Dog Dinner

So I finally got my chance to enjoy a nice dog dinner. I didn't know I was going to eat dog meat that day till about an hour before lunch time. A teacher told me with a big smile, "We're leaving early today for lunch. Will you join us? We're having 'Mong! Mong! Mong!'" In the Western world, a dog says, "Woof! Woof!" In Korea, a dog says, "Mong! Mong!" I guess it's Korean dog language.

I had been anticipating this moment with a little anxiety. I have no problem with eating Fido, it's just the manner in which they kill him that has me concerned. Traditionally, the dogs are beaten and given a slow, excruciatingly painful death. This is done to raise the adrenaline in the animal before it dies. Supposedly, this gives the consumer a little high when the dog meat is eatin. I am not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but to beat an animal for pleasure is not something that I want to promote.

I was relieved to read in Wikipidia that in Korea they don't usually practice beating the dogs before death like they used to. There is mass concern with the treatment of the dogs though. They are kept in small kennels and live very poor lives before they are eaten. From what I've read, it seems worse than eating veal.
Dog meat is very expensive. My school breeds the type of dog used for human consumption. Many people raise dogs as an extra source of income. They call this type of dog 'dung kae.' Dung in Korean means 'shit,' and kaemeans dog. So the literal translation is 'shit dog.' They look like all white huskies. The puppies are very cute. They are also delicious! I wouldn't mind having one as a pet though. (I don't think I actually ate any puppies...)

The meal consisted of boiled dog meat on a platter, and boiled dog meat soup. This was garnished with ginger, parsley, and a delicious sauce. The side items included dog tongue and dog liver. The dog liver tasted similar to what dog food smells like. Not that great. As for the dog tongue, it was surprisingly tender! It didn't have much flavor to it unfortunately. As for the main coarse of dog, it was surprisingly delicious! It is a very fatty meat. Since it is boiled, it is quite tender. The taste is very similar to lamb!


Even at lunch time, some members of our party were partaking in massive consumptions of soju. (Korean alcohol.) I sat there on the floor, cross legged, with a blank look on my face for about two hours. My legs were falling asleep, and I had no clue what they were talking about. After attending similar meals like this for a year now, they are getting a little boring. I am sure happy I went though! Now I can always tell people that, yes, I did try dog while in Asia.

Korean Demilitarized Zone

The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel. At 160 miles long and approximately 2.5 miles wide, it is the most heavily militarized border in the world.

Upon the creation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, informally North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (ROK, informally South Korea) in 1948, it became a de facto international border and one of the most tense fronts in the Cold War.

South Koreans are not living in fear of their northern brothers. Through the media, Americans have more fear of North Korea than they do. Even though the North and South are still considered at war, North Korea is considered old news here. Neither side wants an all out war. This would create massive death. It would be a war between family members. Many South Koreans have long lost family that still live in the North with little hope of ever seeing them again.

Recently there was an attack on a South Korean navel ship by the North Koreans. Around 40 sailors died in the event. I was ready to run to the US military base! I was surprised to find the Koreans going about life as usual. My friend Cameron and I asked if we could change the channel to see the coverage of the event in a restaurant. We were surprised when the owner told us no! There was a popular television show on that the customers were watching instead.

If you’re visiting Korea, you have to go to the DMZ. We decided it was time. Our adventure started with taking the high-speed KTX train from Busan to Seoul. At 200 m.p.h, it is surprisingly quiet and smooth. It only takes three hours to get from one side of Korea to the other.

The city of Seoul is another matter… With a population of 10.5 million, it’s a crazy place. There are more people here in a smaller area than Tokyo. I usually spend half my time there lost and frustrated. Everywhere you go is lots of people all in a rush to get somewhere. It makes New York feel like the countryside.

This is the subway map for Seoul. It's ridiculous.

The majority of jobs for new graduates are in Seoul. Everyone my age in Korea has or wants to move to Seoul… not me!! Korea is a very conservative place, but you can see the influence of Western culture the most in this city. People are less shy here. It’s definitely a city for the young.

We stayed the night in Seoul at a hostel that took us a few hours to find… By the time we got there, we only had time to sleep for three hours. The next morning we headed to the bus station for the DMZ.

