You know what I didn’t really think about when we moved to South Korea? How to get a haircut. It wasn’t really on the short list of things to think about as we were navigating the logistics to move here, but it quickly became important a few weeks into our time here when I started to resemble the Geico caveman a couple of weeks in. Now, I realize how incredibly handsome he is, but his hair stylings are admittedly not the best. Back in Boise, a haircut wasn’t something I gave a second thought about; I had a barber that I always went to (hit up Matt Kane at Barbiere Devino if you’re in Boise!) and all I ever did was set up an appointment and show up. Here though, the proposition of getting my hair cut was different. However silly it was, it made me nervous, and I felt like those feelings were pretty justified as I sat in the chair, multiple giant barrettes in my hair, trying to make sure I really remembered the words in Korean for “cut 15mm.”

Haircuts haven’t been the only small thing to be a bit more challenging than we first thought though. One such unexpected challenge popped up just a couple of weeks ago. Having moved into our new apartment, we needed to fill it with some food so that we could, hopefully, stop gorging ourselves by eating out every night like we had in the hotel. Being highly intelligent, we decided to go to the grocery store on a weekend afternoon, a time when the entire world also decided to do the same. As it turns out, being able to read is super important. And while we’ve been getting better at that, with a bajillion people around, it was quite difficult to determine if we were paying KRW 3,000 for a bunch of bananas or per kilogram, which would highly influence our purchasing decision. Not surprisingly, there’s also a whole lot of fruits, veggies, meat (hello whole section of live sea creatures), and other products that are totally different from what we know or are used to cooking with. And while we are totally excited about the opportunity to experience and try all of these new things, it was a bit overwhelming the first time through. In the end, we got some stuff to cook with, but we didn’t feel like the trip was all that successful.

Fortunately, Mandi is very smart and good at finding cool things to do that are also useful and culturally educational. This past weekend she signed us up for a cooking class at OME Cooking Lab (definitely recommend it!) where we would get guided around a market (the Yeongnyang Herb Market and the Gyeongdong Market), buy some produce for the cooking of our meal, learn how to cook some Korean dishes, and then chow down on our (hopefully) tasty creations.

You can see the menu here, but in case you’re not familiar with the names here, we made a semi-spicy soup, some delicious bulgogi, spicy pork, two types of Korean pancakes, a glass noodle dish, and some fresh kimchi. Look at Mandi mixing it up with her hands! She’s basically Gordon Ramsay, but with way less swearing and talk of risotto. Let me assure you, the food was glorious. In fact, the whole experience was a blast. We ate an unreasonably large amount of delicious food, the market was a giant, bustling mix of smells and colors, and we felt like we learned enough to be a bit more confident cooking Korean dishes and buying the ingredients at a market or grocery store, which is maybe the best part about it. On top of that, we snagged some unbelievably delicious strawberries from the market, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that the strawberries here are next level.

There have been other little challenges, like figuring out how to use a digital food ordering system in a mall only to get rejected (twice!) by the restaurant, followed by having one of the employees be unbelievably kind and, without knowing English, walking us to where we needed to go and telling the cashier what we wanted. Or when you walk into a restroom stall only to find that you have (buh buh buhhhh) just walked into a squatty potty stall. Or when you swear you’re saying “dong moon” (east gate) to a cab driver, but they keep responding with “jungang moon” and you have no idea why. Or you can’t quite interpret what your rice cooker is sing-saying to you instead of starting to cook your rice. This isn’t to complain, because, again, this is part of why we wanted to  live somewhere else; we wanted to challenge ourselves to do new things and see new perspectives. And while these situations, these little things, can be a frustrating in the moment, in the end we’ve either learned something or been given a great story, sometimes both.

Back in the barber shop, still a bit tense, I definitely gave the wrong word for 15mm (I said oh-seep, which is 50, instead of seep-oh), and the hair stylist’s eyes got big, as if to say, “you know what you said, right you big dummy?” I did not. But I did know that when people’s eyes get that big, something is usually wrong, so with my incredible powers of deduction, I realized that I’d made a mistake. Instead of speaking this time, I just awkwardly mimed the amount of hair I wanted cut, making note to really be better at Korean the next time that I started to look like the Geico caveman. In the end, the hair cut, I think, turned out pretty dang well given that I nearly asked for triple the amount of hair cut than I intended! On top of that, I learned that, included in the price of my hair cut, I get a free drink while waiting (I declined because I was nervous pre-cut and didn’t know if I’d be charged, but you’d better believe I’m taking advantage next time) and a pre- and post-cut shampoo! Fancy! And while I wouldn’t say that I’m going to be excited the next time that I need a haircut or that we’ll be super psyched about our next trip to the grocery store (who is, really?), we’ll be a little more confident and speak a little more Korean, which is a little bit of progress that we’ll be happy to take.

• Shanghai Shenanigans
• Huangshan Mountains
• Little Things 2: Coming Back
• Beijing-ing
• Bali and The Legend of Chuck the Gecko