Speak Now Tour!

One of my students, who is also a huge Taylor Swift fan, told me she was coming to Seoul a few months ago. Fast forward to last night, and Keara and I were there! Not up in the nosebleed section, but down on the floor.

I can't pinpoint exactly what made the concert so great.

Was it because it was at Olympic park?


Was it the excitement?




Was it the cowboy I spotted?

Was it the same cowboy who got creeped out when he saw me take a picture, and moved to the other side of his wife?


Was it the ukulele she played on a small stage in the back?


Or was it the guitar she played on a small stage in the back?


Was it the man sitting next to me singing along and dancing with his purple skull and crossbone pants?


Was it the music?


Was it because Keara was with me?


Was it because Taylor brings cowboys with her on tour?


Was it because of the cute sound guy?


Was it because she walked within 2 feet of us?

I love you! Who are you wearing!? Will you be my best friend?


I'm not sure, but I can tell you one thing:

Taylor Swift is a rock star!

"We may or may not get back tonight."

Those were the sweetened words from Laurie's mouth about the cold hard truth.

All I could do was freeze for a second, then proceeded to laugh it off, and order some sweet potato cheese balls and water.

I walked to the counter and placed my order only to find my water in an actual glass cup with red hearts.

"Look at this! Has nobody ever ordered water here before?"

There was a stack of the normal cups, two of which were used for our cokes. They were sitting next to their water machine.

laughing, laughing, laughing, "I just don't understand why they gave me what is clearly an employee's glass."

laughing, laughing, laughing, "We are in Korea, Rachel."

Daegu, Korea to be exact. A few minutes after 3:00am.

"Our sandwiches and french fries were so good. And the nachos and burrito we had tonight."

"OMG that Tex Mex was so good! And don't forget the popcorn we had at the GoGo bar."

"That GoGo bar was so seedy."

"But we still had fun drinking our vodka mangoes. Remember those? Those were so good!"


"Almost as good as the shirts we bought from the same seedy bar! Good idea, Laurie. Now we'll always have something tangible to remind us of tonight."

"I should just say again that we may or may not get back tonight. That in itself might be enough to sear this night into our memories."

It's true. We had, in fact, stumbled across a seedy downstairs bar that was clearly the Daegu U.S. military hot spot. For 2 1/2 hours, we sat at the bar drinking our unlimited vodka mangoes while contemplating life, popcorn, guys, and everything in between. Three things happened at around 1:45am. Every single military guy immediately left to make it back before curfew, every single tiny Korean girl left because the military guys left, and Alex and Jodi left the hip hop club around the corner to come get us.

After purchasing our bright pink GoGo shirts, we hopped in a cab and sped off into the night. Since we were visiting A & J, there was no need to pay attention to the details of navigation. After all, its their city, and we were on vacation.

We arrived at their apartment, but Laurie and I discoverd, after taking a few goofy pictures of ourselves in the shirts, that we weren't sleepy. Not in the least bit.

We were hungry.

And you can't stop two margarita, sangria, and vodka mango filled girls from satisfying a hunger like ours.

Alex and Jodi were already asleep in the other room, so we decided to sneak out. As if A & J are our parents and we are going to meet Victor and Cody (or whoever you would hang out with in your younger sneaking out days).

After creeping down the stairs, ever so loudly, we start walking down the street to hail a cab. But as we walk arm in arm with our "GoGo vinyl" shirts on, we realize A) there's no restaurants anywhere nearby and B) we have no clue where we are.

"Oh! Here's a road sign for a girl's primary school. I'll text it to you, and it'll be saved in my phone. Then when we need to get back, we can just say this school. Easy leasy pemon squeezy."

"Good idea Rach! I think we should walk back the other way though to get a cab in that big intersection on the bridge."

A few minutes later, a cab was pulling over for us. We hopped in, giggly and upbeat as ever.

"Uhhhh, Lotteria?"

"or McDonald's?"

Cab driver: "Lotteria? Ok"....laughing

Cab driver: laughing..."Hungry?"

"Yes, yes! Hungry."

As Laurie and I discuss our insatiable need for french fries, the cab driver is zipping through the light 2am traffic. We arrive at the Lotteria, and he drives off.

Its at this moment I say "Man, I wish he would just wait on us to take us back. That way we won't have to worry about directions."

"We'll be fine. We've got that primary school's name."

We mosey on in, order our generic McDonald's wannabe meals, and proceed to inhale the most delicious food of all time.

