¡¡¡¡I had been in Korea for less than a week when I was invited to a truly wonderful dinner. There were many people seated around a long table. And on the table were many dishes with a variety of foods. Some were familiar - rice, fish, beef and vegetables such as spinach and cabbage. But some looked really strange. I had no idea what they were. And then I looked to my left and was shocked to see a plate of small fried grasshoppers - yeah, that's right, insects - the insects that you usually find in your garden, eating up your flowers. I thought, "My God, it seems that people here eat insects. If I'm gonna live here, I'll have to learn to eat them, too." But this was very, very difficult to do. I looked at these grasshoppers for a long time, and I imagined them looking at me. I really, really didn't want to eat them. Finally, after a long time, I put one in my mouth. It actually tasted pretty good, but it felt terrible. I could imagine all those little elbows and knees crunching as I chewed. I ate one more and felt really 17proud of myself. That night, I wrote letters home, telling my family how people in Korea eat insects.

¡¡¡¡Anyway, for the next year and a half, I never saw another grasshopper - except sometimes in a garden. I asked someone about this once, and he laughed and said: "Oh, nobody here eats grasshoppers. Maybe 500 years ago, kings and queens ate them sometimes, but not now. Nobody now."