Jellyfish, anyone?

Hey Everyone!

Well 2 weeks down, 2 more to go. Intensive courses started two weeks ago and have been pretty stressful. I'm teaching a conversation class to 9 and 10 year olds for 2 hours every morning. They're really good kids and we have a lot of fun together, but an extra 10 hours of teaching a week is really draining. Usually by the time Friday comes I'm so tired that the kids are laughing at me because I yawn every 2 seconds. Andrew has a bit of a better schedule - he teaches a "news" class (fun, hey?) to middle school students.

Andrew and I have been very adventurous lately with trying new foods. I know most of you think we usually eat strange foods - but I really think Korea brings strange to a whole new level. To give you an example: Andrew taught a class on pets last week. He started it with "Who likes dogs?" The students either shook their heads or stared at him blankly. He then asked them "Who likes to EAT dogs?" Everyone yelled out an enthusiastic "Yeah!" And, the funny thing is that Korean's don't think that they eat strange foods at all. If you order fish stew you can be guaranteed that you will get EVERY part of the fish - intestines, eyes, bones, etc. To most people (including us) this is really unexpected and a little icky.

Anyway, as I was saying, we have been adventurous these last few weeks:
1. "Fish grapes": We went to a seafood noodle place with Christy and Andrew and of course ordered... seafood noodles! I was expecting shrimp, clams and maybe some seaweed. Nope, they included everything you can possibly find in the sea. The strangest was these little things that were about the size of a grape and if you bit into them you got this fishy-tasting liquid coming out of them. They weren't terrible, but I certainly wouldn't order them again.

2. Jellyfish: Maybe I'm just naive, but I thought you couldn't eat jellyfish because they're poisonous. Apparently that's not the case when they're cooked. Anyway, we ate jellyfish salad last weekend with Christy, Andrew and some of their Korean friends. It was pretty good actually, but they put the spiciest sauce on it that I've ever tasted. We all had tears running down our faces!

3. Larvae: We go to this one restaurant (Kim bap Nara) about 4-5 times a week and we've gotten to be pretty good buddies with the owner. He doesn't speak any English so we just usually communicate through hand motions. Anyway, we went to his restaurant last week just as he was polishing off a bowl full of larvae (Silk worms.. mmmm)

Well Tara's on the phone so I'll take over. The larvae were really different.. I'm sure it's a taste one could acquire but I wouldn't want to take the time to do so. We each had a few and the owner pointed to them and said "Vitamin number 1". I tried my best to show my appreciation.

4. More Seafood: We've got a pretty cool market close to here with lots of fresh seafood. They even have tanks with live crab, squid, and fish that you can get cooked up (or not cooked up!) and eat it right in the market. We've yet to try that - the language barrier is a little intimidating some times. I have tried to buy all different types of seafood and cook them up. I still have a long ways to go though - there are a lot of different fish there. I took a few pictures last time we went to the market.

Pictured above is Tara trying her best to look interested while we try to take a good picture. Below are some stingrays. I haven't yet, but if I get really ambitious some day I'll buy one and cook it up.

However, I did buy some squid a few weeks ago: 4 for 5$. They were gutted for us, but were still a little messy to cut up. I tried frying them and boiling them... both worked pretty good. . Below you can see squid in the sink, on the stove, and on the plate. Tara complained about the germs coming from the raw squid, the smell coming from the cooking squid, and the taste of the cooked squid. I, unfortunately, had to eat it all.

Sometimes when we go to the market they have dolphins or baby whales there. I tried taking some pictures last time but after I took the first picture my camera suddenly died. Then Windows ate the picture when I tried to download it from my camera. I'll try again next time. It's kind of weird to see mammalian organs coming out of a fish-like creature.

Anyway, just to show that we really do eat a lot of good foods here is a shot of the fruit market, tons of fresh fruit and no bad fish smell. There are six or seven aisles like this, plus four or five vegetable aisles. And just a ten minute walk away.
Anyway, Tara has been inactive all week due to her cold so we're going to go get some fresh air. I put up some pictures from a hike I went on yesterday - shows just how bad the pollution is here. Hope all is well with everyone, thanks for all your posts!