Dr. Fish and Simpsons Clue

This afternoon I met up with Loren and Megan in Gangnam to go to Dr. Fish. Loren and I were planning on going to Dr. Fish a few weeks back but couldn't find it in Sinchon. We lucked out today and found it and it was an experience. First of all, it's a cafe where you go and order drinks, chill and do what people do in a cafe. However, there are two shallow baths with fish swimming in them. We chose the tank with the big fish. Once you rinse your feet you put them into the baths along with hundreds of fish waiting to eat the bottoms of your feet. I guess they are a special kind of fish who apparently help people in Turkey with psorisis. Anyway, you leave your feet in the baths for about 20 minutes while fish constantly nibble. It's not really a ticklish experience, but rather the feeling of fine sandpaper lightly rubbing your feet. Here is a video I took of the fish and the cafe. It's not very good, but it's an idea of how Dr. Fish works.



After the fish nibbling, we went to Dos Tacos for some Mexican food and margaritas. I had a rather tasty chicken burrito. We sat outside and despite the constant haze over the city the past few days, it was a pretty nice day. After dinner we went shopping at Artbox where I got some new stationary and a 2009 calendar with the Korean holidays written in English. Then went to a board game cafe. We played Simpsons Clue and had a great time trying to remember the rules of Clue. Loren won the first time and Megan the last. I'm not a very good Clue player, but it was fun.

COEX Mall

I decided, since it is the first day of my vacation that I wanted to do something, but not something too high maintenance or far away. So after consulting my Frommer's guide I decided to check out COEX Mall. COEX is a huge underground mall of about 85,000 square meters of space. They have a huge bookstore that puts Barnes and Noble to shame with its selection of a gazillion foreign language books (English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, you name it they probably have it). I wandered around in there for about an hour looking around, suggested the Odyssey over the Iliad to a 12 year old boy and his mother and looked at Korean cookbooks (thanks for the idea, Jessie). I also had a prescription filled in a matter of seconds and it only set me back 3,300W. This mall is incredibly large and I thought about a movie on one of the 16 screens, but decided against it. I will probably go later in the week when it's hopefully not as crowded. According to literature I read the mall gets over 100,000 visitors a day! That is insane to me. They also have a Kimchi museum, but I didn't check that out today, I can always go back, it's only one subway stop away.

Anyway, I finally figured out the ATM (thanks to Cheri) and then it was time to wander some more. I found The Face Shop which I guess is like a Bath and Body Works or Body Shop. I needed some face wash so I bought some there and also picked up some nail polish. When I got home I checked my bag and I had 3 free samples of stuff, pretty sweet. After that, I found another ArtBox and my love for that store increases every time I go in there, too bad the money in my wallet decreases. However, one can never have too many pens or journals.

I was starting to get hungry, but I knew I wanted McDonald's the second I stepped on the subway to go to COEX. Something about not feeling the greatest the past few days made me crave the smells and tastes of McDonald's. I so badly wanted to dive head first into a 10 piece chicken McNuggets with honey and an ice cold Coke, but I settled for a 4 piece spicy chicken tender, fries and a semi-cold Coke. The tenders were amazing. The menu at a Korean McDonald's is very different from American McDonald's. Sure they have chicken McNuggets (only in a Happy Meal though), Big Macs, McChicken, Big and Tasty and fries, but those are the only similarities. They have the spicy chicken tenders, a shrimp burger, a special Big Mac with special meat, berry McFlurries, chocolate dipped ice cream cones and some other things I don't remember. It was truly an experience and honestly, I will eat there again. It's hard to break a habit after working somewhere for 9 years.

After McDonald's I wanted to find a purse. I went to COEX looking for one because as much as I love my Kavu bag, I needed a change. I found a very nice Calvin Klein bag for only 49,000W ($48). It is brown and I can wear it across my body (a major selling point for me) and it's simple. Not too over the top and it holds my guidebook, phrasebook, cellphone, wallet, etc. It's everything I needed in a purse. I will still use my Kavu bag when I don't have as much to tote around (i.e. going to school, dinner in my neighborhood, etc), but the new purse holds more. I had told myself that I wouldn't spend more than 50,000W and luckily I found what I needed and wanted for less.

I have a lot of things on my To Do list for this week. They include checking out Dongdaemun Market and Namdaemun Market. Also, I would like to visit Olympic Park, N Seoul Tower at night, go back to Gyeongbokgung Palace when its not raining, Deoksugung Palace and Seoul World Cup Stadium. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I'd still like to see it, plus when soccer games aren't being played, its home to Homever and a movie theater. I have other things on my list too, but I think these are a good place to start. I already ticked COEX off the list.

Subway and Walking Around

On Saturday I wanted to do some exploring, but it was pretty hot and humid (not that this is any different from any other day) so I didn't stay out as long as I would have liked. However, I did take the subway for the first time. The pocket sized subway map is in Korean, so it can be difficult to know where one is going, but luckily I have a tour book with the English version printed in it. I only went two stops, but I made my way to the Gangnam stop where I found a plethora of stores and restaurants. I found a really cool store, Artbox, that had all sorts of stationery, pens, planners, journals, etc. I bought a planner because I didn't have one and have already found it useful and I also bought a red and pink pen to coordinate with the stationery I purchased. All of this only set me back 7,800W ($7.80). I also found a really great store with tons of makeup and nail polish but I only looked.

Yesterday, I met up with my friend J.T. and we walked around my neighborhood for a good couple of hours. We probably walked over a mile and a half in total. Later we went to dinner at Momotaro, a Japanese restaurant right by my apartment. I found a Chrysler dealership and Hyundai department store along with Lotte department store. I will most likely explore the department stores at some point. When I got home last night I continued looking at walking tours of the city. I want to become acquainted with the city outside of my little bubble. So, next Saturday I will be taking a walking tour of Gyeongbokgung Palace (and others) on the other side of the river. It means more using the subway (and transferring!) and getting to see some of the historical parts of Seoul. I am planning on signing up for a walking tour once a week (until they are all done) in order to become more familiar with Korean history and culture. I am also planning on visiting the DMZ and a green tea plantation at some point as well.

My second week of teaching starts today. I have a few tests to give this week so I'll be in the process of writing those tonight. The good thing is that I have a folder on the computer at school that previous teachers have used so I can either take their tests, or use them to make my own. I feel confident that I can write my own test, but maybe for the first couple I'll see what they have done.