After the trip to GyeongJu, we spent the night at my uncle’s home in Gumi.

image removed

It’s a small and modest house in what most of us would consider a very rural area. this is where my dad’s family’s land is. most of it belongs to this particular uncle, since he was the only son to stay in korea, while the other two sons went off to the states. he built this home from “scratch”. he and his wife saved their entire lives in preparation for retirement.

image removed

americans typically think of retirement as moving to florida, hanging out with other old people and going to denny’s for the senior grand slam special. koreans have a different view. my uncle and aunt spend their time farming the family land. the grow their own soybeans, and other vegetables. they do everything organically so everything is cooked simply and the flavor is amazing! they make their own soy sauce, tofu, soybean paste (dwenjang), red pepper paste (ggotchujang), and a number of other things.

image removed

On basically what was our last full day in korea, my uncle gave us a tour of his home. extremely proud of what he’s been able to provide for his family, and also to show us that he’s taken care of our family land. he pointed to some of the dried greens that were hanging from the garage and said that it was my dad’s favorite vegetable. so he dries plenty of it each year hoping my dad comes for a visit. he showed us the mill he uses to grind the beans.

image removed

before getting ready to take us to kimcheon, he wanted to show us one more thing. my dad’s best friend’s burial/memorial site and the buddhist temple the man had built and worshipped at. though my dad’s family is catholic, they were good friends with this man and also proud of his acheivements.

image removed

i don’t know his name, but my dad showed me pictures. he was the provincial wrestling champion. but also a devout buddhist. he would go to a local cave and meditate for days without food or water. later he became a famous buddhist monk and raised money to build this temple. along with the temple he had a deep desire to serve the disabled and mentally handicapped. there is an adjacent home to the temple. we didn’t get to visit the facility so no pictures. unfortunately, my dad’s friend was murdered by one of the mentally ill. he was buried next to the temple.

image removed

we then decided to take a quick trip to kimcheon. there’s a park there that features different types of art. including some very interesting statues like these:

image removed

the first is joseph pretending to play a children’s game where you attempt to hop on someone’s back and play a game of rock, paper, scissors. next joseph was told to rub the buddha’s belly so we would have good luck in trying to have a baby. i proceeded to touch the belly button instead. the last two were all in good fun of course

image removed

there should be no vacation/travel posts without the gluttonous amount food consumed! we went to a pork bbq place. instead of the usual vents that are fixed on the ceiling, you could pull these vents down towards the table and then push them back up and out of the way to eat. this basically concluded our trip to the kumi area. before we left my uncle proceeded to say “i’m sorry if they did anything wrong”. after this lengthy post of the hospitality and the family love they showed, suffice to say there was NOTHING wrong that they did. in fact, joseph and i probably should’ve said what they had said instead. we intruded on their quiet lives and they welcomed us with open arms.

my aunt and uncle put us on a high speed train back to seoul. this by itself is a treat. it’s like taking the acela instead of the regional train. time difference between the two is a few hours because there are also far fewer stops in between.

it actually dropped us off not too far from namdaemoon. so guess were we went next?

image removed

this outdoor street market is HUGE. it’s a maze. i tried to be as diligent as possible to make sure we either knew where we were going, or at least know how to get back to where we came from. it’s a sea of wholesalers of all different types of stuff, of everything from clothes, socks, bras, pots, knives, computers….you name it, they probably have it. apparently there are alot of tourist from china and japan looking for korean ginseng. all the sales people kept yelling at me and joseph in cantonese, mandarin, taiwanese, japanese and korean – unsure whether we were one or another.

lastly, the last nite of being in korea meant that we finally got to spend some time with my cousin. usually he’s the one i spend most of my time with when i’m in korea. but this trip was obviously different. he’s also far busier now, running the furniture company that my uncle built. it used to be living room, bedroom and dining room furniture company. my cousin decided to change the direction of the company based on his research and noticing the fair share of furniture companies in asia. it was a smart investment and business strategy for him. the new direction was to build wardrobes for apartments. much like in the US, the real estate market BOOMED all over asia, with new buildings and renovations happening all over. guess who was building new wardrobes through many of korea’s new/remodeled homes?

image removed

we ended up starting at a chicken place. like i said before, joseph was so smitten with kyochon, we looked for every opportunity to eat more of that kind of chicken. my cousin ended up taking us to this place where one of the owners looked like my aunt #6. we had some beer and chicken and caught up. instead of staying after we finished eating though, we headed off to a second place. some japanese place to eat more food and drink some more. by this time we get to this second place, i’m already a little tipsy, on the verge of drunk. i don’t think joseph was, though he did get quiet and looked very happy with a huge grin on his face. this is probably why there aren’t many pictures of our time spent with my cousin. man koreans can drink.

