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[karo-life]

Churo Weekend Romance.

In the end of May, my good friend Chuee came to visit me in Seoul from Canada. Chuee and I have a really awesome love-hate relationship. You know, the kind EVERY Anime series has, we always joke about it. She's on her way to Tokyo for an Internship and I'll be meeting her on the 20th!! Yatta~ Chuee arrived on Wednesday where we celebrated with super good noms and walking around Hongdae but I didn't have my camera :-(. On Friday we also hung out and went to a Makgeolli bar. We ordered 4 mini pitchers so 2L in total of flavoured rice wine. I had 40 mins until my bus and the drinking commenced. We literally finished 1L in 20 mins and I was already a bit drunk and kept saying I want to dance since we were at a Hawaiian themed bar. Long story short, I had to run for my bus and was running around Hongdae shouting "CHUEE I CAN FLY, I CAN FLY" and proceeded to pass out on the bus ride home.

The most amazing coincidence was that I got Friday off. My company was celebrating a milestone anniversary so the Boss gave us a day off!! I was ecstatic since Chuee had to leave super early on Sunday. We headed to all the shopping and market areas of Seoul which means Dongdaemun, and Myeongdong! :-D Chuee, being a fellow sewer and fabric enthusiast, is also a cosplayer and HAD to see fabric heaven. We spent a gooood chunk of time here before we headed to the "Exotic Animal Market" which I'd never see before. Honestly, I thought it would be really exciting, but ended up feeling pretty SAD because it was like total animal abuse going on...

SO many animals in 1 cage, oh no!!! Next we took a stroll down the Stationary Markets. SO much stationary stuff in Koko. One of the like 20 on the block.

Next stop Myeongdong! Where Chuee got to have some street noms!

We decided to call it an early night since we had TONS of plans for Saturday! Ended the day with some delicious soondubu (soft tofu soup).

I didn't take too many pictures of all of our shopping since well, WE WERE BUSY SHOPPING!! ;-) But we had a great time, so many laughs and it was honestly sooo nice having someone who likes the SAME everything as you to hang out with. It didn't feel like we were in Korea just hanging out in Toronto. NEXT DAY we decided to have lunch at the Dosirak Cafe which I've read about on the Internet. It's basically a system where you get an empty lunch box tray, you buy these tokens you can spend on the local stalls in the market to fill up your lunchbox. AMAZING idea, it was sooo much fun and really delicious!! Here are the pictures to explain the process!

Market alley.

The gold coins.

The tray.

The potential noms!!! So it's a ton of different side dishes to make THIS:

BAM! My complete lunchbox. IT WAS A LOT. Chuee had to help me cause she went for quality > quantity or maybe she just didn't spend her tokens as well I did muahaha. Anyway, after this huge meal we went to see the Palace (my 4th time or something haha) We just went there briefly and walked around Anguk and the "traditional" areas of Seoul and decided to try and see if bike rentals were open on the Han River, something I've MISSED SO MUCH in Korea, biking. We were luck!!! We got to rent two awesome bikes and our biking date began.

We were unintentionally matching red/blue. The trail along the Han Rive is quite long, several km but we just biked for 1.5 hours since it was already past 7!

Such a good time. After biking we were planning to stay at a jimjilbang, one of the biggest and most famous ones in Seoul since Chuee had an early flight and I was going to move her 50 suitcases with her to the airport. We took the subway to our train and we were STARVING cause we had lunch around 12 and now it was almost 9pm. We wanted street noms but couldn't find any so had Gamjatang (potato and pork soup) it was super good.

Of course, as soon as we were done, there was like a village of street nom stands haha, sorry girl!! So, the famous Dragon Spa.

Chuee must have been tired cause she was stressing out and saying "Karrooo, it doesn't fit in the locker" since well, she was trying to shove her belongings into the shoe locker... lololol. She already said 1 derpy thing I didn't let her forget for the WHOLE trip. When we were shopping she said "this... is so ass" and she said it so nonchalantly I said "ass?" and she goes "...I meant to say badass" so the phrase of the trip was THAT IS SO ASS!!

This was def the best jimjilbang I've been in. There were like 6 floors, so many baths, hot rooms, ARCADE, movie theatre, restaurant, wow it was basically an amusement park. We spent the first hour playing video games, lol.

