Day 100:Hair, Coffee, and in Between

Well guys and dolls, we've made it! It's been 100 days and, incidentally, today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to ME! This final picture combines perhaps two of my favorite things of Korea: cafes and hair shops. Those who know me know that my favorite place to go is a hair salon; i get my hair did more often than the vast majority of women I meet. In Korea, I've had the best hair-related experiences and have done some of the most outrageous hair-related things with some of the best hair-related stylists. Most of them never have the opportunity to work on a foreigner, at least one that has such awesome dedication to his/her hair as I obviously do. My favorite salon is the Juno Hair around Ehwa Women's University. The best part is that while they do my hair, or while I wait, they offer me free cafe-related beverages. There is no better way to end this 100 Days of Korea than with the thing I'll miss the most about Korea (okay, one of the two things I'll miss most, because we all know what the other one is): my hair salon. Appropriately enough, as it is my birthday, I am off to this very hair salon today to get my hair did for the last time in Korea. This is certainly a sad moment in my life, but will no doubt be a certifiable Martha Stewart Good Thing.

Day 99: Korea's Las Vegas

If you think Las Vegas is a one of a kind place, think again! If you think that getting hitched at some tacky house of love from an Elvis impersonator is something only found in Las Vegas, you'd be wrong! Guys and dolls, Korea has places just as wacky and tacky, if not more so because they consider it totally legitimate and in no way an improper way to tie the knot. We call them 'wedding halls', and if you think weddings are about a union of two people with God, then you've obviously not been to a Korean one. In essence, it's a performance, and a rather expensive one at that. We can't all be Chelsea and spend three million dollars on our wedding, but Koreans sure as hell try! Basically, the ceremony and the reception are merged into one massive party where you eat while they get married, and let me tell you, this is a brilliant idea! But what gets me are these wedding halls, especially how crazy they can get. This picture is just one, and let me say it's quite normal compared to other ones. Castles, palaces, and 'starry night at the prom' are but a few of the thematic wedding halls that exist in Korea. I can see over zealous couples loving this idea, but when the parents are the ones paying for it I find it hard to believe that they are on board with their children getting married in a place that looks like it was taken from the castle at Elsinore. But it happens! Every day at that! I would go on and on about getting married in Korea, but besides the money they spend on it, the lack of 'religion' from the ceremony, the fact that guests have to give them money and they have a table outside the hall where they collect it, and that the 'walking down the aisle' is more like 'posing on the catwalk', it's pretty uneventful.

Day 98: We All Need Some History

This is another one of the few touristy things I've posted: the National Museum of Korea. I'm normally not a fan of museums, especially history-related museums. But this particular one is beautiful to look at and amazing to walk through. First of all, the thing is huge: three FULL floors of some of the most breathtaking artifacts, art, etc. I've seen. One day out of the week the museum is open until 8 or 9pm, and going at night is like going to a completely different museum, not only because of the utter silence, but the dimmed corners and lack of lighting make viewing the collections that much more magical. Perhaps the highlight of this museum, though, is the Buddhist collection, found in the paintings, sculptures, and statues. I went this week simply for that collection, though I've seen it at least twice before, I wanted one last look before heading back to the States. Guys and dolls, that's how good of a thing it is.

Day 97: Timmy Ate Lassie

This one Korean thing I had been putting off for the three years I've been here, but finally grabbed myself by the balls and jumped in. Growing up, kids would always tease me by saying 'where's Lassie, Timmy?' Well, now if someone were to ask me now, I could simply respond: "I ate him". Guys and dolls, that's right, this Timmy ate Lassie, or whatever the Korean equivalent would be. Yesterday, my friend took me to eat dog at a place called 갑부집 in which we had (as pictured above) a delicious soup with dog meat and just steamed dog meat. Was it good? It was certainly quite different, though the taste wasn't that exotic, nor did it look strange. It did smell a bit weird, but that didn't really influence the taste. In Korea, the dogs that we eat are raised on special farms and must be killed in a certain way, and only a certain breed of dog is used for food. When eating dog, we usually don't grill it because of the smell; we rather eat it steamed or broiled and in soup, which is most common. These things, though, are quite expensive, as the two things we ate yesterday added up to more than 40,000 won.

