Fasey Girl?
(Apologies for the scattered, nonsensical way this post is written. Not my best piece of writing as I’m finding it hard to concentrate these days.)
In less than two weeks, I’ll be on my way to a new home and new job in South Korea.
Last Thursday I officially finished my job as a travel agent and, while I’m happy to say goodbye to sales and package holidays, the rush to pack my whole life into 30kg of luggage starts now. How do you pack a year’s worth of clothes into one large suitcase? How do you know which treasures to bring with you and which to leave behind? I have apparently forgotten how to do this whole moving thing.
But it’s okay. I’m super excited to be starting something new and, in the meantime, some pretty amazing people have already taken some steps in helping to indoctrinate me into Korean culture.
First, my amazing friend, Sally, sent me these beautiful little notecards:
Apologies, Sally. This picture doesn’t do your photography justice at all.
The photographs are all taken by Sally and feature a different place in Korea that she’d either lived in or travelled to. A part of me wants to keep them and pin them on my wall but they’ll also serve as the perfect stationery when it comes to writing letters back home so thank you, Sally. :D Love them!
Secondly, one of my BFFs, Rachel, came home from Korea for a little visit last month. Needless to say, she did not come empty handed.
Given the fact that I’m soon to be starting work in a beauty school, it was only appropriate that she unloaded a pile of Korean paper face masks on me:
For those of you not in the know, these are the face masks that make you look like a serial murderer:
But, in spite of how freakish they may seem, they’re apparently pretty popular in Korea and for good reason – They kind of work. I’ve only used three so far and they’ve already done wonders for my skin. (Two people have legit commented on how my face is ‘glowing’.) Unfortunately I only have three more left so will have to wait until I move to get my hands on more.
Rachel was also kind enough to pick me up some fabulous little items adorned with everyone’s favourite language – Konglish. Starting with the make-up bag (at the top of the post), who is Fasey Girl? I did try Googling it to see if it was the name of a product or cartoon or anything but, nope. This is some strange word I’ll never understand.
Inside the make-up bag were these little gems …
Narration at its best.
This is going on my luggage because it kills me every time I read it.
If this is the start of all things Konglish to come, I’m buying everything over there. Seriously. I love language and, when things like this happen, I love it even more.
And, last but not least, the other week my other BFF, Rhi, and I decided to go for our first taste of Korean food at a recently-opened restaurant in Cardiff, appropriately named Kimchi.
While Rhi opted for some sort of pear fruit juice thing in a can, I decided to give soju – a traditional Korean rice drink often compared to vodka – a go.
Rhi’s pear juice.
Me and my soju.
The verdict? I like soju. It’s not as nasty as vodka but I don’t know how people drink multiple bottles of it. I ended up taking half the bottle home with me and I still haven’t finished it! Every time I have more than two shot glasses (while sipping), I feel like I’m going to fall on my ass. I see many drunken nights in my future overseas.
As we waited for our meals, a plate of seaweed and beansprouts were brought to the table.
Rhi mastering metal chopsticks.
I do love beansprouts. And, as a Welsh girl, seaweed is going to be no problem for me (Hello, laverbread!). So far, the food was shaping up to be pretty good.
Next came the side dishes …
Korean pancakes
Dumplings
Korean salad
Kimchi!
We both agreed that while the pancakes – filled with onions, spring onions, carrots and a few more vegetables – were delicious when dipped in soy sauce, alone they were pretty dry and bland.
And while I know Rhi absolutely loved the salad – especially the horseradish and the cucumber – I think her reaction to the dumplings (I didn’t try them; They were filled with meat) were similar to how we felt toward the pancakes: They were great only with a bit of sauce.
As for the soon-to-be-staple-of-my-diet kimchi?
Take a look at our reactions …
At first I was reluctant to eat it again. But the more I went back for it, the more I kind of got used to the taste and it didn’t seem too bad after a while. I actually kind of think I’d enjoy it more if it was warm … but then it wouldn’t be kimchi.
And our mains?
Udong Noodles
Bibimbap
I know Rhi enjoyed her udong noodles, though the portion was pretty large and neither of us managed to finish everything. She also mentioned that they were a little tricky to eat with chopsticks (though she definitely had a better grip of them than I did).
I, on the other hand, had recognised bibimbap straight away as a traditional Korean dish and was eager to try it. And you’ve got to give credit to Rhi for doing her research – She was the one who told me how to use the sides of the sizzling hot bowl to cook the raw egg on top.
As well as the egg, the bowl was filled with an abundance of rice, noodles, cucumber, seaweed, tofu, courgette, beansprouts, and horseradish. Vegetarian heaven!
Unfortunately, for me, it was just … okay. While delicious when eaten with a piece of kimchi, on it’s own it was what it was – Rice and vegetables. No flavour. Pretty bland. (I really don’t like plain tofu.) Quite disappointing given that I’d read so much about Korea’s range of spicy food.
Overall the whole thing left me with a flat response. If I wasn’t moving to Korea, I’d probably never go out of my way to have it again. As I am moving to Korea though, I know that the food of a whole nation can’t be judged on just one restaurant so am looking forward to trying more when I get there.
Only 9 more days to go now. Eeek!
