My parents' visit to Minnesota (September 2003)
To celebrate my mom's 60th birthday, my parents have decided to come and travel around the US. They first went to New York where my aunt lives and also came to Minnesota to stay with me for two weeks. They came to visit the U, and we went to various places in the Twin Cities. This picture was taken in a garden near Lake Harriet. Since two weeks is too long a period to explore the Twin Cities (they went to the MoA five times!), we went for a little trip up north. First we stopped by at the skyway in Duluth. Then, we stopped by at Gooseberry falls and the lighthouse nearby. Our final destination was Grand Marais, not that we planned or anything but it just happened to be in the way for rest. The next morning, we took a picture at Grand Marais. The weather and the scenery was simply beautiful.
My nephews & Cha-ryae ceremony (Update, Winter 2003~2004)
This winter, I went back to Korea for three weeks. I met my nephews Jaeho and Joon-gi (a.k.a. Ryan) for the first time in a year and boy have they grown up so much. Here are some pictures of my adorable nephews.
Jaeho (18 months old)
1 (Jaeho crawling behind sofa)
2 (Jaeho after a messy dinner. Probably Ja-jang-myeon, pasta with black bean sauce.)
3 (Jaeho on New Year's Day during the Cha-ryae ceremony with traditional costume.)
4 (Another pic of Jaeho)
Joon-gi (13 months old)
1 (Joon-gi with Beckham hairstyle and bandana)
2 (Joon-gi after dinner. He seems to put food inside his mouth for a long time.)
3 (Joon-gi on New Year's Day during Cha-ryae with traditional costume.)
4 (Blurry pic of Joon-gi smiling)
Cha-ryae (Pronounced as 'cha' in "charge" and 'ryae' as "Ray" but with super strong Rrrr sound) is another traditional ceremony in Korea. It's somehow similar to Jae-sa (explained in the third year picture) in terms of the food prepared and the procedure, but it's a bit more festive and do not necessarily commemorate one particular person (like jae-sa). Most people celebrate this on Lunar New Years Day, but we decided to do it on the (Western) New Years since I won't be around at the Lunar New Years. After the ceremony, the younger members of the family pay respect to the elders and wish them long life while the elders give them good advice for the new year and 'fortune money'. I earned 50 bucks for my fortune money!
Royal Palace (January 2004)
Early January, I went to see the royal palace that's located in the middle of Seoul. Much of the royal palace had been destroyed by the Japanese in the early 20th century and replaced by buildings for colonial administration. It was only ten years ago that these ugly buildings have been demolished and replaced by the renovated palace. I've only been to the National Museum and just a few of the palaces this time. Following Feng-shui, the palace faces a beautiful mountain (In-wang-san, 'san' means mountain in Korean) on the back. First, the palace is surrounded by outer-ring castle. What you see here is the main gate of the outer-ring castle, called Kwang-Hwa-Moon. Inside, there's an inner-ring castle with its gate called Heung-Ryae-Moon. Inside this gate, there's another small wall surrounding the main palace, Keun-jung-jun, where the king used to meet the ministers. This picture shows the small wall that leads to the main palace. I like this picture a lot because it shows the perfect balance and exactness of the architecture. In fact, there's a small gate in front of the main palace, but due to the angle of the picture, they look as one. A close-up picture of the main palace is shown here. And this is (what was supposed to be) inside. Finally, this is a picture of Kyung-hwae-ru, which is a huge pavillion created at the end of 19th century.
Ice Palace, St. Paul (January 2004)
Every year, the city of St. Paul celebrates the Minnesota winter in an ironic fashion, by building a castle (palace) made of ice blocks. So this year, we went to see this truly Minnesotan work of art on January 30th. It was a very cold night, with the temperature going down to minus something (Farenheit). This picture shows what the cold weather can do to your eyes/glasses. After five minutes of entering into the palace, we really wished we'd gone back to our cars and enjoy the warmth of the heating. Nevertheless, we took some time to take pictures. (pic1, pic2) By the way, you can make comparison of the two palaces I've been to recently.
Dinner at Javi & Rosa's house
(February 2004)
On Valentine's Day, I was invited to Javi and Rosa's house for dinner. They made a variety of Spanish tapas, while I made bul-go-gi with spinach beddings. Also Maria Fernanda made an appetizer with tomatoes and cheese dipped in olive oil and basil. Ah, and not to mention Rosa's delectable chocolate cake. Anyways, here are some pictures we took. One is Felix with his uncle Stanley. The other is yet another pseudo happy-looking couple picture, courtesy of Maria Fernanda and Felix.
Spring Break 2004 - Destination St. Louis
(March 2004)
During spring breaks, I have a tendency to go to places where nobody would dare go for spring break. This time, my destination was St. Louis, MO. Yes, Missouri seems to be on my list for two consecutive years. But then again, when would I ever! This time, I was visiting Seungmin, a high school friend stuck in St. Louis. Now for the pictures...
This one was taken on the way to St. Louis at a gas station. It was definitely shocking. Truly, words cannot describe this.
