Here’s some shots of what I’ve been up to lately (I know the first two aren’t the most appetizing images, but they tasted REALLY good.  As you know, ingredients can be a little tricky here, especially when you can’t ask what something is.  So, all of the below dishes were super simple.

Spiced Roasted Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Salad

What you’ll need:

• Pumpkin
• Sweet potato
• Leeks
• Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cayenne
• Greens (any variety, I used something that looks likes Spinach)
• Organic Sesame Oil
• Organic Olive Oil & Balsamic (for dressing)
• Sunflower, Sesame, and Pumpkin Seeds

Chop the pumpkin and sweet potatoes into maybe 1/2 inch cubes.  I have a small oven, like super small, so I can’t lay them across a nice long baking tray.  So, you can cut them larger or smaller if you’d like.  I also diced up some leaks.  I rolled it in organic sesame oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon and cayenne.  Then, I cooked it at around 350F/176C for 30-40 minutes.

Next time, I’ll up the temperature to get it a bit more crispy on the edges.

This was perfect on top of a bed of greens with olive oil and balsamic.  A sprinkling of sesame, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds on top was the perfect finish!

By the time I realized that I’d forgotten to take a picture, the whole salad was already in my stomach.

This was nothing special, a sort of ugly disappointment, but a good side to the salad that I made above.  This was basically just mung beans, beluga lentils and brown rice.  Oh yeah, and I added in some dried seaweed while it was cooking so that gave it some extra nutrients.

Lentils and Black Quinoa

Now, this tasted as good as the picture looks.  Unless, you think that is a bad picture.  But, it was really good.  The only problem with cooking all the time is the amount of time it consumes.  Since cooking like this is a luxury for me, I do (admit) to making a LARGE amount of food on Sunday and hoping that it will carry me through the next few days.

What you’ll need:

• Lentil mix (any kind, my mom sent me this and I have no idea what was inside, but it had a mixture of beans and I think barley)
• Ginger
• Onion
• Green Chili Peppers
• Vegetable broth
• Can of diced tomatoes (yes, I had a can and threw it in)
• Spices – Salt, Pepper, Cayenne, Cumin (and anything else you see lying around)
• Black Quinoa
• Garnish optional: Parsley, a variety of seeds, and a big spoonful of Extra Virgin Organic Coconut Oil. I don’t know why I keep capitalizing organic products.

Saute chopped ginger, onion and green chilies in oil.  I used organic sesame oil.  I only used half an onion, but maybe you want to use a whole one depending on how many lentils you’ve got.  After the onions started to get a nice sheen, I threw in the lentils and the water. And then began the loooooong slow cooking process.  You’ll want to make sure water is covering over the lentils.  If you want more water to make it more soupy, add it in as necessary.  Bring the lentils to a boil and add diced tomatoes and then simmer for (I have no idea) a long time.  You can also add in all the spices here as well.

I cooked the washed black quinoa separately and added it to the side (see picture above).  Then, a glob of coconut oil, a sprinkling of nuts and some parsley and this meal was in my mouth faster than you can “KIMCHI!”  Okay, maybe it wasn’t that fast…

It’s quite apparent that I shouldn’t make a recipe book because I take horrid food pictures and I don’t give very good instructions.

My next post will be SOON and I promise it won’t be about food…

Up next…Salsa dancing episodes and Lasik!!

My boyfriend, who was visiting over winter break, suggested that we go on a sort of sugar fast now that the holidays are over.  In Korea, they associate anything with “diet” as a way to lose weight.  Not true, not true at all.

It isn’t about weight loss actually, merely rather to rid myself of my addiction to sugar.  I love sugar.  I love ice cream, fruit, white rice, bread.  I love putting brown sugar on my oatmeal in the morning that already is loaded with cranberries and a sauteed persimmon. So, the idea of eliminating sugar for a month seems quite challenging.  Yes, by sugar I also mean fruit.

Week 1 has been interesting, but not nearly as difficult as I thought.  Okay, since I hate labeling things as “cheating,” let’s just say that I have had a little bit of sugar here and there (natural forms of course, a few spoonfuls of white rice at lunch so I wouldn’t be rude, and a few mandarins which were leftovers from the holiday food shopping).  Waste not, want not.

