Korea Mixed Bag

Why is it that i've been in Korea for 5 weeks and there have only been 3 posts? It's because i had a massive massive project when i got here. then a week later I had 2 more weeks of massive projects. and then i was just really sleepy for a week.



restaurant front near yoon's office. I wonder how it feels to live in a country that is technically still at war with north korea and has the most heavily militarized boarder in the world. It pops up in the news often and it seems like the north koreans are always up to something. I guess the only way to live with it is to incorporate it into the culture and make a novelty out of it.



this is a famous Daegu Tang place near yoon's office. It's a down and dirty authentic place.



drink this before drinking to prevent hangovers and such. does it work just like every other drink in the world that's supposed to do this? NO. do soju hangovers still crush? YES.



Lots of Korean people walk backwards as exercise



church near Namsan park



the view from namsan park overlooking Yongsan. I ran up this once, its a 100 meter gain and was pretty brutal so i'm not doing that again. whats in those ceramic jugs on everyone's rooftops?



you can usually tell if you can trust a dude by the hot sauce in his house. I guess that means contrary to popular belief that Yoon is a good guy.



racial intolerance is kind of OK in korea.



one of the awesome things about yoon's mom being here is that she is always making korean food like this big beautiful plate of kim bap.



Joraengiddeokguk made by Yoon's mom made from ddeok from Kaesong city in North Korea. super good stuff.



what's up with this? Mcdonald's has their own exchange rate that is a lot crappier than the real exchange rate? at the current time of press $1 = 1081 won.



sam gyeop sal is one of the many amazing foods of korea.



My friend and old language partner from Yonsei, Jay had a baby so we went to check him out. I am terrified of babies so i'm glad he couldn't leave the nursery or whatever its called and attack my face when I would have been forced to hold him.



Noryangjin Fish market in Seoul. you go through, pick out your fish and then you eat it at one of the many a joining restaurants.



we would soon eat a few of these guys live and wriggling.



and a few of these flat guys.



pretty gross looking manta ray like things with mouths and eyes.





the sliced up the fish into sashimi



Finally i got to do this. San nakji is octopus that you eat live. they chop it up and serve it to you instantly so the whole plate of tentacles is still moving. You dip it in some sesame oil and pop it in your mouth. the sucker things latch on to the insides of your mouth and its pretty damn chewy. Not for the faint of heart. check out the video! You can see it wrap around the chopsticks and then i eat it.



video of me eating live octopus



i kept saying that we should invent some kind of game and the loser would have to eat this octopus head. we never came up with one so we put the rest of the octopus including this head into the pot of soup to let it cook. with my luck i was randomly dealt the bowl with the head in it so i had to eat it.



one of my fav things about korea is the selection of prime green leafys that are frequently eaten with stuff like sam bap. Its a beautiful thing.



some building with modern paintings by picaso, mondrian, and some other painter i didnt recognize (kandinsky?) on these egg things. its on the walk to the army base from itaewon