Next one was taken in front of the famous Riverfront Arch. It's the highest manmade monument in US, standing more than 630 feet tall (for the rest of the world, 192 meters). The view from the top was also nice with the Mississippi River in front and the view of St. Louis on the back.
Last day, I went to an Indian historic site called Cahokia Mounds. The site is believed to be an ancient city of the Indians that lasted for a long time. Somehow, as with other places, the museum was closed for our visit. We walked around those giant mounds, and the largest one was believed to have been the site where the monks have lived.
Among a couple of places to go, Anheuser-Busch Brewery is a definitely worth a try. Not because they give free beer and have fancy interior, but also it gives you the answer to why all the Buds taste like soap. The founder of the famous beer company used to run a soap factory before!
Miscellaneous Pictures
(April 2004)
These are some pictures taken in front of the Minneapolis Fed. I went to see seminar talk given by my classmate Sanghoon, and after the talk we took a picture outside the Fed with the downtown on the background. The picture was taken by Dong, and I'm with Jungwon and Roozbeh. Another one was taken some time ago, probably last spring. It was taken at a department reception. I'm with Javi and Professor Prescott. (well, sorta) This is probably the last picture I would get as close to the Professor. Another one taken inside my office. I don't remember why I had to wear so formally that day... but here it is.
Summer Trip to Korea
(June ~ July 2004)
After an intensive teaching for two weeks, I was finally able to leave things behind and go back to Korea for two weeks. The official purpose was to visit the Far Eastern Meeting of Econometric Society, but there were lots of other goodies. On the first day, June 29th, which was actually my 30th birthday (yay! I'm old!), I went to Seoul National University(SNU) for the Pre-conference. It's been eight years since I graduated college, and four years since I left Korea for Minnesota. The school seems to have changed a little bit. Here are some pictures... First one is the picture of the main building. Since SNU is public and fairly new, all the buildings are very ugly and rundown. This one is no exception. It's nice to have the mountains on the background. Second one is the picture taken in front of the main building. As you can see the school is surrounded by mountains.. and they get pretty nice in the summer. Third one is the picture of the main library, and the infamous 'acropolis'. We used to call these stairs acropolis, mainly because it was the place where all the demonstrations and student marches took place in the old times. I remember I took part in some... by force. I remember trying to find ways to get out of there and have fun! Last is the picture of the SNU subway station. It has changed a lot compared to 1992 when I first entered university. Back then, there were no McDonalds, Starbucks nor Pizza Hut! (In the picture, you can find all of them.)
Speaking of those foreign invasion of cheap foods (a.k.a the end of the world), I found out that Papa John's have finally landed in Korea. Better Ingredients, Better Pizza! This picture was taken from the bus... as you can see it was raining outside. (Bad season to travel!) Finally, there are Starbucks in virtually every single block nowadays... so I had to take a picture of it as a souvenir of life in Minnesota. One thing to note is that the Starbucks in Korea has some new menu, including this mildly-surprising green-tea frappuccino.
Back to the reason for my visit. The conference turned out to be pretty decent and I had a chance to meet a lot of peer grad students and professors. But due to humid weather (it's unbearable!) and smoggy skies, being outside and walking for so long turned out to be a nightmare. This picture is taken from the front gate of the Yonsei University where the conference took place. I had to walk from the subway station to the main gate (10 min walk) and then another 10 min walk to the conference hall. Actually you can see the building from the first picture. It's the one that's farthest. The next one is taken in front of the main building of the University. It's one of the oldest buildings... probably around the end of 19th century. Since the school is one of the earliest modern universities, it has some well-kept old buildings. Last, this was taken inside the university. There's a little pond/garden where people can take rest.
Another unique experience I had in Korea was attending Bosu's wedding. Bosu is a friend of mine studying in the applied economics department and he and his wife decided to have their wedding in a traditional manner. Usually these weddings take place outside, but since it was raining a lot, they had to do it indoors (with some traditional-like fake settings.) First picture is one with me and Bosu. I was hesitating whether to put it or not, but finally I decided to post it. Second picture is the picture of the bride waiting for the groom to ask her to marry him. The bride really looks pretty with the traditional costume. Third, this is when the bride and the groom takes an official vow for marriage. Unlike western weddings, there is no physical contact (whatsoever). They drink wine and share some food (symbolizing longevity and other bla-bla's) but it's all done by the assistants who deliver the food and exchange them. I guess it reflects the confucian tradition where men and women were not allowed to show affection to the outside. The last picture was when the bride and the groom pays their respect and thanks to the audience. Of course, there was a wedding banquet afterwards, and I was indulging in the food so much that I forgot to take any pictures. Shame...
Next are pictures of my newphews... Jaeho is now 2 years old, and Joonki is 19 months old. Can you tell them apart?
Finally, a short guide to Korean food... I tried to take pictures of the food that I had in Korea. They are mostly Korean and Chinese (I tried to stay away from Western food. Well, you can guess why.)
