Diaries of Korea: Melon Bingsu with Bory and Joanne

Yesterday I hung out with my friends Bory and Joanne. Now, I promised I would avoid posting crappy phone photos on my blog at all cost, but I have to make an exception! I always have so much fun with these two，and I ended up taking way too many photos to not write about it in my diary!


순대 for Dinner:
We met up in Shillim and ate 순대 (sundae) for dinner. They’ve taught me that Guri is famous for 곱창 (gopchang) and Shillim is the place for sundae!

The restaurant had a large, open, cafeteria-style interior. The ajummas that worked there were very attentive and friendly…and almost auntie-like! For example, they put their hands on our backs as they somewhat forcefully—but still kindly—ushered us to our seats. My friends even called out “Aunt” instead of “ajumma” whenever we needed something!

They also said I looked like a doll/barbie, so that made me happy~~


Sticker Photos:
After a fulfilling meal, we took sticker photos! We went to a place called Ulzzang (because it was 1+1, kkkkk). But sadly, our sticker booth didn’t ulzzangify us at all. I’ve yet to find a sticker booth that bulges eyes; none of the ones I've been to did... :<



My friends are so animated and comical when it comes to sticker photos! I couldn’t keep up >.<


Curious about how the ulzzang craze in the west compares to Korea, I asked my friends how most Koreans feel about ulzzang. They replied that some middle and high schoolers may be obsessed about it, but most everyone else doesn’t pay that much mind. It’s mostly the work of photoshop, anyways! (And I don't mean that in a criticizing way, just as a matter of factly!)



Melon Bingsu:

After playing rock, paper, scissors to decide how to split the photos, we headed over to Lga Coffee for melon bingsu! I hear Lga is famous for their unique melon bingsu.

[Warning: If you are easily disturbed by cramped circles, beware of the following pictures! It’s not too terrible, but I myself was even disturbed when I saw photos of the bingsu for the first time.]

Presenting…the infamous melon bingsu!


Topped with vanilla ice cream, the shaved ice is covered with round carve-outs of melon. The whole thing rests inside the carved melon itself! Those colored pieces are tiny bits of chocolate, similar to M&Ms! It also came with a side of red bean sauce.



It is customary to take pictures of and with your food and friends:


(left to right: Joanne, me, Bory)




After watching me take the following “unique” selca shot, my friends were inspired and both chimed, “Oh, I want to too~!” and they followed with the same pose.

Needless to say…I am particularly proud of this picture for that reason… Heehee~ We actually looked hilarious taking those selcas though, if you can imagine it...


After about 5 minutes of selcas and pictures, we *finally* dug in! Upon devouring most of it, we were left with a milky slush. Sipping it with spoons was terribly messy and sticky…but then we decided to use straws! +_+ Smart, smart, we are kkkkkkk





There ended up being a super long wait after we arrived. Imagine that! A 30 minute wait for bingsu! Having sat right at the entrance, we felt a little faceless when we lingered afterwards to chat ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ But thankfully I was back-faced towards the queue, but Bory not so much!


Behind us you can see one of the many who were waiting~



All in all, I actually wouldn’t say the bingsu was SUPER delicious, only because the melon wasn’t that sweet! But it was fun and worth trying anyhow!


It’s always a treat to hang out with Bory and Joanne. Fun girls! Also, my sister is arriving in Seoul today! I’ll be off to pick her up later this afternoon. Other than that, a review and some café posts to come soon! (This time with HQ pictures!)

Tomorrow is Monday already? Oh, sad revelation! The weekend is just too short! Off I go! Enjoy the rest of your weekend; toodle-doos!

Diaries of Korea: 3 Encounters with Middle-aged People

Yesterday was National Liberation Day in Korea, so I had the day off! A mid-week weekend, how lovely~! After dedicating a full two hours fancifying myself, I headed out. By then it was already 7pm, so it wasn’t at all a long outing—avoiding the heat had already taken up most of the day.


This was my look for the day. Apologies for the pitiful iPhone4 quality! I’ll take better selca next time!


My concept was “Pretty in Pink.” And by that, I mean that everything was pink! My eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, hairclip, dress, bracelet, and my heels! That it wasn't dreadfully obnoxious I was surprised of myself!



