Tonight I took Sparkle Motion out for our nightly bike ride but this time instead of riding around the more urban area of Sinsa/Apgujeong, I decided to take her down to the Han River. Great night for a ride, the skies were clear and you could see the lights of the city clearly. We also ran into a walk-through tunnel filled with amazing graffiti. Here's some images from our adventure! Enjoy!

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So my birthday is tomorrow and I thought, what better way to end my 25th year than with a little video post for all of my friends and family back in the States (and elsewhere around the world)! Giving another little bit of insight to my life here in the motherland, I present you with Garuso-gil. Garuso-gil is one of the more famous streets in Korea and is located between Sinsa and Apgujeong which makes it one of the ritzier locations in Seoul. The street's lined with trees and there's constantly people walking, talking, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to talk or shop, etc. From the plethora of restaurants and coffee shops it's really no wonder why it's one of the more popular places for people to congregate in. The one thing about Garuso-gil is that while it is really nice, it's also very expensive. A cup of coffee here will run you 6,000+ KRW (about $5.50) and the meals aren't that cheap either. But again, you pay a price for luxury. Some places have great drinks, food, clothes, whatever it may be that they cater to. Others are just expensive because of location and because they can charge that much. Sometimes you can feel a little "unworthy" as many people flock to the street to be noticed when looking hip, trendy, and/or fancy. But for the most part, I really don't care when I walk along the streets in my shorts and t-shirt and sneakers. Enjoy the video!

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My co-worker Dave or 데이브 as he's known in Korea, recently won a Starbucks Event prize in the last lottery drawing and he got a whole bag full of cups, mugs, drinking devices, whatever you want to call them. Personally, I love the bag itself but the cups are still a great prize! He was even kind of enough to share his good fortune with a few of us in the office so high five to new Starbucks travel mugs! Enjoy the pictures! More on Dave's Flickr page here.

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My 언니 gave me a 시계, Premium Casio G Shock! Balla, because that's how I roll... In other news I learned the Korean word for "imitation". It's 짝퉁 (Jjacktoong!).

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Nice little apron brought to you by the kind folks at 새마을 식당 so that you don't get your clothes icky with kimchi :)

Photo Credit: Dave Jansen / @hellodeibu

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Last Friday was our old intern Jihyun's last day. As she would say it was pretty, 대박 / Dae Bak! Or as I'm told, very very very good! We had our last lunch together where she wowed us with her vernacular as she asked for water, said thank you, and talked in her Jihyun way of just pointing and going, "Uhh!!" That night we had sam gyeop sal and then went bowling in Apgujeong which was awesome! Aside from playing the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show repeatedly on the monitors, which wasn't that bad, it was glow in the dark bowling with plenty of laughs. Also, if anyone ever wants to feel good about their bowling no matter what the skill level, come bowling in Korea. Every person gets a "Nice shot!!!" and a ton of high fives after the throw. It's a major boost for the self-esteem. A great night and a great way to bid our farewell to Jihyun, even though she still comes back to the office. :)

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Farewell Dinner

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Korean Bowling!

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Yesterday I went to Lotte world with my buddy Dave and our two friends from Starbucks, Nana and Simji. Lotte World is a minified version of Disney World yet there's no Mickey Mouse, instead there's Lotty the Raccoon. It combines both an indoor and outdoor amusement park and has one of the better amusement park parades that I've ever seen. It was the first time I'd been there and was able to ride on the attractions in the outside area, and it was awesome! We all rode on the Gyroscope which is a bunch of swings that rotate in a circle while swinging like a pendulum from side to side. Before we rode it Dave said, "You feel like you're flying!" And you really do! The view was amazing. From the high points you can see all around you, and since it's rotating in a circle as well, you get to see EVERYTHING! I wish I could have taken photos while riding it. The other rides were your standard amusement park rides with different names, The Bungee Drop, Comet Express, The Pirate Ship (real original), the Flume (bet you can't guess what that is! :P) but it was still a great time. Simji and I also got Nekko (Cat) Phone charms. According to the pamphlet mine is one of the three brothers and her's is the girl kitten who likes to come over and play... yeah go figure. Of course mine had to be the boy cat. Anyways.. Enjoy the photos!

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Took some quick photo booth pics with my co-worker Lizzy/Ji Youn today during popsicle snack time. She's one of my favorites! Enjoy!

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"Oh my gosh! I can't believe you told her that!"

"ITCHY! ITCHY!" (this was followed by or in combination with hand/arm gestures of him itching or washing his arms to show that he was shocked by the dirtiness of the jokes and/or stories that Torin and I were telling him)

"I am TERRY"

"What?! Really?!"

and

"NO!... no.. oh my gosh!"