I must be hungry right?  However, will I survive a month without relapsing into an eating disorder.  Well, I’m making up for the lack of taste with a whole lot of spices and fat.

Yikes.  The “F” word.  The question I always see: will eating a lot of fat make you fat?

To healthy people, the response would be,”It depends on the fat because healthy fats won’t make you fat.”

Or will they?  Is it possible to OD (overdose) on Omega-3′s and EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil) or EVCO (Extra Virgin Coconut Oil)?  What about nuts?  

The word “fat,” be it healthy or unhealthy, has long been source of great apprehension for me.  I’m lucky to have a boyfriend who’ll push me quite far to try new things and explore my fears.  So, I figure if the fat thing makes me fat this month, I’ll just cut back next month.

Thus far, a few things I’ve noticed since I’ve been loading up on fats:

• I have more energy
• My skin isn’t nearly as dry and my feet aren’t cracking
• My moods seem to be more steady and I have more tolerance
• I’m sleeping well, probably too well. This one is the most surprising to me because since my boyfriend left you’d think I’d be laden with insomnia.  Not the case, while I miss him tremendously, I haven’t lost any sleep.

However, I have felt a quite a bit heavier during yoga practices. I don’t mean weight heavy, I mean stiff and sore, particularly in my hips and hamstrings.  I don’t know if this is related to ingesting lots of oil and fat now, or if its residual junk in my tissues from the 2 1/2 weeks of alcohol, ice cream, and sweets over the holidays.  Or it could possibly be because I was wearing heels too much over the past 2 weeks.

Another question to ask: how does one survive in Korea without sugar? You have to cook at home, you won’t survive otherwise.  I suppose the same could be said of other places, but white rice has a whole lot of sugar in it.  So, I’ve got to get creative because while there’s a lot of spices and items I can’t get here, I can order from Iherb.com and I do have a world of access to nuts!!

At the beginning of this week, I cut out caffeine, but I’ve decided caffeine and sugar is a bit too restrictive for me at one time.  So, I’m still drinking coffee.^^

Can’t wait to see how the month transpires!  Happy “Fatting!”  Okay, that sounded wrong.  Enjoy your healthy fats!!

I’ve been way MIA lately and even more so the past 2 1/2 weeks.  My boyfriend came to Busan, so we wandered around to various places and ate lots of Korean food.  I’m feeling so much more cultured and adventurous because of his visit.  There’s been a lot of cooking, drinking, salsa-dancing, not-so much yoga, more laughs, love, Korean food, and just various cultural experiences.

I’m sad.  He left back to Norway this morning, but we’re optimistic about our future together.  A few more months and hopefully we’ll never have to say “goodbye” like this again.  It’s possible to find love – and your best friend in it.  It’s also possible to keep falling in love again and again.

Here’s to reinventing love in various ways.

Happy 2012!!

I recently had a difficult class with an older, single Korean woman.  I say older and single because in this country, it does make a a great deal of difference.  The class was rough from the moment I walked in the door as she insulted my accent, and at my defense a student said, “She’s American.”  I could tell the other two younger students felt  uncomfortable in the room as well.  Distinguishing between age and respect is a tough situation. In my world, respect is freely given, but it also must be earned again if its lost by a person who doesn’t treat another well.

Understanding this concept of age and respect is something that always frustrates me here. If a person is even 1 month older, they’re still older and receive more respect in some manner.  As a customer in a variety of settings, I’ve been rudely handled.  This treatment I feel has always been completely unfair as I am the customer – shouldn’t I be the one who gets the respect?  I mean, I think they want my business.  Not to mention the number of times, older Koreans have rudely push me to the side has ruffled my feathers more times than I’d like to admit.  I don’t think someone who is older should automatically get a free ticket to be bad-mannered.

But, that’s a cultural thing and a tangent from this story.

Anyway, the short 55 minute class caused me to realize how much I have to improve on my own technique.  Unfortunately, even trying to give the woman advice on how to improve her English fell on deaf ears.  She compared herself to the other students and was intent on telling me what I did wrong.  I was frustrated, upset and not sure how to handle the situation.

