Suddenly, October Doesn't Seem So Far Away

I just ordered tickets to see Sunset Rubdown, at the Empty Bottle, in October. It feels really weird to already have plans in Chicago. 

Cause Everyone Loves Robots

Robot Museum in Hyehwa 

I liked this display because the astronauts reminded me of the doozers from Fraggle Rock. Aren't they making it into a movie? I need to check that out.

Two robots that I thought were cute.

 I love Edward Scissorhands, but whoever made this doll didn't capture the sadness in his eyes.  He looks kind of evil. 

Superman looking not-so-super. Why does the US have to be represented by a busted up toy? I suppose it's better than that lame Canadian car in the corner.

Robot Pop Art. There was a section of different artwork inspired by robots, or so I think. Almost everything was written in Korean, so I'm just guessing. 

Robot Fan. Ice Crusher Rocket. Tire Air Pressure Measurer Robot? Robot Lamp. Robot Clock.

Adam and Eve AM Radio. This made me giggle.

Goodbyes and Woodstock

Cathy and Greg left Monday morning. While they were here, we discovered my new favorite bar in Seoul. If I could, I would transport it back to Chicago. Maybe if my plans don't work out this fall, I'll just open a Woodstock in Chicago.

The music collection was crazy good. We heard the Stones, the Beatles, Radiohead, Talking Heads, Jeff Buckley, Arcade Fire.... It was perfect. They also had one my favorite beers -- Leffe Brun. Whenever I drink it, I think of my time in Belgium. Those are some great memories. The Woodstock we went to was in Gangnam, I've seen other bars named Woodstock, in other neighborhoods, but I'm not sure how similar they are to this one.

Easily Impressed

This subway map was on a line 2 train. The stop that the train is at lights up, and the arrows also light up to indicate which direction the train is headed. Way cool. Of course, after I saw this one (and I totally thought it was a special line 2 thing),  I saw another one like it on a line 7 train. Instead of arrows it had little dots in between stops that lit up as you got closer to the station. 

Seoul Never Sleeps: Weekend Shennanigans in Hongdae

It is extremely easy to spend the entire night out in Seoul because nothing ever seems to close. The bars and clubs are open till the sun comes up, the saunas are open 24/7, there are all night shopping markets open in Myeondong and Dongdaemun (10:30 am to 5:30 am), and norebangs, PC bangs, and DVD bangs are also open 24/7. The trains stop running at midnight and don't start up again till about 5:30-6:00 am, so a lot of people stay out till the subway starts up again. 

We started our night out in Hongdae with a yummy dinner. It was a mixture of chicken, potatoes, rice cake, onions, carrots, and sesame leaves in a spicy sauce.  The best part was the shovel that it was served to us on. 

After dinner, we went for some hookah and drinks at Bricx. It's a great place to chill out and talk, but after awhile, usually around 1 AM for me, I just want to dance, actually it usually feels more like a need than a want. So, we went in search of good music. We didn't find it at Oi Bar, but we stayed for awhile and danced anyway. 

Then, we checked out a bar I've been wanting to check out for quite some time. I call it the Beatles bar because there is a huge Beatles poster on top of the staircase that leads down to the bar. The bar was completely empty but that was OK because the bartender played all our requests immediately. He had a pretty big collection of CDs and played live performances and music videos along with the music. It was pretty neat, but I like Woodstock in Gangnam better. 

After listening to really good music, we wanted to rock out. We found a norebang and sang till dawn. It went by entirely way too fast. 

On the way to the subway, we stopped for some photo ops. We also got approached by a Korean teenager, while Cathy was stealing a Xanadu poster for Jeffrey, who wanted to practice his English. Normally, I'm all for it, but not at six in the morning. 

Sujebi + Pajeon + Trucker Hats

Cathy and Greg arrived last Friday and we've been having an awesome time despite my work schedule (our students are on vacation from real school, so they sign up for extra English classes with us, so we all have 2-3 extra classes a day) and the official arrival of monsoon season.

We spent Tuesday night in Insadong, where we shopped a bit and tried out sujebi for the first time. The main street in Insadong has a lot of art galleries and shops that sell traditional Korean goods. There are a bunch of little winding side streets, off the main strip, that are lined with restaurants. It's hard to find specific restaurants because none of the names on these streets are in English. It helps when the restaurant has photos of the food, that's how we knew we were at the sujebi place. It was a cozy, cute restaurant. Here is a photo of sujebi:

It's dough flakes in a fishy broth. Ours also had zuchinni, potatoes, green onions and oysters in it. The sujebi was tasty and it was the reason we went to this restaurant, but the real superstar ended up being the pajeon. It looks like a pancake and comes sliced like a pizza. It's flour and egg with vegetables. Our pajeon had green onions, peppers, and oysters. We thought we had discovered this magical, little restaurant that makes the most delicious flour-egg-pancake things, until the very next night we stumbled upon pajeon heaven in Hyewa (or as Greg put it, KHOP). It definitely made sense that an easy-to- make yummy pancake would have it's own restaurant and be available in more places than just a random side street of Insadong. I also started to notice that less fancier versions (flatter, less ingredients) are served as street food pretty much everywhere.

