Why not try an Octopus?

This week was a little more run of the mill; gym-eat-work-movie-sleep-repeat type affair. We are destroying the new release section of our local DVD store and soon I will have to force Andrea to watch horror movies and sci-fi which seem to be in excess here. There are only so many love-gone-bad-romance-satire-baby-marriage movies in Korea and Ang has picked most of them out.

27 Dresses was the latest form of gag inducing tripe I have had to endure....what a pile of horseshit..... What's with the formulaic "I can't say how I feel so bad shit spirals out of control till I snap show and everything falls into place like a fucking Disney movie"crap?!?!?!... These flicks are all the same, how bout some new ideas........Horror/Thriller movies are a tough sell for Andrea because they give her that "shaken hamster in a cage" feeling that lasts for two or three days. (She will scream bloody murder if I cough or fart unexpectedly in the dark..... she needs some serious desensitizing!)

Korean lessons started on Saturday and I think they will be 10 weeks of good fodder for my blog! My group is about 15 strong and they mostly hail from "near" Toronto, Canada. That seems to be the catch phrase for anyone from Ontario as when in Korea,who the hell cares where Lindsay is?!?!.....Koreans are renowned for their bluntness when speaking English to expats. My teacher told the girl next to me after pronouncing a few vowels, " I thought Darren was the worst in the class... now I think different!". I have been practicing my letters for a few weeks now and she asked me if I think I should go a level up. I said it was up to her, so she asked me a "test" question in Korean and I stared at her blankly... she she said " I know for certain you should be in my class...don't go anywhere".

We spent the rest of the weekend exploring the markets/shopping. At one point a giant Korean pelican swooped in and we couldn't resist:

We hit the subway around 11 on Sunday morning.... these two were sleeping off their Saturday night across from us. (They had probably been on the train from its opening and gone for the tour of shame...) Totally out cold. The seat next to chachi on the right was constantly being filled by unsuspecting commuters who thought they had scored a prime seat. They would realize all to quickly their mistake as a soju reeking body would slump into their lap or go for a tumble when the train hit its brakes. One by one they would leave totally pissed and another unaware victim would fill the void....we could barely contain ourselves.

As for the night of the San Nak Ji (live octopus)... OH MY GOD!!

This is a Styrofoam bucket filled with thirty or so living octopus..... Our boss pulled us out of the office to initiate us into traditional Korean octopus sacrifice. Approximately 3-10 people die per year eating octopus this way. Koreans blame it on Soju....

1. Grab an octopus


2. Stab that octopus through the head with chopsticks


3. Wrap the body and legs around the chopstick (oh yes! the octopus is VERY much alive and moving ....it is also looking at you)


4. Dip it in weird sauce (spicy red something)


5. Put it into your mouth and chew with reckless abandon*! (*Translation: kill it in your mouth before the live animal grabs hold of your larynx (in defense) and chokes you to death!)


6. Success!
   

This tasty morsel was destined for the Irish girls mouth...I was next... she got half way and freaked out! She puked up a living creature onto her hand and it was still squirming! I managed to get down a 10cm tentacle... I wretched for about 45 minutes after... It was probably the tentacle tickling me from the inside.... mmmmmnnnnn yummy!