- It’s a pretty green city. By which I mean, they’ve got a lot of those basic ecological principles figured out. The heating systems are super efficient and comforting (hot water runs under the floor). Recycling and composting are routine and free, but you have to pay for each bag of trash. We take out the recycling and (sometimes stinky) compost bucket much, much more often than we empty the trash, and it always makes me feel good. Plus, all public trash cans have a green recycling bag attached. See:

Lastly, clothes dryers just don’t really exist here. We hang all our clothes out to dry, which not only saves energy, but preserves the life of the clothing, too. That means less clothing that needs to be replaced, and a lower ecological footprint overall. What a great cycle. (Though I admit, it took a few tries to figure out how to handle adequate circulation in the cold winter months.)

- Korean babies.  Seriously. Have you seen them? Fat little faces, running around saying “Anyong!” and, sometimes, even at age 2, “Hello!” Here’s a little peanut I snapped at the Aquarium earlier this year:

- KIMCHI! Or, more specifically, kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup). The little restaurant below school makes delicious kimchi jjigae, and I’ve ordered it so often, they no longer hand me a menu when I walk in. They just look at me quizzically, I nod, and a few minutes later, out comes my hot, steaming bowl of deliciousness. I’m trying to recreate the dish at home, and think I’m getting closer. The trick is to start with aged kimchi, not the fresh stuff. Here’s a picture from my attempt a few weeks ago:

In addition to the kimchi, it’s got oodles of mushrooms, tofu, ddok (rice dumplings), onions, garlic, and pork, which can obviously be omitted for a vegetarian version. Once I perfect the recipe, I hope to guest post on my dear friend Melinda’s super inspiring recipe blog. It’s chock full of mouth-watering, healthy dishes, punctuated by the occasional can’t-resist-and-oh-so-worth-it indulgence.

- Shabu shabu.  This meal stole my heart when I first arrived, and has held my attention ever since. I wrote a post about it (and some other classic Korean meat meals) way back in June, available here.

- My students. Of course there are times when they drive me nuts or insult me right to my face, but for the most part, I love them to bits. How many people can say they leave work in a better mood than when they arrived? The smart, darling teenagers I work with every day are the reason that happens. And in what other job can a student, on their first day in class, ask you to please stay after because they have a question about your lecture on two factions of empiricism. His query? Under the second principle, which states that empiricists try to use their senses to prove something false when they really want to uncover the truth, could I help solve this dilemma: “If I spend time with someone, and then when they go away, I realize I’m sort of empty on the inside, does…does that mean I like her?” Love it! (And my answer: since you’re trying to prove a situation false, you have to ask if that means you don’t like her. All we can deduce is that you do not not like her. So you probably do like her. But it’s not a strict binary situation.)

- Konglish. I know I haven’t posted a konglish in a while, but I recently found some on my toothpaste, picture pending. I use the 2080 brand (though as soon as it runs out, I’m ordering some Tom’s of Maine through iHerb. Can’t wait.), which has the following (translated) slogan: Keeping the 20 healthy teeth for 80 years. That’s all well and good, but I have more than 20 healthy teeth. What happens to them? I mean really, that’s quite the sales pitch.

- Cost of living. It may not be glamorous, but it’s a big reason I’m here. That amazing kimchi jjigae mentioned above? W4,000, or about $3.25. Our monthly utilities? About W125,000, total — cable, electricity, internet, gas, water, etc. That’s roughly $100, split between two people. Amazing.

- Drunk compliments. I don’t know why, and I don’t agree, but Korean men who are so drunk they can barely stand like to tell me I look like Sophie Marceau.  Ok, ok, it only happened twice, but still! Again, I disagree, but I still like it. Here’s Sophie Marceau in Seoul:(image: http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/2QkLN0x87LX/Sophie+Marceau+Promotes+Shaumet+Seoul/-iedhC91lvl/Sophie+Marceau)

And here’s me in Seoul (at hogwan, just after my haircut on Monday):

(And yes — I searched for the most Sophie Marceau-esque photo I could find. This is what I came up with.)

- Last, but not least, my fellow expats–and a few awesome natives. I have met some amazing people since moving here, and they make the many, many miles away from my friends and family much easier to cope with. Here are some of the lovelies I’ve gotten to meet:

Laughs with friends on Thanksgiving

(A very dark picture of) Thanksgiving Drinks with Friends/Coworkers

Goodbye dinner with Julian and Kathy -- last time together in Seoul

One of my first outings in Seoul -- Mr. Kim's in Apgu

A favorite indulgent meal (Mercado) with some great people

So there you have it. A nice assortment of some of my favorite parts of living here. Next week, part iii.

But I have great news, folks. Korean food is awesome.

MB took me to shabu shabu for my first dinner here. It took a bit of navigating to ensure I could eat it, but we finally had success — thanks in large part to my boss, Kyungro. He wrote me a note to hand to servers explaining that I can’t have gluten (read: soy sauce), and even had us call him from the restaurant so he could talk with our server and make sure it was all safe to eat.

Believe me, it was worth the effort. Behold, shabu shabu:

(I’m still struggling to learn photoshop — and wordpress, so pardon the tough-to-read captions. It was that, or a huge stretched out photo.)

Shabu shabu is originally a Japanese dish, but the Koreans have adopted and altered it. The table has a burner in the middle, and a big pot of broth, chock full of delicious veggies, is put on top.  You add the sheets of beef and let them cook in the broth, and pick out a few bites at a time, put them in a dish to cool, then dip in sauce and eat. The standard sauce is a wasabi/soy sauce mixture, so they made me a special raw egg/hot sauce dipping sauce. At first I thought, no way.  But then I remembered my promise to myself to at least try everything if it’s gluten free — and the sauce was surprisingly tasty.

Here’s a handsome guy I know enjoying his first shabu shabu in almost a year:

A few nights later, Michael took me to Gangnam, a busy neighborhood not far from our apartment.  Here’s my “look, I’m in Korea” picture:

We stick out a bit, what with being quite tall and very white and all, but I don’t really mind. When I’m in Europe, I feel compelled to try to “pass” for European, which I don’t quite pull off. Here, there’s no chance I’ll ever be mistaken for Korean, so there’s no sense in trying. That said, I do avoid the “American Tourist” fanny pack/Mickey Mouse combo. For obvious reasons.

But back to the food. For dinner we had sam gyup sal and galbi:

As with the shabu shabu, the food is cooked in the middle of the table, with a small grill over hot coals.  (The servers walk through the restaurant with the burning coals, and place them in the recess in the table. That goes on the list of jobs that a klutz like me should never have.)  Almost every Korean meal comes with lots of side dishes, like kimchi, seaweed, pickled veggies.  With sam gyup sal and galbi, you grill the meats (pork and beef, respectively, I think), then place the meat and your choice of toppings from the side dishes in a lettuce leaf, wrap it up, and chow down.

The food is fresh, pure, and healthy, not to mention absolutely delicious. I don’t know the last time I was so glad to be wrong.