Snow Day!
It finally snowed in Gangneung. It started to rain on Sunday afternoon, and by early Sunday evening, it had turned over to wet, slushy snow. By Monday morning, we had maybe 18 inches of nice fluffy powder. Beautiful.
Our co-teacher called and said that classes were canceled. Teachers still needed to come in, however. We tromped to school where we found the other teachers shoveling out the parking lot and the roads that lead to it. Erin and I grabbed shovels and got to work. After maybe 45 minutes, the principal showed up and sent Erin back inside. (”Women shoveling? Unheard of.”) I kept at it for another 45 minutes. It was a lot of fun, actually. Most of the teachers were in pretty good spirits, myself included.
After the shoveling was finished, they set up tables outside the front door and served kimchi, tofu, and malaki (a sweet rice wine). Once that was finished, we had soup and more makali in the science lab. Then we sat at our desks for an hour and went home at noon. I can say with great certainty that this was the best work day ever.
Check out the pictures:
Edit — Erin has most of these photos, along with some others, posted here.
The photo speaks for itself
So I’ve officially eaten dog. Puppy, to be precise. I’d better explain things before I start getting hate mail from the PETA types. Dog is a fairly common food in Korea. It seems less popular with the younger generation, and less popular with women, but it’s certainly not unheard-of.
On Monday we had a half-day because of midterms, and afterwards all of the teachers were to go hiking. Prior to the trip, they asked us what we would like to eat. The choices were chicken and dog. Being the adventurous (and perhaps callous) type, I opted for dog.
The hike was a nice relaxing walk up a hill next to a stream. After a couple hours, we re-convened at the restaurant near the base of the hill. Side dishes were served, and before long the waitress brought out a steaming platter of puppy.
The meat was surprisingly tasty. A bit chewy, and with an interesting flavor. Maybe a touch gamey, but not in a bad way. Just enough to make it interesting. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much actual meat on the plate. Most of it was skin and organs, which Koreans eat without hesitation. I, however, am not a big fan of skin or liver, regardless of the source. The entree was a big bowl of puppy soup, which was excellent. Not much meat to be had, but excellent flavor nonetheless.
Apparently, Koreans believe that dog meat is good for regaining strength. They suggest that women eat it after childbirth. Men seem to eat it to increase their manliness. Erin said the younger female teachers seemed to regard it as a silly male thing.
It caused quite a stir among the teachers when I sat down at the dog table. Apparently they were very surprised that I had chosen it. Maybe that’s just because I’m a bit of a picky eater here. (I still can’t stand the sight/smell/taste of squid.) They didn’t seem offended, just surprised. I don’t really know what to make of that.
Lots of people are really offended by eating dog because they have dogs as pets. This doesn’t really bother me, provided I don’t think about it too hard. In my mind, there’s a certain distinction between pets and farm animals, and these dogs weren’t raised as pets. Maybe people object because they think dogs are smarter than sheep/cow/goats/etc. Maybe that’s true, but I’ve met plenty of stupid dogs. I’m just going to assume that I ate a dumb one.
It wasn’t the best meat I’ve ever had, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. I’d give it a B- overall. One question remains, however: What do they use to herd the flocks on a dog farm?
