Ice Forest at Incheon International Airport

So nothing really exciting has been going on here in Korea. I came down with the flu and was sick for about a week. I had to go to Yonsei's Severance Hospital and I got medicine -_- So I'll update my food blog in a bit (but while I was sick I barely ate a thing, or hardly anything worth taking a picture of).

But today I re-visited Incheon International Airport. I never really noticed how spectacular this airport actually is (because when I arrived I was so tired and didn't really take any pictures). This airport is apparently the "Best Airport" for 7 years or so says the banners. But this airport is definitely something. While stepping off the train to the terminal I noticed the Ice Forest, a large indoor ice-skating ring...inside an airport!!

Kids learning to skate

The airport has everything! There's a huge food court, multiple water features, beautifully arranged plants and flowers used as the centerpieces for the seating areas, internet lounges, and large Samsung televisions that air K-Dramas. 

While exploring the food eateries, I stumbled upon Jamba Juice! Jamba Juice's are practically don't exist in Korea. There's maybe one other Jamba, but other than that Korea's #1 smoothie franchise is Smoothie King which I'll try once the weather gets warmer.

Incheon International Airport also has a stage where entertainment can usually be found during the afternoon-evening hours. 

A performer performing covers from Taeyang, Kara, Girls Generations, and BOA (all famous K-pop groups)

Dog Cafe Bau House

This past weekend I went to a dog cafe in 합정 (Hapjong)! Now It's not what you think, there was no eating of dog involved. You see, a dog cafe is where you can have tea or coffee and be surrounded by dogs. The dogs walk all over the place and you can take pictures of them, play with them, etc. In Korea it's not unfamiliar to come across such cafes. There's also cat cafes (which I've never been to), but I can't imagine cats being too fun to play with.

At the dog cafe the dogs are free to roam all over the place. They can jump on the chairs, the tables, you name it. I can't believe such a place exists! You can bet a place like this would never pass in the U.S. (due to sanitary reasons). But there were people constantly sweeping the floors of the dog hair and regulating the dogs.

Giant bear dog that I waned to play with but was boring and slept the whole time

Another thing you can do it buy dog treats. The dog treats are sold for $3-$10 and the dogs absolutely loves it! With a bag of treats you immediately become the star of attention and the dogs flock to you, eagerly waiting for a handout.

My favorite dog of the day, since the giant bear dog wouldn't play

Directions to Dog Cafe Bau House 

Seoul, Mapo-gu 서울시 마포구

Seogyo-dong 서교동 405-13번지 3rd floor 바우하우스

02-334-5152

Slowly turning Korean; Clothes, Hair, and Smile

It's been a quite hectic week with homework and quizzes but I finally managed to squeeze in some time to blog. I haven't really had anything too exciting, besides my daily meals and small talk with my Korean/exchange friends; but I'm starting to notice some changes. I think I'm slowly turning Korean.

I'm paired up with a student (a Korean national) for one of my school clubs and he recently helped me get a haircut. At first I was going to go into a random barbershop/salon and say "조금 만 짤라 주세요" which is essentially "Please just cut a little." But I realized that this was a bad idea because a little is like an inch over here. So my language exchange partner took me to 최가을헤어 which is a well known/really good salon in Korea. The salons here are AMAZING. While you wait you are provided with a beverage of coffee, tea, or juice, they wash your hair (TWICE) and while they are drying and styling your hair, there's two people on each side and each person has their own dryer. The whole process was completely new to me. But I loved it. Oh and did I forget to mention that my friend just told me, "Trust her, she's good at cutting hair." He then went on to tell the salon lady to do whatever she wanted with my hair (which was hard to work with, being American and all).

Another thing that changed is school pride. All Yonsei students get a letter man/varsity jacket (something you would never get in Hawaii, even if you were in Varsity). It's amazing to see how much students wear their jackets in school and around Sinchon. Now I finally have one of my own!

Normally students engrave their major or a saying. The best part is that engraving is only $3! 

