the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from friends

Two days ago, I finally went to visit my friend Clyde in Daejeon. I took the express bus from Seoul to Daejeon, and it took just a little over an hour and a half to get there. I expected a bunch of accidentally going to the wrong place and having to call each other repeatedly, but the arrival couldn't have gone any more smoothly. My bus arrived, and there he was. We walked around for a while, grabbed a bite to eat, walked around some more, and then headed to his uncle's apartment. There...really isn't that much to do in Daejeon. The highlight, however, was finding this really cute cafe, where I had my first decent latte since coming to Korea. For some reason, coffee is really water-down in Korea, and every time I get a latte, it tastes more like milk than espresso. But this cafe had the proportions just right! I was very satisfied.

The other highlight of Daejeon was getting hooked on Braid, a computer game that Clyde really loves. With lack of anything better to do, I started playing it on Clyde's computer, and I got addicted. Deciding that I had to have the game for myself, I went ahead and made an account, but when I went to buy the game, my credit card kept getting denied. Since I was in Korea, my current location and the card's billing address didn't match up, and the order wouldn't go through. Frantically, I asked a friend to ask a friend to sign onto Skype so I could ask him to buy it for me. I finally got the game, but at the expense of accidentally waking someone up to get it for me. (I'm really sorry Matthew!!) I've been pretty obsessed with Braid for the past two days. I figured it was about time to do something aside from make my head hurt from thinking about the puzzle-platformer, so here I am writing.

So that was the extent of my day in Daejeon.

Yesterday I met up with Gina again, and we went to Insadong, which is another really touristy part of Seoul. There's a large palace, which we didn't go to, and a bunch of stores selling traditional Korean crafts. There were a ton of things that I really wanted to buy, but I decided to go with saving my wallet. And I don't have enough luggage space.

We went into this traditional Korean tea house to cool off since it was extremely hot outside. It was so nifty on the inside! It sort of resembled an adobe house or something like that, and there were little crevices with wooden benches and tables for customers to sit at. I ordered pine needle tea, and Gina ordered pomegranate tea--both iced. My tea was extremely fragrant. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the tea really did taste like how pine needles smell. The tea was slightly sweetened, which caught me off guard, but it wasn't overly sweet, so I still enjoyed it.

After that, we walked around some and acted like hyper kids in the stores, pointing and exclaiming at all the cool stuff. We went into this REALLY REALLY COOL mall-type place full of handcrafted things. The mall was built on a spiral, so we just keep walking and walking and going up; no stairs necessary! We passed by some jewelry stores, some clothing stores, an etched stone-craft store, a miniature food models store...etc. The top level was full of food places, and we dropped into this adorable cafe (first photo). I ordered a papaya tea, which sounded really intriguing, but it was actually kind of disappointing. It was basically hot water plus a syrupy solution of dried, shredded papaya. If nothing else, we paid for the ambiance. We killed about two hours there just chatting about random stuff. After that, we parted ways. (I'll miss you Gina!! Have fun studying abroad in France!!)

OH, ALSO, when we were in Insadong, we ran into these people making this really cool snack. It's made by stretching out a piece of solid honey into a rope and then doubling the rope over, stretching again, and repeating. They constantly dip it in cornstarch to keep it from sticking to itself. Finally, when it becomes a bunch of super thin strands of corn flour-coated honey, they wrap it around various fillings. When I saw them, I almost started cracking up because they were the same people that I saw on this youtube video that my brother showed we a while ago. They were just as super enthusiastic as in the video. We bought a box because they were just so showy and enthusiastic, and we felt obligated to buy one after they demonstrated the whole process specifically for us. Sadly...they weren't all that tasty. But oh well, it was worth the watch!

Today, after doing a bunch of nothing, I ate dinner with my dad, his associate, and his associate's son. We had a set menu at some fusion Korean food place. I've never seen any food like what they brought out, and I really wish I had brought my camera along to document. Honestly, my favorite part was just the rice and soup, but at least it was an interesting experience.

Afterwards, my dad and I went to the Hongdae area, which is a really bustling place near a famous art school. There's a ton of stores and cute cafes and clubs that are open late into the night, as well as street performers and whatnot. It was a little too crowded for my liking, and maybe it would have been a tad more fun if I were with friends and not my dad... Regardless, I now know where I'd go if I ever had to entertain young-ish people at night in Seoul.