Chuseok Vacation part 3

I've rediscovered Saves the Day. That's what my vacation has become.

I went to E-Mart and bought the fixings for meat sauce spaghetti (with 한우!!!) as well as mac and cheese. That should keep me fed for a couple days.

I bought cakes for 부's family. I need to come up with a good English nickname for him. Anyways, I'm going to his grandmother's house on Thursday. I'm only moderately terrified, which is an improvement from utterly terrified which is how I felt when he initially asked me. You see, this is a big step, and I don't want to fuck it up by saying the wrong thing to his parents or grandparents or aunts and uncles and cousins while I'm there. They will all be judging me and not only do I have no idea what I'm going to say or do, I also have no idea what to wear, and no idea what they will think of me.

It's pouring outside. I'm listening to the Through Being Cool album. FML.

On the bright side, I found the oven I want to buy at E-Mart. It's bigger than all the others I've seen (but still maybe 1/4 the size of a regular american oven), and it's about 300 dollars.  And I may have found the perfect first baked good on the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog:

Chocolate Chip cookie dough cupcakes with cookie dough inside and a cookie on top. HOLY HELL I MUST EAT THESE ASAP.

xoxo
A

The rest of my week.

My week went fairly well with my family, minus the little hiccups of getting a stomach virus, my sister getting said stomach virus, and my dad getting on my nerves. Perhaps my being sensitive about my dad, but he sure does know how to drive me crazy.

Anyhow, while I was at work, the family explore various places including Chinatown, Gwanghwamun plaza, the Seoul Museum of Art and Deoksugung Palace. A little jealous because I still haven't seen the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art and it's been on my to-do list for like six years. Ok, so 3 months, but still.

On Thursday night we headed to Sinchon in Seoul for a little Gogi Buffet, which is basically all you can eat Korean bbq. You can have just about anything, from pork to kalbi to steak to bulgogi to fish to octopus to chicken to samgyeopsal, plus rice, plus all you can drink soda, plus some sides (kimchi, sundae, ddeok, etc) for the very fair and reasonable price of just 8,900 won. I ate to my heart's content and then decided I will never eat that much again so long as I live. Except for the other 5 or 6 times I return to that same exact restaurant.

Friday night, met up with the family in Seoul and walked along Chonggyecheon stream a ways and then headed to Myeong-dong for a bit of shopping and people seeing. Got a new skirt at Forever 21. Then went to the NEW H&M that they just opened up two weeks ago. OH. MY. GOD. It's amazing. The outside of the building is all white with lights and a characteristically tiny red H&M sign. The inside was pure genius, with beautiful groupings of clothing, hung artistically and whimsically. Really, the design of the store was genius. Unfortunately, because the store was so new, it was INSANELY crowded. We are talking at least 800 people were in that store at one time, probably more than that. The line for the fitting rooms (which are on every floor) was 12 people long, in spite of the presence of over 25 stalls for changing. At H&M Mel got a plaid button down shirt and I got the cutest coat on the face of the planet. Pictures to come soon. The we went to TGIFridays for dinner. hahahahaha.

Now pictures of Chonggyecheon.

this is the start of Chonggyecheon Stream. Preeeeeetty.

blurry.

Melly!

This little guy is Haechi, the mascot of Seoul. I LOVE HIM.

xoxo,
A

To tide you over during my "lack" of posts

Since I started blogging so much, now I feel guilty if I don't keep posting often. This is ironic because most of you people only post maybe once every 2-3 weeks, if that (ahem, Nicki, Paige).

As a general update, Monday night-Tuesday morning I had food poisoning, which pretty much laid me on my ass for about 20 hours. I didn't go to work until about 11:45, and then taught one class and came back home, and passed out. Went to dinner at a donkkasu place (friend pork cutlet) and got udon noodles and ate roughly 6 noodles and drank the miso broth that the 'rents got with their meals.

And this is the newest Epik High music video. It's pretty inspirational, at the end.  Epik High is basically my newest obsession:

My Family is here y'allllllll!

So my family is here, and it is AWESOME. They got in Saturday evening, around 6 o'clock. After hugs and a bit of dunkin donuts at the airport (peanut crunch donut anyone?), we headed back to my apartment. Because each visiting member of my family brought gigantic bags (my dear old mom topping off the list with a goliath box on wheels of a suitcase), we had to take a deluxe taxi, which might have just been the best deal of my life, because it had t.v.s lots of space, and they METER the drive. Jackpot.

 So happy my sissy is here! At the airport

Anyways, we went to White Castle Motel to get Mom & Dad a room. If you remember from a previous post, in which I locked myself out, the White Castle Motel is where I laid my  head to rest after my first traumatizing korean experience. Of course, me saying that I wanted the room for 7 days blew their minds because, well, who stays in a love motel for 7 days? Why, my parents of course. They didn't have a room ready yet, so we went to get dinner and left mom & dad's luggage there.