In all honesty, the DMZ is just a bunch of soldiers standing around with a big barbwire fence. You get to look out at North Korea. It’s just a bunch of grass and some mountains. Whoopee!

You do get to see the world’s tallest flagpole that sits in the middle of a fake city. The North Koreans want to give the impression that their country is doing great. They actually built a fake town to display their wealth. You can see it from South Korea with binoculars.

We also went into the Third Tunnel. The North Koreans have made many tunnels connecting their border with Seoul. It is not known how many of these tunnels exist. If there was ever an attack on South Korea, they might use these tunnels to bring in weaponry and soldiers. After touring this tunnel, I realized how serious these North Koreans really are.

The highlight for me was the chance to buy North Korean beer and soju! If you see me this summer, I will have plenty to share with everyone. The people that make these products live on the prison camps in the North. The condition of these camps is similar to Nazi Germany. People are tortured and killed on these camps.

Some people would argue that one should boycott these products made in such an evil manner. I disagree. According to defectors of these camps, the people working in the alcohol factories have the best jobs in the camps! They are the moneymakers. They find ways to steal the alcohol and trade it for food. This helps their families stay alive.

If you want to learn more about these prison camps, read this book: Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

It is surprising to hear how cruel the government is to their people. There is one train that goes into North Korea each week. The South Koreans actually have factories that manufacture electronics in North Korea. They use the North Korean cheap labor. No train was coming on this day, so they let us hang out on the tracks...

Thailand!!

After spending the last few months freezing my ass off in Korea, there is nothing better than spending a couple weeks on beautiful beaches under the hot sun. It was a great vacation. The food is great, the locals are friendly, and the land and sea is beautiful.

I got to go SCUBA diving, snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, sleeping, swim with a whale shark, party, eat, drive a scooter, pet some tigers, ride an elephant, and meet people from around the world. They call Las Vegas “Sin City”… It’s child’s play compared to Thailand. You can get anything and everything in Thailand for a price. It is the playground of Europe. I hadn’t seen that many Westerners in 6 months!

People come to Thailand to use the land and it’s people for their own entertainment. At the same time, the Thai people use these rich foreigners to make some bahts! (Thai currency)

A typical day for a tourist in Thailand starts with getting lubed up and rubbed down by a Thai message therapist. This is followed by eating so much Thai food you could throw up… It’s so delicious! After one has recuperated from the food coma, they roll out of their hammock to spend hours shopping for pointless crap that they will probably throw away within a month.

Next comes drinking buckets of alcohol at one of the many bars and clubs through out the country and making a fool of yourself by being a drunken gluten. You literally buy 64 oz buckets! My favorite was a bucket of Red Bull and Vodka. I’m surprised there’s not more heart attacks.

The locals are more than willing to help you find ways to spend your money on whatever you want. They all know English, and are very good at bargaining your money away.

You have to watch out! They will try to take you on a taxi ride to nowhere and drop you off at shops with over priced trinkets. The taxi drivers get commissions on every tourist they get to go to these stores.

You can literally buy whatever you want. This includes the Thai people! Cameron and I were walking around one of the islands and found three full blocks of brothels. The girls come up to you, grab your God given jewels and ask you to take them with you for 1,000 baht. That’s about $30.

All over the tourist spots, you see old men with young Thai girls. They buy them to do whatever they desire at $30 for the next 24 hours. I guess if you need a tour guide, it’s a good deal! These tour guides show you more than the temples though…

As you might know, Thailand is filled with lady boys. They are men that want to be women, or have actually done the surgery to be changed into a woman. I found out through a great conversation with one of the locals that this is done with great sacrifice. Lady boys have a hard time finding work. People don’t want to hire them for fear that the tourists will be uncomfortable around them. Many men just naturally feel that they were born a woman in a man’s body. Hard to understand, but to each his/her own!

You have to watch out! Don’t let your wallet get stolen while getting a sneak attack hug by a hooker. If you find yourself attracted to a local, you might be surprised later to find out it’s a man as well.