Day 96: Tim's Favorite Pass-Time

That's right guys and dolls, Tim likes himself some 노-래-방 (or karaoke for those out there not in the know). Japan equally enjoys karaoke, but the vast amount of karaoke places (literally 'song room') in Korea is amazing. In addition, karaoke in Korea is significantly cheaper than Japan as you pay by the hour and room rather than the number of people. In addition, most of the self-owned places will offer service, especially if you are a frequent customer (usually in the form of extra time and drinks). So, you could pay around 15,000 won for an hour, but you end up getting two or even three hours out of that 15,000 won. Now that's service! This particular picture is of what we call 'luxury 노래방'. The rooms are much cleaner, smell nice, look nice, have better equipment, nicer staff, and just feel better. The downside? More expensive and usually no service; so that 20,000 only gets you one hour. This particular place is famous, located in 홍대, because the outside looks like a giant mansion, and each window is home to a karaoke room where the people below can see the occupants doing their thang. Some interesting things to watch out for. The standard karaoke room is known as 노래방, but you will often see variations on this, including the following: 노래빵, 노래장, 노래짱, 노래집, and 노래룸. All are, in a sense, karaoke rooms, but will often include at least one of the following things: host/hostesses, alcohol, food, and higher prices. My favorite is the 노래연습, which literally means song practice. I have never ventured into one of those, but I'd be keen on finding out one day.

Day 95: Korean Out-House

I feel as if I need to share this picture from one of the temples I went to while on one of my vacations (Cheolla-do). If you can read Korean somewhat or at least recognize characters, you'll be massively confused, similar to how I was when I first saw this. Then my friend explained that I should read it from right to left, like traditional Korean used to be written/read. But then I still ran into a problem with the second character because it seemed impossible. It turns out that in 'olden times', in order to write the ㄲ they would combine the ㅅ with the ㄱ. So, if written today we would spell it 뒤깐. But that still didn't make much sense to me until my friend said that they don't spell it 깐 anymore but 간, so we would write it 뒤간. I then started putting the pieces together. 뒤 means behind, while 간 means a small place. When added together, you'd think 'Oh, a small place behind', perhaps meaning storage or a shed. No guys and dolls, don't think to far here. When we say behind, we literally mean your behind, and the place that we refer to is, well, you get the idea. So, this building is home to the temple bathroom, which I had the joy of using, consisting of rectangular holes in the floor that drop down into the rocks/river below. Luckily, it didn't smell all that much, besides the awesome smell of old wood.

Day 94: Organic Korean Food

In the past month alone I've traveled quite extensively all through Korea, and have eaten the best food I've had in my life. But within proximity to Seoul, this is easily the best food I've had. About an hour outside the city (50 km or so), is 물꼬방, a rather famous Korean restaurant that only serves organic dishes. They are famous for their 된장, or soy-bean paste, made in the traditional style (meaning extra dark and really salty). This particular place is located in Gyeonggi-do, the region that surrounds the city of Seoul. The meal comes out in courses, enough for two people in each course. They range from 된장 yogurt (soy-bean paste yogurt), shredded coconut potato, tofu and kimchi (a personal favorite), what I can only translate into 'cornbread', prawns, and oysters. Then they serve the actual meal, the 식사. This is a very traditional, old-fashion Korean meal, with a good number of side dishes, a delicious bowl of rice, some of the best fish (prepared in this manner) I've had in Korea, and of course awesome 된장찌개, or soy-bean paste stew. The meal then finishes with a red bean paste/jelly sort of thing, similar I guess to cranberry sauce in a can, and some delicious vanilla flavored green tea. Guys and dolls, I need to get my stamp out because I need to certify this meal and this place a Martha Stewart Good Thing! We should sell it at Target!

Day 93: Deep Fried Stuff

For lunch last Sunday, still in Busan, my friend and I stumbled upon this Japanese place, with questionably authentic Japanese food. Even though the staff were all speaking Japanese, I don't remember seeing this deep-fried beef (similar to 탕수육... I guess 탕수소?) with a freaky red sauce that was not ketchup. It was delicious, no doubt about it, but it seemed like an odd food to eat, just by looking at it, because there wasn't much meat contained within the deep-fried batter. And the sauce tasted eerily familiar, though I can't remember it for the life of me now. Either way, it struck my fancy, that's for sure.

Day 92: View From A Far

While I'm on this Busan kick, I thought I'd share the view from dinner, which included the sun setting on the most famous beach in Korea, 해운대. During the day, this beach is packed with people, and the shoreline isn't very long. Even approaching 8pm there were quite a few people still there, but they were not allowed to swim too far as the coast guard was patrolling the beach: no swimming after sunset. Some of the most expensive reality in Korea is located here, and for good reason.

Day 91: Pumpkins and Islands and Gays, Oh My!

