Festival and raw fish surprises
Current mood: uncomfortable

On Saturday I went to the Gwangalli beach festival with my hapkido master and a few friends. I'm not really sure what the festival was celebrating, but there was a stage with live music, a few displays of photos and masks, random groups of drummers on the beach, and fireworks. Fireworks are always good! After wandering the beach for a while, we decided we needed food before the fireworks began. Master Yoon recommended his student's family's restaurant, which serves live, raw fish. It's called live raw fish and not sushi because it is swimming in a tank just moments before it arrives on your table.

Master Yoon's student arrived at the table to say hello (well, ok, to say an-yung!) and we discovered that he was one of the new little students at our school as well. Amy and I both teach this little guy in our extra classes.

Anyways, it was one of those restaurants where you take off your shoes in the entryway and sit on the floor near a low table. Our table was completely covered in side dishes immediately, and we had barely made a dent when the sliced fish arrived. We also ordered soju (Korean liquor like a cross between vodka and rubbing alcohol) and at the end of the meal, we were served fish head soup. I'm not kidding. But that's actually not the gross part of the meal. As a treat, because it was a table full of their son's teachers, the restaurant owners gave us a bottle of a very expensive well-being drink. It smelled strongly like medicine and a little like ginseng. Master Yoon didn't know how to explain what it was, so we all took a shot of the nasty stuff that's supposed to be good for you...and then he pulled out his little electronic dictionary and what came up nearly made me lose my raw fish. The words I distinctly remember are "gallbladder bile," and they extract it from the fish I guess. I don't know about the medicinal properties of galbladder bile, but I do know that it tastes NASTY and I hope to never receive it as a gift from a student's parents again.

Ew.