While shopping in Insadong, we decided to embrace Seoul fashion and bought funky trucker hats. We also all wore vests out one night and matching colors because Korea is the only place where color coordinating or straight up wearing the same outfit as your significant other and/or friends isn't viewed as lame. Next, we will need to each purchase some ridiculous sunglasses and wear them out all night, maybe even with the hats. The criteria for ridiculous is as follows: bright colors (preferably a primary color) oversized, and either a Rayban or Aviator style. Extra points for the Kanye West Stronger shades or ones that glow in the dark. It's just how they rock it in Seoul.

Edit: Vickie has already requested a trucker hat, our plan to reignite the trucker hat trend and spread Seoul fashion to Chicago has already begun. Be prepared for bright colors, neon, layers, and Mickey Mouse.

Bored? Make a muxtape!

Even though it's lame to love things, I love my iPod. Well, really, I love music and my iPod  allows me to listen to music everywhere, all the time, which I do- on the bus, on the train, at coffee shops, at the gym, walking places, at work while I'm prepping for class. Basically, seeing me without my iPod is a rarity. I also spend a lot of time looking for new music. So, make a muxtape and share it with me!

You can check out mine here. It's what I've been listening to lately, both old and new favorites. 

GPH and CMG invade the ROK

in ONE WEEK. I'm sure this news doesn't bring anyone even a tiny fraction of the happiness that it brings me, but I needed to share it before I burst with excitement.

Some reflections from today:

I am continually surprised at how kind shop owners are here. Lately, I've been going to the Family Mart to grab a bottle of water after the gym. Tonight, I went in, got my water, made some small talk with the owner, then went out to wait for the bus. About a minute later, the owner comes out, gives me a bottle of V12 vitamin water and just says, "Last night," with a big smile. I stood there dumbfounded for a moment and then realized that I had bought some V12 the night before and he remembered.

Also, the guy at the stationary/school supplies store, by my place, always gives me something extra when I go there, so does my fruit lady on the corner. In fact, she threw in some really delicious plums when I bought some nectarines from her yesterday. Speaking of the fruit lady, I am still shocked at the price difference between the fruit sold in the supermarket and the fruit sold on the street. The supermarket fruit is sometimes marked up 100%. For example, one watermelon at GS SuperMarket is about 17 bucks. Then you go outside, and someone's selling a watermelon for 9 bucks.

Squat Toilets

A lot of foreigners seem shocked by the squat toilets here. They're pretty easy to use and both sit down and squat toilets can get equally nasty if not cleaned, so what's the big deal? In case you're unfamiliar with a squat toilet, here's a photo of one:

Random, unrelated to squat toilets, updates on my life: Cathy and Greg are coming to visit in 2 weeks and I'm unbelievably excited. In the past month, I've  started to think about what I want to do in Chicago when I get back. I'm starting to think I may want to start these things sooner rather later. You all may be seeing me a lot sooner than expected. 

Photo Investigation: Apgujeong

I've heard a lot about Apgujeong since I've been here. It's often been described to me as a mini LA in Seoul. There's even a street named after Rodeo Drive. I decided to go on a photo investigation to see what it was all about. 

The subway map alone validated its comparisons to LA for me. I checked the map to see which exit I should take, but the map is pretty much only useful if you're looking to get some plastic surgery. The subway maps generally list popular destination points in a neighborhood such as parks, museums, or temples. This subway map showed all the places where you can get cosmetic surgery and apartment buildings with castle or mansion in their names. 

I got out and picked a random street to walk down. The number of plastic surgery centers was ridiculous. After counting ten different ones just on one block, I decided to try out another street, to see what else this place had to offer. 

 

 

If you're not in the market for a new face, you can blow your money on a really expensive foreign car instead. The only car dealers I've see in my hood are Daewoo and Hyundai. 

I did stumble upon some pretty neat building designs.

D-Square building.

Even the Starbucks building's design was cool. It's also the biggest Starbucks I've ever seen. Seoulites seem to have adopted the European cafe culture, so a get-in-get-out Starbucks design, like those back home, wouldn't fly here. 

A man getting his perm on. 

There was a pet shop with teeny, unbelievably adorable puppies. The one in the photo was my favorite, I love its quirky cuteness.  I seriously thought about taking him/her home with me. Maybe it's a good thing that I''m allergic to dogs. 

This woman's dog was wearing a pink jacket (maybe to match hers?). That isn't as bad as the dogs I've seen with pink ears or green tails or purple feet.