While we were there, I heard of many stories of things getting stolen from the tourists…

Check out time was 10:30 a.m. at one of the hotels. I came running back to my hotel room and arrived at 10:40 to be surprised to see someone holding my passport and wallet. Cameron had gotten all of the luggage out of the room, but he didn’t see the wallet hiding in the bed sheets. They kindly handed it to me. Later on I counted the money and found that 5,000 baht was missing. That’s the equivalent of $75. I couldn’t argue, it would be their word against mine… I think of it as a donation to the poor of Thailand.

One of our friends’ camera was stolen as well… The worst story came from a Thai women. She is married to a French guy. When I saw her, I noticed that she was very upset. She explained that the night before, the mafia had taken her and locked her in a public bathroom. They wouldn’t let her out till her husband could get 20,000 baht out of the ATM. It’s not just tourists that have to worry for their safety.

Can you really blame them?? Every day the Thais see people come to use them and act like idiots. Spending 10 times more money in a day than they can earn from work. The tourist mistreat them and show off their wealth. If one has a chance to take a little piece of the wealth that they flaunt, why not.

I went on a date with Ms. Bikini Koh Samui 2007!! She was very nice to me. She showed me around the island and we spent the night talking about our different cultures and what it’s really like for the locals. She gave me a different perspective of the land. She works 11 hours a day, 6 days a week. She lives next to a beautiful beach, but only goes to the beach maybe three times a year. I just happened to meet her on her day off from work! She works in a hair salon. Through conversations like these while traveling, it really makes you appreciate what we have in our Western world.

If you’re looking for a great place to get away and relax, Thailand’s the place. It has something for everyone. Don’t be scared of the stories of violence and crime. Be smart and you’ll be completely fine. If you’re looking to find culture and a truly different society, go to Laos, Vietnam, or Cambodia as well. There are a lot of tourists in Thailand, and it’s making the Thai culture slowly deteriorate. Over all, it was a damn good time!

This girl had bug larva, grass hoppers, and beetles in a bag. I tried them all. Not bad. Very crunchy!

Jeju!!

So I got a free trip to the Hawaii of Korea! Jeju Island. Mr. Park, the coolest teacher ever, set it up. He wrote up a proposal to the head education department. He stated that the teachers needed to get some education on RFID technology. Google it if you really want to know what it’s about. Our school specializes in the teaching about this technology. It just happens that Halla University on the island specializes in this technology as well.

On the first day on the island, we took a bus to the college. I had no clue what we were doing. I didn’t have a clue as to what we were doing on most of the trip! You just learn to go with the flow and trust that they’ll make sure you don’t get lost.

We sat through a 30-minute lecture that was all in Korean. None of the teachers were paying attention, they didn’t really care. Next we all took some photos with the professors. The teachers had made a banner for the event. We all went outside and took a group photo. Then we left and went straight into vacation mode.

Mr. Park told me later on that the photos were taken to prove that we were in Jeju for educational reasons. He was going to write a report to the head department telling them how much we learned. He found a way to get a free trip for us all!

To the left is a picture of Mr. Park and I.

Next came some seafood lunch accompanied with soju of coarse. This was the start of three days touring the island in two buses.

These teachers are mostly male comrades. They have been working together in the same school for 5, 10, 15 years. They all know each other very well, like brothers. They all love to party too. I felt like I was on a bus full of old college buddies. They were handing me beers and oranges on the bus, getting the party started.

At night it was like the dorm rooms. Teachers were gathering in each others rooms for more talking and drinking. Some of them took me out to the bars and to noribong, the Korean karaoke. It was good times.

One night I ended up meeting up with the few women teachers at the school. They were partying just as hard in a noribong room. I was surprised to see my principal in there. She’s 70 years old, feared by everyone in the school, and yet here she was partying like she was my age. I showed her some of my dance moves, and to my surprise, she was able to dance better than a lot of the girls my age! She did the Tornado, it was great.

Mr. Park stayed up till about 5 a.m. each night. He’s in his late 40s and yet has more energy than most American teenagers. Good times. One teacher told me everyone loves their families, but it is so great to escape and party every once in a while. Koreans are very close to their families. I could see in their eyes that some were getting home sick. They kept asking me how I am able to be away like this for a whole year, it was only three days!

