Dakgalbi

So far my favorite Korean meal is Dakgalbi which was actually the first meal I had here with meat in it.

Basically the meal goes like this...

 While you’re waiting for your food to arrive, they bring out this a kind of cold pickled radish soup, which had an odd but not unpleasant taste. But it actually seems really common to get something like this while you’re waiting for your food, but the taste has definitely grown on me. With it as well you quite often get what looks like coslaw but is actually just shredded cabbage with a kind of kiwi fruit sauce on it.  And as you can see as well, they brought out the kimchi early. You pretty much get kimchi with every meal. I’m really glad that I got used to the taste before I came out here. It takes a while for the taste to grow on you, but now i love it ^^.

It's also really common for you to get so many side dishes at a meal that you could just eat the side dishes and be full, without ever touching the main dish.

Then they heat up the pan in the middle of your table, and once it’s hot they bring down the ingredients. To let it cook in front of you.

Note: never touch the food while it is cooking, they come round and make sure the food is cooking and is turned properly themselves. If you start messing with the food before it’s ready they get mad. Lol.

Then once it’s almost done they came with the noodles, a little water and some more gochujang and mix it all up. Then once it comes back up to temperature you’re good to go.

But that’s not all, once you’re done, and there’s the few bits left which would otherwise go to waist, they bring out more. They bring white rice and…other things and mix it all up, using all the left over parts from the first part of the meal to give flavour to the rice. Then once it’s all well mixed, they bring in cheese as well and mix that in, and flatten it all out so the cheese makes everything stick together. Then once that’s done, you’re good to go for part two.

This meal was more than enough for the 3 of us eating and it was so good! And so cheap for what you get as well.

One thing that I will add though, which I found out at later meals, is that Koreans eat really fast. It’s not really got the social attachment that it has in the west. They eat, often without speaking, and then just leave. So when you order food, and you sit there talking for a couple of minutes before you get stuck in, the staff assume you don’t know how to eat it, and will start trying to help you eat it. Whenever I eat out as well, we’re usually ¾ times longer eating than any Korean customer.  

Some pictures.

Here's just a few pictures of Jeonju, where I visited with Sai, before starting my EPIK orientation.

Traditional Korean Tea house

Vegetarianism in Korea.

As my loving friends and family all know, I’m one of those really annoying people who make dinning a pain in the back-side with my vegetarianism. And have been for the past… almost 5 years O.o. Before I came to Korea I knew that being vegetarian was going to be hard from the get go, especially since that would mean that I wouldn’t be able to eat the vast majority of regular Korean food. But I figured some how it would sort itself out. Upon arriving in Korea, boy did I realise how wrong I was.

If you ask for a meal without meat, well first you’ll get a funny look and then maybe they’ll ask why, but still that doesn’t mean that you’ll get a meal that’s free from meat even if they agree to do it for you. If there’s no meat actually visible, chances are it’s still meaty (hidden meat evilness). The chances are it was still prepared with meat in some way. A dish without meat is still likely to be prepared in either a beef broth or in like a prawn brine or something to that effect.  Dokbokki, for example, is vegetarian in itself, but when it’s being prepared, it’s boiled with fishcakes for flavour. Sure you could just pick out the fish cakes but then you’re still eating all the fish juice. You may as well eat the fish right? Depending on how disciplined you are, as a vegetarian this either is or isn’t acceptable. Coming from my uni days where I was so strict I had my own fridge, plates, and cutlery to prevent cross contamination, this is a far cry! D;

Now there are a couple of places in Korea…mainly in Seoul, like “Loving Hut“, that do do vegetarian and vegan food, but I don’t live in Seoul. =/

So, I gave it plenty of thought before I came to Korea, if I found it to be this difficult and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to give up being vegetarian. *sigh* I'm sure the family will cheer >.>

First day in Korea

So my first free days before my orientation with Sai were great! I’m so glad I came before my orientation to get a feel for things in Korea before getting into work.

Straight after we met at the airport we went to drop our stuff off at the motel which Sai and Tori booked us into and then from there we pretty much got changed, and went for food. My first Korean meal, it was so good, so many weird and new flavours. I’ll come back to food in a separate blog.

From eating, Sai and Tori proceeded to show me around Hongde, which is the kinda clubbing/inde scene in Seoul where you’ll find a lot of foreigners too. I’m expecting we’ll spend a fair amount of our weekends here. To be honest it was all too much to take in at once. There was too much sensory stimulus. Even the buskers in Korea are so much better than anything you would see in Manchester. You actually want to stop and listen to them. I did take a video of one band playing but it may or may not make its way into a video on here.

