Chungnam Techno Park, Dog Meat, and Kimchi Making

This past week has included some unique cultural happenings apart from the Sports Festival. I suppose I'll start with the earliest....

Last Tuesday, I committed an act that some of you may deem unforgivable: I ate dog meat. Alright, let the initial shock and horror sink in and hear me out. First off, I love dogs, they are great pets and companions. I think that people that abuse any animal is disgusting. Ok, so why would I eat a dog? Dogs are animals. I believe that if an animal is raised as livestock and killed humanely for consumption, there is no distinction or partiality between animals. Korea has raised a particular breed of dog for its meat, thus it is like a pig we raise for bacon. It is livestock. I have lived in this country for over a year, but I had not tried eating something that many of my Korean friends enjoy. There are certain lines that I refuse to cross (ex. bowing to my friends dead ancestors and giving them ricecakes) but when it comes to food, there are very few things I would refuse to try.

So back to Tuesday: My Korean business teacher invited my class to come with him to dinner to try dog meat. We went to a small restaurant out amongst the rice fields to a little mom and pop shop famous in Asan for dog meat. Our teacher ordered a small plate of the meat for us to try along with some side dishes. I thought the meat had the texture of Veal, yet the taste of a combination of Mutton and Pork. Pretty tasty, but seeing that a small plate of it costs roughly $30, I think it will be a one time thing until I come back in the future.

Yesterday, I participated in a yearly school event for foreign students to learn how to make Kimchi. The amateur made Kimchi is then donated to a homeless shelter in Asan. There were about 10 international students participating this year. Kimchi is pretty straightforward to make once you have a good mixture of chili paste. Green onions, garlic, and sometimes seafood (little shrimps) are added to the chili paste to create the right combination of flavor. After you have made this paste, you spread the paste on the cabbage leaves and store it in a cool place for about a year to ferment. You can eat freshly made Kimchi, but it isn't as nearly as tasty without that aged fermented flavor.

In the middle of the Kimchi making party, the president of the university paraded in to pose for some publicity photos with us foreigners. It is always weird to be in school propaganda pictures with us token foreigners, the indication of diversity on campus. After posing with the Kimchi and saying "Kimchi" (which is what you say in Korea instead of "Cheese" making it ironically appropriate for this fermented photo shoot) over a dozen times, we went inside for some Bibimbap provided by the school for this event.

I'm glad I had this chance at a crash course into making Kimchi, seeing that I will be coming home very soon. I will most likely crave Kimchi constantly since it has been the constant of my diet here in Korea. I eat Kimchi for at least two meals a day, at the Byeons every meal. I have become a bit of a Kimchi snob in that I have great contempt for store bought Kimchi. Just like food at home, homemade Kimchi puts the best store bought brands to shame. I want to make my own Kimchi in the USA for those days that I am missing Korea terribly, which will be a lot so I will need to master my Kimchi recipe before leaving.

Today, my business class took a fieldtrip to Chungnam Techno Park, which is the largest Technology community in my province of Korea, the "Silicon valley" of Chungcheonamdo. Korea is home to over a dozen different Techno Parks, each with its own individual technological focus. Chungnam is famous for innovating 3D movie technology. Basically, they contract with Hollywood to convert both old and new movies into 3D format. We watched a few examples of some of the movies they have converted (including Transformers 2, the upcoming Titanic rerelease into 3D, and Saving Private Ryan, which would be extremely intense in 3D). We also had the chance to see some of the other moviemaking aspects included in this Park. We watched a team work on clay animation as well as a sound editor working on a new show for EBS (Educational Broadcast Station, the PBS of Korea). The program for EBS is an animated feature about dinosaurs that lived in Korea. It is geared towards kids, but it was quite intense! I guess Korean kids are more brave than I was when I was little, for petes sake I had nightmares from "Babe!"

Next week is Midterms, so the next few weeks will be a little out of the ordinary with no exchanges. It has also gotten a lot cooler, mid 50's, these past few weeks. I have not broken down and brought out my coat quite yet, but I have a feeling it will happen pretty soon.