I know my chicken...

... you got to know your chicken.

Koreans do. If there is one thing in specific that Koreans do well, food-wise, it's make a tasty, tasty chicken.

Recently, I've discovered this truck. It roves about the city, almost randomly, and out of the back of it one can obtain THE BEST ROAST CHICKEN EVER!!! It's called barbeque chicken here, and it's cooked six-to-a-skewer, rotisserie-style. I know what you're thinking, "Chicken out of the back of a truck? Um, sure... sounds safe." However, Laura and I have had it twice now without any ill effects. It is sooooooooooo good. They spice it just right, the skin is perfectly crispy and it comes with a tasty mustard sauce and a bit of seasoned salt. Drool. I hope the truck is my area tonight because I want some again.

Truck chicken isn't the only type of chicken Koreans prepare well, though. They make some damned good fried chicken, the best being yang-nyum chicken which is drenched in a sticky red sauce and sprinkled with peanut bits. A soup made with a whole chicken stuffed with rice (samga-tang, which I think I've mentioned previously) is also immensely good. Add to that the chicken cooked with a hair dryer and smothered in spicy sauce (dalk dori-tang (dalk is chicken), which isn't always cooked with a hair dryer, only one place does that), and the uber-spicy chicken chunks that go oh-so-well with beer and I think I can honestly say that there is no other country in the world that knows it's chicken quite like Korea does. I know this because I've been to every country. Yes.

***

Onto other topics, Laura and I have completed our applications for Simon Fraser University. It's just a matter of waiting for the transcripts to get there and for them to review it all before we start applying for student loans and such. We're rather excited, if a little scared. We both want to take honours degrees, I also want to add a minor. Laura is looking at sociology and I am looking to enhance my archaeology degree with anthropology (minor in Latin American studies). With the way the SFU departments work, that would actually put is in the same department (the Anthropology and Sociology Department, if you weren't sure), which is rather great if you ask me.

We're both pretty excited about coming home in the summer, seeing everyone, and getting set up in Vancouver, but as that's so far off, we're mostly concentrating on enjoying the rest of our time here. We're planning a trip to Seoul in the next few weeks and I would like to go to Pohang to greet Mark when he arrives. As well, Laura's brother, Jon, is coming for three weeks in March/April and the three of us are going to make a trip to Japan. After that (or hopefully, during), the weather should turn pretty nice and short trips to various other Korean places will be in order. Making this even more fun is the fact that Laura should be getting her brand new digital camera today or tomorrow (a Nikon 8700, but you can read her blog to find out more), so some picture taking fun will be inevitable.

All in all, things seem pretty exciting for us right now, which is good because December and early January weren't a whole lot of fun, what with various sicknesses and being all around busy the whole time. We're all smiles now, which can look a little odd as smiles aren't overly natural on body parts other than the mouth and maybe the eyes.

That's all.

Guy