Shortly after, I had 3 really awesome things happen.  One being, I got an email from one of my younger students back in 2010.  She told me she missed me and that her and a few of the other students still talk about me and wish they could see me.  So, these things would’ve dispelled all and any negativity right??

Yet, I awoke Saturday at 3 am, freezing, and to a mind that started telling me stories.  I attempted to meditate for a while, sending that woman happiness, but I was cold, tired, and restless.

The following morning, I spoke to one of my best friends.  She told me that apparently it takes 10 positives to outweigh one negative.  Who in the world came up with that ratio?  Also, I should mention that I have had many incredibly pleasant and overly generous encounters with older Koreans, so I don’t want to generalize that they’re all like that because it’s totally NOT true.  This all still leads me to the question: why do I place so much weight on one negative thing, when there is so much for me to be grateful?

Meanwhile, the temperature has dropped to -1, though it feels closer to -4.  But, Christmas is around the corner and I’ll finally be reunited with my boyfriend on Wednesday.  Those two things should help me disparage any and all negativity that I’ve had over the past 6 months…I hope.

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Of course, suicides are an extreme case, but this should shine some light on how Koreans approach their futures and their careers.

I often wonder if my students even choose what they want to do because its what they like, or if its merely a choice because their parent’s wanted it, or because the society considers it to be a “good job,” which will lead to a good marriage.  I have met more students studying engineering in this country than I will probably ever meet in my life (and I went to a huge architecture/engineering school in California back in the day).

My friend had taken two years off the working world to reevaluate and redefine her goals.  She’d spent 2010 studying English to take a test for a highly competitive graduate school.  To her dismay, she didn’t pass.  But as the saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.  Thus, 2011 has also been spent studying English.  She diligently studied articles, read the (boring) Economist, practiced translations, focusing on her pronunciation all in preparation for this one maybe ten minute exam.  Attending graduate school was her only plan.  There was no fall back plan, as failure for many Koreans isn’t an option.

She felt she had improved a lot over the past year, but when I asked her why she didn’t pass in 2010, she didn’t really know.  Of course, I think she speculated on a few things that possibly happened, but there was no actual feedback.  Also, I doubt there was anyone who could’ve shared their own experience to help give her an advantage.

So, for the past couple months, off and on we’ve met.  She’d read an article in Korean and then immediately translate the main points into English, only from memory.

She took the test…and we waited in angst.

You never think this will happen, especially when you don’t believe its a reality, but after two years of studying she came to discover that she didn’t pass.

It’s not an easy thing to face the cards, be it destiny or your choices, deal before you.  You start to question your motives, who you are, or if you’re doing it all wrong.  I’d like to think everything happens for a reason and that the point we’re at now is the convergence of our past events (and lives).  Sometimes things don’t make sense, but I’d like to believe that someday they will.  I guess this makes me sound like quite the optimist, which I’m not sure if I fully consider myself to always be.  I suppose I’m more of a realist and I’d like to think that we choose our destiny in some way, we have more power than we know.  So, if things don’t make sense now, there’s a bigger picture that’s being painted than we can understand.  No matter how difficult the strokes may seem on our canvas, there’s a great work of art being created.  We must keep the faith.

There is nowhere you can’t be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…

John Lennon

This is a topic I’ve often battled on my own mind.  How self-indulgent can the asana practice be?  Of course, what I told the woman was that we must first learn to control and change ourselves before we can truly learn how to be compassionate with others.  I do agree that developing qualities of empathy and self discipline really does contribute to how we respond and act as a collective whole.

Regardless, she didn’t really want to hear what we had to say…

—

I have forgotten about the whole topic of paths to God as I’m in a country where the religion seems to be  careers, soju consumption and plastic surgery.  However, I did have a student tell me she got the impression that I was a very spiritual person.  I’m not sure what exactly that means, but if its because I tend to psychoanalyze everything, I guess I am.  Honestly, I don’t really like talking about God and religion.  It makes me uncomfortable because I get opinionated about it.  Well, most people do.

So, my student pulled out some pamphlets on Christianity.

And, against my will, the grand discussion began.

