We exited the subway, squinting in the June sun, onto the busy streets of Jongno, with old ladies hustling and old men playing Chinese checkers. Everybody’s shoes seemed to be half on and their hats half off. Also, people are still pissed about Park Geun-hye, except these folks were pissed that she was arrested. Loud and repetitive it was.

When I crave Mexican food in Seoul, disappointment is sure to follow. Besides Vatos and a few other places, the Korean food from America’s southern neighbor is mostly forgettable. Add Julio’s in Jongno to that list. The food isn’t bad, but it isn’t great either. It fills you up but doesn’t satisfy the way a really good taco can. We ate decent shrimp fajitas with runny queso and over sweet guacamole. The salsa needed some more spice and the burrito was very ricey. The saucy enchilada was a belly warming winner.

After lunch, we hit the road walking. We passed through the Cheongyecheong river, the little creek that was refurbished from a dilapidated raised city highway. On this early summer weekend, the side street was full of identical taco trucks and fried food for sale.

We bought Jordyn some fancy Sisley face lotion in the posh Shinsegae Department Store while enjoying the A/C then back onto the sticky evening streets under the shadows and cool breezes of Namsan mountain.

In February 2018, the winter Olympics will come to Pyeongchang, Korea, so the push is on for a big show of Korean pride.

Finally, we ended up on what I could only describe as “puppy mill boulevard”. It was store after store of tiny little puppies in windows looking for a home. The crowded glass cages made you think that Koreans were lining up looking for pet doggies, when in fact only about 12% of the 50 million Koreans have dogs. Millions of dogs are caged and tortured for consumption. It’s a brutal practice that was downplayed before the 1988 Olympics and again facing intense criticism before the next one 30 years later. I eat meat; yet, want to hypocritically condemn Asians eating dog meat. It’s not 1952 anymore Korea. Korea is the 11th largest economy in the world and there are BBQ shops on every corner–meat isn’t hard to find. Dog meat should be off the menu, but the suffering of cows, pigs, chickens and the others we consume shouldn’t be discounted just because they aren’t pets. One day, after lab grown meat, synthetic meat or plant based “meat” becomes the normal, we will look back at this time of savagery and be appalled at our behavior.

Hopefully, these cute little mutts licking and pawing the glass will all find decent homes with loving owners who won’t abandon them after they pee on the carpet, all but assuring their fate to end up in those sad metal cages, bound to be boiled.