Fat Lies and Korean Comedies

I was completely fooled. I believed so wholeheartedly that I allowed the wool to be firmly pulled over mine eyes. As it often is the case when you put your innocent faith in something only to have that faith shatter and rain down its broken shards atop your bowed head, so was I thus deflated...

This was not the pasta sauce I was looking for. I don't care what it says on that there label. When I heated it up and poured it over my perfectly al dente bow tie pasta, expecting a tomato-y meat sauce, as it claims to be, I was instead met with something oily, protein-y and dog food-y. You know what should have tipped me off? Right above the fine print (also an indicator) where it says "Fresco Spaghetti Sauce" are the Korean words saying "10% beef and 7% pork." 

WHAT THE HELL IS THE OTHER 83%?!?!

It sure ain't spaghetti sauce, I'll tell you what. Y'all know how it sucks when you're expecting one taste but you get another? Well, this other taste wasn't even edible. I had to throw half of it away. 



Onto other news: So, I've gone to see two Korean movies since I've been here. They were both comedies. And since I've seen two, I feel I now have the right to make grand, sweeping generalizations about Korean movies, at least the comedy genre.

1.) There is always, ALWAYS one (typically fat and doofy looking) idiot in the cast of characters that is constantly bungling and serves to drive the plot along with, well, his bungling. 

case in point, this guy:

2.) The main plot revolves around a HUGE misunderstanding which perpetually becomes a bigger misunderstanding.
3.) The "funny" comes as a result of pratfalls and physical humor the likes of which was perfected over 30 years ago by one John Ritter during his stint in Three's Company.
4.) There's no shortage of awkward side characters that do and say weird things just to add random humor.
5.) High propensity toward fart jokes and/or actual farting, preferably right in someone's face.
6.) The antagonist is a prototypical "evil" guy (a bomber, bank robber, etc) that the main characters get mixed up with.
7.) Utter lack of actual wit or sarcasm in the writing.
8.) Always a cute/hot girl added into the mix for ogling. Most of the ogling is done by the surrounding male characters which often leads to more misunderstandings and/or pratfalls.


I won't paint so broadly in my generalization so as to include Korean tv sitcoms. As a matter of fact, I've actually seen a couple of sitcoms that had very witty characters. But, for some reason, the big screen comedies here seem to go for the lowest common denominator. Not that American comedies don't do that as well (I'm looking at you, "Dumb and Dumber," "Happy Gilmore," and "White Chicks"). I actually enjoyed the former but I knew going into it that there would be scatological humor up the butt -- pun intended. Sorry, Lisa (regarding "White Chicks").


On the flip side, have you guys seen the Korean action/drama "The Man From Nowhere" ("아저씨")? I have no idea why it was translated into "The Man From Nowhere" but whatever works. It's kinda like a cross between Denzel Washington's "Man on Fire" and "The Professional." I highly recommend it. It was released in the US last year and did relatively well so I know there's an English subtitled version out there. 


No fart jokes in that movie, though. Sorry.


Next installment...Technology and Harvest Moon Time

This Post's For You, You No-Facebook-Having-Social-Network-Shunning Techie

Hi Richard,

Most everyone else has seen these photos but, you know....

Apt. before furnishing (well, just minus bed, hung up clothing, and kitty):

Improved apt. with bed, a mini futon/couch, and wee wittle kitty-tat:

And now...more Isa!

You can clearly see the sharp bend of her broken tail here...
  :-(

She has already alleviated a lot of loneliness. Not sure I would have been able to sleep at all had she not been here with me the first night -- not that I got much sleep anyway since she's like a baby and only sleeps 2 hours at a time. The rest of the time I had to endure her walking on me, licking my nose, or batting my eyelashes because she thought it was funny that they moved as I blinked. There's never a dull moment with her and when she is not spazzing out and tearing around the place, she only wants to be nearby, sleeping on my shoulder, chest or lap and purring her little tiny purr.

Thankfully, my apt. is only a pleasant 15 minute walk from work (or a 5 minute bus ride) so I can go home for lunch to feed her and myself. She comes when I call her and is a talker, even though her mews are tiny and slight, like she is.

I hope you get to meet her, whether it's when you come to visit or when I bring her back home with me.

Next week: 5 days of vacation for Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok)!! Yeah, I entertained the notion of flying home for 5 days (since I gain a day flying home) but immediately realized how crazy that'd be.

Food-a-palooza

This is NOT a food blog, I promise. I have not the lexical wherewithal to describe cuisine and its taste in any more detail than "It was super yummy" and "Dude, it was awesome!" However, I can't help but share some images of the foodgasms I experienced this day.

First off, my boss's wife, who also works at the school as the Head of the Kindergarten Dept., took me out to lunch today. She apologized for not having done so earlier when I arrived and explained that the end of the month (which gets quite hectic) was keeping her from doing duties of the cordial nature. So, she took me out to lunch right around the corner form the school...to a Shabu Shabu joint.

Know what's better than Shabu Shabu? All You Can Eat Shabu Shabu.

BAM!

Know what's better than A.Y.C.E. Shabu Shabu that includes seafood (shrimp, baby squid, clams etc) as well as another side of the room that serves Chinese food? It all costs $14 per person. I would love/hate to see the damage Mike Liu could do here. So, yeah, this was a nice welcome to the school's staff :-)

Dinner was also super awesome (that's just a combo of my cuisine descriptor vocab). Today was the formal last day of the teacher I'm replacing at the school. She's a great educator and I've learned a lot from shadowing her these last couple of weeks. She's off to have her baby and then possibly teaching closer to where she lives in Suwon. So, the entire staff went out to dinner to say "thanks" and "goodbye." We went to a nearby bbq joint and the result was stuffage and gluttony: 6 orders of massive pork ribs and another two orders of the 3-layer pork....and that was just for my table of 3!!! I was impressed with all the ladies regarding how much bbq'd meat and rice wine was had this night!

I'm really enjoying getting to know my new co-workers. They are fun and always willing to help when I'm confused about what's going on (which was happening quite a bit). Gem is quirky, pervy and hilarious which is a great combo.  Nice face, Gem (in white)...

Julia is super sweet and funny (sitting in the corner here)...

Laura (the one in stripes who's doing her darndest to avoid the camera because she believes pregnancy should not be captured on camera) is a faboo and experienced teacher who has given me a lot of guidance as to what to expect and what I need to do.  Adi (in the black sleeveless shirt) has been a life-saver for my getting situated here and has been very giving of her time to make sure I was comfortable...

Gina, above in the faded orange, is sarcastic and open (woo hoo, a sarcastic Korean!!).  Becca, who is from my favorite country besides the U.S. (the U.K.) is going to be my shopping, rollerblading and reading-novels-in-the-park buddy. Becca was sitting in the corner opposite Julia and I did a horrible job snapping her. Apparently I was really only trying to get pictures of the food, imagine that. >.< I am sure I will have better pictures of Becca once we get our activities on.

The slew of other lovely ladies are the Korean teachers at the school whom I'm also getting to know (Hayley, Vera Ally, Joy, Christine and Elin). They are wonderful people and I look forward to hanging out with them more as the year goes on.

And now, food coma onset is in effect. Next up: the weekend filled with moving, shopping, and adopting a broken little kitty!