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Food: Adjusting to another culture's cuisine is always difficult. Korea, like most places, has a carbohydrate/starch-dominant diet: rice, noodles, rice noodles. The number one vegetable is cabbage: kimchi, their version of coleslaw, soup, stir-fry. Meat usually comes in small, barely distinguishable portions. Foreign-cuisine restaurants are common in urban areas.
What I did not like: "GARLIC PIE" is a waste of ingredients. It is the only thing I purchased in Korea that I did not finish for a reason other than being full. "Garlic pie" is a small, flakey, crusty breadstick sort of thing. It is extremely garlicky, which is great. It is also absolutely imbued with sugar. Which was incredibly confusing to me. I had one from the package, and I let them sit on the shelf in my dorm for a week, debating with myself whether I was just not used to the combination and psychologically offended, or if I actually did not like them. They are actually disgusting. Do not try them unless you like the idea of Krispy Kreme making a glazed garlic donut.What I usually ate:
In the morning, I would have a protein bar from home before class. I would get a lemonade with some funny Engrish on it from the vending machine. Lunch was usually in the school cafeteria or from their convenience store. Cafeteria food varied, but they often served a breaded and fried meat cutlet with rice, kimchi, miso soup and Korean coleslaw (the dressing is unmixed and Thousand Island instead of mayo--not a bad idea!). They also had some fun spicy chicken chunks now and then. From the convenience store, I would get a boxed sandwich. They looked frightening at first, but they may have changed my sandwich-aversion. There is an American-style coleslaw sandwich, which was a disappointment, but the coolest sandwich ever is mustard, a slice of ham, seafood and chicken salad (one salad, both types of flesh), carrot, cucumber and pickles. Believe me, you won't regret this unless you're religiously obliged not to eat pork. Korea has a FANTASTIC junkfood company called Lotte, and they make these awesome little cakes called La Seine (the river that runs through Paris) and a chocolate bar called Ghana (one of the countries that whipped the US in the World Cup). The stereotype that Asian people do not like sweet things is simply not true. And yes. We all ate tons of ramen. I had a few varieties that I liked, but my favorite was, essentially, a broth made from the same hot pepper sauce as kimchi with noodles, green onions and little bits of seafood. Satisfaction and sinus cleansing packed into every bite. By the way, I was told that the "correct" way to eat ramen is to suck it down in a most inappropriate fashion, no chewing, just swallowing. I'd rather do things a good way than the "correct" way. And yes, I ate with chopsticks and it was fine.
What I loved: I tried different kinds of foreign cuisine in Korea, aside from all of the Korean food. The Italian food I had was considerably good, of a much better quality than many restaurants in Connecticut, definitely the more "affordable" ones. The French food was alright, but disappointing in the sense that I have grown to expect much better from the French. I will, however, return to Seoul just to visit the best Indian restaurant I have ever eaten at. It's a little second-story place not far from the campus called New Delhi, run by some Nepali folks. Their vegetable curry is the best I've ever had, their lamb curry makes me feel OK about slaughtering baby sheep to feed myself. Their chicken curry and tandoori were fine, naan was fine, samosas were PHENOMENAL. Even their green salads were good, with some nice kicky nasturtium. No regrets on the Indian food. None.
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Friends: This program was not just a few lonely Americans and a gaggle of Koreans. Students from nearly forty different countries participated, ranging from all across Asia, including the Middle East, to Europe and Latin America. I think the absolute best friends I made were the two girls who came from Saudi Arabia: Sara and Abrar. I feel like we got along really well and learned a lot form one another. I can't wait to visit them in Saudi Arabia and have them visit me in Connecticut. I hope that all of the awesome people I met in this program do take the opportunity to come visit. I'll even show them around and make them food. Seriously!
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The Future: Korea is a very forward-thinking and forward-moving country, at least in terms of presented culture. They talk about their past a lot, especially concerning North Korea, but that is highly related to their present and, for better or for worse, their future. Of course, plenty of Koreans are materialistic, selfish and present-minded, not caring for the future beyond their own personal happiness: I think that there are probably people like this in all countries, especially amongst younger generations.
One of the highlights of going to South Korea was the discussion of "reunification" with the north. This occurred in both of my classes, and many young Koreans feel that it would not be worth the costs to join with the north again, due to economic differences. North Korea is, at best, a third-world country, while South Korea is first-world. Germans still cite differences in the economic state of eastern and western Berlin, even about a decade after the fall of the wall. Berlin is far smaller than Korea and has the rest of the German economy to utilize, beyond international sources. Despite the phenomenal economic and social gains South Korea has made in a relatively short period of time, namely after the "end" of the Korean War, bringing the north up to an economic state anywhere near that of SoKo's would be a huge investment and a labor of love requiring commitments of at least a few decades, if not half a century. There would more than likely be a huge exodus from the north, further increasing its poverty and causing social unrest in the south.
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Freedom: The one thing that really rode my nerves when my classmates said that it would cost too much to reunify with the north is the simple fact that this is putting a price on other people's freedom. People do not even question the fact that slavery is wrong and say they would do anything to end it if they saw it, but a lack of liberty enforced by a military regime s just as bad. How much would you pay so that your son would not have to serve in the military for ten years of his life--of his prime? How much would you pay so that your daughter would not have to serve for five years? How much would you pay to give someone the choice to get out of a situation or a place they do not want to be in? How much would you pay to give someone the chance to see family members they were forcibly torn from and forbidden from seeing for decades? If South Korea can afford to contribute foreign aid, then South Korea can find a way to integrate NoKo peacefully and effectively. Plus, it's not as if the added land, the connection with the rest of the continent and a larger population would be economically destructive to SoKo. They're well aware of the fact that there are benefits to the hassle beyond sentimental freedom-loving hooey.
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