I will miss...

these perfect little gems of photo opps. This pic was taken by my Seoulmate in an alleyway in Insadong as we were looking for a place to get some good kimchi chiggae. While Andrew was looking up the restaurant on his iPhone, the girls (Mindy, Liz and I) at once all looked at this little scene and collectively let out an, "Ooooh let's take our picture here!"

I was having a discussion with a friend a few weeks ago and he said that Seoul, while not known for its great architectural style and aesthetic beauty from a bird's eye view, actually flourishes in "micro design." Now I'm not sure if this is the correct or designated term (I just Googled it and got zilch) but the idea is that while Seoul's broadstroke landscape is gray shoebox apartments and boring buildings, there are corners and small scenes close up that offer an aesthetic "breath of fresh air."

Seoul does have its sense of humor in that regard. Areas around Hongdae are a given with an abundance of murals and street art. But it's those unexpected places (around a business district or in a historical place) where it really is refreshing to catch these charming tableaus.

While Austin does have its fair share of, if you don't look twice you'll miss it, I will truly miss all of the small surprises you get when you just take a peek into an alley. Unless you accidentally peek at a guy pissing in an alley. That's just gross.

Fun-due is very (n)ice!

January is cold. The snow has stuck now for about 2 weeks. So what's the best thing to do to stay all warm and toasty? Why ICE CREAM of course!! Koreans are impervious to the thought that one should not eat ice cream in the winter. They frankly are right.

Mindy's friend from Seattle, Sara, came in for New Years and got to be a Korean tourist for a week. We met up on Sunday at Central City Sinsegae and after some shopping decided to go to La Boca for lunch. After meeting with Jamie and munching on good Italian nosh, we decided to go elsewhere to satisfy our sweet tooth. In half truth, half jest I noted that Baskin Robin's ice cream fondue was still on my Korean Bucket List.

For those of you outside of Korea, Baskin Robin Ice Cream may conjure up pictures of a shop filled with hot sweaty kids in the summer. Here, you'll find a few gaggle of school girls or couples on a date. The basic ice cream flavors are here but you also have a few "Koreanized" flavors as well. And then you have their ice cream fondue.

I was pleasantly surprised when both Mindy and Sara said, "Sounds good! Let's go!" So we bundled up into our winter coats and headed the three blocks down to BR 31. We arrived and were (surprisingly) the only patrons in the shop. We made a beeline to their display case and pointed at their plastic fondue model. The ice cream scooper guy went to work. In a few minutes he brought out the most glorious and beautiful display of chilled confectionery delight. Not only did we get an assortment of 12 flavors in adorable little balls, but we got fruit (bananas, kiwis), and bite sized morsels of cakes (choco, vanilla, cheese).

One nice little "ah!" moment? You dip the ice cream into the fondue and it forms a nice crunchy chocolate shell!!

Posing before devouring

Too pretty to eat? Ha!

Let the fun(due!) begin!

Piano stairs

I knew my piano lessons would come in handy one day... Now where in SEOUL are they doing this?