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: acheivements, Add new tag, baby, beer, buddha, buddhist temple, building, business, chicken, china, cooking, cousin, dad, denny, dries, drinks, family, food, games, good friends, goodness, greens, gumi, gyeongju, japan, japanese, joseph, korea, korean, koreans, locals, memories, money, moving to florida, pepper paste, post, red pepper, rural area, s, scissors, scratch, seoul, soy sauce, soybean paste, soybeans, tofu, tourists, vegetables, water, worshipped

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

1. joseph and i were married on july 26, 2003. i was 23. the next day i turned 24. there were about 1000 people at the wedding, with 4 receptions. but no limos. just friends..lots of friends

2. i like cooking for friends and family. i took amateur classes at FCI to make sure i wouldn’t feed them crap. but i have no aspirations in becoming a professional chef.

3. i like stupid movies. joseph calls it the “theresa network”. i’ll watch 13 going on 30, notting hill, and love actually whenever it shows up on tv and i’ve got free time. but some stupid movies will make me gag – most recently “enchanted”. but i also have a love for smart movies.

4. i used to go karaoke alot back in college. i like to scream into the mic, so i usually sing korean rock ballads. my favorites are lee seung hwan, and kim kyung ho

5. at church, i like to sing at the same octave as the guys when singing worship songs. sometimes it scares the people around me.

6. i love to drive. i miss having a car. my first car was an electric blue nissan altima, after college i bought an acura tl. i now own no car, but part owner or many buses and subway cars.

7. i like to play golf, but i’m not very good anymore. i’m a better coach/caddie.  in middle/high school school i used to play alot and actually had a decent handicap.

8. i grew up in inner city baltimore. alot of the stuff that happens in the Wire seems familiar to me.

9. i dislike curry, but will make it for friends and will eat it.

10. i LOVE rice. my comfort foods are rice with kimchi and seaweed soup on the side. it’s actually the first meal i ever remember eating. i hope this will be an early food for our daughter too.

11. i like to do crafts. i like papercrafting and knitting. i’m currently in the middle of doing a papercraft of pee-wee herman for a coworker, and i’m trying to knit a baby blanket.

12.  i ran into a coffee table when i was a kid. i now have a scar immediately underneath my left eye. most people can’t see it because my glasses usually help hide it

13. i’ve lived in 11 different homes in maryland alone (does NOT include dorms). 2 in nyc. for a grandtotal of 13. (how fitting…)

14. i’ve had the same cell phone number since 1998.

15. i don’t like chocolate. i had a traumatic incident in elementary school where i had some chocolate milk and shortly thereafter threw up all over my and my friends lunches. i’ll eat white chocolate sometimes tho.

16. i have a large family. 26+ “cousins” just on my mothers side. 26+ “cousins” on my dad’s side as well. i haven’t met everyone yet, so i’ve stopped counting. the ones i’m closest with are those i grew up with, and helped take care of as i was growing up myself.

17. i’ve always dreamed of owning my own business. i’ve already thought through my business plan, financing and 5 years worth of goals with high level milestones every 6months. my parents have owned at least 8 businesses that I am aware of/can remember.  most of my aunts and uncles own(ed) their own businesses as well; ranging from a furniture company to a cafe.

18. i scare most people the first time i meet them. it’s usually me being friendly, they just don’t realize it.

19. i hate the heat. when i vacation, i like places that are usually cooler and no beaches please.

20. i’m skeptical about alot of things.

21. i don’t like people who have a problem with or complain about something but don’t have suggestions on how to fix it.

22. i can drink heavily, but choose not to. my tolerance is hereditary.

23. i like offal meats. hearts, gizzards, feet, tongue, ears, marrow, intenstine, tripe, sweetbreads, livers, etc. i don’t eat them often tho. they are not good for you in excess.

