Again, sorry for not posting anything in a while, but really, life is not that exciting right now. After my first couple months here, where I spent all my weekends going out and doing stuff, I mostly spend the weekends at home now. I have Korean class in the middle of the day on Saturday which prevents me from doing some stuff.

But now I am on vacation from school, I have one week off, so I have to go do stuff. Yesterday was Saturday, and a lot of other coworkers were leaving to go to Borneo for vacation. I thought Daniel would have been back by now, so I didn't make plans to go anywhere, and by the time I realized he wouldn't be here, it was too late to book anything. But that's ok because I didn't really want to spend the money to go anywhere. So yesterday morning a bunch of us went to get our nail done at my favorite nail shop. Afterward, Megan, Lindsay, Grace and I went to Korean class. Grace decided to tag along just to see what class was like. We stopped at a great little cafe on the way up to Sookmyeong University called Froggy Cafe and had some really good pesto pizza.

After class we decided to go to Seorae Village, otherwise known as "Little France". We took Bus 13 from Exit 1 of Chong Shin University. We didn't exactly know where we were going, but found it eventually. I gotta say, although it was quaint and nice, there certainly wasn't a lot of French stuff. We were expecting coffee and pastry shops, French restaurants, wine shops. Really it was a main street about the length of a football field, and there was only one French restaurant and it was expensive. We saw two wine shops, but no place to get good cheeses or other French groceries. We actually wound up eating at an Italian restaurant. The food was really good and reasonably priced. I did pay $9 for a tiny cup of coffee though. If I haven't mentioned it yet, coffee in Korea pretty much sucks. It's either watered down, or milked down and really weak. Plus they don't really have fat free milk which was a bummer. So I was excited to go to Little France and get a good cup of coffee, but for the most part all there were were the typical Korean coffee places (which although the coffee sucks, there are at least 3 coffee places within eye sight basically no matter where you go in Korea). So I got coffee at the restaurant which apparently specializes in coffee. I'll admit that aside from "latte", "mocha", and "americano" I don't really know much about coffee or the taste of beans from different countries. But he recommended one for me at it was pretty good. Not worth $9 but still good.

All in all I was a little disappointed by "Little France" it was more like basic Korea with some wine and a French Restaurant. After that we walked to the Epxress Bus Station and took the subway back. Grace and Megan went home while Lindsay and I decided to check out Namdaemun Market. All the tour books rave about this market, saying it so big and great, especially at night. Well we went at night, and there was literally nothing special. It was just like the typical Korean market with food stalls, souvenirs, clothes, ginseng in big bottles. Lindsay and I were pretty disappointed, we couldn't figure out why the guide books would rave about this place. So instead we took a stroll down to Myeongdong, which was much better.

We went shopping at Forever 21, got some icecream, and went to this great 꿀타래 (ggul ta rhe) place. This was a little stand that I've seen a few times and finally decided to try it. There were three guys working there, and they went through this whole show for us, it was hilarious. Basically 꿀타래 is made by taking a frozen circle of honey, and stretching it into a million tiny strings using cold flour, then they put a nut mixture in the middle and wrap it up. So the guys had this whole show planned out where we watched them make it, and they would tell us about it, even using English. They would say stuff in Korean then say "In English-ey, Oh My Got, so delicious!" and then would repeat each other when they were talking. Even if the food was terrible, it was worth $5 just to watch the show. But luckily the food was good, it tastes better frozen, but still very good.

So all in all it was a fun day, although Seorae and Namdaemun were a little disappointing, we still had fun, and at least we got to see them. Megan and Lindsay and I are trying to plan a trip down towards the south of Korea next week, making our way to Busan.

The next day was Sunday, and Lindsay and I decided to hit up the Seoul Folk Flea Market. I've already been there a few times, but I was really in the mood to get some decorative stuff for the apartment, and I was bored, so I went again. It's beginning to get really hot here, and humid. So just walking a few blocks down the street gets really hot and sweaty, pretty gross. Plus in the summer I like to wear my flip flops, but they happen to be a magnet for dirt. Basically summer just makes me feel icky. But I'm on vacation, and I don't want to spend the whole time in my house, so I'm getting out as much as possible. Anyway, Lindsay and I met at the market and walked around for a few hours. We both found some good stuff, I got a tea set, Korean calligraphy brushes, and some decorative elephants. Lindsay so some calligraphy sets as well, and a few other things I can't remember. Some stuff there is cheap, while some is expensive. i really like all the old, partially rusted money coins form centuries ago, and I really just want to get a bowl of them, but they are $1-2 each, so a handful of them could wind up being pretty expensive.

