Sportsfest at Billy's school

Yesterday, we went to Billy's school (Wondang Elementary School) to see him participate in their yearly sportsfest games. Since the school had a few students (less than 10 kids per grade, unlike Jai's previous school that had 30 kids in a class with several sections per grade), the games are mostly parlour games and group games. The entire school was divided into two team, Billy was on the ChungBan team. I forgot the other team's name.


Before all the activities began, Billy and all the kids had to do calistenics. Their teachers joined in with them.


All schools play this generic recording of a guy counting off the exercise moves to a march-like song. The tune is very catchy and the guy sounds like a military general counting off the moves.


Sometimes, I hear this recording played in supermarkets and I resist the urge to do jumping jacks and sit-ups. LOL




Here's Billy waiting for his turn in the 10-meter dash.


And off they go! Billy ran with three girls and was last when they started running. He overtook one girl and came in second at the last minute. He got a 2nd place stamp on his arm for that (which means he gets a prize later).


Next we had the long balloon relay. Groups of 3 would take this long balloon tube, run around a marker and come back to hand it to another group of 3.


Imagine my surprise when all the moms and dads were called in to join the fun. :) I asked Bill to take our pictures. You see me here with a yellow cap and a red tee-shirt.


Run Babylove run! Hubby took a video of me running with another mom with the balloon. WE won this game!


Next game was a relay where 6 people would stick one of their foot into a plastic holder and they were suppose to run at the same time. Here's Billy finishing with 5 other kids.


Here are the mom's turn. We tried our best but we didn't win this round. We played several more games like trying to make a huge balloon with this basketball size bed sheet. Or trying to get more color cards turn into our color by flipping them over (the team tries to flip them into their color). Another game was fighting over 5 seats and which team sits on most seats first.

Then we had to leave after lunch because hubby and I had teaching jobs at 2:00pm. It was a great day, even though we only got to be there for half of it.

Pa Jeon (Veggie Pancakes)

My brother's nickname is John and kids in our family would call him "Papa John or simply Pa John." Here in Korea, Papa John is the name of one of the best pizzas here and PaJon or Pa Jeon means vegetable pancake (or savory pancakes). Sorry, John. :)


Pajeon comes in numerous forms. It can be as simple as simply some leeks mixed with batter. Or it can come with lavish ingredients like sliced carrots, onions, mushrooms, zuchinni, etc. Others add seafood like oysters, squid, shrimp, etc. and call it Haemul Pajeon (Seafood Pancake).


Here's how you make Pajeon. Take a cup of korean pancake mix and add two tablespoons of Twikim Mix (Twikim means Tempura Batter).

If you don't have the mixes, simply combine 1 cup flour, 1 egg, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar.


In this Pa Jeon I decided I will add squid. So if you want squid, just have your fish vendor clean, gut it and take out the ink sac and beak. Slice up your squid into 1 inch thin strips.


Now get your Pa, no not your father, but your spring onions. Pa means spring onions in Korean, hence the name Pa Jeon. Get it? Now wash and thoroughly clean your spring onions and cut into 2 inch pieces. I used half of this bundle.



For oomph and color I added half an onion and half a carrot. I julienned these thinly and added to my mix.



Now put everything in a large mixing bowl and dump about a cup and a half of water. If you think your batter is too watery, dump some more pancake powder in. If it is too thick, add a couple of tablespoons of water. Just eyeball it and gauge it. That's how I do it, I don't even bother to measure it out. Mix thoroughly and make sure everything is coated with batter.


Now heat up some oil in a pan, swirling the pan around to let it coat the bottom evenly. When it is nice and hot, add a ladleful of mix and spread it out evenly (using the bottom of your ladle -> I've seen adjumas do this).


When the edges are cooked, flip them over. Cook this side for over a minute and then just slide the pancake onto a plate. Continue cooking your pajeon until you use up all your batter mix. Serve hot with soy sauce as your dipping sauce.


Here's my plate of Pa Jeon. Hope you like my tutorial. Bon apetit!

The Joys of Food Deliveries

Now let's talk about the upside of living here in Korea. Food deliveries, yeah baby! Our family loves ordering out, especially on the weekends when Bill wants me to rest from all the cooking and chores. Of course having an American hubby and kids, the obvious choices are always - Pizza and Fried Chicken.


I have mastered ordering our favorite food and our address in Korean. Usually, our fried chicken order comes in 15 to 20 minutes after I place my call. The delivery guy buzzes our doorbell or sometimes gives a brisk knock on the door.


Bill likes Nene Chicken whose fried chicken comes in a pizza box style. Here is one we got last Christmas (it came with a freebie clock too... that died after a couple of days).



See the nifty slot where the small Pepsi bottle fits in? Such an ingenious design.