The thing about talking to me about God is that you’re kind of beating a dead horse.  While a friend of mine point blank recently asked, ‘why exactly do you think there is a God?’ and I couldn’t give him a straight answer, I don’t consider myself an atheist.  I have many reasons why I think that Christianity isn’t the answer, but I have many reasons (although they’re not concrete) why I think God has validity.

However, I will stand quite firmly that I do not believe there is ONLY one way to God.  One of the biggest issues I’ve always grappled with is the Heaven factor.  How a person who does bad things can one day just say “sorry” and its a green light to go to Heaven?  How is it that in countries where the predominant religion is NOT Christianity that people can actually say that the non-believers are going to hell?  How is it that the Bible preaches to love everyone as yourself, treat others as equal, but then that homosexuality is wrong.  That people can’t love each other if they’re the same gender?  I’m not going to raise up the biological factors because lets face it, its all about faith really.  I mean, if we want to get scientific, there’s a million reasons why most religions could have been created from people taking too many drugs.  When telling the woman about things, she couldn’t give me a straight answer – which is what I’ve often gotten in the past.

People typically start spouting off the history of the Bible, which I already know.  She of course used the all-time, ‘Jesus is the only one who died and rose again.’

But, of course, the Bible was written by man.  Man has an ego.  Man makes mistakes.  I heard somewhere that in Pramahansa Yogananda’s Second Coming of Christ that he wrote of a Jesus of Nazareth wandering in India.  To me this sounds more accurate as I believe Jesus was a yogi.  So, its not to say that I don’t believe Jesus Christ was a man or that he did great things, I just do not agree that its only through this way.

We both agreed that religion is a problem.  Once people start separating everyone because of what religion he or she is or isn’t, that’s when the turmoil erupts. I don’t know if I’m 100% on reincarnation, but I do believe there’s something to say about karma.  What we do comes back to us and I think “God,” in any arena, is not an excuse for people to be irresponsible for their actions.

My student gave a great metaphor regarding sin and man as it is viewed by God.  ”Its like when you’re at the top of a tall building looking down, people just look like people.  You can’t see the details, they’re all the same.  This is how God views us.”

I thought this was quite interesting and it compelled me to think about my opinion in a different light.

To which I said, “That’s just it!  God is only God.  It doesn’t matter the religion.  When I am looking up, its only the sky I see and its only one sky.”

“They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.” - Carol Buchner

Someone once told me regarding, the Ashtanga practice, that we practice to teach and we teach to learn.  Well, it was something along those lines.

Occasionally, I really hear myself when I teach.  I mean, that I realize if I’m being an accepting instructor or if I’m being too hard.  I find that when I’m tired, I often expect too much from my students.  If a student hasn’t clearly studied, I sometimes have a sharper edge in my tone.

I knew I was being too hard on a student last week and felt a little bad after class finished.  I couldn’t shake the disappointment in myself until I woke up the next morning to realize that I had asked him something he didn’t know how to answer.  I also had a student again that next day who was all over the place with her grammar and not able to formulate the answers I was seeking.  Exasperated she said, “Teacher, I don’t know.  With the past few classes I’ve had, I’ve done okay with the other teachers, but now with you, I’m so nervous and warm, I can’t speak…” Okay, she wasn’t that fluent, but that was what she meant.

I don’t want to be intimidating to the students who have a hard time.  Actually, let me rephrase that sentence.  I don’t want to be an intimidating person.  Even if my student learns the grammar, I don’t want them to fear coming into my class because of how they might feel, or how they felt before.  This is something I have to work on, something I have to relax with myself.  It is true, the areas where we are hard on others are definitely the areas we are hardest on ourselves.  I find that in the areas where I’m the weakest, I get the most frustrated or embarrassed at my inability to excel or perform the way I want.  I have to remember…life is all about learning and we all move at different paces.

We all have different sorts of smarts.  For example, school/lecture style was always really difficult for me, especially when it involved numbers.  Speaking of, I’ve decided to apply for graduate school.  Since my boyfriend is in Norway and the plan after Korea is to join him, I’ll be applying to the University of Oslo for 2012-2013 school year.  I dug up an old transcript from the first University I attended – the one where I was partying too much and taking a lot of courses involving numbers.  Let’s just say, I’m glad that I got my act together the next two years after I transferred, I’m not a numbers girl.