It's amazing how time has such an important affect on how food tastes.

Well, that and vodka. and tequelia. and sangria.

After reluctantly leaving the heart covered glass in the restaurant, we leave. Somehow we remember to cross the street to get a cab going back the way we came. We hop in as I'm pulling out my phone.

I read off the romanization of the hangul* for the school.

"Hyeomyeong girls primary school"
Cab driver: "???"
"Uh, Hyaemyeong primary school?"
"Hyomong hakyo?"
Cab driver: "???"

He just starts driving. Its at this moment we realize we seriously may or may not get back tonight.

As we are driving, though, Laurie spots something familiar.

"Oh! There's that big Homeplus! We definitely passed it on the way."

But after a few more blocks, the cab driver stops, asking us which way. He can turn left or go straight.

The vodka quickly retreats from our brains, leaving us with the cold empty shock that comes from being lost at 3am in a city that is not ours.

"rencho?"

After hesitantly telling him to turn left, he confidently flies down the street, leaving us with nothing familiar in sight.

"Hey we're in a school zone. Maybe its Alex or Jodi's school!"

"Yeah maybe. Or maybe its not their school at all. Maybe we aren't even in Daegu anymore. Maybe we accidently told him to turn north and we are headed for Kim Jong-il's house right now."

"Like I said, we may or may not get back tonight."

Then a miracle happened.

"THE BIKE STORE! I've seen that before! RENCHO, RENCHO!!"

"THE DOG STORE!!! We made it! Yogi, yogi!!!"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we miraculously steered him in the exact location we needed.

There's a lesson in all of this.

Never drink alone. Do it with a friend. It makes for a much more fun night.



*Hangul is the Korean alphabet. A lot of times, when they use the roman alphabet to translate, the sounds don't exactly match up. For example: my town is spelled Seongnam, but its pronounced Songnom. In other words, its pointless.

Also, after proofreading this, I realized that reading THE DOG STORE in Korea might elicit a disturbing image in your mind. This is a pet store, like to get dogs as pets, not snacks.

Public Nudity

I can't believe I almost forgot to post this. I guess since I told my parents all about it, it escaped the "this must go into the blog" file. I feel that this is the most cultural experience I've had in Korea. And also one of the coolest.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my first jimjilbang. I met my friend, Keara, and we had lunch first. She had been there many times, so it was nice to have somebody there who knew the ropes. We walk in and pay our 7,000 won. The lady gives us a towel and our shorts and t-shirt. First, we put our shoes in a locker. Then we give the shoe key to a different lady, and she gives us another key for our clothes locker. This is the part where I felt a little weird. Here in a big open locker room, you strip down. After getting over my initial "oh my god im walking around naked in front of all these Korean women and Keara" moment, we make our way into the public baths area. You are required to shower first before doing anything, so we head over to the only shower head not being used.

Before I go any further, let me paint a little picture.

Its a big square room with tile floors. Along one of the walls are the shower heads. There's also bath stations throughout the room where women sit on plastic stools and wash themselves. Another wall is filled with massage tables covered with naked ladies being scrubbed down by the workers. The back wall is home to a wet steam room and a dry steam room. The remaining wall has a cold water bath, a freakin' cold water bath, and a tepid water bath. In the middle of the room are the heated baths. Oh and there's also an area with heated stone floors to lay down on. Naked.

And it wouldn't be Korea without sinks for brushing your teeth.

So after I shower, I go into the dry steam room first. Its pretty crowded, so I'm forced to stand for a minute or two until somebody gets up. I then take their place, setting my towel on the bench before sitting down. I'm not going to pretend my eyes weren't wandering around. After all, its not everyday you get to see what Korean ladies' bodies really look like. I was surprised at all the flab. Of course there were a few of the typical Asian beauties, but the majority had pretty average bodies.

After a few minutes, my lungs felt properly saturated in steamy humid goodness. I got up and went over to the heated stone floor. You lay down on your back, naked of course, and just relax. I did cover myself with my towel, since it wasn't going to be used for anything else. A Korean lady was lying next to me, and Keara walked over for a minute. As she was walking away, the Korean lady threw her head up to watch her walk away. I guess Koreans are as curious as I was.

Picture this sans clothes and Star Wars towel-do

After my back was hurting from lying in one position, I decided I wasn't ready for the lying on my side with my ass hanging out yet. So, Keara and I tried out the warm baths in the middle. She then wanted to try out the cold baths, and for some reason, I went with her. I could only get in up to my stomach, and I quickly got out to jump back into the warm bath.

