Shopska Salata

Good news for any vegetarians out there: although Bulgarians do love their meat, there are a few options for you. Vegans, however, will miss out on the best part: sirene cheese! Luckily, I love cheese, so here is my first Bulgarian recipe (serves two)

Shopska Salata
3 large tomatoes
2 cucumbers (peeled)
1/2 cup green and/or red bell pepper
2 green onions
Parsley to taste
1/2 cup of sirene cheese (can substitute with feta)

Chop all the vegetables to bite sized pieces. Mix in a large salad bowl with chopped parsley. Top with sirene cheese (a lot of it!) and drizzle with sunflower oil, vinegar, and a dash of salt and pepper. Enjoy.

It should look like this :-D

Anxiety Vanquished

I'm not going to lie. I had a lot of anxiety before I came to Bulgaria. This is not my first time abroad, or even living abroad, but I didn't know what to expect. I have been to Bulgaria before, but my impressions of Sofia the first time around were not the greatest. Everything felt a little too post-Communist. Too gritty. Ugly sky-scrapers are not a promising feature of any city. (Then again, Seoul has a lot of those, but manages to retain its awesomeness).
However, after my walks around my neighborhood yesterday and today, this anxiety is being quickly replaced with delight. I'm re-discovering why I fell in love with Eastern Europe in the first place. One of the biggest reasons? The people. Bulgarians have already been very helpful with my awkwardness in adjusting, and also they are surprisingly good at English. (This last part is not good in the long run with my goal to learn Bulgarian, but useful for my first weeks of orientation). My landlady has also been a great help. When there were no pots and pans in the kitchen, I asked if it was my duty to buy them for myself. I'm not really sure what is included in a fully-furnished apartment, but she was quick to go out shopping and delivered them to my door tonight. I can now cook, which is one of those things that really makes a place feel like home.
The city center is about a twenty-minute walk from my place, and the walk itself is quite pleasant. Although lacking in the architectural beauty of other Eastern European cities, i.e. Prague, the boulevards are wide, with lots of trees and space for walking. Also, I'm very close to a huge grocery store, which is a relief when compared to Kangnam and its expensive grocery stores. Last night, on my walk, there were TONS of street performers. I can't really recall much in Korea besides the random guitar players in Hongdae. There was even a string quartet. I love Europe.

Thanks Ali

I was walking around the city today, trying to find a meal. It was going to be my first Bulgarian meal of 2010, but then I stumbled upon the following food stand:

How could I resist a restaurant that used Aladdin in their advertisement? 

So I got a kebab instead of typical Bulgarian food. Although I feel a little bad, I am studying the Turkish political party here in Sofia. So it is a little appropriate. 

LOT: Polish Airlines

Flying from Minneapolis was fine. United. Chicago to Warsaw was not very pretty. Why? So many people on that flight had really bad body odor. I slightly remember this as a problem last time I was in Bulgaria, but it was really bad in the airport and in the plane. Of course, I continually thought it was me with the BO, but every time I took a sniff, I turned out fine.
However, the inflight magazine from Warsaw to Sofia was fantastic. Poorly translated English combined with efforts to bolster tourism in Poland made the two hour flight whiz by. Here was my favorite article:

Misfits Sing and Dance:
Mr Schister, a high school Spanish teacher, assumes the directorship of the school choir. But instead of the usual Hanna Montana wannabes and sugar-sweet kids, Schister's group is a lineup of outcasts and misfits that includes a Jewish girl raised by a gay couple, a wheelchair-bound boy, an obese Afro-American, an Afro-Asian and a gay. All these minorities dance and sing hit covers. A pregnant cheerleader comes to join the choir and two football players from the school team who just happen to be enamoured of her quickly follow suit. If the students defy stereotypes, the teachers are downright motley. Season one won many awards to date. Watch it in Poland on Fox Life from September.

In my sleep-deprived state this was hilarious. I'm still trying to figure out what an Afro-Asian is.

Off to Sofia

Today is a Monday.

I feel nervous, but mostly anxious. 

I'm moving to Sofia, Bulgaria.

This will be quite a huge difference from my last home in Seoul, South Korea. 