By this point it was completely dark and since the clubs were starting to open, the girls took me more into their social life. They’ve gotten friendly with some staff in a particular club, and they’re now considered “guests”, so they get free entry and drinks, which by extension, I get too. J. We met up with a couple of their Korean friends (who speak fantastic English) in one club and then proceeded to the next.

The best and most enjoyable thing about Korean clubs has got to be how friendly people. Pretty much as soon as we got on the dance floor a bunch of guys invited us all to dance with them. I assumed they were friends of Sais and had seen me on Facebook, but nope, complete strangers, and they were such good fun. The rest of the night in the club proceeded to be the same. And also, people in Korea can actually dance. And people are keen to dance and have fun too. There’s not the pressure like there is in England to look good in what you’re doing. People just have a good time, I didn’t see anyone there too drunk or trying to start a fight.

Around 2am we left and went to “Norebang” which is the Korean equivalent of karaoke, while one of Sai’s friends from Australiajoined us, and then from there we proceeded to the first club we went to for free drinks and more dancing. Needless to say the atmosphere was pretty much the same only cosier with the added friendliness of the staff and manager. Some random Korean guys joined us for pretty much the rest of the night there too for dancing and drinking. And well…lets just say that the bar staff  put on a very nice show too, including stripping, fire breathing and pouring alcohol over themselves and onto the crowd. They even interacted with the crowd too, which you just don’t get in England! We stayed until around 6am when the club closed and by this point our group had grown to I don’t know how many, but from there we went to a café for breakfast.

We must have been there for around an hour and a half before the staff needed to clean, where we thought that would be a good time to call it a night and headed back to our hostel. And thus concludes my first day/night(mostly night) in Korea.

Most noticeably I have to say, is in fact how safe it is here and how care free people are in comparison to the west, when it comes to personal safety. People leave their phones and wallets, handbags and all sorts on tables in cafes while they go to the bathroom, or even leave the building all together and it’s just still there when they get back. People seem too nice, or rather, they’re too busy minding their own business to even consider stealing your stuff and it’s made me feel like I’m unnecessarily paranoid about everything.

TEFL Jobs in Korea - Documentation costs

This is just a short blog about the “hidden” or rather the not so apparent costs of documentation needed to apply for a TEFL job in Korea, for anyone who might be considering applying. This information is from my personal experience of applying to both the TaLK and EPIK programs set up by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Both of which have my highest recommendation, they look after you very well. :)

Mandatory documents which you will be asked for:

• A Copy Bachelor’s Diploma with Apostille - A copy of your Bachelors degree is not required for TaLK applicants, however if you are applying for EPIK or higher pay, you will be asked for a copy. This well cost around £65

• Original sealed Transcripts - depending on your university, this could cost anywhere between £10 and £30 per copy. 

• Criminal Record Check (CRC) with Apostille - Across the UK the standard price to get a criminal record check is £10, and takes around 40 days to get back to you. On top of that, to get a CRC apostil led it will cost around £55.  

It is possible that you may also asked for the following:

• Doctors note - depending on how well you know your doctor, they could fill out a medical check and sign it for free or they could charge you up to £30.

• Interview at the embassy -  depending on weather you apply through TaLK, EPIK or a third party recruiter, you may or may not be asked head down to your nearest embassy for an interview in person. Take into account the cost of transport, whether you have to stay over night in the area or not. 

• Finally the cost of sending documents securely is something worth noting. After gathering all this information you want to make sure that your documents get to their destination securely! Taking into account the weight of all your documents and their copies, the fact that it has to go by airmail, fast and recorded delivery, your looking in the region of £140. However, if you Apply to TaLK, they have you send your documents to your nearest embassy, and they forward on the documents for you, saving you the cost. 

In total you’re looking at around £143.00 - £330.00 if you’re applying from the UK, provided that your other documentation doesn’t cost you anything, and your recruiter only asks for one copy of the above. 

With that I’ll leave you with one last note. It’s really important, for your own stress levels, that you look at whichever recruiter’s website at what documents they require, and to get them organised before you begin your application. There is nothing worse than putting your application in jeopardy because you’re still waiting for your CRC and the closing date for final documents is quickly arriving.

Good luck with your applications ^^