This picture, though not the best one I've taken, made me and my friend laugh while in Busan. You are all not mistaken, that is a giant plastic pumpkin in the back of that truck, along with two other trucks with the same exact thing. The hotel we stayed out apparently had itself a nightclub in the basement, the 호박클럽, the pumpkin club. So what do they do, they use giant plastic pumpkins in the back of trucks to advertise the club. This was the first sight when we got to our hotel around midnight that Friday. Upon further inspection, you'll see a banner hanging off the truck that reads: 독도는 우리땅. For those that don't speak the Korean, it basically translates to 'Dokdo is ours!' And for those of you fortunate enough not to know what this implies, Dokdo is a group of rocks, some call them 'islands', in the middle of nowhere between Korea and Japan that both claim ownership of. Japan is a bit passive about it, sticking it in textbooks and not really talking much about it. This infuriates Korea at no end, and so they take every opportunity to voice their support that Dokdo is in fact Korean. There is nothing special about these rocks, besides perhaps some fishing, but outside of that it is simply yet another thing that pisses people off. So needless to say, it made me laugh even more to see this hanging off the truck advertising the pumpkin nightclub. Later when I got back to Seoul, I found out that the district we stayed in, with our hotel and all the clubs, was actually Busan's equivalent to Jongro, or the gay district. I knew I felt a little too at home.

Day 90: Port at the Port

Yesterday I posted the real reason I went all the way to Busan. Now I'm posting pleasant side-effects of going. One nice happening was before dinner, my friend and I sat in the lounge at the Westin Chosun, beach view, with her Shirley Temple and my lovely port. Guys and dolls, I have to be honest, I haven't had good port in so long that I almost forgot how it tasted! But the minute the first drop hit my tongue I remembered: it tastes like a boozed-up Cinderella! And in case if any of you are wondering, that's a certified Martha Stewart good thing right there. With the live music in the background I could barely hear the annoying children running around the front lobby as their parents, typical of Korean parents, simply ignore their children's severe misgivings regarding decorum and complain over having to wait in a line to get into dinner.

Day 89: The Real Reason I Went

So I recently went to Busan, and everyone was asking why I was going and if I was going to eat yummy food and go to the beach. Guys and dolls, let's face it, the real reason I went all the way to Busan was the picture of your left: the largest shopping mall/store in the world (or so they say). The Shinsegae Department Store (BEXCO/ Centium City) has seven floors of top-notch shopping, followed by a couple more floors of other stuff. Sure, all these stores exist in Seoul, and sure, it's not like the prices are radically different or something special will only be found in this one store. But let's face it, who wants to walk outside from store to store to go shopping when you can stay indoors for nearly 7 hours to do the same exact shopping? The answer is a retard, that's who.

Day 88: Mountains and Valleys!

As part of the 진도 picture uploading, this is what took my breath away most of all. We drove over this one mountain and literally stumbled upon this: a beautiful valley of rice fields surrounded on three sides by mountains and on one side by the sea. We drove all through these mountains to the point where we were in the clouds. Needless to say, it was beyond words.

Day 87: The Sea!

I'm too lazy to write something long and complicated today, so here is the picture. I took it while driving along the shore of 진도 (Jin-do), the second biggest island and one of the most southern points in Korea. Though the weather was overcast, the temperature was brilliant and the smell was fresh as can be.

Day 86: More Temple Fun!

Guys and dolls, there's no denying it, I love Buddhist temples! Something about the smell, the space, and the tranquility overwhelms me and calms me. This particular one is located on the outskirts of 순천 (the same place where all those tall reeds are located), and is called 선암사(Sunam-Sa). This is actually a less famous temple that is located in very close proximity to one of the largest and most famous temples in Korea. We chose this one because we wanted someplace with less people and something a bit more tranquil. Needless to say, we got what we wanted. The entire walk up to the temple was shaded with the sound of the river to our left running down the hill, the breeze from the water cooling the entire path up to the temple. In the picture above you can see the river flowing down river, and all the way in the distance is a flat stone bridge, quite famous as a national treasure (certified and all). This was one of the more unexpected and beautiful finds in my time here in Korea.

Day 85: Horse Ear Temple

One of the more unexpected finds of the trip down south was the Buddhist temple to the right, located in 마이산, which literally refers to the ears of a horse. The reason for such a name is pretty obvious when you see the mountains: there are two mountains that are pressed together and look like horse ears. This temple sits in between them, famous not just for its location, but for the 80 stone pagodas that surround the temple. Originally there were 120 stone pagodas, all the rocks either local or from famous mountains in Korea. The temple is not very big, with only a few associated buildings as part of it. But if you walk all the way around the temple to the other side of the mountain, one of the most breath-taking views and waterfalls indicates the other reason this temple is famous.

