October 26- Having fun

This afternoon Eun Ji and her little cousin Sang Heon came over to the house to hang out while Michael played golf with their parents. They are the 2 best baby sitters I’ve ever met! They both had so much fun playing with the kids, and as you can see, the kids were equally entertained. What an ideal situation!
After everyone returned from golfing, we were invited to Mrs. Yu’s sister’s home to eat meugeum kimchi. This is a very special kind of kimchi (what has to be the national food of Korea…it’s served at every meal, including breakfast!). This kimchi is aged for anywhere from 1-5 years. Michael and I had just watched a program on television the night before about this special variety of kimchi, so we were excited to be asked to join their family in enjoying this delicacy. The kimchi we ate had been aged for a year. I know nothing about cabbage or it’s ageing properties, but from what I gather, the Koreans feel about this kimchi the same thing the French feel towards their finally aged wines. Something about the cultures in the cabbage keep it from spoiling as it ages? Like I said, I’m certainly no expert. I can say that it didn’t taste like any kimchi I’ve ever had. Instead of being spicy, it was actually almost sweet, and tasting mildly like an apple.
These kids seem to understand the customs of traditional Korean dining. Ella sat very nicely at the ladies table and made a very valiant attempt at using chopsticks. As you can see in the picture, the table was laden with all sorts of wonderful Korean dishes including regular kimchi, meugeum kimchi, a boiled pork belly, homemade sanjang (a mild and delicious pepper paste), anchovies, rice, and chop che.
It’s not so much a tradition in Korea that ladies and gentlemen eat at separate tables. It’s more like the way things happen all over the world, tables get separated...ladies vs. men, adults vs. children. I’m sure you know from your own holiday dinner how that goes! Some things are the same no matter where you go in the world, right?
I think it’s safe to say that Sterling loves chop che. It’s a really delicious dish that is very common at large gatherings. It’s made from rice noodles, mushrooms, friend egg, usually some kind of meat, and onions. It reminds me of fried rice, but with noodles instead of rice. Trust me, it really is good.
Ella is going to figure out these chop sticks if it’s the last thing she does! She’ll be the first blonde hair, blued eyed American preschooler to have command of chopsticks! She really does have the basic idea down, and does manage to get some food to her mouth via the chopsticks. I feel pretty certain that by her second birthday she’ll be able to eat her cake with chop sticks…won’t that be funny? Mrs. Yu’s sister made the comment that if Ella were to stay in Korea for a long period of time, she’d have no problem blending in seamlessly with her peers. Probably true.
We had such a wonderful time this evening. Our weekend has been busy, busy, busy, but we have enjoyed every minute of it. I can’t tell you how much it means to us to be invited into someone’s home to enjoy such a nice meal, and good company. Mrs. Yu and I were talking about language and the differences and similarities amongst different languages. For example, Koreans use difference words for the same object depending on whether you’re speaking to a male of female, adult or child, similar to the Spanish usage of feminine and masculine nouns. We came to the final conclusion that the language used matters very little so long as the ability to communicate is achieved. It doesn’t matter that we struggle to find a common ground when speaking with our Korean friends, but rather what matters is we are able to convey a feeling of friendship and gratitude, which is truly the underlying thread that binds all nations together, isn’t it?