My biggest hurdle at the moment is figuring out how I will finance my graduate school expense.  For those of you who are wondering, while the cost of living is incredibly expensive in Norway, tuition for EU citizens and international students is free.

Yep, FREE!

But, I still have to apply for scholarships.  The problem now is that I have to show proof of funds to the University *by December 1st* to finance my education and I don’t have them at the moment.  Some of my students get sponsored to go study in America…I wonder if I could find a sponsor for Norway. hmmm, not sure how I’d market myself for that one.

Yes, yes, and yessss…this is SOUTH Korea, not the country up north.

On my first venture to Korea, I had no idea what to pack and it seemed to the other foreigners who had already landed that there was a surplus of things available.  However, it doesn’t give one peace of mind to hear “you can get everything you need (one way or another),” when you’re nervous and preparing to move from everything you know.  I never understood, “why aren’t people being more helpful?” Now that I’m on the other side, receiving the emails, I realize I don’t know where to start because no one asks me a specific question (ie. do I need to bring tampons?).  People just ask ‘what do I need?’ and quite frankly, that’s too general.

However, I know that it’s hard to get settled and the last thing you want to deal with your first month is hunting down toiletries and asking people where things are located, and or realizing, that while there are bath towels here, they aren’t like the ones we have at home.

One thing you have to remember when coming is that there are some things that aren’t available merely because its not used here.  Tampons are slowly catching on, but a few years ago, these were apparently obsolete and very difficult to come by.  Here’s a rough list of things you can find here and what you might need to bring:

• (This is a top question for the ladies) Tampons Tampons, they’re available!! You can get them almost everywhere now too.

• Towels Koreans don’t use big towels.  There is no wrapping up in a towel and walking around the house after you shower.  Koreans use these sort of hand towels, or I guess we call them face towels in the states.  You can find larger towels, but they are EXPENSIVE and typically the material isn’t very thick.

• Skin Care & Deodorant & Nail care Leave them behind.  You can get it all here and more than you could ever imagine.  Koreans are very into whitening products, so be aware when purchasing Korean brands that this might be apart of the bottle.   You can wear a different color on every nail, and its totally fashionable.  My nails are black right now and in the states, I’m sure I’d get a million comments about how I’m being a “goth,” but here it’s a normal style!  Keep in mind, my Korean experience is from a big city perspective, so there are many options available.  If you live in Seoul, don’t worry about most things at all, but if you’re in a smaller town, I recommend bringing some of your own.  There’s a fabulous place called Olive Young that I frequent and I can typically find tampons, deodorant, facial care and beyond there.

• Make up They have loads of makeup here, as well the higher end (referred to as “luxury”) brands like Mac/Lancome/Clinique too.  Korea has a million of their own make up lines as well. If you have a much darker skin then cover up might be a bit of a difficult match. I went to Hera last year and the woman told me they had two shades, light and dark.  She looks at me and said, “You’re dark.”  Well, as you can see by my pictures, I’m not dark skinned, but I’m not “pasty white” either.

• Dental control They are obsessed with brushing their teeth.  I know that sounds strange, but after every meal, I’ll see my students and co-workers go directly to the bathroom to brush their teeth.  You can find floss here as well.  I just had a nasty visit with the dentist for the past 6 weeks.  Visiting the dentist in the states is very expensive, especially without insurance, so I hadn’t gone in like 5 years.  Unfortunately, an old filling had started to decay and caused me to need 2 root canals.  Dental care isn’t covered under your health insurance, but I visited possibly one of the most expensive and best hospitals in Busan and it still cost me under $1,000, including two porcelain crowns.

• Hair Care They’re obsessed with their make up, you can imagine that they are also obsessed with their hair.  They have lots of products here, more than you can fathom.  Hair cuts are cheap as well.  The most expensive cut I’ve had was for around $18 (no tipping here either) and I was really happy with the results. Image is everything here so unless you go to a hidden stylist, down a dark alley, you will walk out looking fabulous.

