Going to Hair Salons

Hair salons here are so much nicer and cheaper than in the US. Even if you go to a normal salon chain, the indoor decorations are lovely. The moment you step in, you're ushered onto nice, plush couches and greeted with biscuits and a choice of coffee or tea.

Also, the hairdressers are all super skilled. Apparently, they have to first apprentice for a year or so, during which they can only wash and blow dry hair, before they can even their own scissors. That shows dedication! My hairdresser was lightning fast and super pro. It was cool cuz at one point, I had the apprentice blow-drying my hair on one side and the hairdresser speeding away on the other.

You'd think with that kind of service and niceness, it'd cost an arm and a leg, but actually, my haircut turned out to only be 12,000 won ($10). Thank you co-teacher for referral! (If you go with a regular, you automatically get 30% off).

A word of caution though: if you don't want a fobby Korean or Japanese haircut, make sure you bring your own picture. It took 30 minutes and my Korean co-teacher's constant translations for me to get the style I wanted without a picture.

Kayaking in Gangwon-do

Two weekends ago was Chuseok holiday (the Korean version of Thanksgiving or Mid-Autumn Festival), and my school gave us 5 days off. What do you do with such a rare break? Road trip, of course! A bunch of other native teachers and I decided to take a trip to Gangwon-do because one of them found that it's apparently THE place to do whitewater rafting in Korea. All eager to get away from the city for a bit, we hopped on a bus for three hours and made it out to Inje in Gangwon-do.

Getting to Inje was an experience because we had to take a regional bus that's kinda different from cities buses. We went to a major bus terminal, and this being Chuseok (a time when almost every single Korean visits their hometime) the terminal was absolutely packed. It was a madhouse just getting the tickets, and afterwards, there were so many buses that we weren't really sure where to go. Of course, not a single one of us spoke Korean, so we were handicapped in asking. Fortunately since the majority of our group were obvious foreigners (they were white), one bus driver parted the sea of Koreans for us and led us to the right bus. To top it off, the other bus drivers all started clapping and yelling, "Welcome to Korea!" What a great way to kick off the weekend.

Anyways, when we finally get to Inje, our rafting guide picked us up and brought us to our cabin (which btw turned out to be gorgeous and quite spacious). But the surprise was, when we got there the river was about 2 feet deep!! Apparently, we went right at the end of the rafting season and near the beginning of the dry season... So we were told the river was too low for rafting (obviously) but that we were going to go kayaking instead. Bummer, right?

But kayaking actually turned out to be way fun! Before we headed out, they suited us up with lifevests and helmets. We all laughed because we were all thinking, "Are we looking at the same river? Is all this equipment really necessary??" But actually it turned out to be quite handy. Since the river was so low, it was actually a bit tough at some parts because our kayaks would get stuck on the rocks if you didnt' follow the exact course (which of course happened to me and my partner quite a bit) and some people in our group would accidently knock someone else's head with their oar, lol!

It was my partner and my first real time kayaking through rapids, so it was quite an adventure. We eventually got the hang of it and was able to navigate through the end of the course, but that took quite a while to get down. The beginning and middle, however, was tough. It seemed like we were getting stuck or going backwards every two seconds, and at one point, we got so hopelessly stuck at one of the bigger rapids that we had to get out and haul our kayak.

Moving the kayak from the rocks was okay, but me being me, I actually fell into the river while trying. :( It was then that I realized that the seemingly tame river had quite a strong current. I tried to swim back to my kayak, but it was hopeless. I tried to get a foothold or handhold on the rocks as I passed by them, but that too turned out to be futile because they were too smooth and slippery. Finally, I was so tired I just let myself drift down the current. After I finally grabbed hold of a rock, one of our guides had to come and basically drag me back to my kayak. (I grabbed a handhold on the back of his kayak while he rowed.) I felt so bad for him!!!

Overall, the trip was a blast! Kayaking was much more fun and exciting than we first thought when we arrived, and it was really nice just chilling with everyone in our cabin later that night. Also, it was a really good deal!! 50,0 00 won per person for the kayaking tour and overnight at the cabin. Where could you possibly get such a good deal in the States??

It was so much fun that we're already planning to go back for a true rafting trip after the rainy season in April. Can't wait...

Discovering New Street Food: Okonomiyaki

Just when I thought I had tried all the different kinds of street food there are in Korea, I find a new little surprise by the Ehwa Subway Station. I was walking around the area trying to decide what to eat for dinner, when I passed by a Japanese Takoyaki (Octopus Ball) cart. All the other Japanese carts I had seen only sell Takoyaki, but this particular one had something new called Okonomiyaki. Curious, I had to try it. It turned out to be mixture of octopus, shrimp, egg, and vegetables made into something resembling a crab cake, and to top it off, were pan-friend udon noodles. Talk about YUM!!! For street food, it was kinda expensive (4,000 won), but it was totally worth it. So glad I found this cart :D

Gift from the Pear Farms

Yet another reason why my co-teacher is the sweetest person ever. Korean teachers here have to work a lot because they only get two Saturdays off a month. With that said, my co-teacher spent one of her free Saturdays off leaving pears for me at my apartment. We were talking earlier in the week, and I just happened to mention that I couldn't believe how big the pears were here and that they were really good. Next thing I know, I get a text from her on Saturday telling me to pick up the pears she dropped off for me from my building's security guard. Apparently, she went to the pear farms nearby to get me some :D

