Chapter Thirty-Two: The Octopus

Warning: This post is pretty much entirely about eating a live octopus. If the idea of this offends you in any way, you might want to stop reading now. It gets graphic. Apologies to my vegan readers!
Scroll down to the bottom if you just want to skip ahead to the wriggling video action.
This is usually what it looks like when we go out to eat. I have no idea how we have so many plates and bowls, but we always do. Last night, the restaurant lady even started serving our food on top of stacks of other dishes.



When Dini, Nicole, and Arthur decided to get an octopus (which I cannot eat, having tested as allergic to seafood and not wanting to test this allergy in Korea), I was worried that I would seem culturally insensitive if I took pictures. We were the only people in the restaurant and though Dini gave me crap, he was okay with it. Here, he took my camera and took pictures of her cutting up the live octopus.

He also took this picture of the tank in which the little guys live. Seriously, for people like their sushi or seafood fresh, can you beat this?

You cannot really tell in this picture, but the octopus' suction cups are stuck to Dini's lip. He is struggling to pull it off. You can see his lip being pulled too.

"Gotcha!"

The octopus on the plate.

Nicole washing it down with a little soju.

The grizzly remains. You can see the head on the right. The next few pictures are of what happened to said head. It bothered Nicole and I a little bit because it had these big blue eyes that were watching us. They decided, in true Korean fashion, that the best way to pick who would eat the head was Rock, Paper, Scissors. At first, it was going to just be Arthur and Dini. But Nicole and I had to but in and ask, "Wait, wait, do you eat it if you win or if you lose?" It was apparently obvious to both of them that you eat it if you lose. Unfortunately, bringing up this discussion made them realize that Nicole wasn't planning on partaking. They would only play if she would. Nicole was terrified that she would have to eat it. I have never seen such relief as when she got out in the first round.

Dini lost, but he took it in stride. He dipped it in some sauce.

And then, of course, to freak us out had to play with it a little bit.

"Mmm, juicy."

"I can feel the eyes pop."

But Nicole, how do you really feel?

What you've all been waiting for, video:

Chapter Twenty: Halloween with the adults

Welcome to Halloween with the adults! We went out to a brewery that is popular with Westerners and Koreans alike. There were actually a lot of people dressed in costumes and it was great. The best part was the Filipino band dressed as the X-Men doing a lot of 80's and 90's American pop music. You just can't make this stuff up. And again, video! Again, very loud. It'll take a few seconds to figure out what's going on, but once you do, it's amazing.

A friend of Dini's dressed as Samuel L. Jackson, ala Pulp Fiction.

Mario and the pirate outside of school.

As a team, we are totally freakin' badass. Or... baaaahdass. I really wanted to call this "One Baaaahdass Mutha-fuckin' Halloween."

Time for dancin'!

Guns blazin'.

The fake 'stashes were passed around quite a bit. Clearly, I had to wear one and look thoughtful.

Nicole and Dini, planning their next bank job.

Mario... after a few too many. (But not really, just playing with the stashes)

Everyone really wanted to take pictures with Arthur. I mean, at least twenty people asked him to take pictures. I loooove this little Korean kid doing a Mario pose.


And Nicole is such a kindergarten teacher that, of course, she finds little kids to dance with instead of adults. I followed suit quickly.

These photos all come from Nicole who has a much better way with a digital camera:
The whole gang at our table. We were one of the largest groups of people together in costume!

More stash.

According to Nicole, Mario is jumping to punch an invisible block. I agree.
Arthur and I have the moves. The thing about these photos is that I don't think I even realized we were dancing like that. And we didn't stop for a pose, Nicole is just that good.

Doin' the shopping cart?

I am so sad that I was at the bathroom and missed this moment.

We're so bad... or maybe just tired.

Wait no, we are bad.

Baaaaahd. (No Mom, I didn't take up smoking, it was just necessary for the photo).

Lining up for the costume contest. The whole place was cheering for Mario, but they awarded prizes to people with simple witch hats. Laaaaaame.

This was definitely the best Halloween in Korea I could have asked for.