24. i’m strangely good at dealing with customer service and getting what i want either over the phone or in person

25. joseph is my favorite person in the world. right behind my halmuhnee =P

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 13 going on 30, acura tl, agapeshack, amateur classes, baby, blankets, buses, business, caddie, car, cars, chocolate, church, cooking, cousin, coworker, dad, drinks, facebook, family, food, glasses, heated, joseph, kids, kim kyung ho, kimchi, knitting, korean, koreans, lee seung hwan, love actually, lunch, milk, myspace, nissan altima, notting hill, Papercraft, parents, pee wee herman, professional chef, random, rice, rock ballads, s, seaweed soup, subway, subway cars, theresa, worship songs

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

image removed

every morning, we’re required to eat breakfast as a family. something that joseph and i normally don’t do everyday is eat breakfast, and if we do, it’s rarely together. this is something i hope we’ll do in the future together, but not likely to happen everyday. and honestly, probably not going to happen once a week either.

after breakfast my aunt decided we’re going to changdeokgung, so off we went on a bus that was less than $2 per person for a 40min ride into the city. darn cheap if you ask me! joseph’s first real taste of seoul and one of the first things he sees is burger king’s bulgogi burger. *sigh* we’ve yet to see the kimchi pizza i used to adore, but there’s still a few days left on the trip.

not sure if everyone knows, but there’s rhyme and reason to my fighting for the check. korean culture dictates that in various situations an older “sibling” or married person pick up the tab. there’s other incidents where you are supposed to at least ATTEMPT to pay. one example of this is if you’re out of town, and being a “burden” to a friend or family or if you have guests in town and want to treat them. here my aunt and i are fighting for who pays to get into the palace (this concept is often lost on most westerners, and it’s hard to fully explain all the intricacies so i’ll bypass the remaining details):

image removed

the palace requires that you go on a tour through the palace and “secret garden” based on a schedule. if you want to take the english tour you MUST go during a specific time. same with korean, japanese, or chinese. (people wonder where i get my analness from. here’s your answer):

image removed

after we left the palace grounds, we ran into street vendor cart that sells gookhwabbang (traditional cake with red bean). some other tourists were curious as to what we were eating, and so my aunt nonchalantly passes one of the tastey treats to a tall white lady and says “TRY!”

image removed

she then quickly went and bought her own bag to share with her friends, and offered my aunt one as a replacement for the one offered to her. my aunt laughed and brushed her off.

next was lunch. and when i say lunch, i mean a very traditional korean meal! we had samgaetang (chicken soup). but this is not a chicken soup like the kinda stuff that campbell’s makes in a can, it’s the kind that feels homemade, in the deep farm lands of korea, with the healthy stuff that kids absolutely hate, like ginseng, chestnuts, jujube, and gingko nuts.

image removed

i guess i’m now old, since i love the samgaetang. both joseph and i pretty much ate each of our entire chickens that were stuffed with rice and all the healthy “junk”. after finishing this meal i think i wanted to take a nap, but my aunt is a vary active woman and demanded we go to the next place.

namsan tower – now known as N Seoul tower. Not really sure why they changed the name, but whatever. it’s still the same cheese that you get at empire state, or top of the rock in nyc. view is great since you can see most of seoul, but on a super clear day you can see pretty far, as far as incheon which is about an hour drive away from seoul. unfortunately, our day was not as clear, but we still got to see pretty far.

image removed

afterwards we went to namdaemoon shijang (north gate market). this market is at the foot of what was one of korea’s OLDEST and most beloved landmarks. the gate had survived many wars, japanese invasion, and the modernization/bastardization of korea’s epicenter. recently a crazy old man, decided to light the gate up in flames, destroying a piece of history and national treasure that sat amidst throngs of cars, and flashing lights as a reminder to all koreans of “where we came from”. korea quickly put together the funds to rebuild the gate and what you see today is a large wall that encircles the entire area. when i saw this from the bus, i felt a tug in my heart that was deep. i guess it would be like the statue of liberty being taken down by a mad man. you’d feel pain but it’d be rather surprising to know how much you were unknowingly attached to it.

image removed

we didn’t take any pictures of the market, but it’s definitely a site to see. apparently it’s best to go at nite when all the business owners are buying stuff to sell at their stores, but i hate the shopping and haggling, so why bother? but we did see this box on our way out:

image removed

i didn’t realize an operating system was synonymous to “home ceramic irons”.

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bulgogi burger, burger king, business, cousin, family, joseph, kimchi, korean culture, koreans, secret garden, seoul

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

“While Asian firms make up 30% of all minority companies, they account for 52% of all
receipts from minority businesses. Over 50% of all minority-owned businesses whose
sales exceeded one million dollars were Asian American owned.”

so what about the superbowl viewers? probably not those asian american business owners. they were
probably at their places of business, like my mom, selling you your chips, the beer you chugged, and
the wings you consumed.

so while my mom probably made more money than yours, salesgenie decided to market towards a
group that probably doesn’t need their services and pissed off a group of people, they should’ve been
marketing towards, instead.

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: asian, asian american, business, business owners, commercials, groups, minority businesses, minority companies, minority owned businesses, superbowl

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh