Octopus Shake Down

July 27, 2017

Octopus Shake Down

Hello all, I'm back with my regular posts, thanks for being patient with me! This is the post you have all been waiting for... the octopus post. I told you I would try live(ish) octopus, and I'm finally delivering. Enjoy!

OCTI WHAT?!

On one of the hottest days so far a few friends and I decided to go to a tradition Korean market to try the famous Korean specialty: octopus. I suppose the videos speak for themselves, but for those who are wondering it tastes like very squishy but firm seafood. And yes it moves in your mouth, and yes it will suction to your tongue if you are not careful. Below I have attached videos of the preparation where the cut up octopus is seasoned with seaweed, sesame seeds, and some sort of sauce. Then it is served. Although it may take some wrestling to pick up the squirming pieces with your chopsticks!

MONGOL FESTIVAL

This past weekend I went with one of my friends to a Mongolian festival(she's Mongolian). Mind you, she(Yuna) is the only Mongolian person I've ever met. So when we were walking down to the festival and she began to say hello to passing Mongolians I was quite surprised. They were everywhere! The Mongolian people, of those I met, are very friendly and patient people. At the festival my Hong Kong friend and I were the only non Mongolian people there out of hundreds. I stuck out more than usual! But everyone was kind and even praised us as we struggled to speak Mongolian.
At the festival we watched traditional Mongolian wrestling, met famous Mongolian singers, ate traditional food, and met many of Yuna's family members. The traditional wrestling was interesting, more of a shoving match than what I imagined wrestling to be. I suppose I only have American wrestling to compare it to. They wear a short cropped shirt that ties in the front and... underwear? I'll try to find a picture so you can better understand. Basically long ago they used to wear normal shirts but then women started wrestling so to stop women from competing they exposed the front of the shirt. I guess that's one way to do it.

Typical wrestling garb!

Me and Yuna!

Biki and I and some of Yuna's family!

The famous singer! Yuna was fangirling!!

NOREBANG

Yesterday some class friends and I went out for Korean pizza and norebang(karaoke). This was my first time eating Korean pizza and I had been warned by other Americans that it wasn't the same. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! The pizza was awesome! Although Korean pizza tends to be more sweet than savory it was nonetheless delicious. Koreans are known to put corn, potatoes, and spam on pizza so I was a little hesitant at first, but the corn pizza was actually my favorite and soooo good! After, we went to norebang where we sang for a good 2 hours, they gave us an extra hour free! They call that service here and it is common to be given in norebangs if you sing well!

GYEONGBOKGUNG

This morning I went with my class on our cultural outing for the semester. We went to Gyeongbukgung, the largest palace remaining from the Joseon dynasty. The palace is huge and attracts many tourists. I can't put it into words so here are a lot of pictures! My class is awesome, we had a ton of fun taking pictures and eating lunch together! I'm definitely going to miss them all when I go home!