And last but not least is how you smile. I learned that in Korea most people don't smile with their teeth like back in America. They sometimes do, if they're flawless actors or models, but it's not common at all to smile with your teeth. I remember when I was little my grandmother would never smile with her teeth...maybe she had the same mindset and maybe it's a similar concept in China. Hmm...

Me with my Korean haircut and my first Korean smile picture with my friend 정아

War Memorial of Korea

Sorry I haven't posted anything (here and the food site) in awhile, I caught a cold and was stuck in my room for about 5 days. But I'm 95% better now!!

So since I recovered I decided to go out and explore! Being a school day I decided to visit the War Memorial of Korea for an educational learning experience. The War Memorial of Korea was about a 5 minute walk from Samgaki station and is impossible to miss. The War Memorial of Korea is a world class museum which contains movie documentaries, a vast collection of lively exhibited historic relics, wartime weapons (going back 5000 years), and a vast assortment of actual war machines (jets, tanks, helicopters, ships, etc). 

outside entrance

inside entrance

Eventually I got kind of lazy and decided that I didn't want to learn that much, so I just read the side notes on each exhibit!

Military Tag teardrop for soldiers dying in action

Dongdaemun and Pyounghwa Clothing Market

The other day I HAD to go clothes shopping. You see I have a fitness class at Yonsei and the weird thing is that no one wears short pants when they work out. Whether its yoga, pillates, weight lifting, etc; they all wear long pants. I did bring some workout clothes but my workout clothes only consisted of 2 short pants and some workout t-shirts. So I decided to go Dongdaemun to get some clothes.

Dongdaemun is where you go when you want cheap clothes. They have clothes everywhere and the best part is that you "haggle" for your price. Since I'm no good at haggling in Korean I brought my friend since I can't haggle to save my life. I was surprised at how cheap the clothes were. You could buy a blazer for about $15 and dress pants for $10 (if you can find your size).

One of the largest clothing markets

A sea of people shopping for clothes

Shopping mall full of clothes

By the end of the day I just bought 2 long workout pants for about $10 each. It was pretty good, one of my workout pants was an Adidas workout pants, but I'm pretty sure it was fake. At the end of my clothes shopping day I ran into this thing called Disco Jump. Apparently this Disco Jump goes to different places to promote some hair product. It's basically a carnival ride where it spins and tilts. It was really interesting watching everyone ride it. People would fall down, slide off their seats, squash the people next to you, and scream!

Another mall for clothes

My First Jjimjilbang: A visit to Dragonhill Spa and Resorts

Burrrrr! Its been super cold these past few days and the weather seems to be getting colder...is that possible? All I want to do is to soak in a hot tub...wait I did do that! This weekend my friend Jungyoun introduced me to 찜질방 (Jjimjilbang). Jjimjilbangs are public bath houses and very popular here in Korea. Jjimjilbang's are usually open 24 hours a day and tons of people come here to bathe, eat, hangout, and even sleep here. My first Jjimjilbang experience was at Dragonhills Spa and Resort in Yongsan.

I don't have any other Jjimjilbang experiences but this was pretty nice. I'm guessing that this is one of the nicer jjimjilbang's because it had a spa, pool, food court, arcade, and even golf area. 

Normally people just come here to bathe but I got to go to the whirlpool room (they even had a tv)! It was so relaxing and the hot water felt so good for this negative degree weather. 

Along with being a public bath house, jjimjilbang's are known for their saunas. They have small to giant stone bricked saunas and people can sit or lie down.

Sauna's

They even have cold rooms that have ice/snow inside. I guess its to recover from the hot saunas. Normally you see people come out of the hot sauna and into the cold room then go back to the sauna and repeat the process.

What really shocked me was the fact that there were so much people just lying around on the floor sleeping or lounging around. Definitely something you don't see everyday back at home.

The arcade

Cafeteria

Overall, it was a great cultural experience and great to get out of the cold. I've been to the sauna room back at home but I've never experienced anything like this. I still can't believe people go to jjimjilbang's just to take a bath...a public bath! But I guess its alright if you go to jjimjilbang like Dragonhills, since its also a spa.