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Published: June 24th 2008
The Tea House
See all the birds in the tree? Made for a peaceful setting.This past Saturday Daniel and I went to Insadong and met up with some friends to do some shopping. Along the way we stopped at the coolest tea shop ever. It was upstairs in a back alley, and really small! When you walked in the door you had to maneuver yourself around pillows, small tables and half walls. Anyone without good balance, in a wheelchair, or slightly overweight would be unable to come here. We sat at a little round table in the back and were given little tea menus. I ordered cold Pear Tea, Dan got cold Citrus Tea, and some of the others in our group got Chrysanthemum, Lilac and Fruit Punch teas. They were all sooo good! The neatest part about this tea shop was the birds. There were probably a dozen little birds, yellow, blue, white, red, just flying around, from the mini trees to the large ceramic pots that were set up as fountains and candles on the window ledge. One rather audacious fellow, a small yellow creature with curious eyes and twiggy legs, assessed the situation and resolved to sweep in and commandeer a seed from Jeff's tea cup. It was hilarious, especially when a
little green one followed him around trying to hijack the seed, which, eventually, he did.
After some more strolling around, the girls went separately to shop while the boys went to the batting cages. We headed to a basement bar, appropriately named "Beer Bar", where the menu was bottle caps scotch-taped to the black cardboard. After a few quick beers and watching the LG Twins play an inning or two, we left, but not before the lone bartender handed each of us girls a bag of Bud beer caps. An odd gift, but we smiled and thanked him, and moved on.
We caught a cab to Itaewon and crashed a birthday party on a rooftop. I spoke with a few of the girls there, interested in hearing how other people came to Korea and spend their time. One girl was a drama teacher who doesn't have a contract with one school but instead goes from job to job, making fairly good money, because she has been here for several years. The next girl was a yoga instructor, here illegally, so she has to leave the country every three months to renew her temporary visa.
Next, we headed
A frozen rasberry
In the Citrus Tea... yummmm to some bars in Itaewon, and after a few hours Dan and I negotiated a cab ride home for $45, a steal because the hour long ride would normally cost $75-80.
On Sunday, Daniel and I headed into Dongdeamun, which is supposed to be a great shopping district. We didn't give the area much of a chance before jumping in a cab and going to Lotte, a massive department store/mall, because I had $200 in gift certificates from one of my students I needed to spend. I was floored by this department store- there was Gucci, Prada, Tiffany's, Chanel, Coach, Versace, and my favorite... MAC! I bought one lip gloss and two lip liners to the exorbitant price of $54. But it's MAC and I can always justify a MAC purchase. Besides, I had gift certificates, and everything else in the mall would have been far out of my meager price range. (A bottle of Christian Dior perfume at $250 was on the low end).
From there we cabbed it to World Cup Stadium to meet up with Kelly, Corey, Patricia, Chris, Jeff, and several other Army boys to watch South Korea take on the North in a
The bathroom was small enough...
but they still put a cement bowl in the middle and added one large red fish and two small orange ones. Made maneuvering a little difficult. soccer game. The stadium was pretty awesome, the fans were overly sportsman-like, and the game was rather dull, but we had a great time. The North Korean fan section (extremely small, and almost completely young school boys wearing white T-shirts) twice pulled out a massive tarp that showed a united North and South in one blue country. It was pretty moving.
As far as the game itself- well, we are convinced there was an international conspiracy. The score was 0-0, the South Korean team played none of it's starters, and there was at least one shot taken by our player that was all of 20 feet away, with no one guarding him, and he kicked the ball
over the goal! Both teams have made the World Cup to be held 2010 in South Africa, so I guess there wasn't any need for either country to embarrass the other, and with the South wanting to establish stronger ties with the North we are pretty sure they intentionally didn't win.
Well, that's all for now. Oh yeah, have you heard about all the issues with U.S. beef over here? The president has decided to allow U.S. beef to be imported
into the country and the Korean people are all up in arms. They believe that the U.S. is sending beef that is 30 months old, that it is tainted with Mad Cow, and that Koreans are more susceptible to the disease than Americans. Even McDonald's is under attack with people protesting the chain. There are massive protests, the media is fueling the fire by encouraging misinformation, which is being fed to them by Korean beef distributors who are afraid that a larger supply of quality beef will drive prices down. I have come to see that Koreans in general seem pretty naive when it comes to group think (not that any mass of people is immune, including the American press, but we won't go there...). I have heard that many Koreans believe it you leave a fan on in the bedroom while you sleep that the air will be sucked out and you will suffocate. Not sure how completely true it is, but I've heard that one more than once.
Anyways, hope you all are well!
xoxo
Erin
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Kim
non-member comment
Nice
Nice comments on this one.. I want one of those shirts lol..Anywasy how are you? We miss you so much tell Dan ,Mike and I said "Hello", what else besides tea houses and sight seeing and birthday parties have you been up to? Well gotta run the weather is beautiful outside and I've got errands to run.. Keep in touch!!!!