Dongtan in Picture

YANKEE Candle Café

Right by the corner of my place, actually the corner of the block across the street from my apartment, I had been watching with curious eyes, as they were setting up a new store. I love that in Asia, there are tons of new little stores, coffee shops and restaurants that just pop up out of nowhere, without prior notice. I think Asia is a bit like that in general. I noticed that about school stuff as well (which is not as cool... think of without-notice changes in schedule and proportional prep time........) 

In any case, I am straying away...

I'd been wondering what we'd be getting next, as it could just as well be an amazing new clothe store, or a boring phone shop. Turns out that it was a store of the American chain "Yankee Candle", of which I had never heard of. Actually, to be honest, I'll probably have to look up to see whether if it's actually a chain from the states, or if it's just the name. In any case, I have seen that store in Gangnam so I know there are at least two stores with that name, selling this type of candles.

The candles they sell are massive religious-looking candles, that, while they do have a thread in the middle, are not meant to be burnt. They sell the candles with a stand that has a warm light inside, that makes the candle melt slowly without the threat of fire taking over when you forget it lit up. I guess this is a clever idea considering that there are many families around. The melting of the candle gives the same fragrant effect as when the candle is lit up with fire and it also gets to melt evenly.

After a while, the wax naturally loses its smell so you just need to empty the glass recipient holding it. 

** MESS WARNING! **

My coworker Stormy came to school with one of those candles one day, that's why I got to know so much about them. They really work well, and the smell of the wax is not too intense so I don't get any headache with it.

Stormy found her haven in that store, for the smell of the kitchen (the kitchen is right by her classroom so whatever is cooked that day gets in her room) almost disappeared completely after she started using it. So much for useless free-breeze...

If the title didn't sell it out already, I am obviously going to introduce some sot of coffee shop, again. Why? Because I can. And also, because it's the discovery of the year. Thing is, I noticed that at the back of the store there is a half-story leading up to a coffee shop. Right in the shop. I do not know if they sell a lot of coffee, or if it makes a difference in their income, but I am really happy they had that coffee place set up. Monday to Saturday from 10AM - 12AM, that's just perfect for me to bring my laptop and write my blog when I don't want to be home, cuz let's face it, coffee shops are much nicer (the only thing that's sad so far, is that half the times I've been so far, there were a couple of mothers and they amazingly noisy kids hanging out in the store). 

The store has a door that leads to the building's toilets without having to go outside, which is rare (unless they have their own toilet). 

The walls are painted mint green (SUUUUCH a pretty and peaceful colour, I love it).

The Coffee.

Their coffee is amazing. I think it's my favourite coffee shop in Dongtan so far. The barista takes his time for each coffee he makes and always gives me a free one when I stay there for a long time and there's no one else in the store. 

I like that it's so close to home. 

Chuseok at NGLOWKids

Chuseok is the Korean Thanks Giving and we had an early one in the third week of September, just before the official Chuseok holiday (Sept 17-18-19). It was not an official celebration because there had been changes in plans, but me and the other foreign teachers of the Hagwon decided to ask all of our kids' parents to come to school in their Hanbok and bring a traditional Korean snack for the afternoon snack time. It was a difficult day for me to move around, but it was quite fun. 

During the biggest part of the day, my kids took off most of their clothes, putting them back only for
the afternoon snack, as it was a really hot and humid day and they also had Gym on that day. The gym
teacher also came wearing traditional clothes :P

I loved hanging out in a hanbok at school and have all my little princes and princesses wear them as well. I had 2 kids who didn't wear theirs (they were keeping it clean for the visit to their grandmother the coming Thursday) but the rest all did. My class was the one with the most costumed kids (maybe thanks to the fact that I said I'd personally come to school wearing one, and had a lot of my kids with great expectations :P)

Same skirt!

Café BuBus

Dongtan Coffee Shop Review! 

(yup. If you sick of coffee shop reviews skip this one and wait, there's a lot coming up: Suwon exploration, Korean Folk Village, Dongtan Overview, etc.)

Cafe BuBus was a coffee shop I'd gone the first time with a friend of a friend I helped out with her English, and had always wanted to try one more time on my own. Never happened. A coworker tried it out before I did though and told me it was worth it, so here I went...

The coffee shop itself, without having even tried anything they sell, it an adorable looking store with both a warmth and a chilly feeling to it (maybe the mix of red and blue?) It's got this cliché I-want-to-look-like-a-French-Café-but-I've-never-been-so-I'll-just-put all-the-cliché-in-one room-together. 

Nevertheless, the result is very cute. The building has (like a lot of the coffee shops around that area) two entrances, each of them on a different street, so the store is quite big. I mentioned before that coffee shops in Dongtan seem to be much bigger than the ones we can find in other cities I've been to in Korea. Might be because the rent is cheaper here? 

Front of the Café

Back table

The design of the place is a mixture of a fruit market and a tailor - big shelves with baskets of both fake and real fruits, and reels of thread, scissors and needles put up for decoration. 

I sort of like the mix, although I have no clue why they would have thought of mixing those two styles. The main entrance has a terrasse and a bunch of nicely set tables, just like a normal coffee/restaurant, and a big shelf of fruits cuts the back part of the Café apart so you can choose to sit at the back on a big, higher table with high stools and a power socket. Café BuBus also has it own toilet +++

A lot of coffee shops have found a solution to the never-ending task of filling
client's water cups: Self-Service counters! When there is enough space in a café
it's a solution as good as another. As long as the way from one's table to the self
service corner is not strenuous (like in a tiny coffee shop) I quite like the idea... 

 Café BuBus has good coffee. Like most of the coffee shops I've tried (any coffee shop that isn't a chain usually is quite good. Chain coffee usually is too sweet or too bitter, as if, by being a chain, the quality didn't matter anymore. The price is not cheaper in a chain either in most cases. There is only one chain coffee shop I've tried, that has good coffee, and it's NOT Starbucks, it's Café Pascucci) so it's not because of the coffee that I love that place.

Café BuBus has sandwiches. Most coffee shops I've been to mainly serve home made waffles, toasts and ice cream. Sounds amazing right? Yah, but sometimes you don't always feel like stuffing your stomach with an incredible amount of sweet carby foods. At Café BuBus, you can fill your stomach with an incredible amount of cheese and crispy bread :) Isn't it amazing? Can't wait to get fat  on this. No, for real, their sandwiches are made using legit crispy panini bread. They had two types, a Camembert honey almonds and a tomato cheddar one, both served with pickles and a little salad.

Lastly, Café BuBus has fresh fruit juice. They offer a big range of fresh grapes, tomatoes, strawberries, oranges and grapefruits juice. The only thing I didn't like was that they seem to add sugar to the grapefruit juice and I like it bitter. I'll just ask them not to put any next time :)