100 Things I Love About Korea # 31: Food - Kimchi

Kimchi is literally Korea's national food.  It's almost as important as the national flag.  It's combines the symbolic food power of apple pie, hot dogs, Thanksgiving turkey, and hamburgers & french fries.  According to Koreans, it will cure all that ails you (unless it's an ulcer that ails you).
When we came to Korea, Bill and Gail Patch said, "You need to learn to like Kimchi."  They were right, but it wasn't easy.  It's spicy (not a problem for me, but a problem for Sarah) and very sour.  Think hot pepper sauerkraut.
Honestly, for our first year or so, we had just one small piece of kimchi every time we ate out at a Korean restaurant - just because we "had" to, just because we knew that we needed to learn to like it.  It actually worked.  Slowly, we moved from hating kimchi ... to being able to tolerate kimchi ... to actually liking some kimchi ... to liking most kimchi's ... to finishing our kimchi dish and asking for refills at almost every Korean meal.
Oh Kimchi, how I will miss thee. 

100 Things I Love About Korea: #9 - Old Stuff

http://www.leephelpsphoto.com/

Walking around Korea, you never know what you're going to see.  Most often in my area, you'll be in the midst of sky-rise apartments and bustling shopping areas.  But one turn to a side street - especially in Seoul or some of the "old cities" - and you could run into literally anything.  

Korea has a knack for preserving its history while rushing headlong into the future.  Folk villages go all out in this respect.  And while they are definitely valuable, they are also obviously contrived and artificial.  What really captures my attention is the seemingly random ancient door knocker or the quaint Buddhist temple nestled among restaurants and bars or the side alley that looks like it's straight out of the 1800s.  

Oh, Korea, how I will miss both your plethora of well-planned and well-preserved relics but even more your forgotten and fading fragments.

(Once again, a big thanks to Andy Phelps for the use of his beautiful photographs.  Check him out.)

http://www.leephelpsphoto.com/

100 Things I Love About Korea: #4 - Walking Almost Everywhere

I walk an hour a day - without even trying.  5 minutes here.  10 minutes there.  And before you know it, I've put in several miles of walking.  So far today, at lunch time, I've already walked 10 minutes to work, 5 minutes to the bus, 5 minutes to an appointment, 5 minutes back to the bus, and 5 minutes back to my office.  That's 30 minutes bonus exercise.  Nice.
One of the costs of moving back to the USA will definitely be the loss of incidental exercise and calorie burning through the natural daily walking that comes from living in Korea.  We don't own a car, and we don't want a car.  A few times a week, I use public transportation like a bus, subway, or taxi, but the rest of the time I just walk.  We walk to work, to church, to Emma's school, to the grocery store, and to most of the restaurants we frequent.
And I love it.  It's good exercise - building serotonin and burning calories - something I need more and more.  It puts me out in nature, where I can see and appreciate the weather and the seasons.  Sure, it's hot in the summer and cold in the winter, but that's life, and I get to experience more of it this way.
I'll surely enjoy the independence of hopping in a car and going wherever I want whenever I want, but just as surely, I'll miss my many, many walks around Cheonan.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #3 - WolBong Mountain

I love mountains and nature, so WolBong Mountain is one of my favorite parts of Korea.  As far as mountains go, it's pretty small.  It's really a range of wooded hills with a hiking trail along the ridge, but I love it.  I've walked every inch of that trail for eight years.  I've counted the wooden steps.  I've explored all the side trails.  I've found the quietest corners to pray and to watch the animals.  

When I pass that threshold from field to forest, something changes in my psyche.  I feel that I have moved into God's domain, stepped into his loving embrace a little more fully.  I feel appropriately small before its largess (muted as it may be).  

WolBong Mountain is literally 2-3 minutes from our apartment, and I can walk the short side of the trail and get back within 30 minutes or the longer side in 40 minutes.  Or, I can take a pocket Bible and "camp out" for a while in solitude on one of the slopes.  

One of the beautiful quirks of Wolbong Mountain is that the undergrowth is dotted with scraggly azalea bushes.  Because of the thick trees overhead and lack of grooming, they never grow into the beautiful clouds of flowers that line landscaped buildings.  However, in spring they are like little starbursts of color amid the dull brown of the forest underworld.  

I will definitely miss my mountain.