• Clothes I was warned prior to arrival that if you aren’t mini, finding suitable clothing will be a challenge.  A lot of shops won’t let you try things on either because they’re worried about make up getting on the clothes.  So, you kind of just have to blindly buy sometimes.  Plus, its difficult asking for a different size with a language barrier. I lucked out because I fit everything here and everything seems to be a size small. However, pants are tough for me because I have long legs.  Koreans have long torsos and short legs.  Anyway, I’d recommend, small or large, that you pack enough pants to tie you over for awhile.  Of course, there are fancy department stores in the bigger areas of the city, but they’re typically expensive.  You will experience all 4 seasons here, so prepare for a hot, humid summer, and a dry cold winter. As far as fashion goes, anything goes…you can wear what you wore 5 or 10 years ago and it will still be in style.  Wear your floral prints and shoulder pads shamelessly!!  For the record, no, I haven’t gone that far yet.

• Shoes If you love heels, this will be heaven!!  The shoes here are awesome!  But, again with the clothes thing, if your shoe size is larger than an American size 8, you’ll be out of luck.  The shoe sizing here is different than in the west as things are in mm here, a little confusing at first.

• Healthcare Healthcare is cheap.  So, at the slightest whim of any sickness, my Korean friends will go to the hospital.  Of course, I think they have a low tolerance (and are weak), but I suppose if visiting the doctor in the states were just as cheap, we’d be hopping over there on a seconds notice as well.  I’ve had students who’ve been in car accidents and I find they end up staying in the hospital for 3 days.  I’m of course, always concerned and equally surprised to find that it was for a mere “fender bender.”  You can also get medicine here easily as well.  There are pharmacies on every street corner and lots of traditional Korean doctors still practicing acupuncture as well.  It’s all very cheap. I think the one thing you can’t find here though is Ibuprofen.  I don’t take pharmaceutical drugs anymore, but I’d recommend bringing some stuff at first while you’re still figuring out where exactly things are.

• Bras & Undies they only sell granny panties here.  I haven’t actually even walked into a bra store either, I’ve brought my own.  I imagine, as with the clothing size, the bra sizes will only be suitable for small busted ladies as well.  Again, I’m lucky in this area because I’m not well-endowed and its nice to be in a country where people aren’t so obsessed with chest size (although, they are obsessed with white skin, no wrinkles, and large eyes).

• Adapters Everything here works on 2 ping, 240V, which is great for Europe, but if your from the US/Canada you’ll need an adapter/converter.  Of course, you can easily get adapters here though from the bigger marts (otherwise known as supermarkets).

• Stationary and Cute Things What is it with East Asia and their obsession with being young and acting juvenile?  “Cute” is in!  If you want to find a birthday card here, expect it to say something like “Congratulation, I love you forever.” You can also get a surplus of adorable stickers.  ArtBox is like the Hello Kitty store of Korea. 
• Sweets and Snacks I miss American candy. I miss a nice fudge brownie. I miss soft, moist chocolate chip cookies.  I miss real Baskin Robbins ice cream cakes, because the Baskin Robbins cakes in Korea don’t have any actual cake, it’s only ice cream.  One thing that they’re HUGE on here is packaging. Everything looks cute, but that’s about it.  Cute is as cute does…so, if you see an amazingly, delicious ice cream cake, cupcake or cookie, I guarantee it will probably be either coated in a thick layer of icing or be really dry and hard.

• Spices I’m big on cooking so I was quite a bit disappointed to find myself limited in the fresh herbs department.  I think there is mint here, but I’m not sure what exactly its called. Mint here is a different variety than the mint I’m used to in other parts of the world.  You can find cinnamon here a variety of red pepper spices. However, I have yet to find cayenne or cumin. For more details on spices, please comment below so I can respond directly!

• Coffee I don’t understand why coffee is so expensive here, but there’s a million coffee shops everywhere.  Many of the larger chain stores (Starbucks, Coffee Bean, etc) sell a simple Americano for about $3.50, where in the states it might only be $1.50.  If you like to make fresh coffee Italian style, I recommend you buy one of these at home and bring it along.  These sorts of coffee makers are incredibly expensive.  However, you can buy a traditional coffee maker for a reasonable price.

If I left anything out, please ask!!