Coffee Houses and Shaved Ice

No trip to Korea is complete without a trip to a nice coffee house, so Ning's visit ended with a trip to a coffee house for some nice drinks and of course, shaved ice. There's this really pretty coffee house that's just two blocks from my apartment. I pass by it almost every day on my way back from the city, so again, I've been waiting for the chance to try it out. When we went, it was much better than expected. The place was nicely furnished with a cozy feel but not way too girly-over-the-top like some other coffee houses can be. The best thing about it though was that a slice of cake, cheesecake, or tirimisu comes with your drink order! Talk about major sweets indulgence when you also get shaved ice on top of it (which of course we had to, lol). The cakes were really yummy, but the star of the evening was definitely the shaved ice. It's so much better than the ones in the states. For one thing, there's a ton of red bean in it, a good amount of mochi and fruit, and it's topped off with a scoop of vanilla-caramel ice cream. YUM! Definitely no better way to leave Korea. :D

Ice Cream Fondue!

Baskin Robbins is kinda a big deal here in Korea. You can find a store every other block or so, and some big hangout spots even have a posh Baskin Robbins Cafe. So in order to live to their high-profile rep, the Baskin Robbins here have many specialties not found in the US, one of which is their ice cream fondue. Basically, it's a wonderful plate of various bits of frozen ice cream, cakes, and even tomatoes set around a nice warm bowl of melted chocolate fondue.

After hearing about it for several weeks, I decided to take advantage of Ning's visit as a good excuse to try it out. The first attempt was a complete fail because I couldn't understand the staff's response after ordering it in my broken Korean, so we ended up settling for a regular cone. The second time, however, I brought my Korean co-teacher with us, and... Success!! It's was bit expensive even for Korean cafe standards (12,000 won for a set), but it's a delicious dessert nonetheless and well worth the experience. So if you're craving something sweet, pick a nicely decorated Baskin Robbins Cafe and chill out with their ice cream fondue.

A Snack at the Local Markets

One of my favorite things to do here in Korea is just walk around various subway stops until I find a local market. I absolutely love walking around the local markets, because they have all sorts of yummy looking foods, and almost every time I've gone, I've discovered at least one new food item. :D

A couple weeks ago when I was wondering around the downtown area, I stumbled onto this great market just off of the Jongno-5-ga station. It's a really large market where one half is devoted to clothing, bedding, and textiles and the other half is devoted entirely to food. There were a lot of great food stands, but unfortunately, I was way to full at the time to try anything.

Therefore when Ning came to visit, I decided I had to take him to this Jongno-5-ga area market because 1. it's one of the biggest local markets that I've found so far and 2. one of the things that stood out when I found this place was there were lots of pacheon-type foods (yummy Korean pancakes) stands and I knew Ning's a big fan of pacheon.

So after a whole day of walking and eating many meals from various street food vendors, we headed over to the Jongno-5-ga area market, and we ordered a huge pacheon. It had to be our 6th or 7th meal of the day, but it was delicious that we devoured the entire thing even though it was absolutely enormous. There's gotta be no better feeling than getting a great pacheon from the local market...

Our wonderfully delightful pacheon-like pancake

Seoul Drum Festival

One thing I absolutely love about Seoul is all the random festivals that they have. So far since I've been here, there's been at least two or three festivals going on for each weekend. The main event for last week was: the Seoul Drum Festival.

Drumming is big here in Korea. It's a big part of traditional culture and performance, and there's many, many modern re-interpretations of the traditional instruments. So needless to say, when I found out that there was going to be a Drum Festival in Seoul, I knew it would be good, and it didn't disappoint.

The Drum Festival is an annual event that highlights the different drum styles of Korea and abroad. It took over Seoul Forest by setting up a huge stage in the middle of the lawn, and jsut going in was kinda interesting. Because of the whole swine-flu precautions, everyone that enters the festival first has to walk through thermal sensors to see if you have a fever. Then, there's at least 3 staff people standing by the entrance to give you hand sanitizers. It was quite high-tech for a random lawn festival.

Upon entering, there were lots of booths set up for free promo stuff and drums for you to play with. There were all the different types of Korean drums, and it was really cute watching the little kids play with the drums. Some were actually really good and knew what they were doing.

After messing with the drums for a bit, the show finally starts. Again, there were two M.C.s, and they kinda made a big deal out of the opening ceremony (apparently, they made the world's largest drum for this festival and so of course they needed a lot of pomp and circumstance when the major or whoever he was made the first strike). They tried to make it sound so dramatic that it was quite comical, and for a bit I was a little skeptical as to the quality of the performances.

The rest of the show after the opening ceremony, however, was really great. There were 8 or so different groups that performed, a couple of which were international groups. There was one group from Mexico, and another really flashy group from Brazil. The Brazil group was the only one to not play the drums. They just did different Samba and Salsa numbers to a beat, but they costumes and performance was so out there, that it didn't really matter they didn't play the drums themselves.

The other 6 or so groups were Korean. They all featured different kinds of drums and all had their own unique styles, so every performance was unique and did a great job. There was one group that used metal fans to hit the drums, and there was one performance with the traditional drum dance with the ribbon hats.

Overall, Ning and I were both pleasantly surprised by the quality of each of the performances. The only downside to the entire experience was that since it was for 3 hours outdoors, it started to get quite chilly outside. And of course, me being the pansy that I am to the cold, I actually got sick by the end of the night, so poor Ning, he had a sick host for most of his visit. : /