Did he just take a video of me?

I went to Eblin to pick up my tailored bra, which, by the way, is gorgeous and very uplifting—literally! Afterwards, I wandered around Bandis and Lunis (a bookstore.)

The English section there didn’t have much to my liking. I circled the small stand thrice before giving up. Upon giving it a last cursory scan, I turned around and *bam*! Pointed right at my face was a camera, held up by a pot-bellied middle-aged man.

I stared back into the lens, unsure of whether he was really capturing me. He flinched none. In true human tripod style, he stood shameless and unbothered. As I walked past, his friends stared at me and cluttered my path. From the murmurs I heard, I speculate they were Chinese tourists, though I can’t be sure with the music I blasting on my iPod. (Not that I have anything against Chinese people!) In retrospect, I also think his camera was in video mode.

Well, fancy that. A stranger man took a video of me. And cared none that I noticed.

I asked my coworkers today if this was a common occurrence. “He could have been taking a picture of, you know, the surroundings,” they insist, implying that I was being pretentious. Well now that you mention it, I suppose that my back*does* make a splendid centerpiece in such breathtaking scenery! It's also not the first time I’ve had my picture taken—fifth, unfortunately:

#1 Chinese tourists in Edae (no makeup)
#2 Gross foreigner in Myeongdong, taken from below (makeup)
#3 Gross 40 year old Korean otakus (no makeup)
#4 20-something year old girl in the subway (makeup)
#5 Pot-bellied shameless man (makeup)

Whether this is to be interpreted as flattery or not is beside the point. I find it shameless and inconsiderate, and a rude invasion of privacy. It proves that you fail to respect that a person as a person, but merely as an object of your entertainment. Nevertheless, I’m not actually too bothered about it! The constant influx of death glares, mocking gossip, and blatant whispers have left me only expecting! :)



A pink-faced, white-haired ajusshi:

As I boarded the orange line towards my transfer point, all of the empty seats filled up from the people ahead of me. I headed indifferently towards the corner. Just as I leaned against the door, I heard the booming voice of an older man. He was sitting in the elderly section next to where I stood, and had a dark pink face with bright white hair.

He was speaking to me.

“Something something something! Something something~! Over there, next to the ajumma! It’s okay, it’s okay~!” he chirped cheerfully, enthusiastically pointing at the vacant elderly seat across the way.

I wasn’t sure what was happening. Was “that ajumma” his wife? She seemed confused as well, and didn’t look half as welcoming to sit down next to her as he did.

I nodded bashfully, hoping to indicate that I was just fine standing—but thank you very much~! I then turned around, but he chimed on at machine-gun pace. At this point, the whole car was staring at us and I was terribly embarrassed. With everyone watching me, I felt so rude for not knowing what to say! The truth is, I’m a very shy foreigner, particularly when I’m alone.



The elderly woman who snatched my bag:

The green line was quite crowded on my way back, as it often is! I was reduced to standing in my 12cm heels, surrounded by gossiping mothers and their reckless children bumping into me as they swung from the handles. I hovered over a group of elderly women. Gripping the handle with my right arm, my shopping back hung from my left. As I repositioned myself, my shopping bag grazed the knee of one of the women. She noticed and I mustered a robotic apology, though I doubt she heard it. (I couldn’t hear it myself with my music blasting!) A few minutes went by and I repositioned myself again, proud to have carefully avoided her knees whilst tucking my bag between my legs.

Then out of nowhere, she snatched my bag.

She looked up at me, her face stern as she uttered three words. I couldn’t hear it, but her friend laughed. I watched completely dumbfounded as she clutched my bag close.

‘Wh-wha-? What just happened?
Did...did she just take my bag?
What did she say? Is she scolding me for hitting her? Oh my gosh, what should I do?
Or is she just trying to hold my bag for me? Has that happened before? It does sound vaguely familiar…
But why? My bag is so small--’

In that split second that my thoughts raced, a woman next to her looked and smiled at me. Fighting the fright on my face, I managed a grin back. I hoped that her warm smile meant but positive things about the situation!