The next day we had to wake up super early to catch the first metro, take a cab to Chuee's homestay place, pick up her 50 suitcases, bring it back on the subway then ride 1.5 hours to the airport. A crazy ending to a craaaazy fun weekend with my Chu. Karo

[karo-life]

Designer Day II: Mis en Scene

I am so behind. SO SO BEHIND. May's Designer Day was at Leeum in Itaewon. We went to see two exhibitions, one was Mise en Scene and the other Opulence: Treasures of Korean Traditional Craft. I really enjoyed both but Mis en Scene was particularly interesting because it used several different mediums to portray the idea of staged images and compositions on a fixed gaze or action. I was happy to receive a guide in English to fully understand the exhibit and you can see how advanced it was...

The following are a few of my favourite works in the exhibit focusing on this idea of perspectives and use of spaces. 

This was an installation of moving images and questions the way of looking. It is also focusing on the real and the imagery. You go through the screens and notice it is actually in a loop so its a question about where the scene begins and ends...

This series are supposed to look like stills or photographs of famous movies, but shows the "making of" a scene. I think she is questioning again, what is real and what is fictional, by purposely creating a scene that is constructed, not in the way we think it would be but playing on that idea that the scene infact is organized.

This series plays upon the idea of famous paintings remixed as a hotel scene. Where iconic imagery and figures are replaced by a scene in a hotel resort. 

This was super cool! Showing sets being filmed in real time and being displayed on the two screens here:

Now enjoy some Korean Traditional Craft! I don't know what else to write about it so just enjoy some pretty pictures.

SO high tech, you can use a digital touch screen tool to zoom in and see the details.

I feel like I don't know what else to write about the exhibitions! It was very interesting, but I felt the tim we spent was quite short. Plus this happened over 2 weeks ago so my memory is a bit dodgy... This was outside the Leeum and so we took our group photo here before heading to lunch!

Overall thoughts of the exhibition was very positive. I enjoyed the space and the actually Leeum building as well and the Mise en Scene exhibit a lot and the crafts were so beautiful.  We ended the Designer's Day with lunch at a Japanese fusion restaurant which was very tasty!

I apologize I kind of slacked on the food pictures (so unlike me) but SO much food was coming out and everyone was beginning to eat so I just took a few. It was super tasty though. One thing I found interesting was that my co-workers think I react a lot to things. Especially if I like it, it's not just like "oh I like it" I'm usually like "AHHH I LIKE ITTTT" and I think most of the people in my family are like this! I've been told by past friends/ co-workers they thought I'm "faking it" or it's not "real" but I can not express how brutally honest those reactions are. My face and reactions are unfiltered. Sometimes it's a REALLY bad thing, especially if I don't like something/someone/ a situation I can't hide it. It was hard at my old work because my boss would literally call me out on it and ask whats wrong with my face, and I don't even realize I'm looking a certain way. Anyway, I thought it was a Korean thing, reacting a lot to situations, but my co-workers say it's not.  Anyway, the next blogs are going to be much more exciting, I hope! I've had quite a few visitors now and met some new people, it's been a really great time I feel very lucky and blessed to be here! xo Karo

[karo-life]

Waiting in Sokcho

It was Buddha's Birthday in Korea a while back and that means, a holiday in Koko! So my friend AN and I decided, we had to make use of this and go on a weekend trip together! We were debating between a lot of different places from beaches, hiking, towns, etc and decided on Sokcho. A city in the far North and Eastern part of Koko next to the ocean and with a popular Mountain region and many trails. AN was kind enough to bus all the way to Seoul to meet me so we could take the bus together to Sokcho. We left Seoul around 11am and it felt like the ENTIRE country was on the road. I kid you not, we were NOT moving. The morning I had gone to see my aunt and she said "you're going away from Seoul today? There have been traffic jams since 5am" and like the naïve person that I am, I didn't put much thought into it. 9 hours later.

Yup, sun is already setting...

AN and I haven't really spoken much for 2 years since we met in Germany, but we realized we got along really well for 9 hours (sitting 2 inches apart) and actually it really felt natural and fun. I always found traveling brings things out in your friends that you normally wouldn't encounter. I've always found bonds you make on trips are so strong in such a short time, it's really great. Another reason I really like couch surfing! SO we arrived, around 9:30/10pm. We decided we HAD to eat. AN kept saying he had a stone in his stomach and was sick from the time he met me in Seoul at 11am. I felt so bad for him since we were stuck on a bus for all that time, but was glad he felt better for our fishy feast. We went to the Fish market and decided to celebrate our bus trip!