Wish me luck. 

A Weekend in Food

Since it was Thanksgiving in the states last week, I spent the week teaching my children about the holiday and strove to get them to stop calling Native Americans ‘Indians’. All this talk made me hungry, especially when I would call my mom and here her plans for the holiday. So, Thursday night Sam, Andie, Nick and I met up with our recruiter, Henry, and his girlfriend for live octopus. Not really traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but I cannot stress how fun it is to try to pull the thrashing tentacles after the plate. Don’t worry, the octopus that we ate had been decapitated minutes before consumption. However, I still want to try eating the whole live baby octopus. Along with this treat, Henry had ordered this giant smorgasbord of seafood: clams, shellfish, shrimp, mollusks, and oysters. It looked like they had scraped all the seafood from the sea floor and served it in a monstrous tray. 맛있어요 (delicious)

On Friday after school we went out for a real Thanksgiving dinner. Toque restaurant in Itaewon served us turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, green bean casserole, tuna casserole, candied yams, and pumpkin pie. It was a surprisingly good meal, but some of us realized we missed the spiciness that is Korean food. Most of the people that went were foreigners, but two Koreans came as well, and Byeong Hun tasted turkey for the first time.

Andie, Paul, Allan, and Chloe enjoying their meal

The weekend of food continued on Saturday when Andie, Sam, Liza and I went to the Seoul Fancy Food Festival. Although it didn’t apparently compete at all with festivals in New York, we were still able to try samples of random desserts and drinks as well as a quick wine tasting. There wasn’t as much free food as we hoped, but whenever a line built up we would sprint to the end and see what was in store. After walking back to my home, I jumped on a bus to Dongdaemun to go shopping for a winter coat. I had seen one earlier, but it was $150, and I didn’t have the money. I told the shopkeeper that I would be back, but she definitely did not believe me. However, I returned and when she recognized me she was so excited that she knocked the price down to $100. I could have probably bargained more, but since this was the price I wanted to pay, I said thank you, bought it, and am now rocking my new Korean coat. My students love when I wear Korean clothing, as it looks so much better than the clothing I brought from the US.
At 8 pm, Rachel, Arianna, Byeong Hun, So-Jin, and I met up to go out for drinks with some of BH’s friends from the Asia-Pacific World Deaf conference. While we were waiting, a Korean American approached us because we were signing and she knew ASL. She wants to learn KSL, and joined us for the rest of the night. Her name was Charity, which is fitting since she wants to be a social worker. I was jealous of her signing skills, but I know I just need more time and practice. We met up with a bunch of Israeli guys and they were crazy. Fun, but crazy. We ended up dancing at the Loft in Itaewon for hours, before finally heading home.
Oh Sundays. Omelet for breakfast, coffee with friends at Konguk University and then dinner in Gangnam. Rachel Frank, BH, So-Jin and I went out for budaejjigae, which is this soup that originated during the Korean War. Apparently the American soldiers gave it to the Koreans who just kept adding stuff to it until it tasted good. Nowadays, it tastes delicious. Afterward, we went for a long walk and then back to sleep to start the workweek. This week I am teaching The Giving Tree to my second graders and we are making ‘cootie catchers’ in first grade. This job is awesome.

November in Seoul

November 12th:
As I had hoped, after sleeping in, I went to Dongdaemun Market with Rachel and Ryan. It is this huge indoor and outdoor market that has everything you would want to find. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have any money to buy anything, but it was fun to browse. People would approach you trying to sell you things, and I really wanted to buy a winter coat, but I didn’t have the cash. I told the lady I would be back come payday, but she didn’t seem very happy about this response. The stay was short, as I had Korean class at 4:30. The class keeps changing, with various students entering and leaving. This can be frustrating, as we tend to repeat things that we learned in prior lessons. However, it gives me a chance to actually have mini-conversations in Korean with other students and meet interesting people. It is moving way to slowly however.

