Don Quixote

As the final festivity for Judy's birthday, we got dressed up again and headed out to dinner and the Universal Ballet's performance of Marius Petipa's Don Quixote.  For dinner, we decided to try Jayeonsan Hoe, an all-you-can-eat (in 40 minutes) sushi buffet we'd read about that was only a few subway stops from the theater. 

Before hittin' the road

자연산 회

Jayeonsan Hoe Timed Sushi Buffet

We'd never heard of a timed buffet before coming to Korea, and then we've only ever heard of them associated with sushi buffets.  It makes sense with the cost of quality sushi (we hope it was quality!), but it's still a strange concept.  When you walk into the place, they seat you and immediately stamp your bill with the time you were seated, and place it on the counter so the sushi chefs behind the bar and the staff walking around the restaurant can easily check when you're time is up.  There's no free fish here!  Even when we ordered sake, the waiter checked the time before agreeing to serve it to us!

Tuna & Salmon

(and 9 empty plates)

The sushi was actually quite good too!  Especially for it being an all-you-can-eat joint.  We were more than pleasantly surprised.  It was also nice to be able to grab anything we wanted from a passing boat just to try and not have to worry about eating it if we didn't want to.  The downfall to all-you-can-eat sushi is that you actually eat all you can.  Usually the price of sushi limits us to eating a comfortable amount or only slightly too much.  That was not the case here.  The 17,000\ price was fixed, so we grabbed and grabbed and ate and ate for the entire 40 minutes.  There was no need for restraint or self control.  It was way too much food. 

What's embarrassing here is that when this picture was taken, they had already cleared away our empty plates a few times.  This was probably somewhere in the 30's!  And there were more after this point too...

Stuffed!  (and waiting for the subway)

Sesame Street brand and Dennis The Menace brand golf apparel and accessories!  (We'll gladly take orders if there's anything you need!)

Since dinner only took 4o minutes, we were pretty early arriving at the Seoul Arts Center.  Instead of sitting in the lobby and waiting, we decided to go to one of the coffee shops nearby for a little pick-me-up.  (This was our first ballet, so we weren't sure if it was going to be something we could easily stay awake through or not.  Caffeine seemed like the smart idea...)

Coffine Gurunaru

This was our first visit to a CG location.  They are all over Seoul, but that stupid name always deterred us.  On this particular occasion, we didn't decide on one of the other coffee shops we'd passed and this was the last one on the street, so that's what made the decision for us.

The company motto?  Business plan?

"Coffine Gurunaru wants to be a tree and a ferry in a river just like a place to rest.  A good quality coffee and the health benefits of wine will definitely make your body and your mind upgrade and even your pride in your life.  Please take a deserved break at Coffine Gurunaru.  Coffine Gurunaru is a resting place for you."

Pre-show

Seoul Arts Center Opera Theater

Intermission

Back to Coffine!

When we were there before the show, we noticed on the menu that they had a 17,900\ bottle of wine available.  In Korea, that's a great deal on wine, and especially great that it was at a cafe because that meant that we wouldn't have to order food with it.  It seemed too good to be true, so we came back after the show for a little wine, only to find out that it actually was too good to be true...

Waiting for the wine in purple velvet wing backs

After nearly 15 minutes of waiting, our buzzer finally went off, signaling that our wine was ready.  As it turned out, the bottle option on the wine menu was a take-out only option, and it wasn't actually a bottle, or even a half bottle for that matter.*  We were so stoked to have found a place with cheap wine too.  ☹

*A week or so later, we finally opened our Coffine Gurunaru wine, and the bottle only held 2 glasses of wine.  Not even heavily poured glasses either...  The wine at least tasted good.  Not 9,000\/glass good, but definitely better than other wines we've had here. 

Feeling betrayed and defeated, Judy put the 'bottle' into her purse and we headed back towards our neighborhood to drown our sorrows in beer and chicken strips at Baby Guinness, an Irish pub near our house.  

The best chicken strips in town!

Korean St. Patty's ☹

We were pretty surprised when we heard that there was going to be St. Patty's festivities in the Insadong neighborhood of Seoul with food booths and even a live band.  Seoul celebrates St. Patrick's Day, who knew?  Never being too big on the holiday in the states, we weren't too interested in celebrating it in Korea, but since we had nothing better to do that day, we decided to at least check it out.

As we were walking through Insadong, about 25 yards away from where the St. Patty's party was going, we encountered a strong alcohol/booze breath scent, that got stronger with each step we took.  We could smell the booze stench before we could hear the live band, that's how thick it was.  "Wow, these Koreans must really understand St. Patrick's Day!" we thought.  When we turned into the area, we immediately noticed how wrong our previous thought was.  There were no Koreans in sight.  Koreans weren't the ones celebrating.  The wasted, screaming crowd was made up almost entirely of other foreigners.  It was a frightening scene.  It was maybe 1PM, if even and already people were stumbling around, pouring straight soju down their throats.  We were far too sober for the situation, so we just snapped two photos and got the hell outta there.  Not our scene.

