We took a number of photos today — at Insadong, at Gyeongbokgung Palace, and various other shots.

We’re posting several here. You should be able to click on any one of them, then click on “next” and/or “previous” underneath the photo to cycle through all nine, which appear in random order. Let us know if you have any questions.

 

Finally, we got to eat some Korean food today. While we had planned to try out Korean food in the last several months at Kimchi Korean Restaurant in State College, PA, we never made it.

Today was our first real experience with Korean food. Because we tasted some bad Kimchi at a Chinese restaurant in Chattanooga a few months ago, we weren’t really sure what was going to happen today. As it turned out, we really enjoyed a large variety of Korean food that we had for lunch.

We spent much of the day today with a Korean family (part of The Holy Flames Methodist Church that we’re connecting with for our cross-cultural experience). They took us to Insadong (a popular shopping district in Seoul), and to lunch at a Korean restaurant.

At the restaurant, we tried out a lot of different kinds of Korean food, including two kinds of Kimchi — traditional (which is very spicy) and a mild version (BTW, if you saw the photo of the pots in Joleen’s post on the Korean Folk Village, those pots are used to prepare Kimchi). We also had Bulgogi, another important Korean dish.

For the main course, we had Bibimbap, another popular Korean dish (we forgot to take a picture of it, but on the way out of the restaurant, we took a photo of a large model of Bibimbap). We also had several side dishes including dried seaweed and Korean pancakes (not to be confused with American pancakes). We completed our meal with a really good cup of plum juice. Again, we enjoyed everything.

We’ve also been trying out different kinds of Korean candy, which tends not to be overly sweet like much of the candy we are used to in the States. We’ve enjoyed all of it as well. The peanut candy (pictured here) is very good and reminds us of Planters Peanut Bars, but much softer.

I think my favorite is the rice candy (see the short sticks in the photo). Their sorta like taffy — but crunchy at first, then slightly chewy, with a mild taste. Another rice candy (pictured here) is very light and fluffy. And yet another rice candy (not pictured here) that we sampled at Insadong today was very soft. As you may have guessed, rice is an essential part of Korean food, including desserts.

Since we ate a big lunch, we walked to Dono Studio this evening and tried a couple of donuts (which we split). Donut shops have become very popular in Seoul. From what we’ve read, Dunkin Donuts has been very successful in Korea. The donut with the green powder is a green tea donut, which was more interesting than anything, and the coconut/strawberry donut was very good.

The next few days look to be pretty busy. We’ll be spending most of the day tomorrow (Sunday) in multiple worship services. Our time with church folks will also include two meals.

I’m not sure how much more, if anything, we’ll say about food, but you’ll definitely want check back in the next few days for a report on our time with the Korean family today, a report on our Sunday experience, and of course, a report on our first visit with our baby on Monday morning!

In an environment where so much is new, there’s a lot of stuff to process. Each morning, I’ve been waking up very early (Korea Time), thinking about our experience here. After a while, I finally get up and write.

We’ve been sharing some observations and impressions about the culture here, including our challenges with the culture. We want to make something very clear as we continue to reflect on our experience with the Korean culture, particularly as we report on our challenges — we are *not* making judgments on the Korean culture. We are simply trying to share and process what we’re learning and discovering.

This morning, I woke up thinking about a word that I learned somewhere along the way: ethnocentric, which basically means being centered on one’s own ethnic group or culture, to the point of viewing other cultures/ethnic groups through one’s own culture/worldview.

Taken to an extreme, ethnocentricity leads one to believe that his or her own culture/ethnic group is superior to others. Because of that, ethnocentricity is perhaps one of the things at the root of racism (among all the other isms).

While the command, “Thou shalt not be ethnocentric,” does not appear in the Scriptures in those exact words, the concept is there, I believe. Jesus instructed his followers to …

go and make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28.19).

The Greek word Matthew recorded for “nations” is ethnos, which is where the English word “ethnic” comes from. Jesus sent his church to build an international community of people from all ethnic groups and cultures because “God loved the world so much” (John 3.16).

It would be a real twist of the Scriptures to limit Jesus’ instruction, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” to those who are part of your own culture/ethnic group.

Overcoming ethnocentricity, though, may take discipline to intentionally be open-minded about other cultures/ethnic groups, and to not be so centered on your own world. In order to learn from others, we must be as objective as possible, because it is impossible to learn and be close-minded at the same time.

So, on that note, we want to encourage you to read all of our observations about the Korean culture as simply that, our observations. We trust that our observations will be an opportunity for others to learn about the Korean culture, not necessarily to make judgments about it.

So, for example, when we talk about how difficult it is for us to find stuff, our point is not to say that they’re system is dumb or that it doesn’t work or that it needs fixing or that it’s not as good as ours; we’re simply saying that it is hard for us to find stuff because we are used to another system. We could just as easily talk about the difficulty some communities in the US, and particularly in PA, have had relinquishing the old “rural route” system.

We must make the most of our opportunities to learn from other cultures. After all, those of us who are Christ-followers expect to spend eternity together. John’s vision of eternity includes this description …

I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. (Revelation 7.9)

Learning about other cultures can be a real opportunity to expand our world. If you believe that humankind is created in the image of God, then doesn’t it make sense that learning more about other people/cultures gives us a greater glimpse of God?