맛있은!

I had 잡채 for breakfast, 김밥 for dinner, and 돌솥 비빔밥 for second dinner. What a good day?!?

I also learned how to make kimbap in Korean cooking class. We were invited to an off-campus kitchen where the Dean of the institute demonstrated each step of the process. It was beautiful! In the past, I've made kimbap by just chopping and rolling raw vegetables together. Today I salted cucumbers, soaked yellow radishes in sugar, sauteed fish cake in soy sauce and pepper, cooked seaweed over an open flame--all completed with hands and chopsticks! Get ready for an upgraded potluck dish when I am back in the US ;)

Aside from the expected knife drop scares, and spraying water all over myself and the floor during the initial hand washing, I only had one major fail. I forgot to add the yellow pickled radish, which is the special ingredient for kimbap. Though I was able to easily rectify it by using my chopstick to carve a hole in the role, and shove the chopped radish in the space. I got it in just in time for the instructor to say that mine looked very nice. Phew!

I also got to spend time with my host family for the first time this evening. She took me out for my first meal of bibimbap on this trip, at a peaceful restaurant that was surrounded by mountains. She is a professor at Inje who is doing research on college students and their career development process. She also lived in Minnesota for ten years, and received her doctorate from the University of Minnesota. It felt so easy to talk with her, and I can't wait to learn more about her research and her experiences in higher education.

One word checkout: Delicious!