Koreans have a lot of stereotypes of foreigners and alcohol that stem from things like that.  While we have, without a doubt, promoted those stereotypes more times than we'd like to admit, we try to avoid doing it by the hundreds, and so early in the afternoon.  We also just feel uncomfortable when surrounded entirely by English speakers.  It's hard to explain.  The English speaking community here is miniscule compared to the Korean population, so whether it's true or not, it often feels like we're just lumped into one category, where any single individual can represent the rest of us, which isn't the case at all.  Back home in The States, you see an idiot and you think, "look at that idiot," but here it's, "Koreans look at me and think I'm like that."  Again, this assessment could be entirely false, but it's how we feel sometimes, especially with large groups. 

So, instead of hanging around and partying with our fellow 'foreign-folk,' we made our way to the next, more Korean neighborhood and celebrated St. Patty's where we were comfortable and once more among the minority! 

White Day

화이트데이

White Day

 

 

White Day, yet another Valentinesque couple holiday in Korea, falls on March 14th every year.  In Korea, Valentine's Day is celebrated as a holiday for boyfriends and husbands, with the women providing the gifts and the men free from all obligations.  As a payback (and a way to eek out another holiday), Koreans celebrate White Day one month later where the tables are turned and the men are responsible for doting on their ladies. 

Starting a few weeks before (actually right after they take down their Valentine's Day decorations), grocery stores, bakeries, and convenience stores set up their White Day displays and decorations. 

@ Tous Les Jours (bakery)

Paris Baguette (another bakery)

Dunkin Donuts

Out front of a Family Mart (convenience store)

Andrew's beautifully wrapped White Day gift for Judy!

In an attempt to redeem herself from her pathetic showing at Pepero Day in November, Judy got Andrew a little something, despite being exempt from the holiday responsibilities.  Sure, her wrapping didn't leave any mystery to what was inside and clearly came from a convenience store, it's the thought that counts, right?  That's what Andrew's telling himself, anyway!

In her defense, she went to multiple stores to pick up goodies that Andrew likes, so there was thought and planning involved.  And, the majority of Andrew's gift to her also came from a convenience store...

To celebrate White Day, unlike Pepero or Valentine's Day, we went out.  No where special of course, but it was definitely a step in the right direction for us!  The weekend before, we discovered a Garten Bier near our apartment, which was super exciting so we decided to go there.  Garten Bier is a Korean restaurant and bar chain with OK food and cheap drinks.  The draw to Garten Bier, however, is the built-in refrigerated cup holders in each table.  Definitely the most awesome invention ever!

가르텐 비어

Dinner & Jazz

To celebrate Judy's birth, just the two of us, we got dressed up and headed to Itaewon.  The plan was to have Italian for dinner, then go to a Jazz club for some drinks and live music.

The standard self-timers before leaving the apartment...

Andrew pulled out all the stops, with his bald eagle socks from the Emerald Queen Casino and classy sock garters!

~ Dinner & La Bocca ~

 

Starter salad

Cheesy shells

Prosciutto and roasted vegetable panini

Surprisingly, the jazz place was packed.  First we were given the only available table, a standing table in the back which wasn't ideal, but fortunately a couple that was seated right next to the stage left shortly after we arrived, so we were able to move to their table.

Our new table was close enough to touch the band!

Even though we took this during a set break, we still got in trouble for using the flash.  We can't do anything right in this country!

These two 'babes' spent half the time taking pictures of themselves and when they weren't photographing themselves, they were looking at the pictures.  They seemed mighty pleased with themselves!

Pretty standard on the subway after dark...
(Honestly, this is pretty standard anywhere after dark!)

While Judy sleeps, Andrew plays!

Judy's Big Two-Five

To ring in 25 big ones, Judy decided to do one of our favorite things in Korea, and what has since become a monthly event, the COEX Intercontinental Hotel's all you can eat and drink appetizer and wine happy hour, aka Wing & Wine Night!

 Mmmmm, fried wingzzzz!

Demon Liz

Cake Time!

Take a big drink, so you can blow out your candles!

Yay!

*not captured in these photos was our pathetic

rendition of 'Happy Birthday!'  It was terrible.

Opening her gift from Jin and Heeji

Heeji didn't let it slow her pace when they stopped serving wine...  She moved straight to beer like a champ!

A partial group shot

Judy & Alex

We were those obnoxious, drunks on the subway...☹

Lights out for the birthday girl!