Sabbatical Day 123 (9.9.16) Ahimsa - Non Violence

In yoga teacher training we learned what yoga is and the philosophies behind it. Included in our learnings are what's called yamas and niyamas. Yamas are moral principals or refusals. The first of which is called ahimsa or the practice of non-violence. I want to be able to apply what I learn in training to my own experiences, so here goes:

Non-violence sounds pretty easy, right? But it isn't just about non getting into fights.

Violence can show itself at any point in the day - road rage, in pushing yourself too hard, focusing too much of your energy in one thing, in getting upset at the cashier for being too slow, in becoming frustrated at work.

In our training we have learned to become more aware, more conscious. By practicing non-violence, you see the things that make you upset - acknowledge, then control the feeling.

Non-violence is a struggle for me-especially in daily deeds. I walk to school everyday and get frustrated with the cars that don't stop for me, with the people who cross the street while on their phones. I know I need to acknowledge that feeling of frustration and move past it. I try hard to be empathetic and put myself in their shoes.

What I notice now is that I am more able to acknowledge my feeling when I have a longer interaction with someone and they make me upset. I am also able to be more empathetic. For example I am taking Korean at an academy nearby. They have really good reviewed which is why I chose to attend classes there. However as I attended I learned that they have several administrative misgivings that frustrate me. One of the frustrations is how they administer their monthly culture trip. I went last month and there was very little information provided and no organization. We ended up on a bus for 3 hours and had no idea where we were going or when we were going to be able to eat lunch, among other things. At the time, I hadn't yet started my yoga training but once I did start, I noticed there were more and more frustrations I had with the academy. At the end of my month long class, I decided to provide feedback on my experience as part of acknowledgement of my feelings. I tried very hard to understand why they did not provide any information to the students and not let my emotions come across when providing my feedback.

Sabbatical Day 116 (9.2.16) - Fukuoka:Tokyo::Portland:NYC

James and I found a last minute deal to Fukuoka and visited for 3 days, 2 nights. We never thought to travel there but we are so glad we did. It was the perfect city for a short trip because it was walkable, food was delicious and people were friendly. It was also on the water so it really reminded us of Portland. There also wasn't the foot traffic or sheer volume of people and craziness that characterizes Tokyo.

I did some research prior to the trip by reading blogs and other websites. I found out that Ippudo came from Fukuoka and the region is famous for Hakata style ramen. By the time I finished our itinerary, there were way too many restaurants for the meals we would have there. So we had a choice: cut down on the places we went to, or eat at all of them. We settled for eating at all of them, of course.

On the first day we arrived at around 6 pm and ate two dinners. We shared a bowl of ramen at Ippudo, then hopped over to the Yatai stands. The ramen at Ippudo was delicious-milky broth and the noodles were just right! We were a little overwhelmed by the selection at each stand, but just sat down at one and ordered ramen. After we finished eating, we felt fomo because the other people at our stand were eating grilled mentaiko. So we hopped to another stand and ordered mentaiko and a yakitori combo and they both didn't disappoint. Our only frustration was that they required we each order a dish and a drink and the stands weren't as cheap as we thought they would be. However, the gentleman sitting next to us struck up a conversation with us and pitched in for our bill....so nice!

Our second day was crazy. We woke up early wanting to eat at the fish market before our Asahi brewery tour. The fish market turned out to be further than we anticipated and we ended up being late for the tour! I did get to grab an egg salad sandwich from a convenient store and James got some yummy mini croissants.

The Asahi brewery tour is money. It's an hour tour and the factory is really cool-especially the beer canning room. At the end of the tour, you can taste up to three cups of their beers. These weren't dinky cups either. And it was all free!

For lunch we made it to the fish market only to find that it only opens to the public once a month. We did get to eat sushi which was very cheap and fresh! I also got to have my uni and we sat next to a gentleman who was from Berkeley!

We walked around and found the hipster artsy area of Fukuoka with boutiques and cool shops. Then we decided to search for this tempura joint I found called Tempura no Hirao Tenjin. Thank goodness I can still read hiragana and katakana because we wouldn't have been able to find this place. We ordered a combination platter to share at the vending machine and sat down in the coffee shop bar area. On the counter next to us were four containers - salted yuzu squid, pickled bean sprouts, pickled mustard greens, and pickled radish (all bomb). We saw everyone piling the squid onto their rice bowl but we were skeptical at first. I would have gone back for the side dishes themselves. Then the chefs come by with freshly fried bits and drop off the correct ones onto your plate. It was amazing and only 720 yen. James was so amazed he wanted to order more.