For those three days, I didn’t speak to anyone that knew English extremely well. I was surrounded by people talking and laughing, yet I felt all alone. Left with my mind and more time to think than I would ever want. Pat, if you’re reading this, I can’t believe you were able to live like this for a whole year in Russia. It would drive me crazy! I had no clue as to what was going on. I felt like a baby at the age of 26. They had to tell me where to go, when we were eating, where to sit. Half the time they wouldn’t tell me though, I had to be shown what to do. It was great to see all these cool places, but yet I was very happy to go home and be able to actually talk to someone.

Time goes extremely fast while traveling. Events happen fast and you learn fast. It has already been 5 months. I’ve broken two hearts, and gotten my heart broken. What’s the next 6 months going to be like!?

We were warned of the phenomenon called the honeymoon effect. When you come to a place like Korea for a long period of time, people go through a lot. When you first arrive, everything is new and exciting. You can be who ever you want to be! Everything that you experience is great, and even if it’s tough, it’s still exciting. You take pictures and laugh at how crazy things are.

After a while the honeymoon is over. You realize that there are some things about yourself that still hold true. Challenges that once were exciting and new become an every day routine. You start to make the place home and the routines of home come back.

Now you’re addicted to that thrill you had when you first got there. You want to chase it again! Now your addicted to traveling, chasing the dragon.

There is still plenty of drama between the foreigners, and so many things going on everywhere. It’s still never a dull moment unless you want it to be. It becomes overwhelming to people. They become hermits 6 months in, too overwhelmed. I’m not about to do that myself. I know some day I’ll be that guy talking about, “Well when I lived in Asia…” I’ve got to make the most of it. Appreciate the beauty of every moment. Easier said than done sometimes. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger… and it makes a damn good story!

We stayed in a 4 star hotel while we were in Jeju. On the first night, I was supposed to sleep on this mat with one other teacher. This is common sometimes. I was fine with it, but when he saw me take a picture of the room, he decided that it wasn't suitable for me. I ended up getting a room with a normal bed.

The Koreans are very conservative, yet they are very open when it comes to the discussion of sex. Jeju Island is the place of honeymooners. Traditionally, many Koreans don't have sex till marriage. This sex park was made to lighten the mood for the newly weds. A way to take the tension off what they came here to do. Even the old tribal statues look like penises. Something to do with the fertility god or something.

My Apartment

I live in the middle of the city, about 40 minutes from the beach. I can ride my bike to the beach in 45. I live by a river in a 4 story apartment building. The area reminds me of downtown Denver and the Platte. I have one of the best subway systems in the world right outside my apartment. There is no need for a car, and taxis are extremely cheap.

My rent is taken care of by the school. My cable, internet, heat, electricity, etc. runs about 35 bucks a month. I have an extremely advanced phone with video calling technology that runs about 20 bucks a month. This leaves me with plenty of extra spending money.

My apartment is very small by Western standards, and yet very comfortable. It is heated by hot water going through the floors. You don’t wear your shoes inside, and when it’s cold out, your feet are always warm. Every type of food that I could want is right outside my apartment. My gym, bars, bank, department store, etc. are all within walking distance.

Most Koreans don’t have ovens! They don’t bake. I’ve got two burners, and a microwave. The fridge is small, yet it’s okay, I can’t eat enough food at home to fill it up usually.

There is a washing machine in my kitchen, but no dryer. Koreans don’t use dryers usually. You hang up your clothes on a fold up wrack in your house. Surprisingly, I don’t really miss the dryer!

Korea is a very compact country with a population of 48 million in the size of the state of Indiana. They have no space for trash, so waste is treated with great care. You buy government trash bags from the grocery store. They’re not too expensive, but you are expected to put as little of your waste in them as possible. They recycle everything. Every apartment building has recycling bins where you separate your trash. This even includes a container for compost. I end up with a lot less trash here than I did in the States.

The thing that aggravates most new comers is the shower. I have a showerhead over my sink. There is no shower curtin, the whole bathroom is my shower. This is quite common in Korea. The annoying part is that you get your socks wet each time you go to the bathroom. Every bathroom comes with shower shoes. You are supposed to put on the shower shoes to keep your socks from getting wet. This concept sure saves space, but it’s a little annoying.

Jan. 17^th I will be flying into Bangkok, Thailand. Cameron and I with a few other people will be spending two weeks in Thailand. This will surely bring about a good blog post, so stay tuned! Enjoy the winter cold!!