Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Jan 25; breaking things, drooling, and shopping in Myeongdong (Part III)

Day 15

Whenever I put on my tae kwon do outfit, I feel this wave of sleepyness and I felt extraaaa sleepy today. As I was making my not-so-sly escape, Master Lee directly asked me what I did for the long weekend. Plan to escape: FAILED. I'm pretty glad I ended up staying because we all got to practice breaking blocks (in preparation for breaking wood for the last test).
Yay I did it!
After class, we had the pleasure of going to see the Cooking NANTA performance. For those of you who have not heard of NANTA, check out this video below. It will explain a lot more than what my words can describe.

The music making, knife chopping, dancing chefs and the easy to follow story line made it soo much fun to watch. There was also audience participation where Diana ended up catching a bag full of garbage and Rachel got to eat food and get married. It was just all so good!. Yes, I am happy to say the Nanta performance went beyond my expectations. 
After the performance, a few of us headed to School Food, a more high end take on traditional Korean street food.
This whole tray of mixed gimbap/sushi was only 22,000 won.
Rappoki - spicy noodles with tteokbokki. mashisayo!

Rappoki = 7000 won
And since we were all finally together, we headed very to the sticker booth place to take those cheesy looking photos.

Steps to take pictures:
1) Find a booth. There were quite a few different types.
We choose this one

2) Try to fit everyone in the little booth
3) Choose frames, pose, and edit lighting all under what felt like 2 minutes. Choosing the frames, finding the right poses/positions, and editing was so intense because of the time limit. Infact, it was too hectic to take pictures for this step
4) Make it pretty
 
5) Pay for it and laminate. 
Here are the final results: 
One sheet = 6000 won
The party didn't end here. There were quite a few things I wanted to pick up from last time I came (but didn't cause I ran out of cash flow....). I ended up buying some clothes, a scarf, and a bag. I bargained for my scarf and my bag....in ENGLISH. (It seems that I'm the only one in the group that can get away with that even if I look Korean).  I realized that I didn't save much, but I felt accomplished because bargaining in Myeongdong where the prices are already written and fixed make bargaining really difficult.

I will be back again, Myeongdong.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Jan 24; "Tealicious Tikka Masala" - Catherine Reyes

Day 16
This is my friend's travel blog. We're all on the same trip, but she tells the same tales from another perspective =) http://monkeyingaroundtheworld.wordpress.com/

So if you recall from a  previous entry, we got lost the first time we went to search for a tea house in Insadong. This was our second time trying to get to a tea house and we still kind of got lost even with the help of our Korea buddy, but we eventually found the perfect place and it was totally worth it! The scenery was beautiful, we got to sit on heated floors, try out traditional Korean teas, oh it was just soo nice.
Cristian is too tall for the tiny Korean bus

smooch - korean kissing art. 
The long awaited tea house.
menu
Me, Diana, Tanjin, and Kristie waiting for our tea.
We ordered 5 different types of tea (3 traditional and 2 sweet).
Jujube Tea
Citron Tea that tasted like pink lemonade
Green Tea
Chrysanthemum Tea
(And we also had pine needle which I do not have a picture of...but it looks like regular green tea.)
view of the mountains/date spot
garden




Soojeong, our Korean buddy
Kristie sipping her tea
Sigrid pouring her tea.
Cristian admiring his spoon?
Soojeong, Diana, and I enjoying the sunlight with our tea.
the tea house
Soojeong and I with the "map" on the wall.
(Photo Cred: Catherine)
anyeonghaseyo fire hydrant
variety show celebtrities
After the tea house, we headed over to the Insadong market area.
The walls were covered with writings and notes. 
I left my mark in Korea.

There are so many different types of street food in Korea. I tried the hoddeok today which was filled with sweet cinnamon awesomeness. It was the messiest that I had ever eaten though. My gloves, my scarf, my jacket, my HAIR, got all dirty with the gooeyness of this bittersweet treat.
Reena, Cat, and I struggling to eat our hoddeok
hoddeok = 1000 won

Tanjin and I were meaning to try Indian food in Korea. We found a place called Taj Mahal and took our chances for Korean-Indian food. 
Taj Mahal restuarant, how appropriate
Tanjin and I exciteeed for our food =)
Reena and I 
 
Nan and Butter Paneer = 12000 won

Whatta day.