After leaving the tempura restaurant we saw an Ichiran ramen which seemed to be very popular in Fukuoka.....so we went in and ordered a bowl of ramen and a matcha tofu dessert. The restaurant was one counter separated by walls and each person sat at one spot. It was an interesting experience but the ramen didn't impress me much. The matcha tofu, however, did. Warm, sweet tofu with real matcha? What's not to love?

By this time it's pretty late so we decided to go back to the hotel to sleep. But at around 10:30 we were feeling ambitious again and went to get gyoza. I read about a gyoza place that's been around for a while and we got there shortly before they closed. The waitress told us to eat quickly and we definitely did. Their gyoza came out on a hot sizzling platter and both sides of the dumplings were crunchy.

On our last day we only ate once and it was all we needed. On Trip Advisor, Chikae Fukuoka is one of the top rated restaurants. We got there at 10:45 and the restaurant opens at 11. There were already 15 people in line. As soon as it opened we walked in and were seated in a large room with a counter surrounding several fish tanks. There were only two options for lunch - sashimi or soba for 1400 yen each and we ordered one of each. Each meal came out on a platter with 5 main dishes, 2 dipping sauces and a plate of pickled vegetables. Mine had stewed fish, agedashi tofu, sashimi, crab miso, tempura and chawanmushi. James' had soba with two dipping sauces, chicken rice, agedashi, tempura and chawanmushi. We were so full afterwards that we couldn't eat again for 6 hours. And our mind was so blown that the food was so delicious and cheap. This is a must do!!

All in all, we loved Fukuoka! We would go back again to eat and walk around the cool town for sure! On a side note, I am amazed that I still remember how to read Japanese and speak some phrases. At first I was hard on myself for not being able to say more, but seriously, that was 16 years ago!! The brain is an amazing thing....

Sabbatical Day 96 (8.13.16) - Yoga Teacher Training

I've always like Yoga as a means of exercise. When I came to Seoul I thought it would be a good time to deepen my practice and go through teacher training. I am not sure if I necessarily want to teach, but that can always be decided later.

I did as much research as I could (since I am limited to English searches only) and found a school that teaches in English. I went to one class and was a little taken aback because the class was very different from classes I've taken in the past. I'm used to Vinyasa or Bikram with a lot of movement and this class the poses were held for 30-60 seconds with a short break in between.

However, I decided to attend their free workshop class which was an intro to their teacher training course and James came along with me. In this workshop, we learned that Yoga is not so much an exercise, but a way to balance your energy. I will update more as I learn more, but long story short...we are both doing the teacher training course and will be staying in Korea for a little longer than planned so that we can finish the course.

I am so excited for it!

Sabbatical Day 89 (8.6.16) - Korean Costco

I think I've mentioned before that I haven't been able to find frozen vegetables in any Korean markets. I heard they sold frozen vegetables at Costco so we made the trek over. We took the subway and each brought a bag anticipating all the goodies we would buy. We planned to cab home.

By the time we got to Costco, it was dinnertime. Of course we headed to the food court to see what cool Korean style goodies they had. They had a lot of the same things as in the US (caesar salad, hot dog, pizza, chicken bake) but they also had a bulgogi bake and this potato wedge, bacon pizza. I knew that a meal at Costco would be impossible without eating meat, so I decided I would just eat a little and we ordered the bulgogi bake and the potato wedge bacon pizza.

While we were waiting for our food, we noticed all of the tables eating what looked like curry rice. When we looked closer, it wasn't rice. It was actually diced onions mixed with mustard and ketchup. EVERYONE was making a plate so we decided to make one too! I'm not usually a fan of raw onions, but this was really refreshing. The bulgogi bake was good except it had too much meat. And the pizza was weird. The potato wedges were huge and the pizza was soggy...fail.

By the way, Costco was crazy. This one was two floors and the food court was downstairs. It was quite an adventure getting down to the food court because it was so crowded. The rest of the warehouse wasn't any better. I already get so annoyed at Costco in the US because there are people walking every which way. This experience was even worse because the space was smaller.

We noticed that everything was ridiculously expensive. Because of the high prices, we didn't want to buy anything and reasoned that we actually didn't need it! The only thing we wanted to buy was a bag of frozen broccoli but didn't end up getting that either. That's because it was on the bottom floor and we wanted to check out the top floor first. By the time we wanted to go back to the bottom floor, the line for the escalator was 30 people deep. No thank you!