During all this, I observed. Old ladies are walking around careful not to step on their boobs, and little kids are running around without a care in the world. But the sweetest thing I saw were the moms washing their kids. It almost felt like we were in ancient Rome. And it may sound gross, but it was so clean. Everywhere you look, you see women exfoliating in the shower, lathering on the soap, and brushing their teeth.

Its interesting to think about from a cultural standpoint. Here you've got a typical conservative Asian country, where tank tops and flip flops are frowned upon. Yet, you walk into a jimjilbang and women are completely comfortable in their own skin with no inhibitions about being naked in front of their friends and strangers.

America, however, seems to be the opposite. Women can get away with wearing practically anything (nothing, rather), but get us into a locker room and eveybody's reaching for the towel from behind the shower curtain.

But there's more to a jimjilbang than public nudity. We walk out of the baths, and put on our matching pink shorts and shirt. After walking down a long hallway, we reach the co-ed part. There's little cubbies filled with Koreans napping, reading, eating, and talking. There's all kinds of different heated rooms to sit in. For instance, a salt room, charcoal room, lavendar room, etc.


They also have massage chairs (1,000 won for 10 minutes), which we took full advantage of.

Again, old people walk around, little kids run around and play. It's like an indoor central park. There's even a snack bar and restaurant!

I can say with full certainty that won't be my last trip to the jimjilbang. I feel clean and relaxed just writing about it.

Good Intentions

Last weekend, Alex, Jodi, and Laurie came to stay with me on Friday night for an early "Thanksgiving". Alex and Jodi brought pumpkin pie, and Laurie and I were in charge of getting chicken, garlic bread, and making the potatoes.

Laurie got here around 7, and we went straight to Kim's Club to buy everything. After searching (with no success) for chicken, we kept wandering down the aisles. At the check out, we realized what we had bought.

I know, I know, its not Thanksgivingey. But it all looked so good. I hadn't drank red wine or eaten real bread, olive oil, and brie in MONTHS.

As we're eating the delicious food and drinking the fabulous California wine, we just keep chatting and laughing. Alex and Jodi are almost to Seongnam.

The bread? gone!
The brie? what brie?
The wine? barely any left.

We go downstairs to meet them (and to see the pumpkin pie), and reluctantly break the news to them.

Me-"We couldn't find any already cooked chicken."
Alex-"What? So buy raw chicken. Put it in a pan, turn the heat on...cooked chicken!"
Jodi-"How did the potatoes turn out?"
Laurie-"They will taste good. I just have to make them."
Jodi-"No potatoes either?! Weren't we coming here for a Thanksgiving meal?"
...you can guess how the rest of the conversation went.

However, after a couple glasses of wine and many apologies, they forgave us. Laurie made mashed potatoes, and the fried chicken place directly below my apartment increased their revenue. But most importantly, the pumpkin pie was opened!


As if we aren't goofy enough, we took some self portraits.



Serious self portraits. Laurie, really? All that's missing is a gold gaudy frame!

And then we put my loft to good use.


Happy Thanksgiving week everybody!

Friends, Makgeolli, & Johnny Depp

Last weekend was Halloween. Back home, I never really celebrated it. But, having said that, I must say I had tons of Halloween themed fun in Daegu!


But the fun didn't start in Daegu. Oh, no. It began in good ole Seongnam-si. I left school at 5pm, and rushed to get everything I needed for the 6pm bus ride.

Clothes? Check.
Book for the bus? Check.
Kimbap, oranges, and other goodies for dinner? Check.
Makgeolli? Definitely check.
Shoes? Check.
Money? Check.
Laurie?

Laurie?

Mmmmm...it was 5:55 (our bus was leaving at 6), and Laurie was nowhere close. This was not her fault by the way. She left straight from her school for Seongnam, but sometimes the buses turn on their "piss off foreigners" sensors. This was one of those days. The bus came late, and there was tons of Friday afternoon traffic. It was obvious we weren't going to make it on time. But all was ok!
Because we had Makgeolli.

In case you are wondering, or didn't read my Morning Calm post, Makgeolli is Korean rice wine, and it is the most delicious thing on earth (besides chocolate, OBVIOUSLY).

So we went to the bus terminal, and saw a 6:40 bus. However, after refunding (we think anyways) and purchasing new tickets, we realized we were leaving at 7:40. Apparently Seongnamers can't get enough of Daegu on the weekends, and everything was sold out. So, we sat down to enjoy our dinner and Makgeolli and started talking about our week.

