Day 25: Sandwiches... of Ice Cream?

Well guys and dolls, I'm 1/4 there! Today marks the 25th day I've been doing this... how weird is that? Anyway, I figured I'd post some delicious food to make you all wish you were here to eat said delicious food. This is an ice cream sandwich. We've come a long way since the old traditional ones of thin chocolate cookie-like bread and some vanilla ice cream shoved in between. Rather, this ice cream sandwich is made with two slices of cake, this one a coconut pound cake, with a vanilla, almond, and maple ice cream mixture inside, with some maple syrup and coconut sprinkled over to make it look quite delightful. Now I have to be honest: I've never had an ice cream dessert that beats this one. This has to be the most delicious ice cream dessert I've had, and worth every penny (8,500 won, which is between 7 to 8 bucks in America). Weeks ago I posted a picture of a guard post and talked about this ice cream sandwich place, well this is it, complete with a picture now. I remember when I first found this place, I thought it would simply be like Carvel Flying Saucers, but no... this is what I have now deemed the REAL ice cream sandwich; everything else is simply a poor imitation of this godly beast of a dessert. Talk about needing to SHOCK every day and every night.

Day 24: All the Little People

I am torn with this picture, to be completely honest. These statues are quite large, and when I first saw them I was a bit scared. Not to sound completely politically incorrect, but little people scare me. This is much worse: tall people scrunched down to look like they are little. The effect, if I am able to explain it correctly, is that they are pushed down, like an accordion, to give the impression that they are far off in the distance when in reality they are right in front of you. These statues are located right in front of the Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of my favorite places in Seoul, especially the area around the museum. Many people were taking pictures of these statues, for good reason, as there is a special exhibit on statues taking place at the Seoul Met. As much as I love this museum, I am always dissuaded in going because patron etiquette is lacking in Korea, which makes a visit less than enjoyable. The key, though, is to go during the week and not on holidays or in the afternoon on the weekends. Eh, nothing really funny about today's post, but that's just how it is.

Day 23: Make-Shift Things

Mom always used to say, when your options are limited you need to think outside the box. Granted, I don't think she would have ever advised me to literally think outside the box, as it was always simply a clichéd metaphor for anything is possible. But I must say, it takes some special kind of innovation, if we shall graciously call it that for the time being, to string rope from one light pole to another and hang clothes on it. What makes me love this picture more than just the idea of hanging clothes outside on a make-shift clothes line is the fact that there seem to be only 2 or 3 shirts, at most, hanging there, in the middle of what seems to be a fairly long clothes line. For all I know it's not really a laundry line at all, and they are not drying their clothes. They could have had themselves a garage (or rather table in front of concrete wall) sale and simply forgot to bring in those shirts. I don't know, I'm not a doctor. But I can tell you that even for Korea this seems a bit out of place. Also mind you that I did not go into some rural district and comb the streets for this; this picture was taken in Shinchon, a rather populated place with lots of college students, food, drinking establishments, and other stuff. In other words, there is a good chance that these clothes could be stole come morning, or could be used to clean up a certain 'mess' one of the really drunk ones may make.

Day 22: Dual-Function Coffee

Coffee is something that I very much enjoy, and something I believe calms one down and allows one to relax as opposed to, oh I don't know, being overrun by demons. So when I saw this cafe, ironically enough not blasting Halloween-type music but rather Korean pop music, a few questions immediately came to mind. First of all, I had to wonder where the coffee came into this entire bit. I imagine an exorcism is being performed, to cleanse me of the demons that I apparently have living on the inside, but is it like the Starbucks in the funeral parlor: morn the passing of your loved ones with a nice hot cup of Starbucks coffee? Do I have sit and have coffee while they perform the exorcism on me? Or is it more of a live show, like live music? Maybe it's like Disney World where they have little shows scheduled and we drink coffee-related beverages while watching it. Yet a second inclination came to mind: Does the coffee actually foster the exorcism? So I drink the coffee and all the demons that are inside me are exorcised? Secondly, who is Hwang In-Hyeok? Is he the one performing the exorcisms or is he just the barrister? I feel like adding the 'by Hwang In-Hyeon' makes it seem more like a book or a show than an actual service. Perhaps, he is a professional exorcist and his hobby is to roast coffee, and so he opened up this little cafe. I would have perhaps gone for a less flashier name, but hey, it sure does garnish attention. Finally, why is this cafe located around the Ehwa Women's University area? Are they implying that Korean women are possessed by evil, hell-bound demons and that's why they do the very annoying and, at times, baseball-bat-to-the-knee-caps acts they do? Well, I'm not one to speculate, nor one to put words in the exorcist's mouth, so we will leave that one mute until further information can be obtained.

Day 21: Connecting to Water

Sometimes we have good ideas. Other times, you really need to just ask yourself the following questions: 1) Do we really need something like this? 2) Is this, perhaps, going a little too far? and 3) Are we sure this is a good idea? Now there are many inventions brought to us by Korea (don't ask me to name any), and some of them I even make use of. But even I'll admit that a coffee warmer that is attached to your computer via a usb cord is not the most sound idea. Let's just go through the questions to make it easier on us. 1) Do we really need something like this? Not really. If this is used as a coffee warmer than one must really ask the question: How long are you going to drink the same cup of coffee that you need an electronic warmer? If it is used as a water boiler, which it can in fact be used as, then maybe it can be useful. 2) Is this, perhaps, going a little too far? Well, yeah it is. Convenience is certainly a good thing, and I'm all for innovation, but it seems more logical simply to invest in a coffee pot for the office, or simply an insulated cup rather than purchase something electronic. Sure this thing may be portable, but it isn't all to stylish. Also, if used to boil hot water then what is wrong with something with a plug rather than a usb port? This inevitably leads us to 3) Are we sure this is a good idea? Rule number one from mom was always don't play with electronics around bodies of water or you'll get electrocuted. Now I don't think we need to worry about electrocution, but to have liquid so close to your computer, and not just your keyboard but your CPU, does not seem like the smartest move to me. Granted, I have a coffee maker on my desk, but I keep it a respectable distance from anything that could potentially break or lose information due to a spill. I'm all for electronic gizmos, and love Korea for coming up with some of the most interesting ideas, but I think I'll sit this one out.