You really learn to take more chances when you’re on exchange. Everyone stretches their limits in some way – whether it be big (like skydiving) or small (talking to someone new). But it’s not every day that you get to stretch your limit by trying live octopus!

Vivian, Estevan, and Claudia are in the Yonsei Global One Shot club where they take you around and you can take pictures of the places they take you to. Stef was in Busan the weekend they had an event and I didn’t want to stay home alone so I snuck along with them… awkward because they took attendance and then they were confused for a long time because the numbers didn’t match up. But thankfully Vivian finally told them I was there and could I come and I was allowed to come along!

We went to Gwangjang Market (광장시장) and man were there a lot of people. I originally thought we were going to Noryangjin Market but it was nice here too!

We first ate some bibimbap and dumplings. But those aren’t as important since you can get those anywhere else.

The main highlight of the entire blog post is the live octopus – 산낙지!

The ahjumma first holds up the octopus by the tentacles so you can take pictures of it.

Then she chops up all the tentacles – she didn’t give us the head (she just threw it into a glass) but when Stef had it in Busan she said that they gave them the head too and that it tasted gritty, so I’m glad I didn’t get it.

Then she gives them to you on a plate, served with some lettuce and sauce. All wriggling and stuff too – it’s really when it’s right in front of you moving around that it’s the scariest.

I’ve seen people eating it and then it gets stuck to their lips, or the roof of their tongue – the thing I was scared of the most was that it would get stuck on the way down my throat.

But it was really yummy – it tastes like the Chinese style jellyfish that they serve in Chinese restaurants. And I really really like the texture of that so I thought the live octopus was absolutely delicious!

I shared one with Claudia – one octopus should be around 15 000KRW. Even though us two shared it, we ended up letting Estevan, Jay, and Vivian try a piece too.

Eating live octopus might not seem like a really big deal – at home I can eat raw fish, and even raw beef. But I’ve never eaten anything right after it’s been chopped up directly in front of me, I’m really quite glad that I got to try with Claudia. If I had been just at home and someone told me to try it, I think I would have flat out refused. But being on exchange means trying new things; I’m the type of person who really hates change, but I’ve been trying so much stuff lately and change has been happening so fast that there really isn’t anything I can do except embrace it.

The things going on exchange does to you!