the moment of truth

i'm almost afraid to admit to what i did today. although its not extremely bad i'm sure some of you will be grossed out. please don't hold anything against me. afterall i am in a foreign country experiencing a completely different culture. whats that saying "when in rome. well, when in korea…" now to begin the story. after months and months of horace and jk talking about going to a dog meat resturant that day finally arrived. we met jk, jane, and their daughter rosa [she gave up on kelly] at the subway station. that in its own right turned into a comedy of errors. when we arrived we exited the same side where jk dropped us off after chusok. we were standing around for 5 minutes or so when he called to tell us he was running late. he asked where we were and he side to go to the other side. up the stairs we went. we walked through the station and departed through the other side. while we were waiting down there all these school kids were walking by yelling "hello. welcome to korea. nice to meet you." etc. its always the same with them. there was no sign of jk though. he called again asking horace where we were. when horace told him he said to go to the other side. this is korean logic at it finest. back up the stairs we went, crossing through the station, and back out the original exit. thats when we saw them on the other side of the street. apparently thats what he meant. the other side of the street and not the other side of the station. we drove to jk's in-laws to pick of mr. oh [jane's father] and danny her brother. mr. oh is the one who wanted to take us to the resturant. we went up to apartment and had some tea before heading out. i had this lemon honey tea with pieces of lemon in it. it was great. supposedely like everything in korea it was good for your health. we sat there talking. mr. oh would ask us questions in korean and then danny or jk translated for us. after the tea was done it was time to go to the resturant. before leaving they asked if i wanted dog meat too and i said i'd stick to the chicken soup. i tried to explain that having grown up with dogs i didn't think i could eat them. in turn they explained that like cows and chickens these dogs are raised to be eaten and not as pets. still i didn't like i could do it. it was a nice walk to the resturant. the oh family live in a very nice area. it feels very residential. at the resturant the dog meat eaters [mr. oh, jk, and horace] sat at one end of the table and the chicken soupers [me, jane, and danny] sat at the other end. before the food came out they brought out various sidedishes of kimchi, radishes, hot peppers. all of which were very good. then the waitress brought out the dog meat. i watched her as she cut it off the bone. i thought i was going to gag. mr. oh kept asking me if i wanted some so finally i caved and said i would try a little. i handed him my plate. as i watched he started to pile meat onto it. i told danny to tell to stop. i only wanted a little. i asked danny if he ever tried it and he said no. later he confessed that he liked american food better than korean. i'm sure that makes his dad happy. by this time the chicken soup was brought out. however this wasn't the chicken soup your grandma makes. it comes in a giant steel bowl and there's a whole chicken stuffed with rice, gingers, and a prune [at least i think it was a prune]. it was kind of odd looking at my soup seeing a whole chicken in it and then looking at the utensils i had to eat it with: a spoon and chopsticks. this was definitely going to be interesting. before i dove into the whole chicken i decided to actually try the dog meat. it actually looked like lamb which is not one of my favorite things. not wanting to insult anyone and seeing that even jane decided to tyr it for her first time i figured why not. so in it went. it really didn't have much of a taste to it. then again i didn't really chew it. i kind of just swallowed it. they asked me what i thought and i politely said its all right but there was no way i could eat a lot of it. i think if i didn't know what it was it wouldn't be so bad. its more of a psychological thing then anything else. now it was time to dig into the chicken. i had a little bit of trouble at first trying to pull the legs off with the chopsticks but soon i was tearing into it like an old pro. the soup was actually quite good. it definitely needed salt so i added a whole bunch of it. after lunch we went back to mr. oh's apartment for some fruit. mrs. oh brought out some homemade pumpkin soup for us to try. it totally rocked. mrs. oh is a great cook. we sat around for a little then jk drove us back.

i really enjoy spending time with the oh family. they are such nice people and are so concerned with our well being. telling us to keep warm, eat good, etc. like any parents would. danny has two months off from college so once we get back from thailand he wants to show us around seoul. that will be fun. i also told him i'd help him with his interview. it seems that he's going to be interviewing in march to attend a school in the states. last time he was in los angeles. this time it looks like he'll be trying to go to a school in the bay area. he's a really nice kid. so to all my friends in the bay area if he ends up going there i might ask you to show him around and make him feel welcomed for me. i know i can count on some of you to do that for me.

that about sums up my saturday. again i hope none of you hold the dog meat against me. and dad i promise when i'm home i won't be looking at bando, coco, or kayla as a tastey meal.