Tokyo Underground

The weekend after I visited Carmela I started my 12 day cleanse that I bought back in June when I went home to Canada for a visit. The timing was right and I really needed to do it, instead of it just collecting dust in my cupboard. Basically, that meant no drinking, no sugar, no bread or dairy products, etc. for 12 whole days. I had to stick to a very strict eating pattern, so I couldn't eat school lunches and I couldn't eat out. I did make a trip to Yongsan my second day of the cleanse and I bought the entire series of Alias and The O.C. and I managed to hold off eating the delicious Costco pizza when I was there.My last weekend of the cleanse I headed back to visit Carmela in Hoegi, so we could go to a DJ show in Hongdae. Tokyo Underground was playing a show at The Mansion and I managed to get a free pass to go, so all the more reason to go.

Jaclyn, Carmela and I at The Mansion excited for the show.

Marius and Carmela loving the party!! And, always ready to party!!

Carmela and I have our moment, even though we were hot and sweaty.

Keyth Death from Tokyo rocking the turntables.

Jaclyn and I admist the crowd of party goers.

Marius's friend Camilo was visited from Shanghai where he teaches, so he came out to party.

I stayed sober the entire night thanks to cleanse, but man the will power I've obtained during this process. Anyways, Saturday I headed home early because I had a movie date with Lindsay. We decided to see A Christmas Carol and it was an amazing movie. The only downfall was all the kids at the movie who wouldn't stop talking throughout. After the movie I just came home and stayed in for the night.

Sunday, Lindsay and I headed to Bupyeong to do some Christmas shopping. I decided to treat myself to some shoes, clothes, accessories, etc because I managed to last the whole cleanse. Below are just some of the purchases I made and my favorites.

I bought the 2 nicest/great pair of shoes I've ever seen along with a winter hat, a giant scarf and 3 pairs of 'Korean' style glasses.

These are the most ridiculous pair of glasses. Hello, 89 year old woman...Why did I buy them you ask?? Because they are secretly fabulous.

I had a great weekend and although I spent way too much money it was totally worth it. I hadn't done some decent shopping in ages and the time was right.

Seoul Style!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to head to Seoul to spend the weekend with my friend Carmela. She use to live/teach in Incheon last year, but since she moved to Seoul in March we hardly see each other, so a weekend hanging out with her was long overdue. We started Friday night off chilling out at her place and making bruschetta for the mini-dinner party her and her Hoegi friends were having. The dinner was at her friend/neighbour Jaclyn's house where we were joined by Marius, Sae Min and Sae Min's friend Ocean.

Jaclyn, Marius and I enjoying all the delicious foods that were prepared.

We had a few pre-drinks and a dance party after dinner before heading out for the night. The six of us all headed to Gangnam to meet up with some Korean friends to join in on the drinking with. We met them all at a place called 'Fish and Grill', which is one of my favorite places to drink at.

Not the best picture of our side of the table, but Marius and I have the best friend hug down perfectly.

Carmela's side of the table was much more prepared and into the picture.

When we had all had enough of 'Fish and Grill' some people headed home, while others, Carmela and myself headed next door to Noise Basement.

Carmela and I so happy we finally got to hang out.

Carmela and I with some friends from 'Fish and Grill' at Noise Basement. I feel bad I forgot their names.

This guy told me he was a hockey player. I almost died at the thought of a Korean playing hockey.

When a friend drinks too much and passes out at the bar what do you do?? Take pictures with them that they have no idea about.

Carmela and I together at last and loving every second of it.

I forget this guys name as well, but he was fun and a good dancer.

These two guys were busting some serious moves on the dance floor, so I decided to get a picture with them.

We finished at Noise Basement very early in the morning, lets just say the sun was coming up. Carmela ended up drinking way more than she could handle, so she got sick.

Saturday we slept in because we were hungover and didn't have any desire to leave our beds or the house. Marius came over and we ordered chicken and watched a Korean movie, which then turned into a nap. Carmela and I finally left the house around 5:30PM and headed to Myeongdong to do some shopping. We shopped for a few hours and ate some dinner before heading back to Carmela's to take another nap and then head out again. We headed to Itaewon to meet Jaclyn, Marius and Ocean.

At the jazz bar where we met them I saw this sign and it made me smile. "For the clean hands" - only in Korea where they are scared to death of Swine Flu.

It didn't end up being that late of a night for us, which was nice because I hate heading back to Incheon hungover and tired. Sunday, Carmela took Marius and I to this American breakfast style restaurant called, 'Butter fingers' in Apgujeong. The wait was long, but totally worth it.

This was the delicious waffle breakfast I ordered and it tasted as good as it looks.

When we finished breakfast we wandered through Apgujeong. I decided to get another piercing in my ear and it probably won't be the last one I get here. We headed back to Carmela's after ward, so I could grab my stuff and head home to Incheon. Weekend in Seoul, successful - check!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Well, I spent another Halloween in Korea and it was much the same as last year. Most of my friends all wanted to spend Halloween in Bucheon at Rhythm and Booze, so that is where I ended up. Thanks to my wonderful mom for sending me my Snow White costume, so I could be some thing decent this year for Halloween. Although the costume was great, it didn't survive the night and unfortunately, it has become destine for the garbage. Anyways, enjoy some of the pictures I took during the party.

Nick and Carolina had the best costume idea ever, a Korean couple. They did it perfect!!

The Witch and Snow White, this seems a bit ironic. Does the witch poison Snow White?!?!

Mrs. Doubtfire a.k.a. Rebekah and I take some time for a photo.

These are Yeonsu's best kept secrets. AND, you can see why...

Carolina, Holly and I are the three Musketeers.

Chris the giraffe lobes me a lot. I lobe Chris too!