I've never really had fresh fish like this before. In the sense that the fish are right infront of the restaurant and you pay by the weight and they prepare it for you right away. We saw some WEIRD stuff including this pink sea cucumber looking thing that just exhausted all this water when it came out of the tank. We opted out of that one.

Lady gutting and preparing our fish!

This was our modest table setting and our fresh fish. Check out that colour of our wasabi... 

Obviously had to drink to celebrate, even if it's extremely light beer, it was soooo refreshing! Next was our "dinner" which means the real meal with soup and rice. There was this other kind of fish which the Lady turned into a stew! It was quite spicy.

We went to seek our Jimjilbang (the 24 hour spa) to sleep but the one I found on the internet was closed like permanently!! SO strange! I find things in Korea to open and close sooooo frequently and abruptly it's hard to go back to the same place. So we stayed somewhere else and it was SO crowded like the whole of Sokcho was flooded and we had to take shelter here. AN and I slept on the COLD marble ground with just our sweaters for a pillow, AN gave up his towel for me :( so kind. NEXT DAY WAS MUCH BETTER. We took the bus to the mountains Seoraksan and it was spectacular. Indeed it was SUPER busy and crowded but I feel like that's just life in Asia.

My photos were pretty over exposed that day cause it was SO bright and yet cloudy. Happy Birthday Buddha!

The hike was really nice and near the middle we decided to do a more advanced course which was really tiring but we made it! The destination was "Cave" and I thought it was gonna be this cave we could walk through...

But this was it. lol. There was a lady working up here and everyone was asking "how does she climb here every day?" haha

Cave of Wonders... We walked down and the path was SO rocky our knees felt "dodgy" and were trembling. We decided to head back into the town and hit the beach. There is this one part called the Abai Village which we read is the hometown to many people with North Korean ancestry but actually it was a massive tourist trap because some TV drama and game show was filmed there... BUT the cool thing was we had to take a boat that was man powered.

Here is AN pulling his share of the ride!

We walked by the many restaurants and just chilled on the dock and beach for a bit. The weather got much chillier but still people were enjoying the beach.  We decided to take the bus on Saturday evening instead of Sunday in fear that we would have another 9 hour ride home so we went searching for some dinner before heading to the buses. There were several markets on the way as well! We enjoyed watching this Lady skin an octopus it was so disturbing you couldn't look away.

We decided to have the local specialities for dinner and a fish theme bbq!

Being a HUGE foodie, I really love trying new things and I find it so fascinating that the way something is prepared and eaten, not just the visuals or taste, is so essential. Even being born Korean, there are many dishes I don't know how to eat, what to dip, which order, etc and it's so interesting to see this kind of culture and how and why it would be done in that particular way which makes the dish so special. 

Thanks for being such a fun travel buddy AN and good bye Sokcho!

Karo

[karo-life]

Bauhaus Reunion Under Lanterns

Couple weeks ago a friend of mine from my Bauhaus exchange came to visit Seoul! He is now living in Korea, a few hours South, which is very exciting. It was the Saturday I arrived from the office trip with the sheep so I was quite exhausted, but what a great two days we spent celebrating his birthday and sightseeing around Seoul with our other Korean friend M oppa and his girlfriend JS unni We decided to spend the first evening around Hongdae where there are tons of bars, clubs, restaurants and things to do and see. We had our reunion dinner at this restaurant that served several side dishes (banchan) in courses. It was so awesome. We basically got to try a ton of different dishes and it's in a similar style to what is served at the Royal Table!

Horrible documentation since we almost ate most of it! Hahaha but you can get the idea, TONS of small dishes like Korean tapas!

Kokos are not so big of heavy desserts (pudding) but have a sweet tea or light flavoured biscuits with fruit at the end of a meal. NEXT STOP drinking! I really wanted to try Makgeolli since I don't really like soju so we went to this nice place serving flavoured Makgeolli and other things. So Makgeolli, according to google, is made of wheat and rice and has a milky colour. I also find it a bit sweet and smooth. It's easy to drink and M oppa told me it's the drink you take your lady friend to on your first date because you drink and drink and feel fine, then BOOM it hits you and you're totally drunk and there just happens to be a DVD room* around the corner. 

Here is the flavoured makgeolli, I think we chose honey and some berry one. The bar we went to also had these awesome stools where you could store your belongings, love it!

Of course no drinking experience is complete without anju!