But then again, the elderly woman who took my bag did *not* seem happy. And the thought of helping a stranger with her bag was unfathomable to me.

I awkwardly motioned to take the bag back. I smiled, whispering, “It’s okay, I’ll hold it.” She gave it to me, but she didn’t smile back. At all. She seemed reluctant to give it up.

—

“Well, were you standing?” my coworkers asked me today.
“Yes!”
“Then she was trying to hold your bag for you,” Girl Boss said.
“Yeah, she thought you were a student,” agreed Boy Boss.
“It happens a lot, people will hold your stuff for you.”
“But she looked so angry! I was so afraid she was mad at me!”
“Hmmmm...(pause)...A lot of times Koreans will have naturally mean faces. Like, they’ll be saying something nice and trying to help, but their face looks angry. :]"

Ah, what a relief! How warm and fuzzy I feel now!

I am especially delighted when something like this happens to me! Disagree as you will, but when I hear other foreigners tell me wonderful things about Korean hospitality, I shrug. Foreigner treatment—what you get for being obviously foreign. It’s a mix of fascination and helpfulness. I on the other hand unassumingly pass as Korean, and therefore don’t get any special TLC. (It happened to me in China as well. In a way, I take it as truly stepping into the shoes of Korean life!) So when something like this happens, I hold onto it dearly...and then write about it in my Diaries of Korea!

My first circle lens review! EOS max pure green

Name: EOS Max Pure Green
Diameter: 14.5mm
Base Curve: 8.8mm
Price on Shoppingholics: $25.90 (click here)

It arrived in an unassuming bubble envelope, and inside was this box and a lens case:











Closeups of the vial label:











See for yourself! They're 14.5mm:


Natural Lighting:

standing in front of a glass door at noon



Indoor Lighting:

looking up at two bright ceiling lights indoors

mucky makeup at the end of the day >.<

[Disclaimer: I’m no pro lens-wearer! Although I’ve tried 45 different lenses, I really only wear them once or twice a week. And I won’t lie: while many people claim no irritation whatsoever with circle lenses, I am not one of those people. *Every* pair I’ve worn has given me minor discomfort in some way or another. But I also have dry eyes, so it could just be me considering that other girls seem A-ok!]

I’ve worn these lenses for an entire day ( ~10 hours) on 10+ occasions now. Sometimes I have the usual—and I say usual because it happens with almost every lens I wear—(burning) irritation when I first insert the lens. But sometimes, I don’t feel anything when I insert them.

More often than not, once or twice during the day I have to blink a little more to see clearly. I don’t want to say it’s blurry; it’s just ever so slightly less-than-HD. This also happens with most lenses I wear, but admittedly less often with these lenses. Towards the end of the 10-12 hour mark, I do get less tolerant and irritation in one eye, enough that I can't wait to take them out. But! For the most part when I wear these, I forget that I’m even wearing anything! Overall, these lean on the more comfortable side of what I’ve tried.





These lenses alone look lime green, but they definitely don't show up that light on my dark brown eyes! It mostly looks dark green, depending on how bright or dim your lighting is. In dim indoor lighting, it can even just pass as black.



Natural Lighting:

indoors on a sunny afternoon, but with a large glass ceiling overhead:






inside the car on a sunny afternoon; (almost) direct sunlight:






Outside in the shade on a sunny afternoon:







Indoor Lighting:


Half-half indoor/natural lighting;
going up escalator from the aforementioned glass ceiling room:






Inside a somewhat dim, yellowy cafe with little-to-no natural lighting:






Inside a dimly-lit restaurant:






Indirect bright fluorescent lighting (lights are off to the side):






Dim lighting on indoor escalator:






Bathroom lighting:

(I may have just taken off my wig, teehee~)




Sorry for the selca spam, but hopefully that gives you an idea of what the lenses look like! And apologies for the blurry zoom-up shots...I decided not to take closeups (in which I held the camera close to my eyes) because I don't think it's very true to life...If someone stands at a normal distance to you, what they see is different from the sharpness and color and design vividness that a macro lens portrays, you know? >.<


A big thank you to Loveshoppingholics for sending me these lenses and being so patient with me! You can purchase them here and use this discount code!





Toodly-doos!