Ta-da! We have out fried chicken. It's pretty good, less oily than other Korean fried chickens (like BBQ or Pelicana). It comes with four little sauce boxes containing the usual macaroni-corn-raisins-smothered-in-mayo salad, pickled radish cubes, a chili-garlic sauce and honey mustard (shudder). There's also a couple of chopsticks and some pepper and salt mix you can sprinkle all over the chicken (as if you don't have enough sodium already).


Don't forget to keep the coupons. Usually 10 coupons saved means you get another fried chicken meal for free. Or what they call "service" in Konglish here. And the coupons here are magnetized which means you can tack them on your fridge with pride.


Here's our hoard so far. Only 2 more coupons for With Chicken (a garlicky sauce coated fried chicken that we usually dip in hot sauce) and 6 more for Nene Chicken (we just redeemed our free chicken a couple of weeks ago).


Last Saturday, we didn't only order chicken but pizza as well. Here's our friendly pizza guy with our order. Note, pizza shopss here in Korea bury their toppings under the cheese, which means you get soggy meats like pepperoni, ham, sausage, etc. We had to convince, more like beg, our local pizza chain to put our pepperonis on top to get them nice and crisp. Ah, the things we do for love...


And here's a peek of our pizza. It's from the Gurrogi Pizza chain and they have specials like 1+1 pizzas. Yup, two pizzas for the price of one. We usually order this. You can a small packet of parmesan cheese blend (meaning fake) and a small cup of pickles. In Korea, pizza ALWAYS come with pickles. I bet a lot of koreans get surprized when they order pizza in the US or Europe and find there are no pickles served with it.


My favorite type of food delivery is the korean food restaurant delivery. Almost always, I order Donkatsu Pork (Breaded Pork Slice) set for the kids and a bowl of Kalbi Tang (Beef Ribs Soup) for me.


The restaurant sends out the food on actual plates. Here's Billy's Donkatsu plate with its huge pork slice, a cup of macaroni salad drowning in mayo, a slather of korean salad drowning in mayo (can you see a pattern here?), a cup of rice and half a tangerine for dessert. This costs about $4 an order. Oh and it comes with a small bowl of clear veggie broth.


All the food orders are hermetically sealed with plastic saran wrap. Here is my bowl of Beef Rib Soup which always hits the spot when it is cold or raining outside. In this version, thin slices of omelet and a date top the soup. This bowl (along with a cup of rice) costs about $5.


And the restaurant also provides you with side dishes like kimchi, takuan (pickled radish slices, gochujang paste, salt and the best of the best, UTENSILS! And to top it all off, after you have eaten your fill, just pile up the dirty dishes and utensils and set it outside your front door. The delivery guy will swing by soon to pick it up. No washing the dishes (I HATE washing dishes) and no hassle. ;)

Ba Da Bump... Korean style

There are many things good about Korea - the healthy food, the clean streets, the fast and efficient government systems (boy do I love how fast Immigration works here in processing documents). And then, there are the downsides, too. Like being constantly bumped by people - from all walks of life. Yup, everyone does it.

It started this morning when I came back from the bus stop after bringing Billy to his school bus. I walked back to our apartment and waited for the elevators to open up. People filed out and the last one, a middle school girl, practically mowed me down when she hurried out. Not a word of apology or even a glance back at me.


What is it with Koreans and their lack of respect for personal space? I really didn't put much thought about personal space until I got married (to an American). It's a concept that most Westerners apply, respecting one's personal space when they walk down the street, sit on the street bench or stand in the subway.


Take for example what would generally happen when you walk down a busy street in Seoul. It's practically every man for himself. Businessmen, mothers with their kids and worst offenders of them all, adjumas and little ol' ladies would bump, crash and sometimes walk into you if you are not careful. We have taken to make sure our kids are always protected. But it seems that almost everytime Billy or Jai would complain that an old lady or a man bumped into them and it hurt. There was one time, an old lady knocked Jai down literally on the street trying to catch a bus. Bill wanted to race after the lady and punch her since Jai on his hands and knees on the street, stunned from the shoving that he got. He was 8 then.


When Jai left for the Philippines last year, he was adept in dodging this crazy korean human dodgeball. Most of the times, the culprits would just walk on as if nothing happen even if our kids would let out a cry of pain. In the past, Bill would yell at them and sometimes elicit a half-assed murmur of apology. Now, I do the yelling because I am sick and tired of being a punching bag with errant shoulders, over-sized bags and elbows (not to mention having to rub Billy's head when he gets hit).

Now we we go out walking, Bill takes the offensive. He sticks his elbows out and makes sure he braces himself when he encounters a passerby. With Bill's mass and size, people usually gets thrown back a couple of steps. When this happens, they actually have the nerve to be angry at Bill. *shakes my head* How can a race of people be so clueless? One thing though, if they did this kind of thing in a busy street of New York or Manila, they won't just get shouted at, they may get shot at. And that's a fact.