Hongdae nightlife is pretty crowded and happening. Tons of young adults and 20 somethings hang out here, as well as many tourists. I guess it's a place where there's always something going on! 

Many little concerts and such are happening in "the park" which is where we watched this hip hop guy performing.  That night the four of us slept in a Jimjilbang, which is a kind of like a spa and public bath house which has hot rooms/ saunas, food, and most importantly, it is 24 hours so you can sleep there... I have no idea how to really describe this kind of experience so I'll leave a link for you to read more about it.  The next day we went to check out the traditional and historical parts of Seoul. We started with an English (or atleast Western) style breakfast.

Then went to the Royal Palace. When we arrived, they were lending out King costumes you could borrow for free! Naturally, I forced everyone to join me! M oppa REALLY looks like a king.

That week was also a Lantern Festival in Seoul so we made our way there to take a look. It was Buddha's birthday on the coming Friday so there was a lot of excitement surrounding it. There is also an interesting thing you can do in Korea, which is Templestay. You basically spend a night or few nights in a Buddhist temple, to learn more about Buddhist culture, to find peace, rest, silence, etc. I would definitely like to try it before I leave.

There were a lot of workshops happening for the festival and one in particular I REALLY wanted to do!! Making lotus flower hats. HOLY CRAP, you could literally not contain me when I saw one of those hats. So we hunted down the stall that had them. EEHHH I'm a FLOWER is basically what I said for the next hour.

I AM A MOTHER EFFING FLOWER. I think sometimes I get overly excited over small things...  We went around Insadong and checked out some touristy things for AN (our friend from England) and I suggested he must buy some Gangnam Style socks which I said jokingly, but he actually bought. We ended out weekend celebrating his birthday with some cake and patbingsu (shaved ice dessert) form Paris Croissant.

Happy Birthday AN hope you had fun with us! xox *DVD Room, a room you rent to watch DVDs with your friends, or alternatively a room high schoolers and young adults (who can't afford a love hotel) rent to play DVDs while you do more physical activities. We discussed which purpose was real and came first, but decided it was just a chicken or the egg situation so it is left unknown. Next week: Sokcho Mountain Adventures!

[karo-life]

Let's play games, drink and stare at sheep.

Last weekend my whole office went on an overnight trip to Ganwando, which is in the North, Eastern part of S. Korea. I had no idea what to expect but it was explained to me as a Workshop where we would compete in games in teams. The games were really funny, and random like jump rope with your whole team, doing the splits, Korea "Chicken fights", and among many others. So we arrived after a 3 hour bus ride to our campsite, which was like a really nice resort. We started off with this HUGE dosirak (lunch box) which was nearly impossible to finish, but really tasty!

Afterwards we got settled into our cabins. This is what some of the housing looked like.

I thought it was super luxurious! We even slept on the ground, so Koko style :-D After settling in, the games began. I didn't take any pictures except this one for the games, but we started with a Korean form of hacky sack which your whole team did and the pointed were based on everybody's score added up. I hit it twice, hahaha very weak. My team, team mint, started off as -1 because I was late that morning! So we were in last place for a looong time. We started to gain points with the Korean Chicken Fight although, I totally didn't get how to play and just charged at one co-worker and we both fell over. So how to play is by holding one foot and hopping on the other, you have to kind of shove or attack with your knee to knock other people down. And I just kind of suicided and took another person with me, bad bad strategy. 

Team Mint fighting!

The games took most of the day and guess what, Team Mint came in SECOND PLACE! :) We were kicking ass after the first round of games. Basically coming 1st or 2nd in the relay, doing the splits and I got first place in Women's Arm Wrestling! :-) The house was trembling at my mighty biceps (and feeling them a lot too). Now about the prizes, since no Olympics are complete without 'em! 1st place in each game got 1 pack of beef, 2nd place got 1 pack of pig belly bacon so you were basically completing for your BBQ meat for the evening. But the first place in solo competitions like limbo, legs splitting and even arm wrestling got to pick a number out of a bag for an individual prize! HOWEVER, there were also BOOBY PRIZES, so fake prizes, how Korean. This is what I got.

Yes... a booby prize :-( the other prizes were a coffee tumbler, dj headphone, blue tooth speakers, 2 Nintendo 3DS, sexy mens leopard underwear (semi-booby prize) and other toys like mine. The grand prize for the team in first place got to elect an MVP and he went home with a Samsung flatscreen. Underneath is the prize ceremony with the grand prize waiting to be won.