First, on my 30th birthday, we had a family gathering at Lotus Garden, a Chinese restaurant in Seoul. Chinese food in Korea has changed to adapt to Korean tastes.. so they might differ from the ones you find elsewhere. First picture is fried-shrimp in sweet mayo sauce with broccoli. It's a bit fusion, actually. Next is a pork dish.. I forgot the name of it but it was very good. Usually, people order noodles or rice in the end. My sisters-in-law ordered this fancy pineapple fried rice, which actually came inside a whole pineapple. I ordered cham-pong, spicy seafood noodle. I liked it a lot.
Moving to more popular(or common) dishes, I had this fried rice near the Seoul National University. It's actually a combination of fried rice and cha-jang-myun (noodle with black bean sauce... one of the most popular dishes in Korea). Next two dishes were from this run-down Chinese restaurant called Wanchai near Yonsei University. First one is a red-hot spicy mussel.. the color is a bit scary though. It literally made a hole in my stomach, but I love it. Next one is a noodle dish... also a bit spicy, but nonetheless good.
Moving onto common Korean dishes, this one is probably the original fusion food between Korean and American food. This is called budae-chigae (means 'camp stew'). Back in the 50s when Korea was super poor, people relied on the food supplies by the American soldiers which included cheap ham, bacon, cheese, macaroni and anything cheap and cheesy you can imagine. What people did was to mix them together in a spicy red broth and make it into a stew. It probably tasted very good, and that's why it has lasted for more than half a century. So first it comes in this huge steel bowl on top of the portable gas-burner. If you open the top, this is what it looks like. Once the soup boils, you put the ramen noodle, and after a few more minutes, voila! No need for explanation when it looks like this in the end. Another hearty dish is called tuk-bok-ki (means 'stir-fried rice cake in hot pepper sauce'). You can find them in every food stands in the streets and it's very popular snack food. A few days before leaving Korea, I had a chance to visit a friend of mine who works just outside Seoul. He took us to this Korean restaurant serving chicken stew and other things (if ya know what I mean...). This one is actually a chicken stew boiled together with ginseng and other herbs. It's a special summer treat. (In K-land, there's a saying that you control heat with heat. This is why people like to eat hot foods in the middle of summer. Don't ask me why.) The day before I left Korea, I went to see the family tomb, an hour drive from Seoul. On the way, we had lunch at a local restaurant. I had chung-guk-jang ('thick miso soup'... it's better than it smells...) and my dad had hae-jang-guk ('hot soup with blood pudding'... it's actually better than it sounds. Besides, it's excellent for hangovers.)
Now, let's talk about 'banchan'. Banchan are sidedishes (similar to tapas) that are free(YES!) in every Korean restaurant. If you ever go to a Korean restaurant outside Korea and they charge you for extra banchan, then you should complain. It varies from various kinds of kimchi (need I explain this signature Korean dish?), seasoned bean sprouts, egg drop soups, fried fish, various veggie dips, and countless others. First one is banchan from the budae-chigae restaurant. Second from a pork BBQ restaurant. Third from a bibimbap restaurant. Fourth and fifth ones are from the local restaurant where they served chung-guk-jang and hae-mul-tang.
Ever wondered what kind of dessert we indulge in? Well my favorite for the summer is called pat-bing-soo (means sweet red bean past in sliced ice). Underneath it, there is a very thinly sliced ice and it's covered by sweet red bean paste (think of this as a counterpart to chocolate... it's just as prevalent in most sweet dishes. For those who shrink from having red bean as a dessert, think where chocolate is made of.) Another one of my favorite is called goguma-cake (means sweet potato cake). It's no different from a regular cake (well, way less sweeter than the American counterparts.) but it has a creamy paste of sweet potato inside. It's a must when you visit Korea. Last, this was a dessert offered at the bulgogi restaurant for free. It looks like a ball of red bean paste in cinnamon flavored juice.
Finally, I am going to talk about some of the most famous Korean dishes. First one is bibimbap (literally meaning mixed rice). It's rice with various spring vegetables, egg and minced beef. Then you just mix it and eat it. The true beauty of Korean food! The other famous food is the Korean barbeque, whether pork or beef. Pork BBQ is more popular because it's cheaper. They usually serve it on a hot grill where you make your own BBQ. Beef BBQ are divided into two kinds. One is called kalbi BBQ. This is what it looks like at first. Then is when it's fully cooked. The other one is called bulgogi (literally meaning fire meat). Also what looks raw at first, becomes a delicious dish in the end. Last, this is how one would eat bulgogi in Korea. This was made possible thanks to cooperation from my mom. First, you hold lettuce with bulgogi on top. Then, you put roasted garlic (Korean food would be non-existent without garlic.) and other seasoned vegetables (like spring onions or sliced onions). Then you wrap them and toss it into your mouth. Simple as that! The main idea is to mix meat with vegetables which balances your nutrition.
Summer in Minnesota
(July 2004)
These are some pictures taken during the Aquatennial festival held in downtown Minneapolis. In this picture I'm with Patrycja, and in the other one again with Patrycja, Julian, Tetyana, and Nuria. One compensation for the long winter in Minnesota is the picture-perfect summer we have. Little humidity, blue skies, great weather... these define the three months in Minnesota from June to August. Another joy is the proximity to great outdoors. These pictures were taken in St.Croix River. The scenery is just fantastic. Even with me in the picture! And yet another one!
