March 1991 was
when I first came to Korea. I lived in Kwangju, a city in a remote area,
and because of its remoteness, I learned more traditional culture than my
friends who were teaching in Seoul (capital), Incheon (western port city), Daejeon
(central city), Daegu
(eastern central city), and Pusan (thriving southeastern port city). Because
Kwangju wasn’t a port city and there were 35 foreigners registered in the city
of over 1 million at that time and because the American air base being retained
there since the Korean War was being shut down, there was hardly any access to
western food via any black market or even western culture or even much English for that matter. During that first year way down south my five colleagues and I were forced to go
somewhat Korean, and I loved it! We certainly learned a lot! These slides via food show some of the cultural contrasts that have occured in South Korea within the last two decades.
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