boodae jjigae, literally translated as ‘army stew’ in korean. farty is how koreans say ‘party’, because it is a trend (or a terrible grammar misunderstanding) that all words starting with a ‘P’ should be pronounced with a ‘F’.

1. the first thing i did when i got off the plane was buy a banana milk from the airport’s convenience store and head to the nearest computer to check my facebook/twitter/emails. the rest of my trip echoed a repetition of the same process with slight variations, depending on location.

2. seoul, world design capital? okay.

3. cute cafes!

4. ate a 6 course meal at a chichi chinese restaurant where they put a flower in my cup!

5. 2am on a weekday. all establishments are open, ready to serve you alcohol.

6. cow liver. raw.

7. good pork.

8. big bang + beer = double the yum

9. farm animal neck pillows. i bought a rooster

10. korean air air traffic signal men waving goodbye until plane takes off.

Strictly Ballroom (1992)

Cyrus (2010)

Broken English (2007)

my friends and i stumbled into this vintage village when i was in korea.

the village was made to look like a typical neighborhood in the 60s..the attention to detail was great. it was like walking into a movie set.

old school comic book store. in korea, you go to manhwa-bangs and pay an hourly rate to read comic books in the store. like pc bangs or norae bangs.

i would have probably read the one with the girl on the cover. i dont really like manga but when i was growing up rose of versailles and candy candy, both girl mangas, were my favorite. i have bootleg dvd sets for both now and turn them on time to time.

record store. on the right of this room was a large sitting area, where people just sat to listen to music too.

recognize any vinyls?

vintage cigarettes

are you ready for this? this is where it gets really cool. vintage movie posters in korean! this one’s war and peace.

east of eden. lots of chinese characters were still incorporated in their writing back then.

some korean movie, roman holiday, you only live twice, sound of music. all either really girly or action films.

star wars!!!

finally, i will leave with casablanca. we’ll always have seoul! (ack)

would you like some Confidence?

how about an OranC? It’ll CHANGE YOUR MIND!

strawberry latte anyone?

this is Fanta but it’s spelled out as Hwanta in korean.

gangsta sprite

pocari sweat – a staple in every korean vending machine since 293483290482 years ago. weird considering that koreans made an effort back in the day not to endorse japanese products. i guess it’s too good to pass up?

i had a tuna kimbap and a soda for a total of $1.60. food is so cheap here.

spending time with my family is what i missed about seoul the most. hearing the sound of my kids calling me, ‘eemo! eemo!’ (aunt) and running and playing and eating together with the family.

Hadn’t seen Joezinho in ages!

He wanted to go to ‘the castle’, which ended up being Gyeongbookgoong palace. I’ve been here many times as a kid but Yosha’s never been so I agreed to go.

This kid looks SO determined after seeing them bboy! too cute…

stay tuned for what went down at the castle…

This is Samchongdong, the residential area. No tall apartment buildings here. The houses look traditional, but the insides of these homes have been renovated to have all the modern amenities. Or not, I guess it depends on the owners. But these homes are not all residential- i saw a few turned into design studios and hidden cafes.

Interesting art on the walls of people’s houses.

This is Korea’s version of graffiti, i guess. Creative, appealing to look at, yet defiant in its own way simply because it is defacing property. It’s cool how they keep it this way, though, and no one thinks about tagging over it.

A short walk down from the residential area are cute shops and cafes.

and studios.

What, they named a whole room after me!

Traditional neighborhood with starbucks spelled out in Korean.

Complete with a museum+cinema house where they show art and foreign films. The Godfather was playing.