This little guy is Max (my coworker Bill's son) who is really a cool kid. He is almost 5 years old and I liked hanging out with him. We would draw pictures in the staff room. It was sweet! Made me connect with my young side again haha but I am pretty much as a child sometimes! It's true!
This picture was taken on the bus to the city. Yes, the buses for some reason have weird decor like fake flowers. I don't know why. Does it make the bus pretty? I think just plain tacky!
So one night Lyndsey and I are coming back from town on the good old bus and this drunk man was just staring at us. He then started to mumble and well I just smiled and ignored. But Lyndsey turns to me and says, ' I think he speaking English' Weird eh? So it turns out he was totally speaking bits and pieces of English asking us where we are from and so on. I thought it was hilarious that he kept saying things about how pretty we were and Lyndsey and I were 'same same pretty' haha I told him he was pretty as well! It was funny. He was really friend and Lyndsey gave him a bowl of ramen from her shopping bag! I took a photo! It was fun!
This is the long road I walk down to the bus stop from my work. Yeah it's a long road with some farmers living beside it on the left. They are really nice people and are always working hard in their farming fields.
Now you know where I work haha so come and stalk me anytime! I am joking! But here is the sign that is in front of the institute. I like how around my work and house is nothing but nature and fresh air. But the problem is that it is pretty far from well life haha
I couldn't imagine a better twosome then with a cake and sandwich. Honestly, who comes up with the titles to a lot of these shops? Really!
So there is a giant eco park that is near where I live. It's pretty nice and I like it there. I think it is funny that they posted this sign in the eco park. Without seeing this sign I probably would have done at least 5 of these things while at the park haha
Here is the beautiful lake in all it's glory! I love how nice it looks!
I like my cheesy pose that I am doing by the lake. In Korea, you will see couples and friends honestly doing the cheesiest photo poses ever. Plus, they are usually deadly serious in the photos. No smiles. It's so odd to me that the photos must be perfect and really artificial. So I am imitating a couple who is beside me on the dock doing a very serious Korean couples pose. By the way, I am wearing Lyndsey's winter coat because I left mine in Bill's room while I was hanging out with Max. I make Lyndsey's coat look good.
Another scenic shot of the lake. It's really beautiful out in the country side. Lots of people come here to walk around and hang out. I think it is funny that most woman will wear high heels and skirt while walking around the eco park. I just don't understand how they do it, I really don't!
My epic shot of me enjoying the view at the eco park. I look like a goddess or so I tell myself everyday haha It must be all that kimchi that gives me a healthy glow because well that is one of Kimchi's many benefits!
So Lyndsey and I are walking back from the eco park and we see a trail of cars, the exact same make and model all parked in front of Soho restaurant. It was hilarious to see all these cars in a row. We were joking about maybe it is some kind of convention haha
By the way, Soho restaurant is something out of the Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. It is a cheesy decorated restaurant (sitting on old floral print sofas, white sheets draped everywhere, porcelain dollar store figurines, ect...) that serves really bad Western/Korean food. But people go there because it's next to the lake and looks pretty from the outside. Any who, I was there the other day because it was one of my supervisors last days at work. So the meal consisted of regular rounds of first soup and salad. The waiters had to lean over the couches to put the plates properly on the table. One young waiter had a few soup bowls on his tray and when he leaned over to put my soup on the table, he tipped the tray and a bunch of red vegetable soup landed on my bright green sweater! It was horrible. The manager scrubbed my sweater in the sink as I sat there freezing at the table. It sucked! The moral of the story: stay away from Soho's.
The long distance bus stops for washrooms and eating are sure interesting in Korea. Most rest stations provide restaurants, food vendors, sometimes knock off coffee shops, convenient stores and even prize machines to eat up your pocket change. I do enjoy watching people at rest stops haha that doesn't sound right at all! whoops but hopefully you know what I mean!
Here are some men hanging out smoking in front of the washrooms. Yes woman in Korea do not smoke in public. It is the oddest thing. I have never seen a woman smoke in Korea. It is not acceptable in societies eyes and only men are allowed to smoke in public. Trust me, most men do smoke in public!
Here is a food vendor at the bus stop who is selling some interesting bits of food. I wonder what the gruel is...
This is a caravan shop parked in the parking lot of the bus rest stop. This one is selling camping and hiking gear. If you go hiking in Korea, Koreans have specific outfits for hiking. I am not joking! Koreans for some reason have specific outfits for specific times. If you go play volleyball, which is one of the most popular sports in Korea, everyone will wear a track suit. If you go hiking, everyone will wear khaki pants, windbreaker type jacket, fishing type hat, a backpack with a water bottle and hiking pole along with hiking boots. One time I saw 20 people near my work walking in a line like ants all in their hiking gear towards one of the mountains around my work. It was insane! Koreans believe in fitting in and not being an individual.
