Where's the air?

While I'm waiting for my newly-purchased jasmine tea to steep, let's explore some flavors I've encountered in Korea so far.

We had pizza a few evenings ago from Pizza Club (not to be confused with Pizza Mall, another joint on another street in Seoul). It was good, but the sauce tasted more like barbecue sauce than what my taste buds have come to know as pizza sauce. I figured this was just a Pizza Club thing, until Andy and I went to an Italian restaurant tonight and discovered that our lasagna and spaghetti were slathered in a freakishly similar, sweet tomatoey sauce. We reasoned that this was just Korean tastes revealing themselves, that people here must prefer sweet things.

Until we bought cookies.

First of all, the chocolate cookies depicted on the box look like your typical Chips Ahoy-type pre-packaged dessert. But on the actual cookie, dough and chocolate chip are indistinguishable in terms of color, and they're much smaller than the box had led me to believe. Andy also pointed out that the cookie didn't taste as sweet as you'd expect. So there went our theory of Koreans having a sweet tooth. I suggested that the taste tendency here must be a consistent slightly-sweet, which Andy then compared to people who only drive at 40 mph no matter what, whether they're in a residential neighborhood or on the express way.

Also, bread here is very squishy, and largely crust-less (at least on pre-made sandwiches in convenience stories). I've seen an excessive amount of "milk bread," which Andy tells me is eaten in the UK by babies who are just beginning to consume solid food. Hmm.

In other news, Seoul is probably the most polluted city I have ever been in. It seems to be perpetually coated in smog, the streets are filled with chain smokers, and the sewers aren't very good at keeping their smells underground. I thought I had a cold for the first several days we were here, but I think now that my sinus gross-ness is my body adjusting to really alien big-city conditions. I guess pollution is just one of the compromises of living in a really awesome place. Luckily, there are some mountain-filled national parks nearby, which just sings to me of clean air. I think we have some day trips in our future.

I don't have pictures to share yet, but Andy and I will soon be moving into our apartment - awesome! we can cook again! - and I'll definitely post images of that so ya'll can see where we live. For those of you who were familiar with my senior year BG housing, this apartment is actually smaller, but it's still a normal size for Seoul. Bedrooms are synonymous with living rooms and dining rooms in this city, at least in the price range we're dealing with.