Insadong

Spent a lovely morning in Insadong yesterday. My friend Chris from Chicago has moved here this week to teach at a hagwon in Gagnam and he met up with us in Insadong to see the sights while us girls shopped. Insadong is basically a very long street full of stores and street vendors that sell souvenirs. Chopsticks, rice paper, clothing, books, etc. Theres also a beautiful temple nearby. We ate a traditional lunch at a vegetarian restaurant and had amazing fried noodles, spicy mushroom soup, dumplings, and steamed pumpkin with nuts. Mmmmmm. In the evening we met up with more co-workers at Dr. Fish. For 3 bucks we all sit around a communal pool in a cafe and eat and drink snacks while fish nibble the dead skin off our feet. If you stay as long we usually do (around 2 hours) you'll really notice a significant difference in the feet. The fish really like to nibble on callouses and cuticles so after getting over the ticklishness it's really nice to just sit there and let the fish give you a pedicure. At night, four of us went to a favorite haunt called Flower People. It's a rock bar near our school with an owner who resembles Yoko Ono and has the most extensive record collection I've seen and he plays songs that you request. It's not a bar so much as a listening room. My friends were all really into the music and requesting all sorts of songs from The Doors and Zeppelin to Leonard Cohen and Beta Band. Being the observer that I am, I just sort of leaned back to watch them all enjoying themselves. At around 6 AM I returned home very happy. It was an all around great day.