See, Laurie and I don't see each other or talk a lot during the week since we live in different cities. So the weekends are filled with catching-up girl talk, which is one of the best things about my weekends! Anyways, we quickly finish the bottle and realize we need more. A lot more. We then make the genius decision to drink during the whole bus ride so we can show Alex and Jodi what we are all about this weekend.

Now its 7:20, and Laurie leaves to find Makgeolli. A homeplus is on the 3rd floor (like a Wal Mart) so she sprints through the store, miraculously finding the Makgeolli, and buys 3 big bottles. By the time she comes back, its almost 7:40! Yes, we almost missed the bus for the 2nd time.

We sit down in the last row, get settled, and crack open the next bottle.

Then my stupid quotes started to tumble out of my mouth.

Me, motioning my hands in the same direction as the bus is moving: "Wait, are we going this way?"
In my defense, we were going west and we were supposed to be going southeast. Still, it was pretty funny. Or maybe it wasn't and we just thought it was. Anyways...

About 10 minutes in, I got the hiccups! I hate hiccups. They suck. We each had our cups filled with Makgeolli, so I was trying to slowly drink it in hopes it would relax me.
Laurie: Is your cup empty?
Me: No, why?
Laurie: Oh, I was going to scare you if it was.
Me: Oh, ok.

A few minutes pass...I finish my cup and my hiccups are gone...
Me: Ok, my cup is empty now. Scare me.
Laurie just looks at me before cracking up. I don't speak for the next 30 minutes due to shame.

After a much needed bathroom break 2 hours in, we spot some rides. Photo op!


Laurie just hopped on top like a normal person.


I got all the way in, like it was actually about to fly off into the night.

As we were getting close to Daegu, we started passing tire shops. For some reason, Korea wraps their tires in with bright gold and silver aluminum foil looking stuff.

Laurie: Oh, I see those everywhere in Suwon. What's up with those?
Me: You've seen those in Suwon? I haven't seen them on any of the cars in Seongnam.
Laurie gives me the same stare after the scare me comment before dying laughing.

We somehow got there early, so we walked across the street to the Lotteria (which is a generic McDonald's...you can just imagine how delicious that is). We had drank the 3 bottles on the bus, plus the one in the terminal, so what did we need? Another bottle to go with our fancy Lotteria meal, duh. I pop over to the FamilyMart while Laurie orders an order of cheese sticks and sweet potato balls.

This is what comes to our table.


We're on our 5th bottle of Makgeolli, and we just got two whole cheese sticks for an order. This apparently is the funniest thing on earth, because we can't stop laughing. I still have no idea why Alex and Jodi picked us up and actually brought us back to their apartments. They are just that good of friends.

The following day after we woke up, we went downtown for lunch and shopping.

Downtown during the day...it gets busy at night.


The first arrow says: krispy kreme doughnut, bacon, zisomething, cheese


This hoodie says "Do you have any girlfriends?" and "The girl dances very well these days because of the ballet lessons."


I have no idea what to write here.

Saturday night, we went to a murder mystery play that Alex was in.

Regardless of what they said, I still think Alex did it.



Afterwards, we took Daegu by storm. Lots of fun bars and dance clubs. One bar even had...

...so you know this was a good place!

There were also some cute Halloween costumes...




Who knew a Korean could look so much like Johnny Depp?

In conclusion: We had a blast! Thanks to Alex and Jodi for the great weekend. :)

ps-We did manage to find a bar that had a "traditional" Korean dance performance. I'll show the video soon. It deserves its own post!

Delizioso Cibo Italiano

Last week, my friend, Keara, and I went to an Italian restaurant near her place. Now, in Korea..."Italian" food usually means sugary tomato sauce and corn. But this place is actually owned and ran by REAL Italians! Cute ones too. Especially when they were speaking Italian to each other and putting pizzas into their brick oven.


Even though this was a legitimate Italian restaurant, we are still in Korea. Hence, the boiled potatoes next to the bread & olive oil.


My delizioso penne with tomato sauce and tasty red wine


Keara's fancy stuffed zuchinni

After dinner, we walked down the cafe street to a little place that sells sweet potato lattes. There's actually no coffee involved. Its simply sweet potato and steamed milk, and it is amazing.


Perfect ending to the meal

Even though this was the most expensive meal I've had in Korea (30,000 won or almost $30), it was well worth it!

