Late Update 2

The following monday we had another great night thanks to Tim-jangnim. A while ago the interns had mentioned to Tim-jangnim that they wanted to try dog meat; I guess he liked us a lot from the cookout, so he agreed to take us to his favorite dog restaurant. From what I heard, dog meat is illegal, but hardly anyone gets in trouble for serving it. It's sort of a specialty, so it was kind of pricey. Since Tim-jangnim knew the owner, we got our private room for dinner. They served the dog steamed, stir-fried and in soup. Kraig said the steamed dog meat tasted like undercooked roast beef, but he liked the stir-fried dish. I did try the soup but now I can't remember the flavor. I did eat about half of it, until I found a piece of meat that looked like it may or may not have been a nipple. Yep. They de-fur it, but cook it with the skin on.

Tim-jangnim made some calls during dinner and then announced that we'd go to Namsan Tower. When we arrived, we were personally greeted by the Tower manager and a couple of his assistants. The Teddy Bear Museum was closed, but he took us in anyways and let us take all the pictures we wanted (wait til you see my fb album!) At the end of the museum, we got a group souvenir picture, courtesy of the manager. Afterward, he escorted us to the front of the line to go to the top of tower, which was fantastic. Outlined on the window are the distances and directions of popular cities in the world, pretty neat. Then we needed a little rest time, so we went down one level to the revolving, fine-dining restaurant where we had a seat and were served glasses of orange juice. Apparently that restaurant is tough to get reservations, most people book it a month in advance. We all said our thanks and then he sent us off to ride the cable car (for free) to the bottom of the hill. We stood in line for a little bit before our guides escorted us past the long, long line to our own dock to get onto the cable car. Lesson learned from Tim-jangnim: know the right people and you'll get a lot of great experiences!