Runch time

Here we are last Tuesday after soccer volleyball. Every Tuesday morning I get together with my Korean friends and Sacha, and we play soccer in the park. They are a real friendly group of guys and we always get lunch together afterwards. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I 'd be curious to try a certain Korean reliracy, er, delicacy. They said: "Okay. Next Tuesday." I had to open my big mouth.

I am a man of my word. Last Tuesday after kicking in the bark, I mean, park, we went to lunch to seek out this certain food. The soup was peppery and the meat was not too ruff, excuse me, tough. It didn't taste like pork, chicken, or beef, but I didn't care because I was enjoying our little bow wow, oops, pow wow.

I'm not sure what was in that soup, but I found it odd that I peed on a hydrant on my way home. Then something unusual happened later that afternoon, when I went into a rage and attacked the mailman. I had to be restrained by three other teachers. Later that evening, when I had an itch behind my ear, I found myself scratching it with my toes instead of my fingers, which drew some strange looks from my students.

I felt better the next day--I must have gotten whatever it was out of my system. I'm glad I had lunch with the guys the day before, but I'm pretty sure I'm not eating whatever I ate again. At least I tried it, which is more than I can say for Sacha, who in a near literal sense chickened out (He ate chicken soup, in case the pun escaped barooooooyou.). Below is a picture of the boys, just in case you don't believe me. Sacha will forever be my witness.

A little Korean culture

Last Friday I took a trip to the Korean folk village with Sacha. It is a historic site loaded with museums, shows, restaurants, beautiful scenery, and Korean heritage. While this kind of stuff doesn't do a whole lot for me personally, I did get some nice photos that I wanted to share.

I couldn't tell you who the man in the boat is, but I'm fairly certain he's Korean. Don't ask me what this river is called, but it certainly looks nice.

This is a traditional Korean folk band. Wearing colorful traditional outfits, these talented musicians bang their drums proudly while dancing in unison. A handful of them are very acrobatic, doing sideways karate flips while the band plays. Note the tassles on their heads. They swing these things around while they play and dance, also in unison. This was actually the second concert of the sort I had seen this week, and I'm beginning to hear the loud, whiny sounding horn in my sleep. I've thought about purchasing one to practice on in my room, just to aggravate Buddy and Shannon.

These performers were very entertaining and talented. They got a lot of air on this teeter-totter type apparatus. While I was thoroughly entertained by this show, I hoped to learn more about the nature of the performance. Therefore I looked around for clues...

Ahhhh, I see. Well this makes everything clear to me. Signs like this are everywhere in Korea. As an English teacher, I have to cringe; yet I find signs like this really funny. I see stuff like this all of the time. Last weekend while in Seoul I was in a western restaurant called "Texas", watching Man U. and Chelsea play I might add. (My sympathy goes out to the legions of England supporters who watched their golden ticket Wayne Rooney break his foot six weeks before the world cup) Anyway, this restaurant had a cocktail called a Jack and Cock. I wonder what that is??? Perhaps it's like a rum and cock, only with Jack.

I should mention that we met up with a couple of lovely women from Seoul. Pictured here are Shannon from New Zealand and her friend... I forget her name (I think she's Canadian by way of Chile.). Just kidding, Pam, I know you're going to read this and call me a jackass. These fine ladies met us here and later we had delicious Kalbi. There's a place in Na Mun that has the best Dwen Jang Jiggae (spelling is butchered, but most of my readers will have better luck with this than if I would have typed it in Korean). DJJ is a bean curd soup that smells like feet. It sure is delicious, though. Sacha didn't make it for dinner, but he enjoyed spending the afternoon with us.

Anyway, that was how I spent my holiday Friday. Stay tuned as I will post again very soon to tell about my lunch today. I've eaten some strange stuff in Korea, but this was by far the funkiest thing I've ever eaten--My apologies to Leia and Murray back home. For now, here is one more picture of a sight at the folk village. It's not overwhelmingly beautiful or anything, but it beats a sharp stick in the eye.