저는 중국이랑 태국계 미국 사람이에요

"I'm a Chinese-Thai-American"

I walk into class on the first day and immediately a kid looks at me and asks "Zhongguoren?" That is, "Chinese?" (or "Are you Chinese?" shortened to a single word) I laughed and explained that I was a Chinese American, and that I could speak a little bit of Mandarin but that the Chinese that I spoke with my father was Cantonese.

It's a pretty interesting experience learning Korean in Korea as neither a Chinese or Japanese person (as most Sogang students are) or even another type of Asian, and not as a 재미 교포 chaemi kyopo (a Korean American) but as "another type of Asian American." Being in Sogang class, people will assume I'm an Asian learning Korean. Once they learn that I'm American, they will assume that I'm a kyopo. On the streets, when they hear that I don't speak Korean fluently, they will think I'm a kyopo. So these days, I've adopted explaining to people from the first time I meet them that I am American but not Korean-American.

Not to mention, people are much more impressed by your Korean if you're not Asian. I was eating samgyupsal with my friend Greg, who is white, and also from New York. After the ajumma brought us our food, she sat down and said to my friend "Wow, you speak Korean really well!" After a bit of conversation with her, he pointed to me and said to her "You know he's not Korean either?" and I said "Yeah, I'm Chinese American." The ajumma gave a dismissive "uh huh" and turned back to him to continue talking. I've gotten used to it so I'm not really offended, but I think it's interesting how the coolness factor of knowing a certain language varies not really by ethnicity, but rather by race.

I also had my first experience at a 찜질방 jjimjilbang (Korean sauna) the other day with Sneha and two of her friends Janelle and Tessa. Amusingly, as we were walking to the 찜질방, we passed a bar called
That would be "Osama" haha. I think it was a Japanese bar since there were Japanese words above the sign, but it was amusing haha. As with many Korean facilities, there are separate floors for males and females to go to first, in order to change and bathe in the 목욕탕. I haven't quite and I don't know if I will work up the courage to bathe naked with random Koreans (let alone with friends)--maybe it's because I'm American that I'm not so comfortable with being naked in front of everyone haha. Regardless, after changing I went to the sauna area to meet up with Sneha and co. and we sat in several sauna rooms. I don't know how much I actually like sitting in a sauna and sweating profusely, but it's a nice bonding experience to just relax with other people in an environment that's made for relaxing and release. I was considering taking pictures but worried how my camera would react to extreme temperature changes ^^.

Yesterday I met my first language partner yay! Apparently it's not sketchy here in Korea to meet people through the internet so I've been using www.hanlingo.com , a language exchange website to meet language partners. Her name was 문정 Moon Jeong and she was very sweet ^^, very eager to help me with my Korean. She's currently attending an English hagwon (schools designed to teach specific subjects, such as English) and is a beginning English speaker, so it'll be interesting helping her with her English :).

So my teachers seem pretty fun and sweet. 신효원 Shin Hyo Won 선생님 is my writing teacher--she seems nice, although I'm not fully sure what to make of her yet. 구은미 Ku Eun Mi 선생님 is my listening and speaking teacher--she's very fun. Sarcastic and has the flair of a young teacher and has a great sense of humor. My reading teacher is 최연재 Choe Yeon Jae 선생님 who seems very sweet and motherly. I'm a little upset at the class size though, which is 16. It'd be nice if the number were lower so that there'd be some focus ㅠ_ㅠ. As usual, most of the class is Chinese or Japanese, but there is one woman from Russia, one from Belgium, a girl from Taiwan, and a girl from Thailand. If our class were smaller it'd be make for easier bonding...but hopefully that'll develop over time.

Okay and now some picture time ^^. Last week Bob and I (mostly Bob) attempted some cooking! 순두부, a silken tofu stew and 계란찜, a steamed egg dish. They turned out pretty well :), though the 순두부 was lacking a bit of flavor. Someone once told me that the reason 순두부 tastes good is MSG...maybe that's what we were missing hahaha. But the next time we'll probably experiment with other things (maybe using gochujang--spicy pepper paste instead of chili powder), for example.
The ingredients!
Bob minces the garlic and scallions.
The ingredients after being prepared.
Added the chili powder, tofu, clams, and some seaweed-flavored water.
Mmm check that steam as more ingredients were added.
And the final product!
Here's the 반찬 banchan (side dishes) that we put next to it, like a real Korean meal :D.
And the whole setup!
And that was 계란찜 from the next morning with two yummy oranges next to it. I realize that I really don't have much fruit here T_T.