But all in all, I had tonnnsssss of fun. The games were great and I got to know a lot of people better. So on to the evening dinner! You can see we had 2 choices of drinks and packs of meat behind! Team Mint won the most amount of meat and it was SO delicious!! I was really happy to drink wine again, after so long. The beer was also okay, but pretty flavourless compared to some I really enjoy and not to mention, check out that SIZE! I guess it's for sharing, but I wouldn't want such a huge bottle and drink a flat beer!

As it was getting late, the final part of the days activities were approaching, drinking games and karaoke... It was also a co-worker's birthday so we had cake. If you don't know, Koreans eat A LOT when they drink, this is called anju. The food you have while drinking, usually like nuts, chips, crackers, fruits, fried things, etc.

We divided into smaller teams of 3 members which was organized by our drinking tolerances. I said I was pretty weak, but they didn't believe me and put me in the medium category. I guess I can handle my alcohol, but after a seriously long day of games I was soooo exhausted. Now that picture above in this nasty concoction of beer, lots of random liquors, I think there was whiskey, with some ice, and coke. It's basically a poisonous mixture of alcohol that aims to get your totally wasted and tasted bad as well. So if you lost, you dont chug your beer, your team has to finish a big cup of this together. There were still more prizes and a lot of karaoke to be sung! Being the newbie, they told me to sing for them and of course I got to pick a prize for it. I sang my signature karaoke song, Downtown by Petula Clark. The only song I know all the words to. SO check out THIS friggen envelope! Guess what was inside!

OHHH BABY LOTTE DEPARTMENT STORE!!! MUST BE A ... A...

selfie of my co-worker saying "slam" according to google translate but it basically means NOTHING, FAIL, TRAP, NOMONEYFORYOUPLAYAGAINLOSER. So I got double booby prizes that day, siiiiigggghhhh :-( There were real prizes too though, $100 to Lotte haha, wasn't my lucky day! But honestly, the best prize was just being able to go to this kind of trip and get to know the people I work with better :-)  The next day we were heading back to Seoul, but before that, visiting a sheep farm on a mountain. Although it wasn't really like a sheep farm, more like a sheep amusement park or attraction. It was a bit of a climb, but great views and such a nice day out.

It was pretty cool to see sheep again since I had a lot of fun with them in Amsterdam.  I got back late on Saturday and right away met up with a friend with my German exchange! NEXT POST Weekend part II coming up!

Karo

[karo-life]

Bauhaus Reunion & Best Gimpo

Last weekend, wow time flies, I met with two very dear friends from my Bauhaus exchange. They are both Koreans, residing in Seoul, and really felt like my "Korean Family" back in Germany. It has been 2 years since we last met, but it felt pretty much the same as always. :-) We met around Sinsa and walked in the area of Gangnam.  We had a really nice lunch at a Japanese restaurant and talked about what we are doing now, where we were in our lives since 2 years ago, etc...

I can't believe I barely took photos that day, but we were mainly in and around some nice shops and cafes, talking and reminiscing about Germany. Plus, I am not very good with multi-tasking, haha! We even had "patbingu" which is one of my favourite Korean desserts made with shaved ice, red bean, some condensed milk(?) and fruits. This one came with ice cream and tteok (rice cake)!

Being very busy Seoulites, K unni has to leave us so M oppa and I decided to go to the Han River since we decided not to go out for drinks (this time). It was already getting dark, but the weather was quite nice.

There is a verrry long bike path along the Han River which I plan to save one day to do, or I will wait for CM to come so we can ride together since it's kind of become our tradition. CM (my boyfriend) and I biked a lot together when we were living in Amsterdam (hmm nostalgia). I guess biking in Seoul will very different!

There's the Seoul Tower :)  So it was getting late and we were getting a bit hungry so we did it "Korean style" by calling a delivery guy to deliver to us ON the Han River! Haha it was so great. We ordered yangnyeom fried chicken, with hot and mild sauce. The epic photo was done by a professional, M oppa!

M oppa said in Seoul you can get things ordered, anywhere, any time haha and I guess it's pretty true since things are open SO late here. OH and you can pay almost everything by card. Next weekend we will meet again and with a very special guest! Best Gimpo I did a segment on where I work, so here is a glimpse of where I live with my grandparents. I live in Gimpo about maybe 30km from Seoul? I'm from Canada and way more used to measure distance with time so I'm going to say, it's a 40 minute bus ride to my work in Hongdae :) People in Seoul are like "WOAH 40 minutes!" which is honestly nothing for me. I used to take a bus for 1.5 hours to get to one of my Universities, one way!

