Winding Down

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I haven't written in a while because my life's been relatively low-key since the mud festival. Normal social outings with fellow teachers and Koreans, nothing really to brag about. I have gone over to my friend James' house a couple times and we've cooked up some stellar dishes in the past week. I miss having American ingredients at the ready. I had a Korean co-worker go to live and study at Mizzou University for a month, she came back saying that most American food tastes really salty. I wonder if I will experience the same effect upon my return...
I have had an incredibly un-American ingredient twice now in Korea. It is called boshintang, or dog stew. I'm not sure what kind of dog we're dealing with here but I never got to meet him/her, I only got to meat him/her. Sorry PETA members, but boshintang is pretty delicious. The meat looks and tastes similar to beef only more tender. The soup is spicy and rich with a lot of greens in it. The first place I had this dish was at a pretty clean restaurant, lots of people -both men and women. There were many side dishes to go with the soup. The second place I went was kind of tucked away under a bunch of trees near the industrial park. It wasn't very clean and when I arrived there were men sitting outside at grungy plastic picnic tables chain smoking. In fact, the only women in the restaurant were the employees. Obviously the second restaurant's boshintang tasted better. When is that not the case? The dish is reserved specifically to be eaten during a certain period of summer, you've heard of the "dog days of summer" right? The after effects were at first lethargy but a couple hours later I was extremely energetic. Only something I could try in Korea.

The past week/weekend I had some of my vacation time. It was a six day vacation to be exact. I feel quite unimpressed with how I spent the time because I didn't go anywhere or see anything. I simply got a lot of sleep, caught up on my house chores, and watched too much tv online. If I had more money and people to spend the time with I think it would have been a more enjoyable time away from work. The reason I was so spending-averse is that I am planning to visit Thailand in September and the plane tickets aren't going to be cheap. I am trying to cut back any way I can. At one point I was contemplating even wanting to go. One week's adventure in exchange for three months' rent? But then I realized I won't have an opportunity like this again soon and twenty years from now when I consider the amount of money negligable I don't want to have any regrets. I'm sitting here with two months left on my contract. That's seven weeks of teaching and one of vacation. I can't wait to get back home but I'll do my best to tie up the loose ends of this adventure in the meantime.

*P.S. Unless you wanna see how clean my dishes are now, I don't have any pictures for you all this time, sorry.

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