Garden Party!

wow. one of the best saturdays in a while.

apparently because we are the first foreigners to ever have a plot at the community garden, the lovely management offered to throw us a bbq party in exchange for a little PR. they told us just to invite all of our friends and they would take care of the rest. seriously?

so, we did. and when we showed up w/ about 20 friends, i was in awe of the spread they had prepared. a long table, FULLY loaded w/ all the fixin's for a killer korean bbq. plates piled high w/ samgyeopsal (fatty slices of pork belly), baskets of fresh greens, loads of fresh mushrooms & garlic, red pepper sauce & sesame oil for dipping, dotorimuk salad and plenty of soju and makgeolli to get us all a bit too tipsy. plus, frederik and i (not knowing how much food they would have, and for vegetarians) whipped up a huge batch of pesto pasta salad and some fatty vietnamese spring rolls w/ peanut sauce. gorgefest. after hours of feasting and drinking, the garden folks then had the gall to serve everybody noodle soup ... which, to my surprise, was gobbled right up by smiley faces.



so, we finally got to share some of the green, gardening goodness w/ a sweet crew of friends. i have been blessed. :)

World Cup!!!

it's world cup time and it's exciting to be in a country again where they, and i mean EVERYBODY, take soccer seriously (last time was haiti, 2002). they go ALL out.

for the south korea games, major city streets are blocked off to make way for the sea of red, that is the gazillions of red devil fans, to watch the game on any number of giant screens that have been set up for the event. i don't think a single soul in seoul (and probably the entire peninsula...plus jeju) is not tuned in. the game is on in every home and business on every street, even in taxi cabs and on buses. you have to be here to really understand what i'm talking about, but it's amazing. an experience to remember. especially when "we" are the victors. the city completely erupts with each goal and, after the first match on saturday, june 12th (s korea 2, greece 0), the celebrating lasted well into the wee hours. and i was right along with them. thank god that was a saturday.

it' amazing how a game can bring everybody together.


dae han min guk!!!

when life gives you lemons....

sure, make you some lemonade. or, make grape juice, and then sit back and watch the world try to figure out how you did it. OR, just throw them at mean people.

but what do you do when life gives you radishes? a pile of baby daikon ones, to be precise.



first of all, the mountain of radish greens that were attached to the comparatively small pile of tubers could not just go into the compost bin. no ways! they just happen to be premium roughage, high in vitamin C and also a good source of folic acid, potassium and molybdenum (a healthy trace mineral). koreans usually use them for kimchi, but it was decided that the easiest way to deal with them was to blanch and freeze them all for future use (in soups, as a side, etc.).

whew! that done w/. on w/ the radish part. my favorite thing to do w/ daikon is to make a bunch of daikon cakes (delicious!), enough to freeze a batch. however, the radishes that we just harvested from the garden were quite small... some only the size of my pinky finger. so, i went w/ do chua, which literally translates to "pickled stuff" in vietnamese.

making do chua is quite simple: just julienne the daikon and some carrot. add salt, leave sit, rinse w/ cold water, cram it into a jar and then fill it to the top w/ a brine of sugary vinegar.


my reason for loving do chua is because i'm madly in love w/ banh mi, of which do chua is a key ingredient. it's like the best sandwich on earth, trust me. and i do it up veggie-yum-style w/ a marinated & fried tofu.




take a toasted torpedo roll (or baguette), smear some mayo on the insides, put sliced cucumbers, some bitter greens and the tofu on one side and then a hefty layer of do chua and fresh cilantro on the other. drizzle on some sweet chili sauce and sriracha, then go to heaven. :)

one way ticket to thailand :)

yes. i have one.

i'm calling it quits on ol' worwick and on korea all together, at least for a while. life here has been good, to be sure, but the feeling in my bones tells me that the time has come to move on. yeah, yeah... i DID just sign on for a second year in march, and i'm not typically the quitting type, but hey. this feels good.

i'm finding it harder these days to live each minute in the present and am rather dreaming of days without late paychecks, lesson plans, yellow dust and crowded subway commutes. ugh.



scheming forward to days full of fresh-picked tropical fruits, salt water, sand and soil. and further experimentation with love. yeeeeeeeee.


so. money has been spent. reservations and registrations (some) have been made. dates on the calendar have been marked. this change is finally in the real.

july 16th is my last day of work and i fly to thailand on the 19th... and i'm positive that those 2 free days in between those dates will be nothing short of hectic. packing. goodbyes. shipping boxes. give-aways. etc. gotta love those crazy, frantic, transitional times.

once in thailand, i'll be spending a couple of weeks up north at a sweet farm and educational center (the PANYA PROJECT and PUN PUN, their neighbors) for a permaculture design course. after that, i'll do a little traveling around the area (laos, vietnam, cambodia, we'll see) before flying back to the best place on earth, hawaii nei.

that being said, i still have about 6 WEEKS [!] left in the land of the morning calm. my plan is to max out both my garden and my tent, play outside and chill w/ my closest friends here as much as possible. make the most!

i like to remind myself w/ these wise and clever words by eleanor roosevelt:

"yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift... that's why it's called the present"