Yup, I live in an apartment, like probably 90% of people here.  One thing I really love about living here is the walkability of everything and accessibility. There are many people on bikes, taking a stroll and doing some sports outside. It's no wonder people are so slim. My Grandma and I went to the public bath house and then went for a stroll to see the cherry blossoms in bloom! This is just behind where we live.

We don't have many cherry blossom trees in Toronto, especially so many in public lined up.

They were already beginning to fall, like snow. :) This is a walking path but also meant for bikes, scooters (the kind where you push yourself with one foot) and rollerblades so the path is very smooth.

Korea has a lot of public exercise equipment in almost every park/ mountain area. I tried it and there is VERY minimal resistance so I'm not quite sure how people gain anything from it, but I guess it's mostly youngsters or 50+ who use it.

There were also a LOT of installation type sculptures and structures along the path. Really a lot. I am curious why and who is funding all of this. I think it's quite nice though.

Take a break in this hut, nbd. Still looks all hand painted. It's in the style of the Korean palace, I believe, same colours, patterns, it's very lovely.

One thing I DON'T miss about Europe is its lack of public bathrooms! I am definitely a girl who has to go very frequently and I just love how I can pop into buildings and random washrooms without someone waiting for your 50 cents or in general having someone there makes me feel quite uncomfortable. However, one thing Korea really seems to lack is trash bins! Next blog is going to be about my Labour Day date in Namsan Mountain in Seoul! Stay tuned :-)! Karo

[karo-life]

Life as a Sheep

I'm done my first week of being an Intern here in Seoul, and what an extremely eventful week it has been! So far, I love it! I don't know why that surprises some people at my office because a few of them have asked "how's your first week?" and when I respond "amazing!!" they always say "kkkkkk why??" or something along those lines.  So let me show you why. My first day, I had a lot of warm welcomes and a lot of help from other co-workers. I was pretty nervous to speak Korean because I am not very confident in it and make a lot of mistakes. Actually I'm usually shy to speak foreign languages, even if I understand, it's a real shame since and hopefully I can overcome it. However, my co-workers were so nice about it saying it's a lot better than they expected.  We all went out for lunch, on the boss, at Bulgogi Brothers!

They have super good side dishes (banchan) which is my favourite part of Korean cuisine!

It was delicious, I don't think I've ever had bulgogi in this way. It was cooked in the middle of the table with glass noodles and veggies. To wash this all down, you can choose bbap (rice with soup) or naengmyeon. I chose naengmyeon, the cold broth noodles. 

A co-worker of mine took these 3 photos for me since I didn't bring my camera.  The first two days were really relaxed and I had time to work on my own projects, one being a new portfolio website that I am currently illustrating with a unique concept! I'm excited to launch it when it's ready! The Tuesday we had Designer's Day which is a monthly excursion the Design Team takes somewhere in Seoul funded by the company. I was pretty lucky to go in April! We went to see the Pop Art exhibition at the Seoul Arts Centre. It was all about pop up books and art, I was really impressed!

Who knew pop up books could so elaborate! Some of these were so intricate.

I obviously freaked out over the Harry Potter one. It was being automatically flipped. 

This one was a whole automated theatre show. There were a lot of Alice themed books. Next section is the paper art.

Finally there were interactive installations. Here is a pop up birthday card that gets more colourful with more people are movement.

A cool thing that the office does is buy books or memorable things from the day to display at the office as well as show others what they've seen. They even bought us each a small gift, so cool!

Afterwards, we went to another exhibition, this time photography. It was a installation style photography exhibit featuring George Rousse, who makes a lot of perspective works. The title of the exhibition is "goom" or "dream". This is the entrance.

And our group shot. But it doesn't stop there. We even go out for dinner altogether. We had "Italian" food! Haha, very I felt it was pretty Koreanized but actually not as much as I thought. Having eaten in Italy and by Italians (also is one of my fave cuisines) before I definitely could taste a difference, but it was still very good! I had a lot of fun with everyone. We got a set menu with soup, 3 small appetizers, a main and dessert with coffee. They even let me pick the wine, I chose a Riesling (hehe) because they were out of their Chianti. 

