Chicago Korean Festival

After the dog walking club, we took the pooches to Chicago Korean Festival up on the northside of the city, near  Ms. M's old stomping grounds. We thought that it was important for the pooches to experience the other half of their heritage. Though the pooches probably never had Korean food until they stayed with my mom, I'm pretty sure that they are now 50% Korean with all the kalbi, pear apples, kampungi and other Korean food my relatives give them. My family and extended family have only had shih tzus, so bringing the two pups to meet everyone was a big deal, but everyone loved them. My 80 year old, 4'9" grandmother and big ole Ms. M quickly became good friends, sitting together on the sofa (which is not allowed at home), sharing pear apples (also not allowed at home), and watching Ms. M's favorite Korean dramas (we don't even have a TV).

So when we entered the festival, Ms. M thought that every older Korean lady was either my mom or my grandmother waiting to give her pear apples, just like how she thinks every Asian male in our neighborhood is me. Oftentimes she will turn around and watch an Asian or sometimes Latino male ride away on a bicycle, thinking it's me even though I'm holding her leash,

so she must have been really confused at the festival. The festival had all things Korean such as kalbi and kimchi, women playing the gayageum,  Pucca cell phone charms, Tae Kwon Do demonstrations and bboy battles.

Our pooches were like a tourist attraction, people were pointing, staring and talking about them in Korean, but luckily several people were curious enough to come up and talk to us and pet the pooches, so it was a good day for Ms. M and Mr. B and they even ate some kalbi (no bones) at the festival.