shanghai

I'm back in Korea and have already taught one class, writing, and it looks like I'm going to be spending a decent amount of time on prep, so I won't be going to Japan. Plus the typhoon that's been hanging out has made me feel less adventurous.

On my first trip ever to China, my destination city was Shanghai. A friend met me at the airport and we took the subway into downtown. So it was nice to have someone there take out the initial shock of visiting a new place and figuring out what to do.

The first meal in China was sweet and sour cabbage, mapa tofu, and some greenery. My friend did the ordering and this was our third restaurant after the first two weren't vegetarian friendly. My first thought was that it was a bad food omen for the rest of my trip... but this was a great meal, even though the server seemed extremely nervous about serving a foreigner and spilled tea all over the table and then ran off. Quite the introduction to China.

Some of the things I noticed:

 A family sleeping on the street. They took off their shoes and went to sleep on a busy street corner.

 Cabbies have protective shields, smart idea.

 People treat the streets like a part of their home. And with the lack of space and sheer number of people, I can't say I'm surprised.

And after visiting other Asian countries, Shanghai felt pretty similar and things didn't seem all that strange. or different.

sunday cattle call

Today it was nice and warm out, it's finally feeling like spring. I've been craving bibimguksu (cold noodles with pepper paste and vegetables) for awhile now (and generally like eating a lot of it in spring/summer) but have always been settling for bibimnaengmyun (cold chewy noodles and vegetables) and it just isn't the same. Today I decided it was time.

I came across a bunch of tofu places along the way, but happy tofu wasn't quite what I was looking for.

Some other time happy tofu, some other time.

 Finally, I found a noodle place that advertised bibimguksu. It looked like a pretty decent place from the outside, but after ordering and receiving my meal, I was left unimpressed. It wasn't horrible, it was just average. I don't know, some food tastes a little different in Chungju than it did in Daegu. Maybe I'm just a little pickier now than I used to be? It always seems to come down to the gochujang or red pepper paste...

Either way, I was inspired to pick up a plethora of rainbow guksu in preparation for spring, or as I think of it, my personal bibimguksu food season. The best way to avoid disappointment is to make it yourself, then you can make it to your own personal taste.

And some pictures from my leisurely bike around Chungju:

 I live in farmland, so biking outside of the city always involves lots of farms, fields and creepy scarecrows.

Vast expanses of fields, orchards, mountains and a tiny house.

A lonely looking dog waiting outside a budongsan (place to find apartments). The place was closed, so I hope someone eventually stopped by to take the little guy home.

sunday round up

Tomorrow is Monday, the start of a new week. Some pictures from the weekend of freedom:

Let's just go straight to food. A tofu restaurant I need to visit in the future. Unfortunately it was locked much to this man's dismay, as well as mine.

In the back dwaenjang and in the front, mine, chunggookjang. It was at a small restaurant (someone's home) and she wasn't super impressed that we wanted similar soups, but weren't willing to settle on one, but it was worth it.

Beer, with pretzel sticks and ice cream for sides. Super weird combination at a popular (maybe?) Chungju downtown spot.

Cannelini bean curry and basmati rice, thanks iherb!

Homemade pizza, the best kind. With mushrooms, broccoli, artichoke hearts and green olives on garlic and sesame crust. My favourite pizza topping is green olives, which never happens with Korean pizza. More incentive to make my own.

 A nice bike ride in the country side by my university where I discovered cows, with unfortunate nose harnesses, that seemed incredibly interested in checking out the foreigner on a bike. They definitely don't get a lot of traffic out here.

Cemetery that I bike by every day on my way to school. Cemeteries are a bit different than back home, as there are burial mounds, and the traditional location is to be buried in the mountains. Their living family members then take care of their burial mounds by clipping the grass and visiting during special occasions. Which is the same here, I saw a woman clipping the grass with hand held shears as I went through. This cemetery seems to only be for Christian/Catholic (ok, I'm not good with religions) Koreans though.

And two amazing finds in Seoul, thanks to The View From Over Here:

An old fashioned scuba helmet, if only I could afford it. Surrounded by lots of awesome trinkets at the flea market.

And cat newspaper fabric!!! I still can't believe this even exists.
So now I've got enough fabric to get started on new paintings, and a mini sewing machine for all future sewing endeavors. It was a good weekend.