I'm excited for tomorrow.  I'm going to Yangyang for the Namdaecheon Salmon Festival.  As some people know, I love salmon.  It's my favorite fish.  For 20,000 won ($15.38 USD), ticket holders have the opportunity to wade into an enclosed shallow stream and catch a huge salmon with their bare hands!  Tickets went on sale almost two months ago, but sold out in 5 hours!  As most people in Korea know, nothing is impossible.  It's just a matter of who you know.  I know Christa, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, so I got a ticket a few days ago.  I've never had Korean salmon, so it'll be interesting to see what it tastes like.

This is a link to the Yangyang Inland Fisheries Research Institute, which is trying to bring back the salmon population in Yangyang.  There's some good background information about the festival.  CherryTrout.com is a site about fishing in Korea, and has a picture of the species of salmon that is in Yangyang, called Chum and Sima salmon.  This is the official Yangyang Salmon Festival Website.

---  My salmon is going to be MUCH bigger than this little boy's from last year! Chun salmon (above), Sima salmon (below) photo credit: cherrytrout.com

Breaking news!  Korean scientists have proved what foreigners here have know all along... that while eating at a food card, dipping your odeng into the communal soy sauce dish is (gasp!)unsanitary.  Duh!  I like this quote: "On a good business day, the saliva of hundreds may be mixed in that dish of soy sauce. And consider yourself fortunate if the dish of soy sauce was used just for one day."  According to the Chosunilbo, just because that old Korean man shakes away excess soju after finishing his shot, in order to pour yours, does not make it germ free.  No matter how hard he shakes that little shotglass, it doesn't reduce your chances of getting saliva-transmitted infections like hepatitis.  While we're on this subject of cleanliness, why do people choose to eat from food carts that are on bustling streets, where many cars drive by, blowing out exhaust in proximity of the food.  I'm not dissing food carts, I like odeng and dapoki, but choose to eat at ones that look somewhat sanitary.