(NUNAL) (EYEBALL)

Guano is always in my heart, who knew it would be back in the news? My globalization students will be interested to think of Guano in light of the Guano Act of 1856 -- the U.S. first piece of extraterritorial imperial legislation. Everybody else can just think of guano in the more commonplace way. Peru Guards Its Guano as Demand Soars Again - NYTimes.com : "The anchoveta, a six-inch fish in the anchovy family, is the main food of the seabirds who leave their droppings on these rainless islands. The biggest fear of Peru’s guano collectors is that commercial fishing fleets will deplete their stocks, which are increasingly wanted as fish meal for poultry and other animals as demand for meat products rises in Asia. While the bird population has climbed to 4 million from 3.2 million in the past two years, that figure still pales in comparison with the 60 million birds at the height of the first guano rush. Faced with a dwindling anchoveta population, officials at Proabonos are conside...

It was a warm sunny day, but the visibility at the top of the mountains was terrible, and at times the sky darkened so much I thought it was going to rain. Nope, just a massive yellow dust storm that triggered official suggestions to avoid strenuous outside activity. Does hiking count? Check out this chart to see what today looked like, from the 18th Medical Command Yellow Sand?Asian Dust monitor system webpage :

I went hiking again today and was happy to see that two enterprising women had set up a food stand at the base of the mountain. One was selling chicken feet in a red pepper sauce, and the other had some cooked bugs--silkworm larvae. I forgot to take a picture but will this weekend next time I see them. Those larvae are sold absolutely everywhere in the city. I can't believe I haven't written about them before. They have a very particular smell, and it is very hard to escape in any area that has a lot of people. Since virtually every part of Seoul has a lot of people, there are ubiquitous vats of silkworm larvae cooking and ready to eat. (I will find out the Korean name for them). I have been reading about eating bugs (forgive me for being repetitive, those of you paying attention) there is a push afoot worldwide to increase insect consumption (see this article for instance "Insects, the original white meat" ). "Grilled cicadas are more likely to elici...

I hiked on Gwanaksan yesterday, which is the large mountain next to Seoul National University. This is some fantastic hiking on innumerable trails. There are several peaks to it and it straddles Seoul and Geyonggi Province. I have to go back at least a few more times to really begin to cover the whole area. It takes at least an hour from my apartment to get there, way on the south side of Seoul. The whole park is 19.22 million square meters, and the sign at the front indicates, helpfully, that this translates into 5.82 million pyongs . The interschnitzel reveals that this means 7.420883 square miles. It is big, to say the the least, especially right in the city, though not hard to get far away from Seoul. You hear traffic noise for a short time but soon are in the woods and it is very peaceful. The peaks offer fantastic views. Here is the impressive front entrance to the park: The main path is, like many major Korean parks, wide, paved, and crowded with people fully geared out...

There have been a series of large protests against American beef, and more broadly against the current Korean administration. They have been simmering for awhile and now suddenly as the beef is about to be released they have become larger and more vigorous (including a large on at Sinchon yesterday) INSIDE JoongAng Daily My students were very interested in talking about it today. It helped that we happen to be studying the Korean-American relationship last week and this week, and that they wrote papers on it. Amazing that the timing worked out that way. It was interesting to learn that some students see no reason to protest since they don't believe Korea really has any options to stand up to the U.S. "Someone has to eat this beef," is how one student phrased it, and it isn't being sold in the U.S. or Japan. That kind of fatalism really surprised me. A few students thought that free trade in all goods including beef was a good idea that will be a big boon to Korea...

Blogging has been light since I have another friend in town visiting. This will end five consecutive weeks of visitors, which has been fun and has definitely pushed us to maximum exploration of all parts of Seoul. Always good to have new eyes and new interests. My friend here now had an eagle eye for the only place in Seoul that deals exclusively in Cuban cigars (and was disappointed I hadn't spent the year there). It is a bit sad, no? We are leaving Seoul one month from today, which is actually kind of hard and saddening to imagine still.

I gave a talk about Mexicanizaiton of the U.S. southeast yesterday at Seoul National University, ralking about migrant music as usual, and explaining some photos I've taken of great graphics such as this (from Haw River, N.C.) I made some salsa for the students to enjoy while I spoke, which they gobbled down. I couldn't find cilantro so I used this stuff that looks like grass and tastes kind of like garlic, called puchu (sp?). it worked pretty well, it was a legit salsa if I do say so myself. I also provided chips, made in Colorado and not bad. The class T.A. dolled out the salsa in little cups for everybody using chopsticks.