A Very Korean Halloween

This past Thursday was the Mentors Club annual Halloween party.  Halloween is not really that popular in Korea, but Mentors Club hosts a Halloween party every year to celebrate with the Westerners.  This year it was held at Club Mass in Gangnam, which was a really cool club.  I went as Madonna and Andrew was a vampire, also Kia made herself a really awesome jellyfish costume.  The subway ride there was definitely interesting, everybody was staring at us more than usual!

The club was absolutely packed.  Although we all purchased tickets beforehand, we still had to wait in a long line to get in.  It was cool because the party was only Yonsei University exchange students.  It was fun to hang out with people who live in my dorm, but whom I otherwise don't really see throughout the day.

I danced with my friends for awhile but eventually it just wasn't fun anymore because of how crowded the place was.  The line to the bar was so long, and and although we had free drink passes, it still wasn't worth waiting in.  Eventually Andrew and I decided to head back to Sinchon, the party went until 5am, but by 3 we were wiped out.  We stopped on the way back to SK Global House for some yummy Korean BBQ.

All in all, it was okay night.  The party was fun for a little while and it's really nice that Mentorsclub puts together a Halloween party for the exchange students.  I definitely missed the good old American Halloween with lots of candy and everyone wearing costumes, but this Halloween in Korea is definitely something that I'll never forget.

Kia, me and Ariane.  Notice Kia's cool jellyfish costume!

Andrew and me at the Halloween party.

I guess it's called Club Mass for a reason.  Masses of people!

Heart and Seoul gets a makeover, and I get pancakes

Happy half birthday to me! I was in the mood today to spiff something up and since I'm not allowed to decorate the walls in my room, I thought I'd play with the design templates on my blog. So here's the new Heart and Seoul!

Today Andrew and I went to Gangnam. Gangnam is one of the more modern districts of Seoul, many more skyscrapers than Sinchon, and more western style chain restaurants and stores. Also the Ritz Carlton of Seoul is located in Gangnam. When we got out of the subway station, we both said "Ahh, this feels like New York". We came here once before a few weeks ago for a Mentors Club party that was held at a bar on the 23rd floor of the building, so we had an awesome view of the this part of the city at night. But we wanted to see it during the day, so we jumped on the subway around 2pm and explored.

Some highlights of our afternoon were walking through the Ritz Carlton, going to Artbox, and eating at Paris Baguette. Andrew located the Ritz Carlton right away; he told me has a "natural ability to sniff out luxury hotels". Something tells me he's not kidding. We walked through the lobby and looked around. Needless to say, it was beautiful. Also, they were in the process of building a marble fountain outside the lobby, which I'm sure will be really nice once it's finished.

Artbox is a Korean stationary store that has many shops all over Seoul. It's really not just stationary though, it's much, much more. They sell so many "Asian-style" gadgets (a.k.a. bright colors, hello kitty, strange quotes) that you could just look around that store for hours. Korean students are completely obsessed with school supplies. Even university students have matching pens, notebooks, binders, pencil cases, all themed of course. And in Korea, you're never too old for Hello Kitty, or any cartoon character for that matter! Artbox also had a candy section, but Andrew and I resisted because filling up those bags of candy and paying by the weight is a rip off everywhere, even in Korea. We still had fun looking around though and I will definitely be returning for some gift shopping!

We ended up getting a late lunch at Paris Baguette. PB is a coffee shop/bakery cafe all over Seoul, but the one in Gangnam is especially big. They have a "brunch all-day" menu and a large outside sitting area along with all of their usual cakes and baked goods. It was the first place I've seen so far that had PANCAKES on the menu and so because after all it is my half birthday, I treated myself! Waiting for my buzzer to go off felt like the longest 10 minutes in the world. But when they were done it was worth the wait; they had banana slices and maple syrup on top and in between each pancake. Delicious!

On our way back to Sinchon we stopped at Grand Mart, which is our home grocery store, and Andrew and I bought some items to make ourselves fried rice for dinner. He bought pork and I bought chicken, and we both shared some onions, broccoli, eggs, and garlic. The fried rice was delicious and although I still hate to cook, perhaps if you ask nicely, I will make some of my fried rice medley for you when I get home.

A very cute and Asian Artbox sign: