POSTING #53

Some Korean Stories: Korean Cuisine, Grieving, Serenity in Seoul

Korean Cuisine

In 2000, I studied the Korean Employment Service on a contract with the World Bank. I went alone for two weeks in January, toured offices, talked to officials and then came home and prepared my report.

A few months later, Pat accompanied me as I went back to Korea to present my findings, conclusions and recommendations to a conference in Seoul.

My main guide during the first visit was a young computer systems fellow who had done graduate work in the US.

He was developing systems for the Korean Employment Service and understood its intricacies extremely well.

Unlike most Koreans, he was heavy-set, even plump, with a good sense of humour.

We got along well.

He said he had been told to take me anywhere I wanted to go, but to make sure that I had a good chance to sample Korean food, to take me to a variety of local restaurants.

We sampled all kinds of the tasty, nutritious and heart-healthy dishes---served almost always with Kimchi, a Korean side dish that is a cousin of sauerkraut. Various vegetables are fermented in crocks, formerly by being buried in the ground and today by being stored in special refrigerators. Click here for an article on Kimchi.

On the final day of my visit, the guide asked, rather hesitantly, if he could request a favour.

Sure, I said, wondering whether he wanted information on immigrating to Canada---a fairly common question during consulting assignments.

"Today, do you think we could have lunch at Burger King?"

I guess I looked at him with surprise, "Do you like Burger King?"

"You don't think I got this fat,", he replied, patting his substantial tummy, "by eating Korean food?"

We both had burgers, fries and thick, rich chocolate shakes.

Except, he had two burgers.


Grieving

On my second visit to Korea, a different Employment Service Official was designated to 'look after' Pat and me.

The thin, serious-looking fellow in his 30s with a PhD in Labour Market Economics from an American university took us on tours of Seoul.

Pleasant conversations with him became more serious, as chats do when one finds an empathetic person.

At one point he told us that he was having trouble getting over the death from cancer of his younger brother with whom he had been very close. He said that his parents had gone back to childhood religions to try to find solace---his mother had been raised as a Buddhist while his father had been raised as a Catholic. He said he thought that the religions might be helping his mother and father to cope with the death.

He had not embraced either religion when he was growing up but after trying unsuccessfully to cope on his own with the death of his brother he had decided to try Buddhism. When that didn't seem to help, he had turned to Catholicism.

He had now abandoned Catholicism and was once again trying to deal with the death on his own.

He said that he had been hoping for 'a big bang' (his term) from one of the religions, some powerful revelation that would have given him comfort.

Now, he felt, he would have to find his own way to cope with the loss of his brother.

But it wasn't easy.

Serenity in Seoul

After dinner one evening at our hotel, the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Seoul, Pat and I decided to go for a stroll.

The streets were crowded with cars and the air was full of the blaring of horns and the squealing of tires.

We saw a Buddhist temple set on a small hill in the midst of a large, park-like space. We walked onto the grounds and both noticed that the sounds of the city seemed to diminish, almost miraculously.

As we wandered on we enjoyed the sight of the ornate temple decorated with chains of colourful paper lanterns.

By this time, there was no sound at all from the city, just the gentle sound of wind chimes hanging from the corners of the temple.

It wasn't a 'big bang'---not even a 'small bang' I suppose---but it was a few minutes of peace and serenity in the midst of a noisy city, minutes that we will never forget.


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See you next Sunday for Posting #54 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@cs.com.