So...all in all...Costco was a fail and a huge disappointment. =(

Sabbatical Day 84 (8.1.16) - A contract can be broken in Korea

James and I don't have a definite return date to the US yet, but we know we will be in Korea for at least a few months. While we are being spontaneous, it makes it hard to settle ourselves in Seoul for the short term.....or so we thought. We found out that for our big ticket items, we can commit to the contract term, but if we want to leave earlier, we would just need to find someone to take over the contract. Our big ticket items were housing, cell phone and a gym. Housing is usually a 1 year lease, cell phone is 2 and a gym is usually month to month (same as in the US).

Housing - while it is possible to find short term housing and air bnb is available, we found out that it is much cheaper to commit to a 1 year lease. However, if we need to leave earlier, we need to contact our real estate agent and pay a finder's fee for them to find another tenant to take over the lease. So easy! The cost is a fraction of one month's rent! Side note: most apartment hunting in Seoul is done through a real estate agent. There are many of them and they are quite helpful.

Cell phone - you can get a prepaid phone but we found that it was more expensive to do so. A regular phone contract is for 2 years but you can find someone else to take over your contract for no additional cost. Side note: opening a cell phone account requires an active bank account at a Korean bank because a cell phone in Korea is like a piece of identification.

Gym - we got a great deal on our gym but we had to pay up front for a year. If we do not stay the whole year, we can just transfer our memberships to someone else.

This really takes the stress out of being here for a short time and not having to worry about breaking the bank!

Sabbatical Day 77 (7.24.16) - Attempting to stay a vegetarian

It's almost been a month in Korea and I feel like it's been a very challenging month eating-wise. Prior to coming to Seoul, I mentally prepared myself to integrate meat fully back into my diet. I would take bites of meat here and there and tell myself that I'd continue to eat more upon my arrival in Seoul.

What happened was just the opposite. I've been trying really hard. The fact is, I don't prefer the flavor of meat in most dishes and I definitely can't handle the smell. There are Korean dishes that I remembered loving (Kalbi Tang, Solung Tang, Spicy Pork) that I can't bring myself to eat. I have to try particularly hard around James' family and tried to eat Solung Tang when they took us to a restaurant that specialized in it. I ended up eating just the rice and soup and giving the meat to James. I did try to eat a piece or two but felt terrible that I just couldn't finish the meat. 

Most good restaurants here specialize in a dish and have a very limited menu. There was one time that we were looking for a place to eat a late lunch and James found a tonkatsu place. Unfortunately when we got there, they only served tonkatsu and we had to leave because there was nothing for me to eat. 

We've also walked in and out of a bunch of restaurants that only serve dishes with meat. Poor James reads the menu to me and always asks the waiter/waitress if they have dishes without meat. We've received one of two responses "What about chicken?" or "You can't eat Korean food without meat". We've considered ordering dishes and asking them to take out the meat but quickly realized that it doesn't work that way and makes us frustrated of this mentality people here have. I've summed it up to that they think the way they currently do it is the best and believe that's how a dish it should be served. So why would you want to change that? I'm applying this mentality to food but I think it can be applied in other ways as well.

Some people may say "Well Steph, why don't you just eat meat and stop being difficult?" I'm not trying to be. But I need to defend myself. I love food and really look forward to my meals. Why eat something and waste calories on something I won't enjoy and will make me feel bad? It's great that other people enjoy it. But it doesn't work with my body. I get my nutrients and know I don't need to eat meat for the protein my body needs. 

My saving grace is that I eat seafood but I've been considering eliminating that as well. I do eat a lot of bi bim bap and buy vegetable side dishes from the market to eat with rice. I know I had it very easy in SF because there were so many veggie friendly places and just more options in general. It's just been a hard adjustment coming from there to here. 

Sabbatical Day 75 (7.22.16) - It's weirdly safe here

Being from San Francisco, I was always paranoid of crazy bums and getting mugged. I would never have my phone in my hand while on the bus or walking and was constantly checking my purse to make sure my wallet and phone were still in there. On top of that, when I went to restaurants, I would never hang my purse on the back of my chair. I'd awkwardly keep it behind me and sit forward in the chair so no one would steal it.

Coming to Korea I am so surprised how safe it is. First of all, I see people at coffee shops and restaurants walk away to use the bathroom (when they're by themselves) and just leave their things at the table. Yesterday we saw a shoe shop owner leave her shop for a break. She locked the store, but left the entire display of shoes outside of the store on the street.

It's so interesting to me that people here will not take what's not theirs. It seriously boggles my mind but really gives me a sense of peace that I don't have to worry here.