Monday, February 27, 2006

A scary story...not for those with weak stomaches

Although I try hard to keep an open mind when it comes to living in Korea, some things just make me cringe from a deep place and want to scream as I run the other way.

Let me explain....

Normally when I walk to work, I tend to take a short cut through a parking lot that is adjacent to some small restaurants. At the back of the parking lot there is a small shed that may or may not be someone’s place of business. I am not exactly sure what this shed is, but on most days there is an older Korean man kind of meandering around...I think he may fix motorbikes, but I am not sure. The man has a few dogs that I can only assume are around to keep trespassers away from his shed and whatever it is that he does there.

A coworker of mine has affectionately named one of the dogs “scraggles” and the other is known only as “scraggles’ friend”. Scraggles and his friend are light-brown haired dogs of some unknown breed. The dogs are mangy and quite dirty, but as dogs go, they are pretty cute and generally friendly to me as I make my way through their parking lot.

At the end of the parking lot there is a restaurant with it’s name curiously translated in English to read “Korean food similar to sausage”. Now as previously mentioned, I always try to keep an open mind, and although I found this translation to be nothing short of humorous, I haven’t given it much thought (after all, many Korean signs translated into English are pretty humorous...I once saw a bakery called ‘the Backery” and a funny little restaurant called “the meat bank”).

I must interject that I have not ever eaten at this place, nor am I exactly sure what ‘similar to sausage’ implies. Nonetheless, I have passed this restaurant with little but passing interest ...that is until a few weeks ago.

It was on this morning, as I passed through the parking lot, I saw Scraggles standing near the back of the restaurant near some garbage that had been piled near the back door. He had obviously worked his way into one of the garbage bags and was engrossed in whatever it was he was trying to eat.

Now, I should have known better then to walk over and take a look at what it was that had this little puppy so busy, but being the curious sort, I caught a glimpse as I walked past.

To my horror, Scraggles was chewing on the face of some unrecognizable animal.

As I looked around, I could see a few other chewed skulls lying on the ground, in addition to the one he had in his mouth.

Now, I don’t actually know what this animal was. Upon closer examination it appeared that it couldn’t be a cow...too small. It couldn’t be a pig...again not the right size and too many teeth. As my mind raced to figure out what other animal it could be it hit me.....this skull came from the restaurant’s garbage!!!

I shouted at “Scraggles” to get away from the skull, but it was no use. I quickly ran to work. When I got to work that day, I asked my Korean coworkers and they were just as shocked as I was.

Now I have no idea what this was, or why Scraggles was eating what appeared to be another dog’s face. Nor do I know why after two weeks, more skulls keep appearing in the parking lot. All I am sure about is that I will never eat at that restaurant and I have been keeping my head down as I walk through the parking lot....don’t want to give the puppy any more ideas.


Some of the skulls that Scraggles was chewing on.


More of the 'tasty' treats


Korean food similar to sausage...yeah right.

3 Comments:

At 9:43 a.m. , Anonymous Anonymous said...

ok- those photos are genuinely creepy. (They call that "evidence" where I come from :-)

 
At 10:31 a.m. , Anonymous Anonymous said...

The sign says "soon-dae," which is pork. It does look like a pig skull;

http://www.skullsite.co.uk/Pig/pigdom.htm

 
At 11:11 p.m. , Blogger Colleen said...

Thanks for the info...pig skull or not...it's creepy and not likley something I will be consuming anytime soon. And yes...the skulls are still scattered across the parking lot.

 

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