코엑스 - 커피엑스포

지난달말 부터 쭈우우욱 아팠다. 이런 일 어딨어? 답답하고 또 답답하네.

한국이면 커피 마시는 분들 이 기계 잘 안다. 좋은 커피샵 갈때 마다 하나라도
어디서 두고있을거니까. 그런데 저 한국오기전에 보지 못 했던 물건이였다.
뜨거운물을 쓰지 않고 차가운물로 만드는 커피가 아직도 신기하다고 생각해.

혼자 있을 때나 기분 좋을 때 항상 노래 부르는 내가 너무 답답한다. 생각해보니까 세상에 좋은것들을 너무 간단히 쉽게, 당연한 것처럼 받아드린 것 같아. 

아침에 일어날때 천천히 일어나고 오늘 뭐 할까, 오늘은 날씨 어떠냐 그런 간단한 중요하지도 않는 것들을 요즘은 생각할 여유도 없었다. 일어나서 기침만 해서 정신도없었기 때문이다. 답답하고 기침만 하니까 운동 안 해도 살 빠졌고 배 근육까지 생겼다.

이제 목소리 돌아 왔어. 그런데 아직 노래 부를 수 있을 정도 아니네.

답답해. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

지난주에 전에 같이 일 했던 사람들이랑 삼성역의 코엑스 빌딩 가서 커피엑스포 갔다. 오랫만에 보지 모 했던 친구들이랑 같이 있어서 좋았어. 거기는 이쁜것들은 눈에 많이 들어왔다.

지난주 넥센 히사영 (넥센 보러갈때 같이 응원 하신 그룹 - 히어로즈사랑영원히)응원단이강 대전 가서 시합 보려고 했는데 감기 완벽하게 나아지 않아서 안 가기로 했다. 

안 가기는 결정 한후, 같이 일 했던 에리사가 코엑스 가자고 해서 거기로 가기로 했지. 가서 여러가지 마시고 먹고 그랬지.

 한국이면 소주. 당연하지. 그런데.... 커페에다가....소주? 난 먹어보지도 못 했다. 같이 돌아다난 친구가 마셔 봤는데 괜찮다고 했기는 했는데...

...아침 10시반에 소주는 좀 그랬음... ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

돌아다녀보니 깜짝 놀랄 일 있었다?

뒤에 누가 내 이름 불렀다.

이곳에 내가 아는 남자 있을일 없는데 내 이름까지 불러서 놀랐지. 돌아보니까 최근 알게된 히사영멤버 한명 (동민이오빠...한살 차인만 인데 ㅋㅋ) 이였다. 이번 주말에 대전 못 가는 죄책감 나오게 했네 ㅎㅎㅎ 그래도 나 처럼 못 나가는 사람 한명이라도 있었다 싶었지.

 그때 감기고 주말이니 화장 안 하고 나왔었는데 그때 아는 사람 보게 된걸 좀 그렇지만... 그래도 뭐. 내얼굴은 언제나 내 얼굴뿐이니까...

결국은 아는 사람 많있어 ㅋㅋㅋ

있잖아 나 커피샵 좋아하는 쏠로걸이잖아. 그래서 내 월급은 옷/구두/가방아니면 다 커피에 쓴다 ㅎㅎㅎ 그래서 제가 살던 동탄 커피샵 오너 많이 왔었다. 상상 도 안 했던건데 역시 자기 사업은 커피샵이면 커피 엑스포에 나오겠지. 어쨌든....

까망베르치즈 스무디 있었다? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 나 월래 이런 치즈 되게 좋아하는데 여기서 맛있는 치즈 별로 안 팔아서 자주 안 먹는다. 좋아하는데 이치즈 특한 맛이 좀 쓰더라, 그래서 스무디랑 안 맞는것 같았다.

호기심 많으니까 먹어봤지 (소주커피보다는 합리적인 선택인것 같아서). 그런데 마셔보면 좀 실망 했어. 달다. 이 느낌만. 까망베르 맛말고 그냥 뉴욕치즈케익 인것 같았어. 마시지말걸 그랬어. 안 마시면 영원히 이상한 맛 상상하고 재밌었을텐데...

 커피 엑스포에서 줄 써서 기다리는게 별로 없었는데 커피 말고 먹는것을 공짜드릴 곳에 줄이 되게 길었다. 난 뭐, 공짜가서 쓰는거는 그냥 그래. 그래서 한번만 했다. 초코과커피 가게에서. 거기는 코코아차, 커피/초코콩 간식, 커피초콜릿파는 그곳에서 그랬다 ㅎㅎㅎ 맛 있었더라구.

잠깐 쉬고 밥 먹자!

