I ate dog meat (SORRY!)

Last night I went to dinner with my coworkers, to a restaurant that served two things: dog and chicken soup. I, of course, ordered the chicken soup, which is called Samgyetang, because I wasn't about to feast on dog.

You can imagine my shock when the lady handed my bowl of soup to me and it had an ENTIRE chicken in it, skin, bones and all!! I couldn't help but laugh a little.


Dog is primarily eaten by men (older men) because of the apparent strength and sexual stamina it gives. So, with that said, the guys all ordered dog soup (Bosintang - 보신탕). It was served in a soup and cooked on a burner in the middle of our table.


I decided to try one bite, primarily for the experience and a smidge out of curiosity. I held the little piece of dog meat between my chopsticks and stared at it for a while. I had to wait until my mind stopped obsessing about the fact that I was about to consume part of a dog. With one fail (sp?) swoop and about 4 bites, I swallowed it. It was about as disgusting as you could imagine it would be, with the consistency of boiled roast beef, and the taste of smoke. What's worse though is, there were large chunks of dog skin as well. I picked one up with my chopsticks to inspect it and you could literally see the holes where the hair folicles were. It was about 1/4 inch thick and looked like a mix between a piece of an onion and a chunk of fat.

Needless to say, it was gross and I'll never do it again... But, on the other hand, I can say I've eaten dog now (not that I should be proud)... but I did it. Would you?

Snow!

I couldn't believe my eyes!! Two mornings ago, I woke up, looked outside my apartment window and there was snow! It's the first time in decades that snow has actually stuck in busan, so everyone was very excited, including ME!

This was also the first time, in my life, that I had ever walked to work in the snow! It was soooo cold! I loved seeing the snow on these flowers outside my apartment!

The trees at my school were even covered!

The kids were a little crazy that day because of the snow. They all wanted to play outside... I couldn't blame them though, I kinda wanted to too!

Bag of duk

Duk is the Korean word for rice cake! Today, April (our music teacher) brought a huge bag of duk to tea time to share with everyone.


Stella told me she did this because she had just bought a new car and it's a tradition in Korea to have a ceremony whenever someone starts driving a different car. Friends and family come over to the driver's house and bring Korean food, duk, etc... and give well wishes for safety to the driver! The duk was left over from April's ceremony. Such a funny tradition, huh?!

Driving in Korea!

Who do you know who's over the age of thirty who hasn't driven since they got their license? Can't think of anyone? I personally know a lot of people, all of who live in Korea! It's not uncommon for Koreans to get their drivers license when they're 18 and then never drive. High School parking lots are not filled with student cars... They all either walk or ride the bus! Stella, for instance got her license when she was 18 and hasn't driven a car since! She's 29!!

One of the teachers at my school sold her car to another teacher at my school last week who is 35 years old, and hasn't driven in over 20 years!!! Isn't that wild?!

What can you do?

Today, I was walking down the hallway at my school and one of my 4th grade students asked me, "Teacher, what can you do?" I was a little taken back by this question and wondered if she was trying to say something else. Afterall, when does anyone just randomly come up to you in America and ask, "What can you do?" Then, it dawned on me that it's the title of the new lesson we just started teaching 4th grade this week... It also dawned on me that if I think it's a weird question, we probably shouldn't be taking 2 class worths of time to teach it! Gotta love the Korean English curriculum, which was obviously written by Koreans!

Needless to say, I answered her by saying, "I can run!" She said, "I can skate"... and that was the end of our conversation! haha