Friday, May 14, 2004
The Welcome Party.
I guess, from this post onwards I'll change the way I write - from a day by day account to an incident-wise write-up. It's easier and makes more sense that way.
It's sort of customary to give a welcome party to each new member in a research group. So I was in for it, but the only glitch was I wasn't aware that it was meant for me - and no one considered telling me that small little bit of detail :-)
We were driven off in the POSTECH mini van (Prof Choi, and the research group - about 10 of us) to some swanky downtown restaurant.
Sitting around a small table on the floor, the first course consisted of some sort of salad in small bowls. Some Korean weed and cabbage and lettuce topped with bean sauce (I think). AND fried/baked coccoons. Yes - they were coccoons - silkworm coccoons. They're a delicacy here in Korea. Everyone was relishing them - and I was on the verge of puking (without even tasting them). I stopped looking and concentrated on my lettuce.
Along with this came the customary Sojo - that's a native drink of Korea. They're really crazy about it and I think it's drunk on special occassions. It's made of potatoes and tastes much like Vodka. Around 21% alcohol. That's one thing I enjoyed - and oh, before I forget - it's supposed to be taken neat ;-)
Next was the turn of beef. They had these coal barbecues built into center of each table. The waitress brought big "slabs" of beef which were put directly onto the barbecue with some (massively sized) onions. One of us was chopping the beef into smaller chunks using a pair of scissors. I was having a tough time with the beef. It was less of meat and more of chewy fat. The others were simply gobbling up the chewy mess - and I was busy ripping apart the fat from the meat.
Almost everything tasted the same to me. Every damn thing had some common spice/herb which was overpowering all other flavours.
The waitress kept the beef coming and I'm sure we must've had one full cow, when my Prof asked - What next? Rice or noodles? And I'm like - Huh? There's more to come?! Noodles - I say. And after about 5 minutes - there comes one big bowl of black noodles. And that's not all - the thing is called Icy Noodles - it is filled with ice. Great! Now I'm stuck with this big bowl of ice with noodles somewhere in between. These noodles are black cuz they're not made of wheat flour - they're made of bean flower. And probably that's what makes them like chewing gum. I just couldnt chew them - had to swallow them whole! My poor stomach - must've cried that day.
Done with that, we were served with some sort of dirty white cool liquid in a small bowl. I was just about to dip my fingers in it when I saw the others drinking it (!!). I followed suit - and was tasting a sweetish liquid. On inquiring I came to know it was a traditional drink made out of barley served after a meal. It had some rice (or barley) settled at the bottom and based on my experience in the immediate past it looked more like larva (yuck)!
Well, onto the mini van and back to POSTECH. We walked our way to the Log Cabin - that's the campus bar! You heard me right - it's a bar on the campus - and man - it's beautiful. A small little hut kind of thing made completely out of wood - sorrounded by lush greenery. It was almost 9:00 PM and after the heavy rounds of Sojo we were here for another round of beer. That's when I exclaimed - what! more drinks! I was told that today is special. We dont drink so often. And I (innocently, of course) asked about the "speciality" of the day. That's when I was enlightened.
"I dont know how to say this in Korean - but thank you - all of you" - those were my daily words of wisdom before the drinks began to flow!
A round of beer with some side dishes of fried fish (with scales still in them - it was yucky) and almonds (ah! familiar grounds at last).
(Finally) Done with all the drinking we started walking back to our dorimtories when on the way I saw the POSTECH festival in full splendour! More on it in the next post...
It's sort of customary to give a welcome party to each new member in a research group. So I was in for it, but the only glitch was I wasn't aware that it was meant for me - and no one considered telling me that small little bit of detail :-)
We were driven off in the POSTECH mini van (Prof Choi, and the research group - about 10 of us) to some swanky downtown restaurant.
Sitting around a small table on the floor, the first course consisted of some sort of salad in small bowls. Some Korean weed and cabbage and lettuce topped with bean sauce (I think). AND fried/baked coccoons. Yes - they were coccoons - silkworm coccoons. They're a delicacy here in Korea. Everyone was relishing them - and I was on the verge of puking (without even tasting them). I stopped looking and concentrated on my lettuce.
Along with this came the customary Sojo - that's a native drink of Korea. They're really crazy about it and I think it's drunk on special occassions. It's made of potatoes and tastes much like Vodka. Around 21% alcohol. That's one thing I enjoyed - and oh, before I forget - it's supposed to be taken neat ;-)
Next was the turn of beef. They had these coal barbecues built into center of each table. The waitress brought big "slabs" of beef which were put directly onto the barbecue with some (massively sized) onions. One of us was chopping the beef into smaller chunks using a pair of scissors. I was having a tough time with the beef. It was less of meat and more of chewy fat. The others were simply gobbling up the chewy mess - and I was busy ripping apart the fat from the meat.
Almost everything tasted the same to me. Every damn thing had some common spice/herb which was overpowering all other flavours.
The waitress kept the beef coming and I'm sure we must've had one full cow, when my Prof asked - What next? Rice or noodles? And I'm like - Huh? There's more to come?! Noodles - I say. And after about 5 minutes - there comes one big bowl of black noodles. And that's not all - the thing is called Icy Noodles - it is filled with ice. Great! Now I'm stuck with this big bowl of ice with noodles somewhere in between. These noodles are black cuz they're not made of wheat flour - they're made of bean flower. And probably that's what makes them like chewing gum. I just couldnt chew them - had to swallow them whole! My poor stomach - must've cried that day.
Done with that, we were served with some sort of dirty white cool liquid in a small bowl. I was just about to dip my fingers in it when I saw the others drinking it (!!). I followed suit - and was tasting a sweetish liquid. On inquiring I came to know it was a traditional drink made out of barley served after a meal. It had some rice (or barley) settled at the bottom and based on my experience in the immediate past it looked more like larva (yuck)!
Well, onto the mini van and back to POSTECH. We walked our way to the Log Cabin - that's the campus bar! You heard me right - it's a bar on the campus - and man - it's beautiful. A small little hut kind of thing made completely out of wood - sorrounded by lush greenery. It was almost 9:00 PM and after the heavy rounds of Sojo we were here for another round of beer. That's when I exclaimed - what! more drinks! I was told that today is special. We dont drink so often. And I (innocently, of course) asked about the "speciality" of the day. That's when I was enlightened.
"I dont know how to say this in Korean - but thank you - all of you" - those were my daily words of wisdom before the drinks began to flow!
A round of beer with some side dishes of fried fish (with scales still in them - it was yucky) and almonds (ah! familiar grounds at last).
(Finally) Done with all the drinking we started walking back to our dorimtories when on the way I saw the POSTECH festival in full splendour! More on it in the next post...