So we headed to dongincheon station to try to find some kalbi. Finally found a kalbi place (after one mis-step where I took them to a restaurant that did NOT have what I wanted). Dinner was quite tasty, wang kalbi, kimchi, the whole nine yards, plus melly and I shared some mul nangmyeon to finish it off. Moms and Pops found the kimchi and the subdubu jjigae too hot to handle, and they did NOT like the nangmyeon. It was also at this first dinner that I realized just how non-adept my family is at using chopsticks.

So yesterday, my family and I headed into Seoul to see Gyeongbokgung (the largest of the five palaces in Seoul) and Insa-dong. We took the subway, which rocked mommy to sleep, helping her to fit right in amongst the other sleeping ajummas on the train. After getting off the subway, clearly I looked like enough of a local (??!!) that some Korean person visiting from elsewhere decided to ask me how to use the general one-way tickets. Score one for waegooks korea-wide as I patiently explained the process and the woman thanked me profusely.

Family loved the palace, in spite of the cold, windy weather. I had been there once before, but discovered whole previous unseen areas of the palace grounds. Went inside to the national folk museum, which was more fun the second time around. Pictures from the palace and the museum:

 

There are all these little statuettes of various animals. I liked this one, of a rooster/eagle. Right, Melly doing her thing with the fancy camera while I create grainy pictures with my point-and-shoot.

Left, someone's house, not the kings. Right, Melissa in front of what I continuously referred to as the dance hall.

Left, view from the garden area behind the Queen Dowager's house. Right, pretty painting and details of a home, I think the Queen's.

Towards the very back of the palace, this was built with heavy chinese architectural influence. It was built after a fire severely damaged much of the main palace area.

Melly giving kissies!

The left, and walked along that lovely area just ouside the folk museum with all the little boutiques and coffee houses. Moms and Pops were hungry and I told them we were looking for food, but I didn't really know where I was going, so I just kept following the road in hopes of eventually finding insa-dong. Luckily, I managed to get up to the traditional korean homes area in Jongno-gu. Really pretty look outs from traditional houses out to cityscapes. Then walked down to insadong area. Managed to follow random signs and a crappy map to find insadong.

 The side of a building in Jongno-gu. So many crazy artsy things here. This is all metal, from cars.

 Left, view from Jong-no traditional area. Right, doors on a house in this area.

I will chronicle our lunch/dinner experience in my next post, after I get to upload my video to youtube. It's going to be an instant classic, I think. Really, it's pretty awesome.

Went shopping. Mom & Pop got a spoon for their collection. Mel & I got coffee. We headed home.

Today I am at work, and the family will be heading out to Seoul to see Gwanghwamun plaza and Chonggyecheon stream. Then I will meet them and maybe we will go to dinner somewhere in Seoul and come back home. Who knows what the evening will have in store. Hopefully not a ridiculously expensive dinner (yes, that is foreshadowing for my next post).

xoxo,
A

My Hello Kitty obsession hits a new apex

So last monday, Christi, Miranda, SY and I went to Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae, Seoul. It was quite possibly one of the greatest things I have ever experienced in my life. Seriously, I don't know what is wrong with me, but in the last 3 weeks, my hello kitty obsession has hit new heights, leading me to buy all kinds of ridiculous kitty paraphernalia. The weird thing is, I freaking HATE really cats (although my love of hello kitty has tempered this hatred mildly), but can't get enough of kitttttty!

Anyhow, this will just be a picture dump because it is really difficult to express in words the sheer joy that came with going to the hello kitty cafe. Seriously, it was one of the best things I've done in Korea thus far (and I've done/seen some pretty neat things). I think the only thing that easily tops the Hello Kitty Cafe is the Dream Concert, because, until next year's Dream Concert, nothing will top it.

So without any further ado, the Hello Kitty Cafe:

 

The outside of the cafe. It is super tiny and they said we could expect a wait of an hour (but it only took 20 minutes) And me being silly in front of the cafe!

 

I kept this one kind of big because it's a really really good picture of me and Miranda, AND hello kitty in the background is so perfect.

 
 

The walls have cut out silhouettes of hello kitty, and the chairs are hello kitty tooooo!

 

 I got a waffle and iced americano for about 5,000 won, which is pretty good for a specialty cafe like this. Also, the kitty in the corner of my plate is chocolate dust. omg. love it.

 

Caramel waffle, hot chocolate, ice americano, strawberry yogurt, fully decked out in hello kitty style. More chocolate dust kitty on hot choco

 
 

So effing happy!

 
 

Even the bathroom was decked out with hello kitty. Also, this is the chocolate cream cake I bought to eat at home. *^__^*

So, that was my trip to hello kitty cafe.

xoxo,

A

p.s. OMG MY FAMILY WILL BE HERE IN 2.5 HOURS! pinch me, I must be dreaming! *^^*