Gam-sa-hamnida!

Santa's Korean helpers

There are so many ways to say thank-you, and by traveling we are quickly learning there may be even more out there. When living in Italy’s Piedmont region Grazie was a phrase thrown around almost as commonly as Americans say “Thanks.” I indulged in the phrase because of how Italian it made me feel to add that extra accent to the somewhat clichéd saying. As far as gestures of thanks go, Italians are all about food and beverage and quality counts. If invited to an Italian’s home for dinner, this is not the time to shluff off that old bottle of 2 buck chuck someone left at one of your more casual Soiree. Quality out does quantity here, and a good vintage wine will go a long way as far as making a first impression. Fast forward three summers when Matt lived and taught in Costa Rica, finishing up his teaching degree. The area he lived was relatively poor so there was not a lot of gift giving, but that didn’t mean the people of Tres Rios couldn’t throw a party. Matt found that to show any kind of appreciation for the teaching he was doing or the community he was calling family for the summer, a feast was served in his honor. With  not a lot of dispensable income the people in this rural area in Costa Rica say thank-you by sharing family time, not by going to a restaurant but by inviting you to their family home for a meal.

So here we are in South Korea, invited regularly to events and celebrations ranging from house-warming parties, to weddings to taekwando belt tests, and with Thanksgiving now just behind us and the holiday season in full bloom I have been thinking a lot about our custom of saying “Thank you.” For Korean actions don’t even operate on the same playing field as words. For a Korean person the action IS the “thank you,” and to say “Gam-sa-hamnida” as a gesture of appreciation often seems insignificant and unnecessary to a Korean person. The phrase is not used day to day, something I learned when replying “Gam-sa-hamnida” when handed a cup of coffee and told “You really should stop saying this…” Point taken. Feeding people, as is true in many cultures, is a huge sign of appreciation and thanks here in Korea. I was told about the custom during our teaching orientation and thought I would put it to the test the second week in my new job. I started small and brought in a bite sized snickers to everyone in the office. It seemed American enough, small enough to share with a staff of nearly 100 and cutesy enough to give off the “Hi, I just wanted to introduce myself, thanks for including me in your school” vibe. The next day I was shocked at what my small token of thanks resulted in: There were a total of 15 oranges on my desk, a persimmon, homemade rice cakes, a vitamin C drink, instant coffee packets and a box of tissue. I’ve been playing this sort of “secret Santa” game ever since, and it’s working out quite well for everyone. Next I managed to find marshmallows and butter at the nearby Costco and made the office rice crispy treats, this resulted in a mix of confusion that rice could be eaten as a gooey and fattening dessert, and a return of apples, sweet potato and more rice cakes. Matt made everyone in his office Halloween cards and he came home with new coffee mugs and a dinner invitation. The dinner resulted in more gift giving, we brought toilet paper and bread and walked away with full bellies, a make-up bag, left-overs and a puzzle. In case you missed the memo on toilet paper, it’s simple really: toilet paper can be given on any occasion, in a ny denomination, and for any purpose. The mix of practicality and care for one’s well being and hygiene make it the perfect gift…according to the Koreans.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving, my second outside the United States. When I was 19 I spent Thanksgiving living in Madrid and around 5pm stumbled into the “American Grocery” where you could find on every aisle a young adult grasping a can of cranberry, sniffling to them self no doubt missing home and the smell of gravy. This year there was not the same “woe’s me” wave of emotion in either Matt or myself. This could have been the fact that we taught Thanksgiving lesson plans to our students all week and had our fix of Americana by Friday, or maybe the two giant Thanksgiving meals served on Friday and Saturday night. Either way our Thanksgiving was about as American as you can get while living in Asia.

Game hen pre-pot slow roast

Matt  found a rugby team to play on here in Korea and was part of a tournament  3 hours outside of Busan for the weekend. Our big Thanksgiving dinner at the local bar we frequent was not scheduled until Saturday and so, not wanting Matt to go a year without stuffing, I decided to tackle a Thanksgiving (Round 1) in our apartment on Friday night. I use the word “Tackle” because there is the obvious headache of finding ingredients to satisfy an American palate in Korea, although walking through the market to find flavors that you never knew existed has become one of my favorite pastimes. The real headache in cooking American food in Korea is the fact that Korean homes do not have ovens. No that is not a typo, rarely can you come across an oven here in Ulsan. So with our improvisation knobs turned way up, Matt and I invited a mix of Americans, English, Welsh and Australians to our humble apartment for a Thanksgiving feast. The biggest problem was the turkey, because lets just face it, the turkey farm is about as American as you can get, so we settled for game hen. Meat can be purchased fresh daily and VERY affordably at our local market, so this is where we were able to handpick the ingredients for our makeshift meal. After some helpful and encouraging advice from the one and only saltyseattle www.saltyseattle.com I was confident that stuffing could be made using a rice cooker, and a hen in a pot wasn’t that crazy of an idea.

Get it while it's hot!

Friday night Matt and I sat on our Ondol heated floor peeling potatoes, crumbling bread for the stuffing and wondering why we had thought this would be a good idea. With all the prep work done for our meal I left for my after school teaching job and put the execution in Matt’s hands….and he did a fantastic job! Our apartment was filled with the smell of garlic, butter, french bread and wine when I arrived home a mere twenty minutes before guests arrived. We had solicited the assistance from our lovely neighbors for the use of an extra burner, and when guests showed up we had successfully set our harvest table with: Two game hens, garlic mashed potatoes, apple and wild mushroom stuffing and chicken gravy, all ingredients found in the outdoor market and all delicious.

The next morning Matt was out the door at six am with a full belly and I was very  happily left wiping chicken grease out of our only pan in order to whip up some french toast for our guessed who had, in true Thanksgiving style, fallen asleep on our heated floor. Thanksgiving round two may have been in a slightly less traditional setting but was certainly not without all the culinary comforts of home. The Royal anchor is a bar that has evolved over our three months here into somewhat of a “Cheers” like hangout. Mr. Kim is the owner and with the inspiration and dedication from one of his American bartenders they were able to put on a Thanksgiving feast for 30 of their patrons. The meal was complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pickles, pumpkin pie and my homemade egg nog. I am choosing not to include the recipe because after making egg nog I realize that some things are better bought from the store for the sheer reason that you really don’t want to know what goes into them, but it was DELICIOUS!

This Thanksgiving, like most we are reminded of how happiness really can follow you anywhere. On this same day last year Matt proposed in front of a room packed with our family and friends. neither of us thought anything could top the happiness of that moment, and although the one thing missing from this year’s holiday season is those same people who bring us so much joy in the Pacific Northwest we are not without friends here, farther East. We have met people here that we will have friendships with for the rest of our lives and for that both of us are thankful.

From our home in Korea to yours, Happy Holidays!

-Matt and Emily