The best part of the night was when Terry showed off his sleight of hand tricks to us. Check out the video to see the magic!

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I needed my American fix. So I had what I would normally eat in the States, except modified. Keep in mind not all of this was eaten in one day.

Pizza

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Burritos

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Cheese Platter

Up until now, anything with cheese has turned into a "just unwrap a single slice of American cheese and put it on top" sort of situation. Yeah, Korea loves their American Cheese singles. Literally anything that has added 치주/Cheese/Cheeju (that's phonetically), means that you'll be staring at a slowly melting orangey/yellow square on top of your Ramen, Soondub, Katsu, really anything you want cheese added to. And with this knowledge, I was skeptical of the 10,000 KRW Cheese Platter that my favorite Coffee Shop/Bar/Hangout had to offer. But even so, Bar Brassiere didn't disappoint. It's range of high quality cheese was a little sparse but it was nice to see that Brie exists in Korea. There was also a fun sort of cheese surprise when we found a selection of cheese that had dried mangos, cherries, etc. inserted in it. The only random cheese was the small little pile of cream cheese (yes the same as you would spread on a bagel) in the middle of the plate, but that soon proved as more of a source of entertainment than an edible topping. (I sculpted it into a cheese castle) The cheese plate in Korea, or at least at Bar Brassiere, didn't disappoint with the dairy just with the cracker selection. Saltines and some type of cracker that tasted stale but probably wasn't. Not worth 10,000 KRW, but it was still pleasant and a nice side to the beers that my friend and I were having that evening. As a last note, if anyone happens to stop by Garuso-Gil in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu in Seoul... Bar Brassiere definitely shouldn't be missed. I'll make sure to make a post about it later so everyone can get a better snippet of how great this place is. Highly recommended if you want to relax, bring a date, or have a good place for good conversation with friends. I've done all three. :)

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• Funny URLs for Korean Health websites (meatwatch.co.kr.. i mean really?)
• More proof that Korean's are the vainest asians due to the huge ass mirrors in the subway stations
• Chic Scooters
• Buddha's Birthday Lanterns
• Coffee disguised as beer
• Apple's gay rainbow exists in Korea
• Inspirational coffee shop quotes
• Long non-romantic walks with a bro (Seriously only in Korea)
• Tiny phones
• Watermelon Donuts
  
• Caribou Coffee <3's Korea
• and... Korea steals yet another American Icon, The Pringles Man.

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My goal while I'm in Korea is to slowly steal away all of my friends in the States and have them come see/visit me while I'm here. I've successfully obtained one of my good friends from NY, Torin Murphy. Torin's been traveling the world since last year and now he's here in Korea for a while to get some money saved up. We met up last weekend in Hongdae and shared our stories over some good drinking food and big bottles of beer/맥주. It's good to have someone here who I know. Everyone else, you're more than welcome to come and visit! The more the merrier!

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So I've covered a few street foods but here's another tasty treat. As we all left the Seoul National Museum, the friends and I ran into a Hodduk cart. For those that don't know, hodduk is basically a sort of pancake like street food that has a sort of cinammon-ey sugary sweet syrup on the inside and is cooked on a griddle to tasty perfection. This weekend I had my first piece and it was pretty good. I was informed by a few coworkers that this was not in fact the only type of hodduk but it can still be considered hodduk. Either way it was tasty. Enjoy!

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This past weekend I went to the Seoul National Museum with a few new friends. One of the brilliant things about Korea is that everything here is so well taken care of. The minute I stepped onto the Museum's grounds I was blown away by how immense the building was and also how well landscaped the outdoors surrounding it appeared to be. I especially enjoyed the architecture of the museum with it's unique design both in and outside. The special exhibit running currently was one about Greek Gods, Heores, and Mortals which was kindly donated by the British Museum.

My first thought of the exhibit: I miss Christina Mavronas, my Greek back in Bay Ridge.
My second thought: The titles for the sculptures and whatnot were hilarious! One such sculpture was entitled, "Attempted Rape" but the actual sculpture has two figures both with smiles on their faces. Other such titles included, "Sad boy" and "Happy and Content". My friends and I wanted to meet the translators and tell them they did a great job with making such entertaining and at times completely non-related titles.

After viewing the museum, we all took a nice little walk around the museum's grounds and found their nature/park area. One of the favorite spots was a little spring/pond area. Talk about finding some inner peace. The whole place was amazing.

If you're ever in Seoul and enjoy museum's I do recommend the Seoul National Museum. If you go by train it's located outside of exit 2 of the  Ichon Metro station which is a stop on both Line 1 and Line 4.

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