ankle biters!
Originally uploaded by Alison J. L.
Yesterday: perhaps the best Valentine's ever.
We started off with Korean class in the morning and learned how to say "What is that? Is it yours? Waaa! That's really cool!" and an assortment of vocabulary to go along with it. "Is that your cell phone/hat/dictionary/bag/glasses...?" As long as everybody I encounter sticks to the same dialogue when I ask them what things are, I should be good to go.
Afterwards, we went to this spa/cafe called "Dr. Fish" in English and Namul Geleun (roughly) in Korean, which doesn't really mean Dr. Fish the same way it does in English. I really wanted it to be called Ooesa Mulgogi (literally, Dr. Fish), but alas. You pay about $4 to enter the cafe and have self service unlimited tea, coffee, toast and jam and can sit around gorging yourself as long as you like on white bread until you are ready to dip your tootsies into a pool of warm water housing twenty to thirty tiny minnow like fish. They eat the dead skin, and only the dead skin off your feet and ankles until you can't stand the tickling any more or until your twenty minutes is up and you go back to your tea and toast. It was possibly the most hilarious thing I have ever done, and definitely the most ticklish. Having particularly sensitive feet in the first place, I kept moving my feet around and disturbing the feeding fest, so while my feet are noticeably softer, I'm not sure I got the full effects of the nibbling. I think we're going back next week with some friends, I can't wait. (Warning: If you visit me--and you should--I will take you here whether you like it or not. It is permanently on my top 5 list).
After the fishstravaganza, we decided to walk around for a while enjoying the gorgeous spring-like February weather, and see if we could find the black market. We had heard roughly where it was, and had been told we could find a surplus of Oatmeal here. There have been at least two days spent on the hunt for breakfasty goodness already, but the warm spring air made all the difference. We were on a street we had been on a dozen times before, when Timber decided to take a turn into a clothing shop with a few personal items displayed in the back. The clothing shop turned into a long narrow hallway of hundreds of clothing shops with maze like twists and turns leading into an underworld of middle aged Korean women shopping for quilted jackets, paisley pants and giant underwear. At the end of a long string of stores we saw a convenience store set up and made our way towards the plastic curtain separating the food from the clothing. Upon coming through the plastic, we met with a tiny 50 something Korean woman who greeted us in perfect English, asking us in a hushed tone "What are you looking for?" We said that we were looking for oatmeal, and she hurried away telling us to stay where we were. Aha! Black market Ahoy! She returned a few minutes later with a huge canister of instant Quaker oats (hey, I'll take what I can get) for 12,000 won (about $15). Leaving, we turned down a different way from the one we came and found ourselves on yet another street we had been on several times, selling dumplings, sausage, pancakes and shellfish galore, triumphant with our oats.
We walked back to the main part of downtown, happy but slightly exhausted and made our way to Kraze Burger where we had a fairly accurate representation of an American cheese burger (maybe better--more veggies) and steak cut fries. Then coffee, and onto the arcade.
Giggled at for our Dance Dance Revolution skills by a gaggle of middle schoolers, photos taken and embellished in the photobooth, basketball, Mario cart, and a variety of other games later, we emerged a few hours later to weave through the throngs of other warm weather lovers to weave our way home on foot and by cab to watch a movie and have some dinner.
Today, it was biscuits and gravy, relaxing, planning a trip for next weekend and dinner with friends.
Tomorrow is Monday again already, and I can say that I am not actually dreading it.
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