose your balance and fall off the side...it would catch your feet I'm sure and flip you so you'd do a swan dive to the pavement....fun. Needless to say, we gripped to the brick wall as much as human hands would allow and counted about 3 seconds after each step we took to make sure balance was in our favor. At the top, I was looking around at the different houses around hers. Then I turned around and stopped. Wow. Looking across the valley the houses on the side of the next mountain over looked like Legos so intricatly placed perfectly in a systematic order as to not knock then one in front over.
We saw some huge ceramic pots as well to the side. I ask a lot of questions all the time. I'm not even going to deny it and yes, I have been questioned on the fact that I ask too many questions. Eun Mi said that is where her family stores red bean paste and Kimchi. They put contents in, put it on the rooftop and let it sit for two years then eat it. Two years is a
The Park/Mountain we went to
This place was beyond huge and beautiful. I can't wait to go again. time span you would lease a car for, get your associates degree, maybe rent an apartment, travel the world, get an upgrade on your cell phone with your contract, but not store food and eat it my friends. We made her take off the lid on one of them just to see. Has anyone seen the movie Armageddon? When they land on the asteroid and it's all dry, grey, and crusty? Well make it black and put it in a pot. We instinctively stuck up our noses and made a face. Eun Mi giggled and said she wasn't fond of it either...go figure. Would you eat crusty black funk? I think not.
Her parents then took us to a mountain park nearby. The sun would start setting soon and we didn't want to get back late or keep them out late either. We got there in a matter of minutes, but the drive up was crazy. At least 50 degree angles the whole time and I felt as if we were on a giant Chutes-and-Ladders game going from the bottom of the board alllll the way to the top in a car. We drove by one stop area to
The pathway up to the top
I ran this people....not an easy task, but I was more than determined to get the picture. get out and look at the view. I saw the mountains and the sunset and my jaw dropped. The sun was the red on Strawberry Shortcake's dress and the sky looked as if the bad kid in class had knocked over the cup of water everyone was using for watercolors and they landed on the table separately. I couldn't even speak to ask if we could stop for at least for a picture. I missed it....and still can't let that go. At the top or when the car started screaming in mercy, we walked up this pathway thing. I ran ahead of course...I was NOT giving the sun permission to set until I got at least one picture of it. After getting a few and a video, I was content. Then I said "ok now you can set, but take your time."
Saying goodbye to everyone, we left for home. I am definitely going to back and will bring a chair and a book, if I have to, with me at the spot to wait to get the gorgeous sunset again if it's the last thing I do.
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AZ
non-member comment
hilarious
I loved reading your blog. It's so funny. I also loved your honesty and how you describe everything. Two of my favorite lines so far are, "Two years is a time span you would lease a car for, get your associates degree, maybe rent an apartment, travel the world, get an upgrade on your cell phone with your contract, but not store food and eat it my friends" and "smells like ten kinds of ass". You make me want to be in Korea right now.