Did you know middle school and high school girls can not wear make up, dye their hair or have piercing of any sort. If they do any of that, they are considered as a rebel and can get in trouble. It's insane. So most teens look identical with their matching hair cuts and uniforms. Sad to say, but you just have to see it to believe it!
In Seoul, Lyndsey and I stayed in Itaewon which is the foreigners part of town. Mainly it's where all the US soldiers hang out. There are a few good East Indian restaurants here. There is also an Indian and African community here. It's really odd at first because well it's Korea and there is honestly like ethnic diversity in the south where I live. This part of town is kinda sketchy at night and even has a hookers hill which is devoted to brothel like places. It's odd. Anyways, it was raining and Lyndsey and I needed a place to sleep. So we stumbled across a Korean hole in the wall hotel. So for 30 Canadian a night, this was my room. It was so sketchy with the hard as a rock pillows and weird marks all over the wall. Here is my washroom that did not even have a sink!
Here is a picture of my room. I had the worst sleep of my life in this room. The next day I thought I was going to fall over sick because I was running on no sleep.
In Seoul, I like to travel in style. I bought this giant 2L water for $1 Canadian. What a bargain compared to buying a 500 mL bottle for $0.50. You do the math! But it is a bit unsafe to drink the tape water here in Korea. So I am bottle water girl here. I also went to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I hope they hope them in Canada. They are awesome. I like the gingerbread latte. It's the coffee shop of celebrities like David Beckham. Ohh smashingly good!
TGI Friday's isn't that great as I make it out to be in this photo. But it is one of the few Western restaurants in Korea. Beggars can not be choosers. But the foods is overpriced in comparison to eating local food. Literally it's 2 to 3 times more expensive to eat Western food. So when I get home, oh man, watch out, I am going on an eating rampage!
I couldn't resist this little guy outside of a noodle restaurant. He is cute! The women who were making noodles in the little see through room on the edge of the restaurant where laughing at me!
Enough said...But this odd clothing store with a hilarious name sells clothes that remind of Ralph Lauren meets the Gap to go yachting. It was odd and to top it off the song that was constantly being played was 'tiny yellow polka dot bikini' non stop by singing children. Just horrible. I could not work there.
The dog and cat cafe. Yes, this friendly groomers shop (literally it's on one side of the cafe beside the washroom) is a popular little joint in Gwangju. For $5 Canadian dollars you can spend endless time playing with dogs and cats dressed up in costumes. Yes it is true! The worst thing is that you get a horrible tasting instant coffee in a travel mug to sip on while you are there. It was the worst coffee ever!
Here is an evil cat, I saw evil because he tried to bite me, looking outside the window and planning his root of escape. The treats in the background can be purchased as well to feed the animals here. Lyndsey and I were wondering if the dogs and cats were owned by the cafe or customers who send them there to get groomed. Little do the customers know, the owners are charging people to play with there animals. Hmmm, it was thought Lyndsey and I discussed.
Here is my little pink dog friend. It slept on me. It was super cute. I couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl because of it's puffy fur and nor did I bother to look. I am super tired in this picture because Lyndsey and I took the bus back from Seoul that day at 3:30am in the morning. I woke up at 1pm and Lyndsey and I decided to go to the dog cafe!
The little dogs in the background playing away with some customers. I like how this cat was busy watching the TV and not interacting with the customers. It was hilarious!
This giant chow chow was so adorable. He had a little bow in his hair which made me sad because well he is a boy and why is he wearing a girls boy in his fur? I don't get it. But this dog was cute and I gave him a hug and in return he sneezed into my hair and tried to lick my ear. Naughty!
This is the puppy now awake and me pretending to eat it. I am joking, I am not! But I don't think it spoke English because we had a hard time communicating.
This dog well I feel sorry for it. Look at it's crazy hair do and to top it off they make him look like a French artist with a tiny hat. It's horrible. This dog hid the majority of the time. I wanted to rescue him and give him a proper hair cut!
Overall, the dog cafe was pretty interesting to play with random dogs and cats. I like how a lot of the animals were friendly. I didn't enjoy how my nose was itching from all the animal hair after. It smelt like giant animal in there considering there were like 20 animals in a room with the sun shining through massive windows. Yeah not so smart!
Otherwise, the adventures continue, I am enjoying them as they unravel.
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