November 13th,
Friday the 13th. Not my favorite day, but never quite as scary as the movies fortunately. After classes, I met up with Byeong Hun and Andie and we went to the lantern festival near City Hall. Andie posted the pictures; there were lanterns representing every country. It was really cool. I thought that they were going to be just standard lanterns, but they were these gigantic representations of various things. Afterward, we met up with Phil and Sam, and said goodbye to Andie and headed to Appujeong. We wanted a quick dinner, but ended up sitting at a restaurant for about 2 hours, eating fried seafood and chatting with some random Korean guys who gave us some of their birthday cake. Afterward, BH and I met Nick and Evan at Monkey Beach and danced for a LONG time. Maybe four hours.

November 14th,
Saturday! Shopping with Sonali in Myeongdong turned out to be really boring. She warned me, I should have listened. However, she gave me a great lesson on Indian culture, so for that I am thankful. BH, Allan and I made a nice little dinner afterward, and then went to Itaewon for a game of poker. This was really boring for BH, so he left to find his friends and I ended up losing my 10,000 Won, but it was fun to hang out with the guys. Not as easy to beat them as it is my friends from home :-P
At around 10, we met up with Rachel Nusbaum for her birthday party. BH invited five of his friends, who may have been bored with us English speakers! However, after an hour and a couple of drinks, many attempts were made at cross-cultural communication and maybe some new connections have been made.

November 15th,
Because we had spent the weekend doing non-Korean things, Andie and I decided we should do something cultural. Around noon, we met up at Seolleung to see the tomb of King Seongjong of the Joseon dynasty. Although the day was cold, the sky was clear and the walk around the park was a nice change from the bustle of the city. The tombs were these huge mounds with interesting stone statues scattered about. I was snapping pictures quite furiously until Byeong Hun told me that culturally this was inappropriate as these were burial grounds. Luckily, I snapped some nice pictures before I realized that I was a bad person for doing so.

November 16th-19th,
Weekdays are weekdays. Work, Korean language lessons, and food at home. A lot of lazy behavior, including watching my favorite US TV programs. Boring but satisfying. My newest obsession? Glee. What an amazing show. I also finally added some 300 pictures to Facebook for everyone’s perusal.

November 20th,
Mark F had invited me Byeong Hun and his friend So-Jin to Suwon for a concert on Friday and I met my friends Katy and Jen there, who live and work in this city about 30 miles south of Seoul. It started to snow: large, wet, and beautiful. When we all met up, we headed to this random bar in a random building to be greeted by applause; they were very excited to have foreigners at their concert. Apparently it was a bunch of Samsung employees, and they ended up giving us free Budweisers because we were Americans. By the end of the night, they had invited Mark and I to the stage, where we danced and sang and had many pictures taken.

November 21st,
After crashing at Jen’s place, Byeong Hun, his friend So-Jin, Rachel Nusbaum and I met at City Hall in Seoul and had a nice fancy lunch. At Pizza Hut. Koreans love to take crappy restaurants in the US and make them seem awesome. Outback Steakhouse is apparently one of the best, and they think it is a legitimate Australian restaurant.
After the meal, we walked to Insa-dong to meet up with Arianna for some tea. This seriously was the best tea I have ever had in my life. Ginger tea on a cold day. Perfect. Plus, we decided on Christmas plans: a weekend at a ski resort in Eastern Korea. Another walk through the lantern festival and then we returned to Kangnam. Katy and Jen met up with us at my place and we went to get some burgers, coffee, and soju. The Rainbow House had an ethnic music night, and we listened to this fantastic, eclectic Asian music while smoking hookah.

November 22nd,
Nothing says breakfast better than kimchi. Seriously, fermented cabbage tastes FANTASTIC in omelets. I’m obsessed. After some badminton (Byeong Hun and I against Rachel Frank and So-Jin) Rachel infected me with another obsession: Go-Stop. It is the Korean version of poker, except with flowers and animals and ribbons. Look it up if you are interested. I play it online at school now all the time, and we might introduce it to the poker club.

November 23rd-25th,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Nothing exciting. My lessons this week have to do with Thanksgiving, which is making me homesick. Tomorrow though, Thanksgiving Day here in Korea, Andie, Sam and I will meet up with our recruiter for some live octopus. Sounds like a Happy Thanksgiving to me!