Kimchi!

Sorry it's been awhile, I just haven't been up to that much. I've been meeting a lot of Sungah's friends and going out with them. It's really helping my Korean but it's also rather lonely because I can't keep up with their conversations. Last night I met some friends from BU that are also studying Korean here, so we went out to a bar and then noraebang. They seemed really uncomfortable at the noraebang, but I remember feeling like that when I first started.

I've been trying to do some studying, but my textbook is very difficult and I'm usually exhausted enough from just trying to converse. Tomorrow Sungah's friend from Conserve, Sandra, is coming to stay with us for a week, so I'll have a chance to be lazy and speak English with someone. I'll still have Sungah's family and friends to speak Korean with.

Today Sungah's grandma taught me how to make kimchi (see the picture.) It's a lot more complex than I expected. First we had to buy all the ingredients, which took quite awhile because grandmother was really picky about getting the best quality and the lowest price. The bartering she did and the tone she used would have been considered very rude in Wisconsin, but the supermarket workers seemed complacent with her. When we went back home she taught me how to cut up the cabbage. We sprinkled it with salt and soaked it in a big tub of water. She showed me how to grind the onions and cut the green onions. When the ingredients were all ready we mixed them together in a big bowl. To my surprise, the mix also included pears and sugar. I'd never tasted anything sweet in kimchi before; the spicy pepper must cover it. Lastly we rinsed the cabbage in three separate buckets of water and then tore it up and added it to the mix. It turned out pretty well, but still a little too spicy for my Midwest-bred tastebuds. :-)

There's one goal I can cross off my list!