So I guess this past week was pretty special, even for the company. It was an amazing welcome, although I was so nervous, it felt very reassuring. I've heard horror stories about interns in Korea, being bullied, ordered around, then crying and screaming in the bathroom, but I guess I am very fortunate to be somewhere where the work inspires me, as well as the people I work with.  And did I mention the space? It's stunning, like out of a design magazine. As some may know, Seoul is pretty high tech. To enter the office, I had to register my finger print. Yup. I felt so important.

The Breakfast Room with tons of drinks, machines, whatever as for us to use! There's also a snack pantry.

Above is the second floor. Who could not love this common area? On the right is the women's bathroom painted in such a nice teal colour, accented with white and hot pink, and on the left is the Designers, Developers and Motion Graphics Team. 1F is where the Breakfast Room is and the Basement is the Games Room full of 2 Wiis, Tekken and other fighting games, the arcade machines, and tons of Manga, Anime and other DVDs.  And my co-workers ask me, why I love it! The proof is in the pics. Karo

[karo-life]

Sunny Sunday Stroll

It has been an eventful few days for me...Since my last update I've met a friend from my Bauhaus exchange currently living in Seoul, and I've started my Internship (next blog)! So I'll try to be concise! On Friday I visited the office in Hongdae and was pretty amazed. I've seen their video about their studio and it's pretty close to what I experienced in terms of their space, etc. It's so beautiful inside, everything has been thought through and I will definitely have lots of pics soon just on the studio. Sunday I met a dear friend from the Bauhaus exchange, JY. She was studying abroad for many years in the USA and returned to Seoul. I was really excited to see a familiar face, and to get to know her better and what she has been doing lately since it's been already 2 years! We met at Gwanghwamun, which is the gate to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

We briefly watched the changing of the guards, which I don't remember seeing in a long time or if ever! I like the conch solo, what a crazy sound!

JY took me around the old and traditional areas of Seoul and I got to see a lot of very interesting architecture as well as traditional Korean houses.

She even treated me to such a nice lunch, which she insisted was "Korean style" not "Dutch pay" which made me laugh. It was a really cool restaurant too where they advertised their foods as really healthy and natural, etc which seemed to be trendy in this area.

Although the lunch was super healthy, my extra snack was not, but in my defence, it was Hoddeok!! It was nice to see it again and try it the Korean way! I used to make this a lot when I was on exchange in Germany, but I twisted the recipe into "Canasian" style by adding sliced apples and cinnamon along with brown sugar as the filling. 

It was certainly tasty!!! Then we walked up behind the Gyeongbokgung Palace to view the lovely cherry blossoms in bloom and got a glimpse of the "Blue House" or Korean's President's house!

It was such a nice time talking and walking with JY especially with this amazing weather we were having. We relaxed after all the site seeing with a nice coffee at a very cute Cafe.

We ended our date with sticker photos! But, with a unique twist! This photobooth studio in Insadong, allowed you to take photos with Hanbok for free! We basically kept looking at each other, but really sure if the other wanted to do it, hahaha and I'm glad we did! I even got to swear a huge hat/hairstyle!

Thank you sooo much JY for a lovely time. <3  Next blog coming soon about my first few days at DOES! I'm so excited to share!!

[karo-life]

I'm in Seoul!

I arrived on the 17th in Seoul after a 13 hour non stop flight. I was feeling super nauseous the whole time so kept myself plenty drugged up. I had planned to finally watch the Hobbit, but yet again I fell asleep, just like ALL the J. R. R. Tolkien's novel based movies, I can't seem to keep focused. I live in Gimpo now with my Grandparents. It is actually a huge change from any other living situation because of the language barrier (so much miscommunication), and particularly age/ generation gap. Firstly, they don't own Wifi, and my Grandmother says "can't you just plug your computer into the wall and load up on internet and use it for a while?" which I had to try and explain "wifi is in the air like a cell phone network" etc which didn't seem very successful... Luckily Seoul and the areas around are super connected so I tend to find hotspots here and there.

This is the view from their balcony :-)

And my first meal in Korea, delivery service jajangmyeon/Jampong combination, yum. The next day I spent my real first day in the city with my sister's best friend "AK" who moved to Seoul several years ago with her husband. I hadn't seen her in years, but was happy that it felt like just yesterday when we met up again. Our plan was to meet at Dongdaemun, my all time favourite place.

There we would go to Dongdaemun Market to the building full of fabric, trims, accessories, basically anything you want and need to make crafts, sew, or whatever! I could honestly stay here forever if it was better ventilated! It's I think 5 floors high but also with a basement and each floor has a different theme. The bottom floor usually has the heavier fabrics for bedding, upholstery etc.

