Media from N8

Korean Kavity

My life is over. My wonderful clean streak of never having a cavity has come to a crash...I now have two. I went to the dentist today after school because I thought I had only one cavity, but no..I have two. So I had one filled today and the other will have to wait until tomorrow. The good thing is that my filling only cost about $5 dollars for each tooth. nice huh?

I honestly think I got the cavities because of the diet, there is a lot of vinegar and acid and the meals here. Plus I brush my teeth during school hours too. Just call me Gummy McGee.

Pishyy...no, F-F-Fish..Pishyyyyyy

Hey all! We have been having some technical difficulties at home recently so its been hard keeping up with the blog. My laptop finally sang its swan song and its been hard to keep in touch with family and friends, and N8's laptop cannot connect to the internet at home. As you can assume our life has been 'same-same-but-different." Two weekends ago N8 and I went up to Sokcho (1hour North) to visit our friends Dana and Deanna along with other friends from other parts to climb Mt. Seoraksan. We were planning a 6-8 hour hike for Saturday but the weekend weather report did not look promising. Thankfully everyone was able to come in on Friday and we all met up in a local downtown bar which we totally took over...10 forgeiners in the bar drinking and singing whatever English songs were on...it was quite a scene. It was nice to catch up with our friends over the evening. We all checked into a cheap love motel near the bus station and woke up the next day to a rain storm, so we had to cancel our hiking trip. We ended up taking the morning easy by visiting a new cafe in town that serves GREAT coffee (which is hard to come by) AND waffles!

It was just what we needed. It took about 2 hours to get everything and eat calmly together, it was lovely. Later we took a walk through town to the beach, which was beautiful. There was a small island off of the cost that looked so screne against the grey sky. On our way to the beach there were two girls that absolutely loved us, and followed us all the way to the beach. They were intrigued by our English and our goofy faces. We taught them the words for clam, sand and ocean. They were too cute for words and N8 was just having a blast with them. oh yeah, and they insisted on keeping those little rubber caps, that you turn inside out so that they pop up, stuck on their faces. weirdos.

During our walk we got a chance to stroll through the Sokcho fish market. We took a seat on the side of the outdoor market where people were cooking up some crazy looking foods. We had over-the-fire clams and stuffed squid. The clams tasted like it was meant for a kind and the squid was tastier than I couldhave ever imagined!

The squid was stuffed with rice, ground meat, and breadcrumbs, it was first roasted over the fire, deep fried, and then sliced into rings for easier consumption.

I couldn't help but think about the people we have taken to Mexico and walked through the market and how stunned they were with all of the sights and smells. Since I was used to that environment I always found that to be very funny and entertaining, but walking through the fish market was a whole new experience for me. There was fish on either side of the walkway and people coming from every direction.

Watever was everywhere, my pants were soaked, same with my shoes, and the fish were swimming everywhere. While I was being pushed and shoved I couldn't help but stand still and watch a woman prepare fresh fish for a buyer. It was the most intense thing I have ever witnessed. The little korean woman slapped a flailing fish down in front of her and took a huge knife and slammed it down on its head, not all the way through mind you..it took a few times. This is only a glimpse of what I witnessed, it was like a massacre of the sea! It was goofy to see a squid or fish escape here and there, but i was rooting for them..no matter how delicious they are. It has been a while since I have experienced such culture shock, thankfully I was able to get over it quickly, but I had to take a step back and breathe through the shock. Although the fish market was different, I still love fish. Later that night we had plans to have a big fish dinner, korean style, which is fresh sashimi (raw fish) eaten right off of the fish. The meat is white and so soft, its like butter melting in your mouth. I was very excited for this dinner but it all came to a crash when the woman brought out the VERY FRESH fish to our table with the fish still gasping for his breath, his tale flapping and his gills still opening and closing. It was pretty traumatic, yet the freshest fish I've ever had...imagine that.

Thriller Night

Halloween came and went but it definitely made for a wonderful weekend. On Friday, during school, I felt like I was a kid again in class just waiting for the bell to ring. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible to start the weekend. N8 and I had made plans to host a pre-going out Halloween party at our apartment. We spent the entire night before preparing decorations for the house. N8 bought black and orange paper and we cut out pumpkins, cats, witches, and bats (FREEHAND) and taped them up all over our apartment. After school on Friday, i ran over to DC Mart, where we usually make our cheap purchases of random stuff and I got a bucket for bobbing-for-apples, make-up essentials and snacks. I got home around 5:30 and started cleaning and moving furniture around to give optimal space for drinking games and mingling. Some of our closer friends starting coming in around 7pm but the fun really started around 9. We had about 20 people packed into our little apartment and had lots of fun seeing people's creative costumes. My good friend Erin and her boyfriend were very korean...Erin tied string across arms and hung fabric that looked like dried squid (which is what you see everywhere here!) and Mike, her boyfriend, had a piece of cloth with cut-outs of dried peppers all down his shirt (just like the picture i have on a previous blog. After a long night at the bar, we had about 8 people sleep at our house and people woke up to a pretty rough morning. After we got back on our feet we met up with some friends at a coffee shop by the beach and sipped on some tea, then we just lied on the chilly beach for a while until hunger took over. We decided to go out for Kamjatong, which is a spicy potato soup with pig spine, because it is known to be a hangover cure! and its delicious!!

After nursing our hangovers with soup we ended up going to Dr. Fish. It is a little cafe downtown that has a medium-sized tub of water with fish in it. First you must wash your feet, order something from the cafe, and place your feet into the water with the flesh eating fish. They attack your feet, eating all of the dead skin off of your feet, but it is absolute tickle torture! You do get used to it after a little while but it is the weirdest feeling at first. It was quite a funny site: 8 Americans crowded around this tub full of fish laughing our faces off!

Afterwards we had our friends come back to our apartment where we pigged out on pizza and snacks and just talked and had a relaxed evening. Some people slept at our that night and everyone left on Sunday morning and N8 and I were left to finish cleaning up and then we went to have lunch with one of his Korean co-workers, Mr. Lee. The Lee family was so nice and welcoming and made a killer lunch with mushroom soup, meat, salad, and fruit. Mr. Lee's son is only 9 years old and has perfect English and attends a Chinese elementary school. After lunch, Mr. Lee wanted to take us up to Odesan mountain to see the autumn scenery, after the hour car ride we got to the top and Mr. Lee realized he had forgotten his wallet, so we got right back into the car and rode another hour back home.

It was such a wonderful weekend full of fun, friends and food! I can only hope I have more weekends like that in the future.