Soooo, here is my one-time promotional plug, go to this link and you’ll get $5 off (and I might earn some credit as well^^).  Yes, they do ship international!  Of course, that’s aside from the point.  What makes Iherb so great?  You can get really great natural and organic products for way cheaper than the price at a natural foods store.  Even with the shipping fees, it still ends up costing a lot less.

After my practice, one of the things I look forward to most in the morning is breakfast.  I’m always sort of shocked when I hear that people skip breakfast or say they don’t have time.  Some people just pop a piece of toast in the toaster or have a cup of coffee.  This is okay, but why not take like 5 extra minutes and make something fabulous?

Anyway, I LOVE oatmeal, but I think I sort of disdained it as a child because I thought it was bland.  Indeed, oats alone are bland, but here’s my prescription to making breakfast an amazing meal!

The following is a rough list of ingredients you’ll need for making my version of oats.  Please note, my ingredients change depending on the seasonal fruits or my mood.

• Ghee or butter
• Pinch of salt (optional)
• Ginger
• Whole Grain Oats
• Nectarines (or the popular fruit in season).  You can really add in as many varieties as you’d like, sometimes I add a few banana slices at the end, or sometimes I use apples.
• A few raisins, dried cranberries or dates (feel free to alternate between them or use them all)
• Cinnamon
• Water or Milk

First, finely chop up the ginger.  That’s right, ginger.  It’s great for aiding the body in digestion and adds a nice zing.  I use maybe about 1 tbls (which I guess is a lot), but you can use less.

Heat a small pot with ghee (or butter) add salt and ginger.  Traditionally, ghee should be made with unsalted butter, so if you want, you can add a little in salt.  You could also use a larger pot depending on how many you’re feeding or how hungry you are.

These days with all the Fall fruits available, I’ve been using nectarines, but sometimes I use apples.  I do a rough chop of the  nectarine and add it to the pot once the ginger starts to sizzle.  Thereafter, I’ll add maybe a few other things like a 1/2 a tablespoon of raisins (7 g) or dates.  Allowing the dried raisins to simmer for a bit in the pan will release their juices and cause them to plump up a bit.  This is what you make it, so add whatever and how much you’d like.

Once that’s been sizzling for a few minutes, I add in the oats and water.  If you like thicker oats, add less water, but enough to cover the oats so they have something to help them soften and expand.  You can also use milk to make it creamier and I suppose it would add more flavor.  The addition of some vanilla would be nice as well.

Finally, add a dash of cinnamon and more ghee (or butter) on top and mix.  Chopped almonds would be spectacular too, but I am too lazy to deal with almonds flying all over my counter.

If you’ve got a major sweet tooth, like me, top with some brown sugar.  My boyfriend thought that I was always trying to kill him with sugar, so he might prefer to add milk (or in Europe, sour milk) instead.  The healthier alternative is probably honey and since I like the sweeter things in life (and I’m apparently trying to get diabetes before the year ends) I usually add in both.   

I’ve been living in Busan, South Korea for the majority of the past 2 1/2 years.  Busan is the second largest city in the country with a population of about 3.6 million.  One of the incredible sites of this metropolitan city is the beach.  Infamous for Haeundae, this popular hot spot swarms with tourists in the hot summer months of July and August.  Covered with parasols, high heels, and celebrities (none of whom I’ve ever seen), this coastal city is the IT place in the summer months.  It’s also home to some great seafood, crazy drivers, and an apparently tougher dialect of Korean.

Having grown up in Southern California, the beaches here don’t exhibit the same appeal as they do to my Midwest or Canadian waygook (foreign) counterparts.  In fact, the sea is nice, but being here it lacks the sound of crashing waves on the sand (because there aren’t really any waves here) and the glittering red hues at sunset.

But, Busan does have some other incredible things.  Known for amazing B-Boy’s and street dancers, there’s a whole underground world which remains foreign to even the native Koreans.  In an effort to connect to my body in other ways, I’ve been taking dance classes on the weekends.  Nope, no jazz or ballet for this girl (not until I head back to Europe at least), I’ll be honing skills under the hip hop and popping styles.  Hopefully, this Latina will start to connect to her long lost Mexican roots and learn some salsa too.

