Orange Hands and Raw Fish

Sunday morning, Tracy and I went to the Library for another culture program. Apparently it's a community development sort of project they're doing for the benefit of foreigners in town. Each month they have a different event that highlights an aspect of traditional Korean culture. Last month it was a lecture (entirely in Korean) about natural fabric dyes. This month, they loaded us into a bus (the other foreigners are Philippino and Chinese), and brought us to a "farm" location in the country where we did our own dying! The location was beautiful. It's always nice to go somewhere away from the noise of traffic. There were fruit trees, zucchini plants, a cow, some turkeys, a goose, and a million spiders. We were each provided a white t-shirt and a tub of reddish muddy water to soak them in. After rinsing, soaking, and hanging out shirts up to dry, we ate a snack of grapes, corn, and sweet potatoes. The corn and the sweet potatoes are just steamed and served "as is." I guess they're very traditional Korean snacks. And these sweet potatoes don't look quite like what we're used to in the US. They're yellow inside rather than orange, and their texture is closer to that of a regular potato. Anyway, it was a great time! A cultural activity for free :) I made sure the library folks let me get back to Dangjin in time for English service at 1:00. I just barely made it there in time. I helped with the singing again (it's becoming a regular thing), and we had 3 new songs, by my repeated request. I've actually gone through a book they have of Korean versions of many songs I know and chosen a list that I think would be good. Slowly we'll be introducing them. It was nice to have something new. We've sung the same 10 songs so many times.... After church, Mr. Lee #1 had invited my roommates and I to go with him to the sea. Jane and Mr. Lee #2 accompanied us. We went to a fishing center called something like "Anhong." There we saw the fishing boats being unloaded (when I saw them pull up bunches of fish in a net, all I could think of was Finding Nemo: "Swim down! Swim down!" ;) ), and the place where they put them on ice. All along the waterfront there are fish vendors. All kinds of fresh fish. There were also numerous restaurants. Apparently raw fish is very popular in Korea. We could even see ladies gutting the fish right in front of us. Actually, the whole reason Mr. Lee (#1) wanted to take me to the sea was so I could try raw fish. He said it was delicious. So, we found an open air restaurant and sat down. All around the picnic tables there were tanks with different shellfish and other creatures that were still alive. Included was a large tank of small squid. That was what was ordered for us. The shopkeepers proceeded to fish them out of the tank one by one and toss them into another basket. Man, those things are creepy when their legs are going all over the place! That was nothing compared to what happened next. The lady came over to the basket with a pair of scissors and started cutting them apart! First she'd chop the head off, toss the legs into a separate basket (where they'd crawl around like a freaky sea spider or something), then cut a slit up their head and remove the ink sack and other innards. Occasionally one of these cuts would cause the squid to make a squeaking noise! From there she brought everything over to a cutting area, sent the heads through a slicer, and chopped the legs all apart (which didn't completely stop them from moving). This all went directly into baskets and onto our table. During this process I really felt like I was part of "Fear Factor" or something. Because we (the foreigners) were a little iffy about the raw fish, they also got some roasted squid. This apparently was just a whole squid wrapped in foil, cooked, and then sliced apart. All the ink and "squid poop" was still inside. Well, I know you're wondering if I ate it. I did. I ate some of everything. Actually, quite a bit of everything. My roommates couldn't stomach much (they were a little ill from the night before), and I knew it was expensive, so I ate raw squid, and roasted squid--even parts with ink and stuff! I was pretty proud of myself :). After awhile they sent some of the raw stuff to be boiled. That was nicer. We're used to that from soups and other dishes. Anyway, none of it tasted awful. It really didn't have too much of a taste. The taste comes from the sauce you dip it in. There's a spicy red sauce, a red bean sauce, and a green wasabi sauce (that I steered clear of). Although it wasn't that bad, looking back on the pictures (and videos of squid being chopped), I am pretty horrified that I ate that stuff. You'll have to see the pictures, but I can't post them at this moment. I will get them up eventually, though :) After the squid escapade, we got some ice cream and cookies and then went to a vineyard and sat and ate grapes. These were lovely seedless green grapes like I'm used to from the states. Generally around here you get purple grapes that have big seeds and sour skins. It was a nice treat. I felt like I had been thoroughly spoiled by the end of the day. Mr. Lee (#1) treated us to everything! What a day!