Day 84: Lost in the Grass

My trip was filled with some of the most unexpected finds, both natural and man-made. This particular one is located in 순천 (Suncheon), one of the southern most cities in Korea. The above picture was taken right after sunset of the Suncheon bay (순천만). It's a naturally made bay as the water level is quite low. The city of Suncheon actually reminds me of Kobe in Japan primarily because of its geographical location: mountains to the back with the city overlooking the sea. The reeds stretch for miles, as far as the eye can see, and the mud that holds them in place are home to countless crabs that you can easily see as soon as the sun begins to go down. This city, much larger than I initially expected, has some amazing food, including 오리불고기, or duck bulgogi. It was the last stop in my trip and the perfect ending to a perfect trip.

Day 83: God, Are You There?

So, for the next couple of days I'm going to be posting pictures from my trip to the southeastern region of Korea, 전라도 (Cheolla-do). Though my 100 Days of Korea mainly focus on Seoul, I figured that I shouldn't let the opportunity to spread the beauty of some other parts of Korea. The first is of one of the oldest and most famous Catholic churches in Korea, located in 전주 (Jeonju). People who flock to this 전라복도 capital often take time to check out this rockin' house of God, and for good reason. It used to actually be a missions/ convent, though there are still some associated with it. A word about Christianity in Korea, and keep in mind this is very cursory and introductory (no need to explain to me as I am most likely going to know). Most Koreans, not dissimilar to many around the world, believe that Christianity and Catholicism are two completely different religions, rather than two different divisions of the same cookie known as Christianity (obviously their reference to Christianity would be more indicative of Protestantism). Cheolla-do actually houses the highest percentage of Christians in Korea compared to the other regions, which was rather surprising to me. Also, to add to my own disbelief, Catholicism in Korea is considered to be more liberal than Protestantism in Korea. Part of this has been explained as Catholics don't necessarily know what they believe (Catholic values may not be fully understood), while it could also be understood that Catholicism is the relatively the same while Protestantism in Korea is much stronger and more conservative. Again, I'm not here to start a debate on religion, so let's hold our tongues and comments guys and dolls. Below are two more pictures to enjoy from the same church~

Day 82: Apple Pie?

More cafes! This one was quite interesting, very small, but a total gem in the perfect location (meaning close to me). When I first fell upon 'a.Grace' I saw that they were selling plants outside, which I thought was quite nice (I bought a couple once). It was only when I ventured inside and took a gander at their menu did I find the real value of this place. Guys and dolls, if happiness were to be measured in pies, then an apple pie would mark me as the happiest person alive! And let me tell you, not only does this place have apple pie, but they also have pecan pie, chocolate brownie pie, and now banana pie! Those who know me, know that I am not really into cake, but a good pie is like gold to me. I've had 'pie' in Korea before and have been let down way too many times. But when I saw all these HOMEMADE pies I nearly Shatnered my pants. Then I ate the apple pie. I've been in love only twice in my life, and this was the second time I experienced love. No pie in Korea, and I mean NO PIE, has ever compared to this place, and guys and dolls, we are talking about three years experience in pie eating in Korea. Needless to say, I know a thing or two about pie in Korea, so if I say they have the best pie, they do indeed have the best pie. I bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that even Martha Freakin' Stewart herself would declare these pies as 'a good thing'.

Day 81: Lord Sandwich and Lady Bread

Okay, so this picture is horrible. I realize that. I was running late for work and snapped it as I was walking past. However, the awesomeness of this place still stands. That concrete grey building has some pretty awesome history. When I first got here, it used to be a type of hall of sorts, I think either part of Yonsei or separate. It was not open to the public it seemed, but none of us really knew what it was. Then about two years ago (maybe 2.5 years ago) I saw some construction work being done on it and before I knew it, the words 'Lord Sandwich' with a silhouette of a man were plastered on the front. For the longest time I wondered what it was, and also how to get into the building as it was no ordinary building. Once I finally uncovered the door and went inside, I saw that they made sandwiches (duh) and other stuff (not as good as the sandwiches though). In Korea, there are two types of foods that are quite difficult to find decently made for a decent price: a salad and a sandwich. In America, you can head over to Panera, ABC, or even Publix and get a nice salad or sandwich for a good price. But in Korea, the sandwiches are abnormal and the salads are, in all honesty, crappy. So when I stumbled upon this place 2 years ago and their amazing selection of amazing sandwiches, the light inside my soul sparked on once again. Make no mistake, guys and dolls, nothing makes me happier than finding a decently made sandwich. I'm still working on the salad, though I must say Au Bon Pain has helped).