The winter season in Busan is brutal for me.  I hate the cold and my body nearly always goes out of balance.  It drops to maybe –6C, the sort of weather that will will freeze spit on the sidewalk.  For the record, there are a lot of spitters in this country.

Busan has changed a lot since I’ve arrived.  The once only 3 subway lined city has gradually started to expand the public transportation system.  The availability of international products has also become easier to access.  You can actually find dates, dried apricots, and an array of organic options at the grocery store and I also once saw limes.  Slowly, slowly, Busan is becoming an international city.

I’d like to compare Busan to San Diego because as great as it is, it will never compare to the glitter of New York, like Seoul does.

So, I ventured up to Seoul recently on the KTX.  The KTX is the bullet train which travels at speeds around 300-320km/h or 180-220mp/h.  Thus, the high speed rail makes a 50 min airplane ride in a little under 3 hours, for a lot less money and effort.

I’ve become aware of the number of plastic surgery cases in Korea.  Actually, I can’t honestly distinguish it with a lot of girls, but there have been many who’ve told me they’ve had their eyes or nose done.  It is VERY cheap to get surgery and when the job, family pressure, or future husband depend on it, many choose to go under the knife.

Upon my arrival to Seoul, I quickly noticed the number of remarkably beautiful women who possessed really large eyes and soft facial features.  I also noticed an alarmingly high number of advertisements gloating before and after shots.  It dawned on me quite shortly thereafter that there’s no way possible that Koreans in Seoul are that naturally different from those in Busan.  Sadly, most women that I thought had natural beauty have probably been altered in a lot of ways.

Onto more city matters, a city of 10 million, Seoul is truly a city that never sleeps, until perhaps the wee hours of the morning.  However, it is a rarity to find establishments that are open in the morning hours.  Life really doesn’t emerge until 10 am, a harsh reality to confront for a yogi.

I’m the loser who failed to take any pictures on this recent visit to Seoul.  So, this photo is courtesy of my dear friend Stephanie, taken in 2009.

Lined with hoards of western restaurants, retail stores, and a million coffee shops, Seoul makes Busan seem stuck in the 80′s.  I walked around one block and counted 3 Starbucks – is that really necessary?  I never manage to grasp how all of these coffee shops stay in business, but being a country that comes to life at night, the market for caffeine is remarkably high in this country.  For example, on the ground floor of my apartment building there are 3 commercial coffee shops.  If you walk around the corner there are 5 more within a 3 minute walk that are privately owned.  Let’s not discuss how many there are on the other side of the street either.

I won’t bother discussing the obvious, but take a look at this subway map and tell me you aren’t overwhelmed.  Maybe for some this isn’t a big deal, I suppose Japan’s is quite complicated as well. Apparently, Seoul’s subway is the 3rd largest in the world. Coming from San Diego, where public transportation is practically obsolete, this is an image that will definitely make you dumbfounded (not to mention, probably travel in the wrong direction, at least once).

Anyway, at 10:30 at night, I packed into a subway car.  It was so jammed that I couldn’t move if I wanted, in fact, I couldn’t fall either.  We were literally smashed in like a can of sardines and this wasn’t even rush hour.

Seoul is really ahead of Busan in a million ways.  Even as there are a lot of commercial establishments, you can still find a lot of historical and cultural sites and activities in this enormous city as well.

So, if you were to come to Korea, what would I recommend?  Well, I’d go to Seoul of course…but, if you’ve got the time for both, Busan isn’t so bad.  The climate in Busan is more moderate than in Seoul.  For example, although it drops below freezing here, snow fall is highly unusual.  Apparently, the pollution isn’t as bad here either.  However, there aren’t many western options in regards to food in Busan, so if you’re wanting to dive into Korean food, Busan might be the way to go.

I must admit, I was actually really disappointed when I came back to Busan.  I really wanted to stay in Seoul and hit the night life and a million more restaurants, but seeing as I blew nearly $350 in 1 1/2 days, I figured I should head back south and earn some money.  Perhaps its a blessing that I don’t live in Seoul, I imagine I’d get sucked into the fast pace of life pretty quickly.  Yet, if Busan is this far behind Seoul and its the next largest city, I can only imagine how far behind some of the towns in the countryside must be.