Seongdeok MS Field Trip

Since this week is midterms for my 7th graders, my visiting school invited me to go on a teacher's field trip with them. I originally thought we were going to see a temple, but did a lot of other things instead.

We got on the bus after lunch and I thought we would be on the road for maybe an hour. Well, it was further north than Jeonju, where we had our orientation. It took about 2 hours to get there! The city was a small city called Gongju, and I wasn't really sure why we were there. I asked my co-teacher, Hyunju, what we were going to do. She said, "I told you before we are visiting a school." Well, okay, I'd forgotten that. She said that this school is more American than others because the kids move classes, not the teachers. Most schools in Korea have the teachers move, and my school is considering changing their ways.

We got to the school, and our coach bus was so tall that we caught a welcome banner strung across the road to the school. Rather than back up and have the teachers (about 30 of us) walk down the road, some of the male teachers took out a pocket knife and cut the banner down! I thought that was funny, since it would have been about a 2 minute walk!

The school was much older than mine, built in 1971. There were three grades (7-9) with a total of 93 students. We had a quick meeting in the library about the pro's and con's of having the students move classes. After, we were free to walk around the school and see the facilities. I have to say, I really lucked out with my school being brand new! However, one thing that was cool was that their English room was called the "English Palace."

We got back on the bus after taking a group picture, and continued with our field trip. I didn't want to ask my co-teacher again why we were at the school, so I tried a different way of asking the same question. She's a smart lady, and told me that we went because the students move classes. It seemed strange to travel 2 hours to listen to a 15 minute presentation. I'm still not really clear why we had to go all the way there, but whatever.

We rode the bus for over an hour, I wasn't sure in which direction. When I opened my eyes, we were at the coast, and it looked familiar. It turns out it was the same beach were my friends and I had our fresh seafood lunch a few weeks back. This time, we drove out onto the spit and I was able to get some beautiful sunset pictures, and one with my co.

For dinner, I knew we'd be having raw seafood, so I was trying to keep an open mind. I definitely tried lots of new things! We had a variety of seafood platters with fish, crab, shrimp, octopus, and other strange looking things. There was one fish that look especially odd. I asked Hyunju what it was called and she said, "I can't tell you at the dinner table!" I wasn't sure if I wanted to try it after that, but she insisted that it was good but chewy and to tell me later on what it was. It was dark pink/purple and about the size and shape of my pinky. To put it nicely, it looked suspiciously like a part of the male anatomy and raw! I only had one of those because I was afraid of what it was!

I had also been wanting to try the octopus that is still moving on the plate when they bring it out, even though it is dead. It was just my day. I wasn't really set on trying it, but when it was placed in front of me, how could I not. My camera battery was dying, so unfortunately I only got an 11 second video, but it's better than nothing. Man, was that weird! It was the same sort of octopus that I've been eating for the last 2 months, but since this was JUST killed, it was still squirming on the plate, just like worms do. There was some sort of sesame sauce on top. I was a little freaked, but Hyunju told me that this dish is her three year old daughters favorite dish. There was no way I was not going to try it! It was difficult to use the chopsticks to pick it up because it was sucking on the plate and once I did manage to pick it up, it was so strange to see it moving. Hyunju wanted me to try a small piece first, but I thought, "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it!" I put a relatively large piece in my mouth and it was chewy! It didn't stick too much to the sides of my mouth, but did a little. I thought that I was going to feel it crawling down the back of my throat, but it didn't. Once I chewed it for a few bites it stopped moving.

I ended up having about 5 different pieces of it, and it was quite tasty. I'm familiar with the taste because it is quite common, and in many dishes. The stuff that I had been eating had been killed quite a while before I've ever seen it, so that's why it didn't move. Apparently, it moves for up to about 20 minutes after it has been killed.


Another dinner highlight included me showing a male teacher just what a soju bomb was. He's a drinker, and took it like a champ. On the bus home, he was definitely feeling the buzz and was pretty entertaining. When we were almost home, I forgot to ask my teacher what that strange thing we had eaten was. She laughed and laughed, and told me that it is called "Dog Penis!" I responded by saying, "I thought we were having FISH!!" She explained that it is a fish, but the proper name really is Dog Penis, because of the shape of the fish. I seriously thought I had just eaten a bit of dog penis! Luckily, it was just a fish. Here is a picture of what it looks like, but what I had looked a bit different. I'll post a picture of it soon:




To say the least, it was an exciting day full of suprises. We got back around 9 pm, and I was pooped! The teacher's field trip was a success and I'd love to do the octopus thing again, but this time I'll pass on the "Dog Penis."