Dr.fish

I'd heard about Dr. Fish, but didn't know much about them. Basically Dr. Fish refers to a type of fish who feed on dead skin.  What happens is the patients stick their feet into a tank of these fishies, and these fishes go to work feeding on the dead skin, allowing the new skin to grow. It has its critics as I found out later, but I'm glad we went for the experience.

After finding the coffee cafe, we paid 6,000 won (around $6) for our smoothies and drinks- one per person, and an added $2000 for the Dr. Fish experience. I'd been expecting a spa, or beauty clinic, but instead it was located in a normal, slightly extravagantly priced cafe.  We waited for our turn patiently.  Once beckoned, our feet were cleaned and rinsed, and were directed to the tank of fish in the ground.  The feet swarmed around our feet, softly gnawing at our dead skin.  It felt like tiny suction cups, and made us all scream from the tickling sensations.  Once we found the courage, we made our way to the larger fish tank, where the two inch fish with much larger mouths went to work on our evidently gnarly feet.  These fishies mouths felt more like sandpaper than the smaller guys, and like in the smaller fish tank, we had to work hard not to kick our feet in reaction which greatly disturb the fish.  Kyle was especially funny to watch, as he squealed like a little girl being tickled.  It was great fun, and a strikingly new experience.  I'm not sure how much good they actually did, or if the health benefits are actually what are touted, but I fully enjoyed the experience. There are many places around not only South Korea, but the world which provide these services, but I've listed below the directions to the specific one we visited for those interested in following in our footsteps.

 Gangnam’s Dr. Fish Cafe: 02-599-1210

To get to the Dr. Fish Cafe in Gangnam, go to Gangnam station, exit 6. Walk a few blocks and it is in the building next to Krispy Kreme on the 2nd floor.

Making pizza the Korean way

As I have mentioned in the past.  Friday in preschool is "theme day." This past theme class was cooking- cooking pizza.  Except this was no ordinary pizza- oh no, this was special Korean pizza.

How does one cook Korean pizza?
1. get bread- most likely plain white bread
2. put tomato sauce on this bread
3. spread mashed sweet potatoes.  Yes, I did say sweet potatoes and yes I am aware that we are making pizza.  Remember, this is Korean pizza.
4. sprinkle onions and bell peppers which are called paprika in this country.  I don't know why.
5. cover in fake soy cheese which tastes like plastic.
6. place in oven and watch cook.
Honestly I was surprised that there was no corn.  There is never a pizza in Korea without corn. Even cheese pizza has corn on it because obviously you didn't mean "just" cheese.

So how did our pizza making day go?  It was a trial of patience, that is for sure.  First of all the kids had to have their cute aprons on, because you must be dressed for every occasion.
And then came the problem of the counters being incredibly high.  We had to find chairs that the kiddies could stand on so that they could make their pizza.  Often times when they were given the job of spreading something, they actually knocked off the toppings so that they were no longer on the pizza but on the pan, but really that was to be expected.
How did the pizza turn out?  I'm personally not a fan.  Maybe that makes me a pizza snob, and if so, then so be it. But the kids had fun, and that was the point.

In their cute aprons.

this has to be my favorite picture of the day.  look at Jerrome's face!

eating the pizza

they think it is yummy.

and so does my Korean co-teacher.  It is Korean pizza after all!

North Korea is at it again...

For those of you who haven't heard yet, we're fine. Nothing to worry about yet so everyone can relax (talkin to you mom WINK). If you don't know what happened just take a quick glance at any of the major news networks, ORRRR you could just read my lil take on the whole ordeal right here!

In my opinion, this can be almost directly compared to an Elementary school playground gang war. NK has never liked SK since that one day that NK tried to bully SK and all of SK's bigger, stronger friends got involved. Even before that little tiff NK was always a bit jealous of SK for always having spending money to buy a coke at lunch with and always having the newest Air Jordans but mostly just because all the big kids liked SK and never wanted to play with NK very much. So every now and then NK has to do SOMETHING to show SK that they ain't all that and a bag of chips and more importantly NK has to show all of the big kids that theyz bad and if anyone messes with em, they gonna get schooled Supreme Leader style.

So what happened yesterday was not necessarily routine, but also not exactly unexpected. Essentially, SK got too close to NK's side of the playground AGAIN and threw the first stone! So NK tossed a few stink bombs over at the monkey bars which to be honest wasn't THAT big of a deal as no one really plays on the monkey bars very much, so SK tossed a bunch back at them and shot some spit wads and such and now everyone has run back to their bases and are plotting what to do next. So right now, NK is pretty P.O.ed and is just waiting for the day that the big kid on their side, China gives them the go ahead to just run up and kick SK in the gonads but at the moment, China has a bunch of friends that like to hang out on the swings on SK's side of the playground so that just wouldn't be cool cause, let's face it, NK doesn't have very good aim and while they MIGHT hit SK in the gonads, they're gonna be kicking a whole bunch of people in the gonads in the process sooooo, we should all just wait and see what China decides to do.

IF, and this is a big if, China decides to call their friends off the swings and back over to NK's side of the playground then we will be booking 2 tickets stateside asap, otherwise I think it's safe to assume that this was just another one of those temper tantrums that NK has every now and then when no one is paying any attention to them.

The fact is, NK is that cranky kid who comes from a rough upbringing on the crappy side of town but hates being thought of as less important. I'm not saying that it justifies what they did yesterday and I certainly don't mean to belittle the fact that people were killed and several seriously injured. That is NEVER not a big deal. But in the grand scheme of things, all this talk about "War" and "escalation" is pure spin and has very little evidence to support it. So like I said, when the big kids start treating this as a more serious situation, then so will we, otherwise don't worry folks. It's just another day in the life around here.