Yes, my dogs can share, but they don't like it. Pickings are a bit slim here right now. I hate to go out and buy more dog beds when I have several that will be here in a few months. Will the dogs be able to share until then? Likely not, since Tweek and Pepsi will be here soon.
Today Alyse, Bill and I went into Pyeongtaek to do some shopping in an open market they have. Turns out that market was mostly food items, and they had a little of everything! Live fish, crabs, lobster, eels, skate, squid....dried items of all the above....lots of fruits and vegetables.....chickens, pork.....nope, we didn't see any dog. This market during the week does offer dog meat for sale. Koreans also keep dogs as pets, and they distinguish between dogs for meat and dogs for work and dogs for companions. Most of the working dogs are a white husky type. Most of the pet dogs are small, and it is a fairly common thing to see light colored long haired small dogs with their ears and tails died orange or purple or green. I should have taken a picture of the one we saw today, but I didn't think about it. (I am awful when it comes to remembering to take a photograph, always have been.)
Pancho hogs the bed whenever he can. Marie and Dollar eventually worm their way in around him, then he moves.
Becca has had the easiest time adjusting. Here she is in one of her favorite positions: on her back, snuggled between my thigh and the arm of the chair.
Our first night here (Wednesday night for us but it would have been Wednesday morning at home; South Korea is 13 hours AHEAD of Georgia right now; when y'all fall back, we'll only be 12), we went into Pyeongtaek to the AK Plaza. This is a massive, 8 story shopping/movie/restaurant complex, which also hosts a kids' swimming pool on the roof during the summer. Pools are rare in ROK (Republic of Korea is South Korea's official name; North Korea is People's Republic of Korea or PROK), and Bill said it was fun watching the adults and the kids interact with the water. The shopping here is like Oglethorpe Mall: anchor stores with small shops in between, a food court, etc. We went to a restaurant that Bill had eaten at before and did our best to order. It was difficult because apparently the English speaking wait staff are there on the weekends. One young lady brought over her phone and had me speak into it to translate into Korean. It didn't help much, but we were able to order. The food is cooked at the table on a hot plate of sorts. This is very traditional Korean; our home has a gas stove on one side and the electric hot plate on the other side. It was a lot of food, no carbohydrates except for the rice bread.
This was the beginning of the meal. Those are heart shaped patties of ground beef in the pan with onion, mushroom, and some type of squash cooked around. They had already placed about 8 different side dishes on the table prior to the meat and vegies being cooked. The side dishes were salad, kimchee (yum! for my spicy loving tummy!), cucumber chili pepper--thanks to the phone translator, we learned this jalapeno-looking pepper was not hot at all, more like a bell pepper in flavor--and several pickled items: a cabbage that was not hot, mushroom. There was also a mashed sweet potato item that everyone liked. Oh, and the bread, oh my, rice bread, sweet and thick and sticky and delicious! The sauce on the lower left of the picture was a bit spicy but not too much.
After the beef patties were cooked and mostly consumed, the staff returned and used pieces of white bread to sop up the leftover grease. They then proceeded to cook the shaved beef, bean sprouts, and enoki mushrooms for the last course. I forgot to tell you about the squash soup we ate at the very beginning... The shaved beef was not as flavorful as the ground beef, and it was super fatty, but we weren't shy and we ate most of it. To drink, we were offered rice water. Alyse couldn't get her tastebuds to accept that, so she had a soft drink and Bill had a glass of wine, but I was fine with the rice water. I had to ask for forks, but to my credit, I did not use mine. I did fairly well with my chopsticks and even watched a Korean diner use hers and did my best to copy her actions. I think next time I won't even ask for a fork.
We were stuffed to the gills when we left, but Alyse and I were both hungry not long after! We had snacks at the house fortunately. I hope you have enjoyed our latest adventure. Take care!
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