Hair

I got my hair straightened today whoop whoop!!

I've been wanting to do it since about the second week here, when I realized that in fact it's not humid at all, we just live underwater. That and the fact that stuff here in Korea is cheap man -- beauty stuff, electronics, clothes, food; it's really not hard to find ridiculously low prices.
So I was convinced I wanted to do it, but I was waiting 'til I had time to go with my little sister Soojin. It turns out she went on Saturday while I was at the movies (curssseeesss), but now I think it was a good idea to wait until today for me, since it took so freakin' long.

So anyway, apparently my little curls were stronger than they looked, and it took two rounds of chemicals to straighten them out. After the first round my hair was a poofy mess, and I was mentally cursing that hairdresser out. The second round though, just beautiful. I thank the mother of that man, and I need to name my babies after him. I love my hair!! If you guys wanna see pictures, just watch out on facebook -- someone should tag me by next week...*too lazy to take her own pics*

The Deadly Fan (and other theories)

Koreans seem to have a taste for the outrageous. The running theories assure that the only way to overcome the summer heat is to eat tongue-scorching chicken soup, that every stomachache emanates from one of three causes (eating too fast, too much, or too cold), or that digging your nail into mosquito bites will help (what it actually helps with is unclear). Hula hoops equipped with belly-bruising nobs are all the rage for weight loss, and so-called magic “beauty drinks” abound. But of all the things, nothing I’ve heard has been able to match the Deadly Fan theory.

The innocent little electric fan, designed to keep you cool from inhospitable summer temperatures like these. It turns and turns, working all through the night to combat the beads of sweat that inevitably line your crown. But in its efforts, it suddenly begins to suck out the air in the room – swoosh, swoosh, it can’t be helped! In a few tragic moments that can only be described by the most reasonable phenomena of electric fan use, an airless vacuum forms and suffocates the unconscious user! No, why must life be so cruel?!

Now, while I’m not saying that everyone believes this, it’s enough to know that fans are sold equipped with timers...yeah, you’d think the timers were to save electricity, but I swear I ain’t making this up!

Honey Bread

Honey bread is what happiness should taste like.

They make it in the café above building 63’s cafeteria. Four walls of toast about 3 or 4 inches high encase a soft layered interior of buttered bread. If the title isn’t some misnomer, they drip it all with honey, and after baking it’s topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. Really, we only went to eat one, but just that afternoon we downed three. The next day we ate two more, and now I’m just two stamps away from getting a free one. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m addicted.

But…the charm of the Honey Bread is not actually eating it after all. It’s a quaint little place, with stationery in one corner to write anonymous love letters. There’s a bookshelf, and cute little notebooks at all the tables let you enjoy some self expression. It’s a place where you go with friends, sit on mismatched chairs, and chat away for the 20 or so minutes it takes for the honey bread to be ready, all the while forgetting it’s the first time you’ve had bread in weeks. The actual food disappears within minutes, but the conversations last for hours.

My Days in Seoul

Clearly, I haven’t been of the most diligent mindset with this blog. I’m going into my fourth week in Seoul already, and though it doesn’t feel nearly as long as it should, I still feel the everyday details slipping away with my lack of journaling. So, to accommodate my betraying memory, I’ve decided to throw any semblance of chronological order out the window [except in cases where it’s absolutely necessary]. Hopefully it’s not too confusing.