Seoul - Clothing and Makeup Haul

Here are a few items I got in Korea! 

Seoul Day 7- Korean BBQ and Street Food!

Every country has it's unique customs.  

While dinning, I found it interesting that it is customary to take your shoes off and sit on the floor to eat  (even at restaurants).

GOGI GUI!

     Here is what a Korean BBQ looks like.  Korean BBQ or gogi gui is a meal where you get to grill beef, pork or chicken on a gas or charcoal grill built into the center of a table. You wrap the grilled meat in lettuce and dip it in sauce.  Yummy!

     Along with all my meals in Korea, I got all these small extra side dishes.  It's either pickled, spicy , covered in sesame oil or is in some form of tofu.  I love Korean side dishes, they are all so colorful and delicious ^o^
 

     I also found something similar to Korean BBQ except it's boiled seafood and tofu.

 Street Food
      Local street food is pretty damn good and cheap, not to mention it's very multi-cultural and creative.  Remember all those tall order's Erik had? Tall Orders (pictures of ice-cream and potato).  Here are some of the food I had on the street.
 

 

 Here's a typical streetmeat vendor, it's definitely not a hot dog.  It's three different sausages on a skewer :O

 

 You can even get some grilled squid.

Day 6 - Above Wangsimni Station and An Obsession with Donuts?

Our hotel was walking distance to Wangsimni Station.  I like how  one of the entrances to the station is decked out with lights XD   

There was also a large mall called Bitplex  above the station.It's a nice mall with your typical E-mart, shops and cinema.

I went inside E-mart and found....

dun dun dun

an umbrella sword!!!  

I call it, "ninja umbrella".  Only such a thing would exist in Asia.

I wanted to take it home but got a pink umbrella with polka dots and squirrels on it instead.

Now about Korean's an their obsession with donuts.  I dunno about you but I found many Dunkin Donut places.  You might say, "Oh Gwen, that's normal to see those around." But like this?

I saw a few franchise formats that were 3-4 story high. You know how there's the KFC chicken bucket?  Well, in Korea's Dunkin Donuts you can also get bucket too but  full of donuts in all sorts of crazy flavors. 

I never was a Dunkin Donuts kinda gal but I did stop by a Crispy Cream because it's quite interesting how some franchises are able to adapt in other countries.  After the whole Atkin's diet trend, Crispy Cream kinda pulled out of Canada and the States.  I couldn't resist and had to go inside. 

 I ordered, one blueberry donut and one hello kitty donut.  Fancy stuff.  

Seoul Day 5 - T-Money and Underground Shopping

     Korea’s subway system is clean, large, and easy to understand from getting one destination to another.  I got a new T-Money card and it’s the cutest metro card ever!

    The T-Money card can be used to swipe over a scanner to enter and exit the subway station. It can also be used as a debt card to pay fares to taxi drivers.  All the underground stations have machines where you can top up your T-Money card.  These machines have the “English” option, thank goodness!  There are also machines underground that have Google street view and tourist information to help you navigate around the city.

Underground shopping in Korea is very different from what I'm use to in Canada.  In Canada, we have an underground shopping area called "The Path" but the variety of shops are very different!  In Korea it seems that it's mostly made up of fast fashion shops, beauty shops and there are many cute accessory stores to be found scattered throughout the area.

  This mannikin has the biggest eyes, oh my gosh!

 

Day 4 - Seoul Museum of Art

    The Seoul Museum of Art  is a modern art museum .  It is has three floors and about six exhibition halls.  The museum itself is free for the public.  Besides the beautiful artworks from all sorts of medium , the place also functions as a library where art-related books can be used by the public.  You can always go an exhibition titled, "The Soul of Chun Kyung Ja", which is a permanent collection there.

The exhibitions that I saw were :Australia_Digital Urban Portaits, Hyper-Realistic Painting-Deceiving the Eye (Omg, this was so good... I thought everything was a photograph),Reminiscence of Seoul, Imagination City, and Bernar Venet's paintings

Below are my two favorite interactive installations at the Seoul museum.

Interactive Art with phones and photography = win.  And yes, I miss Allen aaaalot.

  By the end of the day, I was totally pooped! 

 I found some quirky statues around the city but even they couldn't save me from the heat and exhaustion.

What are your most memorable art exhibition and why? (I think mine must have been the tele-like devices that one year at Nuit Blanche http://www.flickr.com/photos/transcendent/5047934537/)

Seoul Day 3 - Shopping in Myeongdong and Tall Orders

     I love love love Myeongdong.  I believe it is one of the places in the world that displays retail therapy at its finest.  At every turn , I found myself surround by a myriad of shops left and right. Myeongdong is known as the  centre of Korea's commercial, financial, shopping, culture, arts and fashion industries. My journey to seek cute girly clothes in pastel colors was fulfilled because this place had it all.  

This place makes my heart go pitter-patter ^.^  

     Just off of Myeongdong’s mainstreets are beauty shops.  Beauty divas will find shops like Nature Republic, Tony Moly, Skin Food, The Face Shop, Etude House and other stores all situated in this area.  

     I also noticed that Myeongdong uses vertical space very well (retailers mainly at ground level and food franchisers on the top).  Not only do they have tall buildings but even the food …have a tall order.      

    

Seoul Day 2 - Deoksugung Palace and Hanboks!

     One of the first place we went to was Deoksugung Palace.  It’s a lovely palace located in the city that has alot of history.

There are a few artifacts inside the palace too. 

Here is one that I thought was cool.  It's called "Borujak Jagyeongnu" and it's a waterclock!

We managed to make it in time for the “changing of the guards” event that happens around noon.   The changing of the guards occurs in the front gate where the guards swap shifts.  You have to see it to believe it but it's quite impressive sight because the changing of the guards involve a march with live music!  Check out the video we took during our trip to see what I mean. I wish I got such a welcome and farewell  every time I came or left work!

 
 The highlight of my day was getting a chance to wear a hanbok.  In Korea, a hanbok is the traditional Korean dress from the south. It is often characterized by bright vibrant colors and simple lines.

Erik got to wear one too.

Seoul Day 1 - Cultural Heritage

     It's been quite hectic the past few weeks in Vietnam but we made it to safely to Seoul flying in style with  “Korea Air.”  When we touched down, and the immediate 25 degrees Celsius greeted us and it was a noticeable cool compared to what we experience in the rest of Asia.

      Walking into the airport in Korea was like a retail dream.  I got giddy over the selection of high end brands for bags and the makeup shops available (living downtown in Toronto makes Sephora at Eatons the only close place for makeup variety.)

There is a cultural heritage area where we got to put on designs on a necklace and coat lacquer on a wooden charm to make a necklace. There were also some interesting performances.