 밥 먹고 다시 들어갔는데 오래 있지않았어. 있지, 이런데는 커피 여러가지 미실 수 있는데, 결국은 천천히 앉아서 마시는데 없어서 피곤하게 만든다. 마지막으로 본게 바리스타 콘테스트이였다. 재밌게 봤다 !

Buddha's Birthday

In the first weeks of May in Korea they celebrate Buddha's birthday. Since the celebration is coming up, Buddhist temples have started to pimp themselves up. There is this huge temple near my workplace in the Yangcheon area that I bike along every day of the week. It looks like some sort of Chinese style building so at first I thought it was just that, maybe some kind of Chinese Culture center in Korea. After asking though, I was told that the place is a temple, and that actually, there are a few people that my coworkers knew did temple stay there. It must be weird to do temple stay in the middle of an urban area like Mokdong. 

By night, the building looks plain gorgeous. The lanterns are shiny and colorful and there is some sort of "walkway roof" you can stroll under, that I think might only be there around this time of year. Then again, I'll have to wait until Buddhas birthday is passed to know if that was the only reason they were there.

The render of the pictures is not as nice as I hopes but at least we can see the colours. Every time I take pictures I marvel at the majesty of eyesight. We are so lucky to be able to see everything in depth and color. A picture will never be able to render the beauty of what our eyes will imprint in our memories. Eyes have the magical power to add in-depth pictures to our memories and I feel blessed everyday I get to add some beautiful pictures to my inner album ^^ 

This picture (up) was the closest to what my eyes could see that day. My favourite colour there is the blue lantern. Isn't it funny thought, how when there are many colours juxtaposed you will be able to tell with one you like best, but then, that same colour would not feel as beautiful if there had only been that one shade? It's the same with people they say. And I totally believe it.

Saturday Outing

Last Saturday I went to meet up with an older sis I hadn't met in ages. I had met her back when I was studying in Montreal, as she was there for work herself.  She was all pimped up because she had a wedding to attend that night. So pretty <3

I had had my stomach messed up for the past week because of - most probably - a bad marriage between an empty stomach, a cold and tylenol. For this reason, we went for a nice japanese style soup in Myeongdong and ended it with a waffle and hot water (coffee for her) and walked around all afternoon. The weather is so nice lately it was great being outside... if we take out the fact that the sky was really grey and dirty, because in the spring, polluted smog apparently comes down from China and messes up with the Korean air... I was skeptical last year when Koreans told me that, but wherever it's coming from, the air is in fact, not as nice as usual. 

After we left, I looked around to find a LOTTE department store, because I need to get concealer and eye shadow before I run out of it. I found one, but sadly, there wasn't the usual floor with cosmetics, they were all legit big brand name stores ( LV, Chanel, Hermes etc.). My bad, I guess I'll get my stuff another day. I was getting a headache from lack of caffeine (stupid stomach) and decided on going back home. Timing hadn't been really good that day and I didn't want to push it until my headache turned into a migraine.

Here is what I found memorable on my trip to Myeongdong.

Usually, when you go to those expensive stores, they are huge well lit places with employees looking great in their uniform, putting pressure on you to be like, just as cool as them. 

Well the places were just as big and shiny. Thing is, this Saturday, I saw something I have never seen before. ALL those stores had many people in them, like maybe 10 to 15 people. And there were people watching outside, and long lines in front of the doors. Did you ever see that? How can people line up for those expensive stores?

Dongtan and Dramas

 You ever saw those bums somewhere on your TV/computer screen?

Does this place tell you anything?


No?




Okay.

Still nothing?

And now?

 If you don't recognize the place, you either have (1) no imagination, because you never saw the place covered in snow, or (2) you haven't seen the Korean drama HEIRS. I suppose the answer is probably the latter.

 I learned quite late, that the Heirs had been partly filmed in Dongtan. Such a shame to know Lee Minho was actually chilling in the small city I live in, and never got a glimpse of him. I resent some of my coworkers for that, since they haven't told me and all seemed to know. 

This High School is just insane. Not only the size, but the facilities and the setup. They seem to have so much... I wish I had studied here. Maybe I can look if they need a teacher....? But I am not sure I'd be a good High School teacher. 

Dongtan is a new city, and most of the people who live around the area are rich families, so everything is kind of expensive and high class looking. Everything looks new.

It is, however, some 40 minutes away from Seoul, so it's not that busy a city, depending on the day of the week, weather and time of day. I noticed that this makes it an ideas location for drama shootings. Heirs has filmed in Dongtan International High School, another drama I haven't seen and forgot the name was filmed in a Coffee Smith right by my apartment building, and a recently popular drama "Replay 1994" (haven't watched it yet either) has used a Korean BBQ place right in front of my school.

 I can only wait to see where they will be filming next. It's kind of exciting living in Dongtan...

Taiwan in December

My end-of-year trip to Taiwan was filled with randomness, bad lucks, nice discoveries and warm and rainy weather. It was probably the weirdest trip I've been too, filled with sweetness, just as much as bitterness. 

