September 19, 2011

Shopping in Seoul

I've been meaning to blog but my internet in my house is down!! I'm currently in a coffee shop enjoying a lovely vanilla latte on this COLD FALL DAY. That's right. it is no longer a million degrees here which is PERFECT because I just bought a beautiful red fall jacket in Seoul for only 30,000 won!! (About $30) Too bad I forgot it on my way to school today.... there's always tomorrow!

So last weekend I stayed home on Friday night then left early on Saturday to go to Seoul and meet up with my friend Leslie. In Seoul we went crazy shopping with our first pay check! We worked out our frustrations with retail therapy and I feel much better now.

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After a day of shopping we went to our friend Stephen's (Stephen used to be a member of the OCT and now works as the ETA coordinator throughout the year listening to people's housing problems so we get some good stories) apartment and made dopoki a korean dish that is spicy and usually eaten when it's cold and rainy outside. While it wasn't raining it was still delicious because Leslie made it from scratch :) We watched the movie Chicago together because it's Leslie's favorite... I guess it's fair since she made us dinner.

After dinner and a movie it was like 1am so we went to sleep then woke up at 9. Stephen decided to come to Cheongju with me and Leslie had to meet her uncle for lunch. Stephen and I got on a bus and headed back to Cheongju where we went to church with Andrea, Izumi and Jake. Apparently it's the only English speaking church in Cheongju and it's rather conservative. Let's just say I didn't stay in the service for very long.

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After mass we took a bus to downtown Cheongju together to eat lunch. We had a dish that included sea food (this turned out to be fish eggs, the same kind my brother takes out of fish at the breakfast table and says "teacher fish baby" while rubbing the area where is would be uterus is and eating the sack. Oh, I'm usually eating seaweed while this happens. Try eating seaweed soup while someone is talking about eating fish eggs right after you wake up and tell me what kind of day you're going to have.

Anyway, It had fish eggs, beef, vegetables and noodles. Apparently the meal is sometimes also served with rice. A bowl of steaming water with fish eggs is served then you are given a platter of vegetables you add in. After that you add meat and wait for it to cook. After you eat a fair amount of that food you add in the noodles. It was really very good and we picked out all the fish eggs (that's right, everyone there.)

After breakfast we of course needed some dessert so we went to a coffee shop called bonjung. We passed a cafe called the New Yorker which a lot of westerners go to... we speculate because the name is homey. And I get a text from our friend Luke who is also working in Cheongju as an ETA so he met up with us too. Ekatarina (my roommate from Jungwon) met us at the cafe and we got a 10 piece cake that had a slice from every different cake. It was amazing we had a bite of each kind.

After the cake Jake had to go home but Jessica (as you can tell I met a lot of people) showed up. To kill time before dinner (yes we ate a lot) we went into the store Uni Qlo which is a Japanese franchise that is similar to H&M. Luke who is 195 cm tall (really tall) found a pair of black skinny jeans that fit him and was really excited. Izumi got some purple pants, Andrea got some jeans... etc. What I thought was really cool is that when you try on the clothes they tailor it for you so when you check out they take your pants and hem them for you and you come back in an hour and you have a pair of perfectly fitting jeans!!!

While waiting for the jeans we went to get Kalbi which is bbq ribs korean style. I usually don't like this meal in the setting of a cafeteria or my home because the bones are still in it and when you pull out the bones there is this fatty circle. It also doesn't have very many spices or marinades but at this restaurant... oh it was glorious.

You go in and there are 3 items on the menu. Cold naengmyeon, hot naengmyeon or bibimbap. All of these come with a serving of Kalbi. The Kalbi was amazing. No bones but perfectly seasoned. It was so good. It was also really cheat like 4,900 won. ($5 which is less than the vanilla latte I am currently drinking) Naengmyeon is a korean noodle that looks like this:

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The restaurant encourages you to eat the naengmyeon and kalbi together. I ordered bibimbap so I didn't do that but it still tasted amazing.


After dinner Stephen had to go back to Seoul. Luke went home and Izumi, Andrea, Jessica, Ekatrina and I went to go check out a CAT CAFE.


A cat cafe is where you go and there are cats roaming around that you can play with. Actually only Izumi and I went up to it because we wanted to see what it was like. There were just cats roaming around and girls that would kidnap them and play with them at their tables. It was 8,000 won for a table (per person) and you get a free drink. We didn't really like cats that much so we went to a different cafe that was like a tree house.


The cafe had different cozy lofts for you to go in after ordering drinks. All the lofts were taken so we sat underneath them amongst pillows and blankets. It's essentially every kids ideal bedroom. I was soooooooo cozy and I had rosemary tea. It was basically the perfect end to the day.


I took the bus home and had a good walk after eating SO MUCH. I went to bed at like 10pm I was so tired. Then I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday... much to my dismay it was Monday. Luckily I had my Friday Rebecca Black lesson to look forward too. I started regretting making a lesson plan with this song because I have to listen to it like 4 times a class and I have to teach it 12 times. For those of you who want a reminder of what the music video is like here you go. If it makes you guys feel better my unit that I am on right now is weekdays and scheduling so the first part is perfect. Plus they get a glimpse into the ordinary life on young jewish rich girls. It's a plus for everyone.





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