Cooking Class

So during the program, there are a few cultural activities we did that were set up by the program. One of them was a Korean cooking class, which I was looking forward to because I love Korean food and already cook it back home! I was excited to learn how to make more foods!

Our cooking class was at 서울관광고등학교, and it was quite the subway ride to get there from where I lived. I left super early in the morning.. like before my host family woke up. I think that was the only day I didn't eat breakfast with them&left before they woke up, so I just left a note to let them know where I went. Despite leaving so early I was almost late cause the station was SOOO crowded.. I remember seeing a girl in the subway station then running together to find everyone because we were scared we were late. Anyway, we all met at the subway station and then walked to the high school we were having our cooking class at. There were a LOT of hills, which is why we were told to wear sneakers haha. 

Once we got to the school, we were in this big room and all sat at the table. All of us were given chef hats (LOL they were so difficult to figure out) and little waist apron things. The principal(?) from the school talked to us for a bit, and then we were split into our cooking groups.  Groups were of 4, and once we got into the kitchens we split from those groups and just had one partner. Our group was all at the same station though. The cooking teacher(?) from the school showed us a demonstration of what we were making first and showed off some of his (insane) skills, then proceeded to explain what we were going to do and how to do it. 

The two things we were making were JAPCHAE and HWAJEON. Japchae is stir-friend sweet potato noodles, and hwajeon is sweet pancake.
We were given the recipe on a piece of paper and sent to our stations to make them! Students of 서울관광고등학교 were also in the kitchen to help us if we needed it. I was partnered with my best friend (hehe) and though we weren't bad, we were slow. So we ended up getting a lot of help from the students for our japchae because when it was time to watch the teacher make the hwajeon we were just starting our japchae LOL, typical us. Their help is probably why our food turned out so delicious haha but we did have a part in making the japchae! 

After the teacher showed us the demonstration for hwajeon, we went back to our stations. We still had to finish up our japchae haha but with the help of the students we finished that and started on the hwajeon. The students helped us one again, and we were able to finish our hwajeon all nicely. The hwajeon didn't involve doing as much as the japchae did, but they were really fun to make. I think they turned out really pretty!

We had a lot of fun cooking and getting to know the students at the school. After we were done cooking, we brought our finished products back into the other room where we were going to eat them. The students also were in the room with us and we got to talk to them even more, which was fun because this was like the first time we were interacting with HS students. When we went back to the room, we saw cute little things from the school on the table for all of us. Our lunch that day was what we made in addition to what they gave us. While we ate, we talked with each other about our experience and talked to the students. We were mostly talking about music and what singers we liked, what we want to do in Korea, and what it was like so far for us. There isn't that much to say (or at least I don't know what to say), but I hope this wasn't boring!

 

Just a lot of pictures because I'm not sure what to say... It was a lot of fun and I learned how to make two new foods! I have a big group picture somewhere and a picture with my friends in our chef hats but I can't find them right now. Hopefully this gets you excited for some of your cultural activities you'll be doing this summer!! [Note: Things may be different for you but I'd thought I'd write about what we did last year!]

{P.S. 제이오빠, 사진 잘 찍어줘서 고맙다! 에그오빠도! ㅎㅎㅎㅎ}