The trip started on a bad note. 

We set our alarm to 5AM because the flight was at 9h20, so we'd be there around 6h30 and would have the time to chill at the airport. After missing one flight back home from Japan, for the amazing price of 2.5K$CAD, I always feel reluctant to get to the airport late.

The alarm didn't ring.

I woke up in a wayyyy too relaxed state, and looked at my watch. 7h38AM.

Fuck.

Wake up Heather, run out of the apartment with our stuff - that was luckily ready to go - and wait in line for a cab. We can make it.

7h45.

No cab.

7h50. Maybe we can make it?

Cab comes, we get in, tell him the time of our flight. That he would be the greatest cab driver in the world if he brought us in time.

At 6AM, there is no traffic. It's too far from the 9-5 schedule.

At 8AM, however, it's a different story. 

The cab was silent. I stopped trying to make conversation after the first 20 minutes. Neither of us had had coffee, so talking was the second worldly most dangerous thing to do, after deep sea crab fishing.

We got to the airport at 8h40. 

...And $50 and 5 minutes later, we had ran to the Cathay Pacific Airways counter.

35 minutes to the flight.

They had filled the seats with people on the waiting list.

Had closed the check-in counter.

Fuck.

We were re-directed to a travelling office counter, one floor below, in the huge airport. Had cancelled our flight reservation as they told us, since we haven't gotten to use the reservation.

Casualties assessment: - CAD$600 (cab, flight ticket)... CAD$1,018 if we take into account the yet non reimbursed previous flight ticket we had bought. 

The trip started on a sour note.

But we got on the plane alright, and after the 30 min delay before takeoff, we were finally getting there.

We also, almost missed our flight back to Korea. Isn't that amazingly incredible? I am starting to believe that this year was really the start of my samejae 삼재(三災）* explanations in detail at the end of this entry...

Taiwan was nice though, it was nice to walk along the streets. Temperature was mild and nice, I had a day I took off on my own and walked back the streets I used to walk when I lived in Taipei some four years and half ago. I also got to meet up with a long-time-no-seen friend who gave us some time out of his busy schedule. End of year, is end of year. I never expected to see Taipei so busy.

We told my friend that we wanted to chill in a nice place with drinks. He suggested we go to a nice bar in a big hotel, where his friend works. We get there. And the place has been rented out for an event. (samjae? or New Year?) 

We then get in a cab to go somewhere else. When we get there, the place looks nice. I mean, as nice as an empty coffee shop can look? I was not quite grasping the idea of a coffee shop being a good replacement for a bar, but at this point, I remember thinking: Okay, let's just go with the flow, I don't want to bother anymore, too many badlucks in one day. Coffee shop? Sure. 

But it was not really a coffee shop.

Do you know what a "Speakeasy" is?

I didn't. Those are bars that opened in the States during the time where alcohol was illegal, and people just started running those fake coffee shops that had a hidden room at the back, a hidden bar. 

There was a sections with a heavy wooden wall, and doorbells put in frames. One of the frames on the wall had a hand pointing down, towards a button. That was the doorbell of the Speakeasy. After waiting a moment, the massive wooden wall opened and a white dude dressed in old style bartender clothing gets us inside.

It felt like we were doing something bad, something secret. It felt amazing.

 We got an amazing Thai massage one night. I really liked it. It was funny to have the people giving massage, not able to communicate completely with us (bunch of non-mandarin-speakers) and having a massage that usually requires a minimum of communication to do the moves correctly.

 All in all, I was happy I got a feel of Taiwan after all those years, even if the timing has not been the best, and couple of bad lucks tainted the trip. I am happy I got to try- retry and hang out with my two coworker for Sanbon <3 that I don't get to see as much since I moved to Dongtan.

Next time I go to Taiwan, I want to try a couple of the things we did not get to do during those few days: hot spring, clubbing, foot massage, go back to the hill where you can see all of Taipei, do some KTV, eat more taiwanese food.

The term “samjae” means three years of misfortune, based on zodiac birth signs. In the old days, people attributed samjae to the disasters of war, infectious disease and famine. It also implied calamities such as fire, flood and wind. In modern times, it refers to a recession of our activity, constrained circumstances, and unexpected obstacles. People often say, “Oh my samjae starts from this year, I have to be careful for three years now.” If you know your birth year by zodiac, you can easily figure out in which years you’ll undergo the ill luck. In 2013, those who born in the year of the pig (1959, 1971, 1983, 1995), the rabbit (1951, 1963, 1975, 1987) and the sheep (1955, 1967, 1979, 1991) will be in samjae. The possible hardships are slumps in business, deadlock in financial circulation, being swindled and distress with diseases. People also try to avoid or postpone important events such as weddings.