Jet Lag Day Three...

Sleep: I was able to sleep in this morning until 3 am--one hour more than the day before.

Food: I'd had enough of fast foods. Fast food for breakfast. Fast food for lunch. Fast food for dinner. Enough already. So we ventured off the camp this evening, on foot, and into town for a good home cooked meal. It just happened to be Korean home cooking and not American.

The section of town outside the gates is no different than outside any other military post anywhere in the world. Bars, souvenir shops, restaurants, and more bars. Names like Big John’s Restaurant, Country Restaurant, Joe’s Store, and Italy Leather. It doesn’t sound very Korean does it?

We walked down narrow streets with old and well worn buildings; some surrounded by rice fields. These buildings are not at all like the clean, modern architecture of Orem, Utah.

We were told by one of the GIs about a Korean BBQ restaurant that served good food so we headed straight for it.

I would love to give you the name of it, but it was all in Korean. Once inside we removed our shoes in the little alcove lobby and proceeded to our table. Our table was only tall enough to get your legs under when you sat on the pillows on the floor that acted as your chairs.

The menu, like everything else in the restaurant, was in Korean. The waitress kindly pointed to two dishes and said, “pork” and “beef.” We chose the pork. She smiled as she walked away.

A few minutes later she returned with fresh green lettuce leafs, bright red kim chee, an orangish red hot bean paste, pink pickled turnips, white garlic slices, and a few other very colorful pickled leaves and vegetables. She served us steaming hot rice, plump and juicy, in a shiny stainless steel covered bowl. And of course, the pork, which she cut up with scissors into pieces small enough to cook on the hibachi grill in the middle of the table.

We artfully maneuvered our chopsticks around the table and devoured everything placed in front of us. It was a wonderful meal. It was pleasant to the eye and to the pallet at the same time: a sound alternative to the fast food we have been eating.

Finally, I feel like I am in Korea and not just on a tiny American island in an ocean called Korea.