THIS is Halloween.

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Valley View ISD, ya heard?

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Jammin' with the fam

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Where my girls at?

Just a Typical Night in Seohyeon

I met my friend, Keara, tonight at Seohyeon to go to dinner and check out this language exchange cafe. We found some pizza in the food plaza...um, actually we bought some pizza (sorry, its been a long day). Since there was nowhere to sit, we would have to eat it on one of the benches in AK plaza.

AK plaza doesn't have stores like Gap, American Eagle, or even Bloomingdales. AK plaza is filled with Coach purses, Estee Lauder make up, Louis Vuitton rain boots, the latest Gucci clothing line...you get the idea. So the fact that we were going to split a pizza on one of the benches was pretty comical. However, once we walked upstairs, we realized nobody would be paying attention to us. Here is why.


For those of you who didn't watch the whole video, you're missing out on two Carrie Bradshaw moments!*

If you think that wasn't enough to take people's eyes off the white girls eating pizza in front of Louis Vuitton, take a closer look.



I promise I didn't photoshop this. A male model actually wore this on the runway. I was just waiting for him to start calling for Giselle and see a squirrel jump off his shoulder.**

And, of course, what good would a fashion show be without a Kpop dance?

Can you believe that? In a public place where school kids hang out, some of these girls are wearing tank tops. What is happening to Korea?

*Note: If you don't know which moment I was referring to...or worse, don't know who Carrie Bradshaw is, your life is empty and I feel sorry for you.
**Note: If you didn't get my Enchanted reference, go to your Netflix page right now and add it to your queue.

Seriously, this is the end of this post. Go add it to Netflix!

G i-ship con cut-ah

I can't believe its taken me this long to post anything related to the awesomeness that is K-pop. But here goes...

Single ladies: enjoy!

Attached ladies: Try not to get too depressed when you see these hot moves that your man can't and never will be able to do.

Last Saturday, I planned on going to see a movie with Laurie, followed by dinner and noraebang (karaoke) with Laurie, Brianna, and Keara. But then I got a message from my friend, Julie, saying foreigners could get in free to this G20 concert.


So after I read the list of performers, I quickly walked to my school to print off our coupons while texting L,B,& K to organize the change of plans.

We arrived at 3:30 at the Olympic stadium. I need to take a moment here to show you this picture. You'll know why in a minute.


Even though we got there early, our section was already full, so we had to sit two sections down. But this turned out great, because we were actually closer to the the center of the stage.

We took some picture frame photos...


and waited for the sun to set and the concert to begin.


Remember that picture with the Olympic rings just one scroll away? Well...
as we were waiting for the concert to start, we learned that Laurie is not a brunette. She is, actually, a blonde.

Brianna: "I'm so glad I getting to see the Olympic Stadium."
Laurie: "What? They had the Olympics here?!"
Me: "Yeah, that's why the Olympic rings were out front...and its called the Olympic stadium."

Anyways, the concert started and nobody else made any ditzy comments. I mean NOBODY.
So if you read a slightly different story in my comments section after Laurie reads this or on Seoul Searching's next post, its a lie. It's all hearsay. Don't believe a word of it!


Right, OK, so the concert started and it was amazing! The crowd all had blue glow sticks. There were singers from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, and China. There were cool light shows during the performances with fireworks galore. And B2ST, 2AM, and Rain were there.

And Rain was there.


Here's B2ST performing SOOM. Yes, I screamed like a 13 year old girl, and no, I'm not ashamed.

(Note to readers: I am not a camerawoman. I don't claim to be. So don't expect high quality videos.)

And Rain was there.

But one of my favorite parts of the night was this song...the entire crowd sang the chorus together. My camera doesn't pick up the sound too well, but it was really neat.

And Laurie's intensity needed to be documented as well.

And Rain was there.

"Who is Rain?" Ohhh, let me tell ya. Picture the hottest arms you've ever seen (not sun burned arms, Dad). Now picture abs of steel. Then picture kick ass dance moves on a gorgeous face with a smile that could destroy the polar bears' land in a second.

Got that in your mind?

That is Rain.

I know he's wearing some interesting pants. But if you can get past that, you'll see what I mean.


And because that video is not enough, here's one of his music video. It takes about a minute and a half for the good part to start, but I promise its worth it!


I can guarantee this is not the last you will hear about k-pop. I haven't even mentioned 2NE1 or Bigbang!

Don't Mess with Korea.

