It’s Halloween this weekend and this is the extent of the display at my local E-Mart. Thankfully I have thoughtful family and friends who sent us cute baby costumes and candy corn in the mail.
Happy Halloween!
October 2009
Monthly Archive
October 27, 2009
October 23, 2009
There seems no limit to what can be delivered using a scooter in Seoul. This motorbike is outfitted with a covered garment rack to deliver neatly pressed clothes to your door.
October 21, 2009
The weather has cooled and the snack vendors are selling different foods now. The little fish snack cakes/붕어빵 are back. Did you know there is a Korean expression for when a baby looks just like his father (we’ve been hearing this a lot)? They call the baby boong-uh-bbang/붕어빵, think “chip off the old block.” Because the snack cakes are made from a mold, they are identical.
Little fish snack cakes are filled with 팥/sweet red bean paste.
October 16, 2009
There is a new brand of snack foods on the market called “Mother’s Fingers.” The name conjures up visions of bloody phalanges inside of baked goods, kind of like Halloween treats at a haunted house. It was a Korean food company’s poor translation of 손맛/sohn mat, something closer to personal touch plus family recipe…which explains why kimchi or bulgogi tastes depending on the cook.
October 14, 2009
When Koreans move, the movers arrive with a truck that reaches all the way up to the balcony window. Everything is placed on a large flatbed that makes quick work of big loads and allows other apartment residents unimpeded access to the elevator.
Korean moving truck that reaches up to the 25th floor of a high rise apartment building.
October 9, 2009
Today is Hangeul Day/한글날 which commemorates King Sejong’s development of the Korean alphabet in 1443 so that more people could be literate, not just the scholarly who studied Chinese characters/한자. As a result nearly 98% of the population is literate today. There are flags lining the streets of Seoul but it’s not an official holiday.
October 6, 2009
Hand it to my mother-in-law to find me the perfect Korean language class that fits my schedule and it’s FREE. There are local “Global Village Centers” in a number of neighborhoods and mine offers Hangeul classes twice a week. The teacher is friendly and speaks English, Chinese, and Japanese while teaching us Korean. My fellow students are also foreign-born wives trying to improve their reading and writing.
Each Global Village Center provides different programs, here is a link to get you started: http://global.seoul.go.kr/yeoksam/
