This Week's Samgyupsal Scoop

Yes, I have changed the title of this blog, at the request of someone who couldn't bear to have Seoul's name tarnished by that derogatory adjective, "cloudy". It is still raining pretty much everyday, but never mind that...

It has been an eventful week. Besides our midterm, I've also gotten to experience more neighborhoods and environments around this endlessly inspiring city that is Seoul.

Two of our classmates' birthdays happened to fall on this past week, and the rest of us each brought in some snacks to celebrate.

Sonomi, a sweet girl from Japan who is thinking of studying to become a makeup artist and whose favorite makeup brand is MAC, turns 20! She's the youngest in the class. Next comes me of course.

Finally one with our whole class! I didn't realize we looked so small. The birthday boy is the Frenchman Vivien, the guy in the white polo in the back. One most days the life of the class, on this day he turned 23, I think. Whenever people tell me I forget to ask whether it's in Korean age or not.

This one's with our sonsaengnim (teacher). She's the motherly-looking woman in the center in the green. Throughout the four hours of class each day, they rotate teachers twice, so we get to work with three different teaching styles. She is by far my favorite.

This week, I have found a new place to wander around in and blow off the entire discretionary portion of my budget.

As soon as I got off the metro at Insadong station, I could see that this was a special place. Right near the exit was this large wall made up of a collection of square tiles, each unique and made by local artists and regular people to express their love and longing for Insadong. The materials used vary widely from one tile to another, and many of them had parts which protruded out towards the viewer.

I think this is meant to evoke Starbucks. Starbucks is very popular here, and as in New York, there are some busy neighborhoods where one can be found on every street. Apparently the one in Insadong is the only one whose name is spelled out in hangul. However, the prices are ridiculous here in Korea. A frap for 5.50?! A passionfruit tea for 4 dollars?! Even for Starbucks, that is insane.

For those who can understand Korean.

It was pouring the first time I went so I didn't get to take many pictures.

It was such a cute place. Even the rain wasn't enough to ruin the inherent romantic quality of all the side alleyways. There are many stores there selling traditional Korean goods, and also a lot of stores selling handmade, one of kind goodies, like clothes, music boxes, jewelry.

Sometime last week we finally had a mini Williams reunion! We went to Hongdae to eat dinner and walk around. Took the chance to snap more pictures of Hongdae.

A performance of some sort was going on in the park.

Best samgyupsal (Korean grilled pork) I have EVER HAD. And so cheap! The whole meal cost each of us less then 7 bucks.

We went back to the park afterwards and there was another band performing. It was clear they were no amateurs. So far all the street performers I've seen in Hongdae have been very fresh and unique.

The really sketchy looking entrance to some undoubtly cool bar.

This is not what it seems like...In Seoul there are signs in English everywhere, and every now and then the people apparently did not make the best decisions in choosing their words. According to my friend, it's called a "HO" bar because "HO" in Korean means number. There are many HO bars around the area and each of them have a number, and I guess having a number is their thing...

Since Jean asked for some pictures of "Korean style" I tried to capture a few random shots of people on the street. Most of them are blurry though haha. It is quite hard to take pictures of people while pretending I'm not.

That's it for now. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!!