Cory And Katy

This was a weekend filled with new and excited experiences. I’ve been hearing a lot about something called “Dr. Fish” since I’ve got here, so on Thursday night, I finally decided to go with my friends Greta and Star to check out a Dr. Fish cafe.

Dr. Fish are little fish who eat dead skin cells. It’s like the opposite of sushi- fish who eat raw human. At the Dr. Fish cafe (which we spent over an hour looking for) we enjoyed some food and drinks before heading over to fish-filled troughs which we stuck our feet in and let the fish have their way with us. Need a visual?

Feasting Fish

So, this isn’t actually one of our feet, but we all forgot our cameras, so I stole this off of somebody else’s blog. The feeling of the fish was really, really weird for the first half hour. Watching a fish swim at your foot so that he can chew on it is a little freaky. After half an hour though, the nibbling sensation just began to feel like a mini massage.

Friday, Star and I left work early to meet up with Cory and continue our fishy fun at an anchovy festival. My town, Gijang, is the anchovy festival capital of South Korea, and boy, do they know how to get down with their fish.

mmmm, mouthwatering cuisine

Thank goodness... I had a hankering for random whale parts.

I don't even know what this is.

This a very traditional way of harvesting the anchovies... but we definitely got smacked by flying anchovies more than once, and that stank don't go away.

These ladies are popping off the anchovy heads and squeezing out the guts.

This lady used and abused us with her drunken dancing. At one point, she tried to physically force soju down my mouth. It worked out though, because her friends made up for it by buying us fried anchovies and beer!

Star and Cory doing their best impression of Daebyon Harbor's mascot anchovies

The anchovy festival was really great and as the only 3 foreigners there, Cory, Star, and I got a lot of attention. The festival’s PR people got a video of us and took pictures of us, and we left the harbor full of food, without paying for a thing. We can’t wait for the next festival!

We have always told you that we are ninjas, but we think you never actually believed us. Are you calling us liars?! Well, folks, it is time for us to tell you that we told you so.

Tonight, we received our blue belts. For those of you unfamiliar with martial arts, the belts begin at white, then yellow, and then blue. However, when you are already ninjas, like we are, you get to go from white to blue, like we did. Yes!! We have blue belts!!

Do you want to see pictures? Yes? Well, here you go!

We are now settled and getting cozy in our town of Gijang. Cozy is a nice way of putting it, because our studio apartment Katy’s school set us up in is very, very… cozy. Actually, we just learned that the Korean name for such apartments is wonrum. Get it? Get it? No worries though… this type of apartment is generally what English teachers get. Ours is at least clean, somewhat modernized, and within walking distance to everything we need. The only con is that we basically have to do a backbend over our bathroom sink to wash our hair.

In one shot you can see our kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, dining room, living room, and bedroom.

Over the weekend, we decided to explore some neat things our town has to offer. We hiked up a nearby mountain and got a great view of Gijang. We could even see how close the sea is to our house! Lots of other people were hiking that day and when we reached the peak, a couple of different families offered us some of their food after seeing we only brought a couple of oranges with us. Apparently, the big thing is to bring a huge spread up to the top of the mountain and eat there for lunch. We heard some families even bring grills with them! Anyway, one family in particular made us sit down and eat their meal with them. Delicious!

This is the view of our town from the top of the mountain.

The happy hikers.

This is the nice family who shared their kimchee with us.

We took a different way down and came across a small Buddhist temple. Some of the women in the kitchen made us come in and they gave us fruit and coffee. One of the monks even sat down with us and tried out some of his English. After we ate, we were full and we hadn’t even paid for any food all day! So far in our journey, we’ve encountered nothing but hospitality and generosity. After a short tour the facilities, the monk pointed us up towards a fresh spring, and we followed a path up to find some of the most delicious water we’ve ever had.

Buddha-belly luck!

It's like you can see the inner peace in my eyes.

Best. Water. Ever.

Sorry it’s been so long between posts. We’ll try to be better! Don’t forget about us! We’re still alive!  And if you want to see more pictures, you can check out our gallery in the sidebar or my (Katy’s) facebook page.