I've been thinking of a clever way to write this blog for an hour now. I am still squirming with indecision of how to describe the event, and can no longer let the details latch on to my brain. I must pull the suckers off one by one as I explain what it is like to travel from one country to another in a matter of minutes.

So I will simply begin where it all began.

It was a pleasant Saturday morning. Laurie and I awoke after a good night's sleep, and decided to get some breakfast. We walked just down my street to the Starbucks, where we each ordered a bagel with cream cheese and some coffee. We people watched. We talked about everything- boys, politics, friends, student loans, babies, life. It was a nice conversation. After which we decided to ditch the idea of going to the "retro olympics" and spend the dreary day watching Eat Pray Love. The girl at the ticket counter spoke excellent English. The attendant telling us which theater to go to spoke excellent English. After the American movie (which was great by the way, but the book is a gazillion times better), we wandered over to a shoe sale so Laurie could buy some boots. American sizes? Korean salesmen speaking English to us? Check and check.

By this time, the American sized bagels had digested, and we were in need of sustenance again. But where to go?

Me: "There's this place near my apartment that I've been wanting to try. From far away, the pictures look like kimchi pancakes."
Laurie: "OK, I'm game for anything. Let's go!"

We confidently walk into the restaurant not bothering with those advertising pictures outside. It was raining, after all. We see other Koreans at their tables eating. We glance at them, but are just focused on picking a table. We sit down toward the back, and wait to pick out something from a picture filled menu.



On second thought, "point" is more appropriate than "pick."

She brings us the typical side dishes. The soup, the bean sprouts, the garlic, the onions, the sesame leaves, the kimchi, and the delicious red sauce.

I can't recall what we were talking about before the event, but I'm sure it was something about the American movie or the American Starbucks or the typical American vodka cranberries we drank the night before at the American (ok, it's actually Canadian owned but close enough) bar we went to.

Then she brings them out in a bowl, covered in red sauce.



(Laurie, I don't think we're in America anymore.)

Laurie: "Oh...oh no...ummm...I don't eat seafood!"
Me: "Oh shit, really? What should we do?"
Laurie: "I don't know, I don't know."

As we are saying this, the waitress has turned on the burner and has now dumped the bowl's contents onto the hot skillet.

She walks away.

I briefly look down and think, man this is not fried calamari rings from Macaroni Grill. These are whole baby octopuses.

Laurie: "Oh my god,


..................................................................."

Me: "WHAT?! omg...omg....OMG."

I can't even express the sheer terror and shock on both of our faces. My chair immediately scraped across the floor to the back wall. Laurie's hands didn't know whether to keep hugging her face or pull herself out of the chair and out of the restaurant.

As we both sat there, with nervous tears joining our eyes to watch, tentacles kept moving. Some gently twisted in the air. Some squirmed into the sauce. Others died honorably, hardly moving.

I could barely watch, but was also becoming more afraid that the aprons the waitress gave us would be useful for flying sea creatures trying to escape.

Laurie: "What should we do?"
Me: "I don't know...but it looks like we need to stir it now."

Obviously, neither one of us were about to touch the spoon let alone touch anything near the table, lest we scare the octopuses with sudden movement causing them to leap out and latch their suckling tentacles onto our faces, our eye balls, into our ear canals, and up our nostrils.

The waitress came back, and, seeing we both were physically unable to do anything but shake uncontrollably from nervous laughter and tears, she stirred them.


(After they have boiled to death...notice the one strong arm still slightly moving in the front.)

The tentacles were now mostly in their final resting place. Luckily they were easily separated from their bodies after being cooked. I say this because the arms are at least close to being like calamari. Because, in case you forgot, we were at a restaurant. What do you do at a restaurant after your order comes out? You eat it.

Me: "Alright Rach, you can do this. You have to do this. It's just a typical Korean wrap. Start with the leaf, add some onion, sprouts, garlic, and red sauce. Alright, good job. Now you still have to do it. Yes yes you do. OK, stop being a baby and do it already! Alright, alright...just another piece of calamari type seafood. No big deal. It's no longer alive...hopefully."

I somehow ate these octopus wraps. One after the other. Always being careful not to grab ones with bodies still attached. Always careful to chew quickly and focus on the taste of garlic. Meanwhile, Laurie helped eat the side dishes, always cheering me on.

After being thrown out of our naive American state of mind by Korea's live octopus arms, we decided there was only one thing we could do to make ourselves feel better.



And that, my friends (and fellow Texans) is why you don't mess with Korea.