After our little tour of the Seoul Folk Flea Market we decided to hit up Itaewon. We found a really great brunch place called The Flying Pan. They serve brunch all day, and the cafe is small and quaint, and best of all they have AirCon. i got the smoked salmon eggs benedict, and Lindsay got the berry french toast. My meal was delicious, and not to badly priced, I think $14 or so (p.s. since I don't have a Won button on my computer and its a pain to find it online and copy it every time, I am just going to round out the Won amount to dollars and list everything in dollars). After our filling brunch we went to What The Book, the local English buy/sell/exchange bookstore. I forgot that they moved so it took us a while to find the place, but the new building is so great. I bought a few books and a magazine to keep me busy. We finally went home after that.

We ventured out again on Monday. Megan came over and we planned our trip for the week. We bought a 5-day Korail Pass which basically lets us get on any train we want for 5 days. We are going to start the the south-western side of the peninsula, and work our way along the southern coast, eventually coming out at Busan. Although you usually don't get tickets until the day you are leaving, we knew that the trains back from Busan on Sunday would sell out quick, so we went down to Seoul Station and got our tickets in advance. Then we met up with Lindsay and decided to check out Samcheongdong (삼청동). We started out at Anguk Station and worked out way up Gyeongbokgung Palace wall through Byeolgung (별궁). This is a really great, although narrow, street lined with coffee shops, Korean restaurants, shoe stores and jewelry shops. We stopped at a great coffee place called Coffee Factory and had good coffee. I think I mentioned it before but most of the chain coffee stores have pretty bad coffee, but the small out of the way places are much better (although a lot more expensive).

We made our way through the area to the main street of Samcheongdong. Similar to Byeolgung, it's lined with coffee shops and shoe stores. There were also a few museums we saw: the Toy Kino Museum, The Owl Museum, the Chicken Art Museum. But unfortunately it was Monday so they were closed. We walked around the whole area, up a gigantic hill and back down again. After we got to the bottom we took a stroll through Insadong. Again we have all been there, but it's a fun place none the less. Remember how I said I found calligraphy brushes at the Seoul Folk Flea Market? Well, I found two sets in Insadong for the same price as the set I bought before. That always seems to happen when you buy antiques and traditional Korean goods, you always find it cheaper somewhere after you bought it. But I got them anyway, you can never have too many calligraphy brushes! So there is a lucky lady back home whose name starts with an "S" and ends with an "hayla" who will get to pick out her favorite set!

We also went to a traditional stamp shop. When we were at the Seoul Folk Flea Market, Lindsay and I got some wooden name stamps for people we know, but all the work was done on a machine. We stopped at a store that did them by hand, and they did them in stone stamps which was pretty cool. Only Megan got one, but I'm defs going back to get myself a nice one. They are a little pricey ($30 for the cheapest, while the wooden ones form the Seoul Folk Flea Market were only $5). I also found a really cool stone set with the zodiac symbols. I want to come back and get the whole set at a different time, it's only $100 for the set. They store was interesting, lost of stamps and calligraphy brushes. Even Queen Elizabeth came there and got a stamp! And, wouldn't you know it, while were there we met a Korean girl who goes to the University of Pittsburgh! I almost shat myself when I herd that!

We also went to another 꿀타래 shop because it was so good, and I got a video of the guys show, it was pretty funny, maybe better than the first guys. It was a long day, so we headed home, but not before stopped at Skin Food!

Finally, on Tuesday we decided to go back to the Samcheongdong area to go to all those museums. I was the first one out there, I went to Changdeokgung Palace (after first finding the wrong place, Jongmyo Shrine and finding it closed on Tuesdays). I went walking around there for a while, but it was freaking hot so I took solace in a coffee shop. I also went to the Tteok (traditional Korean rice cake) Museum, but that wasn't really interesting. After that I went to the Korean Museum of Buddhist Art which was really interesting. They actually had a pass for $10 that gets you into five of the nearby museums so I picked it up. Megan met me there and we went to find Lindsay (after traversing the two biggest hills in Korea to get there! I swear, we only find the tough paths when its hot outside). We then went to the the Chicken Art Museum, which was literally two floors of chicken and rooster art work from hundreds of years and many countries. The curator gave us a tour and explained some of the stuff, but his accent made it a little hard to understand. Afterward, we went to the Korean Embroidery Museum which was intersting as well. There were a lot of really big embroidery pieces with really intricate details, very impressive to say the least.

Then back to the Owl Museum, which was the 40-some of year collection one one woman who really liked owls. The place was covered wall to wall, floor to ceiling with different pieces of owl art including toys, sculptures, paintings and dishware. We had to pay to get into the museum, but we got a free cup of orange juice. Then back towards Byeolgung to get food and coffee at a place called Homestead. And after that we were all pretty much pooped to we all headed home to finish packing and take a rest. We are going to Seoul Station tomorrow at 8am to start our trip. And I will be sure to update about all the wonders that southern South Korea has to offer!