Kimchi Evil Eyes

In just over a month I will be leaving Korea. How am I to exist without kimchi - the fermented spicy cabbage dish - that I eat every day? I clearly need some kimchi making skills to keep the H1N1 virus at bay. So on Sunday I headed with Sam to the O'Ngo cookery school to learn how to make the dish that I have become seriously attached to. As a tasty extra, they also taught us how make bulgogi.

Read, steady....COOK! (Please note the demonic eyes)

Hye-jin, our lovely instructor

Kimchi ingredients: brined cabbage, spring onion, chilli powder, garlic ginger and shrimp sauce....

....and radish (MU!)

After stuffing the cabbage with the other ingredients, and throwing half of the ingredients down yourself and on the floor (it's traditional), you bundle it up and...

TA-DAA!

Eating the food along with another student from Japan and her instructor (Again, please not the evil eyes)

Feeling very pleased with myself I couldn't believe at the time that my kimchi had actually given me demonic eyes. Until I went to get a photo taken for a job application today. The lady in the shop snapped my picture, I went home to wait for the email. I opened up the file and this demonic teacher greeted me:

I like to think that my perfect skin is another result of the home-made kimchi, rather than just very liberal use of photoshop. But, just incase my skin really is getting that good, I'm going to go make myself a kimchi smoothie. I'll just have to put up with the demonic eyes.

Hanbok

Winter has officially hit, and so what are you to do in the wee hours, miles away from home in freezing temperature when you need a warm place to curl up and sleep? Go to the public bath house, of course.

Unfortunately, when Anna and I arrived after her farewell party, we were not the only ones to have thought of this. After a quick shower and bath, we went to the women's sleeping room - a large dark room with mats and blocks for pillows and about 30 sleeping women. Once the seven year old next to me stopped elbowing me in the ribs, I actually had quite a pleasant nights sleep.

Anna getting into the public bath house.

The spring of eternal youth?

It works!

But Baby it's cold outside

The next day, after sweating all the impurities out in the sauna, we went over to Julie's for the best shabu-shabu in the world (FACT). Julie was kind enough to let me try on her hanbok - traditional Korean costume made out two dresses and a jacket. Julie helped me get dressed. Oddly the dress is actually green. I like to think this photo also misrepresents the length of my face (thanks, Naomi, for telling everyone at school that my face is so long because of an accident involving a heavy articulated lorry)

The dress is very tight across the chest, but with lots of netting on the petticoat.

Practising a full Korean bow.

This bow-wow wanted in on my bow