Brimming Hum and belly dancers at the fish market

I'm surrounded by poetry in Korea. It's in nature and especially all over people's shirts. Everyone in Korea wears English shirts with cryptic English sentences.  I've seen a lot of these shirts that make no sense. A lot of my students wear them and I can't help but smile in class as my eyes dart around from one shirt to another. I saw this lady sitting in the audience while I was watching the Korean Belly dancers. Her shirt is my favorite one so far. The back of her shirt reads, "The literally monochrome world of pleasantville blossoms Into a rainbow of color...color is introduced slowly and epiphanies experienced by the characters... Brimming Hum". 

I'll just leave it at that.Our friend Ryan wanted to show us the Masan Fish Market. Not too far from the place we had been hiking. We also knew there was some sort of festival going on. So we get to the market and hear some commotion and see an audience waiting and standing for the next act to take the stage. Then a group of girls in their sky blue gypsy outfits come on the stage.  I start hearing what I recognize as Arabic music. The girls started doing their dance. The choreography was kind of lame. I really stayed there for the music. I was enjoying it a lot. I was telling my friends that it was odd watching these Korean girls belly dance. Most of the girls here are sticks. They don't really have any hips. And it's kind of hard to shake your hip to cool Arabic music when you don't have one. I did enjoy it when they busted out the swords. I got nervous for them. I kept thinking one of the dancers was going to mess up and drop the swords.

The festival also had a flamboyant magician.  He made little birdies appear out of thin air. After about an hour of standing around we made our way into the belly of the beast. I saw all kinds of fish waiting to be sold and eaten. Even things that didn't look like fish. This is some sort of sea worm. I asked my co-teacher about it. She said Korean Ajoshis (older men) like to eat it with their soju.

There were stalls filled with dried fish like these and dried squids too.

This woman was working at lightening speeds.  She hacked the heads off so quick.  She was like a one woman fish cleaning machine.
More fish.
I really wanted to talk to some of the older ladies that were cutting and cleaning the fish. Some of them smiled at me as I took pictures of things they are used to seeing everyday. I could tell for some of them,  this was their entire life. That fascinates me. I think there's something a little depressing about it too. I wondered if they enjoyed doing this, or whether they'd pick a different way of living if given the chance.