Won Cashing

Commercials just don't get better than this. A little taste of Korea.

Busan meat dogs

While I was in Busan on the weekend I visited a market where they had meat dogs for sale. I'd heard that the meat dogs were a special breed of dog, raised on farms. I imagined that they were somehow more like farm animals, and not companions. So I saw these dogs, and... they were dogs. They looked at me. They wagged their tails. They wanted to be patted, and played with.

I haven't mentioned this, but many people who read this knew my dog Dawson. A couple of weeks ago his cancer came back, and he had to be put down. It was one of those moments when it feels rotten to be so far from home. I miss him a lot. And I thought of him when I saw the Busan meat dogs. I don't think I'll be eating dog after all.

Travel map

OK, that took a long time. You can now follow my travels on the above map. It's a little confusing due to all the doubling-back, but basically I landed at Incheon in the North, moved down to Suwon for orientation (with side-trips to Seoul); then went to Gyeongu for our provincial orientation. Then to Gumi, from whence I have ventured forth in a variety of directions. This weekend was Chusok - Thanksgiving-ish holiday of sweet foods and ancestor worship for Koreans; a four day long weekend for me. I went down to see Katie in Hamyang, went across to Jinju (which should have had a lantern festival, but didn't due to Korea's swine-flu hysteria), then back to Gumi. Feel free to zoom in. Does anybody other than my parents read this blog?

Korea

My sixth graders are currently studying five hours a day for a massive exam which determines which middle school they get into, and hence the rest of their lives. I was talking to them today - some are planning on going to the neighbouring Apo Middle School; others are setting their sites on a more selective school. Today they were telling me about their latest practice tests; some scored a triumphant 0, while others got a question wrong and got a dispiriting -1. And some came very late to class due to doing very badly and being kept back; I didn't find out their scores. Presumably, minus two or worse. Tough marking system.

One of my favourite and most difficult class 6 girls is Victory (I didn't name her). She is very bright, does a million activities, and has serious attitude. I can see her going off the rails in a few years. Her favourite English sentences are "Shuddup shuddup!" and "Why?". On my first day in the cafeteria she asked me my name and then declared "I am a genius." She's pretty bright. Yesterday I surprised her and another girl in the second English room playing with the magnetic letters on the board. They jumped and hastily rearranged the letters, leaving a rather telling circle of FCUK. "What's that?" I asked. "Fox," was Victory's snappy comeback.

I have a vague appointment to eat dog meat with the Special Needs teacher. Koreans' seem to find eating dog meat as strange and humorous as Westerners. My mentor teacher was very amused explaining about the Special Needs Teacher's guilty fondness for dog meat. "She has a dog," she said. "To eat?" I asked. "No, no. To take care of. But she likes dog meat. It is very ironic."