Corner Galbee

Beth, the other new girl, arrived from Denver, Colorado late that night, about 12am or so. The next morning Mr. You picked both of us up from our temporary apartments and took us to Howon YBM ECC. Beth was given the tour of the school while I followed a pre-set schedule of observations. Mr. You took us back home about 6pm. We then decided to walk around Uijeongbu, walk through HomePlus, and take a taxi just in time to meet the others for dinner.

It was the foreign teacher supervisor’s birthday, and to celebrate, both Howon & Shinguk YBM ECC foreign teachers got together at the corner galbee near our soon-to-be permanent apartments. It was absolutely amazing!! We all sat on tall chairs around a small steel table with a hole in the middle where a very hot pot with coals and fire is placed. A grate was brought out to place on top, and raw pork that had been marinated in something oh-so-delicious was to be cooked on it. There were tons of side dishes!! Onions and cabbage marinated in some vinegar mixture, soybean sprouts, kimchee, and more. There was this amazingly wonderful red sauce that you dipped pieces of cooked pork right before placing it into a leaf of romaine-type lettuce. Just add some garlic that was roasted on the inside grill-type thing, and bam….you have spectacular food!!! After a table of six girls finished off two or three huge bowls of pork, we were brought a large, steaming hot bowl of what looked to be scrambled egg soup (which by the way, was also delicious) that the whole table shared. Side dishes in Korea are always shared with the table and are refillable. “Yogiyo” (which totally makes me think of yogi bear) means “more.”

After the corner galbee greatness, some of the teachers went to a bar in downtown Uijeonbu, but I took a taxi back to my apartment. I was crazy tired! Besides, it was like 10pm or 12am by the time we left the restaurant anyway.