My favourite is the top, where they sells miscellaneous charms, accessories, chains, ribbons etc! AK and I were definitely freaking out.

I basically spent the money I planned to spend that whole WEEK hahaha but it is WORTH IT! I get a rush from this kind of thing. There are so many things you can't find in Toronto like "Lady Heads" or Cameos that are very nice and little charms and I became obsessed with making headphone jack stoppers! My phone currently has a burger coming out of it; lovin' it!!

Next stop was Myeongdong, which is quite close to Dongdaemun and is basically a ton of shopping streets. A lot of fun things to do, eat, and many tourists are here! However, our reason for this particular part of town? Cat Cafe. Oh yes, a Cafe catering to people who love cats to drink and play! It was 8,000wons ($8) to enter and it came with a free drink. I had a lot of pent up "loving" to give so I was chasing cats all around. However these guys weren't as friendly (okay I know they're cats) but I did read reviews from others online who had livelier cats!

THIS GUY. He was my favourite. He wasn't very fond of me however. I named him Pumpkin! There was also another white cat with one blue and one green eye but she wouldn't stay still for me. I called her Crazy Eyes. This is her photo bombing me petting another cat.

I really liked Pumpkin, but it wasn't mutual. He kept running into the Cat Toilet to avoid me. :-( Here I made a drawing of us.

"Why don't you love me?" After reading some of the other notes, others have confirmed that the cats are not as social as other Cafes!  We decided to get some noms after, but in between this I went and got my new phone! It is really old, circa 2007 model because when I was in Korea back in 2007 it was the newer model. It sucks because my Uncle works for a big mobile provider in Korea but I didn't get a chance to ask him for a phone and needed on asap since I start work on Monday... Maybe I can use the same sim for a new card, although I paid 50,000won ($50) for my crap phone. Okay so ready for the noms?! We went to Insadong which is a more "traditional" part of town where they had/have a lot of antique markets and sold Korean-eque products from tea, art supplies, etc.

That's a lot of South Korea right there. I had mul naengmyeon! Cold noodles with thinly slice beef and seasoned with vinegar. We also ordered Mandu (dumplings) to share!

It came SO quickly! I swear like 5 minutes. The mandu came later and I don't have pics of it. We also went to shop for some stationaries, but I'll probably post something just on stationary later, as well as make up because make up stores in Korea are pure gold mines. On a side note, I didn't pack a single pair of socks, haha I always forget something packing last minute so I bought these. They made a sock of me! Hahaha.

Okay that's it for now! Now I'm going to make some things I bought from Dongdaemun and write letters! :-) Karo

[karo-life]

Introduction: Karo's Life

Hiya! I'm Karo and I've finally decided to try and commit to a blog about mostly traveling, living abroad, design and random and weird things that often happen to me in my life. I'm just going to lay down some things beforehand, like background info so you know what the heck I'm referring to because my mind tends to jump, a lot. So I'm from Canada, born in Seoul, and will be living in Seoul for roughly 4 months. Okay, back track! In 2010 I went on exchange to Germany in my third year of Uni where I studied Graphic Design. Best decision ever. I decided to fast track my Bachelor to finish my degree in 2012 so I could go for an extended Internship abroad, that's when I moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I friggen loved it, Dutchies are hilarious. So I will definitely make a lot of comparisons to living situations, cultural norms in Toronto, Weimar (Germany), Amsterdam and now Seoul so bare with me. Also, if anyone has questions about living in those places, I'd be more than happy to answer them! On a more serious note however, I'll also be addressing my own "issues" so to say, so there could be some venting and probably a ton of feels. Things I found very uncomfortable, identity crisis, unfortunate events, but also like social issues, misconceptions, but I'll make warnings before hand. I'm keepin' it real. So I guess, what the heck am I going to do in Korea? I'm going to be a Design Intern at this super cool studio in Seoul specializing in graphic design, web, and also motion. I also want to get in touch with my roots, get better at the language and understand the culture more. I grew up in Canada, I always hung out with a mixed crowd of friends and traveling a lot has really confused me, I guess I lived a really sheltered life. I was one of those kids who grew up not locking their door at night.

Anyway, I write from the heart, I hope whoever reads this can relate to some things, I'll keep identities protected and I hope to keep this up!  See you in Seoul! Karo