Escape the Heat!

Alright, first thing after we wake up..... food pics. Yes, that's pretty much about the first thing we do everyday. Eat.

Joyce got the bibimbap.

And I got the doenjang jigae.

Our side dishes.

Hmm... I'm starting to think that Joyce always picks better food from the menu than I do. I think I should just order whatever she gets next time.

Oh, and if you haven't been to Korean restaurants in Korea, they always have the utensils tucked away at the side of the table.

Today was quite chill because.... we just really wanted to escape the heat and humidity. We pretty much did not walk much of the day.... I guess doing what the Koreans actually do.

So we went to Itaewon for Joyce to sell back some of the books she finished reading. Since she did that and got some store credit, she used that credit to buy a book for me that I picked up while there. So I've been watching this Korean drama called "Are you human too?" which is about a love relationship between a human and an android. I was so intrigued by this human-android romance (the plot is really intense now and I really have no idea where they're gonna lead it! So unpredictable!) that when I saw this book, I thought that it may have similar plot.

Well... I'm not much of a reader so we'll see when I'll actually finish the book.

While in Itaewon, we walked on one of the side streets and I realized that.... Itaewon is a big area for antique stores! Who knew!

What most people know about Itaewon is that it's a very foreigner-filled place. There are TONS of foreigners living here that in some ways, it doesn't feel much like Korea. There are many Turkish restaurants among other things, and lots and lots of foreigners on the street. I actually don't like it too much since I feel like if I'm in Korea, I want it to feel like Korea - not a foreigner filled non-Korean culture place.

Anyways... back to food. So the lady at the bookstore recommended this bingsu place and... it's really quite good!

And the lady who worked there was very nice, which makes it all the better!

 Mmmm...... very nice bingsu.....

Oh by the way, that's a new shirt Joyce got from Korea (finally getting her to buy some stuff!). I think she looks really nice in that shirt! She looks like a college student! And also got her to try some lip tint which made her look really nice even without any other make up on!

So we walked around to the cafe that Joyce stayed for like 5 hours reading the other day. It's called Hell's Cafe. Ironically, Joyce said it was very cold. But that's not the reason I took this picture below. If you look at this picture, you'll see that there is a table for two right next to the window, as if you're on display. Who in their right mind would want to pick this place to sit and sip coffee?!

I don't get the concept (concept is a big word in Korea... haha....)

So Joyce and I walked around some more and decided to read our books at a cafe to escape the heat. We decided on Coffee Smith, which is a popular chain cafe in Korea. It has a really really nice environment, but super expensive drinks.

After about 2 hours of reading, Joyce finished her book while I'm only on maybe Chapter 5. Yup, the reading speed is drastically different.

We planned to go to a Korean language cafe today in Hongdae for both of us to learn some Korean. So it's pretty much the exact same thing as the English cafe we worked at, except we're learning Korean this time! Sorry I forgot to take pictures of what happened during the cafe..... and hence the picture of an empty cafe.

I had a Korean teacher teach me one-on-one today. She was very kind and talked quite slowly. I think we had such good conversation that she wanted to keep in contact for later. After an hour of class, we had more Korean people join us in our conversation and we talked some more in Korean for another hour. I think it's still quite hard for me to speak Korean naturally. I think they can all understand what I'm trying to say, but they kept correcting my sentence structure so it sounds more natural, but I just can't remember them as I go. Bleh.

After that second hour, we switched tables and met some other people. This time we spoke entirely in English, for whatever reason. This second table rotation was had two guys who didn't talk much so I felt like I was in the English cafe again, trying to conjure up conversation. A bit tiring, but not too bad. We may go back tomorrow.

By the time we finished, it was about 10:30pm or so. I thought to walk around Hongdae to see what the young people were up to.... and Joyce kept saying 배 고파요 (I'm hungry), so we walked around Hongdae looking for some food.

We then saw this SUPER NICE cafe, that's like a house.... and decided to eat the bread they offer there.

That was the downstairs area... and here is the upstairs.

And here we are with our breads.

And then I realized later, that the cafe downstairs and upstairs are not the same cafe!! Eeek! I didn't read the Korean sign that was near the staircase because it was in Korean..... until I read them on the way down that it said "we're not the same cafe! Please don't take the food from downstairs up". Ah, we felt quite bad about that... and we didn't even buy anything from the upstairs place!

Oh, and I put on some fake eyelashes on for the first time today! I'm not sure if it made much difference, but Joyce said it looked really good. Success!

Alright, time to sleep!