Our New Home, Thangsgiving, and Samgyetong

I've been kind of busy, so I'm lumping what deserves three posts into one. First, we signed a lease on our home. This is a far more complex process in Korea than it is in America. We met our realtor for an inspection, and he drove us up to the house. I don't know if I've mentioned Louis before, but he's an outstanding realtor: first for finding us the place, and second for driving us to our house twice and talking us through it so we can find it ourselves. So we got there and met the landlord, who showed us the place again. He doesn't speak any English, but he conveyed through Louis that his last tenant stayed for three years and landlord drove tenant to the airport when he left.

Eventually someone from our housing department showed up. He had a clipboard, and performed an inspection on the house. He then handed me the clipboard and told me to do the same. The first thing on the list was bathrooms, and we had to ascertain that the toilets flushed, the shower worked, and there was hot water. We were running the water to test this when the housing guy rushed in and told us the hot water wasn't on yet. I asked how we were supposed to verify this, and he said we were just supposed to check the boxes. Okay... every day I am reminded that there are many things about this place that I will never understand. Anyways, Bobby got all wet and it was pretty funny. I then had to complete a security checklist that the Army mandates verifying that the house is secure. Afterwards, we all drove down to Camp Henry (5 people: Bobby and me, Louis, and the landlord and his son). We had to pile into one car because only Louis has permission to take his vehicle into Henry.

We went to housing, where I had my lease explained to me, initialed it in several places, and signed. They did the same in Korean with the landlord. I got a pamphlet about garbage service in Korea, which is very complicated and punished by a stiff fine if (when?) I mess it up. We all left pretty happy, and we move in December 10. Our furniture won't be here, so we will have to borrow some from housing. Not that we'll be able to fill that house with the furniture we have, anyways.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Of course, there is no Thanksgiving in Korea, so everything was open. We went to my sponsor's house for dinner, where we encountered dozens of Americans and a few Koreans. There was a magnificent spread, including sangria, and we cut loose a bit. Bobby and I are making plenty of friends here, and everyone is willing to help the clueless newbies, for which I am very grateful.

Yesterday was my birthday, and Mr. Pan took us out for samgyetong. This is a remarkable chicken stew, which, like many dishes in Korea, cooked right in front of us. We each received a bowl of simmering soup with a whole tiny chicken (guinea hen?) inside. Mr. Pan showed us how to pick the chicken apart with chopsticks, and it was stuffed with rice, a chestnut, a date, and ginseng. We stirred the contents and ladled some into a smaller bowl and poured in some salt. The salt was particularly to Bobby's liking, as he can't really find any here. There was another bowl for the bones. It was absolutely delicious, and I'm putting it on my list of foods I like in Korea. We plan to go back, though I admit it's nice to have a Korean friend to go with so we're not wandering around clueless. I often find myself wishing Mr. Pan were around.

All in all, another remarkable week in Daegu!

Our front door

















Our enormous room. That device in the corner is an air conditioner.













Our master bathroom.














The view from our kitchen (yes, the haze is smog)













The view from our living room. The reflection from the window is kind of in the way, but that mountain is Apsan mountain.