Steve Eurkel even came to the party. As you can see nothing has changed.

Nick and I enjoying the Halloween party.

May eventually showed up to the party in Bucheon.

Caroilna entered the Halloween Fear Factor contest. She didn't win, but she sure tried.

Bianca, Spider-man a.k.a. Cam and I show you who's boss.

There was this super tall black guy at the party. I told my friend I could take a self-portrait of him and I in it, yeah, my head got half cut off and I only got to his shoulders...He was that tall.

Elton John came to the party.

Michael and I share a picture moment. I actually have no idea who he is, I just met him that night.

Rebekah dancing up a storm with the crazy Korean guy that was out of control on the dance floor.

May and Holly showing each other some love.

Holly and Rebekah close to the end of the night. As you can see Holly gave up on the witch hat.

Holly, Rebekah and I ended up leaving the party around 3:30AM and heading back to Incheon. We enjoyed some Reese peanut butter cups with the taxi driver on the way home. When we got back to Incheon we enjoyed some late night/early morning food at our favorite cheap little 24/7 restaurant before heading to bed.

Mama Cieta's Birthday!!

The following weekend we celebrated the fabulous Lindsay’s birthday. Holly, May, Lindsay and I headed into Seoul early on Saturday because we booked a hotel for the night, so we wanted to drop our bags off and then head out for some pre-birthday shopping and lunch. Our hotel was in Yeoido, so we took a taxi to Hongdae where we had some lunch and then we decided to be girly girls and get our nails done.

Lindsay, Holly and I enjoying our delicious galbi lunch.

We found this really great nail studio, so Lindsay and May got manicures, while Holly and I enjoyed some pedicures. We also got lucky and watched the final game of the K-league World Series baseball game, which was Incheon SK Wyverns vs. KIA Tigers.

Holly and I getting our pedicures.

When we finished in Hongdae we headed back to our hotel to get all dolled up for the night and to enjoy some wine and champagne. It was while we were getting ready that I watched the SK Wyverns lose to the KIA Tigers *chokes back tears*. Once we got all dressed up we headed to Sinchon for some Mexican food at On the Border and to get the party started.

May and I ready for the birthday celebrations to start.

The four us ready ready to party!

When we finished at On the Border we headed to Hongdae to get our dancing shoes on and continue the party.

Holly, Lindsay and I at On the Border.

Lindsay, May, Kristy, Nicole, Tahee, Myself and Holly enjoying our yummy Mexican food and margarita's.

Happy Mexican Birthday to Lindsay a.k.a. Mama Cieta!!

We went to Jane’s Groove because it’s always a good time, the music is usually good and the drinks are good. This is where the party really got started and most of us danced like there was no tomorrow.

Holly and I sporting our matching Boys Over Flowers necklaces!!

Look who came to party with us...BONG!! Love love love this girl.

Randomly bumped into Carmela at Jane's Groove. Now, that she has moved to Seoul I hardly get to see her :(

We randomly bumped into Chris in Hongdae. I love this boy, in a very non-couple kind of way.

We left Jane’s Groove and headed for some late night galbi before calling it a night and heading back to the hotel.

Sunday morning May left early, so Holly, Lindsay and I ate a cheap meal at a restaurant near the hotel before heading to Sinchon where we took the bus back to Incheon. It was such a great birthday celebration!!

Incheon Global Fair and Festival!!

From August 5th – October 25th, Incheon hosted the Incheon Global Fair and Festival. Basically, it was just a giant festival with exhibits set up from different parts of the world and loads of companies from Korea, plus many famous Korean stars performed at the fair as well. It took me until the second last weekend of the Global Fair and Festival to make an appearance (I teach in the area where it was hosted), but I finally did. Lindsay and I headed there the day after I went to Everland with Holly and her parents. We had no idea just how big the festival was and just how busy it was going to be. I even bumped into a few of my students.

We had to be given hand sanitizer and a spray down upon entering the fair because of Koreans fear of catching Swine flu. Once we past through that phase we started our adventure through the global fair of business and some awesomeness. Again, instead of typing every little detail, which will just bore you, here are some pictures and brief snippets about what the two of us got up to. Enjoy!

Welcome to Hollywood Lindsay!

I love New York, but I hate the Yankees.

Lindsay and I decided to go to Hawaii while we were there.

This African man was from Rwanda, one of the countries I hope to visit.

I loved this handmade African wood craft.

Me and the builder LEGO man!! We managed to see a parade.

This was the African float in the parade.

This was the float from Brazil and boy was it risque.

We then waited in line for over an hour to see some 3-D show about the future of Song-do city. The glasses were the best part.

There was an awesome garden there with flowers galore. I really enjoyed this flower display the most. The hand are reaching for the world.

We ventured over to the international area where I saw this amazing graffiti of 2PAC on the bboy stage.

The Trojan horse made it's way to the festival as well.

We also managed to find the beer tent, but neither of us were drinking that weekend, but if we had been we would have been there for a while. Instead, we just ventured in to check it out and guess who we should bump into, but Big Bang. I LOVE T.O.P.

Then we checked out the African exhibit and this amazing piece of art was in the entrance. Some of my favorite pieces of art come from African culture.

We also enjoyed an African tribal dance that had the Korea's in awe.

As we were leaving the international exhibit we checked out a bboy show. They were amateur.

The line for the robot exhibit didn't take as long to get into as the 3-D show and that's a good thing because we were disappointed.

This robot giraffe welcomed us to the exhibit.

A grasshopper robot at the robot zoo.

When we finished at the robot exhibit we headed out because we had spent over 4 hours at the festival and we had enough of the rude Korean people and the crowds.

On the way out we walked past some more flower displays. This elephant one was my favorite.

When we finished at the festival we had dinner with Holly and her parents because it was their last night in Korea.