Octopus

After Dr. Fish, we did some shopping in Seoul in Myeong Dong. It is a maze of alleys with tons of shops, vendors and restraunts and lots and lots of people! We stopped to have lunch and got a table by the window and were able to do some people-watching. Check out the “octojerky”. I’m sure that’s not what it is called, but it was dried octopus being sold by street vendors. Who knows…maybe it tastes just like chicken. I may try some. Cooked octopus is kind of chewy, not my favorite texture, especially since you can feel the little “suckers” on the tentacles. With dried octopus (octojerky), maybe you get all of the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, etc without the gross texture. Then we have LIVE octopus tentacles. Haven’t tried those and probably won’t. Here’s a video of this dish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pj9oL5BA3E

WARNING: This video may not be suitable for sensitive stomachs. Evidently, the tentacles don’t die right away. While you are eating them, they actually are “fighting” to stay alive. They suction onto the roof of your mouth and tongue, making it difficult for you to eat them. I can’t figure out why anyone would want to eat this, other than being on the losing end of a bet.

Culture Note

Over the past six weeks, I have observed and learned SO many interesting things about the Korean culture. From time to time I’ll add these “Culture Notes” into my blog. Please understand that these are my observations and have not been reviewed and/or approved by the South Korean government and therefore, may not be a true representation of Korean culture.

Culture Note – Fighting

A couple of days ago as we were sitting on the bus waiting to go to work/school, we watched two Korean men “fighting”. It was 8am in the morning and it appeared that the younger gentleman hadn’t paid the taxi cab driver. There was lots of posturing, but there were no punches thrown until the very end of the fight. This “fight” went on for about 4-5 minutes. They were shouting at each other, which was about the only thing that looked familiar for a fighting situation. They kept pressing their foreheads together and then separating, kind of like mountain goats do. They must have done this about 10 times. They also took their shoes off. Oh, did I forget to mention that this fight was happening in the street. There was a friend of the younger guy that at one point, bowed to the two fighting men…not sure what that was about. Near the end, the cab driver called the police and the younger guy started punching him and he never hit back, just kept trying to evade the punches. Evidently, in Korea, if you throw the first punch, you can get fined a LOT of money, so there is a lot of yelling, posturing, etc, in lieu of throwing the first punch. Once the first punch was thrown, the driver was on the phone to the cops. They arrived in about 30 seconds. The bus left, so we didn’t get to see exactly how it ended.

Dr. Fish

We went into Seoul this weekend for a “Dr. Fish” experience and I don’t mean a nice seafood meal. It’s a place where you put your feet in a small pool of water and little fish (with teeth!) swarm around your feet and eat the dead skin. It is in a really nice like café. You go in and have coffee or tea and then do the foot thing. I was really looking forward to it and REALLY wanted to do it, but to be perfectly honest...it completely freaked me out. It was really creepy. They lure you in there with the cool coffee shop, playing nice soft music, etc. and you think you’re going to have this wonderful spa-type experience and then, next thing you know...the fish are eating your feet!! I could actually feel what seemed like millions of little mouths (with teeth!) chewing on my feet. They give you a 15 minute time limit and I think I had my feet in for about 10 minutes of that time. That was plenty. I think they give you the time limit because if you go much longer you may end up with bloody stumps instead of feet!!! Now that it's over, I feel like I wimped out a little bit. I may go back and try it again….possibly after having something a little stronger than coffee!

Potato Festival

The ICEV owner, Dr. Lee, sponsored a trip to a Potato Festival in his home town. It is in the country and is just beautiful. It was a very nice break from the “city life” in Incheon. We took a bus yesterday evening after Saturday classes. The bus ride was about three hours. When we arrived at about 10pm there was a full Korean barbecue spread waiting for us along with several townspeople…I think they were something like town councilmen. We stayed up all night playing cards and other assorted games, along with lots of beveraging. After we showered in the morning a few of us went on a hike up a nearby mountain, then we loaded up on the bus and went to the festival. The weather was perfect. We actually picked potatoes! I came home with about 20 lbs. Waaay to many potatoes, given that I really don’t eat them. I guess I’ll have to look up some potato recipes. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I only have pictures of the partying and merriment on Saturday night and no pictures of the actual potato festival or potato picking on Sunday.

S. Korea World Cup qualifying match

Went to Seoul World Cup Stadium to watch a 2010 World Cup qualifying match between S. Korea and Saudi Arabia. S. Korea had already qualified, so they didn’t seem quite as hungry and Saudi Arabia. It was a good, even match and ended in a nil-nil tie.It was great being at the stadium. I definitely have to go see more local soccer matches, baseball games and basketball games. Evidently, basketball is somewhat popular here. There are actual leagues.

Saturday Program

I started teaching in the Saturday Program at ICEV two weeks ago. It is a 12-week program in which students attend two classes (3 hours) on Saturday afternoons. I am teaching Math and Arts & Crafts. I am not teaching math per se, but English word usage in math, telling time, etc. I really like this program because you get to work with a specific group of students for a 12-week period and get to know them and see them develop over time versus our main program at ICEV where we see a new group of students each week. This eats into my weekend a bit, but I do receive extra pay and I am only there from 2-6pm…plenty of time to do other things. This program finishes in the first weekend of September.